Thursday, October 16, 2008

Grace __________

The name of our church reveals something about us: we place a high value on community, on the “together” in “becoming like Jesus together.”

I was recently reminded of a phrase I’ve used a lot in the past but haven’t mentioned much in the near past: “It’s more important that we do things together than that we get things done.” It’s not that I don’t think results are important. It’s that I think that ends are not more important than means. As I’ve said more recently, “The journey is the destination.”

It’s easy to get impatient trying to get to the destination. And I hate it when other people point out my impatience! But that’s the point of traveling together. As it says in Proverbs, “iron sharpens iron.” Conflict is a part of being together. So learning to handle conflict well is important to any group that wants to be productive. In his book “Organizing Genius”, Warren Bennis gives many examples of teams of very disparate people that have given us world-changing products.

When are we in relationship? Mostly in growth groups and ministry teams. Being gathered for Sunday worship doesn’t really count because it’s too easy to breeze in and out and not really relate to anyone personally. On a Sunday morning more relating probably goes on in the parking lot than in the sanctuary.

So in our growth groups and ministry teams do we really believe that it’s more important that we do things together than that we get things done? How well do we celebrate or play together? How well do we listen to each other? How well do we support and encourage each other? Without these elements, group Bible study becomes dry, people start looking for reasons to skip meeting together, and ministry becomes merely a time-suck.

One of my jobs as a leader in the church is to help us travel well together. My prayer is not just that each of us will find our unique place in the church community and make a contribution to the whole that is far greater than the sum of the parts. I pray that we will connect with the life-giving joy of being with God and each other.

pain and words

In my through-the-Bible-in-a-year reading plan I’ve just finished Jeremiah and have started Lamentations. Jeremiah has been called “the weeping prophet” and Lamentations is his lament over the fall of Jerusalem. In my NIV Study Bible it mentions how Lamentations is used in both Jewish and Christian worship. Of course, the NIV is used mostly by American evangelicals so the idea of using a 5-chapter book of poems of lament in worship is a pretty foreign notion, which is why the practice has to be explained.

Which is too bad. If anyone can identify with the pain of losing a homeland it should be many of the Asian ethnicities that are now resident in the US. Chinese Americans called themselves “sojourners”. Japanese Americans have lost their Japanese-ness in the eyes of Japanese nationals. These are examples of how the Asian American church should be able to identify with Jeremiah and find a sympathetic voice in Lamentations. But I can’t remember a single sermon I’ve ever heard on Lamentations 2:11: “…I am in torment within, my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed…”

I find that it’s hard to imagine reading Lamentations regularly and allowing the pain that’s expressed to become my pain. I’d rather follow the American evangelical tradition of skipping to the nice parts (like 3:22-24 “…great is your faithfulness…”). I don’t want to deal with pain. I'd rather ignore it. And the Jewish notion of the word as sacred in itself is very different from modern evangelicalism’s view that what we really want is the essential meaning. We don’t have the patience to listen to or read whole books of the Bible (albeit short ones) as part of our worship. We want the bullet-point version (even Cliff’s Notes are too long) that can be put up on a PowerPoint slide. Yet the words of the Word are meant to take our time, to occupy an important part of our lives. We need to learn to read the Bible for transformation, not just information. I remember praying with a Jewish friend who would say, “Help us to understand Your words” as we discussed the Bible together. It sounded odd to me because I’m so used to thinking of the Bible as “Your Word”. But now it makes sense to me: it’s the very words that are transforming when I give them time.

I’ve grown up in evangelicalism so I appreciate the honor that’s given to study and proclamation of the Word. But I also want to learn from other Word-centered traditions. I don’t want to become just a student of the Bible. Somehow I want to allow the Word to speak into my humanity and form me and to form us as a church community.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

growth: systematic or organic?

At a meeting of local Covenant pastors yesterday we talked a bit about some of the latest thinking in church leadership. One person mentioned that it’s important for us to set goals so that “we can know how to make people into what we want them to become” (or words to that effect).

I know that the intention wasn’t to conceive of the church community as a factory that mechanically produces mature Christians, but it’s easy to fall into that kind of thinking. If we just define the goal and then design the program we’ll be successful.

But it’s not true that growth is simply a matter of letting whatever happens happen. One pastor mentioned John 3:8, that the Spirit is like the wind that blows wherever it wants and we can’t control it. It’s true that those born of the Spirit may be propelled by forces that aren’t always visible, but that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to judge their spiritual vitality.

Jesus gave us a better gauge (kinda makes sense to see what he thinks, eh?). He said that if we pay attention to the conditions for growth we will bear fruit, even up to a hundredfold. And he clearly outlined the conditions. Check out Dale’s sermon on Luke 5 to find out what the conditions are (September 7).

So how much is under our control? And how much is up to God? Someone has said, “Pray like everything depends on God, work like everything depends on you.” In other words, we don’t know. That’s a formula for trust and humility. It’s also a formula for frustration at times. But it’s also a formula for wonder and gratitude.