The Story Lives: Leading a Missional Revolution

The other month I got an e-mail from Mike Morrell, who runs the Speakeasy Blog program which allows bloggers to get books, read them and then review them on their blog. The e-mail was offering the book The Story Lives: Leading a Missional Revolution by Henriet Schapelhouman. As a missional practitioner who is seeking to planting a missional church, I always jump at the chance to read another work regarding missional life and ministry.

So I got the book, read it, and am finally getting around to reviewing it.

The author's hope behind the book is spelled out on the back of the book in the form of this question, "Are you a typical believer who will die without leading a single person to Jesus? Or will you live missionally and change someone's eternity?" And with that question the author seeks to spell out what it means to live missionally.

The book I believe would be a great starting point for someone just getting their toes wet in the missional conversation. A few times throughout the book I felt almost like I was reading The Missional Driven Life. I would recommend this book to someone who had just heard about the missional conversation and who is a part of a more traditional expression of church.

That isn't to say that there isn't something for everyone no matter where they are on the missional journey.

The things that most stood out to me in the book related to her personal story of moving towards the missional conversation and missional ministry. The biggest insight for me was when she shared her story of growing up in Europe and living in a post-Christendom culture, moving to the United States, and slowly waking up to the reality and the United States is now a missions context and is in the middle of the shift to post-Christendom. She says it this way, "This shift from modernism to postmodernism and Christendom to post-Christendom, now has been happening in the United States. In learning about postmodernism, post-Christianity and missional ministry, I reconnected to my missional roots." I wish she would have spelled out more connections between her missional roots and her current missional context. It would have been helpful to have her do some comparisons between Europe and the US and how can churches in the US better connect with the emerging postmodern and post-Christendom context that we now find ourselves in.

Another great thing about this book is it's format around stories. There are many personal stories, stories from other leaders in the missional conversation, and opportunity for the reader to chime in with their own story, through the discussion questions at the end of each chapter.

I was glad to be able to read the book and reflect on my own story and my transition into the missional conversation. So if you are just starting your story in the missional conversation, feel free to pick up this book, or I can let you read my copy.

Disclaimer: this book has been granted to me through SpeakEasy so that I might review it impartially.

Defining Missional Communities Week 3

Today we are looking at the third part of our series on Missional Communities. We are defining Missional Communities as an extended family of missionary servants who are disciples that make disciples. There are 4 parts to that definition: extended family, missionary, servants, disciples who make disciples.

We have covered extended family and missionary. Today we’ll tackle servants and then next week we’ll look at disciples who make disciples.

To look at the idea that a missional community is a group of servants we’ll be looking at probably the best narrative there is in relation to the idea that Jesus was a servant while at the same time being Lord and King. A servant king if you will. This text can be found in John 13:1-17 and is probably one of my favorite narratives in all of Scripture. This is the story of the upper room and Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, the night before his crucifixion. John 13:1-17 says, “It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.  Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”  Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.”  For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean. When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them.  “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.  Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

So as we look at what might be a familiar story to some of us and possible a new story to some of us, we’ll look at the story in two sections. And something I like to call Cleansed to cleanse. That there are two parts to this story, Jesus washing the disciples feet (getting cleansed) and Jesus calling his disciples to wash others feet (going out and cleansing).

And so the night before Jesus was going to go to his death at the hands of the Roman Empire, we see him gathered with his disciples during the traditional Passover feast in the upper room. Now traditionally when people would gather together for a meal you would either wash your own feet or have the lowest of slaves doing the washing. And for whatever reason this didn’t happen. In fact right before this narrative you see the disciples arguing over who was the greatest. And so none of the disciples were going to volunteer to wash the feet of the rest of the disciples because to do so meant that they were a slave and “inferior” to the rest of the disciples. And so as they had the meal, a meal where your feet were traditionally near the table, as you reclined at the table. And so dirty feet near the table, not the cleanest idea. So that sat through almost the entire meal because no one was willing to humble themselves, take up a towel and wash the rest of the disciples feet. But what happened next was probably one of the most radical, subversive, upside down thing that ever happened in the course of human history. The Son of God. The King of the Universe. The Savior of the World. God in the flesh got up from his seat, wrapped a towel around his waist and took on the role of a slave or servant by washing his disciples feet. A role that his disciples weren’t eager to take on. This act of servanthood was scandalous and mystifying. It was an object lesson on the spirit of service and love and should not only characterize Jesus but every follower of Jesus that has ever come after.

And so Jesus get up from the table, takes off his outer garment and wraps a towel around his waist. The word for take off there is similar to the word used for the idea of Jesus laying down his life. He then goes one by one to the disciples and begins to wash their feet with a basin of water and a towel.

A few things stand out here. First, Jesus, if he washed all of his disciples feet, which he did, then he needed to wash Judas’ feet, knowing that in a few short hours that Judas would betray him. Perhaps this was one final act of love, service, and to tug at the heartstrings of Judas. But no matter what happened after, Jesus poured out his love to one who would not love him back.

Secondly, when he comes to Peter to wash his feet, Peter responds quickly and rashly, like most of the other times in his dealings with Jesus. He responds by saying, “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” You see, Peter is no different than us. You see we can sometimes show a servants heart by accepting the service of others to us. If we only serve, and refuse to be served, it can be a sign of deeply rooted and well hidden pride. But is that the reason he said no to Jesus at first? Maybe, but I think it has to do with more of the fact that Peter couldn’t stand the thought of his teacher, Lord, and Messiah taking on the role of a slave. After all, Peter’s picture of Israel’s Messiah was one who would ride into Jerusalem on a white horse, wielding a sword, and vanquishing the evil Roman Empire and establish the Kingdom of God through violence. He had no concept of a towel wielding, foot washing, servant king who established the Kingdom of God through the simple act of taking a foot, putting it in a basin full of water, and drying it with a towel. A servant messiah made no sense to him. And if we are honest, it makes no sense for us even today.

After Peter’s refusal, Jesus told him, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” What Jesus was getting at here is that if Peter wanted to share with Jesus in his community and gain the eternal life (don’t just think heaven…think the Kingdom life here and now) that he longed for, than he needed to be washed by Jesus. He needed to be cleansed in order to live out the Kingdom of God in the world. He needed Jesus to wash his feet so he can then get up, go out into the world and wash the feet of his family, his friends, his neighbors, and yes, in following Jesus example, even his enemies. He needed to be cleansed in order to cleanse others.

And so Peter then relented but of course over states it by saying, “Then, Lord, not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” And so no doubt Jesus then took Peter’s feet into his hand, put them into the basin, washed them in the water, and dried them with a towel. Peter than was cleansed and given the mission of going out and washing the feet of others in the world.

Following his radical act of servanthood, Jesus then put his clothes back on. The wording here is used then to describe his taking up this life again. And so in a real way this feet washing experience was foreshadowing the death and resurrection of Jesus. The laying down of his life and the taking it back up again.

After he sat down he then turned his attention to his disciples to expand what this simple act would mean in moving forward as a Jesus centered community. His desire for his disciples? Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” That the act of feet washing that night that Jesus had done to the disciples needed to leave the upper room and reverberate throughout the world, throughout history, and into our world today, and forever. You see the biggest crime that night would have been for the disciples to say after leaving the upper room that night, “Well that was nice. I really enjoyed that. That was a moving service. It was great having Jesus wash my feet.” and then leave the act of serving and washing feet in the upper room. But isn’t that what we followers of Jesus do all the time anyway? We experience the cleansing that God provides and then we don’t take it out into the world and participate in the Kingdom of God by serving others and washing their feet?

There are two dangers in this passage. One is getting cleansed by God and keeping that cleansing to ourselves. We don’t wash the feet of people. We don’t go out and serve them. The other danger is that we go off and serve people not from being cleansed but just wanting to make a difference in the world. We try to do the cleansing without being cleansed first. Or we try to wash others feet without having our feet washed by Jesus first.

So there are two lessons here. One, let Christ wash your feet. Two, wash the feet of others.

So let’s talk about these two things together. How do you need to let Christ wash your feet? And who is God calling you to serve/wash feet this week? Those are the two questions for our discussion time.

1. How do you need Christ to “wash your feet”?

2. Whose feet might you wash this coming week? And in what way?

Defining Missional Communities Week 2

Today we continue our series entitled Defining Missional Communities. We are taking 4 weeks to unpack what a Missional Community is, what defines it, and what practices are lived out within a missional community.

We are taking these weeks because, if you have been around Veritas for any length of time, you have probably heard us use the term missional community and we probably haven’t done a great job of actually describing or sharing what that actually means and what it looks like.

The definition of a missional community that we’ll be using for the four week series is this: A Missional community is an (extended) family of missionary servants who are disciples that make disciples.

So last week we covered the first part of the definition that being an extended family. We talked about the greek word Oikos which means family or household. And we laid out 5 principles of Oikos (or missional community life). That being 1. Prayer 2. Shared Meals. 3. Shared Resources. 4. Fun. 5. Common Mission

Today we cover the second part of the definition, that being missionary. Then next week we’ll look at servants. And finishing it up with disciples who make disciples.

So today we are dialoguing around the idea that a missional community is just that missional. Now we have used that word a lot as well and really it is a simple word that just means sent. And you can probably also use the word missionary in place of missional. But I know that in the churches history the term missionary isn’t always the greatest thing due to colonization, non-indigenous forms of mission, etc….. But let’s set that aside and talk about what it means to be a missionary in our world today, right here in our context of Lancaster, PA and how we need to see Lancaster as a mission field.

To do that we’ll look at 2 Scriptures, one a foundational text for understanding the idea of being missional or a missionary and the other fleshes out a way of doing missional/missionary “work” in Lancaster.

The first Scripture that we’ll look at together is John 20:21 which says, “Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” Here we see Jesus, following the resurrection, giving the missional mandate to his disciples and also to everyone who would come after. You see Jesus was sent into the world from his Father, the Father and the Son send the Spirit into the world, and the Father, Son and Holy Spirit send us. To be missional, again as I mentioned, means living a sent life. How would your life be different if you realized that you were sent by Jesus into the world to demonstrate, embody, and proclaim the gospel of the Kingdom of God? How would it change the way you interact with your family, your friends, your neighbors, your enemies, etc?? How would knowing that your everyday existence in Lancaster is in a mission context and that you are a missionary in the form of a teacher, a stay at home parent, a student, a pastor, a graphic designer, etc? You are a missionary just as much as someone who goes overseas to do “mission work”. You are just as much on a mission trip as youth who go on a short term mission trip. Just that this mission trip is for your entire life and it is currently a trip to Lancaster. You and I are sent ones.

But the next question that maybe you are thinking about right now is this: “I believe that I am a sent one. That I am a missionary in my context. But to whom am I sent?” That is a great question and our next Scripture that we’ll unpack together, I believe, can help us answer that very question.

Let’s look at Luke 10:1-12 which can help us address the question about who are we sent to. Luke 10 talks about this concept that we call Person of Peace.

“After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.  He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.  Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’  But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say,  ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’  I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.”

So what we see in Luke 10 is Jesus strategy for sending. He sends the 72 disciples out together. Notice that. He sent them out in teams of 2. So often when we think of being missional, being sent, or being a missionary we think of a lone person (and maybe a family) going out into the world. What would it look like for us to be sent corporately together? How would that change things? How would it increase our “effectiveness”? How would it help us not to throw in the towel and give up on this sent life?

So Jesus sends out 36 advance teams to go out to prepare the soil of the people and the towns for the arrival of Jesus. And he makes sure that they understand that this mission isn’t just a walk in the park. That this mission of being sent has some risks. He describes sending these disciples as sending them out as lambs among wolves.

After Jesus sends them out, has them pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out more workers, and warns them that they will be like lambs among wolves, he lays out their missional strategy of sharing the Kingdom of God with people. This strategy is what has become known as People of Peace. In Verses 5-9 we read more about the People of Peace “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’

In Jesus day a Person of Peace was a resident of a town who welcomed the travelers into their homes and extended hospitality for the entirety of their stay in the town. They were simply someone that God had prepared ahead of time to hear the message of the gospel through those who Jesus sent out. So a Person of Peace opened their homes to the missionary team, they fed them, provided for their needs, and were very open to them. But what about in our day and age, how does this missional strategy of a Person of Peace work out? And what defines a Person of Peace today? This is a crucial piece and is foundational to life within an Missional Community.

A Person of Peace is one who welcomes you, likes to be with you (and knows that you are a Christian), is open to receiving from you and serves you in some way. Or put in another way: A person of peace is a person of receptivity (they are open to you and therefore open to your message of the King and the Kingdom), they are a person of reputation (good or bad), and they are a Person of Referral (they are influential and have a web of relationships or a network…or the word we used last week is Oikos…they have an extended family network). We see Jesus utilizing this strategy of discerning a person of peace in John 4 and the woman at the well. She was a person of receptivity (she was open to Jesus). She definitely had a reputation. And lastly she was a person of referral as we see at the end of the story in John 4 when she goes back to the townspeople and tells the about Jesus and many come to know Jesus through this women, this person of peace.

So often we make things harder for ourselves and our missional communities by not following this simple and uncomplicated teaching of Jesus. You see it’s God’s job to bring us the right people across our path and to give us the eyes to recognize them. Jesus wanted the disciples to plant themselves somewhere and not move around. He wants the same for us in our missional strategy. Stay where you are and work with the people of peace and share with them the message of the King and the Kingdom. Jesus told his disciples and he tells us to go and find the people who welcome you, who make it easy for you to talk about Jesus. They are the people who will listen to you and will respond to your invitation to join in with some of your activities.

Now the one thing that we need to recognize in this strategy of finding a person or people of peace is that by definition to find a person of peace means more than likely that you’ll also find people of unpeace. People who aren’t open to you, who don’t welcome you, who don’t serve you, and who have no interest in your King and His Kingdom. So you need to be okay with outing yourself as a follower of Jesus so that you see how people respond. If they reject and push away (not because you are a jerk about it) then they aren’t people of peace. If they are receptive to it and if they stay engaged then more than likely they are a person of peace.

And so in the life of a missional community the person of peace strategy is a way of seeing what God is already doing in our mission context. Finding people of peace means discovering where God is already at work in the neighborhood, or network of relationships that you are seeking to reach. So you are called to find out where God is at work and how you can be a missionary/missional/sent into that context.

So let’s dialogue around the idea of the person of peace. Have you heard that concept before? What strikes you about the person of peace concept? What stands out from the text that you can apply to today’s situation? And have you or can you identify someone in your life right now who as you heard the concept of person of peace a light bulb went off and you said “they are my person of peace”?

1. What stands out from the texts that you can apply to today’s situation? What are your thoughts regarding the missional strategy known as Person of Peace?

2. As we were talking about People of Peace, did God bring someone to your mind who is your person of peace? What next steps might you take in that relationship with the Person of Peace?

Defining Missional Communities Week 1

Today we begin a 4 week series entitled Defining Missional Communities. I’m pretty sure you have heard this term, especially if you have been around Veritas at all. As we label ourselves a missional community. But what it the world is a missional community? How would you define it? Is it just another fadish church growth term which is all hype and flash with no substance? And what are the practices of a missional community? And if we are a missional community here at Veritas, what are the things that should mark us, define us, and what are the things that we should be about as we move forward? These are the things that we will spend the next 4 weeks unpacking together.

Here is where we are heading over the next 4 weeks. First of all here is how I would define what a missional community is. A Missional community is an (extended) family of missionary servants who make disciples (who make disciples). So over the next 4 weeks we will unpack 1 of the 4 main parts of that definition. Today we are looking at the idea of Family, or extended family. Next week we’ll be looking at missionary. June 15 we’ll be looking at servants. And the last week June 22 we’ll be unpacking the idea of being disciples who make disciples.

So today we’ll be looking at the idea that a missional community functions like an extended family. And to do that we’ll be looking at Galatians 6:9-10. Galatians 6:9-10 says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

Paul is writing this letter to the church in Galatia. Now you need to know that Galatia was, at the time of Paul’s writing, a Roman province. And no doubt functioned in much the same way as other provinces and cities within the Roman Empire as well as the Greek city states.

Paul was warning the church at Galatia against discouragement, the tendency to lose hopefulness, rather than succumbing to fatigue. Paul here in this verse is using the metaphor of childbirth and the fear and weariness a woman experiences in labor but before delivery of the baby. It describes a time when the work is hard and painful, but also unfinished and unrewarded. It’s easy to lose heart when we feel like that, but that is exactly when we must hang on and not grow weary while doing good.

No doubt it was hard for the band of believers in Galatia to continue living the Kingdom life in the middle of the Roman empire. When everything around them from the coins to the government to life in general was pulling them away from the Kingdom of God (really not to different than today). But Paul was reminding them that if they didn’t become discouraged, that if they continued to live the Kingdom life together, that they would reap a harvest. Maybe not in this life, but definitely when the moved on from this life.

Are you going through a really tough time? Do you feel like you are losing heart? Do you feel like throwing in the towel and getting out of the game? Or taking a breather from the Kingdom life because it is too hard, and you aren’t seeing any results? First of all, you aren’t alone. We all experience this fatigue, loss of hope, and moral and we have all, no doubt, felt like throwing in the towel and giving up on the Kingdom life. But the next verse that Paul writes gives us some, what might seem like crazy advice in relation to continuing to move forward in the Kingdom life.

Paul continues on and lets the church at Galatia know exactly how they might not be tempted to lose heart and become discouraged. And it wasn’t to just keep your head down, watch out for number 1, or to just go with the flow. No, Paul’s challenge to the followers of Jesus in Galatia was really countercultural (in one way, and in another using the structure of the culture to propel the mission of God forward in the world). He told them to do good to all people and especially to those who belong to the family of believers. This is how the church isn’t to lose heart and throw in the towel. By serving others and especially to those in the family of believers. That if you feel like throwing in the towel, take time to do good to others. To look past yourself, and to others around you. And especially to others who are in the family of believers. Talk about countercultural. To put others first and above you is a way to move beyond giving up, and will indeed bear fruit in the long run, and it might be a long run.

And here is where Paul uses language and concepts that were rooted in the culture of his day in order to talk about moving the Kingdom of God forward in the world. When Paul says to do good to those who belong to the family of believers, he uses a greek word for family that his hearers would understand and relate to. The greek word for family, or house, or household is the word Oikos. Now the idea of Oikos or family or household is not to be confused with our American, nuclear family understanding. Don’t think that if you knocked on the door of a house in Paul’s day that you would find a mother, a father, 2 kids, and a dog. That is not what Oikos was. Oikos was about extended family. Oikos was an everyday, extended family unit that everyone functioned in- a place where extended families spent time together, shared meals, took care of business, and looked after each other. We are talking that Oikos’s in Paul’s day were between 15-35 people which would include the head of the oikos (the oldest male), his extended family (wife, children, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc..) and the household slaves as well. In fact, Oikos has been the norm for almost every culture for most of human history, even in the United States before the 19th or 20th century.

Paul is saying that the church, those who are followers of Jesus, are actually extended family together. Families centered not on blood relations, but on Jesus. That if you belong to Christ, then we belong to the same family. We are truly brothers and sisters. And what would be like if we actually saw each other that way, and actually lived like an Oikos, or an extended family.

Now I know that saying that we should do life together as an extended family might conjure up all kinds of issues. We all have family issues and we all have different dysfunctional issues related to families. So maybe you are saying, “If you want to be family, count me out. Because I don’t even want to be a part of the family that I am “really” apart of.” I definitely hear you. But let’s unpack what an Oikos looks like and how we as Veritas should be doing Oikos/extended family together. And I don’t know about you, but after I was finished looking at these principles to Oikos life they spoke deeply to me, and I desired to be a part of this type of extended family. And I desire and pray that Veritas will continue to move, develop and grow into these principles and apply them to our life together.

But what does it mean, practically to be an Oikos or extended family together? I believe there are 5 Key principles in living an Oikos life that help to inform some of the underlying values of a Missional Community. Prayer/Worship, Meals, Shared Resources, Fun, and Common Mission. So let’s unpack each one a little bit and then talk together about how we being to practice Oikos life together as Veritas. (which will be challenging, hard, etc… but really worth it in the long run)

1. Prayer and Worship: Oikos was a place for spiritual growth and expression. As an extended family, we gather together in times of prayer and worship. Does our community come together before God on a regular basis and not just on a Sunday morning? Do we have regular times that we pray and worship together?

2. Meals: How many examples are there of the disciples eating or sharing food together? Lots! Sharing meals is such a key part of building community and growing extended family relationships! How often does our community share a meal together?

3. Shared Resources: An Oikos meant members of the family becoming interdependent and sharing what they had (we see the disciples spelling out this principle for us in Acts 2:42). This is often the hardest aspect of Oikos for people to grow in, as it can be the most countercultural. This could look like sharing possessions, offering regular time to help someone out, supporting someone financially, inviting someone to live with you… The list goes on! It’s about finding somewhere to start. Where could you and I take the next step in shared resources within our community?

4. Fun: When do we simply enjoy each other’s company? Jesus said of his disciples: “I no longer call you servants…but friends” (John15:15). Its important that we are growing deeper in friendship, as well as personal discipleship. When are the times that you know that we can just be together and have fun?

5. Mission: An Oikos had common purpose as well as relationship. Our community needs to be galvanized around a common vision and direction. The mission of the family should be known to everyone in the family. Where are we trying to make a difference? Who are we reaching out to? How are we being committed to seeing the kingdom break into a neighborhood or network of people?

So this is what it looks like to be an Oikos, or an extended family together. To be a missional community. It is definitely challenging. And while I believe Veritas lives out some of these key principles to extended family life, we definitely have a way to go in this area. And it won’t happen overnight. Some of these go so counter to our culture that it will take a long time to work through together.

So let’s share together around the idea of Oikos. Let’s share which principles of extended family life excite us. Which ones challenge us the most. Which ones do we need to really focus on this summer? And where are we currently strong on.

1. Thoughts, comments, ideas, application, etc…. regarding the Scripture and/or message? 2. Which one of the 5 key principles to Oikos life do you find most exciting? Which one resonates most strongly with you? Why? Which one do you think Veritas does well with right now?

3. Which one of the 5 key principles to Oikos life challenges you the most? Why? Which one do we need to work on the most within Veritas?

4. What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it? What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?

Constantine is the Emperor of our Imagination and He is Naked: Missional Church Planting in the midst of Post-Christendom

Here are notes from my workshop session at the Church of the Brethren church planting conference held at Bethany Seminary in Richmond, IN. I. Introduction of Self a. Husband of Kim b. Father of Kaiden and Trinity c. Missional Church planter with Veritas in Lancaster, PA

II. Sharing of Scripture and Prayer 1. Genesis 12:1-3 2. Jeremiah 29:1-7 3. John 20:21

Prayer

III. What is and what isn’t missional?

What missional isn’t: 1. Missional isn’t a new way to talk about church growth or a church growth strategy. 2. Missional isn’t the same as evangelistic or seeker- sensitive. 3. Missional is not synonymous with emerging. 4. Missional is not a trendy word to add onto other things. ie…missional coffee, missional lighting, missional seating. 5. Missional is not a program or a project 6. Missional is more than just social justice. 7. Missional isn’t a quick fix or a magic bullet to turn your church around. 8. Missional isn’t a Hip new way of doing and being church. 9. Missional isn’t limited to institutional activity 10. Missional isn’t a new way of doing Sunday morning.

What missional is: 1. Missional means being sent. 2. Missional takes it’s cue from the Missio Dei (the mission of God) 3. Missional is about the missionary nature of God. 4. Missional means participating with God in what God is doing in the world. 5. Missional is a way of living, not an affiliation or an activity. 6. Missional is about the people of God partnering with him in his redemptive mission in the world. 7. Missional is an integration of blessing and disciplemaking (the two great commissions) 8. Missional is about the church being missionaries in the world. 9. Missional means that we are passing through this life [in Biblical language as sojourners, wanderers, aliens, foreigners, strangers or ambassadors] with a sense of purpose, duty, passion, and responsibility for the ‘mission of God.’” 10.Missional is an adjective describing all of the activities of the church body as they are brought under the mission of God to proclaim the good news of salvation through His Son Jesus Christ.

IV. Constantine, Christendom and Post-Christendom

1. Constantine- Roman Emperor who made Christianity the official religion of the empire in 313 with the Edict of Milan. Apparently converted to Christianity during a battle when he had a dream where he was advised "to mark the heavenly sign of God on the shields of his soldiers ... by means of a slanted letter X with the top of its head bent round, he marked Christ on their shields.” Christendom started in 313 with the Edict of Milan.

2. Christendom- Refers to the Middle Ages of Western Europe when all of society (church, state, schools, work, art) was united under the umbrella of Christianity. All of life-work, commerce, education, politics, family and money- was ordered toward the church and around the core beliefs of Christianity.

Christianity moved from being a marginalized, subversive, and persecuted movement secretly gathering in houses and catacombs to being the favored religion in the empire.

Overall, Christianity moved from being a dynamic, revolutionary, social, and spiritual movement to being a religious institution with it’s attendant structures, priesthood, and sacraments.

We will see that we are definitely moving rapidly from Christendom to post-Christendom in a few minutes. The Christendom story, as we shall see, no longer defines Western Culture, but still remains the primary definer of the church’s self-understanding in almost every Western nation, including and perhaps especially the United States.

Christendom, as a paradigm of understanding, as a metanarrative, still exercises and overwhelming influence on our existing theological, missiological, and ecclesiological understandings in church circles. We still think of the church and its mission in terms of Christendom. While in reality we are in a post-Christendom context, the Western church still operates for the most part in a Christendom mode. Constantine, it seems, is still the emperor of our imagination when it comes to church and even church planting.

So let me ask a question to see how much Constantine is still the emperor of our imagination. When I show you this picture tell me what it is? If you said a church, Constantine still holds sway.

3. Post-Christendom: What is Post-Christendom?

Post-Christendom is the culture that emerges as the Christian faith loses coherence within a society that has been definitively shaped by the Christian story. The institutions that have been developed to express Christian convictions decline in influence as well.

Probably one of the best ways to understand the shift that is taking place within the western world, is to understand 7 significant ecclesiological shifts that are taking place.

1. From the center to margins: in Christendom the Christian story and the churches were central, but in post-Christendom these are marginal.

2. From majority to minority: in Christendom Christians comprised the (often overwhelming) majority, but in post-Christendom we are a minority.

3. From settlers to sojourners: in Christendom Christians felt at home in a culture shaped by their story, but in post-Christendom we are aliens, exiles and pilgrims in a culture where we no longer feel at home.

4. From privilege to plurality: in Christendom Christians enjoyed many privileges, but in post-Christendom we are one community among many in a plural society.

5. From control to witness: in Christendom churches could exert control over society, but in post-Christendom we exercise influence only through witnessing to our story and its implications.

6. From maintenance to mission: in Christendom the emphasis was on maintaining a supposedly Christian status quo, but in post-Christendom it is on mission within a contested environment.

7. From institution to movement: in Christendom churches operated mainly in institutional mode, but in post-Christendom we must become again a Christian movement.

V. Questions/Dialogue

VI. Some statistics, etc… about the shift that is taking place from Christendom to Post-Christendom.

The latest report by The American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) indicates that the United States has been continually moving into a Post-Christendom Context.

The number of Americans who do not identify with any religion continues to grow at a rapid pace. One-fifth of the U.S. public – and a third of adults under 30 – are religiously unaffiliated today, the highest percentages ever in Pew Research Center polling.

In the last five years alone, the unaffiliated have increased from just over 15% to just under 20% of all U.S. adults. Their ranks now include more than 13 million self-described atheists and agnostics (nearly 6% of the U.S. public), as well as nearly 33 million people who say they have no particular religious affiliation (14%).

Let me show you some more statistics that prove that, while we aren’t a totally post-Christendom (or Post-Christian) country like Europe, these statistics prove that we are definitely heading in that direction, and in some places faster than others.

VII. Questions so far? VIII. How does all the information about our post-Christendom culture affect the way we plant churches?

Let’s look at 3 different videos that will show us the difference between Christendom models of church planting and missional chuch planting in the midst of Post-Christendom and then take time to discuss them. Video #1: Field of Dreams Video #2: Attractional Church parable Video #3: Missional Church…simple

What did you notice in these videos and what is the difference between Christendom models of church planting and missional church planting in the midst of Post-Christendom? (Discussion)

David Fitch has this to say about the struggle of planting churches in post-Christendom, “ “For much of post World War 2 North America, we have planted churches by using strategies that depend on drawing upon a market of already existing Christians. One way or another, church planting in North America has been taking what’s left of Christianity and creating new versions of church over against the failures of existing churches. We organize ourselves as “the next new thing” to make up for what some other churches lack…… We can no longer expect to successfully cannibalize on ourselves in the planting of new churches. We’re running out of Christians/churches to reform to some truer, purer more relevant form of Christianity. As I said here, lets stop funding church plants (has anyone noticed it ain’t working?) and fund missionaries here in North America. We need to seed fresh expressions of the gospel that engage those outside the faith with the gospel and create the space for God work to bring people to Himself.”

IX. What does missional church planting in the midst of post-Christendom look like (not a model because there is no one model)

Let me give you a scenario about missional church planting: Let’s say that everyone is this room decides to move to a city where post-Christendom is the norm, and no one wants to “go to church”. Our group moves to the city in order to plant a church. What would some of the first things you do to plant the church? What would your strategy be?

Missional church planting in the midst of post-Christendom looks like this: This flow works for brand new existing communities as well as 200 year old churches. It just works a different way. Missional Church planting, starting from Scratch:

Engage Culture-Being a missionary and becoming friends with people. Form Community- second phase of missionary engagement Structure Congregation- “final phase” of missional church planting.

If you are at the other end with a structured congregation, you just work it backwards. You form an incarnational/missional community, they discern their missional “focus” and then begin to engage and make friends in that missional focus.

X. Missional Flow in the life of the Veritas community.

This is a little about how we live out the Missional Flow within the life of the Veritas community in Lancaster, PA.

Engage Culture- We use our space The Community Room on King as a hub to engage culture. We use it for 1st Friday Art Shows, 3rd Friday music events, just was a venue for the Launch Music Conference and Art Walk.

Form Community: Regularly held community/relationship building times like 3rd Sunday lunch, during the summer we go to the Long’s Park Summer music nights each Sunday night and invite people to go along. We encourage people to throw events (like Picnics, parties, etc… ) invite their friends, as well as some of the Veritas community.

Structure Congregation: Our Community gathers each Sunday in the Community Room on King for a worship gathering that includes time to build relationships, how we are living out this missional flow (IN, OUT, UP), message and application discussion. We are also slowly working on developing small missional communities that each have a missional focus and live the IN, OUT, UP monthly rhythm together.

XI. Mission, Discipleship and Community as Core Values within Missional Church Planting. “The first churches were concerned with balancing equal commitments to fostering their relationships with God, with one another and the world.” “Any emphasis on one at the expense of the others is folly. For a church to claim that it “specializes” in worship or teaching is to ignore the whole counsel of the New Testament. Worship that is is some way divorced from mission is counterfeit worship. And likewise, a missioning community that is not informed, inspired and renewed through godly worship is a pale shadow of what church should be.” “Worship and Mission and the development of Christian community must inform each other closely and regularly.”

XII. Resources to be aware of in relation to missional church planting. 1. The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. 2. Tangible Kingdom, Tangible Kingdom Primer, AND:The Gathered & Scattered Church, and Flesh by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay. 3. Prodigal Christianity by David Fitch and Geoff Holsclaw. 4. Post-Christendom by Stuart Murray 5. Exiles by Michael Frost 6. Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch 7. David Fitch’s blog: reclaimingthemission.com 8. Dan White Jr.’s blog: danwhitejr.blogspot.com 9. UnChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons. 10. Missional Renaissance by Reggie McNeal

XIII. Contact information Ryan Braught 717-572-5914 ryan@veritaschurchpa.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ryan.braught https://www.facebook.com/VeritasPA https://www.facebook.com/CommunityRoomonKing Twitter: https://twitter.com/RyanBraught https://twitter.com/VeritasPA https://twitter.com/CommRoomonKing

Engaging the Arts and Music scene through Church Planting

I just got back from Richmond, IN where I attended the Church of the Brethren Church Planting conference held at Bethany Seminary. I did a mustard seed presentation (a quick 30 minute presentation) on engaging the arts and music scene through church planting. Below are the notes from this presentation. I. Introduction of Self Ryan Braught- Husband, Father, Missional Church Planter of Veritas, a missional community in Lancaster, PA.

Scripture- exodus 31

II. Our Story (with pictures)

For the past 3 years we have been engaging the arts and music scene in Lancaster city in a number of ways.

For 2 1/2 of those years we had a space called The Community Room on Prince on the 3rd Floor of a building. While the space wasn’t designed to be an art gallery and a music venue we used the space in such a way.

Since October of this past year we have a new space called The Community Room on King which is set up more like an Art Gallery, a Music Venue, and a performance arts space. (Show pictures)

We have used both spaces in a number of ways to engage the arts and music scene in Lancaster, PA.

1. Each 1st Friday of the month is First Friday and is an arts related event in downtown Lancaster. We use our space to feature a local emerging artist. They hang their work for a month and can sell their art.

2. 3rd Friday of the month is called Music Friday and is a night dedicated to music in downtown Lancaster. We use our space to feature local emerging musicians. We do a coffeehouse and open mic night.

3. For the past 3 years we have been a venue for the Launch Music Conference and Festival. Launch is a 2 day conference for musicians to learn more about the industry, as well as play out in a dozen venues around the city.

4. We are also a stop on Art Walk, a two day event held two times a year (Spring and Fall) which promotes the art scene in Lancaster. This past Art Walk (May 3-4) we featured local High School students from one of the schools in the area as well as the interactive art installation called Before I Die.

5. Every so often we have what we call an Open Studio night where we open our space to artist to come and work at their craft in community, as well as get input, ideas, and suggestions from other artists.

III. What we have learned about engaging the arts and music scene through church planting.

1. It will take a very long time to build trust with the art and music scene. Longer than you probably expect. Artists and musicians haven’t always had positive interactions with church. 2. Drop your agenda. Just bless them. They will smell an agenda a mile away…and want nothing to do with it. 3. (In the church)- use their gifts in worship and discipleship. 4. (in the church)- give them some direction but not too much. No direction isn’t good, but too much direction stifles artistic creativity. 5. Engaging the arts and music scene may or may not grow the “Sunday morning experience” numerically but it will grow the community’s missional engagement and heart. 6. Look for good art and good music no matter the religious orientation of the person. Art, truth, and beauty is pleasing to God and is God’s creation. If you truly want to engage the art and music scene try to stay away from overtly “Christian” art and music. We have had artists and musicians who were followers of Jesus and their music and art reflected that but not in a “propaganda” way 7. It adds value to the local scene by allowing visual arts and musicians a place to showcase their art. 8. Art is cross cultural, a non-threatening invitation to conversation & community. 9. Being a venue for art/music has offered us local news coverage & interest (free marketing). 10. It has served as a bridge for us to invite people into the space who would probably never set foot there on a regular Sunday morning.

IV. Ideas around engaging artists and musicians.

1. Ideas for musicians within the church: What if you released a CD of original music from musicians within your congregation. And give the CD’s (download cards) out to people in your community. (hand out download cards) 2. Ideas for artist within the church: take a space within your “building” and use it as an art gallery, and feature a member of the churches art each month. 3. Idea: What if you worked with local musicians to release a CD of original music and sell the CD with proceeds going to a local non-profit? Then throw a CD release party with the bands, and the local non-profit. 4. Turn your space into an art gallery and use it to engage local artists. 5. Many schools are having to cut their music and arts programs due to lack of funding. What if the church (or churches) in an area decided to get together and provide music and art education by using the gifts and talents of local musicians and artists? 6. Contact your local school and see if the art department would be interested in having their students do an art show. Promote the show, provide food, etc…Great way to bless emerging artists, make relationships and connections in the community, and engage the arts. 7. Connect with your town and see if they have the idea of doing a Friday night event like 1st Friday that will get people “downtown” and visiting shops, restaurants, businesses, galleries, etc… Consider pulling together a group of leaders in your town to talk about the idea. 8. Open Studio: Hold a night where you open your space for artists to come and create art, meet other artists, and develop their craft all in community. 9. Local Mural: Connect artists and the community by creating murals on walls in public places like parks,walls, etc… And work side by side with the artists as they create the murals. Seek permission as well as where murals could be created by contacting your local governmental officials. 10. Battle of the Bands: Hold a battle of the bands where local musicians that you have developed relationships are the judges and the winner of the battle gets some recording time in a studio.

V. Q & A Time VI. Prayer

Flesh Week 4

Well today we come to the end of the 4 week series called Flesh as well as the 21 Days of Flesh devotional that I have been sending out via e-mail, blog, and facebook. And so we end our time together talking about living like Jesus an incarnational life and his call to live incarnationally. And we end the conversation on Flesh this week, the prayer is that this conversation never really ends, it just moves from here out into your neighborhood, work place, within this community as we seek to be a blessing to our wider community, etc…

The last 3 weeks we have been walking through this 5 step process of incarnating and enfleshing Jesus into the world and we will wrap up the 5th Step today. Three weeks ago we look at the first step in the process, that being incarnation. We looked at the fact that Jesus came to earth, took on flesh and blood and moved into our neighborhood. Became human. And that if we really want to walk as Jesus walked, we actually become more human not less. The more we begin to look and act and enflesh Jesus we become more human, the kind of human that Jesus was.

Two weeks ago we contrasted the difference in the street cred/reputation of Christians in our world today and the reputation/street cred of Jesus, even today. We talked about the 4 things that gave Jesus great street cred: being human, working a job, fighting for things that matter, and being a friend of sinners. And how if Christians today are to recover some of Jesus street cred we have to be: more human (ie normal), work a job/redeem the work that you do, fight for things that actually matter (unlike all the stupid things Christians get so riled up about), and take seriously the label that Jesus was a friend of sinners, and that we should be too….

Last week we covered the 3rd and 4th Step of the incarnational grid, that of conversation and confrontation. We looked at the woman caught in adultery and how Jesus didn’t condemn her, how he loved her, and that she knew he wanted her best. And through that relationship/conversation he was able to “confront” her in her sin and help her move beyond it.

But we aren’t done yet with this story. Today we talk about where we go from here. Which if you remember the 5 step grid, the last step on the grid following incarnation, street cred/reputation, conversation, confrontation is incarnational transformation. We will be talking about the transformation that happens when Jesus is enfleshed in the world. But possibly looking at the idea of incarnational transformation in a different way.

I don’t know about you but as we have been going through this 4 week series Flesh, I have been challenged and convicted that I need to incarnate Jesus better into the world. I have been convicted that I need to be better known like Jesus was known, especially in the area of friend of sinners. I feel like my world is a church bubble and I definitely need to pop it. And I need to learn better how to live a life that enfleshes Jesus out in the world. But let’s take time today to go in a different direction that we have been going these past 3 weeks. I know our flesh focus has oftentimes been about other people, the world, and a handful of friends, but really the transformation has mostly been about me and my family—and I hope you’ve sensed that something has come alive in your spirit.

So we are ending Flesh focusing on this, the fact that the incarnation ends up reforming all of our lives toward the way of Jesus. I actually think people are ultimately motivated internally by the desire to grow. I could encourage us toward those who have yet to come to know Jesus, tell you all sorts of things we ought to be doing, and even guilt us by exposing everything we’re not doing, but that simply doesn’t work. The reality of change happens because we want to grow ourselves, and that we begin to see people with a heart of love. And our heart begins to be transformed. And then, we like Jesus, begin to weep for our zip code.

And so our prayer is also the prayer of Paul in Galatians 4:19, “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” Ultimately that is what Flesh is all about, that we become more and more formed in the ways and life of Jesus. And when Jesus is formed in you, you move from being a First-decision Christian to a second-decision follower of Jesus. And there’s a big difference. First-decision Christians primarily follow Jesus for what Jesus gives to them. They make the first decision to show up to church and be blessed. But second-decision Christ followers are those who have already made the first-decision and out of a heartfelt sense of thankfulness for all Jesus gave us, they make the second decision to live His life, even to the point of sacrifice.

But second decisions to have Jesus enfleshed through you can only happen as you are transformed from the inside out, from having Jesus formed in you, and also from having transforming experiences in the world. This as a call to let the actual physical/human life of Jesus be formed in us. It isn’t just about the knowledge of Christ or the inner working of Christ in our character, but Paul wanted the way Jesus lived to be lived out in every area of our lives.

I’ve often thought about what it really means to be a disciple, and I now believe disciples are people who watch what Jesus did, follow Him where He leads, and try to align every aspect of their lives to the life of Jesus as revealed in Scripture. As 1 John 2:6 says so succinctly, “Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.”

I once heard, “Being a disciple is growing from unbelief to belief in every area of our lives.” I love that because it shows that none of us are ever totally conformed to the image of God. We are all trying to trust God with every part of us.

Some of us trust God with dying for our sins, but we can’t trust Him with our money, or we can’t trust Him to help us find a lifemate, or we struggle to believe He can heal us, guide us, and protect us. And this is the power of the incarnation. Jesus didn’t just come and drop sermons on us. He came and lived in the neighborhood. I suppose if you had lived around Jesus in Nazareth, His home would have been open and you would have gone over often just to bounce thoughts off Him, ask questions, get some good ol’ fashioned mentoring, etc. He would have been your “go to” friend for everything.

But Jesus did eventually leave, didn’t He. He wasn’t with His disciples in human form anymore. And they struggled—just like we struggle to believe He is still with us, guiding us. But here’s what Jesus taught, and it is going to be the reason we don’t end this campaign at 21 days. There was a 22nd day and a 255th day and 3001st day.

Jesus left us two things that keep the story going:
1. He left us the Holy Spirit. (Share any scripture on the Holy Spirit you like, but also include “he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). Jesus told His closest followers—and he now reminds us—that it’s good that he was leaving in human form because the Holy Spirit can guide us minute by minute into His mission and into His transformative way of life.
 2. He also left us His community, His family, His church. I know we all struggle at times with the idea of church, but all church is, is the people of God living on mission and enjoying fellowship with one another and the Holy Spirit. Yes, if we just do the once-a-week church service thing, we miss a lot, but this church isn’t just about the Sunday service. We are about developing incarnational, second- decision Christ followers and transforming lives through incarnational communities around our city. And we are continuing to work to develop them. If you would be interested in at least learning more about where we want to go with missional communities, let me know.

And here is one of the main points of our Flesh series..You were never designed to be an incarnational person all by yourself. Incarnation is always about community and doing this together with others. And when you are a part of a family of followers of Jesus, all pulling the same direction, then slowly and surely you change, you transform, and you more and more look, act, talk, and walk like Jesus. You can’t be transformed into the image and likeness of Jesus by yourself. You need others (both followers of Jesus and those who aren’t) to rub up against you, reveal your idols, challenge you directly or indirectly, and to share life together with.

And so my prayer is that not only will each of us enflesh Jesus in the world, and in our own individual lives. But even more so that this community called Veritas will enflesh Jesus as a community into the world. That John 13:35, “they will know we are disciples if we love one another” will become a huge reality for us, a missional reality and people will be drawn to the community, so they will be transformed into the image and likeness of Jesus. And that by our missional interaction with people we will be transformed into the image of Jesus as well.

And so let’s talk about how Flesh has transformed you into the character and likeness of Jesus. Let’s talk about how this community called Veritas can be transformed together. Let’s talk about where we go from here in making this Flesh series a reality beyond the four weeks. And let’s share what God might be saying to each of us, and our community.

1. How has this series "Flesh" challenged you, convicted you, encouraged you, formed you, etc.... 2. What steps do you need to take personally to be better formed into the likeness of Jesus? What steps do we need to take corporately to be better formed into the likeness of Jesus? 3. Where do we go from here? How can we "enflesh" Jesus in the world as individuals and as a community? 4. What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it? What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?

Day 21 of 21 Days of Flesh

Being Sent All the Time “Go and make disciples” Matthew 28:11

Do you ever have daydreams about taking a rest? Maybe a short vacation; maybe a three- month sabbatical or even a furlough with a complete change of scenery. God does grant all these. He loves it when we get a breather and he models a life where we don’t have to toil endlessly. But God never lies to us about a balanced life, for that is just a myth. He is a God of natural rhythms. We sow and we reap, we toil and we rest and we come and we go. Here’s the kicker though. Our God is always at work. Every moment of every second He is up and moving. Like a huge cruise ship that silently cuts through the water while delighted sleepers slumber in peace, something is always moving forward. Jesus called it the kingdom of God. Yes, we do get to wake up rhythmically every day, put our clothes, grab a cup of coffee, and enjoy the activity on the deck, and then return below the bow to rest again, but for sure, something keeps moving forward.

We wake and then we’re in a new port, a new home, or a new missionary post. It’s an incredible mystery of God’s work ethic, His economy, His humor, and his passion for His life to move ahead.

So consider changing your posture with God about what he’s called you to. Stop looking around the corner to see when you can clock out. Instead, head to your cabin more often and sleep every night, knowing that while you do, God is still moving your life, your ministry, and your hopes forward.

God works from the stability of rest.

Day 20 of 21 Days of Flesh

You have to get away “And Jesus went to the other side of the lake” Luke 8:22

It’s an amazing thing that Jesus spent 30 of 33 years of his life just living as a normal man without any formal “ministry” going on. And then with only three years left actually took many moments away from ministry to recharge with the Father.

On this occasion, Jesus had a multitude of people following him, hanging on every word, and even more checking him out from a distance. They were crowded around him and you would think he would have stayed for weeks at the same spot, leveraging the momentum of the moment.

But he doesn’t.

He leaves the crowd and heads to the other side so that he could get away.

We know Jesus had a second by second sense of obedience to only do what he saw the Father doing, and we justify our torrid activity by saying, “we aren’t Jesus.” We think to ourselves, “The Father isn’t as clear with us, so we should work as hard, as fast, and as long as we can, and hope that God brings his kingdom out of our tireless work.

But he won’t.

He gives us the life of Jesus to teach us that kingdom influence doesn’t happen in rush, or hurry, or leveraged time. It happens when we are rightly related and rightly rested. Incarnational living is the most energy sapping existence simply because it’s so relational. Nothing costs more than when it requires you to listen, care, carry burdens, open up your home, and then do it again the next day...all while you still work a normal job, or raise children.

Today, consider how often you get to the other side of the lake? Is Sabbath a reality for you? If not, drop to your knees and ask God to teach you how to quiet down, slow down, and trust him.

Day 19 of 21 Days of Flesh

Where is your Heart? “For wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21

Jesus made simple statements that held the keys to the universe. These next nine words are the most important.

“For wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21

The most honest of followers admit to God that they don’t have a heart for what He does. “God, I’m exhausted, distracted, and I can barely wedge in a few moments for myself, let alone give my time to others I barely know.” Is this you? If so and you know your heart simply isn’t in it, that is, into what you know you should be into on behalf of Jesus, how do you find a new heart?

Well, it’s going to be wherever you find the rest of your stuff. God has designed us so that we love what we see in front of us and although that has a beautiful upside, it also means that we are susceptible to develop a heart for the low end of life. If you get on a plane and spend a week in an impoverished township, you’ll find that you leave with a heart for those people. If you spend time with people of other ethnicities, income levels, and story, you’ll begin to love their story. It’s just built in. But if you keep looking only at what you’re life is about now, your heart will remain with all your stuff.

The key to sustaining a sacrificial life to the least of these or at least the lost is simply to see them all the time. At first you’ll have to wedge in people and acts of service but in very short order, you’ll find it hard to wedge in the old stuff, the selfish stuff. You’ll find a new heart, the heart of Jesus begins to grow as your treasures get exchanged for His. Start right now, make an appointment with new treasure.

Day 18 of 21 Days of Flesh

The Greatest Command “Love God and love neighbors. For this fulfills all the law and prophets” Luke 10:27

Life is always more fruitful when we settle on simple ways of living. Jesus didn’t overwhelm us with to do’s or constraining demands that push us beyond our capacity or past lines that make us unhealthy humans. He made things as simple as possible and if we live by just a few patterns, our lives will be full of beautiful kingdom fruit.

As religious people were asking him ‘what was the greatest commandment?’ he said, love God with all you have, and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus always combines love with him (vertical relationship) with love of others (horizontal relationship) because they really can’t be separated. Just like I will someday tell the young man that marries my daughter that the best way for him to love me as his father in law is to love my daughter, so God asks us to love him by loving those around us.

Interestingly, there’s a hidden third love in this equation. There is love God. There is love our neighbor, and there is also love of ourselves. Why would Jesus say this? All three loves are based on being created in God’s image. We should love ourselves because God created us in his image. We should love Him, because he loved us by creating us, and we should love every human being around us because they too are made in his image.

It’s that simple. How good would life be if every Christ follower loved everyone simply because they are made in God’s image?

Don’t overthink what things will make you great or make your life great. What makes all things meaningful is the love God has for us, the love we give him back by loving those in our homes or across the street.

Day 17 of 21 Days of Flesh

The Blessing of Constraint “Wait on the Lord” Psalm 27:14

For most people, the biggest spiritual struggle is that of waiting on God. Because we cannot see what’s around the corner, we strive and struggle to make things happen in the temporal world even though we know that God works on another time table called eternity.

The apostle Paul was held back and constrained all the time. Sometimes, he said Satan was holding him back, and sometimes he acknowledged that the Spirit of God was holding him back. Other times, he was held back by his Jewish countrymen, sometimes by the Roman powers. There was also sickness and a thorn in his flesh, and months and years staring at a wall in a prison.

Paul, however, learned to stop beating the air with faithless prayers, and finally penned these words, “I’ve learned to be content...”

It is a rare man or woman who trusts the legacy of their lives to God. As John the Baptist prayed that he would become less so that God would become more, we should only strive toward this one goal. That is to be used of God in his timing and in his way. We won’t get to see very much of God’s legacy in our lives, but we do get to see some and that is worth everything.

Take time today to give him the very rest of your days. Keep your head down, stop questioning everything and simply be with Jesus today.

Day 16 of 21 Days of Flesh

Slow Life Gets their Faster But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Luke 5:16

Momentum is something we always seek. We believe that one thing leads to another and so on, and therefore we get ourselves all worked up to try to maximize moments for any advantage we can. Another way to name this belief is “ambition.”

It is usually a good thing to be ambitious, or so we think. Ambitious people are hard working, shrewd, intentional, and get up early. For sure, ambitious people use momentum in their favor as they build their own kingdoms.

Jesus, however was not ambitious or concerned with momentum. He was concerned about strategic moments of power, where true influence happened to a specific person in the opportune moment. Because he didn’t get flustered trying to reach the world, he did reach the world. Because he moved slow with just a few, the world was changed in just a few hundred years after his death.

Kingdom people don’t worry about momentum or manipulating growth or fruit. They are people who wake up with peace and who seek the Father’s leading and slowly plod along in obedience. They are people who sensibly prune and care for the vines of potential fruit but leave the harvest to the head wine master. They view life in seasons and are patient enough in the Father’s processes with people to work alongside him instead of frantically trying to make wine before it’s time.

Always remember the pace of Jesus when you consider your own pace. This way, prayer becomes the work instead of praying so that your work will work.

Flesh Week 3

Over the last 2 weeks we have been focusing our conversation on Sunday mornings around the idea of Flesh. (BTW..if you have a chance make sure to pick up a copy of the book Flesh by Hugh Halter…well worth the read).

Two weeks ago we looked at the overall concept of the incarnation, that being of Jesus taking on flesh and blood and moving into the neighborhood as John 1:14 in the Message puts it. In other words becoming fully human. The incarnation being the first step on the 5 step grid of incarnational/missional life and enfleshing Jesus in the world around us.

Last week we talked about the street cred/reputation of Christians vs. the street cred/reputation of Jesus. That Jesus got people talking and we get to do the same thing. That Jesus developed a great street cred by 1. Being human. 2. Having a job. 3. Picking fights. and 4. Being a friend of sinners. And that for us to develop a better street cred in our world we need to live out the same four. 1. Be human or normal. 2. Redeem work. 3. pick fights about things that matter. 4. Be a friend of sinners. The main point is that if we follow Jesus we cannot be judgmental. After all doesn’t Scripture say that Jesus came not to condemn but to save?

So today we are looking at the next two steps within the 5 step grid of enfleshing Jesus in the world, that of conversation and confrontation. If we follow the incarnational way of Jesus, we will get to speak about Him and have some great and natural conversations about Him with our friends.

If you’ll notice that after conversation, we finally get to the world confrontation. It seems like Christians vacillate between the two. Either we develop a relationship and are really good at conversation and never really get to bringing Jesus into the conversation. Or we are really good at confrontation and having not relationship with people, which then comes off as judgmental.

We should want to have conversations and loving confrontations. We should want to know that people have to come to a point in their lives where they honestly admit their sin and their need for Jesus to save, redeem, restore, and renew them. The Scriptures speak often about spiritual rebirth, being born again, confessing sin, and finding hope and forgiveness in Jesus.

So we constantly sway between conversation and confrontation and never really seem to get the right balance, the incarnational balance that Jesus had. In fact Jesus doesn’t want us to confront or condemn at all. He wants us instead to learn to walk with people as He did. And then confrontation happens naturally as we converse as friends.

Let’s look at a Biblical story where Jesus does this conversation/confrontation beautifully. It is the story of the woman caught in adultery in John 8:2-11.

“At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.  The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group  and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.  In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”  They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”  Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said.” “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

A couple things that we need to note while looking at this Scripture text.

First of all we notice that this woman clearly had sinned. She was caught in the act of adultery. Now we realize however that adultery isn’t a sin that you can do alone. After all, the saying goes, it takes two to tango. And so I’ve long wondered where the guy was. I truly believe this woman was set up from the beginning. That the whole thing was put together in order to trap Jesus and there was no care for the woman at all from the Pharisees. She was a casualty of their “war” with Jesus. She was a pawn in their chess game in order to bring down Jesus.

Secondly, her sin definitely had some affect on her and on the various relationships that she brought into that adulterous encounter. No doubt it affected her relationship with the guy, maybe the guy’s wife, her husband, etc… But ultimately her sin was against Jesus, the man who they brought her before, in order to hear what he thought they should do with her.

They thought they had Jesus trapped. They brought this woman before Jesus in order to hear what Jesus thought they should do with her. There were only two options or so they thought that Jesus could answer. First, the one they mention is that the law of Moses commanded that they stone the woman. They are referring to Leviticus 20:10 which actually says, “If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife- with the wife of his neighbor- both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death.” If he said don’t stone her, he would be accused of not following the Law of Moses. And so while they tried to trap Jesus with the Scriptures, they weren’t following the law “either”. The second option, they thought about, was that Jesus was going to say “Sure, stone her” and then he would be accused of not loving this woman. So it looked like a no win situation for Jesus. (Jews didn't have the power to execute someone..bringing the Roman Empire down on his head)

And so Jesus does this amazing thing. While the Pharisee’s are there confronting Jesus (notice no conversation and no relationship with the woman.), he stoops down and writes in the sand. It doesn’t matter what he writes in the sand. But one thought that I had, that I can’t totally prove, but is an interesting idea to consider, is that he drew a line in the sand and sided with the woman and not with the Pharisee’s. But the stooping down also had an affect of protecting the woman who no doubt was on the ground covering herself waiting for the hail of rocks to come her way. He showed his protection and care by stooping down and being beside, being with and being for this woman, when the Pharisees were against this woman.

Jesus expertly then got rid of the confronters. Her condemners. They dropped their rocks. He disarmed them by saying, “Let anyone of you who is without sin cast the first stone.” Jesus exposed that sin is sin. Jesus advocated for the life of the sinner. He had her at hello. Her heart was won. After Jesus won her heart, after he removed condemnation, he had a private conversation where confrontation was natural and welcomed. Because she knew that she was loved and not condemned.

This is the beauty of Jesus. Remember that Jesus came to help people see who God is and that he came chock full of both grace and truth. You can be full of grace, full of love, full of acceptance AND the full truth of your life will eventually be accepted by those who need to change. The key to this is the friend part. Remember Jesus was called a true friend of sinners.

You see he didn’t just have a conversation with the woman. He didn’t just say, “Hey your cool. No problem about the adultery. Whatever. It’s all good.” And he didn’t just confront her and tell her she was wrong, evil, going to hell, etc… No he loved her, showed her no condemnation, showed her an amazing amount of love and grace. And also when she knew that she wasn't condemned, he did confront her and called her to leave her life of sin.

So if Christians could seek to live out this incarnational Jesus like way of developing relationships/conversations, then things like talking about Jesus and having loving confrontation would come naturally. So let’s wrap this message up by looking at what it might look like when we have friendships where speaking about Jesus might come naturally. Here are a 3 things that we can learn about Jesus and living an incarnational/missional life.

1. We get to keep a running conversation instead of running from a conversation. We’re used to trying to get a Jesus word in edgewise or aggressively forcing a conversation, but since conversation is between friends, we don’t have to do the dump truck thing and hit them over the head with doctrine, Bible verses, religious philosophy, etc…. We can actually be human and just talk about what they want to talk about in the timing they are open to.

2. Keep the conversation focused on the Kingdom of God not on religion, Christianity, or Christians. Take a note from Jesus who spoke mostly about the Kingdom of God. The other things are always the topics other people bring up, but defer to Jesus and the discussion about the Kingdom.

Take some time this week to read Luke 4 and Isaiah 61. Remember that almost every person would love for God’s Kingdom to show up. And when you get confronted with lousy Christian stories, it’s better to admit that we as Christians miss the Kingdom a lot. We are more like the Pharisee’s than we like to admit.

3. Talk about the King. Again, every lousy thing that has happened to people through religion or in the name of Jesus was not Jesus himself. Try to help people see the difference between Jesus and everything else that has happened under His umbrella. Point people towards Him and not towards the church, Christians, etc…. Bring the conversation back to Jesus.

In closing I want us to imagine how much different everything would be if we are full of grace and truth. When I think about this, I immediately feel less pressure- but at the same time more excited to speak about Jesus. Who might God be calling you to continue having the conversation with this week?

So let’s unpack a little bit more of the story of the woman caught in adultery. What stands out to you in the story? What don’t you understand? What challenges you in the story? How can we better live this kind of incarnational life out in the world? Who is God calling each of us to have conversation with this week (and share lovingly about Jesus)? Let’s converse about those things.

1. What thoughts, comments, insights, questions, etc… do you have regarding the passage of Scripture and/or the message?

2. Share a story when you felt condemned like the women caught in adultery. How did that make you feel? Share a story when you condemned someone else. How did that make you feel?

3 Who might be God laying on your heart to have a conversation with and continue to develop a relationship with? What next step do you need to take in the next week in order for this to happen? How can Veritas pray for you in this regard?

4. What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it? What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?

Day 15 of 21 Days of Flesh

Share a mind with Jesus “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus Philippians 2:5-7

The apostle Paul had a unique saying, “I am out of my mind for Christ.” He was sharing a secret that allows us to have the right posture with people. We always talk about living incarnationally, but it really doesn’t happen unless you think about people differently.

We tend to assess people based on our categories. We pick and chose who we will spend time with based on our level of enjoyment of them, or our surface level observations.

Jesus spent time with people because he assessed their hearts. He saw people from a point of view without concern for their outward behavior. He viewed them in light of his plan and possibility of redemption. No person, regardless of sin, was beyond a total life transformation. And because he saw them differently, they saw him differently.

When you take on the mind of Christ for every person you come in contact with, they will sense your love for them. As you eat with them, ask questions, offer encouragement and practical help, they will not only sense your acceptance, but they will start to see God differently.

With every person you meet, let your first thought be, “God, what do you think of this person?” This question is the most important one you will ask as God pulls you along in his mission.