Emergent Brethren

Hello hello hello… Last week for the first time in a year and a half, I was sick on Sunday. Not being with Missio Dei that night was one of the most uncomfortable experiences that I’ve had in recent memory. I was sure it would have been foolish for me to try to lead that night; but unsure whether I had the right not to be there. One of the members wrote after the meeting saying that things went well, I was really happy to hear it. 

Building a church is, or better said should be, more about the people than the pastor. Now I know that there are those that prefer to have everything under their control. The truth be told, I have a hard time letting go of some stuff myself; for example, I will probably will always want to teach, and think I lead meetings better than most. But I think a better way to run things, is to let people find what they do best, and run with it.

That said my dual employment is proving more difficult than I had hoped. I am in Hollywood 55+ hours a week, and can’t effectively cross all the T’s and dot all the I’s; study, rehearse, teach, and connect with the community like I could when I was in Pomona all day. This experience has however really helped me understand how much a church asks of people when we ask full-time workers to volunteer. It’s why I think that many large churches use mostly paid staff. In the postmodern economy, people just don’t have much time to help out volunteering. The American expression of finance and labor, combined with Californian commuting demands, produces a social toll on the individual that severely limits what we can expect out of our members. Worship shouldn’t be a chore, it should be a respite.

And yet “a respite” can also be thought of as a vacation. Vacations can be relaxing, or exciting; it really depends on what you prefer. Now my wife and I enjoy vacationing in the city. Cities are the center of the human experience. They are full of life and culture, new births, and expanding boundaries. In fact, even though God’s creation begins as a garden, in the Book of Revelation, we see it’s completed as a city. I work in a city now, and everyday I see hard working people; in the office, on the streets, on telephones and in taxis. Black people and brown people, shades of Asian beige, and European pinks,   everyone up, out, and on the move. A million stories overlapping and interconnected by a common humanity. It’s exciting to be honest. Just the kind of place I imagine Jesus would be living.  

That certainly has put an exclamation point onto my frustration with folks with no passion for growth or vision for the future. The Christian life can be a sleepy experience if you’re not careful; short slow days that accomplish little except conversation. I’m convinced that, that can’t be the best way to be to live for God. The Christian life should be vital, dynamic, exciting and intense. If that’s not the way you’re living, let me kindly suggest, you’re missing a big part of the resurrection story. What have you done with what God has given you? Are you asleep or are you alive… either way, the truth is, things like this aren’t secrets. God knows, the World knows, and your heart knows. Therefore the Apostle says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine, make day dawn upon you, and give you light. ” And likely, a lot of smiles, and a little excitement.

Hello hello hello… Last week for the first time in a year and a half, I was sick on Sunday. Not being with Missio Dei that night was one of the most uncomfortable experiences that I’ve had in recent memory. I was sure it would have been foolish for me to try to lead that Sunday; but unsure whether I had the right not to be there. One of the members wrote after the meeting saying that things went well, I was really happy to hear it.

Building a church is, or better said should be, more about the people than the pastor. Now I know that there are those that prefer to have everything under their control. The truth be told, I have a hard time letting go of some stuff myself; for example, I will probably will always want to teach, and think I lead meetings better than most. But I’m certain that a better way to run things is to let people find what they do best, and run with it.

That said my dual employment is proving more difficult than I had hoped. I am in Hollywood 55+ hours a week, and can’t effectively cross all the T’s and dot all the I’s; study, rehearse, teach, and connect with the community like I could when I was in Pomona all day. This experience has however really helped me understand how much a church asks of people when we ask full-time workers to volunteer. It’s why I think that many large churches use mostly paid staff. In the postmodern economy, people just don’t have much time to help out volunteering. The American expression of finance and labor, combined with Californian commuting demands, produces a social toll on the individual that severely limits what we can expect out of our members. Worship shouldn’t be a chore, it should be a respite.

And yet “a respite” can also be thought of as a vacation; and vacations can be relaxing, or exciting, it really depends on what you prefer. Now my wife and I enjoy vacationing in the city. Cities are the center of human evolution. They are full of life and culture, new births, and expanding boundaries. In fact, even though God’s creation begins as a garden, in the End we see the creation perfected as a city. I work in a city now, and everyday I see hard working people; in the office, on the streets, on telephones and in taxis. Black people and brown people, shades of Asian beige and European pinks. Everyone up, out, and on the move… everywhere and all the time. A million different stories overlapping, and all of us connected by our common humanity. It’s exciting to be honest. Just the kind of place that I imagine Jesus would be living.

That certainly has put an exclamation point onto my frustration with folks with no passion for growth or vision for the future. The Christian ministry can be a sleepy experience if you’re not careful; short slow days that accomplish little except for self indulgent conversation. I’m convinced that, that can’t be the best way to live for God. The Christian life should be vital, dynamic, exciting and intense. If that’s not the way you’re living, let me kindly suggest, you’re missing a big part of the resurrection story. What have you done with what God has given you? Are you asleep or are you alive… either way, the truth is, things like this aren’t secrets. God knows, the World knows, and your heart knows. Therefore the Apostle says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine, make day dawn upon you, and give you light. ” And likely, a lot of smiles, and a little excitement.

I was born and raised an orphan
In a land that once was free
In a land that poured it’s love out on the moon
I grew up in the shadows
Of your silos filled with grain
But you never helped to fill my empty spoon

When I was ten you murdered law
With courtroom politics
And learnt to make a lie sound just like truth
But I know you better now
And i don’t fall for all your tricks
And you’ve lost the one advantage of my youth

You kill a black man at midnight
Just for talking to your daughter
Then you make his wife your mistress
And you leave her without water
And the sheet you wear upon your face

Is the sheet your children sleep on
And every meal you say a prayer
You don’t believe but still you keep on
And your money says ‘In God We Trust’
But it’s against the law to pray in school

You say we beat the Russians to the moon
And I say you starved your children to do it
You are far across the ocean
In a war that’s not your own
And whilst you’re winning theirs
You’re gonna lose the one at home

Do you really think the only way
To bring about the peace
Is to sacrifice your children
And kill all your enemies

The politicians all make speeches
While the news men all take note
And they exaggerate the issues
As they shove it down our throats

Is it really up to them
Whether this country sinks or floats
And I wonder who would lead us
If none of us would vote

Well my phone is tapped and my lips are chapped
From whispering through the fence
You know every move I make
Or is that just coincidence

Well you try to make my way of life
A little less like jail
If I promise to make tapes and slides
And send them through the mail

And your money says ‘In God We Trust ‘
But it’s against the law to pray in school
You say we beat the Russians to the moon
And I say you starved your children to do it

You say ‘all men are equal, all men are brothers
Then why are the rich more equal than others
Don’t ask me for the answer I’ve only got one
That a man leaves his darkness when he follows the Son

Larry Norman, the artist that wrote this song, passed away on Feb. 24, this year. Even though the lyrics above sound as if they were written to reflect the way of the world in 2008, Larry actually wrote this in 1972. Larry was a poet, a preacher and a musician… which is to say that Larry was a prophet in the truest sense of the word. As much an activist as he was a pacifist, he had the courage to walk the talk. That kind of authenticity is contagious. People can tell the difference between a ‘Christian’ and a Christlike’.Sadly, genuinely Christ-like people are so rare that they tend to stand out pretty quickly.

I bring this up because it begs a big question. How much of what we do in our lives or in our churches is best limited to Christian audiences? When I first became a Christian, inviting people into a relationship with Jesus was easy. Like the woman at the well, I encouraged everyone I met to meet this man, “who told me everything I ever did”. Now though it’s much harder, and I know the reason. When I talk to people about God, I rarely invite them into a relationship with Jesus; instead I invite them to church. And because I know I worship in a church that has a history and a continuity of racism, sexism, homophobia, hyper-capitalistic selfishness, and warmongering, it’s pretty embarrassing to invite people in.

Just in case you haven’t figured it out, I’m talking about the WHOLE church of Christ on earth, not just my little Pomona Brethren.

And so I’ve decided to take a stand. Where there is injustice I will speak out, where I see inequality, I’ll step in. Those willing to publicly utter racist comments, sexist comments, ageist comments, or condemn gays and lesbians, within shouting distance of my two ears, will have a mouthful to listen to before I am finished.

I am no longer a pacifist, I am an activist. God gave me elbows for a reason, it’s time they were put to good and permanent use.

The folks at Missio Dei are currently studying the Gospel of John; we’re in chapter 1. We last studied Matthew’s version of the Sermon of the Mount. In three months, we covered three chapters. If the trend holds, we will be in John for somewhere into 2009. In fact, although it’s been three weeks since we began studying John 1, we can’t seem to get much past the prologue.

Of the Gospels, John’s is my favorite. Written last, it is far the most introspective and creative. Whereas the other three Evangelists, seem to rely on each other and whoever the ‘Q’ source was, John takes another tact entirely. Instead a writing a biography of Jesus, John wrote a theology of Christ. He doesn’t trace Jesus’ life back to his baptism (like Mark), or back to his toddler years (like Luke) or back to his infancy (like Matthew), he tracks back before the creation of the Universe, into the very origin of God. By so doing he begins to reinterpret the meta-narrative by which existence itself is understood… by either Greeks or Jews.

In the year that I’ve ministered with the Pomona Fellowship, I have gone through quite a bit of evolution in my beliefs, although mostly with regard to ecclesiology. As a result, I have recaptured a passion for ministry that I haven’t had since my first years in seminary. But that passion has also transformed me into a bit of a throwback to the earliest Brethren. That first group of believers was economically communal, intentionally peaceful, and socially, egalitarian. They had no paid ministers, no cathedrals, no choirs or complicated liturgy. By these distinctions, they created ‘another way’ of Christian community, modeled not on the institutional church of their day, but instead on the church of New Testament.

What I have written below is part of what I have come to believe. It is not intended as a slight against my friends and colleagues in full-time ministry. Rather, please read what follows as a primer on what I think the future holds for the generations emerging in the larger church of Jesus Christ. Of course, as always, this is only one man’s opinion. Search your hearts, search the scriptures, and decide for yourselves if the ideas below comport with the teachings of New Testament.

A trend has been sweeping through The Church of the Brethren for over 100 years. It’s as if someone abducted nearly every church leader and reprogrammed their minds with the logic that argues, “If you have a deep serious relationship to Jesus Christ, you should become a full time pastor or missionary.” It’s so automatic that it’s scary. Against the backdrop of our declining churches and the fewer and fewer folk who file in every Sunday, anyone whose spiritual health rises above the level of comatose is instantly encouraged to pursue vocational ministry.

It doesn’t seem to matter that God may have strategically placed them within their own unique culture and community, with a career (potential or progressing) that could amply provide for their family, and put them in touch with people who don’t know Christ. No one tells them about Paul’s clear instruction that the new birth should not affect a person’s current vocation.

He says it three times, so how do we miss this?

Each of you should continue to live in whatever situation the Lord has placed you, and remain as you were when God first called you. This is my rule for all the churches. For instance, a man who was circumcised before he became a believer should not try to reverse it. And the man who was uncircumcised when he became a believer should not be circumcised now. For it makes no difference whether or not a man has been circumcised. The important thing is to keep God’s commandments. Yes, each of you should remain as you were when God called you. Are you a slave? Don’t let that worry you—but if you get a chance to be free, take it. And remember, if you were a slave when the Lord called you, you are now free in the Lord. And if you were free when the Lord called you, you are now a slave of Christ. God paid a high price for you, so don’t be enslaved by the world. Each of you, dear brothers and sisters, should remain as you were when God first called you. (1 Corinthians 7:17-24, NLT)

But we know our recent traditions better than the ancient Scripture; so the world is drained of our brightest most energetic leaders, and the secular workplace ends up missing those truly gifted to be examples of The Faith.

I’m convinced that we have such an artificial system of “church” that most of us can’t even process Paul’s logic. We have created a mythical category of Christian service known as “full-time ministry” supported by an un-biblical clergy/laity division within the body of Christ.

In 1 Corinthians Paul catalogs the leadership roles of the church. There he lists apostle, prophet, evangelist, and teacher as essential for a healthy Christian community. But because they’re paid a full-time salary, most parishioners expect a full-time pastor to have all these gifts. Unfortunately, none of them do, and so our churches are robbed of the spiritual leadership they need and deserve.

I’m not suggesting that we ‘muzzle the ox’, people don’t value what they don’t pay for, and theological education is expensive. But a prophet is not a prophet if he is beholden to those that pay him. Courageous honesty is just too easily corrupted when you’re worried about your mortgage or whether or not you can afford to retire. Leaders like that neither make waves nor disciples.

Freedom to tell the truth is the key to leader-like, leadership. Absent that, everything that matters will be absent; no apostles, no prophets, no evangelists, no teachers; just sad, scared, scrambling ministers all too aware of their own limitations. What we need is a revolution of thought. A new paradigm that opens the pulpit to a multiplicity of voices, and frees our ministers to live as a citizen missionaries.