Easter was great - we went up to Springfield, MO to hang with Trina’s family - they’re always a fun bunch; always lots of family drama to work through, but always plenty of laughs as well.

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Over the past few weeks, I have been feeling a real urge that something is not quite right with my ministry.  I have shared this concern with Miller, and he has been feeling it too.  He even wrote a post about it here.

One of the big lessons we’re learning when it comes to a simpler, more authentic model of God’s Church is that everyone is supposed to contribute to the Body, rather than sticking a sage up on the stage, keeping everyone else in the church passive.  What we have found frustrating is that as naturally gifted leaders wanting others in our house church to step up, we try to stay out of the limelight while being present each week for worship; however, everyone else seems to follow our example, and everyone ends up avoiding the limelight.

So right now I’m prayerfully thinking about what my role is as a missionary to Abilene.  Maybe I’m not supposed to be fully tied to just one church fellowship, but should be working throughout the network, meeting with other groups and helping start more.  We never notice Paul or Barnabas or even Timothy working with just one congregation, but they DO seem to stick to an area, helping churches grow.

It is another one of those big leaps of faith to not “meet” with the same church each week; I’m honestly a little nervous about it.  But it feels right.  It gives everyone else the opportunity in my “strategic absence” to step up and use/discover their own gifts!  And it frees me up to be the missionary I’m training/called to be.  And its not like I’m not going to be church with the people I have come to love, because “church” transcends the meeting, time, and space!

Leadership is not simply about a dominating presence calling all the shots; it is about eduction of those you have influence over.  Its about gently drawing out what is already latent or potential within those in your circles of influence.  My friend in Minnesota calls this “organic leadership“.  Go figure.

Any major hiccups in this next step?  Maybe - I can think of one or two - and I’m praying through them.  But maybe you have some good ideas for me too…

This is an intriguing video that only reveals about fleas what we already know about humanity - that over time we find ourselves accustomed to the limits that have been set around us, and are rarely if ever able to break free from our own prisons.

In many ways, this video, as well as a similarly symbolic movie, the Matrix, is an allegory of the human condition - that we are slaves to our own “Matrix” or “flea jar” and we will never escape, even if all restrictions are taken away. Much like the Matrix’s character Cypher, we would rather return to the Matrix power grid and live an illusion than live in a world without controls or limits.

What is really possible for followers of Christ who are not restrained by limitations the Evil One has placed on them? What might new believers, who have never been caught up in the trappings of a system that is designed to suppress them, be free to do or become?!?

It is these sorts of questions that reminds me that the organic church movement must remain out among the lost and the “unchurched”, rather than just sheep-transfer. Otherwise our homes will simply become a new place for us to erect our steeples. The “Matrix” will have found a new way to suppress the freedom of humanity.

I recently read a story (I’ll post it here if I ever find a link for it!) about a woman named Jinger. She was walking down a road in Boise, and a woman named Patty, who had felt prompted by God to stop, picked her up and drove her into town. Patty told Jinger about the love of Jesus Christ at a Bible Study she was headed to. Jinger accepted Christ that evening.

Later in the conversation at that Bible Study, they all began talking about starting simple churches. Jinger was facinated and asked a lot of questions. “Do we need a clergy for this? (no) Could she do this? (yes!) Would it be alright to start with her non-Christian family? (of course!). The next evening she had done just that. There was no formal training - only unbridled freedom to be the transformed light of Christ that she was created to be! Does she still have a lot to learn? Sure! But think about it; she didn’t think. She just took the joy and freedom she had and applied it to the best of her ability. She went from new Christian to church planter in just 36 hours.

And there are thousands more Jingers in this country already doing the same thing…but there are millions more who just keep getting passed on the highway - maybe because too many of us are stuck in our jars.

As we enter into Holy Week, I suppose I’ll spend this post just writing a few reflections on my Lenten season!

For the past six weeks, I’ve been on an oil fast, meaning that anything associated with crude oil or fossil fuels are off the menu.  Its been interesting to see just how pervasive gasoline, coal and other toxic elements I, and so many Americans, consume on a regular basis.  We are responsible for 25% of the entire world’s contributions to pollution.  Whether we like it or not, we are on a collision course with a global crisis, and America is the one in the driver’s seat.

It was easy switching my apartment’s power to solar/wind energy.  I signed up with Commerce Energy and got hooked up with a “100% Free and Clear” Plan (sounds like a cell phone service or something) that juices us up with only local wind and solar energy, while remaining on “the grid” (so people won’t call us hippies).

We bought tons of those energy saving bulbs, applied some new weather stripping to our doors, put in a automatic thermostat (then turned it off completely as the weather got nicer), and lowered the temperature of our water heater to 90 degrees.  These things seemed to keep our energy use (and our bill) low, keeping our green energy company in the poor house!

The most obvious impact it made on my life was on my driving.  I am the primary driver of our one car, but for these last 6 weeks, I have been hitching rides with friends.  When Trina is heading somewhere, I sit in the passenger seat and come along for the ride.  Admittedly, there are probably a few loopholes in this strategy I could’ve taken advantage of (and may have a time or two when I really wanted a smoothie on the other side of town!), but I tried my very best to cut my travel way down during this season.  I noticed that in the month of March we had cut our gasoline bill down to 40% of what we normally spend, which is a good sign that this was actually making a difference.

Twice I made out of town trips with miles that equaled close to 600 miles (one to Austin, and one to Abilene State Park).  For awhile I really didn’t know what to do, but then discovered Trees for the Future.  Its a pretty neat organization, which helps developing villages plant trees, giving them many of the resources they need for sustainability, as well working towards a “global cooling” initiative.  I made a contribution to cover not only the miles I drove during Lent, but since each tree only cost $0.10, I “planted” enough to cover every mile our car will ever drive!

Honestly, I know that I wasn’t perfect in keeping my commitment to an oil fast, but as this holy season comes to a close, I feel as if I have communicated to God through my actions (rather than just my words) that his creation matters to me - and that his creation’s future is something I have the power to influence.

If anyone is united in Christ, there is a “new creation” (2Cor 5:17) - for me, this verse not only means a new creation in myself, but truly a return to the Garden - where God walks with man in the cool of the evening.  We, like the earth itself, are god grown.