Canaan Calling

Communal Devotion

2006-07-16T13:45:00.000-05:00

I started this whole blog thing earlier this year with no particular goal, just to put thoughts down. This year, our church is asking the whole body to follow the same Bible reading plan. I think this is great. It fosters discipline and builds community, two things that are so seriously lacking in Christianity. So I was thinking, what if we all read the same Scriptures and then blogged about it together? We could exchange ideas regularly, encourage each other, offer suggestions, maybe even expose ourselves a little and receive healing. An army needs to think and act as one. What a great way to build oneness – everyone read the same Manual at the same time and discuss it together. I haven’t talked to anyone else about this, but I am going to. I don’t know if it would be best as a blog, an online journal, or a cyber group; I’ll have to look into that. But I think a lot of good can come out of communal devotion.

So here are my 2 cents for the day. I was reading Genesis 45 as part of the plan and Joseph make a very interesting statement in verse 8: “So then, it was not you who sent me here but God.” Joseph as the 2nd most important in Egypt had just revealed himself to his brothers. He is forgiving them for the wrongs they have done him. In fact, he is not even calling what they did wrong. Of course it was, but he is looking at things from God’s vantage point. God uses and even orchestrates circumstances to get us where He can use us. Slavery and prison was what God did to him, not his evil brothers. God’s divine purposes sometimes rise up out of the muck and mire of our lives. So in the end, isn’t the muck and mire part of his plan as well? God sent us into it, and it is for good (Gen. 50:20). Not necessarily for our good either – I think we must get away from this idea that God is out to fulfill all my wishes and make my life grand and glorious, etc. He meant it for the good of the world in Joseph’s case – even the unbelieving Egyptians. God’s primary concern was not for Joseph to have health and wealth, but to preserve his people the Israelites.

God’s plan, even the crappy parts, is for his glory. Yeah, I do believe it is for our good – to grow us into mature Jesus followers, but his version of “for our good” may not be the same as our version. And ultimately, He wants to use us to build his kingdom.

I Crashed

2006-06-24T11:10:00.000-05:00

Have you ever heard folks talking about their “mountain top experiences?” We would love to just skip from top to top, glory to glory, spiritual elation to euphoria to ecstasy. Well, in my life that is just not reality. There are valleys of lukewarm-ness, sin, despair, apathy, atrophy. I’m not so sure life should be a series of ups and downs: This is what we talk about but it shows no real progress. Sometimes I feel like that. Three steps forward, two back, one forward, two back, on and on. Lots of movement but no progress. Shouldn’t the Christian walk look move like:
Ups and downs, but slow steady progress. I have had those good, growth times. And I have crashed. Maybe it is emotional responses and not Godly zeal that takes our hearts. I have come back from thos special spiritual retreats to find the same sins at home waiting at the foot of my bed to slither up on me. That is the real world. We fall, we do better, commit to God again and continue the climb.

Frankly, that sucks. I get tired of working all the time. Tired of working to earn money, tired of working to keep a civil home, tired of working to be the husband, father, man, Christian that eve3ryone expects me to be. No, even worse – tired of being the husband, father, man, Christian God expects me to be – I don’t much care about what anyone else might think.

Being a Christians goes against the grain of society and often against the grain of our humanity. We want to be in control, make our own mistakes, make our own way. From Charles Manson to Donald Trump we want command. I know some folks that just seem to ride the tide and don’t want to make any decisions or stand out in any way. They are already dead – or just really frightened – or lazy. But we all seek control somewhere – even if it is just over our own bodily functions. We all know that sinking feeling inside when we are not in control of something we want to be or should be in control of. Ever loose control of your car? Do you recall that split second of panic when you feel you may be in serious trouble? Some hide their fear of loosing control with a murderous rampage, other with money and clout.

Christianity is not a picnic in the park and it is not for the weak. It takes strength and courage to risk giving up control. Jesus calls us out into the storm not out of the storm. He calls us to trust him with the control of our lives.

Maybe crashing is inherent in this life. But if you are not crashing once in a while, then you just aren’t driving fast enough.

Tag, You’re It

2006-06-11T12:41:00.000-05:00

I’ve been reading a lot of blogs this week about “post modernity” and “the emergent church.” Some are for it, some against it. Personally I hate the tags. I’m not sure what I am and I’m not sure I know what either tag means, but I am sure that I don’t care. Maybe I’m just stupid, but I just want to do church in a way that makes folks, Christian and not, feel comfortable enough to seek God. I want to explore the Scriptures with boldness, calling truth, truth. Maybe I will post my statement of beliefs so others will know if I am “orthodox” or “evangelical,” “conservative” or “liberal.” I’m not sure I understand any of those terms either. There are a lot of guys I like from all camps and some I question from all camps.

Here’s my list of guys I listen to and read:
· Erwin McManus
· Mark Buchanan
· Rob Bell
· Mark Driscoll
· Dallas Willard
· Ravi Zacharias
· John Ortberg
· Steve Sjogren
· James Merriot
· Jenzen Franklin
· Chuck Colson
· Alan Nelson
· Ed Young, Jr.
· Doug Pagitt
· Thom Rainer
· Leonard Sweet
Are these guys post-modern? Emergent? Liberal? I really want to know!

And theses are the guys that intrigue me, I just haven’t gotten around to checking out their stuff:
· Chris Seay
· Andy Stanley
· John Burke
· Randy Frazee
· Tony Jones
· Dan Kimball

Here are some guys that just confuse me:
· Brian McLaren
· Tony Campolo
Now I know those 2 guys are post-modern icons but I just don’t get where their heads are on some things. And that is OK, we don’t have to agree on all things. So does that make me… not post-modern?

So what is my tag? I don’t know and I don’t care. I know what I want to see in the church and I think I have made that pretty clear so far on this blog. I know that the people I hang with at my home church and on the colleges that I serve love the concept and can’t wait for it to get off the ground. That is enough for me. It seems that God has struck a nerve in the 20 – 30 crowd (and in a few of us old guys too). So we need to get busy about the Father’s business and hang the tag! What I need is support personnel who what to jump into the muck of our world and sacrifice to raise up this church with me. I have to be honest, so far, there is a lot of good talk from people around me, but when you get down to really throwing in on this venture and risking it all to follow the call, no one is willing to commit. No one. Is that because I am a poor leader? God’s timing is not yet? I don’t know, but I am still looking for a team to make our what-ever-it-is church happen. The field is ready, we are not.

Heaven on Earth

2006-04-29T06:15:00.000-05:00

I’ve been thinking a lot about heaven. When I go to the Campus Crusade meeting next month at Widener University, I’m going to discuss it. Here it is: when you ask folks to describe heaven what will they talk about? Pearly gates? Streets of gold? Mansions? Now what if that is a perfect description of both heaven and hell? What really makes heaven, heaven? Isn’t it the presence of God? And wouldn’t hell be hell if no matter what it was like physically, there was the absence of God, all the goodness associated with Him, and you knew you were utterly, hopelessly separated?

God has not called us to a place but to a likeness and a relation, to be conformed to the image of his Son. Heaven is not a where but a who and our relationship with that Infinite Who. Jesus even said that eternal life was not forever in some blissful other place, but eternal life is found in knowing God and in knowing him (John17:3). We know God now. He resides in us. Heaven begins now. Eternity has started. In fact, as we carry God with us by his Spirit, everywhere we go we bring heaven with us.

Remember Moses before the burning bush? God told him it was holy ground that Moses was standing on. Why was it holy? Because God’s presence was there. Now since his presence is in us, wherever we go is holy ground. Think about that as you go to work. You are taking heaven with you. Your presence makes that work place holy because you bring God to work with you. That kinda changes our definition of ministry too, doesn’t it? We are “ministering” wherever we go, whatever we do, because we bring the holiness of God, the presence of God, heaven with us. We really can make a little bit of heaven on earth. That is how powerful we are. We can walk into the room of our unsaved friends and bring heaven to them by our presence. We can walk into the work place, the hospital, the dysfunctional home – and bring heaven to it. We invade enemy occupied territory everywhere we go, so let your life and your words declare freedom in Christ and bring heaven to bear in every situation.

Back to the Commune

2006-04-15T11:41:00.000-05:00

The more I study the more I find out that God does a lot more communal stuff then He does personal stuff. There is a bigger aspect to our living as Jesus followers than our personal relationship with God through Christ. If I can go back to Joshua, just look at all they did together in order to achieve their inheritance:

They let Egypt as a group
They revolted as a group (with the exception of Josh and Caleb)
They wandered and camped together
They crossed the Jordan as a group (even the fighting men from the tribes that were settling west of the Jordan)
All the men were circumcised at the same time
They rested, healed, they partied together before they went out to war as one unified army

Even Jesus had a group that ate, slept and served together as they learned his ways. My point is that community, relationship, living together is important in our development as Christians. We need each other. That brings me to the second part of my vision statement: “We seek to help people with life’s journey by creating a community of faith, hope, and love in Jesus, restoring right relationship with God, fellow brothers and sisters, and the world. (Acts 2: 42 – 47).” We get to know Jesus best when we do it together. We can best show and tell about the restoration Christ has done in our lives when we come together. As a body we can serve God better. What’s that saying about a 3 strand cord not being broken (Ecclesiastes 4:12), or 2 putting 10,000 to flight (Deuteronomy 32:30)? So relationship with God as a body of believers is important.

Relationship means openness. We need to be able to talk to each other and help each other overcome our addictions, our fears, our doubts. Christians help each other dig deeper. If we cannot share our struggles with our brothers and sisters, let’s give up! We need to love, encourage, strengthen, and correct each other. And I think that goes for practical things too. Shouldn’t the mechanic in our midst help those who cannot afford car care? And the Doctor heal the poorer brothers for free? And the carpenter fix up the widow’s house as an offering to God? No one in the body of believers should be without the basic necessities. Can’t pay the heating bill? Take up a collection. Love for the family should be practical as well as spiritual.

Our love for God and each other should lead us to displaying that in the world. And because we are so centered on relationship, we can be accepting of the inquirer (without condoning the sin) and give them a safe environment to seek out God with us. We don’t have to water down the Gospel or tread softly. In relationships you are free to speak the truth in love, even when it is hard. Christians help the searching by modeling and sharing their journey and struggles. We serve God by serving the world. How about adopting an African village? We build a church, a hospital, a school? We give them the tools and teach them how to create a better life for themselves. We are the light and the salt. The world needs Jesus and if we rub should with culture enough, we will change it.

All of this is community. We serve God together. We learn of him together. We share him with others together (one plants, another waters). When will the church return to being a family like Abraham’s children or the church in Acts? Who would not want to be a part of that community?

Dream Bigger

2006-04-02T14:27:00.000-05:00

Go read Ephesians 3:20. Go on, I’ll wait. OK, I’ll just print it here: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us….” Now, write down your dream as if there are no obstacles and you are guaranteed success. “Who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine.” Wow. Look at what you wrote down as your dream. Now scratch it out because YOU ARE THINKING TOO SMALL!

I believe God is calling us to live beyond our own dreams & aspirations. I believe God is calling us to live beyond every earthly goal and means—good though they may be. I believe we all get stuck in the mundane comfort and safety of just existing because we fail to answer the question, “What is God calling me to?”

I believe we mess up by prodding kids w/ “What do you want to be when you grow up?” so much so that we push them into college and career attempting to do what they want to do. I believe we all ultimately realize that the world we are creating for ourselves isn’t all it is cracked up to be and we are left wondering if there is more.

Have we asked, “What does God want me to do? What kind of man does He want me to be?” Do we teach kids to search out God’s will for them now as well as when they grow up? Do we find a way to survive or find a way to fulfill his calling? Do we know his calling? Do we know how to determine his calling? Do we want to know his calling?

The story of Joshua is the story of how God brings us out of this world and into his will for who we should be and how we should live.
1) God has to deliver us out of our Egypt of sin
2) God has to deliver us out of the wilderness of directionless, pointless, safe, comfortable yet dull as a desert living.
3) God is calling us to walk on the wild side with him, to walk in his dangerous, adventurous yet fulfilling will. Obtaining our Promised Land Inheritance is a struggle, it is not safe, but it is good. It is finding our place in his will for what we should be and what we should do.
4) Now, for us to entering into God’s perfect will and to lead others there (as you are called) it will take courage (Joshua 1).
· Strength and courage comes from studying the Word, meditating on it, praying thru it, and obeying it
5) Second, for us to enter God’s perfect will for us, we need life-changing faith (Joshua 2).
· For faith to grow we need to hear the story of God
· For faith to grow we need to act on what we hear about God
· For faith to grow we need to confess, verbalize what we believe about God
· For faith to grow we will face trials
· For faith to grow we must be willing to share it
6) Third, for us to enter God’s perfect will, we need to consecrate, sanctify, purify, prepare, & dedicate ourselves to him (Joshua 3)
· We do this thru practicing disciplines such as prayer, study, fasting, etc as a way to create space for God to work on us, to prepare us for his will and purpose to be accomplished in and thru us.
7) Fourth, for us to enter God’s perfect will, we need to learn to honor God (Joshua 4).
8) Then, as we begin our journey of discovery and conquest, there are further things to learn in Joshua 5 and forward. More on that later.

Redeeming the Couch

2006-03-18T12:35:00.000-05:00

I grew up fairly traditional (at least as traditional as a Pentecostal church can be). We began with the old, hard wooden pews. Not benches - they had backs - we were not barbarians! Then the padding came. Oh, the joy of the padded pew. I'm sure some thought taking it easy on the posterior was just an outward sign of a deeply spiritual problem of moral ease and spiritual laziness. But it is really all about atmosphere. Folks are more open in comfortable surroundings. Now for us in the west, that means laz-i-boy recliners but for others it may mean sitting in the dust around a fire roasting grubs. I guess my point is that if people don't feel relaxed and safe in their surroundings, then they may not open up and will not come back.

Atmosphere is a major player in our church plant thoughts. This may seem like the opposite of living on the edge, in the holy wild, all that jazz, but it is not. Even in the desert, the Israelites had one sweet, tweeked out tent to worship and sacrifice in. They felt safe and close to God when they were in that tent. Fact is, younger folks, and especially those who have no church background, feel kinda weird at a traditional church. We want to create an environment where they are as comfortable as they are in their own living room. Where they will feel free and safe to explore God, ask questions, and dig deeply into who He is. So how can we create this atmosphere? Couches.

I think the cafe setting is the ideal setting for a church. Lots of comfy couches and coffee tables spread around. Some tables and chairs. Even some pillows on the floor. And lots of paper. I want the tables and the coffee tables covered with paper table clothes. Here is the idea. We gather, get our coffee and chat a while - develop relationships. I don't want to just see these people on Sunday. We sit and we pray. We read the Scripture together. Then we meditate on it. We all take out our pens and express ourselves on the paper table clothes. I want to see people interacting with God and his Word. Maybe they journal, maybe they jot down a lot of questions, maybe they draw a picture. The point is that they are comfortable enough to interact with God in a very real way and with each other. Then we can sing praises (with the volume as high as allowed by law), share our journeys, teach from the Scripture we read, pray for needs, healing, salvation, etc and discuss the Scripture. That's my idea of a church service.

But we don't' stay on the couches. They are not for living they are for learning. If we are not participating in a community service project, we are not worshiping and serving God. But service is a whole different core value that we can save for later.

I want to continue to unpack our vision, mission and core values in later posts. I hope they resonate with many of you. But it kinda begins on the couch, cultivating intimacy with God and each other just like you would with a close friend or loved one. Couches are good places to share our lives.

Creating Sacred space

2006-03-04T08:40:00.000-05:00

I was reading 1 Timothy 2 this morning and in it Paul wants to see all people saved and worshiping God. I'd say that is a lofty vision, especially considering the state of the spiritual in the USA today.

A friend and I have been talking with a fellow we work with. He is interested in spiritual things so I gave him a little Gospel of John to begin with. He told us how he was raised in the church and even was a deacon at his church. Now this is a mainline denomination church, but he has some very twisted views of God and Scripture. I do not think it is solely because he is a sinner but I think it is also because of poor Christian education, and THAT is of major concern to me. He told me the other day that he was reading "that John book" and wanted to know if Jesus was God. I assumed that he understood that fundamental doctrine, but here was a churched guy who not only missed the fact that Jesus is God in the flesh but did not even recognize the Gospel of John as part of the Bible! I recently read some stats by the Rainer Group that showed that almost 50% of the people in the church are not born-again Christians! Add to them the number not even going to church and you have a huge mission field right here at our back doors. No wonder missions organizations say that the USA is the 5th largest mission field in the world and the largest in the western hemisphere. Our neighbors are not only unsaved, they are Biblically illiterate. More than half of the people in the USA have not had an adequate presentation of the gospel -- and most of them actually attend a church!

The church in America is not doing a good job, that is plain. That is why the first part of our vision statement reads, "We seek to help people with life's journey by: Creating an environment of intimacy with God, seeing souls saved, changing lives. (Luke 10: 27 - 28)." We want to create a space, environment, atmosphere where people feel safe, welcomed and where it is OK to question God, seek the truth, and discover intimacy with him. The hardest part will be getting them to come in the first place - this is not going to be "Field of Dreams" if you build it, they will come. To have the unsaved even enter an environment of discovery and interaction with God we have to have Christians who are passionate about sharing their journey with their unsaved friends and inviting them to look into this Christian life. This is not a pastoral job or a task reserved for deacons and elders. The entire body is called and commissioned to share their lives and their faith with their world. The unsaved will be drawn to real people who are trying to figure out life with God. It is a process and they can start just as they are.

We are not there yet, but we are pressing forward. And we simply invite others to come journey with us.

A beginning

2006-02-19T15:49:00.000-05:00

God has been moving me forward slowly. (Actually, if I weren't kicking and screaming, full of fear and doubt, His work would probably have gone a lot smoother). I believe God is looking for adventurers. I'm not one. He is forcing me into it. It all began with a study of Joshua. God took a slave, made him into a general, and led him to do the impossible -- take the inheritance that He promised to Abraham long ago.

That is what God is doing with me - bringing me out of slavery and out of the mundane safety of the desert and into his inheritance for me. He is calling me to plant a church, to serve my community, to show people the love of God and to lead them into his saving arms. Best job in the world, no doubt. But scary. A lot could go wrong. A lot will go wrong. It takes a lot of faith and courage. I do not have a vast quantity of either. I think that is OK. God is leading, I will follow, He will supply as I grow.

So this is the start of a blog to chronicle my journey from calling to vision to implementation of what ever it is that God wants to do with me. I'll share thoughts, fears, hopes, doubts. I'll share things I learn from doing and from study. I'll tell you the lessons I am learning from my Bible study group. (The guys I study with inspire, exhort, teach, and challenge me more than you could imagine).

Add your comments, insights, whatever. Thanks for sharing the journey with me.