Somethings I’ve been focused on lately:

Been working more on a citywide site for simple church and church planting.  Don’t want to put the link up just yet - still exploring Joomla! and all it has to offer.  I’m trying to find a way to learn from a pro here in the city.

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Found a new cool site called Bookins.  Its AWESOME!  As a free book trading site, you are able to send your read-through books out to those who want them, and receive trading points that allow you to get books from others.  “Huh?”  So lets say you read Moby Dick paperback, and you’re done with it - put it up on your bookins page, someone else gets it - you mail it to them (pay the postage - that’s it) and you get like 7 points.  You want to read the Hobbit and find in another user’s booklist for 7 points!  You request it - and they send it to you free!  They automate the exchange process - so there’s no hassle with bidding or sneaky users or anything.  If this still doesn’t make sense, check out their explanation of it here.  Works with DVDs too!

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Katrina did a great job at the Orchard over the weekend - see photos here.

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Watched two sweet Youtube videos in the last two days.  One is an expose on All Nations, a church planting initiative happening in 20 countries.  I totally recommend checking them out.

Also, watch this video by Brooke Frasier - it reminds me of heaven - all peoples praising the One who makes all things new.

(see my earlier related post here)

I just found out that there will be a sequel to the new book Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna coming out this summer. I’m thrilled. From what I hear, it will focus on some of the topics discussed below. I’d love your feedback!

First off, Pagan Christianity is a bold book that uncovers the Greco-Roman influences of many of the origins of today’s current church practices and beliefs. The first edition of the book (2002) also called for a specific response - return to the original impulses of the early church.

The 2008 edition (as I understand from an interview with Viola here [props to Nick and Josh]) eases off the prescription, and instead asks the question, “Do these Greco-Roman influences hinder today’s church from being the Bride of Christ she truly is?” Another way to ask the question is:

“Must the church look/act exactly as it did when it first began, or does acculturation over the last 2,000 years also refine what it means to be God’s Church in the world?”

Is tradition okay? What impulses in the DNA of the Church are immutable?

Jarislov Pelikan: “Tradition is the living tradition of dead men, traditionalism is the dead religion of living men.”

The religious heritage I grew up in had a goal: ‘To restore the ancient order of the church to its original form.’ I am not naive enough to think that this is a obtainable goal. But like many in the Reformed Movement that helped seed the Restoration Movement,

“Ecclesia Reformata, Semper Reformanda: The church; reformed and always reforming.”

If I catch what Viola and Barna are tossing us in their book, it means that the church is an organic reality that has both adaptability and integrity in its structure. We are sinners that don’t truly understand God’s vision of what his people look like, and God throughout time is always revealing more of himself to us as his Church. With humility, we learn that there is a moldable, shapable quality to the church, no matter what the age. And there is also a core DNA that most purely points to God and his purposes in the world.
This is just another reminder that the Church is not the Kingdom. The Church, through the ages points to the Kingdom of God. It shapes and changes, and its influences must continually be discerned. Are we following the Spirit of God, or the spirit of the age?

I believe that Viola and Barna are asserting that there has long been dead traditionalism and pagan spirits leeching off of Christ’s Bride, and the authors are begging God’s people to open their eyes to it. Some of these influences are okay - I don’t want to “go back to the good ole days” of earliest Christianity, nor can we - but we can all agree that Easter has just as many connections with Pan as it does Christ. And that the term “laity” only keeps God’s people paralyzed. And that Church as described by Christ looked more like a family than an 2oth Century American business. And…the list goes on.

The million dollar question for Barna and Viola is this: will people change once they know the truth?

Just a quick note to invite any and all to read through Josh’s Subverting the Empire blog series. They’re quick, thought-provoking, and a great opener for conversation. Many blessings.

“When is salt not salty?”

That question has been floating through my mind the last several days. Of course, it comes from Jesus’ perplexing question found in Matthew 5:13, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”
My only question is, HOW can salt loose its saltiness? There’s absolutely no way! It’s chemically impossible for salt to become unsalty unless its bonds are broken…but then it isn’t salt anymore, it is sodium and chloride. This has got to be one of the dumbest statements Jesus ever makes!

This past weekend I went to the World Missions Workshop in Lubbock, TX. What an amazing time to meet new people; so many of whom are interested in God’s Mission! Specifically, I was able to bump into Marvin Crowson, Harding University’s point man for organic church, (a good Q&A with him here). He introduced me to a team who are looking at moving to Chicago in a year and a half to begin living missionally (they will all have day jobs) but they will live their Christian vocation out as missionaries to the city - planting simple churches in apartments, coffee shops, parks, and yes, even Sears Tower. You can imagine my excitement, meeting a whole team that is assembling (a mix from Harding and Lubbock Christian University) who have such a similar vision.
Beyond meeting cool cats, I found myself bouncing from conversation to conversation, discussing dreams different folks had regarding what the church could look like outside the traditional walls. More and more people are beginning to see this way of living as a legitimate option for church; and that makes me truly excited. Missionaries who have seen organic church as a means for spreading the gospel all over the world are “clicking” as they realize that if it can work around the world, and it works in the New Testament, maybe it can work in North America too.

So when is salt not salty? What about this salt shaker seen here? Is the salt in it salty? How do you know? How can you prove it? Truly, no one really knows if salt is salty unless they taste it. So why does Jesus talk to us about salt loosing its saltiness? Because it is our nature to hang out in the salt shaker! We’d rather sit pretty with all the other salt, bickering over who is the “purest” salt crystal of the bunch, while the world dies of hunger. The world is hungry for something that tastes good - something that awakens their appetite for God. When we fight and complain over meaningless arguments (find one here), we totally lose sight of where Jesus wants his Church - out of the salt shaker and into the world!  If we stay inside the church - we are GOOD FOR NOTHING.
Maybe that’s why I liked going to WMW so much - it reminded me that for too much of my life I have stayed inside the salt shaker, moaning about how all the rest of the salt doesn’t look tasty enough.  Maybe I should get out of this “bubble” and start meeting people I can “get salty” with.

From some readings this morning:

“Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” Mt.13:52

“Woe to you teachers of the Law! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who are entering.” Lk.11:52

Two verses, two different contexts, one person speaking: JESUS. I find myself at the fulcrum of these two statements this morning. Here I am, training myself at an institution that prepares “Christians for service and leadership throughout the world” (thank you, yes, the purpose statement has been ingrained into my skull these last 5 years) and soon I will be sent out from this institution to tell others about the Good News of God.

But look at the teachers of the law - at one point they too were trained (for the kingdom?). At one point in their lives they had a mission of good motive - to see people rediscover who they were as God’s people through Torah. Is that such a bad goal? I can’t condemn the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees for being improperly motivated.

But what does Jesus say about them here? “They have taken away the key of knowledge…” This reminds me of “eduction” and “coaching”, because these teachers, though they had the key of knowledge, have kept it from the people who needed it most - the people who were entering. Where were they entering into? My guess from context is…the Kingdom of Heaven.

So scribes who are trained in the Kingdom do something different with this key. My guess is that in their hopeful aspirations of training for the Kingdom, they actually begin to live as citizens in the Kingdom. That means, they give the key away, they allow others to find what they have been trained to find. Even when they may know the answer to the question, they allow others to “seek” and “knock”, knowing that others are also being trained as scribes.

Why take the key of knowledge away from the people who are most desperate for it? For our own egos? Are we afriad of what people might do with it? Which one am I? A scribe, or a teacher? Which one are you?

My guess is that most peachers, ministers and pastors in our world today are teachers of the law, not scribes of the Kingdom. What’s the difference? One gives it all away, knowing he wasn’t the resevoir of truth to begin with, the other holds back the keys of the Kingdom, the blessings of living a life as a citizen under God’s reign.

Do you want to be a “master of a household” as he refers to the eager, learning, sharing scribes, or an “unmarked grave” as Jesus calls the reluctant, elitist teachers? The difference between the two is - giving it away.

I was convicted.

I am not the storehouse of knowledge - I want to be a spring spelunker. I want to find the springs in the hearts of others, and then simply find a way to bring the inner waters to the surface.