A faith community makes a space for the arts

The below article appeared in the Friday January 6 edition of the Entertainment section of the Lancaster newspaper. I thought I'd copy it to my blog for people to read. Enjoy the article. Veritas features exhibits, performances at Prince Street space

By JANE HOLAHAN Staff Writer

About two years ago, Ryan and Kimberly Braught decided to start a new faith community.

He was a youth minister when they left their old church and opened a center for worship above the Prince Street Cafe and the Julia Swartz gallery.

"I felt a call," he says. "We wanted to aid and serve people."

Part of Church of the Brethren faith in the Anabaptist tradition, it was certainly unorthodox to open a church above a coffee shop, but they wanted to have a different kind of church.

"We wanted to be really intentional about being a blessing," says Braught. "We believe in the idea of 'See a need, meet a need.' "

Veritas means truth. (The group is not related to the Veritas Academy, a Christian school.)

As that first year progressed, the Braughts began noticing a need within their faith community.

"We were connecting with a lot of artists and musicians; it was a growing network," Braught says.

"Musicians were looking for a place to play and artists were looking for a place to display their work," he says.

Emerging artists often have a tough time getting space, even in the culturally rich world of downtown Lancaster.

Why not do it at Veritas?

And so, last May, they began featuring an art show on First Friday and participating in Third Friday's music concerts.

"We figured it was a perfect space because it was right on Gallery Row," Braught says.

The space has a lot of purposes.

"Our faith community uses it on Sunday mornings and we often rent it out for parties or baby showers, things like that," Braught says.

While the work stays up on the walls after First Friday, the gallery is open by appointment only.

So far, Braught says, they've been getting a good crowd.

For some time now, Veritas has joined forces with Taste of the World, a group of people who've relocated to Lancaster from all over the world who are eager to share their cultural foods.

"We are in the front room with the art and they are in the back room with food from places like Egypt, Iraq and Syria."

But the group is taking a break this month and next, so there won't any exotic fare.

This First Friday will feature Candace Bergerson, who works in a variety of mediums, including painting and ceramics.

Much of her work has a bright pop quality to it, an explosion of colors. Even her ceramic pieces, which often have faces and a quirky quality to them, are cheerful.

Braught put out a call to artists on Craigslist and she responded.

"I looked at her work and liked it," he says. "We want to give newer artists a chance to build their resume, get their foot in the door."

On Jan. 28, acoustic singer/song writer Denison Witmer will perform. While he has been working more in Philadelphia these days, he is from Lancaster. He's been compared to Cat Stevens and Nick Drake and is known for complex finger picking.

And on Friday, Jan. 20, Veritas will open its doors for the Poet's Loft.

Like other Veritas events, it came out of a need for friends to express themselves.

Musician and worship leader Matt Wheeler met poet Miguel Rivera when they were both expecting children.

"They talked about bringing their music and poetry together and we thought, why not host them?" Braught says.

The evening, which runs from 7 to 9 p.m., will feature an open mic and poets and poetry lovers are welcome to read their own work or a favorite poem.

Veritas Arts Collective Art Show

Artist Candace Bergerson

Reception Fri. from 6-9. Free

Community Room on Prince

19 N. Prince St. (3rd floor)

Above Prince Street Cafe

285-1984. www.veritaspa.org

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/563033_A-faith-community-makes-a-space-for-the-arts.html#ixzz1ipPQufh2

Free Concert with Denison Witmer & Matt Wheeler.

We’re Excited.

Denison Witmer, a Philadelphia-based international recording artist is renown for his definitive and talented neo-folk singer/songwriter style. He returns to his hometown of Lancaster Pennsylvania to perform a rare, free and intimate concert, with local artist Matt Wheeler on January 28. Many people have compared Denison to the likes of Cat Stevens and James Taylor. The concert will start at 7pm in the ‘Community Room on Prince‘ which is above Prince St Cafe, located at 19 N. Prince St Lancaster, PA 17603.

Information at www.iheartlancity.com

When Sacrilege is a good thing

A few weeks ago I got an e-mail from Mike Morrell, who runs the Speak Easy blog program that I am a part of. This e-mail was letting me know that Speak Easy had a book that I could review. The book? Sacrilege: Finding Life in the Unorthodox Ways of Jesus by Hugh Halter. As soon as I read the e-mail I went right to the form and filled it out hoping that I wasn't too late. I hit submit, held my breath, and waited for the confirmation that I indeed got a copy to review for Speak Easy. Seconds later I received that confirmation that i was hoping for, a chance to read the newest book by Hugh.

You see Hugh and his normal writing and ministry partner Matt Smay have influenced me in profound ways in their books The Tangible Kingdom and AND:The Gathered and Scattered Church. And Veritas has used their Tangible Kingdom Primer in developing missional communities (and plan to do so again in the coming year). So I was excited to see what Hugh had to say about following Jesus. And of course the title Sacrilege, which normally is seen as a bad thing in Christian circles, grabbed my attention right away.

The first thing that Halter does in the book's first chapter is to define what he means by the word sacrilege. He says, "To commit sacrilege is to de-sacredize what is deemed to be sacred....In the Christian sense, to commit sacrilege means to disregard, disrespect, or be irreverent toward those things that have traditionally been considered holy, venerated, or dedicated as sacred. It's tipping holy cows" At first reading how can sacrilege be a good thing, according to Halter. Just about the time when you are wondering if Halter is trying to just be controversial or provocative, we says this, which sums up what the book is all about, "In actuality, as I'll show, de-sacredizing what should be de-sacredized is not only good, it begins to move us toward the undercurrent of the real person and Good News of Jesus. Sacrilege is about removing religion from our faith. It's about securing the integrity of what is most important. It's about chipping away at people's false assumptions about who Jesus is and what following him is all about."

As an Anabaptist I was totally on board where Halter went to show his readers the sacrilegious nature of Jesus, right to the Sermon on the Mount, and more specifically the beatitudes. Halter takes the remainder of the book unpacking the beatitudes and how they flip everything upside down and how following Jesus and living out the beatitudes will fulfill what Jesus wants of his disciples (or apprentices as Halter wants to call those who live for Jesus). Halter says that Jesus, "wanted people to become like him; sacrilegious, incarnational people who lived a contagiously countercultural, kingdom-centered life. (I believe Jesus wanted that when he walked the face of this earth and he also wants that now as well.)

I appreciated the book and what Halter was seeking to do, unpacking Jesus from the religious confines that He has been wrapped up in for 2,000 years and to truly see Jesus as "the ultimate sacrilegious leader." I resonated with his use of the beatitudes to show the sacrilegious nature of Jesus and how if we follow Jesus, by living out the beatitudes, we'll be committing sacrilege as well and becoming sacrilegious apprentices.

Here are some quotes from the book that I found helpful or that resonated with me:

"Jesus and the early faith communities lived an intentionally countercultural life without any sense of consumer-oriented fluff- and people still chose to take the leap!" (This is my desire for not only Veritas but for my life as well)

"Biblical apprenticeship is about three things: 1. Becoming just like Jesus. 2. Doing what Jesus did, and 3. doing the above with the types of people Jesus liked spending time with."

"Jesus messed with people's paradigms."

"Jesus utterly jacked up everything people thought about religion and God. And he's still at it."

"Jesus loved the Scriptures as they witnessed to him, but his biggest fights were with those who knew the most Scripture."

"Jesus really doesn't care how much we know if our knowledge amounts to no change in our lifestyle."

"Jesus, however, is trying to take people from a small box of religion to the place where they can open up their lives to a huge new world called the kingdom."

"Although Westernized Christianity pulls us away from risk, confrontation, and getting gritty with real issues, Christ is going to lead us into places that will capture our emotions and reorient our entire perspective about life and why we live it."

"Being a Christian is about being like Jesus, and sometimes that means taking risks to reach out."

"Jesus came to expand your life, not keep it the same. His life is fuller than the American Dream, but it's not as safe."

"The wall of assumptions will only come down as entire communities band together in unity to live like Christ before the world. This may mean turning from idols of materialism, individualism, consumerism, and religion."

I'm sure I could go on with various thoughts and quotes that stuck out to me and resonated with me and our journey in planting Veritas as a missional community. But I thought I'd end this blog with a final thought from Hugh that is a deep hope and longing of mine for our community. Hugh says, "Jesus never called people to follow him by themselves. He knew that life in the Kingdom was and still is only available for those committed to community with other apprentices."

I'm thankful for Mike Morrell and Speak Easy for the opportunity to read and review Sacrilege. Hopefully reading this book can help and remind me to flip some tables and follow the subversive, countercultural, and sacrilegious leader Jesus of Nazareth.

Chasing a Lion

Several years ago while my wife and I were exploring the idea and the possibility of being called to plant a church a good friend of mine recommended a book by Mark Batterson called "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars" He thought that it would be good reading and applicable to our situation at the time. I never got around to reading the book until now when I got the chance to review the book for the Blogging for Books program that I am a part of. I can honestly say that I wish I would have read it when my friend recommended it to me. I think it would have spurred me on in our church planting journey even more. Not to say that I didn't need it now...in the midst of the church planting journey, in the midst of the struggles, doubts, wondering if I heard God right, the ups and the downs, the joys and the pain, and everything in between. I certainly can relate to the book and I am appreciative of the words contained within this book that helped me to refocus on that original burning in my gut that I felt those years ago when thinking, dreaming, and praying about leaving an established church to plant a new faith community without the security of knowing whether we would make it or not, whether I would have a salary or not, and whether or not this dream would become a reality or a nightmare.

The book is based around a pretty obscure passage of Scripture found in 2 Samuel 23:20-21 which says, "Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, performed great exploits. He struck down Moab’s two mightiest warriors. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear." Batterson then proceeds to get behind the Scripture to the human drama underneath. He spends some time drawing out the human emotions associated with chasing a lion into a pit on a snowy day. He tries to get into the head of Benaiah and he unpacks the risk, challenges, uncertainty, and "craziness" of actually running towards the lion instead of away from the lion.

There are 9 chapters in the book in which he expounds upon the story of Benaiah and how Benaiah lived a life of risk, adventure, uncertainty, trust in Yahweh, and dependance that resulted in a lion skin on his wall, and becoming one of the main body guards to King David.

Here are some quotes that stood out to me in the book:

"The biggest risks are the greatest opportunities"

"Lion Chasers are proactive. They know that playing it safe is risky."

"I have a simple definition of success: Do the best you can with what you have where you are. In essence, success is making the most of every opportunity."

Probably (for me) one of the best quotes from this book is this one, "I wish I could tell you that every lion chase ends with a lion skin hanging on the wall, but it doesn’t. The dot-com dreamer is successful beyond his wildest dreams, but the guy with political aspirations lost the election. However, both of them are lion chasers in my book.What sets lion chasers apart isn’t the outcome. It’s the courage to chase God-sized dreams. Lion chasers don’t let their fears or doubts keep them from doing what God has called them to do."

“Too often our prayers revolve around asking God to reduce the odds in our lives. We want everything in our favor. But maybe God wants to stack the odds against us so we can experience a miracle of divine proportions. Our impossible odds are a way to way to experience a new dimension of God´s glory.”

"Maybe it's time to stop placing four-dimensional limits on God. Maybe it's time to stop putting God in a box the size of what our brains can figure out and contain. Maybe it's time to stop creating God in your image and let Him create you in His! The more we grow, the bigger God should get. And the bigger God gets, the smaller our lions will become."

"Lion chasers defy the odds – and make their Father proud!"

"Don't let 'mental lions' keep you from experiencing everything God has to offer. The greatest breakthroughs in your life will happen when you push through the fear. The defining moments will double as the scariest decisions. But you've got to face those fears and begin the process of unlearning them."

"If you study the teachings of Christ, you’ll realize that learning wasn’t his primary goal. His primary goal was unlearning. He was reverse engineering religious minds.”

"Lion Chasers experience the same fear as everyone else. I bet Benaiah was afraid of the boogeyman as a kid. But Lion Chasers have learned to face those fears. They have unlearned the fear of uncertainty, the fear of risk, the fear of looking foolish, and the countless other fears that hold them back. Their faith has been defragmented. They don't necessarily know more than other people. But they have unlearned the fears that kept them captive. And they all did it the same way: by chasing their fears instead of running away from them. They exposed themselves to the very thing they were afraid of."

"The cure for the fear of failure is not success. It's failure. The cure for the fear of rejection is not acceptance. It's rejection. You've got to be exposed to small quantities of whatever you are afraid of. That's how you build up immunity."

"If you take a second to reflect on your life, you'll discover that the greatest experiences are often the scariest, and the scariest experiences are often the greatest."

"Maybe it is time to quit running and start chasing. Try something new. Take some risks. Start doing somethings that are worth recounting in jaw-dropping detail."

“Truth be told, the alternative to fear is boredom. And boredom isn´t just boring, it´s inexcusable!”

Boredom is the root of all evil. – Soren Kierkegaard

“Are you living your life in ways worth telling stories about?”

"Opportunities often look like insurmountable obstacles. So if we want to take advantage of these opportunities, we have to learn to see problems in a new way- God's way. Then our biggest problems may just start looking like our greatest opportunities."

“Maybe prayer is less about changing our circumstances than it is about changing our perspective… Maybe we need to quit praying safe prayers.”

“Lion chasers challenge the status quo. They climb cliffs, move to foreign countries, and build boats in the desert. Lion chasers are often considered crazy, but they are able to do these things because they aren’t afraid of uncertainty. They don’t need to know what is coming next because they know that God knows. They don’t need explanations for every disappointment because they know God has a plan. Lion chasers refuse to settle down because they want to experience every divine twist and turn that God has in store for them.”

I'm sure I could continue with more and more quotes that resonated with my soul, my experience and especially our journey over the last 2 years of planting Veritas. But I wanted to end this blog with two more quotes. These two quotes I had heard several years ago while reading through various books related to Church Planting, missional church and missional communties. The first quote is from D.H. Lawrence which says, "‘the adventure has gone out of the Christian venture’" And the other one is from Paul Coelho which says, "the ship is safest when it’s in port. But that’s not what ships were made for." These quotes plus reading this book from Mark Batterson has renewed my commitment to living a missional life in our neighborhood, to taking risks as a family and as a community of faith, and to chasing our lion of planting Veritas and realizing the vision of being "A Missional Community of Authentic Worshippers."

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

Veritas Leadership Structure

Last week I wrote a blog about the Monthly Rhythm of Veritas based on the OUT, UP, IN Triangle from 3DM and their lifeshape material. As I wrote about it last week, I also began to realize that the OUT, UP, IN Triangle not only gives us handles on how our community gathers but also the possibility on how we structure our leadership. So I set out to work on a Leadership Structure proposal that I wanted to post here and see what kind of thoughts, comments, suggestions, etc... I might get from people who read the blog. Below you will find the document that I put together as a 1st Draft. I would love to hear your thoughts, ideas, suggestions, thoughts on revisions, things that I missed, etc.....

“Job Descriptions” of Elder Roles

Administrative Elder: 1. Develop Community Room as a consistent revenue stream 2. Serve as Treasurer to collect and deposit offering (work with supportive church book keeper). Eventually overseeing an “in-house” financial team responsible for keeping the books, and all financial matters. Develops Budget in conversation with other elders. 3. Offer strategic step by step details to implement ideas. 4. Partner with Pastor Ryan on funding initiatives. 5. Meet monthly with other elders

UP Elder: 1. Partner with Pastor Ryan on planning the Corporate UP Gatherings (2x a month), the sermon series planning, and what each Missional Community is “studying” during their UP Gatherings. 2. Train, meet, resource, and network with the Missional Communities UP leaders. 3. Develop in Partnership with Pastor Ryan a discipleship process for Veritas. 4. Creating, Overseeing, and working on teams that help the Corporate UP Gatherings come together. (Musical team, Children’s Ministry Team, Multimedia Team) 5. Meet monthly with other elders.

OUT Elder: 1. Partner with Pastor Ryan on planning OUT events, activities, and gatherings. (Getting Artists for 1st Friday, Musicians for 3rd Friday, connecting with Non-Profits to serve with, etc…) 2. Plan (with Pastor Ryan) the monthly OUT Sunday (currently 1x a month) 3. Train, meet, resource, and network with the Missional Communities OUT Leaders. 4. Develop ways, ideas, and dreams of getting OUT into the world and blessing it and means of getting the word out about Veritas. 5. Meet monthly with other elders.

IN Elder: 1. Partner with Pastor Ryan on planning IN events, activities and gatherings that strength the relational community. 2. Train, meet, resource and network with the Missional Communities IN Leaders. 3. Create, Oversee and work on a Hospitality Team for our Corporate UP Gatherings. 4. Plan (with Pastor Ryan) the monthly IN Sunday (currently 1x a Month) 5. Meet monthly with other elders.

Elders meet at least monthly. The monthly meeting will include prayer, sharing from each Elder about what is going on in their area of responsibility (UP efforts, IN efforts, OUT efforts, and Administrative details- financial report, etc…), vision plans, dreaming together, and strategic planning for the future. Elders are responsible for the day to day, month to month work of the church. The Church Planter/Pastor is accountable to the Elder Team. The Elder Team is also responsible for the yearly church budget.

Community Gathering- The Elders convene a Community Gathering twice a year with the entire community to share vision for the future, reports from each Elder about progress in their areas of responsibilities, and the Admin. Elder presents the Budget for the Community to vote on. These twice a year Community Gatherings happen in April and October (right now during the IN Sunday Gathering.)

Veritas Monthly Rhythm

Over the last few months at Veritas we have been sharing the diagram that is above during our worship gathering time. We had started just with sharing stories of how we had been a blessing in the world, how we had lived out the kingdom in word and deed in the past week, and where God was leading us to live missionary lives. Then I realized we needed more than just the stories of being missional, and then I added how we were growing in our Christian journey. We shared stories of what God was teaching us through our times of individual and corporate prayer, worship, bible study, life in the world, and experiencing God in places where we didn't expect him to be.

Not too long after starting these discussions during our worship gathering I saw this triangle in material put out by 3DM called Lifeshapes. The idea is that "we are created to be three-dimensional beings; when one dimension is missing or suppressed, the other two do not work as they should. If we do not have all three elements of the Triangle- the Up, the In, and the Out- we are out of balance and we will wobble through life." (Taken from "Building a Discipling Culture" by Mike Breen and Steve Cockram) I realized that we were sharing stories and instances of living OUT, and UP lives, but were neglecting the IN part. So we began taking 10-15 minutes each worship gathering to hear and tell stories of our UP, IN, and OUT lives.

As I have been looking at the triangle, I have also realized that it fits our 3 Core Values very well..Safe, Spiritual Search (IN), Missional Kingdom Life (OUT), and Authentic Worship Expression (UP). I also began to wonder what it would look like if not only individuals lived out the OUT, UP, IN in their lives, but what it would look like for a community to live this out together in a corporate fashion. So for the past month to a month and a half we have been living out as a community this rhythm taken from the triangle.

So our monthly rhythm looks like this (most of the time)

1st Sunday of the month is our OUT Sunday. We take our time that Sunday to serve the community of Lancaster in some way as well as missionally engage with people. Last week we were asked by Occupy Lancaster to lead a Bible Study.

2nd and 4th Sunday of the month is our UP Sunday. We take time those two Sundays to engage in musical worship, prayer, discussion, Scriptural reflection, and dialogue. (not that we don't "worship" during the other two Sundays of the month...since everything is worship.)

3rd Sunday of the month is our IN Sunday. We take this Sunday to focus on our community and developing the relationships within the Community. This might take the form of a Brunch, a discussion related to what is happening within the life of our community, a time to talk about the direction/future of Veritas, or some other community gathering. (Not that we don't build community when we serve together and worship together)

Since this is really new to us, I am waiting to see how we grow, develop, and live out the mission God has called us to by using this missional rhythm of OUT, UP, and IN. I would love to hear your thoughts, comments, ideas, suggestions, and questions about our Monthly Rhythm.

Leading by Listening

The other night during my prayer and Scripture reflection time before going to bed I came upon a Scripture that struck me as super relevant to Veritas and this church planting journey. The funny thing is that it struck me as almost counter-intuitive to so much of our modern church planting leadership ideas, The scripture is James 1:19 and this is what it says in The Message "Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear." I know this passage isn't talking about leadership but what caught my eye is the phrase Lead with your ears. In this text it basically means listen before you speak. Or the old adage you have two ears and one mouth so that you can listen twice as much as you speak. But in the context of planting a church it is an interesting thought. That, as leaders of a church plant, one of the main things that we should be doing is leading by listening. First of all we need to listen to God and see what he is saying through his word, through others, through worship, through prayer, through silence, and through his creation. Secondly we need to listen to the world around us and hear what is going around us and how the gospel can be brought to bear on various situations that we encounter. It's like what Steve Taylor said in the book "The Out of Bounds Church."...."I sit on the fault lines of a cultural shift. In my right hand, I hold a video remote. In my left hand, I hold the gospel of Jesus."

Around the same time that I read the Scripture I also became familiar with the process of starting a Fresh Expression (A fresh expression is a form of church for our changing culture, established primarily for the benefit of people who are not yet members of any church), which in many ways connects with how we should be going about planting churches in our post-Christendom, postmodern world. This process starts not with a demographic study, a church planting prospectus, a vision statement or anything that many modern church plants start with. The Fresh Expressions process starts with listening and following God's call. Below is the process in diagram form.

So what does this mean for me and for Veritas? It means that I need to spend more time in prayer. Something that I have been trying to do at least once a week for the past few weeks is to spend some time prayer walking in the city, around the F&M Campus, and around my neighborhood. I need to make it a priority to spend time in prayer and listening. It means that we need to take things one step at a time and trust God that he is working already and we just need to figure out (by listening) where he is working, what he is doing, and what he wants to do and then join him in what he is doing, and dream together on ideas to accomplish what he wants to do.

My prayer is that I will lead Veritas by being a listener.

Benefit Concert

On Friday night Veritas had the privilege of hosting a benefit concert to raise money for a safe house and after care program for those who have been trafficked domestically. All the funds went to North Start Initiative, a non-profit here in Lancaster County that is fighting Human Trafficking and an organization that Veritas is looking at getting more involved with. Here is a copy of a news release about the event: A fundraiser will be held Friday for an organization working to create a safe house for human trafficking victims.

North Star Initiative has a house under lease, but co-founder Jen Sensenig estimated it needs at least $250,000 in renovations.

The group is targeting a late 2013 opening.

Human trafficking can include women forced to work in the sex industry or in other jobs for little or no pay, said Sensenig, 40, of Paradise.

She envisions the house serving a half-dozen young victims of domestic human trafficking.

It would provide shelter, counseling and life-skills training to help reintegrate them into society.

Millersville University junior and musician Christina Berg is behind the fundraiser. She did a benefit concert and auction for Tim Bradley, a North Star Initiative co-founder.

Bradley went on a four-month mission trip earlier this year to trafficking centers in Southeast Asia and Atlanta.

Bradley will discuss his experience at the fundraiser scheduled from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday at The Community Room on Prince, above the Prince Street Cafe, 19 N. Prince St.

The event will include musicians, a dance performance and refreshments.

Admission is by donation.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/459108_Benefit-for-victims-of-trafficking-set-for-Friday.html#ixzz1YP7x6bzE

So after it was all said and done we probably had close to 75 people come to the event and where able to raise over 800 dollars for North Star. It was definitely a realization of our dream as Veritas and our reason for renting the Community Room. We are excited about future possibilities of using the Community Room for events that connect two of our passions: art and justice issues. In fact the next benefit concert we will be doing is November 18 with Matt Haller, a student at F&M whose music, CD's and concerts go to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Tuscaloosa, AL that was destroyed in a tornado in April.

Continue to dream about further means of using the arts and music to bless, serve and raise money for various justice issues in our world. Any ideas, would love to hear them.

Planting Missionary Churches Part 3

So the last 2 posts that I have written have focused on Planting Missionary Churches and specifically looking at the text in Acts 17:16-34 where Paul goes to Athens and shares the good news of Jesus on Mars Hill. The first post related to a back story that happened 500 years before Paul came to Athens which opened up the text in a new way for me. The second post was about Paul's missionary strategy in Athens. Today I will share about missionary strategy that we can apply from Acts 17 into our context here in the US. And I'll share a little bit about the way that I am seeking to live this missionary strategy out in Lancaster, PA while planting Veritas, a missional/missionary church plant. 1. The first thing that we had noticed in the Acts 17 text is that Paul when coming to Athens went to the Synagogue and reasoned with the Jews and God-fearing Greeks. He started with a place of openness, or with low hanging fruit. As a missionary in the west probably the first place we could start with is people who are dechurched and not the unchurched. People who are also going through significant life change, be it new college students, new parents, someone who just experienced loss of some type or with people who are struggling. I think of those who have been recently affected with flooding in our area and how a missionary and a missionary community can come alongside these families and help them clean, dispose of, rebuild, and just be a blessing.

2. The second thing we noticed is that Paul also went into the marketplace as well as the synagogue and then was invited to go and share the good news at the Areopagus. We need to spend more time outside the "church" building relationships, networking, and serving others. I was at a meeting this morning about 1st Friday in downtown Lancaster and a lot was said negatively about those who proselytize (handing out tracts, yelling, using a bullhorn). Or I think about people who go onto college campuses with their agenda and not just to be a blessing to students and the community. I went to the meeting to see how we as Veritas can be a blessing to the community and not force our way in, but be invited into the conversations that are happening on a city level. This is also one of the reasons that I spend much of my time in coffeehouses doing my work is to be out and among people and seek to develop relationships with people.

3. The third thing in the text that I noticed is that before Paul said anything, he observed the culture by walking around. So often Christians just go into a situation and open their mouths before listening with their eyes and ears. One thing that I want to try to do more often is to prayer walk both in the city and also around the F&M Campus where several of our Veritas community are students. JR Briggs has a series of great posts about prayer walking called "Creative ways to pray with your feet" which can be found on his blog (http://www.jrbriggs.com/)

4. Lastly Paul uses the poets of the culture in which he is sharing and not the OT. When he was in the synagogue, he used the OT to share but when he was on Mars Hill he used 2 Poets from the Athenian Culture and ones that were authoritative in the lives of his listeners. Who are our poets? Who are the people that people in our culture give authority to? I believe, especially in the younger generations, it is the musicians and filmmakers who are making and sharing theology and we need to listen to and walk and keep up on what is happening in pop culture. This is why when we gather we try to have some pop culture as part of our worship gathering, be it a movie clip, pop music playing when people are hanging out, or actually having a pop song played by our musicians during our gathering time.

These are some of the missionary strategies that I've gotten from Paul's missionary strategy in Athens and on Mars Hill. Maybe you found some other strategies in this text that I missed. Would love to hear your insights on this text, Paul's missionary strategy, and how these guide how we go about being missionaries in our culture.

Planting Missionary Churches Part 2

So on Monday I talked about listening to a podcast from Chris Backert given at a Ecclesia church planting gathering called Planting Missionary Churches and what stood out to me, especially in relation to the text in Acts 17 when Paul goes to Mars Hill in Athens and I also gave a historical back story that happened 500 years before Paul's trip to Athens. I want to take this post and look at the same text and draw out some of Paul's missionary strategy for how he shared the gospel at Mars Hill. Then in my next post on Planting Missionary Churches I want to draw out some steps for planting a missionary church in our world, or you could call it our missionary strategy in the west.

So here is the text again from Acts 17:16-34:

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” At that, Paul left the Council. Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

So what is Paul's missionary strategy while in Athens? Here is what I believe made up his missionary strategy.

1. The first thing you notice is that when he arrives in Athens is that he goes to the Synagogue and reasons with the Jews and God-fearing Greeks. He starts in the place where there would be some common "language" (so to speak) and where there would probably be what is called "Low Hanging Fruit".

2. While he reasoned in the synagogue day by day with the Jews and God-fearing Greeks, he also went into the marketplace where he would rub shoulders with those who had a different worldview than those he would encounter in the synagogue. And while there he met some philosophers who took me with them to the meeting at the Areopagus. He didn't go straight away and force himself into the meeting at the Areopagus where the center of learning, philosophy, and culture was taking place. He went based on an invitation to go and present his message of Jesus and the resurrection.

3. Paul walks around Athens and looks at their objects of worship. He learns about their culture by what they worship. He doesn't just go to Athens and begins to speak to people. He uses his eyes and ears first before his mouth and tongue. He does his cultural exegesis, his cultural research on what makes people in Athens tick.

4. He uses whatever is authoritative in the lives of his listeners. In the synagogue I am sure that when he was reasoning with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks he used the Old Testament scriptures. When he was in the Areopagus I'm sure he didn't start out by quoting the Old Testament because they weren't authoritative in the lives of his hearers. Instead he used the poets of their culture. In verse 28 we read, "‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’" The first quote- For in him we live and move and have our being is from the Cretan poet Epimenides and the other quote, "We are his offspring." is from the Cilician poet Aratus. In fact this isn't the only place where Paul quotes Greek poets (see 1 Corinthians 15:33 and Titus 1:12).

My next post will be taking the four things that I mention above and applying it to our western culture. Our postmodern, post-Christendom culture. And how we go about following Paul's missionary strategy and how we come up with a missionary strategy that also works in our world today. And I'll also share some thoughts on how I am going about this as we are continuing to plant Veritas, a Missional or Missionary Church in Lancaster, as well as how Veritas is seeking to go about this as a missional/missionary community.

Planting Missionary Churches

Yesterday I was out mowing the lawn and while mowing the lawn I always listen to my iPod. Sometimes I listen to music and sometimes I listen to various podcasts, most of them dealing with church planting. Yesterday I started out listening to some music and then started listening to a podcast from the Ecclesia Church planting gathering from the other year. I was listening to Chris Backert talk about Planting Missionary Churches, which has been a very helpful podcast for me. (Audio from that session the 2011 conference that I attended can be found here... http://ecclesia.343mp3.com/2011/Aggelos/2%20-%20Planting%20Missionary%20Churches%20-%20Chris%20Backert.mp3"

Over the next few days I want to share some thoughts from this podcast, what stood out to me, what is helpful to me, and some concrete steps that I plan to take because of this very helpful podcast and session by my friend Chris Backert.

One of the first thing that struck me was a back story to the story of Paul in Athens found in Acts 16:16-34. Acts 17 is one of my favorite bible texts as I love the way Paul interacts with the Athenian Culture. I find that we can learn a great deal about how we need to go into our culture with the gospel based on how Paul went to Athens. I'll share a few thoughts on what Paul did in Athens and how we can go into our culture in my next blog post.

The back story that opened up Acts 17 for me is the story of someone who came to Athens 500 years before Paul came to Athens. Here is the back story along with the story of Paul in Athens.

Sometime in the Sixth Century B.C. a man named Nicias stood before the Athenian council on Mars Hill. He reported back from a trip that he had just taken to the Pithian Oracle, a desperate trip because Athens had been plagued with disease for some time. Nicias reported: "Our city is under a curse. The priest has revealed that a certain god is punishing us for the heinous crimes of our former king." And even as he spoke, the dirges from thousands of people rose up from the city behind him, lamenting the dying there below.

One council member spoke up and said, "What god could this be? We've offered atoning sacrifices to every god. I can't imagine what other god there could be."

Nicias replied, "I don't know either, nor did the priest at the oracle know." With his words a cold wind swept through the marble columns as if to affirm the terror settling on all their hearts. Nicias continued, "We must send a ship to Crete to fetch a man named Epimenides. The oracle assures me that he will know how to appease this god."

And so after much debate, the humbled council agreed to seek the help of this foreigner. Very soon, in the time it took to sail from Athens to Crete and back, Epimenides Inisious stepped off the ship in the town of Piraeus, the harbor town. He and his traveling party began to walk up the road to Athens, and as they journeyed, signs of the plague surrounded them. Rather than being surprised or shocked by the travesties of an epidemic, Epimenides was surprised by something else. He said, "Never before have I seen so many gods. In fact, it's probably easier to find a god here than a man."

At that Nicias laughed and replied, "Yes, but for the life of me, I can't figure out who this other god could be. We worship every possible god we can imagine."

Epimenides returned, "Well, maybe that's your problem." The next morning Epimenides stood before the council on Mars Hill, along with a flock of choice, hungry sheep that he had requested the night before. As the foreigner stood there in front of the council, hundreds and hundreds of Athenians gathered there desperately looking on and hoping for some glimmer of truth, some hope of relief.

Epimenides addressed the council: "I'm going to offer a sacrifice based on three assumptions. The first one is that there's a god out there and we don't know his name. But, he's somehow connected to our plague. The second assumption is this -that if we invoke the help of this god, he is great enough and good enough that he will come to our aid."

At that one of the young men in the crowd yelled out, "How can we invoke the name of a god when we don't even know his name?"

Epimenides replied, "That's my third assumption: that this god is so great and so good that if we call upon his name, he will smile on our ignorance as long as we acknowledge that ignorance before him."

And so they all looked to the sky and Epimenides cried out, "Unknown God, look down upon this city. Forgive this city. Deliver this city. And now, if you would choose the sheep that You desire, if You would cause them to lie down upon the grass, we'll sacrifice them to You." With that they released the hungry sheep to wander around the grassy hill. Miraculously, several of the sheep began to lie down rather than graze with the rest of the flock. Artisans immediately began to mark the spot and collect the sheep for a sacrifice. Epimenides instructed them to build an altar on the spot and inscribe it to Agnos Theo, the Unknown God. They did as he instructed and sacrificed the sacred sheep.

That very day, the plague began to lift; within a week, the people of Athens were well again. Naturally, they glorified and worshipped this unknown God, leaving flowers and garlands on the newly built altar. But after a time, they began to forget. They made a statue in honor of Epimenides and put it in the city. Eventually, however, they forgot about him as well. The Athenians gradually slipped back into the worship of their old gods. The altar to the Unknown God fell into disrepair and finally into ruins. However, one day two of the city elders were walking among those ruins when one of them stopped and tore away a bit of moss to reveal the words Agnos Theo. He said to the other elder, "Demis, remember this? Remember what happened so long ago when we were just young men?"

Demis answered, "Of course! How could I forget? I was the one who cried out 'How can we offer a sacrifice to a god when we don't even know his name?'" His friend replied, "Don't think me sacrilegious, but if this god would somehow reveal himself, I imagine that we could do away with all these other gods."

Demis thought for a moment and said, "Yes, maybe so. But how will we remember? How will the people of our city remember that this god is not a foreign god to us, but one who has visited our city and saved us from the horrible plague?"

Shortly thereafter, the two men resolved to go before the city council and pass a motion that would preserve and maintain the uncovered altar to the Unknown God for all posterity.{1}

Half a millennium passed until another foreigner with a spiritual mission stepped foot in Piraeus. Not a Cretan but a Jew, Paul found himself, like Epimenides, much more amazed at all the idols than at the sites of Athens. We read about his encounter in Acts 17:16-34. It seems Paul had not planned on going to Athens but because he ran into some trouble in Berea (they ran him out of town), he fled on a ship and ended up waiting in Athens for his friends Silas and Timothy.

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace everyday with those who chanced to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also met him there. Some said, "What would this babbler say?" Others said, "He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities." They said this because he preaches Jesus and this resurrection. And they took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus [Mars Hill], saying, "May we know what this new teaching is which you present to us? For you bring some strange things to our ears and we wish to know therefore what these things mean." (Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.)

So Paul standing in the middle of the Areopagus said, "Men of Athens! I perceive that in every way you are a very religious people. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: To An Unknown God. What therefore you worship as unknown this I proclaim to you that the God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man. Nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything. And he made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation; that they should seek God in the hope that they might feel after him and find him, yet he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and we move and we have our being. As even some of your poets have said, 'For we are indeed his offspring.' Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold or silver or stone -a representation by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all men everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this he has given assurance to all men raising him from the dead." (Acts 17:16-31)

I'll post some thoughts later this week about Paul's missionary strategy in Athens and what we can learn about what our missionary strategy should be like here in the 21st century based on Acts 17.

The Community Room on Prince

For the past 4 months (since May) we have been renting the Community Room on Prince as the primary lease holders and also subletting it to other communities and individuals. Over the last 4 months we have used the space primarily for missional and cultural engagement. We have held 4 1st Friday Art Shows and will hold our 5th this coming Friday. We have held 2 Poetry Nights and 2 Coffeehouse/Open Mic Nights on Music Friday (which is 3rd Fridays in Downtown Lancaster). I am also very excited about our next Music Friday event which is a Benefit Concert to raise awareness and funds to provide a safe house for women getting out of the Human Trafficking industry. (More details about the event can be found here.....

The last art show we had the art of Salina Almanzar, a Lancaster resident and F&M Student and that evening was great. Her artwork was amazing but she shared with others about the art show and we probably had at least 100 people over the course of the night check out her work, engage with her, and talked with us as well. She definitely got what we wanted to do for emerging artists, that being provide the space for artists to display their work and the artist then promotes the show. I am hoping this coming Friday night's show is attended as well as the last one.

It's been great having the space and we have been holding off having our worship gatherings in the space over the last 4 months for a few reasons. One, there was another community that was meeting there on Sunday morning and we wanted to let them us the space. Two we wanted to make sure that we remember the reason behind having this space is primarily for missional engagement and not for ourselves. But now we have decided to begin meeting there for worship. The other community is meeting there on the 1st Sunday in the AM, the 2nd and 4th in the PM, and not at all on the 3rd Sunday. So we can do some missional engagement and service projects on the 1st Sunday of every month, and then hold our regular gatherings on the 2nd-4th Sundays of the month.

In fact we held our 1st Worship Gathering there this past Sunday and had a great turnout with some new faces, some returning College students from Franklin and Marshall (which is only a few blocks away), and some great musical worship and discussion on Jesus moving into the neighborhood and how we can incarnate Jesus into our neighborhoods, work, school, and various networks that we are a part of. I'm really excited about the next few months of Veritas and hopefully what will be a season of growth both in our Gathered times and in our Scattered Times. And I am excited about what God is up to in our community and how we can use the Community Room to bless people, serve people, and missionally engage with the community each month through art, music, and a host of other possibilities.

Veritas in the News

The video above is from a newscast from July 15 talking about our last Poets' Loft. Pretty cool "publicity" for our missional community.

Radical Together: Unleashing the People of God for the Purpose of God

The other week I received the book "Radical Together: Unleashing the People of God for the Purpose of God" by David Platt, which is the follow up book to "Radical". His question that led to writing this book was "How can we in the church best unleash the people of God in the Spirit of God with the Word of God for the glory of God." He then spends the rest of the book wrestling with how a community of followers of Jesus (and not just individuals) live out a radical Jesus life together.

He organizes the book around six ideas that he believes (in his words) are foundational for Christians who desire to be a part of churches that are unleashing people in the world with the gospel. The six ideas are:

1. One of the worst enemies of Christians can be good things in the church. 2. The gospel that saves us from works saves us to work. 3. The Word does the work. 4. Building the right church depends on using all the wrong people. 5. We are living- and longing- for the end of the world. 6. We are selfless followers of a self-centered God.

Overall I appreciated the book and it gave me some concrete thoughts and things to apply within Veritas, albeit on a much smaller scale that the authors church. (For instance, really getting serious about tithing our giving each week to some missions/ministries outside ourselves like Living Water International or Blood Water Mission or North Star Initiative or Heads Up both here in Lancaster.)

Some quotes that stood out to me include:

"Are you and I personally willing to put everything in our lives on the table for Christ to determine what needs to stay and what needs to go?"

"The Gospel is the reason for radical living"

(Love this prayer) "Lord, let me make a difference for you that is utterly disproportionate to who I am."

"What if growing the church was never intended to depend on creating a good performance with all the right people on the stage?"

"Make disciples who will make disciples who will make disciples, and together multiply this gospel to all peoples."

"What if each of us were actually making disciples who were making disciples who were making disciples?"

"We are exhorted to see ourselves as missionaries in our cities, and we are encouraged to engage our cultures with the gospel." (The quote goes on to say that you need to be more than just living out the kingdom locally but also seeking to live out the kingdom globally as well.)

And lastly... "We said to God, 'Wherever you want us to go, whatever you want us to do, however you want us to live, we give our lives and our family for you to spend in making the gospel and your glory known to the ends of the earth, particularly among those who have never heard the gospel." A prayer that my wife and I need to be praying together and separately.

One last thing is that there is a study guide in the back of the book for groups that might want to use the book as a small group resource or a call that might want to use it for a sermon series type small group. This might come in handy for future discussions within Veritas.

Just so you know.... “I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review”

On the Verge: a journey into the apostolic future of the church

The other week I received a copy of "On the Verge" by Alan Hirsch and Dave Ferguson from the Speakeasy blog program that I am a part of. I received the book so that I could read it and then blog my thoughts regarding the book. I was excited to read the book because it had formed and given structure to the framework of the Exponential Conference back in April that my wife and I went to in Orlando, Florida. As I began to leaf through it, I realized a few things. First, it is a rather thick book with a lot of information in it. Secondly, I realized that this book will be one that I need to chew on, reflect on, and probably reread a few times to really allow it to sink into my thoughts, practices, and into the way we are doinging and being church together. And Lastly, I realized that probably the thing that could help me most in reading the book was others to read it with and then talk about how to put the various insights into practice. (I know of 2 others within the COB who are reading the book right now).

Hirsch and Ferguson (I so wanted to write Hirsch and Frost as I am so used to doing) divide the book into 4 main parts that make up the "Model for Apostolic Movement" and then spend significant time unpacking the 4 main points. The 4 parts of the model for apostolic movement are:

1. Imagine. "We will begin with the importance of missional imagination in helping us rethink what we mean by ecclesia, and move on to imagining new possibilities." 2. Shift. "This second section forms the paradigm-shifting heart of the book. Here we describe how churches can activate apostolic movement vision and philosophy at the heart of the church." 3. Innovate. "We then look into the dynamics of genuine innovation (as opposed to simple creativity) without which we are doomed to simply repeat what we already know." 4. Move. "In the final section, we explore what it takes to practically generate and maintain actual movement, or this movementum, throughout the church and become a Verge church."

Hirsch also spends significant time walking through what he calls mDNA (or missional DNA) which is needed if we are to be a missional movement. These six elements of mDNA are: 1. Jesus is Lord. 2. Disciple Making. 3. Apostolic environment 4. Missional-incarnational impulse. 5. Organic systems. 6. Communitas

Probably the thing that has stuck out the most to me, and has stayed with me the longest is the idea of the 60:40. The 60:40 is the percentages of people involved or open to the church as it stands now. The authors put it this way, "It is our opinion, and that of the Future Travelers group, that the prevailing, contemporary church-growth approach to church will have significant cultural appeal- marketability, if you will- to about 40 percent of the American population." Which, for all you math majors out there, leaves 60% who are not part of, involved with, or even open to the church as it stands now. How do we connect the church with those 60 percent? That is the question that continues to swim around in my head, and the chapters dealing with Imagining and Innovating have, and I believe, will come in handy as Veritas moves into the future.

The only "negative" (and it is a small negative) that I have with the book revolves around a quote found near the end of the book. In a part of the book labeled "8 Movement Rules" they list 8 rules for missional movements. The 2nd rules is "The Small Rules." And here is what they say about the Small Rules, "Jesus started this apostolic movement with a single small group. Jesus used the parable of leaven to show how small things can make a big impact. He also referred to the smallest of seeds as having massive potential for earthshaking results. In Church 3.0 Neil Cole champions the power of small things: 'Why is small so big? Small does not cost a lot. Small is easy to reproduce. Small is easily changed and exchanged. Small is mobile. Small is harder to stop. Small is intimate. Small is simple. Small infiltrates easier. Small is something people think they can do. Big doesn't do any of these things. We can change the world more quickly by becoming much smaller.' Big can be good, but in a movement, the small rules!" So why do i quote the entire section? Because I believe the others believe this with all their heart, but then throughout the entire book when it comes to telling stories of churches who are making the missional shift, they only tell the big church stories. There is no little missional community of 30 people slowly impacting the community around them one person at a time. There is no stories about small churches turning outward and blessing their communities. No every church that is listed in the back of the book are rather large churches, ranging from 700 people to 12,000 people. For someone like me, who has a small missional community, who sometimes feels like a dreadful failure, it wasn't a great way to end the book.

With that being said, I still believe there is much to be learned, mined, and put into practice in this book. I will continue to ruminate on it. I will hope to read this book in a community setting with other leaders in order to be able to put things in perspective and to give insights on how and what to put into place in my context. Thanks again to the Speakeasy blog program for the honor of reading and blogging about this book.