Organized Religion

In our community, like in so many others, there is a high level of skepticism about organized religion. Since I make my living as a minister, some people make the mistake of thinking I'm a sort of advocate of organized religion. Truth is, I'm probably as skeptical as they are. But I don't think its the organization that is at issue. I think the issue is the import people place on the organization - making a specific practice of religion the point of religion.

If you think about it, when we say we believe in God, but not organized religion, its a little like saying we believe in accounting, but we're against organized accounting. So we will practice accounting, but we will reject accounting software, accounting firms, CPA's or anything else that appears organized.

Organized religion is merely a tool we use to accomplish certain objectives of our faith. Some people have tried to make that tool more than a tool. Some people have used the tool very poorly. But it's still just a tool. The sad thing is we sometimes get so focused on keeping the tool of organized religion in motion that the tool isn't even accomplishing its purpose. The resulting emptiness and irony of organized religion is easily recognized, and thus, we reject it.

Towards a Transformational Community

"Community" has been a focus of my ministry for some time now, but I'm fairly certain that many of the people I talk to about it—even those who listen so often they are tired of hearing about it—don't really understand what I'm talking about. It's not really their fault. It's just that real community is such a rare commodity today, that people often are not aware of its existence. We don't know what we are missing.

So, when I start talking about community, a common reaction is for people to say, "Oh yes, I have that...I have a great community." When, in fact, what they may more likely have is a healthy social network. They have friends. In regard to their church involvement, they have a sense of belonging and they feel welcome and valued. These are all great things, but they don't approach the level of community required for our mission. Real community is interdependent and nearly constant. Few people have that outside their immediate families, and many don't have it at all. As a society, we are far too independent to form healthy communities.

I'm working from the premise here that the ministry of Jesus, and of the early church, invoked a rather profound level of community that, in addition to being very close knit, was extremely countercultural, and yet, integrated with the larger surrounding culture. This band of believers, living out their countercultural identity while integrated in community with non-believers and pagans, had a transformational influence on people.

In other words, the experience of that faith community and its radical adherence to the person and teachings of Jesus, impacted others such that they became radical disciples of Jesus as well.

In the absence of such deep community connections, modern evangelism has become much more individualistic. Its all about a personal relationship with Jesus. We "get saved" as an extremely individual experience, then, ideally, become integrated into a faith community. I'm pretty sure this is backward. I think we are integrated into a community, in the context of which we encounter Jesus. It's no mistake that Scripture associates such public declarations as confession and baptism with the decision to follow Jesus. These point to the fact that salvation is inherently realized in a community context.

What's Different?

At a seminar I heard Hugh Halter say that people often want to come to their worship gatherings to see what they are doing that's different from the rest of the church world. The problem is, it isn't that different. Their worship (at Adullum) is not remarkably different from what you might experience at any Sunday morning assembly at the local community church.

I took some comfort in hearing this, because, from the standpoint of evaluating how we are living out our calling to "the different life" our Sunday gatherings are remarkably unremarkable. We do meet in a sort of circle configuration, which is kind of different. And our congregation is extremely friendly and welcoming (I'm pleased to say they are this way naturally, and not because they've been coached to be so). And my preaching is very Bible focused, and pays more attention to cultural contexts than many preacher today seem to do. But, overall, I don't think you would enter our worship time and go, "Wow, these people really are different!"

I could be wrong. But I'm thinking the difference is not in our assemblies (And it is our western notions of big church and Sunday services that always has us looking their for what a church is made of). Rather, its in what we are becoming at home and in our neighborhoods that I hope the real difference is beginning to emerge.

I mean, the whole idea of incarnational ministry is that through the body of Christ (the church), God continues to reveal himself (to be incarnated). Our lives are meant to give flesh to the Gospel. Incarnation is not most evident when God's people meet together, but rather when they are simply living and building community. It happens in homes and between friends. It happens in work cubicles and block parties. It happens whenever the people of God are willing to live like Christ in a context where Christ has not been evident.

And sometimes, it happens in a stable.

Merry Christmas.

Natural Spirituality

On Saturday we will have a whole bunch of kids here at our facility for our annual Santa Breakfast. I look forward to this every year, because we get to meet a lot of people from the community, and because it's great fun to see all the children having fun and interacting with Santa.

Kids are a big part of my ministry here - from homeschooling my own, to serving kids in our community. I was a family minister before I came here, and it has always been important to me to develop the faith of children. Lately I've been working on a comprehensive approach to the spiritual formation of children. Several people have participated with me in a discussion about this, and I think the biggest challenge is keeping the whole thing natural.

In traditional ministry settings, "comprehensive" translates: organized, formal, educational, and institutional. These are the things we know and gravitate towards. I'm not opposed to programs and ministries, and our discussions about spiritual formation will ultimately result in the creation of these. But I don't want programs to become the central component of spiritual formation, because I know that doesn't work.

So, rather than creating a "Spiritual Formation Ministry," I guess you could say we are trying to cultivate a culture of spiritual formation. And if we are successful in doing that, it will, of course, not be limited to kids. It will become the cultural reality for everyone in our fellowship.

Attention Evergreen Locals

For those of you who live in the area, an announcement:

Breakfast with Santa!

Enjoy a breakfast of hot pancakes along with crafts, prizes, and, of course, a visit and pictures with Santa. It's great fun for the whole family, and it's free! Breakfast will be served from 8-11 a.m. on Saturday, December 13th at Evergreen Community Church of Christ, 29997 Buffalo Park Road in Evergreen (Next to Three Sister's Open Space). Contact the church office (303-674-6459) or consult the website for directions: www.livedifferentchurch.org.

Reading the Signs

Last week my secretary said something that I had been thinking but had been almost afraid to say myself. She said that ever since our day of prayer and fasting, things have been happening around here, and there is a different kind of energy in the air.

Several weeks ago we called our little congregation to a day of prayer and fasting. We had plenty of people who agreed to participate, and it has been very exciting to me to see what has happened since then. We've had a steady stream of visitors. We've added a couple new families to our fellowship. Several people are considering or have already started new missional efforts in their neighborhoods.

Not everything has been good, of course. Our new website was hacked last week, just a short time after the new changes went live. Our main web guy, my friend Dan, is still trying to get the site back up. But even that event is kind of interesting. I mean, we've been on the web for years without incident. We launch a revision of the site designed to reflect our missional goals and nature, and within weeks we are attacked. This happens even as focus group of some of our newest members were affirming how important an effective webiste is to their finding and choosing a church of which to be a part. It makes me think the enemy is unhappy with what we are doing, and that can only be good.

Here's the thing, though... what we are doing is simply leaving our path open so we can be led where God wants us to go. This, as opposed to setting up our program and asking God to bless what we are doing. Some of the things that are developing will, no doubt, eventually be represented in "program" form, but hopefully their development will be more spirit centered and organic.

I find that genuine ministry seems to be happening in some unexpected places, and that we, as an organization, have less direct control over these things. I think this is healthy, and I'm watching with anticipation to see where some of these things go.

Yesterday, I received a particularly encouraging affirmation. My wife and I got to have lunch with a couple of our newest members. After sharing with me how some things I had been speaking about interacted rather profoundly with things the Spirit had been leading them in, she shared with me an observation that I agree with, but would not have put half as well. "For some reason," she said, "God's attention is focused on this church."

New Website

I haven't written anything here in quite some time, in part because I've been writing and editing some content for our new church website. I think its coming along great! This is an improvement we've been working on for some time now, and we hope it will make the site more interesting and interactive.

If your are interested, check it out: www.livedifferentchurch.org