What kind of change are we looking for?

There’s a lot of talk about change these days as the Democratic candidates square off in their primaries and the Republicans attempt to keep in the spotlight.  The rhetoric and jargon being used is easily classified by many of us as more of the same if we don’t listen carefully and practice discernment.  I believe that if we listen to the candidates we will discover that there are two approaches to change being used and neither one is bad; just different.  Are we looking for change to the system that utilizes technical adaptations through new laws programs or modifying old ones?  Or are we looking for change that brings a new mindset, that establishes relational way of being and working on the problems of the world?  The former kind of change is measurable through the establishment of tangible standards reflected in the passing of laws or creation of programs.  The latter kind of change is harder to measure because it’s relational and in being relational it’s hard to quantify it and establish standards other than you know you’ve arrived when you know you’ve arrived. 

What kind of change is best for us?  In regard to the presidential race the kind of change the nation will experience will be determined by the voters.  This outcome does necessarily reflect what is good for the nation because nation’s can make bad decisions.  But, it does reflect a process that trusts the people to make wise decisions and so as Americans we will attempt to live with the outcome and make the best of it.  But, when it comes to church our question needs to go to a deeper level than politics is able to go and ask the question what kind of change is needed in the church to enable the people of God to better relate to God?

Churches seem to believe that if we change programming, methods, or structures that we’ll make church more relevant and in making it more relevant will make it more attractional which will save more souls.  If we’re saving souls then somehow God is there and we’re doing the right thing.  The problem is God isn’t there or at least it’s hard for me to see where God is at.  If we’re saving souls I would ask saving them from what to what.  I heard a prominant speaker state that most mega-church’s (and I would add evangelical church in general because most small churches attempt to copy mega-church ideas) are taking people off of crack and putting them on heroin.  We’re taking them from one form of consumerism and plugging people into another form, the church’s brand of consumerism when consumerism is the real problem. 

In Matthew 18: 19-20 Jesus tells his followers that where two or three people gather in his Name he is in their midst.  It’s not about gathering in the name of program, method, or structure; these things should never have been placed in the center of our lives because the moment they are they become our gods and we’re constantly out looking for the next best thing to give us that temporary high, that temporary fix, until it doesn’t work anymore and we have to look for a new drug.  Methods and programs, if we must have them, should only be vehicles that lead to something deeper and more authentic; a relationship with the living God.  In fact, if God is a relational God and God calls us to have a realtionship with him and this relationship is the center and goal of faith then why do we even need programs and methods.  Relationships can’t be programmed.

The kind of change we need is one that takes us off of the drug of modern church with it’s programs and standards to measure programs.  One that frees us from the demonic bondage of the church machine that transforms our humanity into some sort of objectifiable commodity that is bought and sold to the best show in town.  Instead we need relationships to learn to listen to one another, pray for one another, cry together and worship the living God together.  These things can’t be produced through programs or methods.  They can only be learned through practice, wisdom and discernment; qualities that come from deep and authentic encounters with the Holy Spirit which can’t be learned in books or seminars.  We need leaders who are willing to rediscover the ancient spiritual disciplines that deepen our relationship with Christ and out of this relationship lead the church, the Body of Christ into the promised land where the consumer god has been defeated in the death of Christ and the authentic community has been formed in the resurrection of Christ.   

What is emerging?

It’s so hard to let go of who we are; of our dreams and visions.  Our identity is easily shaped and formed by what we do and the positions we hold.  Ministry becomes grey where identity becomes associated with doing the “Lord’s work” justifying our sense of self worth as being what we do for the Lord.  How can it be wrong to understand who we are based upon our “work” for the Lord?  And yet this approach to life and ministry has left a trail of death with burned out, used up, and dried out people scattered across the road of good intentions. 

When we can’t or won’t let go of our dreams and vision in ministry we impose them upon the other.  It’s our vision that becomes the chains of bondage upon the work of the Holy Spirit as we seek to conform people to our way of doing and being.  When I approach the other, whether a Christian or a someone who doesn’t know the Lord, and attempt to lead them into my vision of what I think church should look like I fail to understand what church is all about and force them into a mold that isn’t theirs.  So what’s the alternative?  Is it pure individualism with no structure and vision as each person makes it up as they see it; NO. 

First of all, I think we all need to get over the big vision thing.  The Christian faith has survived for nearly two thousand years without a vision other than that of Christ.  I don’t mean to oversimplify history but too much energy is spent by congregations and youth ministries attempting to create a rallying point that defines what they’re all about; a business logo that defines their five year strategy or reason for existing.  This is a sad waste of time and energy because it doesn’t embody what church is all about; being the Body of Christ in a particular time and place.  Church is all about being Jesus and that allows for incredible diversity but it also allows for life because church is nothing more and nothing less than people in relationship with each other and God.  To define it as a slogan turns the relationships into saleable commodities that dehumanizes the community.

So what guides us into the future?  How do we know what direction to go in?  Participating in the Body of Christ in a particular time and place means there needs to be a continuous discernment of what the Holy Spirit is doing in a particular time and place.  This discernment leads to a manifestation of the death and resurrection of Christ in our bodies; church in being the Body of Christ is about uncovering the Resurrection Reality in our lives and our world.  Church engages the world around and within through listening to Scripture and one another while seeking to be Christ. 

So what emerges can’t be foretold beyond it being communion with God in Christ.  But the space between the here and there is always filled with the possibility of the impossible as the God Story fuses with our story to manifest the Resurrection Reality.  And that emergence is always transforming as it continuously engages the world.   

within a clique

Cliques seem to be a matter of fact part of life.  Many of us, myself included, have tried hard to tear down the walls between cliques believing that cliques are not part of God’s plan.  Usually this results in some form of inauthentic community where cheesy mix it up games are played to connect strangers with strangers.  I hated those games when I was in youth group and even considered not attending my youth group just to avoid them (I was a shy and sensitive character at that time of my life). 

What we fail to realize is that cliques provide a healthy means for youth to begin the process of socializing into main stream society.  In order to figure out who they are they must begin to disconnect from mom and dad’s vision of life and begin to explore their identity.  Cliques create relationships that enable youth to explore their identities and sense of meaning. 

Another reality of cliques that many of us in youth ministry don’t always realize is that they create status symbols; perhaps this is the reason we want to deconstruct them, to get rid of the status symbols.  However, for youth growing up in a world where status determines one’s meaning and self-worth crossing the lines between cliques can be devastating if the wrong people find out.  The journey of youth in it’s fragile and sensitive development of the being of the person can be quickly destroyed and broken if the social network that the youth has created is undone by being forced to cross the clique line.

Where does Jesus fit into all of this?  After all, Jesus talked and modeled loving anyone and everyone by crossing social and economic barriers that people had created.  So why shouldn’t we teach youth to do this?  We should, but we should do it authentically.  To expect youth to cross the clique line who are struggling with identity, self-worth, and who may not even have a very deep relationship with Christ is suicidal for that person(s).  Instead we need to think incarnationally within the clique. 

Every clique has it’s own codes that only those within the group really understand.  The use of language and interpretation of experiences can be quite specific to a clique; especially in terms of who is considered in and who is considered to be out.  Our first task is to create a relationship with the people in the clique that helps us to be build trust and learn who they are and what makes their relationships tick; what kind of music are they in to, who do they relate to and why. 

One of these relationships are established we can begin to tell the God story.  It’s the Holy Spirit operating through the God Story within the context of the clique that will bring true transformation.  And if and when the youth respond will they be able to cross the clique line and embody an authentic community that reflects Jesus Christ.  But, first we must start with the clique. 

 

Holy Week is at the center of the story

There is a lot of disconnect in today’s protestant and evangelical churches; disconnect from one another as churches, from the culture their surrounded by and from the biblical story itself.  It’s sad and interesting that many evangelicals have thrown the baby out with the bath water in their attempt to do everything possible to not look like they have an association with Roman Catholicism; the reality is that many of the traditions in the Roman Catholic church are biblical and come to us from the early church such as celebrating Holy Week. 

Holy Week presents to us, reveals, embodies the core of the Christian story; that Jesus Christ was crucified and rose from the grave.  Without this story there is no Christian faith because the story embodies the message and the reality of the event that has brought God’s plan of salvation into the world.  It’s not that we can’t celebrate the story of Christ’s Crucifixion and Resurrection at other times of the year; every Sunday is about the resurrection and the reason that we come together to worship the Lord.  But, to not celebrate Holy Week is to cut ourselves off from a tradition that grounds us in the reality of the Christ event.  To reject or diminish as unimportant the stories and hymns of Good Friday and Easter Sunday is to remove Christ from the center of our salvation narrative and to allow any story to replace it. 

The focus and foundation of how we approach relating to emerging generations both inside and outside of the community of faith is guided by the stories of Holy Week.  We see and hear in these stories the letting go, the surrendering, the giving up of power on the part of the Son of God who could have called upon a vast army of angels to defend himself and his followers.  We see the willingness of Jesus to face and confront powers of evil and death by giving up life and dieing.  The temple curtain separating the world from the Holy of Holies is split in two by the reality of the cross and Christ’s death allowing anybody to have access to God.  The resurrection of Christ on Easter not only gives us the hope of eternal life but reveals the conquering of death and the possibility of a whole and full life in becoming united with God the Father.

This influences how we minister in calling us to surrender our power, our methods, our strategies and plans for people; to be willing to give up what we think is best.  Instead we invite people into conversation where there is the possibility of relationship because of the love and hope we carry in our hearts through Jesus Christ.  We embody the death and resurrection of Christ in our bodies sanctifying the space we occupy so that those who engage in relationship with us encounter life and love.  

This message of love is vital to an emergent generation shaped by a multitude of powers and cynical towards the establishment and institutions.  It’s vital because Christ confronted the powers and institutions to deconstruct them and reveal a God who is love; a love that invites the broken, the outcasts, the nobodies, the marginal, the poor, the whosoever to come together and celebrate the life of Jesus in his overcoming death by his death to bring hope and new life. 

You’ve got a story for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I like to tell stories and I think they’re an integral part of relating to emerging generations.  The youth “complain” that I have a story for everything but they enjoy listening to the stories and it sparks their thinking and imagination. 

Stories have a way of capturing our imaginations and bringing our whole being, senses and all, into the reality that they embody.  It’s through stories that we remember the past while wrestling with our questions and thoughts about life.  We empathise with the various characters in a story because they embody our feelings or struggles in life and this is what makes stories entertaining. 

Should it come as a surprise that a majority of the Bible is story.  The Biblical story reveals God within our world and how we’ve responded to God.  It’s in the story that we encounter the glory and awesome love of God in Christ.  Our relationship with God is defined by an event, the death and resurrection of Christ, and events are communicated and embodied in story.  Without the story our reflection and theologizing about God would be abstract and disembodied because it would fail to encompass our lives. 

So I find it strange and frustrating that much of the evangelical church’s communication with youth is through abstract ideas.  We categorize our Bible studies and youth talks through abstract terms such as dating, sex, sin, etc.  Not that these topics are bad but this kind of organization of the information we’re attempting to pass on indicates a use of language that not only focuses on the youth knowing information but it puts God into terms that are cold.  We focus on Bible verses (that are reflections of the story) that state what happens if we sin and give statistics and information about what sin is and how it effects our lives.  This kind of language is important but shouldn’t be at the heart of our conversations with emerging generations. 

Emerging generations are shaped by visual media which means they’re shaped by story.  They think in terms of story.  How often have you heard a young person quote a movie line when pondering an issue or question.  The other day I invited our youth to share a movie scene that related to death before inviting them to share an experience of going to a funeral or having a loved one die.  I gave very little information about Heaven, Hell, death, etc. but focused on their stories and in so doing was able to reveal the story of Christ.  Emerging generations are inundated with information in this Internet age but information never stirs the emotions or fills the mind with wonder. 

It’s those scenes in the movies that capture our hearts and that we remember over and over again as they challenge our thinking and connect with our lives.  So why do evangelicals insist on giving information?  Why is it that anytime the church is on TV it’s all about a preacher lecturing with information (with some stories thrown in).  No wonder many people find televangelists inauthentic and boring; there’s no visual story. 

I propose that we discover a new way to embody the reality of Christ that is actually the way Jesus related to people.  We need to learn to be story tellers who don’t feel the need to explain their stories (many people feel that they have to give away the meaning of the story which kills it and is something Jesus only did at certain opportune times in teaching his disciples).  We need to let the stories speak for themselves as they engage the people we’re relating to and in so doing create the space for stories of faith and stories of life to collide and transform lives into stories that reveal the risen Christ.   

creating space

This week wasn’t the greatest with Reality Check (we have both a High school and Middle school group that meet to talk about God).  Conversation felt forced and contrived; failing to get to the heart of where the students were at.  With the Middle school students the problem was they were bouncing off the walls with restlessness and all too willing to talk; at the same time.  With the High school group the conversation didn’t seem to connect with the hearts of the students. 

My experience is an opportunity to reflect on our philosophy of ministry and how we’ve attempted to connect with the students.  Most of the youth are not actively engaged in church and have even described themselves as a group of atheists and agnostics with some hard core Christians who get together to talk about God.  I think this is an awesome description because it reflects the table being set in the middle of spiritual diversity allowing for different viewpoints to be shared, challenged, and reflected on, not for the sake of academics, but for life.  If humanity is unwilling to listen to difference in order to create unity then we are left with wars and the imposition of one group’s will upon the other.

Creating the space where different people, or in this case youth, come together to talk is not as simple as ordering pizza and asking some questions.  It requires discerning the hearts of the students, what’s important to them, and how do they see the world.  It also requires keeping the conversation within the boundaries of respect as youth, like adults, are willing to go on the attack when they feel threatened or that they’re not being heard. 

The real challenge, however, is to uncover the reality that these youth live in; to name it and reflect upon it.  There are masks, false identities, and layers that need to be dug through in order to get at what is real; the pain inside as well as the joy.  If we truly want to respect one another as human beings, to humanize one another, then we need to dig through what is false to get at what is real.  Once we reach the real then it’s possible to bring healing and create relationships that lead to community.  This healing comes through respecting the other through loving them that listens to them, prays for them, and hopes for the good for them. 

For the space between the different people to be truly authentic and lead to healing and community it must also reflect on the reality of Christ who is the source of life in having conquered death by his death.  Too often conversations reflect the real world but lack the hope of transformation, the possibility of the impossible, that humanity would have love, peace, justice and healing in being united to one another and God.  This reflection on Christ can only happen through stories, the stories that connect with where the students are at in life. 

My problem is wanting to force the relationship, take the youth to the next level, to transform them in the ways that I think are right and good.  This approach doesn’t work because it’s replacing the work of the Holy Spirit and love with will, my will, and this is not only dangerous but dehumanizing.  In order for conversation between youth or adults with different spiritualities to listen to each other and uncover the reality of the risen Christ among them we as youth leaders, ministers, followers of Christ, etc must trust God.  It’s not our responsibility to change people but, instead, to be vessels that reflect love of God in order to be agents of healing as the Holy Spirit works through us.  And this love asks us to relate and interact with the other regardless of whether or not they ever follow Christ or acknowledge God. 

constructing god

What is truth and who is God? 

I hear a lot of students talking about truth in subjective terms.  They consider truth and god to be whatever a person believes; how the individual understands life regardless of whether that understanding has any grounding in history, reason, or accepted interpretations of the Bible (or any religious text).  Truth is a construct of the human mind without any appeal to a transcendent being.  God is also, therefore, a construct in being what the person or group of people understand in their own imaginations and thinking about what or who god is. 

What I’m saying may be a bit of an overstatement and you can find youth and young adults or even older adults somewhere along a continuum that understands truth as nothing more than individual beliefs to people who still appeal to a universal, transcendent authority.  Either way, the world is changing and the way people think is changing.  People are influenced more by the fictional realities created in movies and TV than they are by institutions (i.e. church, school, government, etc.) as sources of truth. 

So what do we understand truth to be?  What are our sources of authority?  How does our understanding of the transcendent God influence our understanding of truth?  How is our understanding of who God is shaped and influenced by personal beliefs or other cultural sources of authority?  What do we consider to be “legitimate” sources of teaching on truth? 

We might easily answer the Bible for all of these questions but I would challenge all of us to consider how we read the Bible.  What lenses are we reading the Bible thru?  I come from a Christian tradition that “claims” to read the Bible thru the lenses of the early church and to apply the Scriptures to life in the same manner that the early church did.  However, my tradition often fails to realize that two thousand years of history separate us from the early church and our culture is so different from the early church that not only is it impossible to read the Scripture in the same manner of the early church but neither is it desirable.  The Bible, when inspired by the Holy Spirit, speaks to the contemporary world which is not the early church.  We might say yes this is true but how many of the things we cling to as “truth” are based on the premise as being a correct interpretation of Scripture by appealing to an authority outside of Scripture?

I’ve heard a number of sermons state that what Saul sees in 1 Samuel 28 when he asks a medium to bring Samuel’s spirit back from the grave to be a ghost or demon but not Samuel.  There is a theological belief that the dead can’t cross the line of death and speak to the living as the pagans believe.  However, nowhere in Scripture are we told that this is not Samuel and indeed this ghost gives a prophecy that comes true.  But, our lens of interpretation prohibits us from hearing the story in it’s fullness and so we’re in danger of “constructing” truth in order for it to fit our worldview.

Postmodern youth who critique our understanding of truth and god as being absolute and transcendent bring a valid point.  I appreciate hearing what they have to say to me, their challenges, and their questions because if truth and God are what they claim to be then no matter how much I attempt to defend or not defend them it will not change their reality.  So instead I listen to the youth and ask the question where have I constructed god in my own image and allow the Holy Spirit to (re)form me. 

This dosen’t mean that we shouldn’t challenge the postmodern critique of absolutes but maybe focusing on absolutes with youth creates a dichotomy of us versus them.  Instead of focusing on absolutes where the concern is who has the truth, or the power to define truth (it’s the golden rule principle, those who have the gold make the rules) we should focus on the God Story.  The story of God in the Bible and in telling the story invite this cynical, leery generation into a conversation that challenges their world and opens them to the possibility of the impossible; the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

reflecting on letting go

Somewhere down the road, across the street, next door, there is a mother and son, father and daughter, fighting over what they can’t let go.  They cling to what should be buried giving life to what should be dead and on goes their intertwined dependency on one another to get the attention they crave without ever finding hope or the peace their hearts desire. 

I was recently involved with some youth in their relationships with one another and parents that’s been an eye opener to the failure to communicate on the part of parents and teengers.  But, at the heart of the matter is forgiveness.  These families spend large sums of money in providing psychiatric care that addresses the issues but seems unable to bring wholeness and peace into the lives of these families.  Of course, we all know that you can’t help people if they not only don’t want to be helped but also are not committed to change.  It’s also true that all the counseling in the world may not get to the heart of the issue or bring the healing that is needed in a givin situation.   What is needed is forgiveness. 

Peter asks Jesus how many times he should forgive another person and Jesus says seventy times seven.  Forgiving somebody 490 times seems like a lot and it’s possible to run a tab to determine when one can stop forgiving.  But, is that the point of Jesus’ statement.  He tells the story of a king who is going to sell a servant and his family for the millions that servant owes; a hopeless and despairing situation.  There’s no way this servant is going to be able to dig themselves out of this hole.  It’s an impossibility that anything good can come of this other than to start over again once the family is destroyed; if start over can even happen after being sold.  So the servant pleads for the life of the family and the king relents, not only agreeing to not to sell them off but to forgive this outrageous debt; the impossibility has happened.

The servant goes out on the street and sees another servant who owes him thousands and he beats the person and has them tortured, not just imprisoned, but tortured till the money is paid.  I never understood ancient judicial systems because a person is never going to pay off their debt if they’re being tortured or are imprisoned unless some rich relative coughs up the money.  The king hears about this forgiven servants lack of understanding of the phrase do unto others as you would have them do unto you and has the servant thrown into prison. 

What is forgiveness?  Young people plaster messages and pictures all over Myspace and other sites that attack, criticize, condemn, and demean those they’ve had a falling out with.  The words put into shape the separation, anger, pain and hate that two or more individuals have for one another.  Placing them into a written context such as Myspace gives a permanence to the offense between the people involved making it difficult to forgive because the offense can be revisited as often as one visits the correct spot on the web page. 

Forgiveness entails a letting go, change of heart, complete transformation, turning in the opposite direction.  The king forgave the servant millions wiping away debt that was impossible to pay off.  There was a complete letting go while this person kept thier position, their meaning in life as a member in the king’s court.  The retribution, punishment, and what was rightly the king’s, all that money, were wiped away. 

Forgiveness in our society operates more on the level of how the forgiven servant treated the servant who owed them thousands.  Youth, and I believe adults too because I see this in their parents, have a difficult time letting go.  Not only are the offenses they experience in relationships plastered all over the web but they lack the capacity to find healing for the wounds they receive.  Their being has been shaped and molded by the offenses and pain they walk in so they resort to attacking the other, their protagonist, and condemn them as a means to justice.  Youth today believe there is no justice.

Can there be justice without forgiveness?  Without forgiveness there is only vengeance, chaos, destruction, and pain.  To forgive requires the ability to take a risk and say my heart is letting go of this offense regardless of the offender’s response.  Once this change happens there is capacity for justice in which the two people sit together and talk.  But, to let go, that’s the dilemma, it means the person has to give up their claim, their right, their anger and acknowledge the other person as a human being.  It’s expecting the impossible from humanity but it’s only in the impossible where real love and relationships can happen. 

no posts this week

Hi everyone, our house has been battling the bug that’s been going around and now it has brought me down too.  Next week I hope to be back with some new thoughts.  Thanks for reading the posts. 

The Space Between: Conversations that transform

What is the purpose, the goal, for our conversations with one another, with youth, with the stranger?  Do we seek to have a conversation with them in the hope that there will be an opportunity to present our viewpoint and win them to our side (i.e. get them into our church or our politics).  Or do we have a conversation with the other with an openness to the possibility of who the other is without imposing ourselves upon them; discovering their personhood and the possibility of what their person can become in a relationship with the God who is love? 

I’ve been in many conversations with youth where I’m bombarded with all kinds of issues and problems that I want to fix; say the right words to heal them.  I’ve been other conversations with youth and young adults where I attempt to steer the conversation in a direction that relates to my pre-existing, hidden agenda that I supposedly received from the Lord.  In either case I’m forcing these young people into a predefined context of my own creation that doesn’t allow the work of the Holy Spirit to transform them into the people God is calling them to be.  Conversation with the other is truly transformative if it’s open to the possibilities that can emerge from what is happening in the heart of the other person and the work of the Holy Spirit.  But, this is only possible if we’re willing to let go of our agendas and be open to the Holy Spirit.

I once invited a group of young men to a time of prayer that was based on a more liturgical model.  We’d light a candle and some incense and read some prayers together and then have a time of confession.  Most of them weren’t into church but they readily came to this prayer time.  Unfortunately, I was being driven by a desire to create a liturgy that had all the elements of a church service in it so I constantly changed things.  I failed to miss what the Holy Spirit was doing in the hearts of these youth and what they needed for their healing and relationship with Christ.  I was more concerned about having a “correct” liturgy that accomplished various “spiritual” tasks than I was in creating a journey that connected with where they were at in life and was appropriate for them at the time.  The group eventually fell apart. 

Too often we impose models upon a local community or group of youth that’s been done somewhere else.  It might be a great model for another location but it’s horrible for our location because the people are different, their stories are different, their experiences are different and so the model forces them into a box instead of allowing them to explore their relationship with God.  Just because a church has a mega youth group with a mega program and budget doesn’t mean it’s the right thing for another church. 

The space between a person that embodies the reality of the death and resurrection of Christ and the other is a space of contextualization and transformation.  We enter into relationship with the other out of love and learn to know who they are and how they see the world.  In this process of entering into the world of the other we carry Christ in our hearts who shapes and forms the conversations that we have.  But, these conversations seek to uncover the reality of Christ in the other creating possibilities for relationships.  As the faith, the love of God, is embodied in the conversation of the giver the receiver internalizes this reality and (re)forms into an authentic expression of faith within their context. 

So the next time your engaging a group fo youth whether they’ve been in church all their lives or don’t know who Jesus is remember that your task, calling and goal is not to impose your ways upon them.  Instead, we are all called to embody and live out an authentic relationship with the God who is love by entering into a relationship with the other that recieves them as they are while being open to the space between us and them to have a conversation.