Godgrown

Updates from April, 2011 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Mark 7:22 am on April 12, 2011 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Catholic Worker, Dorothy Day, Lent ( 3 )   

  Whose Side I’m Fighting For 

  It is hard to say or to know what exactly matters in my line of work.  The lines get so blurry.  I wish sometimes I could lay my head on the pillow at the end of the day and have a sense of knowing for sure that the Kingdom made its way, even just one more inch, into the city of Chicago through something I did, something I participated in.  But it doesn’t work like that.

  More often than not, it is messy dance of back and forth.  It is ambiguous victories mixed with incomplete failures.  I don’t know half the time whose side I’m fighting for – and often it feels like my efforts are doing more harm for the Kingdom than good.

  Why all this self-doubt?  We’re getting toward the end of Lent, and I realize each year that no matter how much purging and confession and buffeting I do to hone myself closer to the Living God, there is simply no way to transcend the fact that I’m a person who will also be mixed with the spiritual warfare going on all around us. At times I pick up the flag of the enemy and run in the opposite direction, hell bent on destroying everything I desperately want to see accomplished in God’s work here in Chicago.

  Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement once said:

  “What we do is very little.  But it is like the little boy with a few loaves and fishes.  Christ took that little and increased it.  He will do the rest.  What we do is so little that we may seem to be constantly failing.  But so did he fail.  He met with apparent failure on the Cross.  But unless the seeds fall into the earth and die, there is no harvest.”

  Being a missionary isn’t a neat and tidy job, but then again, Jesus had a fine time living in ambiguity and failure.  That brings me peace.

  

  Mark W, and Travis Akins are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Travis Akins 1:45 pm on April 12, 2011 Permalink

    Mark-thanks for sharing honestly and openly. HUGE encouragement. I have the same worries/struggles in my ministry. Thanks for the re-focus.

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    Mark W 4:36 pm on April 12, 2011 Permalink

    It always helps to remember that all our “castles” we build in life are SANDcastles – and every so often its sort of refreshing to kick a few over!

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  Mark 10:04 am on March 10, 2011 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Neil Cole ( 8 )   

  You Go First 

  Leadership in the most basic sense is going first. Many of us want our leadership to look and feel glamorous – cresting a “leadership” hill to see the beautiful horizon before you and your adoring crowds applauding your valiant efforts.

  But leadership usually means you have to “go first” into less desirable places.

  For instance, if you want to be a leader in a community centered on Jesus, you have to die to yourself “first.” You have to take the first step to humility; apologize first, without prompting from others.  Even if your part in the problem was only 1% – apologize for it; and be sincere.

  You can’t lead others where you are not willing to go yourself.

  That’s why Jesus didn’t take the exit ramp on the road to Golgotha.  He led us right to the end of the journey – our own death.  His is pure leadership – being willing to “go first.”

  —

  …But that’s not the final chapter – after the journey toward death is complete; we see Jesus striking out again.  In the book of Hebrews, movement and leadership are central pictures – Jesus is nicknamed “the Trailblazer” (Hebrews 2:10) – and in chapter 13; after cresting Mount Zion (Chapter 12) he sneaks off – refusing the pomp and circumstance, and is out leading – outside the camp, outside the place of glory, to make us holy.

  13 So let us go out to him, outside the camp, and bear the disgrace he bore. 14 For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.

  
   
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  Mark 11:50 am on February 26, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Churches that are Dying to Follow Jesus 

  What might it look like for a church to live like Jesus?  Even as difficult as that question is, its not nearly as difficult as the next question: “What might it look like for a church to die like Jesus?”

  Many churches put a lot of emphasis on the first question – but few churches are willing to ask the second question.  As we consider the nature of the church – as we imagine the organic structure of Christ-centered community; could dying, the tangible end of a congregation’s life, actually be a central part of the mission of God?

  I’m going with “yes” on this one.

  I had a friend once tell me that the main reason why he can’t suffer the church, even if Jesus had some good things to say, is because the church as an organization is fundamentally opposed to the aims of Jesus.  My friend’s problem with the church is that while Jesus propelled himself toward death, churches generally want to stay alive as long as possible - often to the detriment of what Jesus originally died for!

  But what if your church saw an opportunity to help contribute to the mission of God that was so powerful, so important – that it was willing to clean out the bank, sell the property, and “die” in order to see the mission provided for?

  What might dying like Jesus do for the mission Jesus died for?  What new life might be resurrected?

  As we head into the Easter season – ask yourself, as your faith community to “come die with Jesus” (Bonhoeffer).  It may just be what leads to a harvest of new life. (John 12:24)

  

  Mark W, Steve Caballero, and Travis are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Travis 4:38 am on March 1, 2011 Permalink

    So can I just say that this is so true, both in the institutional and organic sense of the word “church?” I’ve seen institutional churches hang on by way of “life support” that would have been better to die and sow their buildings, people, and budgets into new Kingdom works. I’ve seen organic churches afraid to let go of close relationships in order to follow Jesus into multiplication and harvest.

    The key word here is death. None of us like it. All of us are trying to avoid it. It’s scary looking at it from this side. If only we knew someone who has gone through it and it turned out okay for them….

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    Mark W 4:04 pm on March 1, 2011 Permalink

    Wow…if death is what we fear…whether it is a small house church or a giant mega church… or even my own personal life… then the next question is, “Do I actually believe that Jesus has given us power over the fear of death?” Am I still too afraid to live in victory as a part of the resurrection; part of God’s in-breaking Kingdom?

    What would it look like to be a member of a church that he been through death, burial, and resurrection?

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    Steve Caballero 12:16 am on March 9, 2011 Permalink

    Hitting very close to home as we wrestle with why a campus of our home church had to close. On the material world it was finance related. In Jesus’ world it was just part of His plan. We accept it as that and move on to make a difference with what we learned while we were open here in the material world. Spiritually we never stop being a church even if the building and location go away.

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    Mark W 10:05 pm on March 9, 2011 Permalink

    Death is never easy, or fun. I’m certainly no ecclesiastical-sadist or anything…but I do think that death can be “healthy” or “unhealthy” – done right, a church can leave a legacy and help contribute to the Kingdom of God. So often, we fight to hold on to life as long as possible, and we hurt our chances to display Jesus’ death in our church’s death. Steve – thanks for your honest thoughts.