I Get It and I Want In...

A few nights ago, we were eating dinner with friends, and the subject of church membership came up.  It wasn't a lengthy discussion, but it did prompt me to begin thinking about some things - namely membership in the Church, not so much in the church.  I grew up in a Southern Baptist tradition and the steps to becoming a member of a baptist church were very clear - admit you are a sinner, believe Jesus died for you, change your behavior, and dedicate your life to the church.  At least that is how I remember it.

I am thinking through this same thing today.  I just finished a chapter in The Secret Message of Jesus called Getting It, Getting In.  It's uncanny how Father works all things together.  My questions and my thoughts right now are less centered on what it means to join our "little c" church and what it means for my neighbors or my coworkers to join the "big C" Church that is the family of Jesus.  This is partly because the churches that I grew up in treated the two as the same.  Joining the Church was joining their church and joining their church was joining the Church.  

I realize that the issue of reference here is not as simple as I am making it out to be.  Or is it?  If we take a look at the teachings of the New Testament, is there a question about joining the movement of Jesus for the average person who heard his message, believed what he said and committed to it?  Right now, I am asking questions, so any of your thoughts or opinions might just be helpful in drawing my own personal conclusions.  Maybe our dialogue will help clear up some of the fuzziness for me - I don't want to assume that you have the same fuzziness.

Have a great day, and may you know that God is a personal God - He is involved in and cares about your daily life.

A New Week...and I'm Glad

Well, last week was a long week in some ways and very short in others.  It was one of those weeks that it is really hard to pause and take a moment to write something meaningful.  Most of my thoughts last week centered around two things.  First, a woman I work with has a daughter that doesn't live with her and a couple of weeks ago she attempted suicide.  Last week, she took some drugs at school that could have done the same thing.  It was a hard week at work for her and I caught myself engaging in her situation more than at other times.  

Second, early voting.  The stories of 2000 people per hour voting and then me maybe standing in one of those long lines...do I or don't I?  I didn't.  I didn't and don't want to write about the election again either.

That brings me to today - a Monday where I have been posting some of the funny videos I have found lately.  However, today I am energized by something that I want to share with you.  Yesterday morning, we went to "church."  It was not church the way most of you did church or most of you may think about church.  In the past couple of months, we have done "church" at the YMCA, in Galveston homes wrecked by Ike, and in Dickinson backyards removing trees.  Yesterday, we were the Church at the Clear Lake Lanes.  Four families and their kids met at the bowling alley, showed off some incredibly humbling bowling ability and shared some rich conversations.  We had long-timers and newcomers.  After we played together, we went to a new burger joint called Mooyah and broke bread together.  All together it was one of the most fun experiences of being the Church that I have had.  Jase and Ashley, I'm glad you made it.  Craig and Andrea, thank you for not rubbing in the Baylor loss to your huskers, and Renee and Nicholas...you always make me laugh.  My family had a place to belong and a place to play yesterday.

Some may say that we are just playing and not doing anything "significant," but I would argue that in the very act of "just playing" we just might be doing something very significant.  You see all of us that were at that bowling alley today have very busy lives and are pushing ourselves to the limits.  By taking a morning to relax and go have fun together, we just might be offering one of the most significant things we can to each other - the opportunity to exhale.

A man named Lyle Schaller, who has studied churches for years, said at the turn of the century, "The biggest challenge for the church at the opening of the 21st century is to develop a solution to the discontinuity and fragmentation of the American lifestyle."  Our lives as families are spent trying to go in all the necessary directions all the time.  In most cases church just becomes one more thing that pulls at us.  At the Springs, we want to be part of the solution here.  We could go ahead and program out your spiritual life too and then call you lax for not doing everything we tell you that you should, but that's not our M.O..  We want to help you be the church where you live, work and play.  We want to help people bring their whole lives under the alignment of a relationship with Jesus.  It's not compartmentalized...and it's definitely not wrapped up in our programmed activities.  I am so glad that my new friends came bowling with us because I would have not been able to have the same conversations at the YMCA with them.  We did not discuss the details of premillenialism or dispensationalism, but we did talk about our real lives.  And we'll be together again next week, too...if not sooner!

Chapter 5 :: Moving Violations

"As I once heard, 'Doing church differently is like rearranging chairs on the Titanic.' We must realize that slight tweaks, new music, creative lighting, wearing hula shirts, shorts and flip-flops won't make doing church more attractive. Church must not be the goal of the gospel anymore. Church should not be the focus of our efforts or the banner we hold up to explain what we are all about. Church should be what ends up happening as a natural response to people wanting to follow us, be with us and be like us as we are following the way of Christ." (p30)

This is the passage that resonated most with me in this chapter. How many times have we looked at our "gospel presentations" and found only an invitation to attend a church. One of the large churches in our country that I have learned a ton from even used it as a strategy - Invite them to a service and we'll take care of the rest! No, no, no! I am not an advocate for cold-sell evangelism strategies, but I do believe that when people look at our lives - personally and corporately - they should see an accurate reflection of Jesus. The way they see that in us is if we invite them to something bigger, something more substantive, something more engaging than a "worship service."

The focus should not be about the show. Cameron and I sat at the Chick today discussing our "Sunday services" and especially this weekend, and our desire is for the gatherings on Sundays to be a result of something more, not an end in themselves. Both can be good and both are needed, but the church has been too preoccupied with themselves on Sunday mornings for too long. I am weary of come-and-see ministries because the "show" is not what is attractive to the people we hope to meet and introduce to Jesus. What appears to be attractive now is the life lived the way Jesus would live - people actually taking seriously the living out of the Christ-life in every place, with everything, every day!

Let's talk now...

Chapter 3 :: Tremors

As I thought through the five tension points, the one that garnered the most emotion from me was #4 - the tension that comes from seeing the structure of the church falling, and realizing that everything the church stood for might go down too.  When I first read this, I thought he was being a little extremist, but I kept reading. The top paragraph on page 19 is me!  I am what Halter would call a "Galilee Christian" and in many ways this is messing with everything I've grown up with, while in other ways it's bringing clarity like never before.

Pete, your comment yesterday was dead on.  I very much believe that we ought to be more about knowing Jesus than knowing about him.  Sometimes I read a book and think, "Wow, our hearts connected," meaning that what I am passionate about, I found expression in the writings of so-and-so author.  I want that to be true of me and Jesus also.  I want my "heart" to connect to his.

I really do believe that if we start with the life of Jesus and let that impact how we live, then our expression of how we do church will not only make more sense to us, but will actually be impacting our communities.  The ground underneath my ecclesial feet is shaking and it can be nerve racking, but isn't that how the disciples lived with Jesus for 3 years?

Starving Jesus

I just finished reading a book by the guys who run XXXchurch.com, a ministry addressing topics most would rather not talk about.  The title of the book is "Starving Jesus: Off the Pew, Into the World."  This book was an interesting read for me.  I spread it out over about 45 days, so bits and pieces caught me.  A couple of things that are of note in this read.

1. It's easy for us as Christians to get caught up in the weekly routines of going to church and forget to actually be the church.
2. The call of God on our lives is to go and do, not sit and listen.  I'm not just referring to church either.  It's easier for me to sit and listen to a podcast or read a book than it is to go and actually get my hands dirty and do something.  I'm tired of doing nothing.

The book is a bit irreverent and I liked that.  J.R. and Craig tag-team the writing, and I really appreciated both of their perspectives.  The book has great inserts of Scripture - almost as section headings within the chapters.  The book moved me.  It has moved me to to take action and not be content sitting still and starving Jesus any longer.  My calling as a Christ-follower is no longer ignorable.  

My love must move me to act.  My love must move me to give.  My love must move me to pray.

I know I'm not alone in this journey and I hope that you, too, have had your moment where you have said, "Enough is enough.  I'm created for more than what I'm currently experiencing."  Jesus wants to meet you and me right where we are and when he does, we can't help but be changed.

What Do You Think?

In a recent interview with The Wittenberg Door, Rob Bell was asked how his church started (Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, MI). His response follows:

"Seven years ago, a group of friends were just dreaming of something better. I guess the natural evolution of each generation is to explore what it means. How to live the way of Jesus here and now. So we started and it now feels like fifty years packed into seven. Mars Hill is an old mall. Our "architect"—I say that as a joke—says everything about the church should scream "Welcome to our church service! Now get the hell out of here." We say, "This isn't the church, this is a church service. It's just an hour where we have some teaching, some singing and you'll hear about things in the community." If there are 43 "one anothers" in the New Testament—serve one another, carry one another's burden's, confess to one another—you can only do a couple of those in a church service. Until you have a community that you are journeying with, please don't say you are a part of this church. You just come to a gathering. We are very intentional about that. The question is, "Who do you call when your brother ODs on cocaine? If your mom is in the hospital, who comes and sits in the waiting room with you? When you cannot pay your rent, who do you go to and say please help me out?" That's your church."

How does his response strike you? I'd really like to get some of your thoughts regarding this one, so fire away! I will respond to your thoughts!