I take it back...

Forget everything I said in my last post... toss it out with the rubbish.  I want the first century church back, all of it, right NOW!  Well, maybe not all of it... but the part with the lions and the persecution of Christians... that's the part I want back.  Forget UFC on Saturday nights in Tulare (btw, did anything really happen on Saturday nights in Tulare before UFC?), let's get some good old lions and the Christians back in the ring.  I want Christians to be afraid again, afraid of the government, and I don't mean "Tea-Party" style, I mean afraid of oppression.  I want us to have to go underground, fear for our safety, have hand-signs and secret passwords.  I want us to be so busy trying to keep each other from prison, help each other survive, and caring for each other's needs that we have to band together like elephants surrounded by lions.  I want "Afghanistan-style" Christianity where being a believer means risking your life. Why, you ask, would anyone want this type of Christianity?  You tell me....

Restoring the Early Church.... No thanks!

I've been thinking about this a little today and does "restoring the early church" really make any sense?  Can you imagine any other group, business, organization, university, etc saying, "what we really need to do is go back to the way our organization was 2000 years ago."  Does it make sense culturally, philosophically, educationally, or spiritually to go back to the way things were?  Think about Paul's words to the Philippian church regarding his spiritual journey:

     "Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.  Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.  Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you.  Only let us hold fast to what we have attained."  Philippians 4: 12-16

      Paul is letting the brethren at Philippi know that he's ok in prison, and that he continues to strive forward in his relationship with Christ.  The early churches had their own wealth of problems and issues, at times even fearing for their own survival.  They lacked the texts we have today, they lacked the freedoms, and they lacked the decades and centuries of experience and education we have.  The culture of the early church was one that few if any of us have experienced today.  Do we really want to turn back the clocks on all we have "attained?"

     What I realized this past week was that we, the Church, have lost some of our community.  Being together morning, noon, and night, was a tremendous blessing.  We got up early and stayed up late (maybe too late) talking with our brothers and sisters, sharing a meal, enjoying activities, worshiping God, and sharing our triumphs and our burdens, and it was, in my mind, pure heaven.  Everyone was family and I was blessed to meet new members of that family while reconnecting with lifelong members.  Now I could go for a little more of that type of restoration.

     Admittedly the church (little "c"- institution) and the Church (big "C"- the people) have had our setbacks and struggles and continue to do so today.  But with the exception of the closeness of the community, the idea that somehow things were better back in the "good ol' days" seems like faulty logic to me.  In fact, even the closeness of those early communities were more likely a response to necessity than to mere "enlightenment."  (Today we likely have an even greater ability to fellowship and share with one another, we simply continue to make choices, material and otherwise, that make that more difficult, but that's another post.) Culturally, spiritually, and educationally I think that tremendous strides and additions have been made.  I think the bigger question is, are we prepared, as a Church, to reveal Christ, to be Christ to God's people "for such a time as this?"

Thoughts on Pepperdine...

Well, my intention of giving you updates after each class or each day obviously failed.  Let me say however, that it was a wonderful lectureship, perhaps the best I've been to in years.  There were so many fantastic classes being offered each hour that it made it very difficult to choose.  Thank God for CD's because the church will be bringing home quite a few of the classes.  I encourage all of you to check them out at the office.  I'll try to remember to drop a schedule by so you can see what the classes were about, but I highly recommend getting in there and listening to these dynamic, Christ-filled speakers.
A few themes really stuck out this year to me, and I think they were about redrawing our lines, emphasizing inclusion over exclusion, and focusing on the work in the world as opposed to the issues in the church.  It was emboldening, enlightening, and challenging.  One takeaway for me was this statement: "Jesus didn't come to start a new religion, He came to reveal the Father."  Just some food for thought...