Godgrown

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  Mark 12:23 pm on March 1, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Kavanah 

  In Judaism, there is a distinct activity called kavanah. It is cultivated in order to maximize the inwardness of our actions. It means to pay attention, to direct the mind and heart in order to maximize the levels of intentionality in our actions. This applies to actions/deeds as it does to the Study of Scripture and to prayer but goes beyond these activities themselves to the notion of attentiveness to God Himself. It is not primarily an awareness of being commanded by God, but an awareness of the God who commands.

  At its core it is built on the Hebraic understanding that there are effectively only two realities in the world: the holy and the not-yet-holy, and that the missional task of God’s people is to make the not-yet-holy into that which is holy. This is done by the directing of the deed toward God (and not away from Him) and by the level of intentionality and holiness with which we perform our daily tasks. It is important to note that any and every deed, no matter how seemingly profane or trivial, can become a place of holiness when performed with the right intention and with the appropriate holy direction.

  — Alan Hirsch

  
   

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  Mark 10:33 am on February 28, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Seed Travelers 

  A favorite pastime: climbing a maple tree as high up as I could go, picking off a pair of helicopter seeds (also called whirly-gigs!) and let them loose.  They’d spin and glide to my heart’s delight.  Ah…the simple pleasures in life.

  It was amazing how far a helicopter seed could travel!  And they were designed for travel.

  So are you.

  If you follow Christ – you’re a traveler. You can’t say you follow Jesus and sit on your hands.  You have a seed and a wing – and you’ve been let loose!  The Spirit will blow you in places you could never imagine – and its up to you to simply do nothing…just be you. Let the DNA of Jesus do its work in the soil you land in – and in a couple of years, you won’t be able to recognize yourself – only God will get the glory!

  If you look carefully at these seeds – most of them are in pairs.  Go out with your “pair” (MICRO) in mission.  You might be able to preach the gospel with your words, but it is impossible to SHOW the gospel without a community.

  
   
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  Mark 11:40 am on February 16, 2011 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: James Davison Hunter, James Dobson, Shane Claiborne   

  World Changers 

  Are Christians called to change the world?

  If you attended Christian college, or if you were awake for even a few of your pastor’s sermon series – you’d be forgiven if you thought that “change the world” were the very words of Jesus Christ.  But nothing could be farther from the truth.

  In fact, it might be said that every chance the Church has taken to “change the world” has ended in utter disaster – and yet even current Christian churches and organizations (political and otherwise) are making “change the world” evolve into their raison d’etre.

  We’re seeing a backlash from the culture in the Christian attempts at changing the world into a Christian world.  To sculpt our picture of heaven as it is on earth. Could it be that Jesus is calling us to something else besides political campaigns, protests, and all forms of effective ministry?  Could it be that even efforts like serving the homeless, caring for widows and orphans, and bringing hope to the hopeless is merely another form of “changing the world” that has nothing to do with the mission of the Church?  Whether you are James Dobson or Shane Claiborne, your “change the world” project is actually counter to Jesus’ desire for his Church…

  …That’s the premise of James Hunter’s To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World. He states that the Church in our day, or in Jesus’ day for that matter – was never to change anything.  Only God can change a human heart, or a human world bent on its own destruction.

  The only thing the Church is called to do is to live as a “faithful presence” in the world – to be a consistent and intentional “picture of Jesus” before the the broken world.  To be an icon of grace – to be the “2nd incarnation of Jesus,” but not to try to change the world – because you can’t change anything, not even your own life – only God can.

  I don’t agree with Hunter.  I DO see his point.  I see the abuses of many of us in the Church putting our own desires for worldly influence to wash out the call of Jesus Christ to renounce power and become a slave to the world.  I see his point that whether its the politics of the Christian Right or the Christian Left, the conversion tactics of the Evangelicals or the social justice of the Ne0-Monastics, “changing the world” can potentially be about changing the world to look more like ME – not more like God or his Kingdom.

  Even still, I believe that the dream of a brand new world made possible in this one is central to what Jesus invites us to as his followers.  ”Making disciples of all nations” is a call to change the systems built by the Evil One.  That we are to be a “city on a hill,” “salt” and “light.”

  I do love Hunter’s impulse – let’s live incarnationally; and humbly ask God to change the world for his sake, rather than feeling as if the change needed will come from ourselves.  Live in proximity to the people you feel called to – and God will do the changing in the lives and neighborhoods you are investing in – only he can change us, only God can save us…