A Writer?

It doesn't take much looking at the inconsistency of this blog over the last several years to recognize that I'm far from being a writer. Now and then I can get some thoughts written down, but that's about as far as it goes. Inconsistent at best. So imagine how shocked I was to see THIS.

An actual book. Published by an actual publishing company. E-books, actual "hard copy" books. The works. And not just on Amazon.  Barnes & Noble.  Google Play. (Cheaper here!  What a deal!)  iBooks on the iTunes store.  Kobo, whatever that is. Craziness.

"Follow Me: Discipleship That Moves Us" is a project that I put together for York Alliance Church, the wonderful group of people that I get the privilege of serving alongside of, learning from, and now and then actually teaching.  We wrestled--as hopefully many churches do--with what it means for us to fulfill Jesus' call to make disciples.  I'm quite certain we haven't finished that wrestling, but this book is the first installment.  Here's what we found: Disciples aren't made through completing curriculum or engaging a program--rather, they emerge gradually based on a series of values which are consistently and progressively practiced in all of life.  Let me say that again, because if you're like me, it's so simple and obvious that I missed it for years: Disciples aren't made through completing curriculum or engaging a program--rather, they emerge gradually based on a series of values which are consistently and progressively practiced in all of life.  Not a "now it's time to do the church thing," but rather, how does the gospel change the way I live every part of my life?  Not a "finish this and you're a disciple" but rather an admission of the reality that the likeness of Jesus is never fully formed in us on this side of heaven.

Now, of course, I wrestle (like everyone who honestly engages discipleship) to actually live these values out. What does it mean to filter my life through the lens of mission, recognizing that everyone that I see (as C.S. Lewis said) is inching closer to eternity with or without Jesus?  How do I live a life that based firmly in the foundation of the Word of God?  That must be more than doing my devotions...  How do I live authentically in community, trusting the people around me with all of who I am?  How do I serve the body of Christ without expectation of receiving back?  These are hard questions--and they don't have one time, simple answers.

But we'd rather have it that way, wouldn't we?  The reality of our lives say that there aren't just simple answers to our brokenness.  In nearly two decades in active pursuit of Jesus, there haven't yet been any easy "one size fits all" solutions.  It's a journey.  It's a struggle.  It's a joy.  It's a pain.  It's the simplest, most complex, most worthwhile, easiest and most difficult thing in the universe.  It's supposed to be.

Tired

As we get toward the end of this week, I’m just shot.  Exhausted.  Worn out. 

Ever been there?

It’s not all bad stuff—in fact, some really good stuff!  And, of course, some really bad stuff.  But mostly just a lot of “stuff” stuff.  I see the brokenness of those around me.  I feel the reality that their brokenness is also my brokenness.  I start to work on crossing things off the to-do list.  More stuff gets added to the to-do list.  I realize more stuff is being added than is getting checked off the to-do list.  I find myself adding stuff to the to-do list that I’ve actually already done, just so I can check it off.  I find that those things are decreasing in their impressiveness—things like eating lunch don’t typically require a slot in Microsoft Outlook.  And I realize that I’m not only tired, but I can now add somewhat unproductive to that as well.

And normally, I just roll with all that.  You probably do too.  But today, I’m just wiped out.  Bodily tired?  Check.  Emotionally drained?  Check.  Spiritually zapped?  Double check.  At least I’ve completed one list for the day.

For years I’ve been fascinated with the ancient church in Ephesus.  It’s the first-century church that we have the most information on—a relatively detailed account in the last 1/3 of the book of Acts, a letter bearing their name that Paul wrote, two letters from Paul to their young pastor Timothy, and finally, the words of Jesus Himself as He addresses the church in Revelation 2.  When I imagine that church, I imagine a well-oiled machine.  They were rockin’ and rollin’ long before the Beatles ever broke onto the scene.  They had solid Elders, strong teachers, watched their doctrine carefully, and were “enduring patiently.”  (Revelation 2:3) The church was planted and set-up by Paul himself, who becomes a sort of consultant for them.  They had Timothy, the young all-star pastor hand-picked by Paul to lead this great church.  And guess what?  Within just a few generations, the church was completely gone.  Wiped out. 

That should make all of us nervous—it certainly does me!  There was far more going for them than we have going for our church… and most of the churches in the world, I might add!  And within a few short generations, it was all gone.  Poof.

What happened?  I think we get a clue in Revelation 2:4-5: “You abandoned the love you had at first.  Remember from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.”  They were chugging away at all the externals, but they had lost their first love.  They were getting the outside right, but missing the core.  And what is Jesus’ prescription?  Do the works you did at first…

Think back—if you’re a follower of Jesus, what did you do when you first fell in love with Him?  For me, I devoured the Word.  I mean, devoured.  Reading, memorizing, studying, cross-referencing.  Devouring.  I loved it.  And you know what?  When I find myself truly weary—not just tired from a long day, but truly weary—I almost always find myself having slowed in those things I did at first. 

I’m so thankful that Jesus acknowledged that we would get wiped out.  “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest…” (Matthew 11:28)  When we’re weary, He’s the only source of life. 

Sure, we can keep plugging away, just like the church in Ephesus did.  We can keep shaping the externals around what everyone expects of us while we fall apart on the inside.  And when we do that, I wonder if there will be a day where we’ll wake up and realize that our faith is going the route of the Ephesian church… slowly disappearing.  External righteousness doesn’t help us, but it does make us tired.  What does Jesus say when He calls?  “Come to me…”  Not check off the moral to-do list.  Not meet everyone else’s expectations.  Not rest inside the mold of cultural religiosity.  Come to me.

I think being weary might be a gift.  It’s in our weariness that we’re invited; and maybe it’s only in our weariness that we’ll truly come.

Rest well, my friends.  I’m planning on it. 

Jesus said, "Follow Me" - Part 3

OK, for both of you that have been anxiously awaiting this third post, I'm a few days late.  I can give you a variety of excuses for that, but honestly, you don't care and I'm not really prepared to think that hard.  So, without further ado, part 3...

Without fully restating what you can easily read yourself with a few clicks of the mouse, I've been working through the idea that Jesus very clearly called those of us who consider ourselves to be His disciples to follow Him, and yet, there are very few lined up behind Him.  If we're going to be honest, which most of us make it a practice to never truly be, our lives look pretty dramatically different than His.  We seem to love different things, connect with different people, base our decisions on a different set of values, and generally look much more like just about any character in the Bible other than Jesus--with the possible exceptions of John the Baptist and Ezekiel during that "lay on your side naked while cooking your food over animal poop" period.  (Ezekiel 4--seriously, that's in there.  The people who say the Bible is boring have never actually read it.)

As a church, we've wrestled with this, and tried our best to honestly study the life of Jesus as well as the teachings of the Bible to figure out what it actually means to follow Him in 21st century North America.  Of course, we all wish that it was a prescribed list of commands and check boxes--not only would that make it easier, but who doesn't love to check things off a list?  That's how I finally got up the motivation to write this blog post--I needed to check something off my to do list, and the rest of what was on there looked to be basically impossible.  But I digress.  Jesus doesn't give us a checklist--He gives us His Spirit.  Which is way better, but if we're honest, is way more difficult to figure out most of the time, because God has this habit of being far more concerned about our hearts than our external behavior.  So, rather than a checklist, there are seven areas that we see Jesus constantly operating within.  In part 1, I talked through what it means to have a lifestyle of worship, live within authentic community, and to build our lives on the foundation of the Word.  In part 2, I talked about what it means to engage in prayer as the first work, recognizing that God is the only one who is actually able to transform us.  Today, I want to look at the products of that transformation: serving the body, engaging missional living, and becoming the shalom of the community. 

Maybe the easiest way to think of these seven areas is in terms of an hourglass:

Within this image, worship, community, and the Word act as the environment for God to work.  However, it's only as we truly encounter Him through prayer that we are transformed.  Within that transformation, something is produced within us, and that transformation is poured out into the world around us through service, mission, and bearing peace.  But what does that look like?

Serving the Body.  I love the story of Jesus washing the disciples' feet in John 13.  It's such a perfect picture of servanthood--not just because the God of Creation was willing to do the most menial job known to first century man, but because it wasn't His gift.  So often, we excuse our lack of service because "that's not my gift" or "I don't feel like the Spirit is leading me in that way."  Jesus washed feet for a simple reason: it needed to be done.  When God transforms us, the very first thing that He transforms is our heart for the body of Christ.  Paul, speaking of marriage in Ephesians 5, says, "no one ever hated his own body, but nourishes and cherishes it."  Then, a sentence or two later, he interprets for us: "I am saying that [this] refers to Christ and the church." (Ephesians 5:29, 32)  When we are transformed by Christ, He gives us a heart to serve His body, and we are willing to pour ourselves out to that end.

Missional Living.  One of the remarkable things about Jesus' life is maybe most clearly seen in the gospel of Mark.  In Mark 8, Peter answers a question that Jesus posed: "Who do you say that I am?"  Peter's answer: "You are the Christ." (Mark 8:29)  Simple.  Clear.  And it changed everything.  Mark records that Jesus "began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things..." (vs. 31) and will proceed to follow Him in a direct line to the cross.  The writer to the Hebrews said it this way: "who for the joy set before Him endured the cross." (Hebrews 12:2)  Jesus' was driven by a singular mission, and He's passed that mission onto us.  We are to go into the world around us, and "make disciples." (Matthew 28:19).  We are to be doing "the ministry of reconciliation" as "ambassadors for Christ." (2 Corinthians 5:18, 20)  It's not an activity we should engage now and then--it's a new way of living.  C.S. Lewis once said it this way: "All day long we are helping each other to one of these destinations [eternal glory or eternal horror]."  We are called to live each moment with that reality in mind.

Shalom of the Community.  Can you imagine being around Jesus?  Mark, again, gives us perhaps the clearest picture as he describes the crowd that seemed to be ever-present around Him, pressing in to hear Him, to touch Him, to simply be with Him.  Why was that?  Genesis 3, for all the debate about Adam and Eve and trees and apples, describes a moment in time where everything broke.  All that was once perfectly harmonious in a single moment was completely broken.  I think this is some of what Solomon had in mind in Ecclesiastes 3:11 when he said: "God has placed eternity in each man's heart."  There's something in us that remembers; we long for the harmony that once was.  In fact, Paul will say in Romans 8 that all of creation "groans" as we await redemption!  However, in Christ, harmony is restored.  That Hebrew word is shalom and it's a beautiful fusion of harmony, peace, wholeness, and rest.  Shalom is the gift that is ours in salvation.  Not a trite happiness, but a deep peace, even in the midst of the storm.  And we are called to bear that peace, that shalom, into the world around us.  I wonder if people long to be with you and I the way they longed to be with Jesus?

It's only when we meet Jesus and are transformed by Him that these things are produced in us.  Hear me, dear friends: if we try to produce them on our own, we will become bitter, frustrated, and tired.  However, if we'll take the time to truly encounter Him, we'll find that He's giving us all we need in order to truly follow Him.

Peace to you as you journey with Him.

This material is taken from the forthcoming book “Follow Me: Discipleship that Moves Us” which will be released in early 2013.

Jesus said, "Follow Me" - Part 2

Environments play an important role within our lives.  Likely, when you think back over the momentous occasions in your life, you can remember specific things about the environment.  I remember the distinct feeling of the church that Amanda and I were married in, even though I had never been in it before, and haven't been since.  Places like the beach create a flood of memories and feelings for me, simply by experiencing the environment.  Environments also can create certain behaviors--put my four year old in a relatively open space with things that he can climb on and jump off of, and you can bet he's not going to sit in a corner and read a book!  The flashing lights of an arcade will always pair with teenage boys.  Candlelit dinners will always mean something more than a couple trying to save on electricity.  And I can't even tell you how many times I've almost run out of gas looking for the relatively clean, well-lit gas station, in the hopes that the bathroom inside matched the environment outside!  Environment means something.

In the last post, I talked about the first three of the seven factors that we use to describe what it practically means to follow Jesus.  We said we need to live a lifestyle of worship, be connected to and invested in authentic community, and base our lives on the foundation of the Word.  All three of these were characteristics of the way that Jesus lived His life, and part of what He means when He calls us to follow Him.

However, can I point out something that may or may not be obvious at this point?  If we achieve each of these three things, regularly engaging them as a part of our journey with Christ, we still haven't really gotten anywhere.  I can be someone who regularly connects my heart with Jesus in worship, stays connected to brothers and sisters in community, and can be a student of the Word, and yet, I could still be bored!  You might argue with me, reasoning that true worship, real community, and a right understanding of the Word can't exist without action coming out.  Before I agree with you (that will be coming in tomorrow's post), I would simply rebut your argument with "Exhibit A: The American Church."  While I would agree that there's been a breakdown somewhere along the way, it seems that these three things are held in pretty high regard with no real behavioral transformation in quite a few places all around us...

However, just as a physical environment sets the stage for certain behaviors, these three factors create a spiritual environment.  They may not be "ends" by themselves, but they are certainly "means" to which we get to the ends!  Now, here's what's vital to understand--the environment is set, not for my activity, but for God's activity.  Maybe the best way to think of it is that worship, community, and the Word all act like kindling and wood for a fire--but only God can set that pile of sticks aflame.

So, that brings us to the fourth factor: Prayer as the First Work.  At our church, we call it "the first work" because we believe that it's the first and most important work to which we're called.  Here's why: when we engage Jesus through prayer, we never remain the same!  When we truly encounter Him, it's always a generative encounter.  Often, one of our early encounters will produce salvation.  Things like spiritual gifts are also produced.  But so are things like: mercy for the broken, compassion for the hurting, drive to know more of Jesus and His Word, desire for holiness, a heart for service, passion to see people know Jesus, and on and on.  It's through that encounter that Jesus does His best work!  And if you look back a few blog posts ago ("Good and Best"), it's also when He reminds us of what's most important.

So what happens after that encounter?  Do we simply enjoy all that He's producing in us?  Tomorrow's post will round out the cycle...

This material is taken from the forthcoming book “Follow Me: Discipleship that Moves Us” which will be released in early 2013.

Jesus said, “Follow Me.” So where did everyone go?

All verbs are not created equal.  There are commands that give me a perfectly clear directive: “Eat this meat.”  “Ride this bike.”  “Drink this coffee.  And that coffee, too.”  Makes sense.  You need to do no more than command me and get out the way. 

However, other commands have always eluded me for one reason or another.  “Conjugate this verb.”  Huh?  “Transpose this stanza.”  Will it hurt?  “Wash these windows.”  Silence…  Difficult, confusing, unsavory—whatever the reason, there are commands that seem to constantly elude.

The question I’ve been wrestling with over the last few weeks is this: what kind of command did Jesus give to us when He said, “Follow me”?  Difficult?  Sure.  Confusing?  Maybe…  Unsavory?  Depends on the moment.  Clear, direct, and to the point?  You betcha.  So why are there so few in the “Jesus line,” actually following after Him?

For years, I’ve attributed both my own lack of true pursuit, as well as the very short line of crazies that seem to be actually trying to follow Him, to the challenge of figuring out what that actually looks like in 21^st century North America.  It’s hard for us to really know what Jesus meant for us to do, I reasoned, since His culture is 2000 years removed from ours.  So much of what we have to deal with He didn’t really deal with: you know, money, family, jobs, broken government systems, stressed economies… oh, wait… 

Maybe the challenge is that “following” seems so intangible and personal to us.  After all, Matthew “followed” by leaving behind the tax collector’s booth (Mark 2:14), and Nicodemus “followed” by remaining in the sect of the Pharisees (John 3:9-15, 7:50, 19:39).  Lydia followed with her wealth in tow (Acts 16:14-15)—Ananias and Sapphira tried that, and they didn’t get too far… literally. (Acts 5:1-11)  Does “following” look different for each of us?

As we as a church have wrestled with what Jesus meant to “follow” Him, and what that might look like for the average “dude and dudette” in the good ol’ U.S. of A. in the 21^st century, we’ve come back to seven distinct areas.  Jesus Himself lived them, so it makes sense that He would call us to live them as well.  However, a real commitment to that life radically alters day in and day out living!  I’ll be the first to admit that my family and I are still in the “baby steps” stages of this pursuit, and it’s already led to some head-scratching decisions for us as a family.  However, Paul’s admonition that by forsaking the values of the world and living under the values of Jesus is the only path that leads to the “live that is truly life” (1 Timothy 6:19) is enough to keep us chugging along the path to joy.

What are the seven areas?  So glad you asked!  I’m going to post the first three today, one more tomorrow, and then the last three on Friday.  Stay tuned!

Living a Lifestyle of Worship.  Interestingly, we don’t see Jesus gathering on the Sabbath, singing songs, and then calling that activity “worship.”  Rather, worship for Jesus had a much broader definition—He connected all of life to the reality of the Father’s presence in His life.  “I always do the things that are pleasing to [the Father].” (John 8:29)  Jesus never segmented life—everything fell under the authority and jurisdiction of the Father.  We must do the same.  Our families, our finances, our jobs, our hobbies, our eating, drinking, and chores that we run around and accomplish—each of them are an opportunity either for distraction from the glory of God or for worship.

Having Authentic Community with Believers.  I’m constantly amazed by Christians who claim that the need for deep, transparent community with other brothers and sisters just “isn’t their personality.”  Hebrews 3:12-13 goes as far as to say that without it, our hearts will harden and we’ll fall away!  Jesus Himself shared His deepest struggles to His inner circle of disciples, humbly asking them to pray for Him (Matthew 26:38).  Everything in our world pushes toward surface relationships where we trumpet our strengths and hide our weakness.  Christian community requires a concerted effort to not only do the opposite, but to commit to one another that we’ll continue in that way.

Building on the Foundation of the Word.  Jesus knew His Bible.  Not simply because He was the Author, but by the difficult work of memorization and meditation.  His responses to the temptation of Satan in the wilderness shows a deep knowledge of and meditation on the book of  Deuteronomy (Matthew 4:1-11).  Paul declares that the Word of God is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be…equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17, emphasis added)  In a world that seems to have gone completely mad, we are called back to the solid foundation of the Word—not as a “road map for life” as is so often stated, but rather, as a revelation of the One who is life (John 1:1-4).

Worship, Community, and the Word.  Summarized: love God and love people, often cited as the “Great Commandment.”  (Matthew 22:37-40)  Certainly the specifics of each of these will look different for every follower, but if those of us who intend to follow Jesus get serious about each of these, our lives will become the environments in which Jesus does His incredible work.  Is it hard?  You betcha.  Sometimes it’s “washing the windows” hard.  Sometimes it’s even harder than that.  (See Romans 8:22)  But it’s worth it.  Why?  Because, as Peter said to Jesus after one particularly hard call to follow Him: “Where else would we go?

“You alone have the words of life.” (John 6:68)

This material is taken from the forthcoming book “Follow Me: Discipleship that Moves Us” which will be released in early 2013.