I Pledge Allegiance....

With the fourth of July coming up next week my thoughts have been turning more and more to the relation between the church and the state. I have been having several conversations with various people about the role of the church and the role of the state. I've been thinking about how many people in the "Church in America" have bowed the knee to the God of nationalism. I recently found some interesting news pieces regarding people and schools refusing to sing the national anthem or say the pledge of allegiance....here are some of those links..http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/06/07/national-anthem-banned-at-mennonite-colleges-sporting-events-sparking-outcry/ and http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/26/my-faith-why-i-dont-sing-the-star-spangled-banner/ Now before I go any further I do want to say that I am glad that I live in America where I am free to practice my faith in the way that I choose, and that others have the right to practice their faith or beliefs or even no religious faith at all. I am glad that we have the rights that we do and I wouldn't change that for the world. I'm glad that i was born here. But that doesn't mean that I have to agree with everything that the government does. I also have problems with the National Anthem and the militaristic language within the song, and I'm not sure that I would even be comfortable saying the Pledge of Allegiance due to the fact that my allegiance isn't with my country but first and foremost with Jesus and the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God takes precedence over the Kingdom of the world, the empire, and by definition, the United States.

I had a conversation with someone the other day about their churches practice in regards to the American Flag and Patriotic songs during worship services. He said he had long time members say that the American flag has to be on the stage (in their contemporary worship space). I am okay with having the American Flag in a church building, as long as that flag is also standing beside the flags of other countries like Iraq, Palestine, China, etc.. But I'm not okay with singing patriotic songs during a worship service. I don't believe patriotic and nationalistic songs have any place in the worshipping community because when we gather we gather with the church universal. With brothers and sisters from other countries, other languages, and from places which our government considers our enemies. But these believers from other lands are not my enemies, they are my brothers and sisters in the Lord, and that takes precedence over what my country says about them.

I want my life to reflect the King and his Kingdom more than the empire of the United States. I want my allegiance to be with Jesus, the liberating King who has come to free us from sin, death, and destruction and redeem us for his glory. Solders did die so that I could live in a free land....but Jesus died so that I could be totally free, which sacrifice means more?

I guess in closing and to sum it up, I can say it better than with the lyrics to the song "A King and a Kingdom" by Derek Webb...

who's your brother, who's your sister you just walked passed him i think you missed her as we're all migrating to the place where our father lives 'cause we married in to a family of immigrants

my first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man my first allegiance is not to democracy or blood it's to a king & a kingdom

there are two great lies that i’ve heard: “the day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will not surely die” and that Jesus Christ was a white, middle-class republican and if you wanna be saved you have to learn to be like Him

but nothing unifies like a common enemy and we’ve got one, sure as hell but he may be living in your house he may be raising up your kids he may be sleeping with your wife oh no, he may not look like you think

I will pledge allegiance to a King and his Kingdom. How bout you? Who or what are you pledging your allegiance to?

Church as Movie Trailer

The other day I was working out at Planet Fitness and while riding the stationary bike I was watching and listening to a video of Michael Frost at Dallas Theological Seminary. In the video Frost was talking about an idea that really struck a chord with me. He likened the role of church and each Christ follower as being a trailer to a movie. He said Imagine that the Kingdom coming in its fullest is the greatest blockbuster of all time, than what we get to do is point to the "movie" with our lives. We become the trailer that points to a great reality. He said that when you go to the theater and they play previews you watch people after each one lean over to the person they are with and say, "That looks good. Do you want to see that one?" Our lives (both as individuals and as a community) need to be lived in such a way (being people of love, peace, grace, mercy, justice, compassion, etc..) that people will want to see the movie of the Kingdom coming in its fullness.

Here is a video that I found of Frost talking about the Church as Movie Trailer...

Revise Us Again: Living from a Renewed Christian Script

The other week I receive the book Revise Us Again by Frank Viola from Speak Easy (a blogging for books program). It took me a while to get through it do to all my recent travels (Orlando for church planters conference, Richmond, VA for another conference, and Orlando for Disney). The authors intent on writing this book is spelled out on the back jacket. It says, "Viola believes we need to revisit and revise what it means to live the Christian life." He then lays out 10 areas which are vital to our life in Christ. These ten are, Revising our Awareness of the Divine, Revising Christian Code language, Revising the Holy Spirit's Ministry, Revising Christenese, Revising the Lord's Voice, Revising our Spiritual Expectations, Revising our attitudes, Revising our Chief Pursuit, Revising our message, and Revising our semantics.

Whether it was the way that I read the book (throughout a month chopped up in little time pieces) or something else, I just couldn't seem to get into this book and was trying to figure out what Viola was hoping to accomplish with this book. It's not that I didn't like the book or get something out of it. It just seemed to me to be disjointed (though again it could be from the way that I read it...a bit disjointed myself).

I would say the best chapter in my opinion was Revising our Awareness of the Divine. The quote that resonated with me (especially since I had just got done being at Disney which took most of my time and energy) was, "The Lord is always with you. But you can go about your busy day and never once acknowledge or think about Him. You can set your mind on earthly things and never once be conscious of the Lord who indwells you. On the contrary, by setting your mind and heart upon Him, you become actively conscious of his presence." I realized that much of my vacation I was living like the former part of the quote and not the latter. This quote has helped me realize that I need to be actively conscious of His presence. (Maybe I need to reread Brother Lawerence's Practicing the Presence of God).

A few other quotes that stood out to me include:

"Our Lord reveals His will to and through a local community of believers when they are seeking to lay hold of His mind together."

"The goal of the gospel is not to get you out of hell and into heaven, but to get God out of heaven and into you so that He may be displayed visibly and glorified in His creation"- This is probably the best quote of the entire book and probably worth the price of the book itself.

"God is always present in the life of a believer- whether one actively feels His presence or not."

"Every church tradition, movement and denomination has a valid contribution to make to the body of Christ."

I might have to go back in the future and reread this book and see if I feel different about it. I probably need to read it in one setting or as close to one sitting as possible and maybe it will feel less disjointed to me. But whatever the case, I still enjoyed reading it, got some nuggets out of it, and thank Speak Easy for giving me the opportunity to review the book.

Poetry and Art Slam

The above pictures were taken last night at our first Poetry and Art Slam using our new Space in downtown Lancaster. It was a great night with around 30-35 people attending. Now while that number isn't that high, what is really cool is that around 75% of those that attended last night weren't from our community. It was definitely a good night and we'll be holding more Poetry and Art Slams in the future.

God has his fingerprints all over his Creation- including us.

About a month or so ago I received the book "SoulPrint:  Discovering your divine destiny" by Mark Batterson.   As a member of Blogging for Books, I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.  Batterson wants his readers to realize that, according to the description on the back of the book, that "there never has been and never will be anyone like you.  But that isn't a testament to you.  It's a testament to the God who created you."  The way that Batterson does this is to explore the life of David and how we found God's soulprint (the God-given distinction that makes each of us unlike anyone else) for his life and how exploring the life of David finding his soulprint helps us find, identify and live out our soulprint.

Batterson uses 5 scenes from the life of David to expand upon various issues related to a persons soulprint.  The 5 scenes are:

1.  Holy Confidence- This chapter deals with the David's encounter with Goliath.  It deals with the fact that David wasn't even a soldier in the army and was only on the battle field to bring his brothers some food.  He was at a disadvantage for several reasons including size, qualifications, and vocation (a shepherd not a fighter).  But David had one thing that his brother's and the rest of the Israelite army didn't have...a Holy Confidence and trust in God that God would deliver Goliath into his hands.  David realized that all his past experiences (killing a lion and a bear) led him to that point in his life and to that moment when he stepped out onto the battlefield to face Goliath.  Several quotes from this chapter stood out to me including:

"I tell every church planter that I meet that the first five years don't count, because God has to grow the leader before He can grow whatever it is that person is leading.  Don't worry about church growth.  If you're growing personally, church growth will take care of itself."

"Your dream seems like a mirage that remains the same distance away no matter how fast or how far you pursue it.  You know you have a destiny to fulfill, but the elapsed time causes you to second-guess yourself." (Feels like he was speaking right to me about how I feel about Veritas sometimes...)

"It starts with little opportunities and small victories."

2.  Lifesymbols- This chapter deals with the result of David's Holy Confidence..the death of Goliath.  Batterson's theorizes that the stone that hit Goliath in the head became a lifesymbol for David and that he kept it as a remembrance of God's deliverance.  Scriptures also state that David took the Giants armor which weighed 125 pound, 15 ounces into his tent and it traveled with him wherever he went.  Why?  As a giant reminder or lifesymbol of God who can fell Giants.  Batterson also asks us what our Lifesymbols are, those things that we have kept that are from defining moments in our lives. Here are some quotes from this chapter that spoke to me:

"And that is one of the jobs of parents.  They manage their children's memories by the stories they tell, the keepsakes they save, and the pictures they take."

"Preimaginging is imagining the future before it happens.  Postimagining, for holy or unholy reasons, is reimagining the past after it happens."

"God has gifted us with three kinds of sight:  hindsight, insight, and foresight.  That three-dimensional ability to look backward, look inward, and look forward is part of the image of god that sets us apart from the rest of creation."

3. The Crags of the Wild Goats- This is the story of David cutting the corner off of Saul's robe while Saul is relieving himself in a cave.  David's men thought it was an opportunity to take Saul down and assume the kingship.  But an opportunity isn't an opportunity if you have to compromise your integrity.  This chapter is all about integrity.  Who you are when no one is watching.  There is alot in this chapter that struck me and related to my life in the midst of planting Veritas.  Here are just a few quotes...

"It was less about building His church and more about building my ego.  It was less about His reputation and more about mine.  Truth be told, I cared more about the numbers than the people."

"The goal is not accomplishing the dream that God has given you.  The dream is the secondary issue.  The primary issue is who you become in the process.  We fixate on what and when and where.  God's primary concern is always who.  And He won't get you where He wants you to go until you become who He wants you to be."

"Sometimes you have to die to the dream God has given you so that God can resurrect the dream in its glorified form.  And by glorified form, I simply mean pursuing the dream for God's glory.  When you stop living for selfish purposes, the pressure comes off.   And that's when your destiny comes into focus."

"Maybe it's time to quit taking the credit so you can quit taking the blame.  Maybe it's time to quit proving yourself to people and start proving yourself to God.  Maybe it's time to quit building monuments to self and start building altars to God."

4.  Altar Ego- This chapter deals with the story of David dancing before the ark of the Lord as it came into Jerusalem.  The story is told that he disrobed and danced with all his might in worship.  Unfortunately his wife Michal wasn't happy about that.  She didn't think that was fitting for a king, but David cared more about worshipping God with all his might, than what others thought of him.  His identity was securing based on God and not on what others thought of him, or anything else.  This chapter, to me, strikes me where I live.  So often I base my identity and security and self esteem in what others think of me, or how I perceive they think of me, than in what God thinks of me.  Or I base my identity on how Veritas is doing or how I perceive it to be.  (usually based not on discipleship, mission, etc.. but on who shows up on Sunday morning).  Here are some quotes that stood out to me...

"Is your identity based on what you can do for Christ, or is it based on what Christ has done for you?"

"They never take risks.  So they forfeit opportunity."

"Comfort impedes spiritual growth. ....My job is not just to comfort the afflicted.  My job is to afflict the comfortable."

5.  The Devil's Workshop- This is probably the best known chapter in David's life...his indiscretion with Bathsheba.  Idle hands is the devils' playground...and David's hands and eyes were idle and not doing what he should have been doing.  He was supposed to be off at war, but instead he was wondering around his rooftop and spying on Bathsheba as she bathed.  David was bored and boredom is the seedbed of sin.  The thing that struck me the most is this quote related not only to David but also to us, "And the cure for sin is a vision from God.  If you are consumed with a God-sized vision, you have less time or energy left over to sin."

Here are some other quotes that struck me...

"Laying down my identity as a Pastor helped me see myself for myself."

"The glory of God, said Saint Irenaeus, is a person fully alive."

I would say overall that this book helped me to look deep inside to my soulprint, to see where I've substituted my soulprint and tried to live someone else's print, and how all too often my identity is wrapped up in what I do and not in whose I am.  All too often it's about what I can do for God and not what he has done for me.  I can't say it better than this..."The best form of worship is becoming the best version of who God has created you to be.  Worship is more than a lifestyle.  Worship is life."  May we all live out our soulprint that God has imprinted on our lives and soul.

Possible New Space for Veritas and the Veritas Arts Collective

The two pictures above are pictures of the Community Room on Prince in downtown Lancaster right on Prince Street (above Prince Street Cafe).  Veritas has used this space back when we were a ministry of Hempfield COB as well as for our last 2 Music and Art Fundraising Nights.  Last month I became aware that the Primary Lease Holder was leaving and that the owner of the building was looking for someone to pick up the Primary Lease of the space.  Well we have been looking for a 24/7 for about a year to hold various missional and cultural engagement dreams as well as future worship gatherings and have been coming up with nothing (too much money to renovate, one didn't want us to go to the borough, too small, etc...).  For a few weeks another community was possibly interested in the space as the primary lease holder and I found out a week or so ago that they were no longer interested in being the primary lease holders.  So now our community is currently praying and discerning together whether we should go ahead and become the primary lease holders of this space .

We have sat down together as a community and talked about various ideas for missional and cultural engagement using this space.  We have thought about using it on 1st Fridays as an Art Gallery, 3rd Fridays as a Music Venue, a place for a "school of the arts" (music lessons, art lessons, dance lessons, etc..), place for ESL classes, Toddler Story time, partnering with various Non-profits, various events like a Reel Spirituality Night, or a Doubt Night, eventually holding our Public Worship gatherings there, and also subleasing it out to various communities and individuals as a means of paying for the space.  (If we promote it well it's quite possible that we could break even and not spend any of our own money for rent, or even make some money.)

There are some challenges with the space.  Raising the money to furnish the space, Raising the funds to cover the first month's payment including the Security Deposit, no one currently in our Core Group currently lives in the city of Lancaster, and there is currently a group that is meeting there on Sunday mornings (not a challenge right now as we are still planning on meeting at my house until we grow our core group a little larger).

On Sunday we will be meeting for our Core Group Worship time and taking some time to pray, listen to God, and discern whether this is God's leading for our community.  I believe we probably won't find a better deal anywhere and especially one in which we might be actually able to make some money.  But please pray for us as we discern together the future of Veritas and using this space for the Kingdom of God and for missional and cultural engagement.

We are choking on our consumption of the American Dream

The Title of this post is taken from a T-Shirt that I was given at last year's Purple Door Arts and Music Festival by a guy running a business called Fake Life.  As I reflected on the book "Radical: Taking Back your faith from the American Dream" by David Platt, I couldn't help but think of the quote from Fake Life.  As a member of Blogging for Books, I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.  This book was definitely challenging, interesting, and a call for me to see where I have bought into the American Dream without thinking about it.

I would say, for the most part, this book challenged my faith and encouraged me to take a hard look at my life, my finances, my time, my commitment to Christ, and my commitment to justice in the world.  It wasn't an "easy" read meaning it challenged my assumptions, my lifestyle, and what kingdom I am truly living for.  I found myself wondering what my family and I might do to live a more radical, Kingdom of God focused life.  I thought back to many discussions that I have had over the last year and half, since launching Veritas, with my wife about the possibility of selling our house and moving into a smaller house, and possibly to the city of Lancaster.  What it has come down to for me is this quote found on page 45, "The question for us, then, is whether we trust in his power.  And the problem for us is that in our culture we are tempted at every turn to trust in our own power instead.  So the challenge for us is to live in such a way that we are radically dependent on and desperate for the power that only God can provide."

There are many great sections and quotes from this book.  And I wanted to share the ones that stood out to me the most.

"Our attempt to reduce this gospel to a shrink-wrapped presentation that persuades someone to say or pray the right things back to us no longer seems appropriate."

"Do we really believe he is worth abandoning everything for?  Do you and I really believe that Jesus is so good, so satisfying, and so rewarding that we will leave all we have and all we own and all we are in order to find our fullness in him?  Do you and I believe him enough to obey him and to follow him wherever he leads, even when the crowds in our culture- and maybe in our churches- turn the other way" (Ouch..this hurts.  God has been asking me lately if he is enough.  He asked me if he was more important than Veritas and whether or not it "failed" and lately, unfortunately I have been answering no, you aren't enough.  I've spent some time praying and confessing that and want to give everything, including Veritas, over to him to do what he wants with my life and the life and ministry of Veritas).

"And I want to be a part of a people who are risking it all for him.  For the sake of an increasingly marginalized and relatively ineffective church in our culture, I want to risk it all."

One of the things that struck me the most was his take on what makes a "successful" church today in the US.  He wonders if what we call successful is actually successful in the eyes of God.  He says this is what you need for a successful church, "Clearly, it doesn't require the power of God to draw a crowd in our culture.  A few key elements that we can manufacture will suffice.  First we need a good performance.  Next we need a place to hold the crowds that will come, so we gather all our resources to build a multimillion-dollar facility to house the performance.  Finally, once the crowds get there, we need to have something to keep them coming back. "

I also found his Radical Experiment at the end of the book helpful for applying what he wrote about in the rest of the book.

I could quote some more great quotes as there are many.  And for the most part I felt that this was a very helpful, encouraging, challenging book and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to read it.  There was only two things that I struggled with while reading the book.

First of all, I found that it seemed like Platt was missing or underemphasizing one  part of the Gospel Story and overemphasizing another part.  I believe there are 4 parts of this Grand Narrative.  The four parts are Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration.  I believe Platt underemphasized the Creation part of the narrative, each person in the world created in the Imago Dei, the Image of God and he overemphasized the Fall.  It seemed like, and maybe I'm wrong, that we are nothing but sinners (wondering if his neo-calvinist theology around Total depravity informed this point?).  I admit that I am a sinner, but I am also a saint, created in the Image of God to do good works, as the Scripture says.  For me, I believe, to know that I am created in the Image of God, makes me desire to be on mission and be the hands and feet of Christ, because I can truly reflect Jesus.  It's truly possible.

The other issue is related to the idea of social justice.  It seemed like, to me at least, that he was trying to convince people that social justice was in deed part of the gospel and it wasn't only about evangelism.  In fact he would say that Social Justice and Evangelism go hand and hand, the opposite sides of the same coin.  I totally agree with him, but I realize that maybe the "intended audience" was such that they only saw evangelism as the outgrowth of the gospel and not living out the kingdom by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the prisoner, and tending to the sick.

Other than those two issues, I still highly value the work that Platt has put forth and I'll be encouraging others that I know (in my core group, and others) to take some time to read and reflect on how they might live a more Radical, Kingdom of God faith and I'll also encourage everyone (myself included) to see if we are indeed choking on our consumption of the American Dream.

Gathered and Scattered

I'm sitting here at Prince Street cafe doing some Scripture reading, reflection and journaling.  I started this morning in Mark 6 and began to read the first two sections on the chapter.  I came upon the part of the chapter where Jesus sends out his twelve disciples two by two and gives them instructions about what to do, what not to do, and how to live as a missionary to the towns and villages.  As I read I came upon verse 7 which says, "And he called his twelve disciples together and sent them out two by two, with authority to cast our evil spirits.  The thing that stood out to me in this one verse is two words: together and sent. This two words seem like opposites.  It's almost like Jesus is saying Come Together...Now Get out.  Jesus wanted them to gather together and then scatter.  Maybe my reading of this text has been influenced by the book AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church but I see both parts of the text as important.  To gather with each other, hear Jesus, and figure out the mission that he was sending them on.  To be sent two by two into the towns and villages, preach the good news, heal the sick, and cast out demons.  They needed both.

As I met with a leader within the COB yesterday about our vision and how, in a way, it seems like we are changing our vision but in reality our vision is the same, just how we are going about the execution of the vision is different.  We talked about the importance of both the gathering and scattering.  He had some questions about whether we would meet together for worship, prayer, bible study, etc...  He was also helping me to think about how I share these things with more traditional people who view Church as a time and a place.  I told him that we meet every Sunday for these things, but we are also meeting together to do mission together, and we are also sending each other into the world to be the hands and feet of Jesus bringing blessing into people's lives.

Gathered and Scattered....you need them both.  All too often we put too much effort, time, money and focus on the Gathered part and we forget the Scattered part.  So at this point in our corporate life as Veritas we do gather but our gathering is just simple and doesn't take much time, and effort to put together so that we can put more time, effort, money, resources, and thought into our Scattered lives (Scattered doesn't only mean that we Scatter separately....Jesus sent out his disciples two by two....we are working on developing our Corporate Scattering and how to engage culture as a community).

So by all means Gather but do it as a huddle so that you can then scatter into the world to be Jesus to a needy and hurting world.

The Next Christians

The other week I stumbled across a program called Blogging for Books sponsored by WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.  I looked through some of the available books and found a few that I would love to review so I signed up, got accepted and picked my first book, "The Next Christians: The Good News about the End of Christian America" by Gabe Lyons.  Gabe was also co-author of the book "UnChristian."  I really learned alot about our culture and the shifts in it from UnChristian and I wanted to see what answers Lyons might give to help Followers of Jesus look more like Jesus and impact the culture around us.  I wasn't disappointed.

Lyons starts out by spelling out two ways Christians have engaged with the wider culture.  These two ways are called Separatist and Cultural.  Each of these are made up of varying approaches on how to engage the culture.  The Separatist are made up of Insiders, (Those who only stay inside the Christian bubble..you know Christian school, Christian music, Christian TV, Christian Plumber, etc..) Cultural Warriors (everything is a war against God.  They tend to scream take America back for God and are highly political), and Evanglizers (who believe that the ultimate role of Christians is to save people from hell and that the gospel only deals with where you spend eternity).  The Cultural Christians are made up of two approaches, the blenders (they identify with the beliefs of Christianity but try to blend into the mainstream culture) and the Philanthropists (those who emphasize doing good works but aren't rooted in the entire gospel)

Lyons goes on to spell out a third way of engaging culture, which is calls Restorers.  He says about Restorers, "Their mission is to infuse the world with beauty, grace, justice and love.  I call them restorers because they envision the world as it was meant to be and they work toward that vision."  He also says, "They don't separate from the world or blend in; rather they thoughtfully engage.

The first thing that Restorers are learning is relearning the gospel narrative as a narrative not just about an end destination but as a narrative that is deeply concerned with the here and now and what it looks like when God's kingdom, and his rule and reign being to been seen in all areas of life.   Lyons states, "The next Christians claim that the beginning (God's goodness throughout Creation) and the ending (the restoration of all things) of the greater story have been conveniently cut out, leaving modern-day Christians with an incoherent understanding of the Gospel.  He also goes on to say this about the importance of fully living within the true gospel narrative, "God's story is made up of four key parts: creation, fall, redemption, and restoration (and ultimately consumation).  The truncated Gospel that is often recounted is faithful to the fall and redemption pieces of the story, but largely ignores the creation and restoration components.  These missing elements are at the heart of what a new generation of Christians are relearning, and subsequently retelling."

Most of the reminder of the book covers 6 characteristics that set apart the next Christians.  These 6 characteristics are:

1.  They are provoked not offended.......  when means when confronted with the corruption of the world, Christians ought to be provoked to engage, not be offended and withdraw.

2.  They are Creators not critics.....The best way to describe this characteristic is to quote Andy Couch from his book "Culture Making"...Cultures aren't changed by being condemned, critiqued, or copied.  The only way to change culture is to create more of it.  Lyons also says this, which fits nicely with our dream of creating an Arts collective within Veritas, "They (next Christians) create organizations, services, and goods- art, films, music, campaigns, projects, media, churches, and businesses- anything that incarnates Christ and communicates the restoration that's possible.  In this way, creating sits at the heart of restoration."

3.  Called, not employed.....The next Christians are reconsidering their vocations.  That everyone is called, not just full time "Christian workers".   Lyons calls on the next Christians to engage (and be called) to be dispersed throughout all spheres of society and work together toward a common goal.  He says that there are seven channels of cultural influence, and if followers of Jesus would faithfully engage in this spheres, that the kingdom of God would be felt throughout all culture.  The seven spheres are Media, Education, Arts and Entertainment, Business, Government, Social Sector, and Church.

4.  Grounded...not distracted....When Christians engage culture how do they stay connected to Christ in the midst of a world that seeks to pull them from that commitment?  This is the question this chapter deals with by laying out 5 critical spiritual practices to stay grounded and rooted in Christ.  These 5 are:  Immersed in Scripture (instead of entertainment), Observing the Sabbath (instead of being productive), Fasting for Simplicity (instead of consuming), Choosing Embodiment (instead of being divided) and Postured by prayer (instead of power).

5.  In community, not alone.....this chapter deals with the reality that we desperately, especially as we engage culture, need each other.  God designed us to be in community with each other.  Or as Lyons says, "Community provides the critical support base the next Christians need to be on mission for God."

6.  Countercultural not "relevant"....we are countercultural due to our allegiance to the Kingdom of God.  We are called to be countercultural, not to seperate, antagonize, or copy culture, but to be countercultural for the common good.

I truly enjoyed this book.  It inspired me to be about the work of the kingdom.  It challenged me in how I read the Gospel Narrative.  And it gave me ideas of ways to interact with the wider world and make a difference for the Kingdom of God.  I end with this quote that drives what I want to be about in my life, and I desperately want for the communal life of Veritas.  "The churches that recover the Gospel instead of being too focused on finding the "right" worship style, programming winsome services, or measuring church growth statistics become a light in their communities.  If they left town, they'd be sorely missed."

May we live out the power of the ought....the way the world ought to be....

"I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review"

The Wisdom of Stability- A Book Review by Shalom Beachy

Shalom Beachy, a crucial part of our Veritas Core Group had the chance to read and review the book The Wisdom of Stability by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and asked if I could post it on the blog.  So I said sure and here is her reflections as well as some art work that she did based on her reflections. The Wisdom of Stability- A Book Review

Ever since I was a child, I have loved the imagery of Psalm 1; that the righteous is like a tree planted by rivers of water, bringing forth its fruit in season, whatever it does will prosper. For years, though, I saw this tree as a solitary elm, strong and alone.  It stands on a bright flat prairie with a yellow sun and big blue sky, next to a straight wide river disappearing on either side into the horizon, like this:

I saw myself as a tree rooted and grounded and somehow fruitful, but ultimately alone.  It wasn’t until I was well into my 20s, far from my family and home in the Midwest heartland & transplanted into an urban community on the east coast that I really began to understand that God wanted me to be fruitful in the context of community. I fell in love with my neighborhood and began to see the heart God has for it.  I began to identify my hunger for stability and relationship in this place and story.  I wanted to dig my roots deep into God and I was desperate to find branches around me to lean into for support in times of storm, taller trees to look up to and to provide shade.

In The Wisdom of Stability, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove writes about rooting into God in a community, about staying there long enough to love it and hate it and love again. Throughout the book, he weaves in an easy yet effective introduction to the wisdom of the desert Benedictines and their commitment to God through the rhythms of work and worship.  He shares a window into his own journey of life with a specific group of people in a specific place.  I love the personal vignettes he shares at the end of every chapter, little snapshots into the neighborhood in which he lives and loves.

This book feels real.  It’s a gentle yet hard hitting contribution for those of us who are sick of living life alone, who have this idea that following Jesus has something to do with living in community but half of the time are unsure of what exactly that is supposed to look like.  Wilson-Hartgrove says some hard words here.  Essentially, stay when you don’t feel like it anymore.  Stay when the community you love and bleed for seemingly betrays you.  When your relationships stab you in the back, embrace the pain and grief of dying.  Stay.  And in this staying, we will experience a manifestation of Jesus’ resurrection in our lives and relationships that we would very well miss in a society where it is possible for us to so easily move on.

This is a book that helps me to continue to define the thirst I have for belonging and community and rootedness and stability. It makes me thirsty for deeper waters and it challenges me with the reality that commitment at times may seem a very bitter grace.   I don’t think Wilson-Hartgrove is necessarily saying I have to live in this specific neighborhood forever.  But the book is a call to persist through seasons of boredom, apparent bareness, pain and death.  It’s an invitation to give God the chance to do what He does faithfully over a lifetime… restoration and resurrection.

2 Diagrams

Over the last few weeks we have been wrestling and trudging through 2 Diagrams that, to me, have really opened up the way I see Veritas moving forward.  They have given our Group direction, wisdom, and puts to words what we have been thinking and dreaming about.  These two diagrams are a Venn Diagram about our Core Values and the diagram called Missional Flow. Here is our Veritas Venn Diagram with our Core Values

The beauty of this diagram is that it gives us a framework to evaluate everything that we are doing, or talking about doing.  It strives to give us balance.  The best place to be in this diagram is at the convergence between all 3 Values.  If we can balance all 3, then we are in the sweet spot.

I believe this also plays into the next diagram.  The Missional Flow diagram.  This has given us our next steps in planting Veritas.  As I said before, when we launched Veritas we went straight where most church plants start, structuring congregations.  But if we are truly striving to be a missional community and think like missionaries in our area, then we need to start thinking like missionaries and not like church planters (or leaders of a worship gathering).  We are currently talking, praying, and exploring what it means for our community (the 2nd part of the diagram) to engage culture (I'll be sharing over the next few days some possible dreams for engaging culture) and then forming community out of that engagement with the hope of structuring a congregation from that community.  Here is the Missional Flow diagram (that I mentioned in a previous post)

Would love to hear your thoughts on these diagrams and how they are being lived out in your context.

Cracking your church's culture code

Back a few months ago I "attended" an online conference sponsored by the Leadership Network.  One of the speakers was Samuel Chand, the author of the book "Cracking your church's culture code."  I then received an e-mail about the possibility of reading the book and blogging about it, so I sent an e-mail and got picked to read the book and write about it.  So I received the book a few weeks ago and spent some time over the last few weeks reading the book, pondering it's contents and wondering how it might apply to my context right now, as a church plant that is just in it's infancy.

Chand says that the seven keys of understanding the CULTURE and shaping it for the Kingdom are:  Control, Understanding, Leadership, Trust, Unafraid, Responsive, Execution.  I enjoyed reading the book as it is helping me to think about what the culture of our missional community is, and what it might be moving forward and how we can keep the culture healthy, missional, and seeking to move the mission forward.

Some of the quotes that stood out to me in the section that lays out the 7 keys to understanding CULTURE are:

Healthy teams foster the perspective that failure isn't a tragedy and conflict isn't the end of the world.

Courage, support, and innovation go hand in hand in inspiring cultures.

One of  their chief concerns is that teams often talk about decisions but fail to follow through on implementing them (I find this a huge struggle in my own life.  I feel that one of my gifts as a leader is in the area of vision, dreams, and putting the mission out there.  The thing that I lack is knowing how to move step by step from where we are to where I dream us to be.  I frequently say that I see A (where we are) clearly (not perfectly) and I see Z (where we want to go) (not perfectly) but I need someone to help me with B through Y.  So the section about Execution was very helpful.

But I would say the most helpful, the most encouraging, and the most challenging part of the book was the chapter on "Changing Vehicles".  I felt he was speaking right to me, as I continue to dream about what Veritas is called to do, be, and pursue.  One of the helpful parts was the 13 questions laid out on page 139-140.  Some of the quotes in this chapter that spoke to me include:

"How do you know if a vision is from God?  One of the measures is that it has to be something so big that it requires God's wisdom and power to pull it off.  Anything less is just a good idea.  God's vision is to redeem not only individuals bu the entire creation.  He's not just making new men and women; he's going to re-create the entire universe in the New Heaven and New Earth.  That's a big vision!  (a vision that I want to be a part of)

Churches must "re-dream" the dream or discover a new compelling vision for their existence.

Your effectiveness will always depend on your ability to see the future.

Strategic planning needs to be written in pencil because in a dynamic, changing environment, strategic planning needs constant evaluation and adjustment. (Couldn't have said it better myself)

The organization can't fulfill a God-sized vision, even in it's local market, without the alignment of people, plans, and funding around a common purpose.

If the vision is big enough, if the people have a heart for doing it, if God's will be glorified in a specific way, then the money will come. (One of my struggles as a church planter)

God has called us to partner with him to redeem the world.

I would say this book was helpful for me as we are planting Veritas.  I would say this book would be helpful for any church leader no matter where the church is, no matter how young or how old, no matter how big or how small, no matter the setting.  Because I believe it's easy to change "vision" (just write a mission statement, vision statement, etc..) but it's harder to change the culture.  But if the culture changes, then the vision can come to fruition.  So let's be in the business of changing culture (both inside the church and outside as well)

Missional Flow

Over the last several weeks, really since moving Veritas into our home, I have become convinced that we made the right, but tough decision.  Conversation after conversation has confirmed it to me.  If our vision and mission is to be a missional community of authentic worshippers we need to start at a different place than most church plants start.  Or should I say we need to start over from a different place. What do I mean by that?  Well...back in April I read the book "AND: The Gathered and the Scattered Church" by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay.  I also had seen Hugh in Harrisburg in March, and also again in April at the Exponential Conference.  They shared something in the book and the two times that I heard them that they call Missional Flow.  The idea of Missional Flow has given me words for how we, as Veritas, want to proceed as we continue moving forward in planting Veritas.

A tradition church and church plant starts with the structuring of Congregation.  Normally when we talk about planting churches what do we mean?  I believe it means we talk about planting a worship service.  And if our worship service is cooler, hipper, sexier, and have better coffee...we might attract a crowd (mostly of people either who are new to the area and looking for a church, or for people tired of their church...basically transfer growth.).  But if we want to connect with people who might not be looking for a church we have to start in a different place.  The place where a missionary would start.

If you and I and say 8 other people moved to, say London, in order to plant a community of faith, what would be the first thing that we would do when we hit the ground (besides getting jobs, places to live, etc..)?  I believe we would need to Engage Culture (or build relationships, friends, etc..).  Once we begin to do that (probably after several months to a year or two) we would need to Form Community. And then finally we would Structure Congregation. These three things are Missional Flow.

As a brand new Church Plant back in September of 2009 we started with Structuring Congregation (and hoping to then Engage Culture and have the culture come to us).  Now it was beneficial in that we did build some relationships with people who we wouldn't have met otherwise and they have continued to be a faithful part of our community ever since.  But I began to realize that we needed to start with Engaging the Culture if we truly wanted to live out our vision of being A Missional Community of Authentic Worshippers.

So how do we Engage Culture?  We are wrestling with this together in our Worship Gathering times at my house.  I have walked our group through Missional Flow (and will again on our Core Group development time on Feb. 6).  We'll be using something called a Ministry Brainstorming Tool found at http://www.gabaptist.org/groups/researchservices/groupfilecabinet.aspx?parentnavigationid=6267&theparentnavigationid=4955    under church surveys.  I'll also be sharing a dream/vision of how our group (of musicians, college students, artists, and others) can engage culture by using the arts and music.  Something that I call The Veritas Arts Collective.

I'll be sharing more in the near future about what the Veritas Arts Collective looks like (in my head anyway).  I'll also share in the near future about ways that we are already engaging culture and other ideas of how we might do that.  For now, I am excited about the ideas and hopes and dreams I have for our community as we walk together through the missional flow.

Making Straight Paths

Yesterday while sitting in a coffeehouse that I go to often in Elizabethtown, I was reading the 1st Chapter of Mark and I came to these words, which are a reference to John the Baptist, "I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”—  “a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him."  I began to think of my seminary studies in which I learned that when a King was going to be coming to a town they would set to work repairing the road for his arrival.  They would fill in the holes, straighten out the rough sections, and do what we would call roadwork.  They would prepare for the King's coming.

I began to think about our situation in our world in which the church and the term Christian have a horrible reputation.  In the book UnChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons the top 6 things that people think about when asked about Christians and the church are:  They are Hypocritical, Antihomosexual, sheltered, too political, judgemental, and that Christians are too concerned with converting people.  All of us see that we definitely have some work to do in order to make a straight path.  We have a lot of roadwork to do.  We need to fill in the potholes, straightened out the areas which are crooked, and make the road more conducive to traveling.

How can we make straight paths when the culture believes that Christians are the 6 thing listed above?  Here are some thoughts about how we can make straight paths.  We need to engage the culture through service, love, and on their terms.  We need to listen before we speak.  We need to serve and bless people not because of any agenda other than the agenda of loving, blessing and serving them.  Straightening the paths will take time and the road won't be straight right away but I believe if we begin living out the kingdom first, than it will be straightened.  It will take a great deal amount of time, patience, trust and faith.

I was also talking with some leaders yesterday and we talked about starting with the kingdom and you'll end up with a church, but if you start with a church you might never build the kingdom.  So connecting these two thoughts...if we seek to make straight paths we must first and foremost be about the work of the kingdom and not confuse it with the church.  Can the church do the work of the kingdom..of course. Does it always...no.  So let's work on building the kingdom first, straighten out the roads, and I believe the church will take care of itself.

God With Us

Over the last four weeks (during Advent) our Core Group has been focusing on the stories in Luke revolving around the incarnation of Jesus into the world.  I have to say that this year God spoke to me through these (to me) very familiar stories in a new way.  He breathed life into them and showed me things that I hadn't seen before.  I was continually blown away by the subversive, radical, upside down, Kingdom of God things within the story of Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds, and in the birth of Jesus.  As we get closer to Christmas Day and to celebrating God taking on flesh and blood and moving into the neighborhood, I wanted to share a song that our worship leader, Matt Wheeler, wrote that expresses beautifully this amazing thing...the incarnation of God through Jesus into our world.  May you have a very Merry Christmas and may you seek to know where and how you can incarnation Jesus into your world and how you can literally be the hands and feet of Jesus.

God With Us

(Chorus)

Emmanuel, God with us

Heaven and earth ring loud with Your praise

Hosanna, Light lead us

Illuminate the path of Your grace

(Verse 1)

Your Kingdom come, Your holy will be done

As in Heaven, on earth, to the glory of the Son

(Chorus)

(Verse 2)

He who humbled Himself to become one of us

The servant-King, who made us from the dust

(Chorus)