Today, however, was not one of those times. Today was clear as a bell.

I took just returned from taking the car in for a quick oil change.  Plenty to do today, so I wanted to get in and out quick.  However, as I walked in, there was an older lady in front of me who was distraught over learning that a major part on her car had gone bad and that the car was going to be virtually undriveable unless she got it fixed.  This wasn’t just a problem of convenience for her, though it was that.  Apparently, she shares this car w/ her daughter who relies on it to get to work.  More than convenience, it seemed that replacing this part was going to be a huge financial hurdle.  As the store manager walked back out to the shop so that she could call her husband on the store phone, I heard her describe how they would need to post-date a check and check with their landlord about either being late or needing to fall short on their monthly payment. In short, this unexpected repair was a major challenge on a couple different fronts and she was obviously beside herself with frustration and worry.

Enter prompting.

As I sat in the tiny waiting area and pretended not to listen, I felt like God was prompting me to make a major contribution toward this lady’s repair costs.  I can say with relative certainty that this was God, because believe me, I am at no loss for the many different things that we could be doing with our finances  Then the internal dialogue kicked in.  You can probably imagine it.  Is this really God’s voice?  How much should I contribute?  How would I even explain myself?  Should that money go somewhere else?  Does it need to be accompanied by some sort of explanation?  You get the point.  In the end, however, I decided it was God’s voice, settled on an amount, and once the lady had decided to leave the car there and accept a ride home from one of the shop workers, I simply asked the store manager to apply a portion of her repair cost to my bill.  He was stunned, but happy to do so.

20 minutes later as I retuned home, still wondering if I had heard and responded faithfully, I received an email from my wife Amy.  She was forwarding another email that she had just received (no kidding – at pretty much exactly the same time I was settling up at the auto shop!) from our new childcare giver, Jean.  Here is Jean’s email…

Hello Amy,

Hope you are well today, and that Aubrianna is doing well.

Will you consider yesterday and next Mondays child care as a gift from me as part of my stewardship?

This means that I do not want to be paid for either days.

I am happy to be partnering with you for The Kingdom.

Have a blessed day, Jean

Jean’s gift to us was nearly an exact match to the contribution I felt like God had prompted me to make to the lady in need at the auto shop!

Wish I could say that listening and responding to God’s little promptings was always that clear cut, but the truth is that that’s not the case.  It’s a cool story for sure, but at the heart of it is something more profund – the realization of what we just might be missing out on if we fail to attempt to pay attention to what God might be saying at all.

No related posts.

The first ones were by Mike Breen – about the relationship b/t discipleship and the missional movement.  You can check out his thoughts in Part 1 and Part 2.  My reflection on these posts came out here.

The other post was by Ed Stetzer – a return to the whole “can mega churches be missional” debate. He still says they can, I still say they can’t.  But, as I’ve reflected more on this, here are the things that have become clearer to me, what I’ll call the “mega-problems” of mega-churches.

I think it needs to be acknowledged that the problem isn’t size in and of itself. Who would possibly be against a huge church of fully devoted follower of Jesus on mission with God?! Not this guy. But here’s the thing, those of us who have icky feelings in our stomachs about mega-chuches do so because they tend to be built on characteristics and practices that actually work against this vision.  Here’s a few that came to mind…

1) Consumer-Oriented Structures

Very often mega-churches are mega because they emphasize meeting the needs, or at least captivating the interest of religious consumers of all stripes.  This will strike many of us as unfortunate right off the bat, but to take it a step further, I would highlight the even greater harm that is done when church leaders come right out and acknowledge that they do this (even if they prefer different language), but believe it to be in the service of the Gospel.  Here, we have baptized a market-driven strategy that treats people like objects and leads them to believe that they, rather that God, are what is of ultimate significance.

2) Celebrity-Driven Culture

Mega-churches tend to be personality driven.  There is generally one (almost always male) leader who leads as if they were a CEO of an organization rather than as a humble servant.  These are people who reflect our culture’s desire and drive for upward mobility while leading a community whose character is to be predicated on its downward mobility – becoming less and less so that Jesus might become more and more.  This aspect of mega-church culture is perpetuated as we get lulled into believing the cultural lie that a bigger platform is always a good thing for the kingdom.  Sadly, in baptizing this mentality, we have failed to remember that we follow Jesus, who refused exactly this temptation.

3) Sunday-Cenricity

Mega-churches tend to put the vast majority of their time, attention, and resources into weekend services.  Nothing wrong with gathering.  Nothing wrong with gathering with hundreds, even thousands of other believers.  Very much something wrong (from a missional perspective) with these gatherings becoming the driving point of our ecclesiology and the aspect of community life that eats up huge amounts of resources.  It doesn’t matter how compellingly you preach or teach on “being missional;” so long as that message is coming through the medium of a context that engenders passive involvement, it is rendered useless.

4) Inward-Focused Financial Structures

Related to the point above, mega-churches tend to create financial structures that are designed to “keep the machine running,” thereby inhibiting a community’s ability to leverage financial resources that will benefit others – who may or may not ever be part of your church community.  Mega-churches require mega-staffs, mega-facilities, and mega-ministry budgets.  Once you have these things in place and people’s livelihoods become contingent on church growth, moving in a truly “missional direction,” becomes all but impossible.  If it does come, it will be at tremendous cost.

5) Seating over Sending

All of this works itself together to result in an ecclesiology that is more disposed to a focus on seating over sending.  And when I say sending, I mean sending – raising people up as mature disciples and skilled Kingdom leaders and releasing them… really releasing them.  Most of the “sending” that mega-churches do is about continuing to build their own little empire – multiple locations, video venues, franchises, etc.

I fully recognize that you can embody all of these characteristics and not be, by definition, a mega-church.  This is precisely my point – it’s not really about size, it’s about the ecclesial characteristics and underlying theology that creates and drives this sort of church system. So when I say mega-churches can’t be missional, what I really mean is you can’t continue to be a sunday-centric, celebrity-driven church that engenders a consumeristic attitude toward Christian faith by creating inward focused financial structures and building your own personal church-brand empire.  Continuing to be this sort of church while using missional language and encouraging people to serve others more does not a missional church make!

Am I off here?  Where’s the pushback?  What else would you add to this list?

Related posts:

1. Being Truly Missional
2. Transitioning Traditional Churches into Missional Ones
3. The Missiological Future of Theological Education – Training Kingdom Citizens

I received a letter in the mail that said on account of the three claims that I have reported in the last three years, they were no longer willing to insure me.  I looked over the letter and thought about each accident.  As I did, I couldn’t help but feel depersonalized and taken advantage of and I began to reflect on how prone we often are to do this very same thing to others.  Here’s what I mean…

Accident #1, The Fence

The first accident happened while I lived in Memphis.  I was driving down a busy 2 lane road and a car, probably 4-5 cars in front of me, slammed on their brakes and turned left w/o signaling, cutting off traffic that was coming the other way.  The cars in front of me all braked rapidly as did I, but as I looked in my rear-view mirror, a car was barreling down so I decided to spin the wheel to the right where there was noting but grass and a fence in order to get out of the way.  Good thing I did, because the car absolutely would have slammed into me.  The result was a good bit of damage to the right front end of my car and a few broken slats in a fence.

Accident #2, Moving

The 2nd accident came just over a year later and happened while we were moving into our new apartment.  We had rented a U-Haul truck to move all our stuff, so I was driving that.  At one point I had to back the huge truck down a narrow alley and out onto a street.  Once I actually made it to the street I had a friend guiding me as I couldn’t really see behind me or keep an eye on traffic.  I could not possibly have been moving any slower, but as I was backing up to his direction, I heard a crunch.  The rear bumper of the truck had done some damage to the bumper of a parked car.

Accident #3, The Deer

The third accident took place, again, almost exactly a year later.  Amy and I were driving home to Ohio on the Turnpike.  We were in the right lane of a two lane portion of the Turnpike heading east.  All of a sudden, a woman in an SUV pulled up to our left and began honking her horn and waving her hands.  Obviously this took our attention off of the road for a moment and on to her.  As soon as we glanced back, we saw a couple deer on the side of the road very near our lane.  Since this lady was directly beside us, there was no room for us to move over to the left and with another car directly behind us, slamming on our brakes didn’t seem like the best idea either.  For some reason, one of the deer began running beside us and then jumped in front so that we gave it a good butt bounce.  Off the deer went, but we lost a headlight and had some minor paint damage to the bumper.

In the event that you trust my recounting of these accidents, I hope you’ll agree that it would be hard to make a case for my being a bad or negligent driver.  Instead, upon closer examination, it becomes apparent that my ill state (the one who had to file a claim) actually came about by external factors (bad driver in accident 1, bad navigator in accident 2, and dumb deer in accident 3).

My point in all this isn’t exactly to defend myself, but to point out how easy it is to depersonalize and take advantage of people when we aren’t willing to step into the details of peoples lives and circumstances.

We do this all the time.  We depersonalize people and take advantage of them in making judgments and estimations based on appearances w/o being willing to step into the minutia of their lives, their circumstances and stories.   Doing so is not only a source of great injustice, but it short circuits the fundamental work of the gospel.

Like insurance companies such as State Farm, it is so very tempting to just objectify people for our own purposes.  For insurance companies, getting personal and refusing to take advantage of a flawed system would adversely effect their bottom line, so they depersonalize and take advantage of people.  For us, getting personal and refusing to take advantage of the temptation to generalize and stereotype takes time, effort, and a willingness to have our most fundamental assumptions about the world called into question, so we follow suit.

In the midst of a culture which inclines us to function with the utmost concern for efficiency and our own best interests, I believe that Jesus calls us to the inefficiency of incarnational living and the freedom of a life lived for the sake of others.  Insurance companies may take the bait, but I hope I/we don’t.

No related posts.

The PSLF is a federal student loan program that forgives whatever debt you have left after 10 years of payments made while in public service or under the employ of a 501c3.

The IBR is another federal program that structures the amount of your payments based on your family size and income level.

You’ll find links to Q&A pdf’s regarding both of these programs on this page.

Since Amy and I envision giving the better part of our lives to work in and through non-profit organizations, we are beginning the process of getting into these programs.

The first step is to get your loans from whatever lender they are currently with over to Direct Loans, a federal loan provider.  You can do this online here.

That’s as far as I’ve gotten so far, but from what I understand, once we’ve moved/consolidated our loans to Direct Loans, we can then take advantage of the IBR and PSLF programs.

It’s more than mildly unfortunate and upsetting that (at least in my experience) Christian schools, whose student populations are largely focused on non-profit work, aren’t doing a better job of informing students of these programs so maybe you’ll help me get the word out!

No related posts.

Life on the Vine

Some may take issue with the phrase bi-vocational, arguing that followers of Jesus, who may have multiple occupations, actually have a singular vocation – living as a Christian witness or something like that and I’d say that’s understandable.  However, if it passes to understand vocation as “a compensated way in which our singlular calling gets lived out” I think it’s just as easy to defend an argument for bi-vocational Christians.

That’s all actually kind of beside the point.  Here were our main talking points and my summary from our time together last Friday (via an article written by DF)…

1) Bi-vocational ministry breeds congregational participation in the life of a church.

When those who lead a church community are bi-vocational, they are more easily seen as those entrusted to guide and direct, as opposed to “get everything done.”  This returns ministry to its rightful place, the corporate body.

2) Bi-vocational ministry guards against excessive organization and programming.

Without full-time people to create and maintain all sorts of programming options, the life of a congregation is able to be more relational and organic, drawing on the heart and commitment of the community.

3) Bi-vocational ministry fosters a church culture that is outward focused.

Bi-vocational ministry affords those who lead local church communities the opportunity to invest more of their time and energy in the marketplace.  This, in turn, serves as a model for the rest of the congregation of living out a faithful witness in all areas of life.

This didn’t come up, perhaps because it’s so obvious, but when those who serve church congregations as leaders can supplement their income with alternative sources of revenue, more money is freed up for the community to meet the needs of others.

I tend to agree with these statements, but as a friend brought up in the course of discussion, embracing an ecclesiology which practices bi-vocationalism probably makes for all-around healthier churches and healthier pastors.  The reason is that the inverse of these marks is typically true.  Having full-time paid pastors stymies congregational participation in the life of church communities (why do it when you have people that you pay to do it?), encourages excessive organization and programming (afterall, if you’re paid full-time, you have to come up with stuff to do), and fosters an inward focused church culture (because apparently being a ‘professional’ minister is what those who are really serious about their faith do!).

Can you practice an ecclesiology predicated on one or multiple full-time paid staff that accomplishes the same ends as this bi-vocational vision?  I am quite sure that many people will read this and try to make the case that multiple full-time paid staff just have that much more time to give to doing just that.  The problem is that the medium doesn’t match the message.  I think this is what we are after at Life on the Vine – embodying a style of congregational leadership that itself communicates (if not necessitates) our commitment to fostering a church in which the responsibility for equipping people for ministry to one another and the world falls to the body and not paid professionals.

Lots of discussion to be had on this topic, so I am interested and anxious for feedback, pushback, and further thoughts and questions.

Related posts:

1. Bi-Vocational Ministry & the Missional Church
2. Bi-Vocational Ministry & Theological Education
3. Bi-Vocational Ministry & Support Raising

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

This economic crisis is a great heart-check for the Church.  Where… What… Who is our treasure?  What a fantastic opportunity for the Church to witness to the watching world – to, in the midst of economic fright and despair, to be MORE generous, MORE sacrificial, MORE giving; to not “conform to the pattern of this world,” but to put on display a hope and a joy that is no way threatened, but is rather emboldened in times such as these.

But I wonder… will we shine?  I fear that the extent to which the Church in the West has so wedded its identity with that of the American dream will make this very, very difficult.  Thankfully, we worship a God who desires to work miracles amongst a repentant people.

Related posts:

1. Missional Church and the Future of Theological Education: Follow Up
2. The GOCN, Ecclesia, and the Missional Church
3. Fuller and the Emerging Church

I received my Economic Stimulus Payment the other day and wondered what I would do with it.  As I thought and prayed, I decided to join the ranks of those who called the whole premise of the program into question.

Feel free to accuse me for oversimplifying things if you want, but bottom line, the whole point of the Economic Stimulus Payments that virtually everyone received this year, was singular, “The economy is hurting, so please go buy stuff.”

Sadly, this advice just doesn’t square with those of us who live in a new reality under the Kingship of a God who says, “a man’s life does not consists in the abundance of his possessions” or whose dream for people is to live lives of sacrifice, sharing, generosity, and stewardship.

God’s economics fly in the face of the dominant American addiction to consumerism illustrated perfectly both by the opening line of a recent credit card advertisement, “We are a nation of consumers….and there’s nothing wrong with that.” (ht: Grete), as well as our President’s advice to the country after the 9/11 attacks of, “Go shopping.”

So, 1/2 my check went to Geronime, a woman in Benin, Africa, a fruit vendor through Kiva – a group (you definitely need to check out) that makes micro-loans to “entrepeneurs in the developing world, empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty,” and the other 1/2 went to pay down debt.  Guess I will just have to go without that gizmo, gadget, or do-dad that I probably needed sooooo badly.

Related posts:

1. The Missiological Future of Theological Education – Training Kingdom Citizens

Disclaimer:  This post is not (really) about cars.

On the heels of that last post, I thought I would throw this out there and say how glad I am that most of the folks in my life seem to be those who are really trying to press into the full implications of what following Jesus means and looks like right here and now.  They are not, for the most part, Christian Escapists – those whose value for Christ primarily has to do with their get-out-of-hell-free card.  They want to live out lives of discipleship for the sake of their neighbors and the world.

Anyway, that being said… I caught this in a parking lot the other day, read it, kept walking, and went back to take a picture once my internal annoyance-o-meter reached its peak.

This bumper sticker perfectly illustrates the degree to which a subtle neo-gnosticism has seeped into how we understand the Christian faith.  The idea of gnosticism is simple: eternity has nothing to do with here and now.  Therefore, for example, I can “have my treasure in heaven,” and live however the heck I want.

I am reminded of my friend Wess’ post, “How Do We Look for the Theology of a Church?“  One of his suggestions was to check out the cars in the parking lot on Sunday morning.  Now, this may not be a perfect gauge (and Wess doesn’t suggest that it is), but in terms of a non-gnosticized version of the Christian faith, it is a valid point.  That point being, if we understand the good news of God’s Kingdom as something we get to participate in and live out for the sake of the world here and now, then guess what, it will envelop every aspect of our lives, including (perhaps especially including) the economic dimension.

The gospel aims to get a grip on not just our hearts, but our whole lives.  Imagine the visible impact of church communities which aimed to live well below their means because of their rejection of consumerism and materialism, or, even better, because they so badly wanted to experience the blessing of sharing and giving – of living lives unencumbered by extravagance and luxury.  That seems like a way of being the church that is more worthy of a crucified and risen Messiah.

Related posts:

1. Narrative Preaching for Christian Formation
2. Christian Politics and the False Dichotomy of Sacred and Secular
3. Do You Have To Go To Church Every Sunday To Be A Christian?

As a prelude to that though, I wanted to point to a message Gib offered to the Living Hope community this past Sunday when I was away, “Riches in Poverty.”  Probably my favorite line, “Every time currency changes hands, I am making a spiritual decision.”  How different our lives would be, how different our very understanding on what it means to be a gospel people if we embraced and lived out this Kingdom truth!

No related posts.

No related posts.

I  need to thank many of you for your emails, phone calls, financial support, conversations, and prayer as I try to figure out what it looks like to live and help others to live missionally here in the Midwest.  As you may have noticed from my blog, I haven’t been able to raise the necessary support to really invest in the ministry of Repeat the way I had hoped.  On top of this, through further communication, it doesn’t seem like what I feel I can add to the overall thrust of the community is what is most needed.  Consequently, while I will still be proactively exploring other options for missional connections, I will not be heavily investing my time in the way I originally thought.

For the time being, I have begun working at Starbucks on a part-time basis and am also working with the Salvation Army for the holiday season.  I will be assisting with their Angel Tree and Adopt-A-Family programs.  I look forward to writing more about these programs in the near future.

I really want to keep this conversation about missional living and engagement in the midwest, so please offer comments and ask any and all questions that you think of.

Peace.

Related posts:

1. Midwest Missionary
2. Midwest Missional Learning Commons
3. The Emerging Guild of Missionary Theologians

No related posts.

These are smart guys and I really enjoyed having this conversation with them.  It reminded me just how much ideologies like consumerism, materialism, and individualism invade our souls and distort how we see the world and reality.  It also reminded me of how incredible it is when we truly allow Scripture to illuminate us as to who God is, what He is like, and what His desires for His people are.

Related posts:

1. A Fulller Sex Talk