Obedience or Transformation?

I love an article that makes me think. Articles that I completely agree with simply allow me to continue cruising only half-conscious down the intellectual highway. In other words, I enjoy intellectual potholes.

Long Live Organic Church! | Christianity Today

Our God appears not to be particularly taken with efficiency, effectiveness, or our changing his world. He is mostly interested in our obedience. What he longs for is not people who make a difference in the world, but people who listen for his call and lovingly respond—no matter how absurd or impossible the command...

In his providence, God has raised up in our day men and women who rail against church-as-usual, church-as-program, church-as-institutional-management. They are telling us something true and vital about the church. They are disturbing the religious establishment, upsetting our pious social order, causing a holy chaos! These are prophets in our midst whom we should honor, and for whom we should have ears to hear.

And for whom we should pray—that they would keep their eyes not on the prize of transformation, but that their ears may continue to hear and obey that still small voice that called them into ministry in the first place. Only then will they be among us, challenging and energizing us, even when things look as disappointing as ever.

Nothing really that shocking here, so why would this be an intellectual pothole for me? Because I assume God is just like me - that He values what I value. I value efficiency and effectiveness, plus I want our church to change the world. So I just assume that God wants what I want, and that He wants it the same way that I want it.

But this article is right, God desires obedience above all - whether or not there is change / it is efficient / it is effective / etc.

Consider God's call to Ezekiel: God tells him right from the beginning that he is going to fail (Ezekiel 3:4-9). Go and preach. The people won't listen. Have fun Ezekiel.

I would have looked and said, "Ezekiel this is not an efficient use of your time and talents. You could better spend yourself elsewhere. If you're not being effective, do something differently or just go somewhere else. If you're not making a positive change in the lives of those stubborn Israelites, find another group of people to whom you might minister."

But no, God calls us to obedience to Him and not to our ideas of efficiency, effectiveness, or transformation. The problem is that it feels far more rewarding to obey the latter rather than the former.

Small Groups vs. Large Group redux redux

John Piper talks about why small groups are so important. Are you with him?

Man, I feel like God is hammering away on a theme with me. God, what do you want of our church in 2010?

Small Groups vs. Large Group redux

Not that long ago I posted about Small Groups vs. Large Group. I've encountered some further quotes that continue to push forward this line of thinking.

This is from a Christianity Today interview with Rob Bell (Tying the Clouds Together):

In the New Testament, there are 43 "one another" passages, and during a Sunday morning service you might be able to practice three or four of them. And as the service gets large, you can probably do fewer. A massive group setting is also dangerous. You can come, sit, listen, and go home and think, I've been to church, even if you haven't practiced any "one anothers." And with video that only gets more intense. I'm not sure that's the direction we want to be heading.

We want to be calling people to deep bonds of solidarity with one another. We may gather in a massive group, but from the stage I often say, "This is just a church service. Church is actually about caring for one another, and serving one another, and speaking truth to one another in love. Don't get the two confused."

Secondly, I was just re-reading Natural Church Development and came again across this quote:

Christian small groups are not a nice, yet dispensable hobby. No, it is the very essence of the true life of the church of Jesus Christ that is worked out in small groups.

I continue to be unable to escape the idea that small groups need move to an ever-more central place in our church's life together. How do we do that? What will it look like? What challenges are there to this happening? What resistance must first be overcome?

Discussion Questions: Simple

January 31, 2010 – Discussion Questions – Simple – Matt. 11:28-30; 22:36-40

How did God speak to you personally through this passage & this week’s sermon?

- Anything you didn’t understand or for which you would have liked further clarification?

- Any thoughts or insights you found valuable?

- Any helpful information or reminders?

In this culture how have you seen people respond to “simple”?

In what ways have you tried to simplify your own life?

The religious leaders of Jesus day had developed a complex religious system with 613 laws – divided into positive and negative commands as well as binding and non-binding commands.

- Compare this complex religious system to Jesus’ words in Mt. 22:36-40. What do you notice? How do you think these two commandments simplify, “All the Law and the Prophets” (Mt. 22:40)?

- Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me… my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” The “yoke” is a common metaphor in Judaism for the law and religious regulations. What do you think it means that Jesus’ burden was “light” and “easy” while people could “hardly carry” the “heavy” burden of the religious leaders (Matthew 23:4; Luke 11:46)?

How does Jesus’ offer in Matthew 11:28-30 speak to your need today?

“Churches with a simple process for reaching and maturing people are expanding the kingdom. Church leaders who have designed a simple biblical process to make disciples are effectively advancing the movement of the gospel.” Simple ChurchThom Rainer & Eric Geiger

- What do you think it might look like to have a “simple biblical process”?

- In what ways do you think our church is currently simple? too complex?

- In what ways do you think we might better “reach and mature people” in order to “make disciples”?

What do you think is the relationship between focus and excellence?

Do you think there is sometimes a relationship between complexity and mediocrity? Why might that be?

Time, Space, Creation

"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?" Psalm 8:3-4
This video is mind-blowing. To realize the immensity of creation is to realize the humility of humanity. So small, and yet so important to Him who created us.

The video articulates that there is a "edge" to both time/space. If the universe is constantly expanding, then that which is beyond the "edge of the universe" is literal nothingness - there is neither time nor space. For without time there can be no space and without space there can be no time.

It makes me think about our God - unbound by the creation He has made. As Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 1:17, "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen."

God is ETERNAL - unbound by and outside of time. As such, if God chooses to "experience" time or speaks to us about time, it is accommodation to us time-bound creatures. He stoops to our level and He who is timeless speaks in the language of time.

"For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night." Psalm 90:4
"With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." 2 Peter 3:8

God is IMMORTAL. The Greek word is aphthartos – and is better translated as undecaying, incorruptible, imperishable. Only those things bound by time are mortal.

Temporal things are subject to the Second Law of Thermodynamics: the Law of Entropy. Simply stated, things naturally go from a state of greater order to disorder. Over time, things break down, decay, become corrupt, change. However, God is unchanging - outside of and not influenced by time.

And, as the song Immortal, Invisible by Laura Story says, God is INVISIBLE:

Invisible our human eyes can't see / The depths of Your majesty...
Invisible You are not bound by space / But Your glory is filling this place

To be visible is to be bound to a particular location. But God is invisible, unbound, uncontainable.

So while this video reminds me of the utter immensity of the creation, more than that it reminds me of the infinite immensity of the Creator. Our God is the maker of, and far beyond and above, all creation.

So what is humanity that you are mindful of us? of me?

Unto Him be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

A story of fall and redemption

Story "My New Name" | Sarah Markley
(cf. Revelation 2:17 - "I will also give [her] a white stone with a new name written on it.")

A powerful story of temptation, deception, fall, forgiveness, grace, redemption, and marriage. From her story:

No one wakes up one day and decides to commit adultery. I don’t know what other people have told you, but something like this takes a hundred million tiny poorly-made decisions layered on top of one another. Never excuses, but certainly reasons.

Compare to The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis:

It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge [a person] away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one -- the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts. [emphasis mine]

Discussion Questions: Defender of the Weak

Jan. 24, 2010 – Discussion Questions – “Defender of the Weak”
Dt. 10:18; Ps. 68:5; 82:3-4; Prv. 14:31; 19:17; 31:8-9; Isa. 1:15-17,23; Jer. 22:16

What does this statement mean to you: “Life is Sacred.”

What do you think are some implications of the fact that humanity is created in God’s image (cf. Gen. 1:26-27; 9:6; Jam. 3:9; 1 Jn. 4:20)?

The Scriptures repeatedly describe God as a defender of the fatherless and the widow (Deut. 10:18; Psa. 68:5; Prov. 23:10-11; Jer. 22:16) - there was no weaker, more vulnerable segment of society. Following our Heavenly Father’s example, we too are to be defenders of the weak. In today’s society, who are the weak and vulnerable members of our human family (besides the unborn) that need to be defended? What might we, as the church, do to defend them?

According to Isaiah 1:11-17,23 why was the Lord not pleased with His people even though they were obeying His laws of worship? How do you think this passage is relevant to Christian worshipers today?

What do you think is the difference between actively seeking justice (Isa. 1:17), and merely avoiding committing injustice? Do you think God is pleased if we simply avoid doing what is wrong, but yet fail to seek what is right? Why or why not?

Read Prov. 14:31; 19:17; 1 Jn. 4:20. How does one’s attitude toward the poor, vulnerable, and weak reflect one’s relationship with God? According to passages such as Psa. 82:3-4; Prov. 21:13; 28:27; Matt. 25:44-45; Jam. 1:27, how should we respond to the needs of the weak, vulnerable, and powerless?

Do you think society is moving toward a greater respect for life? Why or why not? What do you think are some underlying causes that lead people to fail to respect the lives of other humans?

How do you think we can best value human life while at the same time avoid condemning those who have had abortions or in other ways made choices that devalue human life?

Read Proverbs 28:7 & 31:8-9 - What do you think we can do as individuals, as families and as the church to better defend the weak and vulnerable?