Reflection from Verge - Day 2

Another long day, another good day. I'm really becoming a Jeff Vanderstelt fan. He was one of the speakers during the first main session. Key quote: "What we're getting (here in this session at Verge) is informing, not equipping. Equipping involves doing." His point was that it's one thing to do that at a conference. It's something completely different to think that we're equipping our church, when in reality all we're doing is informing. We have to create outlets for practicing.

Most of our day was spent listening to Hugh Halter. I first heard Hugh almost two years ago. Soon after that I went through MCAP. What I learned there, and through his and Matt Smay's book The Tangible Kingdom, has had a huge impact on Neighborhood Church. Both Josh and Joe had read The Tangible Kingdom, but hearing Hugh in person was great for them.

He shared a lot of the stories that I've heard before, but what I really love about these guys is that they're practicing this in a way that some of the other speakers aren't. They continue to flesh this out, which I really appreciate. Some of what they might have said two years ago they aren't saying today, because they figured out that it doesn't work as well as they thought. But the fact that they continue to experiement, and then implement, is good.

If you've read the book, you know about the three circles: Communion (spiritual formation), Incarnational Community, and Mission. One of the biggest takeaways for us is realizing that we do incarnational community and mission pretty well, but almost all of our weekly activities feed the communion circle. The problem with that is that whatever we invest our time, energy, and resources in reveals what is most important. The good news is that we are not stuck. Hugh reminded us that pilots never fail. We will continue to experiment. We'll shelve things that don't work. We'll continue to implement what does. Continued innovation is crucial.

Reflection from Verge - Day 1

Yesterday was a long travel day. Josh, Joe and Steve got to my house at 6 am, and we drove to Little Rock. After a layover in Dallas, we finally arrived in Austin with just enough time to get our car, drop our bags off at the hotel, and get to the conference for the first session. The main sessions are going to be organized around the six themes of Alan Hirsch's The Forgotten Ways. Last night's was "Jesus is Lord."

After a great worship time led by Aaron Ivey, Matt Carter opened things up by talking about the dangers of loving your mission more than your Savior. He spoke from Revelation 2 (church of Ephesus). When you look at what Jesus commends them on, it seems like an awesome church. But Jesus says that he is no longer at the center of their lives. And the warnings of continuing this are that he will remove his blessing and presence from them. The question he left us with was, "If everything was taken from you, and all you had was Jesus, would that be enough?"

After communion Francis Chan spoke. The one thing you can count on when Francis speaks is that passion is going to pour out of him. You don't really outline or take notes when Francis speaks. He's really all over the place. But God speaks, so occassionally you write something down, knowing it's quite important.

His main points were that we just need to go back to the Scriptures to learn how to live out the Christian life. We've added so much to it. He brought us back to Acts 2. This group of 120 saw Jesus raised from the dead, and it radically changed their lives. They told everyone about it. The things that had seemed important to them before no longer appealed to them. That's why they gave their stuff away to others in need. This made perfect sense to them. What wouldn't have made sense is for this community, after seeing Jesus raised from the dead, is for them to come to a church service once a week for some singing and preaching.

When I listen to Francis speak, he reminds me of how simple things should be. Simple doesn't mean easy, but it does mean simple. This isn't rocket science. We just need to come to God through his Scriptures, and do what he says. He ended our time by calling us to pray for God to move. Earlier he had asked the question, "What power would I believe in if I really read the Bible?"

I'm still a little tired this morning, but am ready to learn. Grateful to be here with Josh and Joe, and look forward to going through this with them.

Weekly Links

Scot McKnight writes about homeschooling with, get this, a Germany and Memphis connection

Making lemonade out of lemons - found out about this movie on Seth Godin's blog. The idea is that sometimes the best entrepreneurial moments come out of times of crisis

Starting a Church Without Losing Your Soul - by Ed Stetzer

Audio & Video from the Acts 29 Church Planting Bootcamp in Raleigh

Ten Reasons why Churches Stall - Tim Chester

10 Tips for Missional Communities

Church in Need of Recalibration

Alan Hirsch & Michael Frost: We believe that the church must constantly return to Jesus to find itself again, to recalibrate, to test whether we are indeed in the faith. The inference is that by and large the church as we currently experience it in the west has to varying degrees lost touch with the wile and dangerous message that it carries and is duty bound to live out and to pass on. As Jesus' disciples we are called to a Christlike life, and no matter how we configure it, that must surely mean that somehow our lives and our communities must be in significant congruence with the life, teachings, and mission of Jesus. The degree that we are living the life laid out by our Master is directly proportional to the degree that we can call ourselves authentic disciples (ReJesus, 64)

A Community is Forming

Last night we had several families over for pizza and discussion. The topic of discussion: Peabody Elementary School. Three years ago my desire was to one day send my children to our neighborhood public school. At the time I hoped that one or two others would decide to join us. Last night I realized that my dreams have been two small. There are currently 10 families leaning towards sending their children to Peabody next fall. We have known a few of these families for awhile, but some are new friends. But the cool thing is that with all, the hopes and dreams are the same. It's definitely an exciting time!

Mandy has done an excellent job leading and facilitating these discussions. Check out her blog, as I'm sure she'll be writing about this.

The True Prosperity Gospel

Ben Witherington: If there is to be a prosperity gospel worthy of its name, it should be all about the great blessing of giving and living self-sacrificially and how freeing it is to be trusting God day to day for live and all its necessities.

The Passover & Community

I've read Exodus 12 many times before, but something struck me as I read it this morning. This is the story of the final plague on Egypt, where God kills the firstborn in every Egyptian family. God has multiple bottom lines with his plans. His main purpose with this plan is obviously to redeem his people, but if you've read much of Scripture, you also know that God is giving them a symbolic picture of the ultimate redemption that will take place through Christ's sacrifice.

God wants his people here to create a tradition in which they will always remember what happened on that night. But here's what struck me this morning. He includes everyone in the community. Everyone is responsible for doing their part. This isn't just a task for the leaders. Each household is to sacrifice a lamb. They are to prepare that lamb in a certain fashion, and then they are to enjoy eating it. God gives special conditions that if a household is small and doesn't need a whole lamb, then they can go in with another small household and share a lamb. But everyone takes part. Every member of the community plays a role in God's plan.

Sometimes the details in the Old Testament can bog us down, but I think there's real purpose in them, and in a passage like this one, it's clear to me that God is giving us a picture of community. And I think it's a brilliant picture!

The Effects of a Broken Spirit

A spiritual goal I have for 2010 is to read through the entire Bible. This is something that I've never attempted, and am I excited by the challenge. I'm using this reading plan. Yesterday I was getting caught up after missing a couple of days, and came across a verse that I had never read before. It's from Exodus 6, which begins the back and forth dialog between God and Pharoah, with Moses as middle man.

In verse 2 God begins speaking his Father's heart for his people. He reminds Moses of the covenant that he established with them. He says that he has heard his people's groans as a result of their slavery, and he is going to redeem them. They will be his people and he will be their God. So Moses relays this message to the people, but verse 9 says that they did not listen.

You would think that if any message would cause you to listen, it would be this one. The Father's heart is on display. We see his passion and pursuit for his people, yet they don't listen. But the passage isn't over, and it's the remainder of verse 9 that spoke to me so powerfully. We learn here that there is a reason that they didn't listen. It's not because of their rebellious ways. It's not because they don't think God knows what he's talking about.

Verse 9 says that they didn't listen "because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery."

Here's what I felt God saying to me. I don't know what it's like to have a broken spirit, especially one that comes as a result of harsh slavery, or, really, any other kind of injustice. Because of this, I need to have a special compassion for those who have, and I need to seek understanding on what they are going through. It's difficult for me to understand how someone could not be captured by this message, but perhaps that's because I don't know the powerful effects that a broken spirit can have on a person.

We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness (Ephesians 6:12). These forces that Paul is talking about impact lives more than we realize. It's a scary thing. But here's the good news. We have someone fighting for us. In this passage God moves from Loving Father to Just Redeemer. He fights for his people. And the rest of the good news: He wins!

I am thankful that God fights for my soul, and I want to join that fight for the souls of others.

Weekly Links

Matthew May helps us to ask the question, "Am I making the most of what I have to offer the world?" He writes, "The sad fact is that many people, if not most, would rather be doing something else with their life and instead spend their day in some way distracted in their work or feeling like they don't or can't bring their true and best self to work."

JR Vassar reflects on five years of living in NYC.

Hugh Halter describes Adullam's weekly worship gathering

Jonathan Dodson on introducing your church to others (on Sundays and on your website)

NY Times columnist David Brooks writes that the recent tragedy in Haiti is a poverty story rather than a natural disaster story. His first point is that we don't know how to use aid to reduce poverty.