A lesson from Acts...

Well, it has been a long, long time since I last posted anything to this blog.  The reasons are many, time and scheduling as much as anything.  However, I thought I'd take a minute and upload a lesson here from Acts 6.  Many of you know that I have been doing some graduate work at the Fresno Pacific seminary.  It has been a great time of learning, perhaps as significant as any I've had.  So, with that in mind, I'm sharing the last study that I have completed.  Please note that this is a formal study, more for the "instructor" than for the "student."  We use the acronym FORRMAL to describe the process of attempting to do both "exegesis" (original intent, meaning, understanding at the time of the writing) and "hermeneutics"(what does it mean to us today.  So the FORRMAL is the process for doing this work.  This study is my own, but I use resources of those much smarter than me.  So, if you don't like it, that's my fault.  If you think I sound pretty smart, well, that's most likely because I'm using smart resources.  The study is on the pericope (passage) of Acts 6:1-7.  If you want the first 6-7 sections are exegesis, the last section, "Living the vision," is the hermeneutical part.  I hope you enjoy it, sorry for all the jargon.
Acts "FORRMAL" study

Did we forget to graduate? Are we that guy/gal?

Remember that guy in high school that everyone thought was really cool.  He had an awesome car, won Valley in some sport, and was the guy all the guys wanted to be and the girls wanted to be going with.  Remember when that guy graduated, but then decided to hang around after school in the high school parking lot for YEARS!  He went from being that "awesome guy" to being that creepy guy.  It was sad. 

I had lunch with a couple of friends this week and one of them said that he felt like a lot of people never graduate from church.  When they should be moving on to start something new, they just hang around and poison the water for the freshman.  I started to wonder if that wasn't me. Did I forget to graduate?  Did I forget that the church was supposed to go into the world?  Had I become the 5th or 6th year senior, afraid of moving on to start something new?  Is there a large group of us hanging around our old stomping grounds, forgetting that the world is waiting for us to bring Christ to them?  Did I forget to graduate?  Did you?

The most dangerous post I've ever written...

When I sat down to write this post, I was really concerned about it.  It seems like such a simple task, and yet I think it is in many ways a difficult and daring one.  How do I reveal my beliefs without stepping on others? how do I explain it without judging? what if people judge me? what if I decide later that I don’t believe that way anymore?…. I was then reminded of something I taught recently in a class, the three reasons why most projects  never get started: apathy, pessimism and despair.  I do not want to be subject to any of these.  So for that reason I am committed to initiating, to go forward, to take the risk.  I only will add one caveat: these are my thoughts and beliefs, today.

I believe that God is and that, as the Deuteronomist (author of Exodus) said, God will be who God will be.  I believe in God the Creator, God as Elohim (God of Gods) and God as Adonai, the holy YWH.  I believe that God is bigger than

Does it really matter?

Well, I couldn't drag out many comments on my last couple of blog posts about the "spiritual life" and how we cultivate or grow it, so let's table that for now.  I think it is a very important conversation, fundamentally important in fact, but it has to be a conversation and so I'll wait until I can facilitate one.
But that brings me to today's thoughts, "what really matters?"

I had a wonderful opportunity to visit a church this weekend that was totally new to our family.  The demographics of the congregation were very similar to VCCOC, with the exception of a stronger 20's something presence.  The facilities were nice, the people friendly, and the worship was enjoyed by all.  The preacher was young-ish and brought a heartfelt message which he communicated with an adequate amount of feeling and polish. In our discussions afterward, our group focused on some things we liked and some things we weren't as excited about, but in all we felt good about the experience and would likely go back given the chance.  None of us had been there before, so it was a sort of "blind date" with a church.  If any of you have done this before, you know the results can be disastrous.  In our case however, the selection was well made.  One of the best things about this opportunity is that it gave me a chance to reflect on what really matters to me about a church.
So I'm asking you, what really matters?  Is it the style of music in worship (this church had both instrumental and a capella)?  Is taking the Lord's supper weekly a must have?  What about baptism?  Do we need to mention that?  Should we examine the list of 10 (it's almost always 10) core beliefs and see if we can live with them?  Is there a necessary bible version that should be endorsed?  Women's roles?  Men's roles?  Doctrinal compatibility?  What really matters?

More to the point...how?

So let me be specific about the question I was trying to pose in the last post:
"How do we cultivate our spiritual life?"

More on our spiritual life...

I really appreciate all the feedback I received on the last post.  Taken as a whole, most commenters agreed that our "spiritual life" is not some subset of our life in general, but is perhaps our overarching, upper-story life.  Perhaps it would be safe to say that it is that "life" that is God centered and led, that "life" that connects us with our Creator.  John Ortberg talks about living in the "flow" of the spirit and draws on the imagery of the river of life, flowing from the garden.  When we are connected to and in that flow, we are God centered and God led.  Would it be too much to suggest that we experience the true blessings of a Christ centered, Christ led live when we bring our other "lives" (family, work, school, church) into that same flow?
So the follow up question is: how do we bring our "lives" into that same flow?  (How do we connect the upper-story with the lower-story?)
Can't wait to hear your thoughts....

The question of the day....

What does the phrase "spiritual life" mean to you?  Thoughts?

The solution to small groups?....

Thanks to Hannah for sharing this.  If a group like this doesn't work for you... stay tuned...

What if....

An interesting question was presented at more than one class I attended last week.  It's a question that has popped up in different forms from different sources over the past few months.  I'm going to ask my "version" of it here:

                "What if there was no afterlife?"

More broadly, what if we could determine definitively that there is no heaven and no hell when this life is over.  What if we went back to scripture and we were able to determine, with absolutely certainty, that there was no afterlife and Christ was never referring to one.  What would the implications be for you?

I Won't Say "I told you so, but..."

I hope you had a great week last week, I know we did.  I have to say that this trip to the Pepperdine Lectures was one of the best.  We had a great time fellowshipping with friends old and new.  The VBS program was a total hit; the kids in our suite loved it and were eager to go back everyday.  One of my favorite things was sitting around after a particularly inspiring class and sharing with family and friends.  There was definitely a spirit moving through the classes and I was amazed at how certain ideas seemed to resonate over and over.  I really came away feeling renewed, but also challenged.  I think God is calling on the church for big things in the future and it is an exciting time!  If you missed the lectureships, make sure to talk to someone that went.  We will have many of the classes available by CD in the coming weeks that can be checked out from the office.  Exciting things are happening people, stay tuned....

Heading To The Promised Land....Have a Great Week !

Well, maybe that's a little far fetched, but if I had to choose between streets of gold and the ocean-side setting of Pepperdine, well, let's just say I'd be packing my sunscreen.  Each year I wrangle and twist, persuade and promise, even beg and plead, and yet I fail repeatedly to get many (if any) young families to go to the Pepperdine Bible Lectures.  Maybe it's the title?   What if I invited people to a week of "Dialogue and Relationship Building"... would that work?  How about, "A Time of Rejuvenation and Rest?"  Maybe I should focus on the kids and say, Pepperdine offers "The Ultimate Enrichment Program for your Children;" is that the way I should go.  I could try to approach it from a long-term view and say, "Can you remember what you did the first week of May last year?" and then follow it up with "I can and it had a tremendous impact on my life...how about you?"  I could contrast the present and say, "what will you do next Wednesday through Friday?  Will it expand your understanding of Christendom, deepen your love, broaden your horizons, increase your faith, deepen your relationships and be just plain awesome?"
To be honest, I'm not sure any of these tactics or re-labelings would work.  If they do, great, see you there.  I can assure you that from my experience, and the experience of others, these are all accurate statements.  But in the end, I'm struck by how much this sounds like all the things we say and do to encourage young families to be more committed to "church" and its various activities and programs.  Not helpful.

So this year, I'm just going to say this: "have a great week."  If I see you at Pepperdine, let me know what you think.  If you can't make it, and I know some of you want to and can't, have a great week.  If you're on the fence, well, I will just say this: "have you ever struggled before about whether to do something and, in the end, after having done it, wondered why you hadn't done it before?  Pepperdine is that thing."  Whatever you choose to do next week, enjoy it!
 

A New Paradigm for the Proverbially Pooped...

Well, it's been over three months since my last post and I can hardly come up with a new title.  I've been thinking a lot about church lately, about how to reach young families and the "emerging church" in this day and age.  Frankly, I've been stumped.  We've had events, planned classes, tried new material and studied the issues, but in the end we still have the same people on the fringe and the same people at the center; it's a little depressing.  I hear that my tradition (The Church of Christ) is not growing and Christian churches in general are not growing and I began to wonder what's happening.

About a month ago I had the opportunity to participate in an event to feed the needy.  My family and I went to the dinner before hand to raise money, then we went to the event itself to help serve the food.  We had 20+ turn up to help feed the hungry at our church building; it was a great turnout...well, unless you count the number of needy people that were there.  In the end we did have a few, but most, if not all, drove themselves there and texted on their cell phones while they enjoyed their meal (not the mental picture I had created).  The majority of us helpers started visiting in various places around the building and before you know it, it was over.  I wondered where all the hungry people had gone?  As we started talking about the night, someone in the group suggested that maybe we should do the next dinner at a nearby labor camp, or in layman's terms, take the food to the hungry.  What a novel idea?

Not one to let a good idea pass me by, I've been ruminating on this for some time.  It occurs to me that what we are doing in our discipleship efforts is trying to bring the "hungry" to the church.  We offer new programs, new classes, new series.  We advertise, promote, and spend our tightened budgets.  Everyone rejoices when that "fringe" family shows up, only to be disappointed when they are not at church the next week.  Now I'm wondering, what if we take the church to them?  What if we stopped having more events, more programs, more classes, and started encouraging our members to spend time together, attend one another's events, take church to the activities they are already participating in?  What family wouldn't enjoy being let of the hook to attend their regularly scheduled tee-ball or swim meet.  What child wouldn't love having his cheering section multiplied by other church families who showed up to offer their support?  What if that burnt-out mom could feel like dinner with her girlfriend was enough church?  What if we stopped trying to compete with all the events in the lives of our members and just started bringing the church to those events?  What if we freed people from the obligations of programs and offered them a relationship with Christ instead?  What if we began to model Christ by what I'm calling, "meet the need and plant the seed?"  Does this make sense to anyone?

A New Year, A New Way of Thinking...

Well it has been some time since I lasted posted to this site, and I apologize for my tardiness.  We've had a full and wonderful holiday season, with friends and family all around.  As we begin a new study on Sundays, I have been forced to examine my spiritual journey, both its peaks and valleys, its triumphs and its struggles.  In the past year I've become more aware of what I bring to my journey, the lens through which I look, and the influences that have shaped my present understandings.

One question that we barely had time to touch on last week was the idea of "Right Doctrine."  It is a concept we have explored throughout 2010 and in light of our last class, I'm churning it over once again.  Is there such a thing as "Right Doctrine?"  In our faith communities, doctrine has been seen as a codification of beliefs, a summation of our position.  However, according to Merriam-Webster, doctrine is defined as, "teaching or instruction; something that is taught."  When looked at in this light, it appears to be more of a process than a result.  Although it may be semantics, I think the idea of "Right Doctrine" suggests that our goal is to find a singular understanding and practice.  While this tempting idea has found life in our tradition, I'm not sure that the Bible, as a whole, supports this idea.  It's not a matter of right v. wrong, which I believe truly exists, but a matter of "one-size-fits-all."  This is the inherent tendency in calling something "right," and scripture clearly demonstrates, from Genesis to Revelation, that our spiritual journeys are not "one-size-fits-all."  Further, when God chooses to interact with His creation, it is not a "one-size-fits-all" approach.