Divine Appointments

Providence had it's annual "Day of Prayer" on Wednesday -- it's a tradition at Prov to spend a day in worship & prayer before the beginning of the Missions Conference. After an awesome worship & prayer time, the president of Prov spoke briefly before we celebrated the Lord's Supper, using the Eucharist liturgy from the Book of Common Prayer.

The Prez made an interesting comment: "In a school, in a society, and in a world consumed with the tyranny of the urgent, sometimes we need to refuse the urgent, and choose the important." In this context, the "urgent" was all the homework that students needed to be doing, but the obvious "important" was setting aside a day to pray, worship, and seek God.

My parents were in town for a couple of days (my dad came along to the Day of Prayer and absolutely loved it) -- they're heading out to Vancouver to celebrate the dedication of a new L'Abri school opening in 2004, which is the culmination of a vision that my parents & some of their closest friends have had for almost six years.

On Thursday morning, my lovely wife was surfing the Internet, looking at different YWAM websites -- odd behaviour for someone who had not yet had her requisite cup of coffee. After dropping my parents off at the airport, I went to Prov's library, intent on doing some of the afore-mentioned homework, but I ended up spending the whole morning reading books on YWAM instead. Then, realizing that the cafeteria was about to close it's doors (and since I was not fasting), I ran for the door, and almost knocked over the international president of YWAM, who was speaking that afternoon (I didn't even know anyone from YWAM was at Prov). We had lunch together.

Not five minutes after leaving the caf, I was talking to the guy videotaping the next session in the chapel, and it turns out that he became a Christian at L'Abri in Switzerland, and worked there with Francis Schaeffer for a decade, and then worked as a missionary at YWAM for another decade.

Holy divine appointments, Batman! What does it all mean?

It means that when you choose the "important" over the "urgent", strange God-oriented stuff starts to happen! Gotta love it.

Hallowed Evening

John Fischer writes in "Fearless Faith (Living Beyond the Safe Walls of Christianity)":

"The more acceptable Christian thing to do now on Halloween is to close up the house and have an alternative party for our kids at church. The party usually has a harvest or biblical character theme -- no ghosts or goblins allowed. Though I understand how this safer alternative came to be, I wonder whether a blanket boycott is the only way to handle this controversial holiday. Is this just one more time when we as Christians isolate ourselves from the rest of our culture for religious reasons apparent only to us? Have we really thought through what our dark houses are saying to the rest of the block while we're off having our alternative party? I can hear the neighbourhood kids shuffling by our house, saying, "Don't go there, they don't give anything." Is this what we want to be known for in the community -- a dark house on the one night you can be guaranteed neighbors will visit?

"If Satan comes out on Halloween, he doesn't go back into hiding the next morning. Regardless of the origins of Halloween (and there appears to be little agreement about this, even among historians), what we have today is a culture-wide event that is more concerned with pretending than it is with the underworld... If Satan wins anything on this day, he may win more through the darkened homes of Christians than through anything else." (published by Harvest House -- I highly recommend this book)

When we were pastoring in Victoria BC, Christians didn't do anything to celebrate Halloween -- there were lots of "Harvest Parties" in various church buildings instead. Given the police guarding the Ross Bay Cemetary so no bodies would be stolen that night, nor to forget the animal sacrifice that was done on our front yard in the hey-day of "Rock The City", or one of the local shaman dressing up in his ceremonial garb to personally curse me -- you can understand why particpating in Halloween wasn't even a debatable question in Christian circles in Victoria during the 1990's.

Now that we're in Winnipeg, we take our kids out trick-or-treating every year, for the same reasons that John Fischer illustrates above. It's like being part of the community here to join in the fun. We don't let our kids dress up in death-inspired outfits (our son went as a box of Cheerios one year, and our daughter once went as a potted plant -- WAY more creative than a Freddie Kreuger mask!). But we go with them and mingle with our community. I even (unknowing at the time) had a joking conversation with the premier of Manitoba -- I didn't recognize him in a yellow rain slicker without tons of microphones being shoved into his face.

Even more fun are our Anglican neighbours across the street -- every year, they have hot chocolate, coffee, tea, and penny candy for everyone who stops by their outdoor bonfire. They play jazz or blues music on a ghetto blaster, and it becomes the gathering place for tons of people -- and the many Christians who live on our street have a great opportunity to mix and mingle with our non-Christian neighbours and give a cup of hot chocolate in Jesus' name. It rocks!

Two different approaches to Halloween. Definite reasons behind each. Whether you choose to participate or not, at least think through what you're communicating to the community you're trying to impact for Jesus.

And you can always give me your candy!

Unless the Lord builds the house...

This is part of some comments that Mark Humphries & I interchanged on his blog "Incident Report" that really captured some of what I've been feeling these past few days. Please forgive me for quoting my own comments from somebody else's blog!

robbymac wrote:

"Will God create a church for the emerging culture?" (referring to Mark's original blog) Let's hope and pray so! I'm not convinced we're doing all that great of a job. A man-made structure or a man-made de-structure: is there any difference? God has to move, otherwise I think we're all in deep doo-doo.

Mark responded:

Rob, I agree at least when I look at my own weak attempts. There is a lot of discussion which I don't doubt is needed but I sometimes wonder if it's a lot of theory but I wonder where is God...I think postmodern types love theories the way moderns love models, both can act as substitutes for not seeking God.

Leon@rd Sweet once asked: "Do you really believe in what you're doing? Or better yet, do you really believe that what you're doing is part of God's doing?" ("Aqua Church")

As Keith Green used to sing (quoting Psalm 127:1): "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain who try at all."

Who, me?

Here's a verse that should be seriously considered in our discussion of postmodern discipleship:

"A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher." (Luke 6:40 NIV)

Note that this verse doesn't say that "they'll know what their teacher knows" or "they'll be able to do what their teacher does".

It says that a fully-trained person (a disciple) will be like us.

This is not exclusive to people who are in (the "L-word" -- thanks, Len for the shorthand; it means "leadership" for those who don't cringe when they read that word). In a community of faith, built on mutual-ministry relationships, where everyone's gifts are free to be expressed, this applies to all of us. People who are hanging out with us, listening to us, worshipping with us, praying with us, sharing a meal with us -- will become like us.

Then the question for us becomes, "what kind of person will they become as a result of hanging out with me?" I don't mean this in a guilt-inducing, legalistic sense. Rather, in a "let's take an honest look in the mirror" kind of way. If people become more like us, will we need to ask their forgiveness?

When teenagers have mentioned to me that they are really hoping to have a spiritually on-fire spouse someday, I have always encouraged them to become the kind of Christian that would attract an on-fire Christian spouse. Many of them hadn't considered it that way before -- "oh yeah, if I'm not on fire, why would an on-fire person want to date me?"

If we're wanting to be in community with people who are open, accepting, patient, and loving, then maybe we need to invite the Holy Spirit to cultivate those same qualities in us. Our communities -- house church or cell group in a larger church -- need to be known for what they are "for", rather than what they're reacting against. These are the kind of groups that are attractive to others who are seeking a "safe place" to belong and mature as followers of Jesus.

It may even affect the way we "blog". :)

The Opposite Spirit

David Ruis used to practice this approach a lot. Instead of getting upset and denouncing the rampant stingy-ness and miserly attitude that permeates a lot of Winnipeg, David would pray publicly: "Lord, brand us with generosity!" It had the effect of giving language to the "life side" of the equation, instead of focussing on the negative.

One of the best examples of this that I have personally seen was in Victoria in the early 1990's. The Vineyard there was hosting a "Power Evangelism" conference, at a rented facility in the Esquimalt area (Victoria's "North End"). Jack Little was the main speaker, Trevor Haug led worship, and that was the weekend I first met Murray Dueck, who showed up on my doorstep with four youth in tow, saying "remember the Worship Festival, when you said drop by anytime?"

During the three day conference (Murray & Co. camped in our living room, and one of his youth attempted to shave our cat with his electric razor), about fifteen adults from other churches were picketing outside the front door, waving signs that said "Vineyard Repent" and "An Evil & Adulterous Generation Looks For A Sign", and referring to copies of anti-charismatic books for "proof" to argue with people attending the conference.

The people at the conference were great! They brought coffee & donuts to the picketers all weekend long (typical Vineyard -- coffee & donuts available!), engaged them in conversation, and treated them with kindness and respect. Some of the picketers gradually softened up a bit after several days, although as few would ocassionally "catch" themselves being friendly, give us disgusted looks, and go back to shouting "repent" to people entering the main meeting area.

You couldn't help but be impressed with the Christ-likeness of the conference organizers in the way they did not give in to the temptation to engage these people in arguments, trying to refute them or their ideas, etc. They simply served and loved.

In the "world of the blog", it's easy to sometimes cross the line between "dialogue" (friendly, respectful sharing of ideas and gleanings with others of various backgrounds and discoveries) and "debate" (attempting to 'prove' the rightness of our own opinion and the 'error' of anyone who doesn't agree with us). When "dialogue" becomes "debate", and "conversation" turns into "competition", everyone loses. It's a subtle but very real trap -- and I've screwed up in this area more than once, myself! -- but one we would do well to learn to discern and guard ourselves against.

"Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful." (II Timothy 2:23-24 NIV)

Coffee? Donut?

The Quest Continues...

I've deliberately not posted here for a few days, as I wanted the discussion of the last post to have adequate time to ferment and foment, which it certainly has.

We've proved to ourselves that nailing down the process of discipleship, or "Spiritual Formation" as Len called it, in a postmodern and/or de-structured context is difficult! Especially because none of us wants to try and develop a "canned" version of one-size-fits-all methodology. (Barf bags are available upon request)

Feel free to continue the brainstorming and exploration in the comments for this post as well. If you have the time, you can read the plethora of comments from the original post, but if not, here's some of the gems:

• characteristics: Unassuming (doesn't force him or herself on others); great listener; slow to speak; doesn't look for the sin in others but looks for the gifts in others; full of grace; when it comes to following the Holy Spirit, teachs by example; Trusts God always; very loving; realizes that spirituality is a journey not an event; understands that the Kingdom of God is for the here and now, not some future event; Believes that the Kingdom of God and it's King holds the answer for all mans ills.


• To me the heart of discipleship is a willingness to yield our identity to Christ. So I look for how is the person working through identity issues in a way that includes Christ... All kinds of leadership gifts are of value in discipleship... however you also need pastors, prophets, the odd miracle and other Christians to build Christ into people.


• Maturity is the ability to serve others from a secure center (ie. we know who we are and have nothing to prove).


• I like the idea of both good and bad things growing in a garden it reminded me of the parable of the weeds. (Mathew 13:24-25)


• Maybe we aren't the gardner, maybe we're the plants....


• Jesus also said we will know them by the fruit they produce. To me the end result of this fruit production is "change".


• But my definition is this: a disciple who is well along on the journey is living out "me for the community" instead of "the community for me."


• The concept that jumps out of me with the strongest emphasis is that one who is seeking spiritual maturity must learn to be the servant rather than the one to be served.


• As "leaders" or "gardeners" or "parents", all we can do is model someone living a life that seeks God and walks intimately with Him... As people see us follow Him, perhaps they will be inspired to do so as well.


• As a "gardener", I would see my role as one of safeguarding the way in which people treat and speak to each other, and taking the initiative to help set that ethos very early on in the group's history, and if required, to take people aside privately to help them realize if their words are causing death instead of life within the house group/church.

Thanks for your input, everyone! Keep on keepin' on!

Jesus is the Answer -- so what was the Question?

Grease your mental wheels, my friends! I want to generate another brainstorming discussion here, after reading some great stuff over at Len Hjalmarsson's site (his blog from October 16 -- the "other" one, not the one where he quoted yesterday's blog from this site).

A few years ago, when we were still pastoring in Los Angeles (which is Spanish for "Lots of Ants"), and I was putting together a philosophy of ministry for a pomo alternative service (in a church where Keith Green became a Christian and was later the worship leader, that originally met in Larry Norman's living room, and where Bob Dylan became a Christian -- what a cool heritage, eh?), one of the concepts that I felt that the Lord "downloaded" into my thinking was:

"The leader of great value in postmodern ministry isn't the one with the 'right answers', but the one who can ask themselves (and others) the right questions, and then join in a shared journey of discovering and experiencing more of Jesus".

So here's the question I want some input on -- it's actually a two-part question. I'm starting from the premise that (and please feel free to comment on this premise, as well):

"The goal of leadership in discipleship is to co-operate with the Holy Spirit in bringing people to the point where they no longer 'need' the leader but have learned to follow the Spirit of Jesus for themselves."

1. If our intent is to become mature disciples of Jesus Christ, what would a mature postmodern disciple look like? (As they say, "aim at nothing and that's what you'll hit" -- so what are we aiming for?)


2. As people with (or developing) gifts of leadership, how do we lead in such a way that will disciple postmodern people into that maturity?

I look forward to your input!

Tidbits from Seminary

This is from my Synoptic Gospels class, which has emerged by far as my favourite and the most spiritually invigorating. The other classes are interesting and I'm glad to be taking them, but this class rocks my world. Here's an excerpt:

"But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children who sit in the market places and who call to others, saying: 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance, we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.' For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said: 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they said: 'Look, this man is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.' And wisdom is justified by her deeds."(Matthew 11:16-19)

A portion of the notes that our prof gave us on this short passage:

"An Observation: Our kind of Christianity assumes that the more we abstain, the more godly we are. (Or, conversely, the more godly we become, the more we will abstain from things.) This assumption is in our hearts, and minds, and pulpits, and schools. But it is not in the Book. The Bible warns against such false spirituality in quite a few places. Our God is no friend of excess. But an abstinence kind of godliness is very hard to find in the Sermon on the Mount. And it was very hard to find in Jesus himself. Drop it."

Pretty cool, eh?

Feet of Clay

Yesterday I was reading some of Augustine's translated works (yes, I have learned how to find things in a library), and I came across a very interesting tidbit:

During St. Augustine's ongoing debate and denunciation of Pelagius, he actually quotes this directly from Pelagius' writings:

"The fact that we speak is a gift from God; whether we use this gift for good or evil is our choice."

I read Pelagius' comment, and I thought, "Sure, that makes sense. Most Christians would agree with that statement."

Not St. Augustine. He's upset at that kind of thinking. He goes on to quote part of Matthew 10:19-20:

"At that time, you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you." (NIV)

...and uses this verse as "proof" that we have no choice in the words we speak -- God gives us our words.

Of course, in the original context of these verses, Jesus was speaking to His disciples about not being worried about what to say when they were arrested and dragged into court on account of Jesus. To stretch this verse to say that all of our words are ordained by God is a bit much.

Interesting, eh? That St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, regarded as one of the greatest theologians of the Patristic period of the Church, took a verse out of context in an attempt to prove his point.

George Mercado used to say every now and then "Feet of clay, man, we all got feet of clay." Even at our best, we're only human. We make mistakes. We let agendas cloud our interpretation of Scripture. We say dumb things as if they're foundational truths.

Bob Wilson, who was the senior pastor of our church when George was the youth pastor, often said "If you think it can't happen to you, you're halfway there already."

Feet of clay, man, we all got feet of clay.

God Has Smiled On Winnipeg

For the past four days, it's been warmer in Winnipeg than even September usually is -- it actually feels like August outside. Beautiful warm temperatures, nice warm breezes, the leaves are gold, crimson, and a little green in spots.

The "tunnel of trees" on our street is a riot of great colours -- and the sunny skies highlight them perfectly.

Yes, we'll probably have snow within two weeks or so, but for right now, I'm reminded of some of the reasons I really like living in Winnipeg.

Constants of the Religious Continuum

There are three inescapable, immutable constants to the Religious Continuum. No one knows precisely where they originated, but their existence, and unchanging nature, is ongoing, irrefutable, unassailable, and eternal.

The first Constant of the Religious Continuum is that the Jewish people do not recognize that Jesus of Nazareth is the prophesied Messiah.

The second Constant of the Religious Continuum is that the many Protestant denominations do not recognize that the Pope is the infallible source of God's wisdom here on earth.

The third Constant of the Religious Continuum is that Mennonites do not recognize each other while purchasing alcoholic beverages at Hooter's.

You are here-by enlightened.

Seminary Worship

No, not worshipping the seminary. Worshipping at the seminary...

Yesterday I had the opportunity to lead worship during chapel -- they had devoted the whole time slot to "praise and worship". I had been recruited to do it a few days earlier by the Co-ordinator Of Such Things, who'd heard "somewhere" that I was involved in worship. She also found a couple of other people who I'd never met, and we became the day's worship team. Acoustic guitars and four voices -- nothing elaborate. The Sem chapel doesn't even have a sound system, so it's a good thing I have "street performer" in my background -- I'm loud although not necessarily polished-sounding.

At the beginning of the chapel, I told those gathered that they reminded me of junior high students -- they're all generally passionate about God, but when they sit next to each other in a group setting, everyone's too afraid of what someone else might think, so they all play it safe. They all laughed, and I think it helped to loosen people up. They spread out from each other a bit, and I saw much more diversity in expression than I've seen to date during worship at the seminary.

We had a fantastic time singing to the Lord for the next half hour. Some were kneeling, others raising their hands, still others singing boisterously with their hands in their pockets -- quite a mix of backgrounds and expressions!

By the last song (Hillsong's "Shout To The Lord"), the volume level of singing was drawing people from adjacent rooms (a lot of sem students skip "praise & worship" chapel, apparently!) who came in kind of wide-eyed, and a number of them joined in and later said "if only I knew what was happening today" -- even though it's posted on the wall in the hall. :)

My favourite encouraging comment after it was over came from one of the Nigerian brothers, who shook my hand, thanked me, and said "I think this is what God created you to do."

The kind of comment that makes you feel very small (cuz you know it's ultimately God's thing, not ours), very encouraged (that you were able to lead others to worship God), and very grateful (that God would use a boogerhead like me).

Now, back to the mundanity of homework -- as I try to do schoolwork as "unto the Lord" too!

We're ba-a-ack!

Comments are happening again. Site design is acceptable. Links are back. Life is good.

This afternoon, in my Synoptic Gospels class, one of my classmates turned to me during our caffeine break and told me that another classmate was in serious physical pain and needed medical assessment but was on a three month waiting list (one of the downsides of living in Manitoba). She was quite concerned for him, and said "we should pray for him".

Taking that as a cue, I jumped over the table and asked him if we could pray for him -- he was more than willing, saying that he was only "pretending" to look healthy but was in considerable pain. I called the rest of the class around and a bunch of us gathered around him, laid hands on him, and prayed for healing. The prof came back from the break and saw us praying, and joined us.

It was so cool -- Australian, Canadian, American, Aboriginal, Korean, and Nigerian brothers and sisters all praying together on behalf of another Korean brother. Who knows -- or cares -- how many denominations must have been represented? This was the Body in full flight.

Today's class was really refreshing and encouraging. I look forward to hearing how our Korean brother's health is next Wednesday when we're together again.

Oh, and the class topic today was the Sermon on the Mount. It's all good!

A Pox on Hackers!

Apparently, hackers have attacked the "Comments" host that I use. At the suggestion of the parent company, I removed the links to comments here until the problem is fixed. It doesn't seem to have affected my Macintosh at all, but knowing how many of my friends are using Windows PC's, I didn't want to take the chance that it might spread to you.

I came here this morning to post this update, and discovered that most of my blog template had been "eaten" by whatever mutant life form attacked the comments. I've fixed the layout to a large degree, and made the colours look "right", but you may notice that the usual links on the right aren't there -- I'll be able to fix this no problem, but not till later today. Homework from Seminary needs to be done ASAP -- I am such a student all of a sudden! :)

There was snow here last night. SNOW. We don't usually see the blessed white stuff until at least Halloween.

Gonna be a long winter.

Commenting & links should be back later this evening. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Hackers suck.