Amy and I have been making our way through the former TV series, The West Wing.  If you’re not familiar, the show centers around the lives and work of the President of the United States (Jed Bartlett – played by Martin Sheen), and his key staff.

Recently, an episode about the President and a real-life encounter with a jerk had me doing some personal reflection.

The President

In the show, a situation has developed in the Middle East.  A Palestinian terrorist has attacked a US motorcade, killing two congressmen and a retired Admiral, a close friend of the President.  This attack, it is suspected, is due in no small part to American support of Israel.  The suspected terrorist is then found hiding out in a residential apartment building.  Both Palestinians and Israelis are aware of his whereabouts, but neither side is willing to make a move due to their fear of how the other side will respond.

82% of the American public, the whole of congress, and the majority of the President’s staff are calling for the President to order an attack on not just the building where the suspected terrorist is hiding out, but the countries suspected of supporting him.  All parties seem willing to accept not just the obvious civilian casualties, but the certainty that this will result in further violence, so long as America, via the President, is willing to exact justice (revenge?) on the supposed perpetrators.

With blatant disregard for all these factors however, the President decides that the only way forward is to negotiate peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders.  He accomplishes this by shrewdly orchestrating the apprehension, as opposed to assassination, of the suspected terrorist.

Sidenote: This is at least one of the reasons that I have opted not to vote and believe that the prospect of Christians entering into the democratic political system is fraught with difficulty.  In cases like this, to whom do you show your allegiance?  On one hand, you are seemingly obligated to execute the desires of the people you represent, who elected you to govern for them.  On the other hand, if you are a sincere Christian, you are obligated to do justice in keeping with the life and teaching of Jesus.  But I digress…

Against the advice of his political advisors and the overwhelming majority of Americans calling for blood, the President negotiates peace talks, believing that violent retaliation on the part of Americans will only play right into the hands of the enemies and beget more violence.  I was so proud of my fictitious, TV President!

The Jerk at the Grocery Store

The day after we watched these episodes, I had a meeting at a coffee shop and Amy was getting groceries.  She finished and came to pick up – all a-flutter.

Turns out that the guy behind her in the self-checkout line was passive-aggressively verbally expressing his displeasure at the fact that my wife, who had a cart-full of groceries had opted to use the self-checkout line.  He made comments about her, not directly to her, but to someone else in line.  As she scanned some of the vegetables she had picked up and had to input their corresponding codes to get the right price, he was trying to confuse and mock her efforts.  Again, all w/o addressing her, just taunting her and taking advantage of the fact that no one else was there to defend her.  Amy isn’t really one for confrontation so she just remained quiet and choked back the tears as she grew more and more embarassed.

Me

As Amy recounted the story to me, everything in me wanted to drive back there, find this guy, and beat him until he apologized.  There was this raw flood of emotion and adrenaline that overtook me and I felt like it wouldn’t subside until I forcefully dominated the cause of my wife’s pain and embarrassment.

We didn’t turn around and the feeling subsided, but after it did, I was left with questions…

Why do I react like this?

After years of seeking to internalize and cultivate a spirit of non-violence, why do these feelings still come?

Why is my first reaction to violently end the sources of injustice and oppression rather than to run to the aid of the victimized and opporessed?

At least in part, I venture to guess that the answer to these questions is that I haven’t encountered nearly enough situations in which I can put my theology to the test.  Sadly, it seems that had Amy and I been together at the grocery store, I would have gotten an even better glimpse into just how much work God has yet to do in me.

Not to discount the role of personal discipleship in this matter, I am left pondering one final question.  What is the role of the church as a community in putting to death attitudes and actions of violence in followers of Jesus?  One might wonder whether or not our disposition toward Christian faith has become so accommodating to our broader culture that we don’t even know what this might entail.

Until we do, at least we have Jed Barlett.

As Christendom continues to unravel and the Church loses its privileged role within culture at large, we live in an increasingly biblical illiterate society.

– Quoting Scripture will mean less and less.

– Bible stories will be increasingly misunderstood or forgotten altogehter

– And the battles that Christians wage with one another over the objective nature of Scripture will continue to damage our reputation in a broken world.

For these reasons and more, there is an incredibly important conversation to be had regarding the role of the Bible in society.

In contributing to that conversation, here’s a 40 minute panel discussion from the recent Q conference here in Chicago between Tim Keller, Alastain McGrath, Dempsey Rosales-Acosta, and Brian McLaren (you can find brief bios on all these panelists here) on that topic.  I’m anxious to see what kinds of responses others might have to the questions and discussion here.

(For those reading in a feed reader, the video is flash and may not come through, so you might want to click through to the actual post to view or download.)

Just caught this short video from a favorite author of mine, Andy Couch.  A while back I took the time to review his latest book, Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling.  See what he has to say about the link between idolatry and the questions which define us.

The guys over at Homebrewed Christianity recently posted an interview they did with N.T. Wright.  The interview was full of some really great sound bytes that I went ahead and divvied up to make your life easier

You can listen to or download the interview in its entirety here.

On being a bishop. Download audio file (wrightbishop.mp3)

On the unfortunate split between church and academy. Download audio file (wrightpastorwriter.mp3)

On returning to fulltime academic work. Download audio file (wrightteacher.mp3)

On Bart Ehrman. Download audio file (wrightbartehrman.mp3)

On John Shelby Spong. Download audio file (wrightspong.mp3)

On Luke Timothy Johnson. Download audio file (wrightjohnson.mp3)

On Marcus Borg & John Dominic Crossan. Download audio file (wrightborgcrossan.mp3)

On Jurgen Moltmann. Download audio file (wrightmoltmann.mp3)

On E.P. Sanders. Download audio file (wrightsanders.mp3)

On Karl Barth. Download audio file (wrightbarth.mp3)

On Stanley Hauerwas. Download audio file (wrighthauerwas.mp3)

On his most recent book, After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters and why he chose to write about eschatology before ethics. Download audio file (wrightafteryoubelieve.mp3)

On the difference between Aristotelian virtue and Christian virtue. Download audio file (wrightchristianvirtue.mp3)

On the role of character and virtue in other religions. Download audio file (wrightreligiousvirtue.mp3)

On cultural virtue. Download audio file (wrightculturalvirtue.mp3)

On the renewing of our minds when they have become largely detached from the rest of who we are. Download audio file (wrightrenewing.mp3)

On Christianity Post-Postmodernity. Download audio file (wrightchristianitypostpostmodernity.mp3)

On the after-after life. Download audio file (wrightafterlife.mp3)

What NT Wright is reading, thinking, and planning for his “big book on Paul” as the next in his Christian Origins series. Download audio file (wrightreading.mp3)

What we can expect from NT Wright in his new role. Download audio file (wrightfuture.mp3)

I once heard a story of a man who was speaking with Dallas Willard.  In the course of conversation, the man divulged a sin, but commented that it was, “completely out of character” for him.  To which Dallas replied, “No it wasn’t.  If you did it, that IS your character.”

I listened to that and thought to myself,

This expresses well why I love God so much.  Because God is as God acts.

God doesn’t get to be called “loving” if God doesn’t love.  Nor does God get to be named “just” if God doesn’t act justly. We are as we act and God is as God acts.

Instead of taking this in my own personal direction, I was wondering how others might respond to the idea that “God IS as God ACTS.”  What are your thoughts?  What does it mean for how you live your life and interpret your reality?

A little over a week ago, my cousin-in-law Josh, asked how one might go about transitioning traditional churches into “something more missional at its core.”  Since I have banged my head against this wall for years in several different churches, my response will be a mixture of, “here’s where I failed,” and “here’s what I think is most helpful.”  For anyone who might have missed them, my posts on, “The Move: The Journey from Attractional to Missional,” and “What is Missional?” would be really helpful in understanding where I am coming from.

I should say a few things at the beginning to help frame my thoughts.

1) This is a wine skins issue (Mt. 9:17).  Anyone considering this topic who thinks (whether they realize it or not) that this is basically about getting new wine into old wine skins is destined for frustration and failure – I speak from experience!  Missional churches represent brand new wine skins, not just new wine.

2) This takes a long time.  The most experienced people will tell you 8-10 years minimum.  When we are talking about changing the core identity of, not just a person, but a community, we have to expect a long hard road.  An apt analogy – God got Israel out of Egypt in pretty short order, but it took another 40 years to get Egypt out of Israel.

3) No one person is capable of maneuvering this transition.  Solo pastors are dead in the water in this regard.  And this isn’t to say that the better way is having a team of top-down leaders – this will end up being damaging as well.  One of the keys to instilling missional DNA in a church community is inspiring and encouraging new imagination from the bottom.

Those things being said, what does it take?  What might the process look like?

My short answer is,

A Spirit-guided intermingling of communal practices, teaching, and prayerful reflection.

Here’s my slightly-longer expansion on those three things.

I take for granted that fundamental to the distinctions of “traditional” and “missional” is a vision of what it means to be the church in Post-Christendom vs. Christendom.  My personal opinion (others may disagree) is that there is no point in talking about what it means to be a missional church until Christendom has been rejected as a cultural value. Thus, transitioning traditional churches to missional ones is a non-linear process of deconstruction and reconstruction.  Communal practices, teaching, and reflection are the tools which assist in this ongoing task.  It would be a (classically modern) mistake to think of this as a mainly intellectual enterprise.  Instead, in the integration of these things, deconstruction and reconstruction happen alongside one another.

Since there is no universal model to apply to this topic, we are better served by asking general questions that need to be answered in specific contexts.  Here are some questions which I think would serve us well in maneuvering this sort of transition.

– In both small numbers as well as large, what are the practices we can engage in as a community that will shape us into people and “a people” who think and act like Jesus?

– As we try to be honest with ourselves, what things are we doing as a community that don’t seem to be contributing to our spiritual formation?

– How do we incorporate space in our times together (in homes, in meetings, in gatherings) to intentionally reflect on and respond to what we sense God is speaking and doing in our community?

– Who are those in our community who seem most gifted to teach (identified by the fruit of their teaching helping people become more like Jesus)? How can we encourage these people to engage with authors and speakers who are dealing with the subject of missional ecclesiology on our behalf?

– How do we make incremental yet strategic changes in the percentage of money that goes to those things which ensure our security as opposed to those things which necessitate faith in the midst of great risk?

Over and above questions like these, I would also suggest these sort of biblical principles for those who shoulder the responsibility for a transition like this:

– Find people of peace who can be trusted and are willing to commit to the journey. Ask for their help.

– Demonstrate servant leadership by being open, transparent, and broken.

– Commit to structures of biblical conflict resolution.  Entrust to God’s care those who choose to leave (there will be many and this is not necessarily a sign of poor leadership).

OK, there’s some initial thoughts.  I’m sure I’ll have more so I hope to continue the discussion by way of comments.

My friend JR Woordward has put together a fun line up of people to submit brief blog posts answering the question…

If you local city newspaper asked you to describe the Good News – what would you write?

Here’s my submission and I encourage you to check out the other posts offered between now and Pentecost.  Feel free to offer your comments here if you like, but there are already several good ones over at JR Woodward’s site that you can add to as well.  I will be checking and responding over there too.

The Commercial Appeal is the place where countless Memphians turn for news – some of it good, much of it, not so good.  We are a city divided by race, stricken by generational poverty, plagued by crime, and disadvantaged by socio-economic stratification.  Good news for us usually comes in the form of an absence of bad as opposed to the presence of beautiful surprises.  For those with eyes to see, these problems are far more than the result of individual human errors and failings; they also stem from firmly entrenched systems, paradigms, and powers, which create a broken culture that produces broken people.  There is a cycle at work here more insidious than we realize or could hope to finally defeat on our own.  But there’s good news.

I’m a Christian and Christians are good news people.  In fact, a central manta of the Christian faith is, “Repent and believe the good news.”  This isn’t about saying you’re sorry to God so you can go to Heaven when you die. It’s Jesus’ invitation to, by grace and through faith, escape the consequences of our capitulation to a world gone wrong by joining him in the ways he sees and engages the world.

See, God plans to recreate all that has been tainted and lost by evil and darkness.  The sphere in which this happens is known as the Kingdom of God.  Jesus embodied this Kingdom in his life and sealed it in his death and resurrection. That’s news, but it’s not quite good yet; cause news is only really good when it’s experienced.  This news becomes truly good for us when God’s plan for the future intersects with our present.  Ours is not good news that God will do, but good news that God is doing.

Jesus was the bearer of good news par excellence and those of us who bear his name but fail to similarly bear good news to the world around us have a share in the guilt and misery of the city and people we are called to lovingly serve.  This is where the Church comes in.  God means for the Church to be a unique body though whom Jesus actually continues freeing people from harmful things and reconnecting them with God and others. The Christian God is one of relationship.  Therefore, God’s Good News to the people and city of Memphis is purposefully intertwined with communities of people gripped by it.

Fellow Memphians, if you’re like me, grieved over the many sad circumstances of our city, if you are desperate for a new start, for healing and wholeness, I hope you will consider the news of God’s desire and plan for the world including the tiny metroplex of Memphis.  The news might not be the sort you’d expect, maybe not even the sort you’d prefer, but it’s good in the truest meaning of the word.

Beginning with Dan Kimball’s “Missional Misgivings,” there has been a recent flurry of discussion over the whole missional/attractional thing in the blog-o-sphere.  Responses by Hirsch here, Cole here, Fitch here.

A good bit of what is being said in response to the topic (much by patently reformed folks) has to do with “cultural appropriateness.”  Some seem to be suggesting that the seeker-sensitive/mega-church model of the church was a culturally appropriate model within Christendom and in a modern framework.  By implication, this would then be the preferred model of church for areas which still fit this description.  There is also an addition to the discussion pertaining to models for preaching and gathering.  Again, the argument seems to be that we need to allow the culture to determine the right model.  I submit that this the wrong approach to this discussion.  It may appear to be an incarnational approach, but it is anything but.

My friend Sam reminded me of a quote by Lesslie Newbigin recently,

…if we begin with culture we are never taken back to gospel, if we begin with gospel, we ourselves are transformed and enter into culture to put flesh on the gospel.

This is the way we need to understand what it means to be incarnational – gospeling a culture, not culturizing the gospel.

The primary question church leaders need to always be asking is not, “What is the culturally appropriate way to be the church?” but “What is the most formational way to be the church?” The first question lends itself to our ingrained consumeristic tendencies and begets attractional churches; the second invites us to consider a different goal altogether and serves to cultivate missional communities.

We ought to always do what we do as the church specifically because it helps people to become more like Jesus. Willowcreek was probably the best example ever of a church that did everything right in terms of cultural appropriateness only to announce to the world how horribly they had failed to actually help people become disciples (my thoughts on their REVEAL study here and Fitch’s here).

I hope this makes sense.  It is not my intention to question the motives and hearts of my well-intentioned brothers and sisters, but I beleive this to be a pivotal conversation for the future of the Church in the West and when the questions we seem to be asking have more to do with cultural pragmatics than faithful formation, I get nervous.

Let me end with a quick story.  I recently attended a church planting conference where a supposedly “missional” church planter told those in attendance,

…the south is home to some of the greatest preachers in the world.  If you are not a great preacher or teacher, you have no business trying to plant a church in the south.

I can’t even dream up a better illustration of what it means to so completely miss the point of everything missional is about.  For this guy, it’s the culture, not the gospel that determines what you do, how you do it, and who exactly it is that does it.  I just don’t think this is the best way forward for us.

This past Sunday I had my first opportunity to address the Living Hope community. I must have had a thousand different thoughts on what to share. Ultimately, I really wanted to share some of my story and highlight something that I found relevant for where we’re at as a community of faith.

What I decided on was the way in which God used grad school to change me from someone who placed their faith primarily in a system of belief, to someone who tried to practice faith as a way of life and to put my trust in God as one who could never be contained or exhausted by my ideas or beliefs.

We looked at the Exodus story and the way in which even after being rescued and redeemed by God, the people of Israel wanted to relate to God from a distance, wanted to avoid the fear and unknown of continuing to follow God, and opted to worship a idol created by their own hands rather than worship the living God by living in the way he had directed them.

These were all reactions I was tempted to embrace during some of the tumultuous times of grad school and more importantly, reactions which I often fear the average church in the United States facilitates.  To be a church which refuses to allow for a two-tiered model of discipleship (leaders and the rest of us), which constantly asks, “what’s the next fearful and risky adventure God is calling us into,” and is more concerned with passing on a way of life than a system of belief, doesn’t exactly lend itself to our individualistic, consumer-driven, instant-gratification-seeking, culture.  Yet, this exactly the sort of future I hope for our community.

Over and above merely having the opportunity to share my story and what was on my heart and mind, I also enjoyed being able to invite some friends to participate in the service along with me.  Liz led a responsive reading, and Mike and Zach led the congregation into the Exodus story, by reading Scripture.  I shared an excellent quote from Martin Luther King Jr. that my friend Eric reminded me of, and offered our community some questions to stew on as we concluded.

Anywho, it was a great time.  Thanks Living Hope for being awesome.

I love questions – they have the potential to open up new worlds of possibilities every time they are asked.  Even more, I love supplanting the questions we almost mindlessly often ask with fresh, thought provoking ones.

I was reading today and came across this quote…

Instead of asking young people, ‘What are you going to do when you grow up?’ ask them, ‘Who are you becoming?’

Then, I came across this video which artfully points out what the difference in asking these questions might be.

For those who follow Jesus, we need to be incredibly intentional and subversive about the questions we are asking ourselves – much hangs in the balance.

I haven’t had time yet to take my own shots, but here’s a great one of downtown Memphis that I found.

(ht: piwojasne)

But now what I am asking is more like, “What will it mean and look like for young adults to participate in the life of this community aimed at serving the world?” That is a very different question and one that I don’t feel like I have quite so easy answers for – which is why I’m so thrilled to be asking it!

OK, I know that I have been absent here for a long time and trust me, I have like a thousand things to update everyone on, but I just had to post this clip from a story I heard about this morning.  A student was arrested and tasered by police at a speech that John Kerry was giving simply for asking good questions.  If this is what is allowed to happed to people who are asking good political questions can you imagine what might happen if the church actually started taking stands against rampant national injustice, violence, and evil??  On so many levels, this should make us all very, very nervous (not to mention outraged).

For the Christian, the obvious answer is yes (if you are scandalized by that answer welcome to the gospel!), but I wonder how ready we are to deal with the immediate implication this has for those who honor Jesus as Lord of their lives – that we are to love them as well.

I just ran across an article this morning about a church near San Diego where a convicted child molestor, with complete transparence and willingness to follow a few guidelines, is seeking to be welcomed. It’s sad to me that there is even a stir over this. Welcoming people like Mark Pliska, the man in question, ought to be the very sort of thing that defines followers of Christ. I don’t mean to belittle the rightful hesitancy parents might have who care for the children, but the fact of the matter is, if we can’t find ways to embrace and include those that the rest of the world would just assume shun, we have lost part of what it means to be God’s people.

Out of Ur ran an article here.
The original article cam from the New York Times.

I haven’t really done this on the blog before, but maybe I will start doing it more. I want to try and ask a fairly straightforward question and just see how people respond.

Question: How do you most naturally make decisions? Do you tend to be far-sighted – basing them on some grand scheme or big picture or do you tend to be near-sighted, making decisions by evaluating what seems most fitting in the moment and for the time being?

Hope that makes sense, can’t wait to hear what people say.