Prayer for Friday, May 27

Partners and Community for Ourselves
God, Community of Love, you have created us to live in community rather than isolation. We pray, for our own continued health, that you will surround each of us with friends and family committed to a shared vision of following you together. We pray for the leadership of Intentional People, that these families will continue to cultivate trust and friendship, so that each will be nurtured and encouraged to continue serving others. We pray for our new church plant, that relationships will be strengthened and cultivated so that we will continue to move forward in discipleship with joy and passion. In both of these endeavors we continue to pray for those you are raising up to partner together in different ways. Grant us wisdom and discerning hearts to protect one another from those who would do us harm and guide us forward in cultivating community in the places where you have placed us.

Back on Sunday, we asked you to be praying for financial, prayer and ministry partners for both Intentional People and our church planting efforts. Has God put any names on your heart? If so, would you consider speaking with them about these ministries? Please also feel free to contact us with names of these potential partners. Are there ways in which God may be laying it on your own heart to join with us in some way or to take the next step toward deeper connection? Again, we are extremely grateful to you for joining us in this season of prayer. We thank God for your partnership in the gospel.

Prayer for Thursday, May 26

Cultivating Community with The Poor and Oppressed
God, Community of Love, we want to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. We want to be known as "friends of sinners," we desire to show solidarity with and developing community among the poor, the overlooked, forgotten and oppressed. Open our eyes to see these people which our society tries so hard to ignore and open our hearts to see them instead as you see them, as your beloved children. God we pray not only for opportunities to extend hospitality to the poor, but also for the grace to receive it. Grant us the honor of affirming the dignity of your image bearers who may have, this very day, been denied that birthright. God we acknowledge that among impoverished communities there is much darkness, sin and violence. We pray that you will bring light, repentance and peace to these places and that you will use us as your cracked and humble vessels in doing so.

Today, would you ask God to reveal ways in which Intentional People can serve as an encouragement to the poor and oppressed? We pray for partners and a growing community of people working together to eradicate the darkness around us through the Light of God that is within us. We have been blessed as part of Christ Journey to serve the poor in this area, and have cultivated some lasting friendships. We pray that this will continue as we launch out with our new church planting work as well.

Prayer for Wednesday, May 25

Cultivating Community in the Global Community
God, Community of Love, we are citizens of your kingdom which transcends national and ethnic boundaries. Teach us, Lord of Light, to see this world through your eyes and not be blinded by narrow, nationalistic thinking. Holy God, we pray that Intentional People will serve as a resource for inspiring those whom you are preparing to serve in various ways throughout the global community. We place our hands, our talents and our lives at your service to bless and encourage others wherever you may send them. In the same way, Father, we pray that our local church planting work will not lose sight of your love and concern for all people everywhere. Guide us in loving and caring for those who live across the street and together with them, in being mindful of those who live across the oceans. As citizens of your vast empire, God, Community of Love, erase from us any selfish desires or agendas for building empires of our own. We confess Jesus the Christ as both our savior and our Lord, to the glory of the Father and through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Do you know someone who is working to build community or bring hope amidst the global community? If so, we would love to connect with them and perhaps even interview them for the Intentional People Video Project or the Missional Monks podcast. As we pray together, we invite you to think about and approach God with us regarding those we can partner with to inspire others.

Prayer for Tuesday, May 24

Cultivating Community in the Local Community
God, Community of Love, we know that you bless us in order that we will be a blessing to others. We pray that your wisdom will guide us into the midst of our neighborhoods and communities to model and invite others into a life of community - with you and with one another. Father, teach us to see the ways in which you are already at work bringing people together and allow us to serve as your co-laborers and ambassadors. Lord, we ask that Intentional People will serve to bring people together in their local context, working alongside you in community. We pray that you will show us those you are raising up to work in your fields - we pray that your Spirit will cultivate those relationships and produce a great harvest. God, Community of Love, we pray that through our work of planting the gospel in north Burleson, we will be aware of the people you bring across our paths - give us eyes to see and ears to hear so that we may make the most of every opportunity.

Be intentional today about looking for people that God may be bringing into your life. Cultivate awareness of those around you - often the only thing that keeps us from being able to have a positive influence for the kingdom in someone else's life is that we simply aren't present in the moment. God is already at work all around us. 

Prayer for Monday, May 23

Community in the Church
God, Community of Love, we are grateful for your Church. We pray that wherever the Church meets, your spirit of community and communitas will be present. Teach us, O Lord, to lay down our selfish ambitions and in humility consider others better than ourselves. We pray that our attitude will be that of Christ Jesus, who did not consider equality with you something to be held on to, but humbled himself and took the form of a servant. We pray that our small community of faith will grow in its influence throughout our region by living openly as your humble servants in community. Let our love for one another display our identity as your disciples; let our testimony of redemption be a proclamation of hope to those we encounter. God, Community of Love, we pray that Intentional People will serve as a resource and encouragement to your Church. We pray that our work will be a pleasing gift to your kingdom, which we believe wholeheartedly is at hand and which we anticipate arriving in fullness in the future.


As we pray today for community in the Church, let us remember that there are local expressions of the Church, but all are connected to the One Body of Christ. We pray that Intentional People will serve to help cultivate the experience of community in local churches through the fostering the experience of communitas (community shaped and formed by shared mission or struggle). Are there ways that your local expression of the church could partner with or benefit from the work of Intentional People? Consider talking with your local leadership about this, or contact me for more information.

Season of Prayer, Week 5

Scripture Passage for Daily Reflection

Acts 4:32-5:42 (NIV, via biblegateway.com)

Thoughts for the Week

This week we make a shift in our prayers together. During our final three weeks of this prayer season we'll still be following the same daily outline and will continue to have an overall theme for the week (partners/community this week, then mission/commission and harvest/fruit in the final two weeks respectively). However, up to this point, our prayers each day have been somewhat general in nature, often pointing each of us to look into our own neighborhood, community or church family. 

We began this way because the goal of Intentional People and our efforts in planting churches are not merely to seek God's blessings on us here. Ours in a kingdom focus; we prayerfully seek the in-breaking of God's reign in all corners of creation. We wanted our first season of prayer to be marked by a concern beyond our own local success or failure.

My prayer is that with a month of this type of communal prayer established, we'll each continue to pray with an eye toward what's happening in our context as well as what others are experiencing as well. 

Going into these last three weeks leading up to the official fundraising launch of Intentional People and our formation of a new missional community in Burleson, I am grateful to have this community of prayer partnering with us. The prayers will focus on specifically lifting up Intentional People and our church plant with regards to the weekly and daily themes. However, I encourage you to continue in practices which lead you into similar connections in your neighborhood.

In Acts 18 there's a story that has been the inspiration for referring to bi-vocational ministry as "tent making." When Paul arrived in Corinth he met some tent makers. Since he was a tent maker also he stayed and worked with them. We get the impression from several of Paul's letters in the new testament that this was one of his common strategies. We know from other passages that his reasoning (at least, in part) for this approach was that he didn't want to give any unbelievers or new believers a reason to claim that he was only ministering to them in order to receive a paycheck - and he also didn't want to be a burden on these young communities, many of which consisted of people who were (or soon would be) struggling themselves. 

There is another common understanding about the value of this type of bi-vocational work. Those who are supported by the system can easily become co-opted by the system. (This was part of what Alan Hirsch shared with Chris and I during our podcast interview - which you can listen to at missionalmonks.com) I worked either part-time or full-time for established churches for a decade before launching into church planting, so I've seen this first-hand. There are many ministers who want to challenge unhealthy aspects of "the system" but since doing so may lead to the unemployment line, they are often pressured to hold back a necessary prophetic challenge. I think this is a valid point in the whole bi-vocational conversation.

However, we live in a broken world where wisdom is often corrupted by sin. In our desire to support ourselves financially so that we can speak truth into the lives of others we can easily begin to remove accountability and connection to others, claiming that we are only accountable to God. While this is technically true, many of us have discovered that without others to keep us focused on Him to whom we answer, we actually begin answering only to ourselves...which is dangerous at best and idolatrous at worst.

It is easy to miss the verse following the "tent making" paragraph. In 18:5 it says "When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah."

When Paul's partners arrived he apparently gave up the bi-vocational approach, at least for a time. Not only did Silas and Timothy's arrival mean friends and co-laborers, it also meant the arrival of financial support from other churches; support that would allow Paul to devote himself exclusively to preaching. Notice that Paul first preached exclusively to the Jews - and it didn't go that well...it says in verse 6, "But when they opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, 'Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles."

Later in the chapter, Paul receives a vision where God says: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.”

No matter how we are supported in ministry, there will be difficulties - but there is strength, blessing, support, encouragement and protection that comes from partners in the community of God.

This week we pray for partners and community. While we desire not to be a burden on those to whom we're reaching (and we pray that Intentional People will very soon fill the bulk of our financial support needs) we do not want to operate in isolation. We are grateful for those of you who are already surrounding us with prayer and encouragement. We pray for those who have partnered with us financially over the last three years and those who will do so in the future. We pray for those who will lend their voices, hands and talents to work with Intentional People in different ways; for the partnerships we're are developing with other organizations and individuals. We are also praying for another church planting family to join us in our work in Burleson. 

We're already blessed to have friends and co-laborers in this area who are going out with us; a community of faith sharing life on mission with God. As we begin planting the gospel in new neighborhoods, we also pray that God will raise up a family trained and called to ministry that can help with teaching, community organizing, guidance and training of others in discipleship, etc.

We are also praying for the possibility of one or more partnering churches with whom we can enjoy a relationship of mutual edification and support. 

Thank you for joining with us in lifting these prayers to the Father.

Prayers for Sunday - God the Community of Love

God, Community of Love, in the beginning you created the heavens and the earth, but before the beginning, you were. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we acknowledge you, the Three-in-One as the source of our longing for community and connection to others. Holy God, as we long to understand how we are to live as the gathered church in community, we have to look no further than to your revealed nature; as we seek wisdom in living as your scattered church in the midst of the larger community, we have to look no further than to your revealed activities. Since the very beginning Lord you have sent yourself repeatedly into our midst. In the darkness you have been there with us, a guide, companion, protector and friend. Lord, we pray that you will guide the work of Intentional People as it seeks to encourage and inspire your children to live bold lives of adventure on mission with you. God, we pray that you will lead us into the neighborhoods of north Burleson and the south Fort Worth area to plant the gospel in community. We follow you with full confidence that where your seeds of hope are planted, healthy churches will grow up by your power. Bless us O God, Community of Love, for in you alone does true community find its origin.

This week our prayers are focused on partners and community - both for Intentional People and our new church planting work. In addition to the communal prayers, would you take a few moments each day to ask God to raise up partners for us? We need financial partners, prayer partners (we thank you for already serving in that capacity), and others who will serve as resources and collaborators in different ways, according to their gifts. With regards to our church planting work, we are praying for one or more partnering churches, with whom we can have a mutually edifying relationship and we are also seeking another church planting family to join us in this work.

The Power of Discernment

I’ve learned a lot about discernment over the last few years. Being a wise, discerning person is something to which I’ve always aspired. When I was very young I was taught the story of King Solomon asking God for wisdom. I was told then that this is a gift that we can ask for and God will always give it. Perhaps my motives were less than saintly (as most of my motives tend to be) but that seemed like a pretty sweet deal...I wasn’t going to pass up on asking for something that I would definitely receive.

Over the years I’ve continued to ask God for wisdom and discernment, and to be honest, I struggle with how to have humble confidence - see my last post - on whether or not this prayer has been answered. I feel that God is teaching me to see what’s going on around me, but I’m always a little nervous having confidence in myself. One of my greatest insecurities is the fear that I lack self-awareness - that I’m actually like Michael Scott in The Office and have no idea how people really see me.

A few years back, a friend commented on the value of communities of discernment - which was a new term to me at the time. He went on to explain that wise people take matters of discernment to their community and do not get overly confident in an answer before it has been subjected to prayer with others. This seemed wise.

Since that time, I’ve had several opportunities to engage in discernment processes with others - sometimes it is formally structured, sometimes less so - but each time the goal is to seek God’s guidance together.

This is going to be somewhat vague as I’m not ready to put specifics on the interweb just yet... but recently there was an issue that I’d been wrestling over for months, seemingly to no avail. I simply could not find any peace. The whole thing was causing me to feel disconnected - spiritually, emotionally, relationally - as if I was just floating along with little purpose or meaningful interactions in my life. I tried to approach the issue in prayer, with study, with logic, with imagination...but solutions continued to evade my grasp.

Finally, it seemed that I was discerning a response from God. It wasn’t as though God were sitting on the couch telling me what to do. But there was a response that kept coming back in my mind over and over and I felt like I understood that to which it was calling.

Typically this type of realization brings a sense of peace, even if the answer itself isn’t what I expected or thought I wanted. But this time I just wasn’t feeling it. I want to be faithful to the Spirit’s guidance, and this seemed to be just that...so why couldn’t I feel at peace with it?

I began making plans to take this issue to my community.

In the meantime, I continued to pray. I talked the matter over with Rachel, and she prayed.

Then, as I worked an over-night security shift, I spent time reading through the book of Acts and had some things stand out in very confrontational ways - ways which seemed to conflict with what I thought I was hearing. It wasn’t that what I thought I was hearing was in conflict with Scripture per se, but what I felt it was calling me to seemed counter to how this passage called out to my heart.

First thing in the morning I received an email from Rachel, with a text she’d read that morning and the comment, “I think this was actually meant for you.” Though it was a completely different context, the message was very much the same as what I’d gleaned from Acts the night before.

That afternoon I had a brief conversation with a professor friend of mine who made some seemingly random comments which once again connected with the previous night’s reading.

The next day I talked with my friend Anthony and asked him to comment on the initial issue of discernment. I didn’t go into the events of the previous couple days. He has been a trusted friend, coach and counselor for the past three years and knows my situation as well as just about anyone. His response, after hearing what I’d felt God was saying in the initial piece of discernment was basically, “I think you’re on to something, but maybe you’re interpreting it wrong.”

As soon as he said that, all the pieces fell into place. The scripture passages, the conversations with Rachel and Elaine, my own lack of peace...it all made more sense. Through this continued process and struggle with communal discernment it became apparent that the Spirit was leading me in a certain direction and I’d misinterpreted what that meant on a practical level.

And here’s where the whole process seems to get confirmation. Since those conversations, I haven’t really changed much of what I’m doing day-to-day, but suddenly doors for connection and conversation have been swinging open left and right. In the past couple weeks friendships have deepened - often at the other’s instigation - and people I barely know have sought me out for one reason or another. I’ve been given the honor of being asked to walk through confusing, painful and even frightening situations with people who have not known me long enough to trust me...or maybe they haven’t known me long enough NOT to trust me! ;)

My schedule is still just as hectic and stressful, an issue that needs to be addressed, but I’m not feeling so disconnected and lacking peace.

I’d love to know whether this experience resonates with your own. Have you had similar times of struggle and discernment? What was it that helped you find peace? How did you go about listening to the Spirit?

The New Individualism?

Isolation in Communal Clothing

The following represents my own internal struggle with experiencing community and how “church” is faithfully lived out. I am often torn between expressions of the gathered and scattered church; it is sometimes difficult to see how best to faithfully live into both sides of the coin. If you think my depiction of disciple-making in “organic” missional contexts doesn’t describe you...you’re probably right. I’m not setting out to describe you. I’m working through my own inconsistencies. However, it is my prayer that my journey is beneficial to others, if only to help you feel a little better about your own pathology! :)

A friend recently commented on how often I write about community while carrying certain burdens on my own. He’s right, I repent.

I'm sure there are a number of reasons why that is the case, but I must begin by acknowledging the most obvious - I am drawn to write about community out of my desire and longing, not the expertise of experience. And I need to continue addressing that longing in my own life.

I know community is messy and dangerous. I have seen that first-hand. And sometimes, as much as I want to enter it anyway, I’m still guilty of holding back. Whether its from fear or my introverted personality doesn't really matter. That my fears are based in real-life experience is of no consequence, I need to embrace community more fully.

I do want to say that I use the word “sometimes” intentionally. This is something I’m aware of and have tried to address. It is far from dealt with, but that doesn’t mean its being avoided.

I’ve written/said before that it seems many of us are drawn to certain things not because of gifting and success but rather because of need and failure. We may be drawn to champion and lead a program like Celebrate Recovery not because we’ve seen how well it sets people free from different addictions but because we recognize that we ourselves still struggle with addictive tendencies. We may be drawn to contemplative spiritual disciplines NOT because we are that contemplative but precisely because we are frenetic and undisciplined.

Similarly we may well be drawn to things like community and missional engagement because we are withdrawn and isolated.

When we feel a powerful draw to critique a particular vice, we should consider carefully how that vice is manifested in our lives. It is easy to see our own dysfunctions played out in others, even when we cannot see them in ourselves. So, perhaps when we can clearly see a dysfunction is someone or a group of someones, we should carefully examine how that the same dysfunction may well be plaguing our own life in some way.

So maybe, in a strange way, I am an expert on community. Not in that I have the course mapped out, but because I am acutely aware of the pain caused by its absence. First and foremost, I need to continue addressing the need for connection to others in my own life. And I will.

However, first and foremost does not mean solely and completely.

My own need for community and connection to something larger than myself - namely the Body of Christ and the Kingdom of God (two separate but closely related things) - is perhaps more than just a personal deficiency. In 2 Corinthians, Paul tells us of his own experience in learning that our weaknesses are the venue for God’s power to be made known (12:9 grossly paraphrased). This means lots of things, perhaps including that through our own weaknesses, God reveals where the Spirit is at work - not only in our own lives, but in the Church and in all creation.

Those who know me well are aware that I struggle with the current tendency to reject anything that appears structured or organized. On the one hand, I agree and lend my voice to the symphony of critiques against the overly-programmed approach to church that dominates the landscape.

I agree that when we connect with a group of people, the compulsion to get them out of the place we found them and into a worship assembly can be quite destructive.

I see the wisdom of coming alongside people and helping them become devoted disciples without extracting them from the places where they already have relationships.

I agree that too often we’ve failed to help people become disciples of Jesus right where they are and instead converted them to CHURCHianity...effectively converting them to passive consumption of religious goods and services.

I get all that.

However, I fear that we (I) may run the risk of getting the emperor to run around naked in more appropriate places...while still convinced he’s wearing clothes.

Is it possible that those of us who used to function as “professional clergy” in a context where people were dependent on us for their spiritual feeding, haven’t really changed the script all that much? Could it be the case that we’re still doing the same thing when we attempt to cultivate discipleship relationships that are cut off from a body of believers? Here’s a possible test: what happens in the life of the new disciple when (not if) we drop the ball in the relationship? Even if there’s another person or two in the mix, is it the case that when it gets difficult to juggle our schedule and we miss a couple opportunities for coffee or beer that we’re still fine...but they’re not?

This, for me, is why church planting is still important (or connection to a church, new or established). It is good to talk about planting the gospel. It is good to recognize that “church” happens along the way, during the week. But, while we cannot ignore the need for the scattered church, the gathered church still has an important function and one that we should feel compelled to share with new friends as well as old.

This does not mean that everyone needs to be plugged into a traditional church, with well-funded programs and paid staff (though perhaps we shouldn’t discount the reality that some disciples may still flourish in those contexts). It does not mean that everyone we meet and develop relationship with should be coerced into gathering in one place each week.

But it does mean that part of inviting people to follow Jesus is introducing them to the Body of Christ. It is God’s design that humans experience life in community, and disciples experience the life of faith in a community of faith.

This may mean that a church is born in a local pub, or on the lake or wherever. It may mean that people you connect with do not worship with your community on Sunday.

But, it also means that they do need a worshipping community beyond your occasional contact...and for true discipleship to take place, there needs to be an expectation that they will invite others to come and see this Jesus as well.

We can bemoan the “numbers” focus all we want, but we can’t forget that those numbers represent individual people who are loved by God...people that God desires to be reconciled to, and whom the Spirit has been working in long before we came along.

So, yes, church happens “on the way,” and we are inviting people to more than an event. The kingdom of God is about more than the church, but it isn’t about less. If the worshipping community is important to us, why would it be unimportant to new disciples?

Previous Thoughts Revisited

In keeping with the themes of my previous post - namely the themes of community and revisiting things I've written before - I thought I'd repost these thoughts on community, originally posted on this blog over a year ago...

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer once talked about our desire for community; he noted that many people love the IDEA of community more than the experience itself. Why is that?

To speak simply about a complex matter: Actual community is messy.

When we think about community we begin to realize how great it would be to have others to walk through the trials of life with. It would be wonderful to have someone(s) to join us in those things that stoke our passion and vision. It would be great to have the synergy that comes from people sharing talents and resources. We know that it is not good for people to be alone and community seems to be part of God’s answer to the dark and oppressive prison of isolation.

And the great thing is that all of this is true.

But...

Community doesn’t happen in a vacuum, it happens in the context of life with real, actual human people...all of whom carry around their wounds, flaws and smelly baggage. So, getting close to others (an unavoidable requirement to cultivate community) means that we can see their flaws and smell their baggage.

And they can see ours.

So there are lots of people who know they need community; people who realize that they can’t deal with all of life’s curve balls alone. Many of those people are seeking to fill that hole of loneliness.

For many young people the desire to join gangs is a desire to find a family that will accept them and be loyal to them. This is the pull of the drug and party culture...as long as you’re partying you’re usually accepted. And for a while this seems like community.

Until you get arrested and no one from the party shows up at your hearing.

...Or until you run out of money and no one who you smoke with helps you pay the electric bill - even though you can’t pay the electric bill because they smoked most of your weed or drank most of your beer.

...Or until you try to leave the life of violence and that same gang that welcomed you in refuses to let you out.

But these aren’t the only folks who find it difficult to cultivate authentic community. Many of us have sought community in very healthy ways. There are lots of larger churches that hire a Community Connections Minister - people whose sole responsibility is finding ways for their congregation to connect with their community and for visitors and new members to connect to the congregation.

Christ Journey is dedicated to the cultivation of real, deep and true community. And guess what we’ve found? It is hard. It is messy. Sometimes, it is dangerous.

People let us down. People who we love hurt us. People we love are hurt by us and we let them down.

We try to reach out and our efforts are not reciprocated. We invest in someone and love them and then they move.

We trust someone enough to let our guard down and be vulnerable and they betray our trust in one way or another.

Or we do one or all of these to others. Sometimes unwittingly and sometimes because our sin and selfishness are just a little too deeply ingrained.

Community is hard because of all of this. Its also hard because we begin taking on the hurts of those we love. Our friends go through a separation or divorce and we feel a bit of that pain. A home is foreclosed on and it feels like it was our own house. We see a young single mother struggling to keep all the plates spinning and also go back to school so that she won’t be stuck in poverty and continue this cycle for another generation...and we want to pick up all the plates, but we don’t know how.

We can’t make the marriage work, we can’t pay the mortgage, we can only help so much. And we begin to think, “It was easier when the answer to ‘how ya doing?’ was a simple, ‘fine, and you?’”

We begin to think, it was easier when I just occupied a pew and there was no expectation that I would be vulnerable around these people. We begin to say, “things were better in Egypt...” (check out the story of Israel in Exodus and also read Numbers chapter 11).

I understand this fear. Rachel and I have lived with the fear that comes from trusting church after being let down in a major way by church. But, like the prophet Hosea (whose life was meant as a metaphor for God and us) we are called to commit to our community even if we have good reason to suspect we will be betrayed again.

We have to because, as Andy Lancaster commented to me once, “Community is hard, but life is harder.” If we continue to try life without community we will find ourselves constantly retreating from both.

I know that community is hard, but life without it is not easier - unless we hide behind sports, alcohol, addictions, gossip, or any number of other escapist activities and fantasy worlds.

I am so glad to be a part of a church that is trying to cultivate real community. It doesn’t happen overnight and it will never happen (during this leg of the journey) in a complete or perfect way, but at least we don’t have to continue retreating.

Someone once said, “Its not as if we really think we can say anything, but in light of what we’ve seen we can’t say nothing.” Perhaps its the same with community. We may not have much hope for cultivating a perfect community, but in light of what we’ve seen and experienced we can’t sit by and do nothing.

Thank you for being my community.

The Community

I preached this sermon originally in 2009. In its initial form it began with a shorter version of the poetic retelling of the story of creation, fall and redemption. This rewrite was an assignment for the class I took this past January. The intent of this message is to remind the hearers/readers that Scripture is telling a story we’re all struggling to hear naturally and to call us to share that meaningful story of belonging with others.

Before the beginning there was Community. God, the Community of Love, whom we refer to as the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit had a perfect relationship of mutual love and respect. This isn’t to say that there were three gods - there is One God and this God is the essence of Love. Love neither exists nor is it expressed in isolation, it is expressed in community. This God, this Community of Love was not incomplete, the Trinity was and is the fullness of completion. Community needed nothing, Love lacked nothing. Love was eternally expressed within the Community of the One God in Three Persons.

While the Community of Love was not incomplete, neither is God static. The nature of True Community is expansive. It is dynamic. It is always growing and bringing into itself everything around it. The relationship of the Community, being rooted and established in a deep indescribable love, felt compelled to create. For that is what love is and what love does, it continually creates expansive opportunity for love to be expressed.

So God, the Community of Love, created. God brushed away the darkness, stepped into the midst of chaos and brought forth solid foundations. God molded and formed an unbelievably expansive and expanding universe, and then, in an inconspicuous section of all that began to paint with beautiful strokes a landscape that was begging to be enjoyed.

God walked in the garden she had created. She knelt down and from the same material that formed mountains, deserts and jungles; the same material that made up the fish and birds and lions and bugs, she began to mold something new; something that would see and know and laugh and love. She began to form something that would walk with her, that she could teach and love. She formed out of herself - using her own image as a mold and model.

This new thing God was making would be the pinnacle of everything God had created. She would be able to point out the sunrise and this new thing's breath would catch; when a thunderstorm would pass through this new thing would come running to God for protection; he would hold this small creature and explain that everything would be okay.

God formed this living being. He breathed his own life into this thing. The Community of Father, Son and Holy Spirit - the relationship that was full, complete and needed nothing - invited these new small frail children to share this powerful community. And it was so very good.

God could have formed these creatures without the ability to choose their course. That was a decision that God made with the stars and planets and mountains and streams. None of these had been given the freedom to choose - planets and moons are in their orbit and have no ability to decide to do otherwise. Mountains are tall and strong but they will never think, "I want to be a valley now." Gravity does not consider whether it will influence objects or not.

This decision allowed the universe to be orderly, but it also ensured that no planet would ever decide to write a song about the Father. True, God created great beauty in the planet, a beauty which is itself a kind of song, but it isn’t a song that the planet created in response to its Creator. In humanity, God has created something which is able to create as God creates - not on the same level; neither as equal nor rival, but as something which understands, as God does and because God does, that when love is present beautiful things result.

The children could not be like the stars or the trees, they had to be able to choose.

Some say that God was disobeyed and so his wrath was stirred. I think its much more sad and tragic than that. The Lord had created these children to live in the trusting, loving relationship that she enjoyed as herself; God had created room for the Community of Love to be experienced. In the moment of choice, the creation rejected both Community and Love. The course of the Story was altered from its intended trajectory.

This crisis was devastating and cataclysmic, but it would not have the last word. It WILL not have the last word. Even in the midst of great crisis, when Creation rejected the relationship of love and community and instead launched into selfishness and isolation...The Creator continued going to his creation. He called a man named Abraham and made a covenant with him. The Lord God blessed Abraham and promised that through him all peoples on earth would be blessed...in fact, all of creation would be blessed.

As the children of Israel continued year after year to cycle through seasons of confusion and clarity, The Lord kept going back to them seeking to restore and reconcile community with her creation. He patiently taught and corrected and reminded and invited and urged and groaned and pleaded. The Community could not stand to see creation languishing in isolation.

The sending relationship with great leaders and the inspiration of great prophets continued until the Community of Love decided that ambassadors would no longer suffice. Once again, God would walk in the garden with his creation. Once again the missionary God sent himself - which is the nature of true love and true community. And Jesus the Christ walked among us.

Jesus gathered a community around himself and continually invited the broken, overlooked, forgotten and oppressed to rejoice because the Community of God was at hand; it was here and they were invited in.

When the time came for Jesus to return to the Father, the Spirit was sent. The Spirit wasn’t sent to wander aimlessly. She came to form and cultivate community in the Church in anticipation of experiencing Community on earth as it is in heaven. The Spirit called for the community of believers to be sent to the ends of the earth; continuing the ministry to which Jesus had dedicated himself, continuing the ministry to which God had called Abraham, continuing the ministry which God initiated in the first garden, continuing the Act that began in the beginning, continuing the character of the One who was Community before the beginning. The missionary God who sends herself as Love has sent us in like fashion...

We see it everyday in a thousand ways. Walking down the fluorescent lit halls of our high school, they’re there...whispering, judging, huddled together like the impenetrable phalanx of Spartan warriors. Enter any public space: a bar, the mall, a dark alley...even most church buildings and there they are again. Notice your friends, yourself even, and perhaps you will recognize with astonishment that they are still present...even in the mirror.

Sometimes they give themselves a name and go to battle against other theys - sometimes with tanks, sometimes with machetes and assault rifles, sometimes with stolen firearms and knives, sometimes with words.

They are us. Humanity. Struggling to find meaning and belonging in the midst of a deeply scarred and broken world. Whether we’re talking about nations, religions, factions, gangs, fraternities or cliques the dynamic is the same. We long for connection and as I once heard someone say, “when we’re dying of thirst we’ll gladly drink water we know is poisonous.”

The story of Scripture - our story - reveals that this longing is natural, it was placed within us in the very act of creation by a God who exists in community.

We miss the power of the Story when we make it about rules and retribution, about medieval honor codes and penal substitution. We miss the story altogether when we make it about justifying our desperate groupings’ existence at the expense of another’s.

The Story is about the God who created out of love and is compelled by that same love to heal, reconcile and restore...The Story not only explains the origins of our longing, but also describes the landscape of those longings fulfilled. The story gives us a hope-full picture not only of an alternative vision of existence than that in which we currently dwell, but also of the lengths to which God is going to make that existence a tangible reality...on earth as it is in heaven.

This is a story worth telling. It is the story we long for...it is the story that yearns to be told. It is the story that sheds light on and deserves to replace every tale of mangled attempt at connection. It is the story that explains why we will kill to belong to a group...and calls us instead to die in order to find true belonging.

And because the story so deeply important, it is not a story that can be controlled and retold merely by a select few. It is your story, it is my story. We each have a unique translation and we are each called to share this story, through our presence and through our proclamation, with those we meet as we go along.

The Missionary God who sends Godself as Love has sent us in like fashion.

Thoughts from the New Orleans Airport...

Most of my travel these days involves long drives back and forth between Oklahoma City and Burleson. However, today I had the chance to fly down for a brief trip to New Orleans (landed at 8:40 this morning, heading home at 3:30). I performed a wedding for a young couple that I've known since we lived here and I was honored when they asked me to play a role in the sacred act of covenanting with one another in this way. Eating at The House of Blues was nice too...

Congratulations Jeffrey and Ashley LeBlanc, I pray (and believe) that you are entering into a lifetime of dwelling together with God.

Now I'm sitting in the airport terminal and for the first time in what seems like years, I have a few minutes to stop moving - which for me always means that my little brain has a chance to reengage momentarily.

A while back I posted a short story about a time that Conner helped Rachel and I think through the value of not marrying your sister...I know, sounds weird, but read about it here before you throw up in your mouth.

I realized through that exchange with my perceptive little six year-old that what is true in our families in marriage is also true for the church - we are meant to grow by grafting new people into our family tree rather than just being content to go from generation to generation with the same folks to whom we were already related.

We’ve had some experiences lately that have been bringing me back to that conversation. Over the last nine months or so, Rachel and I have been blessed to grow closer to the Chappotins through a deeper commitment to community born out of time of darkness and shared struggle (you may hear us refer to an experience such as this as "communitas"...which we have shamelessly stolen from Alan Hirsch). We’ve shared some intensive readings, periods of discernment, regular meals and missional excursions into our neighborhood. Its been great.

Recently Rachel and I began a similar process of scripture reading and discernment with my brother Adam and his wife Caroline. Each day we each read and meditate on a short passage of scripture (drawing on Eugene Peterson’s devotional guide, Solo) and then as we are struck with different realizations we send them around to everyone via email, face-to-face and phone conversations. This was one of the more powerful community building experiences that we’ve been through with Chris and Heidi, and I have to admit, I think its having a similar effect with Adam and Caroline.

Its cool because we haven’t moved on from our relationship with the Chappotins, we’ve simply embraced an opportunity to cultivate similar experiences with another couple. Realizing that we can actually count on friendships growing deeper through an honest process like this, I can’t help but wonder who God will bring us closer with next.

I encourage you to consider something like this with others in your community. They could be neighbors (followers of Jesus or not...wrestling with doubt and insecurity about passages is an important part of this process anyway), family members, co-workers...anybody. I feel confident that if you do, and are honest with each other, it will have impacts that you could never have anticipated. We don’t have to settle for surface level, transactional relationships anymore.

In his book, A Community Called Atonement, author Scot McKnight declares that whatever is true about the eventual fully realized kingdom of God, our atonement should prepare us for such a reality. In other words, we begin to live into that reality now, hopefully with increasing frequency and depth.

Jesus has instituted a new kingdom and a new kind of community...don’t make the mistake of thinking you have to wait for the resurrection to begin experiencing it. The resurrection is already beginning, we just have to open our eyes to the new reality.

The Traveling Companion: episode 4

I just started my next to last class for my D.Min at Perkins - Spiritual Leadership in Missional Churches. One of our assignments is to keep a journal during the 2 weeks of class. I decided to blog mine...

I really like my boys’ names. I know, I better, right? But really, I do. Each of their names are significant and meaningful. All of our boys carry the Wells family name, which of course I was proud to pass on to them, but that isn’t the extent of it.

Conner is Rachel’s mother’s maiden name. With the recent passing of MeeMaw and PeePaw - people who were not only formative in the lives of Rachel and her family, but also in my own life and that of our boys - I am so proud that my oldest son will carry their mark in a special way for the rest of his life. His middle name, Allan, is my middle name as well. Its strange, I didn’t like that name as a kid, but now I feel much differently about it.

Micah was a great prophet and I have always loved the passage in Micah 6:8

“ He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

This was made all the more important to us when we learned that it was PeePaw’s favorite verse as well. Micah’s middle name, Eason, is my mother’s maiden name. I think its pretty cool that our boys have imbedded in their identity a reminder that all families are examples of God’s reconciling work of uniting people who were previously strangers.

Josiah was a good king...I hope that our little assassin will also use his powers for good! In Israel’s history there are very kings that come across well in Scripture and Josiah was one of them. I hope that my son, a child of the king, will follow in the footsteps of his namesake (except for the ill-advised battle against the Egyptian army...). His middle name, Christopher, is also my little brother’s middle name - a name which I had the honor of choosing for Adam too. (Actually I think it was more my stubborn insistence and a mother’s relenting, but that’s another story!)

Naming has always carried great significance - both relationally and often prophetically. Today in class we watched a movie - The Secret Life of Bees - and there is a powerful scene where a community bestows a new name on a young lady who has experienced a long and difficult journey toward healing and redemption. The naming not only signifies new life and a new chapter in her story, but it also communicates her acceptance into the community...into the family.

Look at the number of times in Scripture that God gives someone a new name - Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, Jacob to Israel, Saul to Paul just to name some of the big ones. In each case this is about more than just a new driver’s license. Rachel took my name when we were married, signifying that no longer did we represent two separate clans, but were now one family. This name she accepted as her own was one that was offered to me when my own Dad adopted me into his family. None of these situations were insignificant.

The giving or changing of a name is a change of life. It is new life. And that is part of what makes community so powerful. Even if we don’t legally change someone’s name, a commitment to devoted community bestows new identity. When we choose to throw in our lot with a people something significant occurs. In our society it is all too common to devalue this incredibly sacred decision. Abba Antony said, “Wherever you find yourself, do not easily leave there.” I believe that it is time for us to reclaim the value of stability and choosing to remain connected to a community, to embrace and live into our name.

As a society we are lonely and scurry around busily searching for meaning and significance. If we will slow down and invest in the people around us we may find that God has been waiting to use those broken and flawed people to teach us precisely what we’ve been searching for.

Helping the Church Be the Church: Part IV - Longing for Spring

The timing has been atrocious. I'm struggling to move into a bi-vocational approach to church planting. I'm working insane hours trying to keep the plates spinning and have seen a few come crashing down lately. In the midst of this circus I'm reading a whole list of books and writing a somewhat lengthy paper for SMU. Typically, I like to set regular time aside to process through books of this nature - especially a long list that work together somehow. Time to read and process is a bit of a luxury these days.

Even though it has been hard to keep up with the self-inflicted pace, the books have been phenomenal. I've posted a few excerpts from my paper and introduced a few of these books. This weekend I'm trying to finish sections 5 and 6 so that I can work on 7 and 8 next week.

Here is the introduction to the section covering a short, but incredibly helpful book by my professor, Elaine Heath. If anyone has read this (or any of the others I've referenced) please share your thoughts as well.

Longing For Spring: A New Vision for Wesleyan Community by Elaine Heath and Scott Kisker.

Though addressed largely to a Wesleyan audience, Heath and Kisker have issued a call to the church at large with this short book. Perhaps what is most striking is the clear conviction that something new is possible, even within reach, for established churches. The formation of new monastic communities does not have to be seen as competition or rebellion, it can be embraced as a faithful and powerful ministry of the church, with deep roots in our various traditions.

Regardless of one’s denominational affiliation Longing for Spring provides an apology for continued connection between the established church and more organic expressions that many have sought to cultivate. In the forward, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove notes that, “as we learn to navigate a rising tide, we are all increasingly aware of the degree to which we are in the same boat.”

If the book, New Monasticism, (written about here) addressed the question of what the new monastic movement has to say to the church, then this book begins to describe ways in which that conversation can bear fruit in the church.

The desire for authentic community and the call to live out whole-life discipleship beyond membership in an organization are in no way new impulses in Christianity.

As others have done before, Longing for Spring explores some of the different expressions that have arisen throughout our history, from the Benedictines and Beguines to Pietists and notably, the early Methodists. Herein lies a subject often apparently overlooked in both monastic and missional literature.

The semi-monastic structure of bands and class meetings in early Methodism contained several components that are essential to the cultivation of authentic community. The “bands” were small, gender and life-situation specific groups that met together regularly for prayer and confession. The Wesley brothers developed this discipleship tool from what they encountered among the Moravians in America.

The mutual accountability and humility fostered by these bands were reminiscent of the more intentional monastic communities previously mentioned.

The class meetings were even more central to the formation of Methodist community. Though attendance had decreased since the mid-19th century, until 1939 participation in these meetings officially defined membership the society. Because the classes were lay led, the beginning of localized clergy in Methodism marked the gradual ending the class meetings’ significance.

The relatively short span of monastic influence in Methodism may be to blame for its relative obscurity outside Methodist circles. However, the demise of the class meetings may well have something of great value to teach us all regarding monastic and missional community.

I find no reason to suspect that anyone within the denominational hierarchy sought to discourage the monastic impulses in Methodism by moving away from a truly itinerant preacher system. However, Kisker notes that with the arrival of localized clergy, people could go straight to him with their questions, and the lay led class system slowly (depending on perspective) lost its efficacy. Would the effect have been different had the localized preacher been called from the congregation rather than placed from the outside through a still somewhat itinerant system?

Whether a different process would have still affected class participation can be debated. It seems less debatable that, in the given case, there is a clear connection between the presence of ordained clergy and a decrease in the “regular” disciples’ participation in monastic commitments. Stated another way, the localization of clergy appears in this case to be correlated with an increase in a more passive consumer approach to religion.

I do not think there is enough evidence here to suggest that having ordained or trained ministers located in a community will universally lead to lower levels of whole-life discipleship. However, Kisker’s brief historical sketch does clearly suggest that we should think carefully about the impact our models of leader selection and preparation may have on future generations of disciples, particularly if we desire to see an increase in missional and monastic characteristics.

Reflections

I'm writing the Cultural Analysis section of my Theology of Ministry paper and I've been looking through things I've written in the past (primarily blog posts, papers and journal entries for online classes). I'm trying to find different comments and studies of culture and suburban life since I don't have my books here...

Anyway, I came across this assignment from a class I took while we were in Mandeville. The class, Engaging Contemporary Culture, was meant to help students learn to...never mind, you can figure that out. This particular paper was a part of a series of assignments meant to help us become aware of the things we encounter regularly but uncritically. 

Its interesting to read this because it chronicled an important time in my development - it was during this season that I was becoming aware that God had called me to connect with people outside of the church where I served!

Anyway, I thought it was interesting and worth posting. If you disagree, then go re-read the May quotes on the Wellsbrothers blog...maybe you should do that regardless...

Starbucks in Particular

Mandeville, LA - Fall 2007

A year ago things were very different. Life here was incredibly hectic, harried, stressful, and unpredictable – it was the most insane environment I’d ever witnessed. It is still quite stressful here, but most everything else is different.

We were a church of over 150 and recovering (down from 230 pre-Katrina) – we now run around 100. The lower numbers are due to what can only be described as a church split, but in reality one large, power-driven family led a failed coup attempt, took their toys and left…about 40 of them (we also had several families move out of state this fall). 

When that family left, they took a lot of the “ick” with them – there were literally folks whispering in corners on Sunday mornings, secret meetings that led to ultimatums being sent to the elders demanding the resignation of the whole leadership and the installment of their family members…very ugly. Now, things are pretty quiet. 

There were 3 ministers on staff including myself (I was just a temporary associate minister brought in to help following the storm). The youth minister resigned because things were so ugly and he was tired of getting caught in the middle (among other things of course). Then the preacher left too. Now I’m here alone in a building we can barely pay for, with a congregation full of people who work on the other side of the lake…

So I spend most of my time at Starbucks.

I go to Starbucks for several reasons. First, I don’t care what some “anti” folks say, I think the coffee is really good – it’s considerably better than CC’s – the Louisiana version of Starbucks. Second, I enjoy the atmosphere – the people who work here are pleasant, the music isn’t too loud, the place smells good, they know my name and what I like to drink…it’s enjoyable. But the biggest reason: there are always people here. 

Our church building is empty (when I moved here we were housing disaster relief volunteers – there were between 20 and 200 volunteers in the building 7 days a week) and the phone doesn’t ring often. We’ve got around 10 families in pretty serious crisis right now, so I check in on them. But most everyone else is busy with their lives and I see them on Sunday and Wednesday.

I like studying and preparing lessons around other people. There have been countless conversations overheard that have inspired or helped me with a class or sermon. There have been numerous conversations entered into that provide me with encouragement to continue. And so I go (not everyday, but often), I watch, I listen and sometimes I even talk.

As I find at seat in one of the hard back chairs at the community table (which is what I call the large table with a power strip in the middle…it’s the only table where people feel comfortable sitting down when another person is already there) I usually set up my computer before ordering (grande medium roast, grande non-fat latte or triple-grande non-fat latte…depending on the severity of the need for caffeine). After I get my drink I let the computer “warm up” for about 5 minutes before trying to do anything – it seems to operate more efficiently when I do that…its probably in my head.

During that time I love to see who is there. There is the old guy from Church of the King (the very big charismatic church in town) who will want to engage you in redundant conversations about the Bible if you aren’t careful. I know it seems weird, but I don’t like talking to him – its very difficult to have a meaningful conversation with someone who seems to always either be speaking in clichés or trying to get a fix for how well you line up theologically.

Then there are usually 5 or 6 business folks either having actual meetings or holding meetings over the phone while scanning the internet. Steve has really good stories, but hates his job as a pharmaceutical rep. I like Steve. He always asks me lots of questions about church (usually more logistical and practical rather than theological) and then seems interested enough in my answers to have a conversation. 

There’s also Melissa, who is one of the managers, but I’ve seen her more often this week just coming in for coffee and to talk to the other manager and the employees. They like Melissa. I think they like her because her kindness seems genuine rather than the required politeness of management at an image conscious coffee shop. I saw her in Wal-Mart with her two kids on Saturday – she was nice to me, which is interesting because moms with kids at Wal-Mart are rarely in the mood to be nice. 

I really noticed the ceilings and walls for the first time this week. They’re really layered – nothing is flat. There are multiple sections of drop-ceiling which are all at different heights and each with lights. Then there are hanging lights which are also suspended at different heights. The walls have sections that stick out or are recessed and are several different colors. All of this serves to create a very “lived in” feel – not sterile like our office…I guess that’s another reason I like being there. 

I had never spent any real amount of time considering the architecture of Starbucks – I’d noticed before that they were decorated to feel inviting, like a living room at a really cool person’s house…I don’t know very many really cool people, so I haven’t been in many cool people’s houses, but if I did, I bet their living rooms would look like that.

But the layered effect is really effective. It is interesting what architects and designers can accomplish with space. I wish we took that more seriously in our church buildings – not that we should spend incredible amounts of money on “contemporary” architectural design…but maybe we could at least give “space” a little more consideration.

I felt a little silly, but at one point in this whole ordeal I found myself affected emotionally and spiritually by the stinking ceiling in Starbucks. But I guess that’s the point of this little “exercise” in normalcy...

As I read that post written around the end of a dark, difficult but important time in my life, I am struck by the way that community was beginning to become a controlling theme. Today the understanding of God as the Community of Love is one of the primary lenses through which I view most of what happens in life and ministry. 

Okay, enough nostalgia, back to paper writing!