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As part of a course I’m taking at Asbury Seminary, I’ve been engaged in a personal journey through the ancient practice of Lectio Divina or Sacred Reading. Lectio Divina assumes that the scriptures want to speak to us personally, not just teach us, but through God’s voice of compassion and conviction engage us and love us. It involves four separate stages:

(1) Lectio — reading to get focused. Slow reading. Several times with a stillness that allows the text to speak for itself. What part speaks to us? Where is the mind drawn during the reading?

(2) Meditatio — taking time to think, to savor it, to deeply consider it meaning.

Look for words, phrases, and meanings that speak to you. Why do they haunt your thoughts?

(3) Oratio — a conversation with God that informs us and shapes us. Share with God your joy, pain, concerns, and fear as released in the passage. What does the passage bring to mind that God wants to talk about with you?

(4) Contemplatio — Resting in the Presence of God.

Imagine a small child nessled in the arms of his Father’s lap, saying nothing, but completely content in the closeness of the moment. Feel the warm of His body, the rhythm of his breathing, the tenderness of this moment of surrender. Give into the moment without fear of what lies ahead. Release the anxiety and embrace the Spirit of peace and love.

I have been growing so much through my experience with Lectio Divina that I invite you to join me on the adventure and sit a spell with the Father who is waiting for you to slow down long enough, to become so exhausted with running that your will be ready for the his lap.

Opinion \n\ belief stronger than impression and less strong than positive knowledge

Truth \n\ the state of being the case : (2): the body of real things, events, and facts

What you choose to believe about Jesus and what he shows us about life is the most important decision of your life.  When Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” [John 14:6]

You must decide if this is just his opinion or the state of the way things are whether you choose to believe it or not.

A man jumps from a tall building believing he can fly and for serveral seconds it appears that he is doing just that. But the reality of life is rushing toward him faster every second. He may not believe in gravity, but gravity believes in him?

Is you Christianity opinion or fact? Your answer makes all the difference!

“Christianity is such a silly religion.” -Gore Vidal

“Christians are losers.” -Ted Turner

“I prefer to believe those writers who get their throats cut for what they write.” Pascal [1623-1662]

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

“I and the Father are one.” John 10:30

I am a pietist. I once tried to recover from my pietist upbringing, trading it in for something more grand (like Eastern Orthodoxy). Alas, I can not help myself. I am a pietist in my bones. It was bred into me, and I don’t think I could ever divest myself of my pietist heritage. But what does that mean for you? What does that have to do with theology or with ministry? Good questions!

As a pietist, I believe in the utter creativity and generosity of the Holy Spirit. I believe the Spirit is at work throughout the creation, convicting persons of sin, bringing them to a saving knowledge of Christ, sanctifying them and making them holy, and calling them into a life of Christian service and love. I believe the Spirit will use anything and everything to get the job done. To some the Spirit will speak through the scriptures. To others the Spirit will speak through the sacraments. To others still, the Spirit will be present and at work through worship, preaching, prayer, fasting, the fellowship of the saints, the creation, and countless other ways. As a pietist, it doesn’t really matter to me *how* you get to God. What matters most is *that* you get there. What I really care about is this: I long for the Holy Spirit to grab hold of you and turn your inside out, restoring you to the fullness of the image of God in which you are made. Thus the thought I want most to leave you with this semester is this: As you go forth in ministry, don’t be miserly or stingy, forcing the presence and work of the Holy Spirit into this or that mode or restricting it to this or that source. Rather, be generous and ever ready to discern the life-giving and life-transforming presence of the Holy Spirit in every facet of the world and in every dimension of life. If you do nothing else in ministry, INTRODUCE PERSONS TO THE HOLY SPIRIT. Help them to become aware of the presence and work of the Holy Spirit round about them, and trust the Spirit to do the rest!

All grace and peace,   Jason

In his new book, “What is Your Church’s Personality? Discovering and Developing the Ministry Style of Your Church”, Philip D. Douglass defines eight different types of church personalities. Here they are:

Fellowship Churches are conscientious, hard-working, orderly, and sensitive to the needs of the people in general, but especially those who are members of their church. These churches bring out the best in people by helping them work toward personally meaningful goals in an organized manner.

Inspirational Churches are encouraging and supportive to their people and conscientious about putting personal relationships ahead of ministry tasks. Since they focus on the ways individuals feel, they closely monitor how people interact with one another as well as the ways their ministry efforts impact people positively and negatively.

Relational Churches focus on personal connections, values, opinions, and people interactions.  They actively strive to bond with one another, create harmony, and cooperate – making sure that everyone is involved and positive about the church.

Entrepreneurial Churches are drawn to opportunities that require them to anticipate the future and create new approaches, because they see every need as an opportunity for trying something different.  They regularly scan the community to find connections with people and ministries that already exist so they can become involved.

Strategizer Churches develop creative ideas and insights to initiate innovative transformation in the surrounding community through encouraging their people to develop their giftedness and give themselves sacrificially to ministry.  These churches are willing to take time to consider the facts and new ideas in the context of past experiences to better enable them to discern the Lord’s direction for the future.

Organizer Churches like to solve complex problems in a methodical manner by using logical analysis to critique their ministry programs, spot flaws, and make necessary changes that complete their ministry tasks efficiently.  They are organized and competent, priding themselves in getting the most accomplished in the least time.

Adventurous Churches respond quickly to issues in their midst and in the community around them by being action oriented.  Because they are at their best in emergency situations, they see problems as an adventure and an opportunity for ministry.

Expressive Churches are friendly and outgoing in communicating their love for people as a means of motivating them to join in the fellowship.  These churches like to be at the center of the action because they are comprised of easygoing, optimistic, and considerate people who enjoy talking, laughing, and sharing their lives with newcomers.

So, what kind of church personality is our church?

Take the following test and let’s compare answers.

http://www.christianet.com/bible/churchpersonalitytest.htm

65% of Churches Have a Big Screen, Up Just 3% from 2005

Mark Driscoll has said that every church will be cutting edge of some year. Some churches are the cutting edge of 2008. Others are the cutting edge of 1954. Yet others are the cutting edge of 1875. No matter what, your church is the cutting edge of ’some’ year. Well, Barna just released a new study on churches and technology yesterday… and it finds that a full 35% of churches have not yet made the switch to any type of video projection…

Other interesting finds:

Sending email blasts to large groups of people or to the entire church body is common to a majority of Protestant churches (56%).

Back in 2000, just one-third of Protestant churches (34%) had a church website. That exploded to 57% in 2005, and has inched upward since then to 62%.

One-eighth of Protestant churches (13%) now have blog sites or pages through which people can interact with the thoughts posted by church leaders.

Podcasting has been adopted by one out of every six churches (16%).

One out of every four Protestant churches (26%) now has some presence on one or more social networking sites (such as MySpace).

What year would you place the your church at the cutting edge?

We love our stained Glass Windows                          Cutting Edge 1600s

We love our Pipe Organ!                                            Cutting edge of 1885

We have a computer in the church office.                 Cutting Edge 1985

We use a powerpoint in worship.                              Cutting edge - 2000

We use video to communicate the message             Cutting edge - 2005

We believe God can use us to make a difference      Cutting Edge - 2008

Grace is not a philosophical construct that you can mentally get you head around [ you can't] and say you understand it [you won't]. Grace is beyond our understand and is totally illogical that’s what makes it so wonderful. God bypasses the “what ifs” and the “yea but…” and “but how…” and appeals to the heart.

Grace is more of a fragrance than it is anything else I know. I really do love the smell of lilacs because they remind me of my grandparents and the huge lilac bush they had outside the kitchen window. When lilacs are in bloom, you will smell them long before you see them.

A lilac is hardy plant that can survive some pretty harsh weather, the leaves are not the prettiest, and the bush can become rather gangly if not trimmed. But all of this is for one purpose, the flower and the fragrance it gives to all who take the time to “stop and smell”. Grace is like that.

Grace is free, it sticks with you and remindes you of a more gentle time when life was about more than agendas, schedules, and making money. It awakens yout to the beauty of a world that is racing headlong to the grave as if to see you can make it there first. It causes you to linger and just drink it in. Smells, color, and the warmth of spring all rolled into one. Where it comes from, why it makes you feel the way it does, and what it’s purpose is are all completely irrelevant in the moment of tranformation. It is a simple gift from God to you as if to say, “I love you this much. I made this beauty just to bless you day. Have a great day.” 

It makes you smile and baths you in a fragrance that takes your hum-drum life and speaks of a more beautiful, peaceful time that is available to everyone. But not everyone will take time to notice.

Grace is also fleeting. It comes in waves, moments in time that were meant to awaken the senses and sharpen our awareness of God. Each gift is meant to draw us closer to God, every refusal moves us further away.

The lilac will be gone soon and so will the fragrance that I keep in my memory and my heart. But the fragrance of the gift will stay with me always and I will be forever different because it was a gift.

Now it is up to me to be the fragrance of Grace that God is working within me. To be the free gift that God offers to the world, for those who will take time to drink in the love, forgiveness, and joy. Some will, some won’t. But that’s not my job, my job is to grow and give the fragance of God.

Enjoy the Fragrance of God’s grace.

We talk alot about church growth, about motivation of the frozen chosen, and living as faithful discipleship in the post-modern world. All good questions to be sure, but I have come to believe that the questions behind all other questions is “why are we here?”

It seems simple enough really. Surely everyone knows why they are here, right? Well maybe not. Let me give you an example.

Let’s say you were living in occupied France during WWII and you’re connected to the French Resistance movement. You’re purpose for living and for which you risk your life every day is the defeat of the enemy and the restoration of the true “kingdom”. If someone were to stop you on the street and ask who you are, you would certainly repond “french” not german, if people listened to you talk they would know your language is that of “France” not the Third Reich, and when you gather with others you sing french nationalistic songs and remember the great heros from french history. But mostly you would celebrate your heritage as members of the True Kingdom! Would it make sense, under these conditions, to worry about whether or not you would get that next job promotion, whether your favorite sports team won or lost, what color to paint the church walls, and of course whether we should have a projector in church?

Assuming these were your top priorities, would visitor to your village not conclude that the Nazis have nothing to fear from a resistance of a group like this? In fact, wouldn’t they also conclude that you might have stronger alligances to the Nazis than to your native homeland? I would conclude that a group like this was created BY the Nazis to infiltrate and destroy the true resistance movement!

So, Why are we here? We are the resistance movement for the True King who one day soon is going to return in force and set things right. We were created for another Kingdom and feel within ourselves a longing to return to our true home. When we worship we remind ourself of what our homeland is really like and are strengthened to risk our life in the week to come, when we pray we are speaking to the King about His plans, our opportunities, needs, and hope, and we discover the endless amount of resources available to us as members of the underground, and when we serve others in His Name, we are spreading the message that keeps hope alive and works to defeat the tyranny of Evil One on the innocent.

We live in gratitude for the coming Kingdom of which we are a part. We have a vital message to share for the children of God which we sometimes forget and sometimes ignor. But we must never forget, that when we sit idle, complain about our own wants and needs, or ignor our call to do something,

the Enemy wins and our friends and neighbors will die without Christ.

Why are you here?

Jesus said, “The Lord’s Spirit has come to me, because he has chosen me to tell the good news to the poor.  The Lord has sent me to announce freedom for prisoners, to give sight to the blind, to free everyone who suffers,  and to say, `This is the year  the Lord has chosen.’ ” Luke 4:18-19

  We make fun of Methodists for their blandness, their excessive calm, their fear of giving offense, their lack of speed, and also for their secret fondness for macaroni and cheese.

 But nobody sings like them. If you were to ask an audience in New York City, a relatively Methodist-less place, to sing along on the chorus of “Michael Row the Boat Ashore,” they will look daggers at you as if you had asked them to strip to their underwear. But if you do this among Methodists, they’d smile and row that boat ashore and up on the beach! And down the road!

 Many Methodists are bred from childhood to sing in four-part harmony, a talent that comes from sitting on the lap of someone singing alto or tenor or bass and hearing the harmonic intervals by putting your little head against that person’s rib cage.

 It’s natural for Methodists to sing in harmony. We are too modest to be soloists, too worldly to sing in unison. When you’re singing in the key of C and you slide into the A7th and D7th chords, all two hundred of you, it’s an emotionally fulfilling moment. By our joining in harmony, we somehow promise that we will not forsake each other.

 I do believe this: People, these Methodists, who love to sing in four-part harmony are the sort of people you can call up when you’re in deep distress.

 *If you’re dying, they will comfort you.

 *If you are lonely, they’ll talk to you.

 *And if you are hungry, they’ll give you tuna salad.

 *Methodists believe in prayer, but would practically die if asked to pray out loud.

 *Methodists like to sing, except when confronted with a new hymn or a hymn with more than four stanzas.

 *Methodists believe their pastors will visit them in the hospital, even if they don’t notify them that they are there.

*Methodists usually follow the official liturgy and will feel it is their away of suffering for their sins.

 *Methodists believe in miracles and even expect miracles, especially during their stewardship visitation programs or when passing the plate.

 *Methodists think that the Bible forbids them from crossing the aisle while passing the peace.

 *Methodists drink coffee as if it were the Third Sacrament.

 *Methodists feel guilty for not staying to clean up after their own wedding reception in the Fellowship Hall.

 *Methodists are willing to pay up to one dollar for a meal at the church.

 *Methodists still serve Jell-O in the proper liturgical color of the season and think that peas in a tuna casserole adds too much color.

 *Methodists believe that it is OK to poke fun at themselves and never take themselves too seriously.

 And finally,

 + You know you are a Methodist when: it’s 100 degrees, with 90% humidity, and you still have coffee after the service.

 + You hear something funny during the sermon and smile as loudly as you  can.

 + Donuts are a line item in the church budget, just like coffee.

 + When you watch a Star Wars movie and they say, “May the Force be with you,” and you respond, “and also with you.”

 + And lastly, it takes ten minutes to say good-bye!

#15 - No one is ever challenged to radically rearrange their lives to be a part of what God is doing.

#14 - God hasn’t asked you to give something up.

#13 - Everyone in your church is perfect. (If you are truly reaching lost people then you will discover that ministry is messy.)

#12 - Nothing in regards to how you lead has changed in the past year.

#11 - When your youth group wants to do something you make them have a bake sale in front of Wal Mart–but when your senior adults want to do something the church covers the cost; after all, they are tithers!  (And that same church will wonder why “the youth don’t come to church anymore.”)

#10 - You always find something wrong with ministries that are seeing fruit.

#9 - You can do everything you have in front of you WITHOUT the help of God AND others.

#8 - You spend more time on other churches websites than you do reading your Bible.

#7 - You think the answer to every problem is, “If we just had more money.”

#6 - No one has ever left your church.

#5 - You continually call other churches begging them for money.

#4 - You allow people with money to dictate the way you spend your time and the direction of the church.

#3 - When you go to a conference and come back and announce “we are changing everything” because you have received INSPIRATION not REVELATION.

#2 - You’ve never spent sleepless nights wondering, “How in heck are we going to do this? Seriously, I told our church we were going to do WHAT?”

#1 - You worry more about keeping the people in your church happy then you do about pleasing God and speaking the truth.

Thanks to Perry Noble for this list.

Isn’t it amazing how different words take on different meanings to different people? I suppose that’s because our different backgrounds and experiences color our point of view and we just ”see” different means. The problem arises when we assume our interpretation is the only one there is and that others should see the world as we do —  unfortunately they usually don’t.

  I’ve always like this quote by Stephen Covey, “We see the world not as it is, but as we are.” So what should we do when our actions and our language make people uncomfortable.

Should Stick to our Guns or Cut and Run

Word Usage Assessment

When challenged about word that make people uncomfortable, how do you decide when to change it and when to stick to it?  This is what I think about,

  (1) Does the word have a particular meaning in this context that is important to make — Sometimes is just OK to make people uncomfortable with a word if you want people to think about why its there. Don’t though out the spices in a good meal just because someone may not like paprika. Its there for a purpose! Christians need more than milktoast to feed on.

(2) Are you trying to pick a fight? — using words for shock value is very poor communication, and terrible Christianity. Are you writing in love or just to jab at people you know might be offended and deep down you dislike. “You catch more flies with sugar than vinegar.” [of course we're not trying to catch flies or this would be good advice] Is there a better way to say the same thing that makes friends not enemies?

(3) Do you words, your intentions, and your actions reflect Christ? — the bottom line is whether your purpose is to reflect the image of Christ to the reader. Commuication is the art of persuasion and if you words offend, then persuasion becomes much harder. On the other hand, sometime the only life change that happens is when you rock someone’s world. Jesus said harsh words to people, particularly the pharisees, out of love in order to wake them up to the changing world that was happening all around them.  

rad·i·cal [ˈra-di-kəl] — marked by a considerable departure from the usual or traditional

synonyms – far-reaching, essential, sweeping, major, uncompromising

antonyms – compromising, minor, conservative

Radical Personalities – Martin Luther, John Wesley, Paul (formerly known as Saul of Tarsus), Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jesus (carpenter from Nazareth), William Carey, you, me, etc.

Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. 

Was Jesus a Radical?

Are we His disciples?

Are we then Radicals too? Will people be offended if we were? Are people offended that we aren’t?

What would we do differently if we really were Radical in our Faith, our Giving, Our Service, and our Optimism?

Let me hear from you!