Friday, April 30, 2010
ranting...
Do you ever get that question emerging in your mind that's like a nagging persistent itch that just has to be scratched? I have dove into the depths of the gospels from it's shores in all directions. And breathless, I come to the surface gasping, empty handed. I can't find it.
Where in any encounter does Jesus confront someone who is living without hope like a hostage and then give them a life threatening decision, "believe...or it's to hell with you." You might ask where such a question stems from. Well suffice it to say, several heated conversations with 'christians' who are unhappy with the lack of intense conviction in gatherings that I have had the privilege of being in have spurred such fodder.
From the opening chapters of Matthew's gospel, after the imprisonment of John, Jesus moves to Capernaum, by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali...
People living out their lives in the dark
saw an incredible light;
Sitting in that dark, dark place of death,
they watched the sun come up.
This Isaiah-prophesied image came to life in Galilee the moment Jesus started engaging and talking to people. He picked up where John left off: This is the dawn of a new day; it's a new page in the story of humanity; there's a new road to travel. Turn your lives around, it's time for humanity to be restored to what I intended it to be. 'The Kingdom has come near to you NOW!'
From there it's the Jesus journey. A wandering of sorts, by the shores of the Sea of Galilee inviting friends to join him on the adventure of proclaiming, revealing and building this Kingdom. Absolutely fascinating that there is no conversion moment in the selection of disciples. No statement of faith. No scratch on the scroll for confirmation of membership. We're not even sure they were baptized in the Jordan. If ritual proof was prerequisite, one would imagine Jesus pulling his disciples out of the baptismal fount.
Again, we are left to guess. There is no believe in me ultimatum. It is nothing more than the profound simplicity of an invitation to "come and follow." And in the following, you will find what your soul longs for.
Countrysides.
Villages.
Towns.
The beach.
And dusty roads.
Jesus shared stories of the radical, scandalous, redemptive, imagination of the Kingdom. As wild as the stories were, it left people in awe to see them come to life before their eyes. People were brought to him who were sick, the were lame, blind, and plagued by spirits. AND in the presence of Jesus they were healed. Again, this uncontainable, unpredictable, scandalous, forgiving, gracious and healing Kingdom turned the world upside down...it was hope re-imagined.
The essence of the Kingdom is so powerful, so beautiful, so miraculously good that it captivates the human imagination. This was the ministry method of Jesus.
The Kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field for years and then accidentally found by a trespasser. The finder is ecstatic—what a find!—and proceeds to sell everything he owns to raise money and buy that field.
The Kingdom is like a jewel merchant on the hunt for excellent pearls. Finding one that is flawless, he immediately sells everything and buys it. (The Message: Matt 13:44-45 )
The Kingdom is so profoundly precious that you will sell everything to live in it...it is so spacious, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in it without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of the Life of Jesus. A life we all have access to, a life we can all enter into. A life, through the power of the Spirit of God, we can let Jesus live through...if we are humble enough to sacrifice our lives...to let him live.
This good news of the Kingdom is not a gun point threat of "heaven or hell." It is about life, abundant life. It is about a full-blown re-imagining of all creation. It is about a profound mysterious journey across the threshold of this world, into the redemptive imagination of Jesus and his Kingdom. The good news is the truth, that the Kingdom is here, now. It's not a place where we drift off to in some spiritual trance, a place where we visit occasionally as a tourist. Jesus calls us to live in it, during every moment of our daily living. Not only to live in it...but to build it with him.
We have become so consumed with the destination that we have behaved like landlords or inn keepers, micro-managing as to who is getting a room in what place.
Maybe we have created this great conundrum. We have become content with just mending our lives, throwing on a patch here and there. A nice three point sermon, a life application in a 25 min pill form that we can pop into our mouth like a soother. Then we cross our fingers and hope it at least makes us feel better.
Better is only as good as us, and the problem with better...it doesn't last long.
Like tylenol, it's better for about 4 hours, and then you back to where you started.
Maybe, it's time to ask, to knock, and to seek with all we have, and cross the threshold into Jesus' Kingdom.
Humanity is lurching down this long corridor of history, frantically looking for the horizon where hope might rise. Profound uncertainty leaves us scared...it breeds fear...and the weight of hopelessness falls like a curtain as the actors prepare to exit the stage.
But there is hope. In the gospels people sat enveloped in darkness until Jesus began to live amongst them and engage their hearts with truth. Truth that cracked the ceiling of darkness, a great light that pulsated with freedom, life, rest and hope.
It was this person of Jesus that was enough to call them from the life they knew, NOT the if you don't impulse. When we are left resorting to the fear scenario, does that say something about the reality of His presence in us?
The church, and every follower of Jesus must re-imagine the gospels beyond heaven or hell. I am not saying they are not realities. BUT we must hunger, thirst for the mind of Christ...the redemptive imagination of Jesus. Jesus and His Kingdom are the hope of all humanity, the hope of all creation. Our words and our actions must reveal and build this Kingdom. It will become that hidden treasure to the by-passer in our neighborhoods, that precious pearl that a friend will sell everything for...just to live in. The hope of humanity is within you. The risen King. And His Kingdom rule flows from the redemptive imagination of God.
Maybe the transformational hope we all long for is found there...instead of the bunkers of fear behind which we have hid for far too long.
J
Friday, April 23, 2010
Influence.
Hebrews 12:2
1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
I remember the first time I saw Michael Jordan play basketball. His agility. His command of the ball. His ability to defy gravity. A man in flight. His incredible competitiveness. His insight into his teammates that enabled him to summon their best.
But what made him great? Was it simply a matter of physical ability or team spirit?
I submit it was something that he shares with anyone who has ever been truly magnificent in a team sport.
He could read the state of play.
He could understand the game at any given point and knew how to act to change the outcome. He could see the present in the light of a preferred future. And he knew how to build, in the present, a platform for his desired future.
He discovered the key to real influence.
I have been travelling over the last several months, speaking in various settings, to a wide range of ages and audiences. Several observations have been nagging me:
Why does the church, for all her beauty and function in creating a place we call home, seem so irrelevant to the culture at large?
And
Where is my generation?
I decided I wanted to journal some of my rambling thoughts on Generation X, the Church as we know it, and what our role is in the development and redemption of world culture.
So...here we go.
Influence.
We were designed for it! We were not born to be ignored. Or overlooked. We were created to be influencers.
AND I submit that if we truly want to engage the work of God in our time we desperately need to recognize that we were designed, crafted and formed to wield that influence.
It is fundamental to the Christian world view that human beings were created to impact and influence their environment more than the environment should impact and influence them.
The very first instruction that God gave human kind was a directive that called on our influence-ability.
Genesis 1:26
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
This is a command to influence. To influence our environment more than your environment influences us.
But if this is Gods intention, what has happened? How did we get where we are? a place where it seems as though the church in so many communities lives playing perpetual defense, disconnected and without a voice to bring hope?
It goes back a long way. We made a decision at the tree. The fall. And sin entered the world. In that moment...we lost some of that ability to change the world more than the world changes us. That fall from grace cost us our capacity for influence, and we became in many ways the influenced rather than the influencers.
Long story made short, through the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross, everything we lost in the garden was redeemed to us again. Including our ability and calling to influence and shape our world.
Hear me: When you choose to become a Jesus follower, you inherit a ‘re-position’ as a person with an incredible capacity to influence.
Influence is hardwired into the human condition.
One way or the other, influence will flow. All around us everyday, this battle rages. For most of us this is a dormant memory of a forgotten year...something that stretches back to pioneers of faith that have gone before us. A memory locked deep within our spiritual psyche. “You were created to change your world. You were created to be a hinge on which the culture of your sphere of influence swings.”
Whether we understand this or not, the reality remains: either we will influence the egocentric (all about me) culture around us or it will most certainly force us to become like it...and the result is a selfish, emasculated form of faith that carries no authority, wields no power and settles for whining from the edges of culture about the darkness that we don’t like.
And be assured...it is a fight. Not against people...but against a system of thought and power brokering that is broken, decrepit and diseased at its very core.
Light vs. Darkness
Flesh vs. Spirit
The temporary vs. the eternal
Spin vs. Truth
Political correctness vs. Prophetic correctness.
Either we will invent the future or someone else’s vision of the future will re-invent us!
Romans 12:2 says,
With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.
This is a statement about culture.
It’s a sociological fact that whichever group in society has the strongest sense of culture, the most well defined sense of identity, that group becomes the leading voice in the country.
That is why in Canada, and in every country and culture in our world, small groups of people have very great power. They have established a very strong sense of who they are. They have built a stronger culture than the culture around them.
What Romans 12 is saying is that we have the right, as our mind is renewed, to NOT allow the system of the world to squeeze us into its mould. BUT instead, we were made to live out and PROVE that a life lived Jesus’ way is stinking incredible (my translation).
It is our right to define the culture more than the culture defines us. Who, more than the people of God, have such a clear and profound identity? Such a dynamic and powerful mission? Such a beautiful and hope-filled message?
Abraham Kyper, the nineteenth century journalist, theologian and Dutch Prime Minister, wrote:
'There is not one part of our world of thought that can be hermetically separated from the other parts, and there is not an inch in the entire area of our human life of which Christ, who is sovereign of all, does not cry "Mine!"'
Who will you be?
Jonathan
1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
I remember the first time I saw Michael Jordan play basketball. His agility. His command of the ball. His ability to defy gravity. A man in flight. His incredible competitiveness. His insight into his teammates that enabled him to summon their best.
But what made him great? Was it simply a matter of physical ability or team spirit?
I submit it was something that he shares with anyone who has ever been truly magnificent in a team sport.
He could read the state of play.
He could understand the game at any given point and knew how to act to change the outcome. He could see the present in the light of a preferred future. And he knew how to build, in the present, a platform for his desired future.
He discovered the key to real influence.
I have been travelling over the last several months, speaking in various settings, to a wide range of ages and audiences. Several observations have been nagging me:
Why does the church, for all her beauty and function in creating a place we call home, seem so irrelevant to the culture at large?
And
Where is my generation?
I decided I wanted to journal some of my rambling thoughts on Generation X, the Church as we know it, and what our role is in the development and redemption of world culture.
So...here we go.
Influence.
We were designed for it! We were not born to be ignored. Or overlooked. We were created to be influencers.
AND I submit that if we truly want to engage the work of God in our time we desperately need to recognize that we were designed, crafted and formed to wield that influence.
It is fundamental to the Christian world view that human beings were created to impact and influence their environment more than the environment should impact and influence them.
The very first instruction that God gave human kind was a directive that called on our influence-ability.
Genesis 1:26
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
This is a command to influence. To influence our environment more than your environment influences us.
But if this is Gods intention, what has happened? How did we get where we are? a place where it seems as though the church in so many communities lives playing perpetual defense, disconnected and without a voice to bring hope?
It goes back a long way. We made a decision at the tree. The fall. And sin entered the world. In that moment...we lost some of that ability to change the world more than the world changes us. That fall from grace cost us our capacity for influence, and we became in many ways the influenced rather than the influencers.
Long story made short, through the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross, everything we lost in the garden was redeemed to us again. Including our ability and calling to influence and shape our world.
Hear me: When you choose to become a Jesus follower, you inherit a ‘re-position’ as a person with an incredible capacity to influence.
Influence is hardwired into the human condition.
One way or the other, influence will flow. All around us everyday, this battle rages. For most of us this is a dormant memory of a forgotten year...something that stretches back to pioneers of faith that have gone before us. A memory locked deep within our spiritual psyche. “You were created to change your world. You were created to be a hinge on which the culture of your sphere of influence swings.”
Whether we understand this or not, the reality remains: either we will influence the egocentric (all about me) culture around us or it will most certainly force us to become like it...and the result is a selfish, emasculated form of faith that carries no authority, wields no power and settles for whining from the edges of culture about the darkness that we don’t like.
And be assured...it is a fight. Not against people...but against a system of thought and power brokering that is broken, decrepit and diseased at its very core.
Light vs. Darkness
Flesh vs. Spirit
The temporary vs. the eternal
Spin vs. Truth
Political correctness vs. Prophetic correctness.
Either we will invent the future or someone else’s vision of the future will re-invent us!
Romans 12:2 says,
With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.
This is a statement about culture.
It’s a sociological fact that whichever group in society has the strongest sense of culture, the most well defined sense of identity, that group becomes the leading voice in the country.
That is why in Canada, and in every country and culture in our world, small groups of people have very great power. They have established a very strong sense of who they are. They have built a stronger culture than the culture around them.
What Romans 12 is saying is that we have the right, as our mind is renewed, to NOT allow the system of the world to squeeze us into its mould. BUT instead, we were made to live out and PROVE that a life lived Jesus’ way is stinking incredible (my translation).
It is our right to define the culture more than the culture defines us. Who, more than the people of God, have such a clear and profound identity? Such a dynamic and powerful mission? Such a beautiful and hope-filled message?
Abraham Kyper, the nineteenth century journalist, theologian and Dutch Prime Minister, wrote:
'There is not one part of our world of thought that can be hermetically separated from the other parts, and there is not an inch in the entire area of our human life of which Christ, who is sovereign of all, does not cry "Mine!"'
Who will you be?
Jonathan
Monday, April 5, 2010
Its Time: Part 2 - the MORE info as promised...
We have received so many responses to our last email that we have been overwhelmed. The responses have been so positive and filled with requests for more info on what we will be doing and how others can be involved. I trust that this note will provide you with some of those answers.
The big question has been why? Let us chat with you a bit about this...chuckle.
Have you ever been afraid of what the world has become?
We have all pondered how the world might become a better place. We’ve all experienced that warm, fuzzy and motivating change-the-world feeling after watching an inspirational movie based on a true story. You know the one – where the average person does something extraordinary...and the world changes. And we sit there and say, I wish I could do something like that...and it stirs us deeply...how long does it take for that feeling to fade? And why? I mean, the feeling was so strong...where did it go quickly if it was so authentic? Could much of it be that we don’t really believe we can change anything? That we have succumbed to just accepting the world as it is?
We believe that the average person can change the world. Stephen Lewis commented that “the world desperately needs our voices”, and we want to use ours. We want to take creative ideas, connect them with great passion, what we love doing and be catalysts for something potentially powerful. We want to partner with people from every walk of life and inspire them with a belief that God has placed in the heart of each man, woman and child, the ability to do something that has world changing potential. We want to release the heroes among us...the hero in you.
“A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom”
Bob Dylan
Here are some more details:
Where?
We ARE moving to the Philippines.
When?
Our goal is to be there by Christmas 2010 or Summer 2011.
Why?
We are going with a deep sense of destiny. We want to be world changers.
What?
3 specific areas in which we will serve:
We are going to work with Gentle Hands;
We are going to work with a leadership development network called D.E.L.;
And create an opportunity for people from 1st world countries to engage the 3rd world with hope. If you are reading this, that’s you! Most of us find it easy to live our lives against the backdrop of our own reality. Our goal is to challenge that. Too often we have opted to intellectually engage the issues of our world and hide behind incomplete views of reality. The result is a culture that feels sorry for those who live in the darkest parts of our world, but no responsible connection that calls us to invest some of who we are in being a change agent. Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
Gentle Hands
Gentle Hands is an accredited child and youth welfare agency meant to be on the front lines of rescue and rehabilitation of the medical, social and educational needs of at-risk children and youth, working towards improving human community life through the love of Jesus and family-centred care.
We care for children all in various stages of rehabilitation, legal paperwork, adoption, and reunification.
Our accreditation with Philippine social services makes us one of three in Metro Manila who can serve as Foster Care Placement centre and adoption agency.
We are the only centre in the Philippines that will take sick children. The result is steady referrals from hospitals, police, social services and the community.
We are the only facility that takes undocumented children- meaning children without papers, birth certificate, or proper government documentation. Hospitals will not take malnourished or undocumented children so we get a lot of those.
The following is a short documentary (make sure you watch Part 1 and Part 2) on Gentle Hands:
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtQxBy1gsyQ
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqLFYFCGSLU
“The curse of poverty has no justification in our age...the time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
D.E.L.
Developing Effective Leaders
The key to any sociological or cultural shift towards change is local and national leadership. There is much to be said here, but suffice it to say, we will be working with national leaders giving them tools, training and education to become progressive leaders in all sectors of society. DEL’s goal is to develop 1000 national leaders who are committed to personal growth, professional development and positive change.
Here is the invitation:
We want you to invite you to partner with us. Living in the Philippines as humanitarian workers and missionaries means that we cannot work. We need to raise support to live there and do the work that God has placed in our hearts to do; AND we cannot go until we have done so...
How?
We need 220 partners who will choose to invest in us:
10 people who will commit to investing $100 a month
40 people who will commit to investing $50 a month
80 people who will commit to investing $25 a month
100 people who will commit to investing $10 a month
*all donations are tax receiptable.
I have had lots of people say to me that if they can’t contribute large amounts they feel like they are not really doing anything. That is not true. The power of participation lies in cooperation. Everyone doing a little bit creates a movement with great potential. Helen Keller said, “I am only one, but I am still one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something.”
This is the short version! Chuckle. Would you consider partnering with us?
If you want more details, we would love to chat with you. Give us a call or send us a note and we will send you more information on how that can work!
Dreaming a dream,
Jonathan, Tracey, Caleb and Rosie.
The big question has been why? Let us chat with you a bit about this...chuckle.
Have you ever been afraid of what the world has become?
We have all pondered how the world might become a better place. We’ve all experienced that warm, fuzzy and motivating change-the-world feeling after watching an inspirational movie based on a true story. You know the one – where the average person does something extraordinary...and the world changes. And we sit there and say, I wish I could do something like that...and it stirs us deeply...how long does it take for that feeling to fade? And why? I mean, the feeling was so strong...where did it go quickly if it was so authentic? Could much of it be that we don’t really believe we can change anything? That we have succumbed to just accepting the world as it is?
We believe that the average person can change the world. Stephen Lewis commented that “the world desperately needs our voices”, and we want to use ours. We want to take creative ideas, connect them with great passion, what we love doing and be catalysts for something potentially powerful. We want to partner with people from every walk of life and inspire them with a belief that God has placed in the heart of each man, woman and child, the ability to do something that has world changing potential. We want to release the heroes among us...the hero in you.
“A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom”
Bob Dylan
Here are some more details:
Where?
We ARE moving to the Philippines.
When?
Our goal is to be there by Christmas 2010 or Summer 2011.
Why?
We are going with a deep sense of destiny. We want to be world changers.
What?
3 specific areas in which we will serve:
We are going to work with Gentle Hands;
We are going to work with a leadership development network called D.E.L.;
And create an opportunity for people from 1st world countries to engage the 3rd world with hope. If you are reading this, that’s you! Most of us find it easy to live our lives against the backdrop of our own reality. Our goal is to challenge that. Too often we have opted to intellectually engage the issues of our world and hide behind incomplete views of reality. The result is a culture that feels sorry for those who live in the darkest parts of our world, but no responsible connection that calls us to invest some of who we are in being a change agent. Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
Gentle Hands
Gentle Hands is an accredited child and youth welfare agency meant to be on the front lines of rescue and rehabilitation of the medical, social and educational needs of at-risk children and youth, working towards improving human community life through the love of Jesus and family-centred care.
We care for children all in various stages of rehabilitation, legal paperwork, adoption, and reunification.
Our accreditation with Philippine social services makes us one of three in Metro Manila who can serve as Foster Care Placement centre and adoption agency.
We are the only centre in the Philippines that will take sick children. The result is steady referrals from hospitals, police, social services and the community.
We are the only facility that takes undocumented children- meaning children without papers, birth certificate, or proper government documentation. Hospitals will not take malnourished or undocumented children so we get a lot of those.
The following is a short documentary (make sure you watch Part 1 and Part 2) on Gentle Hands:
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtQxBy1gsyQ
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqLFYFCGSLU
“The curse of poverty has no justification in our age...the time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
D.E.L.
Developing Effective Leaders
The key to any sociological or cultural shift towards change is local and national leadership. There is much to be said here, but suffice it to say, we will be working with national leaders giving them tools, training and education to become progressive leaders in all sectors of society. DEL’s goal is to develop 1000 national leaders who are committed to personal growth, professional development and positive change.
Here is the invitation:
We want you to invite you to partner with us. Living in the Philippines as humanitarian workers and missionaries means that we cannot work. We need to raise support to live there and do the work that God has placed in our hearts to do; AND we cannot go until we have done so...
How?
We need 220 partners who will choose to invest in us:
10 people who will commit to investing $100 a month
40 people who will commit to investing $50 a month
80 people who will commit to investing $25 a month
100 people who will commit to investing $10 a month
*all donations are tax receiptable.
I have had lots of people say to me that if they can’t contribute large amounts they feel like they are not really doing anything. That is not true. The power of participation lies in cooperation. Everyone doing a little bit creates a movement with great potential. Helen Keller said, “I am only one, but I am still one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something.”
This is the short version! Chuckle. Would you consider partnering with us?
If you want more details, we would love to chat with you. Give us a call or send us a note and we will send you more information on how that can work!
Dreaming a dream,
Jonathan, Tracey, Caleb and Rosie.
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