7 Letters: Philadelphia

So our series entitled 7 Letters is quickly coming to a close. Today we look at the 6th letter, and next week we finish the series look at the 7th letter.

So the last 5 weeks we covered the first 5 letters found in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. We’ve looked at the letter to the churches at Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, and last week we covered the letter to the church at Sardis.

This week we cover the letter to the church in a place that sounds very familiar to us, but obviously is not the same place. Today we look at the letter to the church at Philadelphia found in Revelation 3:7-13.

The letter to the church at Philadelphia reads like this, “ “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.  I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.  I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.  Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth. I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

As we have talked about with each and every letter, that there are some radically contextual word pictures, images, and thoughts that unless we do some background research on the city we will never truly understand what John is getting at. So let’s talk a little bit about the city of Philadelphia and see what we might learn about following Jesus from this church in the 1st century.

Philadelphia was a city that was located in central Turkey. It was founded in 140 BC at the junction of roads that led to Mysia, Lydia, and Phrygia. Because of it’s location it was sometimes called the Gateway to the East. And also was prosperous city..partly because of it’s strategic location and partly because of the grapes that were grown there. Philadelphia was given the name by its founder Attalus II Philadelphus of Pergamum. And the city was intended to be a center of missionary activity for the Hellenistic way of life. It was also the center of worship of the god Dionysus, which was the god of the grape harvest, fitting for a city known for it’s grapes.

Something else that we need to know about the region in Turkey that Philadelphia was situated in was that in the 1st century it was notorious for earthquakes. In fact Philadelphia had suffered one of the worst earthquakes in its history only 50 or so years before the book of Revelation was written. Much of the city was destroyed and only was rebuilt due to a grant from the emperor Tiberius. Also Philadelphia had also been given two other names in its history (which will show up in the text later). The first being Neocaesarea as a sign of gratitude to Tiberius for his help in rebuilding the city and later Flavia, after the family name of the emperor Vespasian.

Now that we know a little bit about the history of the city of Philadelphia, let’s look at the text and see what we might learn about this church and what it might say to us today gathered together 2,000 years later.

One thing you’ll notice right from the start about this letter is that this is the second of the two letters which have no criticism from Jesus, the other one being Smyrna.

In verse 7 we find the description of the risen Jesus as one who, “is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.” There is a close tie in this verse to the description of the risen Jesus in Revelation 1:18 which says, “And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” So in this description we see that Jesus is holy and true. Jesus is holy which connects him with deity and true, which isn’t often used in the Bible when referring to anyone but God. This Holy and True One holds the key of David.

Now what is the key of David? To answer that question we need to look at Isaiah 22:22 which says, “I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.” Obviously this key is connected to the next part of the verse when John says that what Jesus “opens no one can shut and what he shuts no one can open.” Jesus has the key to the door. This door, this opening, could mean many things. It could mean entrance into the heavenly Jerusalem, the heavenly city of David if you will. It could mean the open door is referring to open missionary opportunities. That Jesus is redefining for the church at Philadelphia what their missionary life is supposed to be about. It is no longer about being a missionary for the hellenistic way of life, but about being a missionary for the Kingdom of God way of life. Jesus opens the door for them to spread the culture of the Kingdom throughout the whole region. And from history we know they took that calling seriously and became a missional church and a church planting church. They sent missionaries all over Asia Minor and these missionaries planted new communities of faith wherever they went. So the question that I have for us today gathered here is are we a Philadelphian-like church? Are you and I and our community being missionaries to the places that God sends us everyday? Are we sending people out from us to other places to serve, bless, and be about the Kingdom of God and the gospel of Jesus? What open doors has God set before you? To whom is God sending you? To whom is God sending us? These are questions we’ll be returning to later in our time of discussion.

Another possible meaning to this idea of a closed door and open door is related to the fact that Philadelphia had a very large and influential Jewish population. This Jewish community probably had several thousand in it, had buildings and an active community life. The church on the other hand were probably not much more than 2 or 3 dozen. The Synagogue community was using their civic status to block the advancement of the message of the gospel of Jesus and the Kingdom of God. They were the ones who were “attacking” the church, from the outside, unlike many of the other letters that we have looked at who were being “attacked” from inside the church. The door could refer to the synagogue versus the Kingdom of God. The believers were excluded from the synagogue. That door was shut. But the open door may refer to the opportunity to enter God’s Kingdom. Inclusion vs. Exclusion. God’s Kingdom is about inclusion not exclusion. People may close doors and exclude. But Jesus opens doors and includes. Are we more like Jesus in this or more like the Synagogue? Is our church an open-door for anyone and everyone? Or do we close our doors to people? I’m not saying that we think everything is open and up for grabs, that we don’t have values and beliefs and seek to live by them. I’m praying that we can be an inclusive community open to all while still hold to the Kingdom of God and the gospel. Jesus, through John encourages the small faith community at Philadelphia and shares with them what they are to be praised for. In verses 8-10 we read, “ I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.  I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.  Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.”

In these verses we see the fact that this church was small and was seemingly insignificant in the eyes of the world. But not in the eyes of Jesus. That even in the midst of persecution, from the Jewish population of Philadelphia, these followers of Jesus held onto Jesus and never denied him. And here Jesus, through John is actually saying those who follower him are true Jews, and those who don’t, aren’t. This seems very harsh, even harsher than the equivalent statement in Revelation 2:9. But this is not an anti-Jewish statement, this is an inner-Jewish question. Which of these groups can properly claim to be the true Jews, bearing the torch of God’s ancient people? This was common question in 1st century Judaism. And in this Jesus is quite clear, those who follow him, the Davidic Messiah are the true Jews. And those who aren’t the true Jews will experience a reversal of fortunes. You see they expected to have Gentiles submit to them, which was pulled from Isaiah 60:14 which says, “The children of your oppressors will come bowing before you; all who despise you will bow down at your feet and will call you the City of the Lord, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.”

Jesus called on the followers of His in Philadelphia to patiently endure, to wait upon him, and to live out the Kingdom faithfully in their context. They were praised for 3 things: 1. Evangelistic opportunities and being missionaries for the Kingdom of God. 2. Reliance on Christ. 3. Faithfulness to Jesus. And because of those three things Jesus spells out in verses 11-13 what the church at Philadelphia will experience, “Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name.”

When the church, whether at Philadelphia or anyone, lives out and stays true to these 3 things they will be victorious. They will receive a crown, just like the believers at Philadelphia. This crown, is not a royal crown, and refers to a garland or wreath that was used to crown victors in a competition. And so these believers who have held on to Jesus will eventually be victorious, through the victory of Jesus, his life, death and resurrection. And because of that victory they will also be a pillar in the temple. A Pillar that will never be shaken, rattled or destroyed. This is no doubt a reference to the many earthquakes and times that the city came crashing down all around them, and how it seems like pillars always remained standing. In fact if you go to Philadelphia right now you will still find standing pillars. And these believers are just like the pillars who stood whenever thing else crumbled.

And the last promises to the church at Philadelphia point to God’s faithful presence. They will never have to leave the presence of God ever. This obviously points to the many times that the people of Philadelphia would have to leave the city as an earthquake would hit and everything would begin to sway, move and crumble. They would go out in the countryside and wait. And when the earth had stopped moving beneath them they would then go back into the city. No more. These believers would be forever in his presence.

And they would also receive the tri-fold name of God on them and he would vouch for them. They would have a new name, a new identity. They would understand the power of a new name coming from a city that had several different names given to them.

In closing I want to quote NT Wright and what he has to say about the ending of this letter and its’ promises to the believers at Philadelphia. Wright says, “They are the ones, too, who carry the new name- now the triple name of God, of the heavenly Jerusalem, and of Jesus himself, bearing his new name of King and Lord. They are to be marked out publicly as God’s people, as Jesus’ people, as citizens of the city where heaven and earth will be joined for ever. No earthquakes there. Security, vindication, and the ultimate reward for patience. The time of trial is coming on the whole earth, and like a powerful searchlight it will reveal who is holding on to Jesus and his promise of a crown and who isn’t. The Philadelphian Christians are holding on a the moment, they must go on doing so and ‘conquer’ when the time comes. So must we.”

So what can we learn about following Jesus from those early followers of Jesus at Philadelphia? How can we walk through open doors that God has for us? Are we walking through those doors? Are we live as a sent community like Philadelphia? Are we opening doors or closing doors to people? These are some of the questions that we’ll unpack together.

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

2. What open doors do you have in your life to share/live/expand the Kingdom of God? To Whom are you being sent to? How can we help you live out the Kingdom of God in the world?

3. Have you ever experienced a closed door in relation to a community of faith? How did that make you feel? How can we as Veritas been better known as an inclusive community and not an exclusive 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?

7 Letters: Sardis

Today we tackle our 5th week of our 7 week series entitled 7 Letters looking at the 7 letters to the 7 Churches in Asia Minor found in the New Testament book of Revelation chapters 2 and 3.

We have finished Revelation chapter 2 and we have looked at the letters to the church at Ephesus, the church at Smyrna, the church at Pergamum, and last week we covered the letter to the church at Thyatira. Today we start the first of the 3 letters found in Revelation chapter 3. We’ll be looking at Revelation 3:1-6 and the letter to the church at Sardis.

So let’s look at Revelation 3:1-6, what the city of Sardis was like, and what a 2,000 year old letter might have to say to us gathered together here halfway around the world in a radically different context. And we’ll find out that what the church at Sardis struggled with, is still with us and is still something that, if we are truly honest, we all struggle with.

Revelation 3:1-6 says, “To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.  Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels.  Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

One of the things that I have been noticing about each and every letter that we have looked at is the radically contextual nature of each letter. Each letter that is written has images, words, phrases, etc.. that the recipients of the letter would understand and relate to the context of each city. Sardis and the letter to the church at Sardis is no different. So let’s look together at the history as well as the context of the city of Sardis and see how they influence the letter to the church.

The city of Sardis was situated at a junction of 5 different trade roads. Their location on this junction led to the fact that Sardis was a city known for its commerce and trade. These things led to Sardis being a very active and very wealthy city. The city of Sardis was situated on a hill and was thought to be impregnable. It was thought to be secure. They were so secure in this “fact” that they became lax in their “defense” of the city. They fell asleep, if you will, in relation to the protection of the city. This led to the capture of the city twice. In 549 Cyrus of Persia (who is found in various Biblical narratives) took the city. And in 218 Antiochus the great conquered it. In both instances a soldier climb the hill at night and to a place where they didn’t place a guard because they believed that part of the city was impregnable. They fell because a soldier came like a thief in the night. They had fallen asleep and they were captured.

Knowing this history now, history that everyone in Sardis would have known and been taught, let’s see how that played into the letter to the church.

In verse 1 we read the words that describe the risen Christ as who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.” This, as I have mentioned before, is a picture of the Risen Christ drawn from the first chapter of Revelation. And in this case it is drawn from Revelation 1:16 where the Risen Jesus is pictured as one who is holding the seven stars. The 7 Spirits of God may refer to the Holy Spirit while the 7 stars are the angels of the churches.

In the second half of verse 1 through verse 3 is different than the other letters in that it actually starts not with what the church at Sardis should be praised for but what they should be criticized for. In verses 1-3 we read, “I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.  Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.”

This criticism no doubt pointed the hearers of this letter right to their history of being taken over by attackers because they had fallen asleep. This would have come home with particular force because of their history of being captured twice. Their reputation around the region was one of being an alive, happening, and a church with lots going for it. But in reality it was a truly dead church. The reputation didn’t match with reality. But they had gone to sleep on their reputation and needed to wake up. Jesus through John charges them with 2 main criticisms…that there works had not been found to be complete, meaning their lives left much to be desired. And secondly the community was spiritual lazy if not dead outright. And if it were to continue, Jesus would come like a thief in the night.

Now this statement that Jesus would come like a thief in the night might sound familiar and is used by Jesus to describe his second coming. But in this letter, John is not referring to his second coming. He again is not doubt making reference to how the city had fallen asleep centuries before and were overtaken by people coming over the wall at night, like a thief in the night. Christ comes in many ways and this is clearly limited to coming in judgment on unrepentant sinners.

So one of the obvious questions for you and I right now is this…have we fallen asleep when it comes to following Jesus? Have we become lax in our spiritual disciplines? Have we got lax when it comes to blessing others? Lax in growing deeper in our journey with Jesus? Lax in sharing life together as followers of Jesus? If so, Jesus has the same words to us as he had for the church at Sardis. Wake up. Strengthen what remains. Repent and Return. Wake Up church!

Now not everyone in the church at Sardis was asleep at the wheel. There were a few people who were still awake, still fighting the good fight, still following Jesus and hadn’t become lax in their lives. We read about them in verse 4 which says, “Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.” These few people in Sardis didn’t soil their clothes. Their reputation, their life, and their faith wasn’t compromised and lax. This idea of not having soiled garments is possibly a reference to inscriptions found in Asia Minor that stated that dirty clothing was held to dishonor the deity so that those who were dirty garments were debarred from worshipping. But those whose garments were pure would walk with Jesus dressed in white. This reference no doubt to triumphal processions of rulers who came back as conquering heroes, where people wore white robes. This triumphal procession points to the victory of Jesus. That Jesus through this life, death and resurrection is victorious over sin, death, evil and hell. That Jesus is victorious over the powers which hold mankind in bondage. And that all of us, if we follow him, and stay vigilant in our discipleship we will wear white robes and be victorious over the same things, not through our own power but by Jesus.

And so in that victory, the victory of Jesus, not only will the followers of Jesus be wearing white, a symbol not only of purity, and undefilement, but also a picture of justification, they will also be walking with the victor, who will also be dressed in a white. A beautiful picture of the presence of Jesus in the midst of our own lives. That as we walk this life, awake to the things of Jesus, and asleep to the things of this world, that Jesus will be walking with us. We aren’t alone. We are walking in white with the victorious one.

And when we walk with the victorious one, who has defeated the powers of sin, death and evil, and awake to life in the Kingdom of God, Jesus makes a promise to us. His promise, found in verse 5, “I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels.” This is a reference that appears elsewhere in Revelation (Rev. 13:8, 17:8, 20:12, 15,21,27) that also mentions this book of life, elsewhere called the Lambs Book of Life. It is helpful to know that in Greek cities they had official registries of all citizens. Some places kept the grim custom that when a citizen was to be condemned to death that their name would be blotted out of the book so as to not even show that they had even existed. But here Jesus, speaking on our behalf to God the Father, claiming us as his own, is saying that we, through him, are citizens of the Kingdom of God. That because we are alive and awake to his Kingdom that we won’t be condemned and then blotted out of the Book of Life. That Jesus is acknowledging us before the Father much like it says in Luke 12:8, “I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God.” And what a beautiful picture that is. Being acknowledged by Jesus as his own, as one who has the identity of Jesus within them, and to be vouched for, so to speak by Jesus when it comes to God the Father, and his Kingdom.

And so what about us? What message does Jesus have to say to us through this letter to the church at Sardis, many of whom had fallen asleep and become lax in their life with Jesus? How have we fallen asleep at the wheel? Where in your life do you need to wake up? In what ways have you been lax in the areas of blessing others, growing deeper in your journey with Jesus, and in sharing life? Let’s unpack these questions together and see how we might wake up, repent, and become alive to the ways of Jesus and his Kingdom.

1. What thoughts, comments, insights, questions, application, push back, etc.. do you have regarding the Scripture and/our the message?

2. How have you fallen asleep or gotten lax in your following of Jesus? In what area (Blessing the World, Growing Deeper in your journey with Jesus, Sharing Life) do you need to wake up?

3. 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?

7 Letters: Thyatira

Today we continue our 7 week series entitled 7 Letters looking at the 7 churches in 7 cities in the Roman Empire, written by John, and inspired by the words to the churches by Jesus.

For the last 3 weeks we have covered Revelation 2 and three of the four letters in chapter 2. We have talked about the letter to the church at Ephesus, the letter to the church at Smyrna, and last week the letter to the church at Pergamum. Today we wrap up chapter two of Revelation with the 4 letter. The letter to the church at Thyatira.

Let’s look at what is the longest letter out of the 7 letters to the 7 churches, which is also to the city that was probably the least important of all the cities and see what we might learn about following Jesus in the midst of our own world.

Revelation 2:18-29 says this, “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.  I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.  I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.  So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.  I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’ To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father.  I will also give that one the morning star.  Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

So let’s first look a little bit at the context for the church at Thyratira and see what we might glean from the city and see if that will shed light on anything that comes out in the letter.

Thyatira, as I said, was probably the least important city of the 7 listed in Revelation 2 and 3. The thing that made it most famous was its trade guilds which specialized in various trades. One of the best known item of commerce, and one that made Thyatira the most money and prestige was the making of purple or indigo dye, which became a kingly color because it was so rare at the time. One of the Biblical characters who was from Thyatira and who was a dealer in linen and especially in purple linen was Lydia who is mentioned in Acts 16:14.

Now these guilds held considerable sway in Thyatira. You see this is more than just some type of Union. These guilds each had a patron god. In fact the patron diety of the bronze trade was Apollo Tyrimnaeus who also happened to appear on local coins together with the “son of God”, who better known to us as the Roman Emperor. These guilds weren’t just about employment, they were also religious or quai-religious. These guilds would hold ceremonies where the industry would be celebrated, they would sacrifice meat to idols, mostly to their patron god, and then eat the meat which had been sacrificed to idols. The powerful trade guilds would have made it very hard or difficult for any Christian to earn a living without belonging to a guild. No guild equals no job. No job equals no source of income to provide for your family. But if the Christians joined the guild, membership meant being involved and attending these guild banquets (more like religious ceremonies) and this meant, as I said before, eating meat that was sacrificed to idols. We’ll return in a bit to this struggle that, no doubt, most if not all of the Christians in Thyatira faced.

So the letter follows the same format as all the others. After the address part of the letter where the letter mentions the church in the various cities, comes the description of the Risen Christ, which also corresponds to a description of the Risen Jesus found in Revelation chapter 1. This description of Jesus to the church at Thratira is found in verse 18 which says, These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.” This description of Jesus is also found in 1:14-15. The reference to Jesus being the Son of God may be a statement in direct conflict with the understanding of the day that the son of god was actually the Roman Emperor. This is the only letter to use that designation for Jesus. And so right from the beginning of this letter Jesus is challenging the establishment and letting them know that He and not Caesar is the true Son of God. Jesus, through John, is also speaking directly to the guilds by the description of fire and bronze. In fact Thyatira was well known for it’s smelting of bronze (which obviously you need bronze and fire for smelting).

So following the description of the Risen Jesus we have what the church at Thyatira is to be commended for. What they are to be commended for is found in verse 19, “I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.” This shows that there was much to commend the church at Thyatira for. Love- what is probably the most important part of a follower of Jesus life- both for God and for our neighbors. Their deeds, their faith, their serving of their fellow believers and others that God put in their path, and their perseverance all were focused on Jesus and pointing others to him. This was a church progressing, moving forward and growing in these four aspects, as stated that they “are doing more than you did at first.” Unlike the church at Ephesus who lost their first love and was regressing.

Now remember when I mentioned about the powerful guilds, their banquets which were more like religious ceremonies complete with eating meat to their guilds patron deity? And how if you didn’t belong to a guild, it was likely that you didn’t have a job? We come back to that when Jesus through John shares with the church at Thyatira the things that they are to be criticized for, things that are holding them back from following Jesus the way that they should. Verses 20-23 states “Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.  I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.  So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.  I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.” Now we have an OT reference when John refers to this woman in the church as Jezebel. Jezebel was the wife of King Ahab and who seemed to be there cause of her husband’s wickedness. She enticed her husband into worship of Baal, which then in turn led many Israelites into that practice as well. You can read more about Jezebel in 1 Kings 16-22. We aren’t sure if this lady was an official or accepted church leader but we do know that she had a powerful influence within the church through her “prophetic gift”. Knowing the context of Thyatira and the power of the guild, this Jezebel was teaching that freedom meant that they could participate in these guilds, take part in the meals and ceremonies and everything that went with them, and still be following Jesus. And as I mentioned before the things that took place at these guild gatherings are the very things that the church in Thyatira is criticized for, the eating of food sacrificed to idols and to sexual immorality. For you see once one admits that it is all right to attend events in pagan temples or near equivalents, then all the things and practices such as licentious sexual behavior would come with the territory. And so it seems like Jezebel was promoting freedom and that their spiritual freedom could appropriately be expressed both in sexual practices as well as attendance at pagan shrines, cult meals and more ambiguous fellowship meals of the trade guilds.

And while the context is different for us. We don’t have trade guilds that hold religious or quai-religious ceremonies and eat meat sacrificed to idols. But we face the same question that the believers in Thyatira faced. The question that we all need to wrestle with and struggle with is this, “How far should I accept and adapt to contemporary standards and practices.” Or put in biblical terms how can I be in the world but not of the world? You see the church should never and can never deny Christ, yet at the same time we should not deny our membership within society. The mission of Jesus is not served if we as followers of Jesus appear to be old fashioned people who are always trying to retreat from the real world and not engaging the world.

Now Jesus calls the church at Thyatira (and by definition I believe also to us) to continue holding on until the day of his return. To remain faithful to Jesus in the midst of the culture in which they found themselves in (and in the midst of the culture where we find ourselves in). That no matter the struggles that the church was going through and the question of how to engage the culture without succumbing to the culture, that this,more than likely, small band of followers of Jesus were to hold on, to grasp tightly to the hand of Jesus, and to not let go until the end.

Let me say one word more and close out the message before we talk about application together by quoting, as I have done many times before, the theologian and writer NT Wright. He has this to say about the ending of this text and gives us a clue to the vocation that all followers of Jesus have, whether they are in Asia Minor in the 1st century AD or they are in Lancaster, PA in the 21st century. He says this, “Jesus promises to give them the morning star. Since later in the book (22:16) it is Jesus himself who is the ‘morning star’ we probably have here another hint of the level of intimacy which he offers to his people. He will share his very identity with them, as we have just seen him do with his royal authority. But the ‘morning star’ most likely the planet Venus at it’s pre-dawn brightest, is a sign of the special vocation of Christians, not least those “holding on’ when others around them seem to be compromising, under pressure, with local pagan practices. Christian witness is meant to be a sign of the dawning of the day, the day in which love, faith, service, and patience will have their fulfillment, in which idolatry and immortality will be seen as the snares and delusions they really are, and in which Jesus the Messiah will establish his glorious reign over the whole world.”

So what does it look like for you and I today to live out the message that Jesus, through John is calling us to live? To hold on to Jesus? To live a life of love, faith, service, and patience? And what does it look like for you and I to live counter cultural lives, not in the “amish way” so to speak but to live a life that we as followers of Jesus are in the world but not of it? Let’s spend some time wrestling with these questions together.

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

2. Share some modern day struggles related to being in the world but not of the world. How can we best live a counter-cultural life while at the same time not leaving the culture? And what does a counter-cultural life that doesn’t leave culture look like?

3. 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?

7 Letters: Pergamum

Today we continue our 7 Letters series looking at the 7 Letters written to the 7 churches in the midst of the Roman Empire found in Revelation 2 and 3.

Two weeks ago we look at the first letter written to the church at Ephesus. We looked at the fact that they were able to discern those who were apostles and those who weren’t. They had a great handle on what the gospel of Jesus and was able to know when the gospel was being twisted and distorted, like by the Nicoletians. But the thing that they had against them was the fact that they had lost their first love. They lost the fact that the gospel that they had a great grasp on, was really all about love. Love of God and love of others. And if they had lost that, then they really didn’t have a grasp on the gospel. They were so concerned with right belief, but it didn’t lead to right behavior (love) so to me it wasn’t right belief.

Last week we looked at the second letter written to the church at Smyrna. We looked at the idea that this small group of followers of Jesus were facing trials and suffering and persecution. That they didn’t bow to the threat of punishment, whether that meant prison or death. And that God walked with them through that persecution because he went through it to and came out the other side. He lived, died, and was resurrected. He came out the other side victorious.

This week we tackle the third letter to the third church in Revelation. The letter to the church at Pergamum. The letter found in Revelation 2:12-17. “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword.  I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives. Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality.  Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.”

So let’s unpack some things about the church at Pergamum and see what it might have to say to us 2,000 years later.

First, let’s do some contextual work looking at the city of Pergamum, which will help us understand the letter to the church there a whole lot better.

Pergamum was never really an important city until it became an independent kingdom of the Attalids after Alexander the great. But it’s importance really look off when the last King of Pergamum willed it upon his death to the Roman Empire in 133 BC. It wasn’t a great trading place due to it’s location 15 miles inland. But what it lacked in commerce, it made up in various other ways. One of those ways was related to a great library in Pergamum that was said to house over 200,000 parchments and the word parchment itself is derived from the name of the city. But probably the most known and greatest asset that the city had was in relation to “religion”. It was a city full of religious beliefs, temples, and idols to gods, goddesses, and people who crowned themselves as gods.

People came from all over Asia Minor to be “healed” by the god Asclepius. It was also described by some as the Lourdes of the ancient world. Lourdes being a place in France known as a place of pilgrimage (Mostly because of supposed sightings and experiences with the “Virgin Mary”). There were temples to Zeus, Dionysis and Athene. But probably one of the biggest “religions”, if you will, in all of Pergamum was in relation to the imperial cult. It was the center of Emperor/Caesar worship and had a temple to Rome as early as 29 BC and added two more later. They took their worship of the emperor seriously and was the principal center for imperial cult worship in this part of the world. There were also a plethora of heathen temples as well.

With that background let’s look deeper into the text found in Revelation 2:12-17. In verse 12 we read these words describing the risen Jesus, “These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword.” These words can be also found in verse 16 of chapter 1 which is a total description of the risen Christ that John then refers back to in all his letters to the churches. Verse 16 of chapter 1 says, “coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword”. This picture of the risen Jesus with a sharp-double edged sword coming out of his mouth also appears in Revelation 19:15. In a city devoted to the Roman Empire as Pergamum and home to many imperial leaders who would possess the power to bring the power of the Roman Empire and the power of the sword down on anyone who dissented, John in contrasting the sword of the empire and the sword of the Kingdom of God, being the power of the word of God to change lives and change the world as well as what Hebrews 4:12 says that the word of God can do, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” The Roman empire and it’s emperor my wield a sword but Jesus has his own. Not to fight violence with violence but to cut through half-heartedly faith and spirituality. And that is done by the word of God.

In verse 13 we read, “I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.” This letter is written to Christians who lived in the city of Pergamum. The word live means that Christians weren’t just passing through. This was their home and they had to face these difficulties to the end.

What does it mean when Jesus (through John) says that Satan has his throne there, and the idea that Satan lives in the city of Pergamum? There are, I believe, 3 different possibilities for what John is getting at in reference to Satan, his throne and the connection to the city of Pergamum. The first one relates to the worship of the god Asclepius whose symbol was a serpent. The second possibility is that John is referring to the altar of Zeus. The third, and I believe, best possibility of what John is getting at here in this verse relates to the idea of the Emperor and Imperial Cult and the fact that Pergamum was the seat of Roman government in the whole region as well as the fact that emperor worship, as I had mentioned before, was so pervasive.

So let’s take a look now at what they are to be commended for and what they are to be criticized for. We find both of these things in the second half of verse 13 through verse 16 which says, “Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives. Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality.  Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.  Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.”

The thing that they are commended for is the fact that even in the midst of trials and persecution and in the midst of emperor worship, the believers at Pergamum didn’t renounce their faith in Jesus. Even when their brother in the Lord Antipas was put to death for his faith in Jesus. Not much is known about Antipas although legend has it that he was roasted in a brazen bull. And so in the midst of that season of persecution they didn’t deny Jesus. They remained faithful.

But at the same time that they remained faithful, there were some who held to the teaching of Balaam and some who held to the teaching of the Nicolaitans (unlike those in Ephesus who knew that the Nicolaitans weren’t teaching the gospel). This reference to Balaam is referring to the story of Balaam in the Old Testament (Numbers 31). The allusion here is spelled out with the reference to Balaam’s teaching of Balak to entice the Israelites to sin. And what were the sins that not only the Israelites fell into in relation to Balaam’s teaching but also in relation to what was taking place in Pergamum? According to Leon Morris in his Revelation commentary here is what the issue was “Two points are singled out, the eating of food sacrificed to idols and sexual immorality. It is possible that the former refers to meat which had been first been offered to idols and was then sold on the open market and the latter to sexual sins in general. but it is more likely that both refer to idolatrous practices. Feating on sacrificial meat and licentious conduct were usual accompaniments of the worship of idols, both in Old and New Testament times.”

Jesus through John calls on the church at Pergamum to repent or otherwise he will fight against them using the sword in his mouth. And now before you think this is a picture of Jesus putting aside his non-violent, enemy loving life to get violent, this is another picture of the power of the word of God. Jesus clearly means the words that he speaks has the power to either comfort us or confront us.

The ending of the letter is the exhortation to the church at Pergamum which is found in verse 17 which says, “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.” What does hidden manna mean and what does getting a white stone with a new name written on it? Hidden manna is a reference no doubt to the manna that came down from heaven to sustain the Israelites in the wilderness during the Exodus out of Egypt. There may be an allusion to the Jewish idea that when the temple was destroyed that the prophet Jeremiah hid the pot which contained the manna that was in the Holy of Holies and that when the Messiah came it would reappear.

And regarding the white stone with a new name on it, there are more than 7 different possible understandings. I won’t go into all of them but here are the two that I found most possible and most intriguing. The first one is that there was a custom in the ancient near east, and in Pergamum of guests being given a stone with their name on it as a ticket to admission. Connects with being given entrance into the Kingdom of God. The second one, especially fitting to the issue that the believers were facing in Pergamum that some wanted to blend in and not drawn attention to themselves, and tried to compromise in some areas as not to bring the sword of the Roman empire down on them. You see Pergamum’s great buildings were made from from local black stone. When people wanted to put up inscriptions, they obtained white marble on which to carve them. This was then attached to the side of the building. And so a white marble inscription on the side of a black building would stand out all the more clearly. And so Jesus, through John, was calling the follower of Jesus to stand out more clearly. To not blend in. To not play it safe. To not compromise with the Roman Empire but to follow Jesus with everything and like a city set on a hill, or a light in the darkness.

So what does the letter to the church at Pergamum have to do with us gathered together here in Lancaster? What might be the areas of compromise that we as individuals and as a church are making so as not to stand out? Where have we lost the “cutting edge”? Our ability to say no to surrounding culture? What other applications to our lives and church can this text speak to us about? These are some of the questions that we’ll unpack together.

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

2. The church at Pergamum is sometimes called the compromising church. That they compromised to not draw attention to themselves. Where do we tend to compromise with the world? Where have we lost our “cutting edge” and our ability to say no to the surrounding culture?

3. 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?

Outrageous & Courageous

The other week I was attending the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference in Columbus, OH. I attend Annual Conference every year that it is within driving distance because I get to catch up with people that I might not see any other time during the year. I get to develop relationships with friends from California, Arizona, Michigan, Maryland, and even spend time with friends from the Lancaster area. Annual Conference gives me a chance to tell our story, network with various individuals and their churches, share with people how they can support Veritas in moving forward, as well as share any wisdom or insight I might have to others considering church planting or who are in the middle of church planting themselves.

One of the joys of this particular Annual Conference was that I got to catch up with Jeremy Ashworth and John Neff, who are some of the people involved with the E3 Ministry Group, According to their website www.e3ministrygroup.com E3 Ministry group is a creative and innovative coaches and consultants with a passion for bringing a renewed vitality and revitalization to congregations. Our customized solutions and “hands-on” personalized guidance reinforce the process as we recognize that each congregation is uniquely created by God.

Jeremy just released a book with Fred Bernhard entitled Outrageous and Courageous which according to the description in the back of the book is all about making friends and sharing faith. Or what we in the church call relational evangelism. Now when I say the word evangelism, what comes to mind? Immediately my mind goes to street corners, bull horns, tracts, and turn or born tactics. But is that what we are talking about? I can share with you two experiences in my past where I did street evangelism and honestly I never want to do that again. But because we have a bad experience with evangelism, do we swing the pendulum all the way to the other side and say we let our actions speak for us. I know many within Veritas who know they should share their faith but the "models" they have been given aren't helpful, bring up painful memories, and so it leaves us stuck. That is exactly where Outrageous and Courageous comes in. It's for people who know that our service needs to go hand in hand with our sharing about Jesus using our words. That evangelism and service aren't on opposite sides of the spectrum but the opposite sides of the same coin.

There is much to be commended in this book, especially if you flinch everytime you hear someone use the word evangelism. This is for those who have done the street evangelism and found it troublesome. This book is for those who would consider themselves evangelist by nature. It's for those who wouldn't be caught dead by called an evangelist. It is for each and every follower of Jesus whether you struggle with evangelism or not. I highly recommend picking up a copy and reading it.

There are several things that challenged me the most and some where actually just almost a side point that seemed almost off the cuff.

As a Church planter I was challenged with this statement, "We know a church planter who specializes in starting congregations from the ground up who says from experience that church planters can and should make contact with at least thirty unchurched people every day." My first question is How? And I'm not an introvert who isn't shy to talk with people. How would I meet 30 unchurched people every day? This is an area where I need to spend time working on and developing in my life.

The next two things that challenged me the most related to Jeremy taking a break from writing to go live out what he was talking about.

First, there was the story of the moving van. Jeremy says this, "As I write this chapter, a U-Haul truck has appeared just a few door down from our home. I've been looking out my window, watching the family. I've not been asked to help, but how would they know to ask me? It's late And it's hot outside. But the family looks a bit understaffed at the moment, and after all, I am writing a book on loving your neighbor. I'm going to go out on a limb (in faith?) and interpret the U-Haul as a cosmic invitation. Hold on. I"ll be right back."

Secondly, there was the story of his son. "At this very moment, I am typing these words, my toddler son has appeared at my feet. He's holding his new truck. He speaks no words, but he knows what he's doing. He is looking at me. he wants to play, and his very presence is an invitation. I'll be right back."

These two stories probably made the most impact on me as one who works from home and sometimes, to be honest, sees my neighbors and my kids as sometimes in the way of me fulfilling the mission that God has called me to. Boy I am so dumb and broken. My kids and my neighbors are the mission that God has called me to. And if I miss that, I miss everything. Lord help me to be about the mission of discipling my own kids and my neighbors, and be about building your kingdom and not my kingdom.

So if nothing else stands out, maybe this will. Go out and play with your kids. Go out and invite a neighbor to dinner or a whole neighborhood to a picnic. Build friends. And share your faith in the process.

7 Letters: Smyrna

Today we continue our series called 7 Letters, looking at the 7 Letters to 7 churches in the midst of the Roman Empire in Revelation chapters 2-3.

Last week we took a look at all the 7 letters and gave some background behind the letters, the number 7 and how it keeps reoccurring, and also how each letter is structured.

We then took a look at the first of the 7 letters, the letter to the church at Ephesus. We talked about the fact that the did a great job of holding onto the gospel and seeking truth from lie. They did a great job of discerning whether a group of people with “new” practices and thoughts were “orthodox” or not, like how they determined that the Nicolaitans were teaching a false gospel.

But that in strictly being defenders of the gospel, they lost to the truth and crux of the gospel. That being that they lost their first love, the love of God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength and the love of their neighbors.

Today we cover the second letter in Revelation 2. The letter to the church at Smyrna. Now if you remember last week we talked about the structure of the letters and how most of them had both praise and criticism. But we said that 2 of the churches didn’t have any criticism in their letter. And this is the first of the two churches that Jesus doesn’t have any criticism for.

So let’s unpack the text, learn a little bit more about the church at Smyrna, and see where it connects with the church of today.

Revelation 2:8-11 says, “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again.  I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.  Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.”

Smyrna was one of the greatest cities of the region and it was in contention with Ephesus for the title of “First City of Asia.” It had an excellent harbor and a well protected gulf. Smyrna was a faithful ally of Rome in the days before Rome was acknowledged in the region. In fact it was one of the first cities to worship the Roman emperor and it won the honor of erecting a temple to him during the reign of Tiberius.

After the greeting in verse 8 we read these words, also in verse 8, “These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again.” This is of course a picture of the risen Jesus, who lived, was crucified and rose again. It also refers to the description of the risen Jesus in Revelation 1:17-18 which says, “I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever!” Everything that follows after this verse is based on the fact that Jesus was victorious over sin, death, evil and hell. That death was conquered by Jesus. And that death doesn’t have the last word. That following death there is resurrection. These words would mean a great deal to those in Smyrna for various reasons. But one of the connections that the city had to the death and resurrection of Jesus is the fact that their city had their own death and resurrection. In 580 BC Smyrna was destroyed by Alyattes, King of Lydia. The city laid dormant and dead until 290 BC. Lysimachus, who ruled Thrace and the northwestern part of Asia Minor after the division of Alexander’s empire, refounded Smyrna.

After the picture of the risen Jesus, Jesus (through John) goes on to share with the church at Smyrna what they are to be commended for. The first thing he mentions is something related to their perceived situation. In verse 9 we read, “I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.” John is making the reference to the fact that the city of Smyrna was a very wealthy city and for many it led to their prosperity. The city was a place of trade and exports and commercial success. This however didn’t extend to those who were following Jesus, in the material sense. They were persecuted, poor, and afflicted. Jesus was intimately aware of the trouble and struggles that the church at Smyrna was faced with, he faced the same things. He was knowledgable about their afflictions, their poverty, and the slander that was being spoken about them.

They were turned into the authorities by everyone including the Jews, who he makes reference to in the second half of verse 9. Smyrna had a large Jewish population who would often inform on the Christians to the authorities, and who would incite outbreaks of violence against them. It is also quite possible that the churches poverty was due in large part because of the Jewish population in Smyrna. Some believe that the Jewish population in Smyrna pillaged the goods of the Christians in that town. Christianity was not legally permitted in Smyrna and that made it easy for Jews and Pagans to take action against the church. In verse 10 Jesus (through John) continues to encourage the believers at Smyrna to continue following in his footsteps and to not lose heart even though it looked like, in every way, that they were losing. They were in fact not losing, but actually gaining. They were gaining a crown of life and life in the upside down Kingdom of God. Following in the footsteps of the crucified and risen King, King Jesus.

Verse 10 says, “Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.”

Jesus is sharing with the church at Smyrna that they were going to face persecution. That they were going to suffer. In fact, many of them were going to end up in prison and some would actually face death. But that they were to remain faithful to Jesus, to not bend to the persecution, and when they were faithful that they would experience victory, life and a crown. This was coming from someone who had been there before. Someone who was intimately aware of persecution, suffering, death, and also resurrection and victory. Jesus (through John) wanted to let the church know that whatever happened that the fate of the Christians and the church in Smyrna were safe in his hands. John is making a sharp contrast between persecution & death which people fear so much, and life which alone matters. John makes it crystal clear that the believers in Smyrna were going to come out on top. That they were going to be victorious if they remained faithful. That they would receive life, which meant renewed life in God’s new age. Life in his Kingdom, which isn’t just about eternal life after this life (it includes that as well) but life and life to the fullest.

And they would receive the crown of life. That statement has some context behind it in relation to the city of Smyrna. You see Smyrna itself was thought of as a city with a crown, due to the way it’s splendid architecture used the natural advantages of a steep hill to good effect. Also crown refers to a wreath or chaplet and is to be distinguished from the royal crown. The crown that is mentioned here was the trophy awarded to the victor of the games and is also the same word used for the festive garland worm at banquets by all the guests. And so the crown is the victory wreath, which would be specially appropriate in Smyrna, a city famous for its games. So the followers of Jesus who remained faithful to Jesus in the midst of persecution, suffering, and possibly even death would receive the trophy of victory. The crown of life. Of eternal life. Of Life in the Kingdom of God.

The final part of the letter, the exhortation and promise to the church at Smyrna is this, “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.” To understand what John is getting at here let me quote from NT Wright, “The final promise points in the same direction (receiving the crown of life). Anyone who is, quite naturally, afraid that they may face death for their beliefs is introduced to the idea to which John will return near the end of the book. There are, it seems, two forms of death. The first is the bodily data to which all will come except the generation still alive when the Lord returns. Jesus has already passed that way, and those who belong to him can know that he will first welcome them on the other side and then, at the end, raise the mto new life in his final new world. Btu the ‘second death’ is the ultimate fate of those who steadfastly and deliberately refuse to follow Jesus, to worship the one God who is revealed in him. The ‘second death’ will, it seems, do for the entire personality what the ‘first death’ will do the for the physical body.”

Jesus is saying to not worry about going through the first death, if you know him. Be content to grow through it with Jesus. After all, he went through it and came out victorious. He died and came to life and so will you.

But what does this letter to the church at Smyrna facing some serious persecution have to say to us gathered together here in the United States in the 21st century? Where we don’t face the kind of persecution that they faced and we don’t face the persecution other brothers and sisters in Jesus in other countries face right now? What is the take away from this letter? What do you think Jesus might write to the church at Veritas regarding persecution and how to endure and be victorious through it to the other side? Let’s talk about that for a bit.

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

2. How do we in the United States apply this message to the church at Smyrna when we aren’t persecuted? What application to our daily lives can we make from the letter to the church at Smyrna?

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

7 Letters: Ephesus

Today we begin a 7 week series called 7 Letters, looking at the 7 letters found in Revelation 2-3. These 7 Letters were written to 7 different churches in the midst of the Roman Empire/Asia Minor over 2,000 years ago. We’ll be taking a look at each of the 7 letters and seeing what these 7 letters to various churches that were in existence 2,000 years ago might have to say to us gathered together as a church in the midst of the 21st century. While these letters are very contextual to each church, using language, metaphor, and images that were connected to each local church, these letters also speak to us about where we are as followers of Jesus both individually and corporately.

These 7 Letters all follow the same structure. Each letter begins with a greeting. Then the greeting is followed by a title of the risen Christ taken from the description of Jesus found in Revelation Chapter 1. Then following a description of the Risen Christ, John (the author of the letters under the inspiration of Jesus) writes words of praise for each local church, with the exception of Laodicea). Following the praise section, comes a section of criticism for each local church with the exception of Smyrna and Philadelphia. Then comes a warning, an exhortation which begins with “He who has an ear…” and each letter finishes with a promise.

You’ll also notice this seven fold structure where churches 1 and 7 are in grave danger, churches 2 and 6 are in excellent shape and churches 3,4, and 5 are in the middle, neither very good nor very bad.

If you are keeping track you’ll notice something that stands out. It is the number 7. It appears throughout the book of Revelation but here it appears in that there are 7 letters to 7 churches, and 7 sections of each letter. If you have looked at the Scriptures at all you’ll realize that 7 is a very important number. In fact in Revelation alone the number 7 appears over 24 times. In the Bible 7 is one of the numbers of perfection or completeness.

So with that little bit of background we can now unpack together the first of the 7 letters. The letter to the church at Ephesus which is found in Revelation 2:1-7.

The letter to the church in Ephesus in 2:1-7 says this,  “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.  Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”

The first of the seven letters is to the church at Ephesus. To understand more about what is happening in this letter, we need to take a look at the city of Ephesus for a bit. Ephesus was the most important of the seven cities in Revelation 2 and 3. Ephesus had the largest population of the 7 cities, estimated at around a quarter of a million people. It was a center of business, commerce, education, and religion. And Ephesus was the most obvious center of imperial power (think Roman Empire) in the region. So it makes sense that John starts his 7 Letters to the church at Ephesus.

After the greeting to the church at Ephesus, John grabs a picture of the risen Jesus from Revelation 1:12-13 which says, “I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.” He uses these words in Revelation 2 then to describe Jesus. Notice the similarities, “These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.” The seven lamp stands are the seven churches and Jesus is walking among his churches. This gives us the picture of Christ as present in the trials, struggles, and life of the churches that John is writing to. Jesus knows the churches intimately and knows what good things are taking place and also the things that need to be corrected.

Once John is finished with the picture of the risen Christ, he turns the corner and shares what the Risen Christ has to say to the church at Ephesus; both the praise and also the criticism. In verses 2-3 we read the praises and verses 4-5 we read the criticism.

The praise found in verses 2-3 for the church at Ephesus is that the worked hard, they were patient even under threat and persecution and they have drawn a clear line between those who were really following Jesus and those that weren't. It seems like the church at Ephesus was truly concerned with doctrinal “purity”. They were rightly concerned about the gospel and making sure that they were always on the lookout for individuals or groups who tried to teach strange new ideas or who tried to introduce strange new practices. Just look at verse 6 which says, “But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” This verse shows the Ephesian believers carefully discerning between truth and not truth. What these Nicolaitans taught is still a mystery. Ancient and modern scholarship haven’t been able to find out much about this group. Even though nothing is known about this group, this much is known, that this group wasn’t seeking to destroy the church from the outside. This group was claiming to present an improved and modernized version of the gospel. But the church at Ephesus was strongly rooted in the gospel and in doctrine as to understand who were the wolves in sheep’s clothing.

But there was a problem with the church at Ephesus and their strongly rooted doctrinal purity. Their concern for doctrinal purity or what some people call orthodoxy didn’t lead to the most important of Christian virtues, that of love. Love of God with all that they had and love for their neighbors. Jesus criticism of the church at Ephesus is this, “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had a first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did and first. If you don’t repent, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place.” They were rightly concerned about the gospel but they forgot the heart of the matter. They had yielded to the temptation, ever present to Christians, to put all their emphasis on sound teaching. In the process they lost love, without which all else is nothing. They were so concerned with orthodoxy (right belief) that they forgot about orthopraxy (right action). In fact their right belief didn’t lead to right action, which then to me isn’t right belief. If your right belief doesn’t lead to loving God and loving others, than it isn’t right belief. If it is all about being doctrinally pure and right then you would fit very well with the Pharisee’s who were all about being doctrinally pure and right but weren’t loving at all. Or you would fit very well in the Reformation when people were so concerned with doctrine (which definitely needed correction) but then would kill other people who didn’t quite fit into their theological framework. Reformers like Martin Luther and Calvin and others who were being taking to task by the Catholic church and were being persecuted turned around and persecuted others, mostly the Radical Reformers known as the Anabaptists. Their call and desire for right belief didn’t lead them to love God more or love others more. It actually led to bloodshed, war, and hate. Which the gospel of the Kingdom of God is totally opposed to and is at odds with. Their right belief didn’t lead to love and so therefore, in my opinion, their right belief wasn’t right.

So the church at Ephesus was so concerned with right doctrine that they had forgotten or forsaken their first love. The first love that God calls each of us to, to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and to love our neighbor as ourself. If they didn’t return to their first love, Jesus would remove their lampstand. This is a church that obviously listened to the letter and did return to their first love (for a while at least). In the early second century Christian writers were holding up Ephesus as a great example of Christian faith, life and witness. It held a place of preeminence and held one of the great 5th century church councils. There was once a thriving Christian witness there. But go to modern day Ephesus and the surrounding towns and one thing will stand out, there is no active church in that place (or if there are they are in hiding). This is what Jesus precisely warned the Ephesian church about in verse 5.

Jesus then lays out 3 steps to the Ephesian church in order to recover their first love. Their first love for God and for others. First, they needed to remember their first state. That first state when they loved Jesus with everything and was taking that love to their neighbors. To go back to the first days when they had come to know the love, grace, and mercy of Jesus. Secondly, they needed to repent. To turn around 180 degrees and go back to where they were. To go back to their first love. And lastly, because Christianity is not basically negative, they needed to do the things they did at first. The works they did that flowed out of their first love for God and for others.

At the end of the letter to the church at Ephesus comes the exhortation and promise found in verse 7 which states, “Whoever has ears, let them hear what they Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” This is one of the places where this letter is super contextual and uses an image that would be familiar to all those in Ephesus. NT Wright in Revelation for Everyone has this to say about the exhortation and promise found in verse 7. “The great temple of Artemis had within its extensive grounds a wonderful garden focused on a particular tree which was used, not only for a sacred shine; but as the focal point of a system of asylum. This tree even featured on some of the local coins. Criminals who came within a certain distance of it would be free from capture and punishment. It is not accident, then, that this letter finishes with the promise that God, too, has a ‘paradise’, a beautiful garden with the ‘tree of life’ as its heart.”

So if Jesus were to write a letter to the church at Veritas, what would he include from this letter? Have we forsaken our first love? Have we gotten so focused on right doctrine (orthodoxy) that we forgot right action (orthopraxy)? Where in our lives (both individually and corporately) do we need to remember our first state, repent, and do the things we did at first? What is God saying to us through John and his letter to the church at Ephesus? Let’s spend sometime talking and applying the letter to the church at Ephesus.

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

2. What things stand out to you in regards to the connection between the church at Ephesus and our church? Have we forsaken our first love? Are we too focused on doctrine to the demise of right action? How can we remember, repent, and return?

3. 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?

Defining Missional Communities Week 4: Disciples who make disciples

So today we come to the end of our 4 week series looking at what a missional community is, what defines a missional community and the practices that make up a missional community.

Over the last 4 weeks we have covered 3 of the 4 parts of the definition of a missional community. The definition that we have been using for missional community is: a missional community is a (extended) family of missionary servants who are disciples who make disciples.

We started with discussion about living like an extended family or the greek word found in the New Testament which would be Oikos.

We then talked about being missionaries and being sent into our world. We also talked about the missional concept of person of peace and recognizing who our person of peace was.

Last week we covered the concept and idea that we are also servants. That we are to wash the feet of our family, neighbors, friends, and even enemies.

Today we are covering the last part of the definition. We are going to talk about disciples who make disciples.

To do that we will be looking at what might be a pretty familiar passage of Scripture but we’ll also spend some time actually discussing what a disciple actually is, and also how we as Veritas, are going to seek to live out being disciples who make disciples.

So let’s first jump into the Scripture text this morning which is Matthew 28:16-20 and is what is sometimes called The Great Commission. “Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.  Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

So here we see the last time that Jesus was going to be with his disciples. And as is the case when someone is going away (either passing from this world or moving away) Jesus gives them probably the most important thing that the disciples needed to remember. What he hoped to leave them with. The mission that would define their lives from this time on. The mission that would define every follower of Jesus since that time on that mountain, till today, and until he comes back to establish his Kingdom in fullness. So here Jesus is imparting the mission of the church. His disciples are sent out on a mission to do one thing: make disciples.

Jesus reminds them that all authority on heaven and earth was given to him. That he was and is in fact ruling and reigning over the world. NT Wright says this about this idea that Jesus is in fact ruling and reigning, “People get puzzled by the claim that Jesus is already ruling the world until they see what is in fact being said. The claim is not that the world is already completely as Jesus intends it to be. The claim is that he is working to take it from where it was- under the rule not only of death but of corruption, greed and every kind of wickedness and to bring it, by slow means and quick, under the rule of his life-giving love. And how is he doing this? Here is the shocking thing. Though us, his followers. The project only goes forward insofar as Jesus’ agents, the people he has commissioned, are taking it forward.” And so with that reminder that Jesus is in fact King Jesus and that he is ruling and reigning, he gives his decree, his mission for all who would seek to live under his rule and reign. That being to be a disciple and to make disciples.

We are sent out in mission to do one thing: Make disciples. Because ultimately, each church will be evaluated by only one thing- it’s disciples.

He says, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

The call and mission to go and make disciples is totally based on the fact that Jesus is ruling and reigning. Because the first thing we see in this verse is the word therefore which means because I have all authority in heaven and on earth then you should go and make disciples.

But to be and make disciples means we need to know exactly what a disciple is and how to define a disciple. So let me ask you this question, “How would you define a disciple?”

(Spend a few minutes talking about a definition of a disciple)

So in the Bible the Greek word for disciple is the word mathetes which is used 268 times throughout Scripture. the word mathetes means learner or apprentice. So with the understanding of the greek word, I would define a disciple as someone who is intentionally choosing to learn from Jesus, in every area of life.

So the early disciples who were following Jesus were learning directly from the teacher. They were seeing him live the Kingdom life right in front of them. They were seeing what it meant to live like Jesus. They were hearing directly from Jesus. They were being covered in the dust of the rabbi so to speak.

But what about us. How do we learn what it means to be a disciple of Jesus when we aren’t literally walking around with him? When we aren’t literally hearing him speak and teach? And when we aren’t being covered in his dust because we are walking right behind him?

This is where I believe 2 Core Questions of discipleship come into play. If we want to be a disciple, if we want to make disciples we must wrestle with, and help others wrestle with these two simple (yet really difficult to articulate and do) questions. These 2 core questions of discipleship are:

1. What is Jesus saying to you?

2. What are you doing in response? (or what are you doing about it…which is the part that we often miss when we read this Scripture which calls us to make disciples and to teach them to obey everything that he has called us to.)

These two questions can drive us to be a disciple that makes disciples. You just “simply” answer these two questions as you go about your day and your weeks. And you also ask others that you are in relationship with. The key to being a disciple then is to be able to listen to Jesus through prayer, Bible Study, service, etc.. and then actually do what you hear him saying. You learn from him what it means to be a disciple. You look at how he lived his life and you seek to imitate it. And you obey and actually live it out in every area of life.

But there is a problem. All too often we take this text that we just looked at and we read it wrongly. We read it a few different ways. We read it that we are to make converts. We read it that we are to make Christians. We read it and talk about the need for evangelism. But this is not what is being said here. This text is only about making disciples of everyone you meet. And in reality the minute you meet someone, you begin to disciple them. But you see in Christendom, the church invented a definition of Christian that separated such multiplying discipleship from being a follower of Jesus. In essence what was being said was it was possible to be a Christian and not a follower of Jesus or a disciple. That people thought that there were two categories of people: 1. Christians. 2. Disciples. That too often, as Dallas Willard says, there are vampire Christians who want Jesus for his blood and nothing else. That they want to go to heaven when they die but they don’t want to actually do the obeying part, or again what Dallas Willard calls the Great Omission.

So properly understanding that this text is actually about making disciples who make disciples is only half the battle, if you will. The other half is figuring out how we make disciples that make disciples and how we actually live out together answering the 2 questions of discipleship.

But what does discipleship look like in missional community? What does it mean to live out of the 2 main questions of discipleship in our missional context? And what does the discipleship process look like within Veritas? That is where we will head a little bit right now and also in our discussion time.

In missional communities disciples are made and developed in 3 different ways.

1. Through life on life where is there is visibility and accessibility. This happens in small groups of 2-3 people in what is known in sociological terms as intimate space.

At Veritas we want to do life on life where there is visibility and accessibility through having “groups” of 2-3 people of the same gender in what we call LTG’s or Life Transformation groups. An LTG would meet at least 2x a month (or 1x a week if you can make it happen) and do 3 things: Hear & Obey, Repent & Believe, and Consider & Pray. There is a paper on the table there that spells out more about LTG’s. I would take one, begin to pray about who to be in an LTG with and grab 1 or 2 others and start meeting and then let me know you are meeting. Or if you want to be a part of an LTG and want to find others who are interested, you can ask me to help you partner with someone.

2. Disciples are made and developed in community where you can practice the one anothers of Scripture.

These one anothers happen best in groups of 4-12 or what is called in sociological terms as personal space. This for us at Veritas would be what I would call Community Groups that happen 3x a month with an UP and IN Rhythm. These communities groups will meet in homes for 3 weeks. 2 weeks of prayer, bible study, etc.. (probably including dinner together) and 1 week of IN- Community. Probably week 1 and 3 would be UP, and week 2 would be IN. So we are hoping to grow and multiply these community groups and believe we can probably start or continue with 2 groups in the fall. Laura, Grace, Shalom lead one group, and Kim and I are looking at starting another Community Group in the fall.

3. The last place where disciples are made and formed in missional communities are on mission where we learn how to proclaim the gospel and make disciples.

Mission best happens in groups of 20-70 or what is called in sociological terms as public space. This for us at Veritas would be Missional Community and would happen when all the Community Groups meet on the 4th week to do OUT together, when we gather on 5th Sundays, and during our 1st and 3rd Friday gatherings.

Alan Hirsch has it right when he says “the lack of discipleship undermines all else that we seek to do.” So how do we as Veritas, as a missional community better make disciples who make disciples? Let’s talk about how we can better make disciples and how we can put flesh to our ideas related to LTG’s, Community Groups, and Missional Communities.

1. What are your thoughts related to discipleship, discipleship in missional communities, and specifically discipleship within Veritas? How can Veritas help make disciples that make disciples?

2. What is Jesus saying to you and what are you going to do in response?

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?