Thoughts on The Multiplying Church

Bob Roberts Jr.’s, The Multiplying Church, is a very practical guide to church planting.  So, for those of you not interested in church planting I would suggest skipping this post.  Further, for those of you inclined to buy books I write about, I would recommend Organic Church over this work.  With all of that said, Roberts does makes some good points.

Foreword:

At the center of Roberts’ thinking is the dream of planting churches that plant other churches.  This is something he has done very well out of his church in Texas.  To accomplish this he focuses on leadership development and discipleship. 

In this vain Roberts encourages pastors to “constantly encourage members to get out where real people with real problems live and be Christ” (11).  This focus is similar to Missional Church thinking and Organic Church thinking—leave the safety of the church building and start living out faith in the real world.

Chapter 1:

The first chapter focuses on Jesus movements in Asia.  Helpfully, Roberts observes that these movements do not start because of a plan but rather individuals experiencing Jesus and being so passionate that naturally they reach out to their friends and family and the next thing is there is a church.  There is almost no institution.

The key in this type of movement is pouring into the lives of people and making authentic disciples rather than buildings and programs.  These movements are predicated on believers having an authentic relationship with Jesus and everything else flowing from that.

Chapter 2:

Roberts dream is to launch a global church planting movement.  To do this he wants to see local churches start to plant churches.  And for local churches to plant churches it will mean the involvement of everyone at the church including people like lawyers and business owners.

Chapter 3:

The key is to plant churches that plan on planting other churches.

Research has shown that “hiving,” sending part of an existing church off to start a new church is a very slow process.  Most churches can only hive once or twice and each time it takes about five years to recoup the leadership sent off.  So, instead, Roberts brings potential church planters to his church and mentors them and then sends them off to start churches from scratch.

Chapter 4:

Roberts argues that the goal of all church planting is transformation.  His hope is that church plants will be focused on transforming the communities they are part of.  To do this churches must engage in all spheres of a community’s life.

Chapter 5:

A huge component of all of this is for pastors of small churches to be willing to invest and train church planters.  For example Mark Harris has run a church of 150 people for fifteen years and planted 18 churches from that base.

Chapter 6:

The key trait of a church planter is to be a daredevil—church planting is a risky endeavor.  Also, they are visionaries who can lead others to see their vision as well.

Chapter 7:

The lay disciple also needs to be set free to take risks for God.  The key for a church to plant other churches is a pastor who can make heroes out of ordinary disciples.  It’s not about church planters but rather disciples.  To accomplish this we have to be willing to let disciples do more than just help run programs on Sunday morning.  Further, we need disciples who view their work place as their primary ministry.

Also, disciples need to be servant minded, prayerful, and willing to live a Christian life, which is an adventure.

Chapter 8:

The key is to start with the community and work towards planting a church that will transform the community.  Part of this is looking at all domains of a particular community.

Chapter 9:

One key is to gather a core group that is excited and in love with Jesus.  Then the hope is to let the enthusiasm of new believers reach other people.

Chapter 10:

Roberts lays out a seven-step decision matrix that he uses in this chapter which is actually pretty interesting.  The first step is call—“everything starts with a call.  What has God called you to do?” (142).  This point is very valuable—often in ministry almost everything works against fulfilling one’s call.  The second step is values—values determine behavior—so working towards the right values is key.

The third step is purpose.  Roberts argues that God has a purpose for all of us—which is helpful—but I’m not really sure the difference between call and purpose.  Roberts really does not lay that out.  The fourth step is vision, which lets us see the place we are going.  The fifth step is strategy, which combines the first four steps into a more concrete plan. 

The sixth step is leadership, which focuses on developing other leaders.  And the final step is evaluation.

Chapter 11:

Finances are the greatest stress point of a church plant—and it really takes a miracle from God for church plants to make it financially.  One key issue is for the church planter to make the biggest financial risks and be the most sacrificial with their money.

Chapter 12:

Another big struggle of church planting is learning how to do everything publicly.  The planter learns how to plant a church amidst doing all of life publicly and this is very challenging.  There is never enough time to get everything done and it is very difficult to balance family life along with spiritual practices.

Reflections From Week 7

For my readers who are Christian, and especially those involved in development work and mission, I implore you to read this post.

Last Wednesday I heard one of, if not smartest lectures, I have ever heard.  The presenter was Vinoth Ramachandra and his lecture mainly came out of his book, Subverting Global Myths: Theology and the Public Issues Shaping Our World. 

His analysis of global consumer culture was unbelievably penetrating.  In essence, the rapid spread of consumerism changes how American Christians interact with the rest of the world.

One example he gave was that in emerging generations both the American child who constructs all meaning via brands and the majority world child who makes those products for pennies are victims of the consumer machine.  Vinoth has inverted traditional thinking to suggest that not only are the produces victims but also the consumers.  So, when one Fuller missions student asked Vinoth the role of white middle class men (like himself) in global missions, Vinoth responded simply saying, “there are a lot of white middle class men who need Jesus.” 

Like very few others, Vinoth understands that those in developed countries are some of the spiritually sickest people in the world.  This revelation calls for a reshaping of all mission and development work. 

The Great Debate—Part 4: Believe, Act, and Succeed

Before I continue on to the wilderness option I want to explore another issue in the Egypt/Promised Land debate.

I first got interested in this text my first year at Westmont College.  At the same time I was reading this text I was also reading William James’ The Will to Believe.  I like to read this debate in light of an observation James makes in his brilliant little essay.

James postulates that often, in matters of life and faith, belief is the only way to generate certain outcomes.  Even in the beginning of the 20^th century, when he was writing, there must have been a lot of guys with Approacher’s Anxiety because James uses an example from the world of dating.  He writes that to successfully invite a woman on a date one must believe that she will say yes.  If one does not believe that a yes will come he will either never even bother to ask her or even if he does ask his lack of confidence will turn the woman away.  James makes a similar observation about interviewing for a job.

He does not guarantee a certain outcome if one is willing to believe but is noting that certain outcomes are only possible if one is willing to believe first while the outcome is still uncertain.

In his essay, James will go on to argue that the same is true of religious experience.  To have a religious experience one must first be willing to believe that there is a God even if God has never been experienced.

On the East Bank of the River Jordan opposite of the Promised Land there is the exact same paradigm at work.  There is the blatant empiricism of the Egypt faction arguing that all they can see are giants and impregnable city walls.  To counter-balance this Joshua and Caleb are arguing that God will act, and although they do not make this argument, I think it is safe to assume they are basing this on historical observation that God acted for them in Egypt, on the shores of the Reed Sea, and in the wilderness.  At the end of this debate what the people should do is uncertain.

And here is where William James would have made a great arbitrator for this conflict.  He could have pointed out that the only way God could act is if the people were willing to believe that he will act.

In the bizarreness of faith, the only way to get to the Promised Land is confident belief that God will act even though that is by no means certain.  There is no way for them to experience certainty that God will act on their behalf before they act.

The Promise Land is possible but only through trust.

The Great Debate—Part 3: Life in the Promised Land

After the ten scouts freak out and panic the other two scouts, Caleb and Joshua, make a desperate plea.  “The land that we went through as spies is an exceedingly good land.  If the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.  Only, do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are no more than bread for us; their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them” (Numbers 14:7-9).

Their argument lacks the guttural appeal of the Egypt argument.  Their argument hinges on trusting that God will act.  Evaluating whether or not it is worth trusting one’s life in God’s hands is not an easy decision.  It is not nearly as tangible as seeing big fortresses defended by giants.

However, upon closer reflection there was a lot of good evidence to think God would act.  These people have seen God send ten plagues against Egypt, part the Reed Sea, bring water from rocks, and bring bread and quail from the heavens along with a lot of other stuff.  God has acted.  But, in fairness, God could have acted more and could have acted faster—it hasn’t been an easy journey—in fact at multiple times they’ve been on the verge of death.

And, I find this dynamic very present in the 21^st century.  God saved me from killing myself only to let me wake up the next day to a string of 500 of the worst days of my life—no magical solution.  God let me finish a 67,000 manuscript—but it took six drafts, five years, every paragraph was a war, and it currently still sits unpublished.  And I could give many more examples.

There is more to the Great Debate though.  At stake is life in the Promised Land—a land of overflowing abundance.  And although getting out of Egypt and surviving in the wilderness has not been easy God has always shown up in desperate moments when they most needed him.  So, as counter-intuitive as it seems, the Promised Land is theirs.  Joshua and Caleb are right.  They’ve come this far with God and they need to trust him one more time.  They are so close to their dreams of freedom in a land of abundance.

And in the 21^st century it still rings true.  After trudging through almost two years of severe depression and loneliness I was able to trust God just barely enough to choose to go to Westmont College.  Although I was all but certain I wouldn’t fit in, I’d fail my classes, and that I’d be a loner I thought that was where God wanted me.  Within 30 minutes of being on campus God had greatly surprised me.  I had already gotten my first date and people were already starting to call me “the Greek God” and “BMOC” (Big Man On Campus).  As a sophomore in high school I sat all by myself for most of the year—now, in the Promised Land of Santa Barbara everyone thought I had been the quarter back for my high school’s football team—it was awesome.

I find it easy to be fearful in life that things will not work out—that maybe God won’t do anything—or that maybe everything is just too hard.  And yet, ultimately I trust Caleb and Joshua’s words (and yes I write out v 9 from memory every day) that, “the Lord is with us; do not fear them.”  As hard as it is, I do not want to let fear keep me from the Promised Land.

Reflections from Week 6

For my non-academic minded readers, as always, feel free to skip this post.

Dr. Bolger continued to lay out different aspects of contemporary culture—sharing culture, remix culture, and collaborative culture—and as always it was very interesting.

Sharing culture is most noticeably seen on blogs and Facebook pages.  The hallmark of sharing culture is that traditional gatekeepers of knowledge no longer have control.  For instance, political blogs started by truly average people are often more popular than the ideas professional politicians and professors.  In essence, blogs and Facebook pages are the new way to launch grassroots movements.

To understand Remix culture it will be helpful to first give a brief history of entertainment culture in the U.S.  Until the 1850’s people were entertained in their own homes by their neighbors and relatives singing, playing the piano, or telling stories—all entertainment was local and personal.  In the 1850’s there started to be regional traveling road shows that offered slightly better entertainment than one’s friends could provide.  In the 1920’s recorded music and movies dominated the traveling road shows because once again the quality of entertainment was higher.  This change meant that entertainment went from being regional to national.  However, because of a variety of technologies that came into being at the end of the 20^th century, production costs of media plummeted greatly once again allowing for local entertainment.  This can be seen most notably in millions of Utube videos that will only be viewed by ten people.

Remix culture, however, is not about being original but rather about combining different forms of media.  So a video might have a popular song playing in the background or be a spoof on a popular scene from a movie.  The significance of remix culture is that once again entertainment can happen at a local level.

Collaborative culture is seen most noticeably in Wikipedia.  In essence people want to, and are willing to, create things as a group without much supervision.  An interesting feature of this culture is that almost everyone has some small piece of unique knowledge to share.

Dr. Bolger fits all of this into participatory culture.  An interesting aspect of this culture is that it is a “fan” culture.  By this Dr. Bolger means that for no pay people are willing to give their time and energy to do the things they love—for instance make a Utube video or write a blog.

Another interesting piece of participatory culture is that sociologist have discovered that to assimilate the values of a particular sub-culture one must spend between 6-10 hours a week participating in that group.  For instance, for people who spend less that six hours in a faith community they divorce at the same rate as the rest of culture.  For those who spend more than six the rate drops dramatically.

The Great Debate—Part 2: Slavery in Egypt

What started the great debate was the return of twelve scouts who had gone into the Promised Land ahead of the people of Israel.  Their mission had been to see what the land was like.  Upon returning, ten of the spies reported, “the people who live in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large, and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there (Sons of Anak were giants about the size of Goliath, roughly nine feet tall)…we seemed like grasshoppers” (Numbers 13:27-33).

Upon hearing this report the Israelites cried to their leaders, “Would that we died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we died in this wilderness! Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become booty; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” So they said to one another, “Let us choose a captain, and go back to Egypt” (Numbers 14:1-4).

Here, the scouts and people make a good case for going back to Egypt.  When one looks at the situation at hand it seems hopeless.  There is a really good land—but it is occupied by powerful armies.  Surely, from a military perspective, to attack these numerous giants behind strong city walls is a suicide mission.  Unless God shows up, the guaranteed outcome is to either die at the base of these city walls by enemy arrows or if lucky enough to survive the arrows to be stabbed to death by a giant waiting at the top of the walls.

Although not arriving in the Promised Land sucks it is surely better than certain death and enemies taking your wives and children as slaves.

So what direction should the Israelites head if they are not going to be able to make it to the Promised Land?  The most obvious solution is Egypt.  The slavery there was brutal but at least it was familiar.  Plus, they had always eaten as slaves and would not die by enemy arrows or swords.  Slavery might have been brutish but that is what they had known all their lives—it seems like a good solution.

In a 21^st century context going back towards Egypt still has the same appeal.  When I first became a Christian, rather than killing myself, things were still incredibly desperate.  Often I would scream at God wondering why he didn’t let me just go through with my suicide.  It was so hard to deal with academic failure, my soul mate breaking my heart, and a whole wake of debris from a lifetime of shattered dreams.  Living was so hard and death would have been so easy.

And when I started writing War For My Soul, at the same time, I was getting a B in English 1A at Pasadena City College and had just failed calculus.  Trying to write a book was equivalent to fighting giants behind city walls.  Why not just burn the outline and delete the first chapter—it certainly would have been easier.

And even now why keep going?  Why not gorge myself on TV?  Why continue trying to publish War For My Soul when I have no CV?  Why keep living at home with my parents and spending my money on seminary rather than have my own place and a more lucrative career?  Why not hook-up with beautiful girls I don’t like rather than waiting for a new soul mate?

The common sense answer is that I should watch TV, I should delete my 67,000-word manuscript, I should move out and drop out, and I should hook-up with every beautiful girl I meet.  By the world’s logic these answers all make tremendous sense.  They make the exact same sense as going back to Egypt.  The Promised Land is risky, Egypt is predictable and mediocre—why not choose that? 

Although, every time I make any decision my gut always tells me to go to Egypt, in the long run I can never settle on this direction or decisions that will take me there.  Ultimately, I don’t want the mediocrity of slavery in Egypt and am more than glad to die at the base of the enemy’s walls or parish by his sword on the ramparts.

The Great Debate—Part 1: Introduction

To my faithful readers I apologize for the lack of posts in the last week.  It has been a really busy week at school.

Before I continue with the TV Fast series I need to explain a key way in which I understand the world and make decisions (after reading the last post I’m sure you know it’s not blindly submitting to what I’ve been told to do at church).  Everyday I ask myself if I am going towards Egypt, the wilderness, or The Promised Land.  To understand this paradigm it is key to know a little bit about the Bible.

In the book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible, God’s people (the Israelites) are in slavery under the Egyptians.  It turns into a very savage slavery as the Egyptians first try to work the Israelites to death and after that fails try to exterminate the male babies.  In this context the people groan to God, he hears them, and he gets to work on saving them.  This process will include Moses being called at the burning bush, the ten plagues, and finally (the most memorable scene) Moses parting the Reed Sea.  Once the sea is parted the Israelites escape the Egyptian chariots.

Following their escape the Israelites end up in the desert/wilderness.  Here they will receive the Ten Commandments and make an idol of a golden calf. 

Finally, after some more wandering, the Israelites end up near the Promised Land.  I like to imagine that they walk all the way up to the river that marks the boundary between the Promised Land and the desert/wilderness.  Here, they run into a problem.  They realize that the land on the other side of the river, which God has promised to them and led them to, has strongly fortified cities and mighty enemy armies. 

This will lead to the Israelites having a great debate about what direction they should head.  One option is to go back to Egypt and be slaves again.  A second option is to trust that somehow God will allow for them to successfully displace their enemies in the Promised Land.  And a third option becomes wandering around in the desert/wilderness.

Especially during my first two years of being a Christian, while I was at Pasadena City College, I had this debate in contemporary terms daily.  In fact, the sequel to War For My Soul is called Insane Asylum (currently only 10,000 words long) and exclusively deals with these debates and their outcomes.  Although the intensity of the debate is not so loud anymore, I still run every decision I make through the grid of whether it is taking me to Egypt, the Promised Land, or the wilderness. 

I’m sure this grid is still incredibly vague.  Over the next three days I will make the case for each direction both in the terms of the great debate, which occurred on the banks of the Promised Land, and in contemporary terms.

Reflections from Week 5

Dr. Bolger presented three very interesting cultures in class last week.  The first subculture was “gaming” culture.  This is a huge culture—more video games are sold than DVD’s.  Also, despite common perception, the average age of a gamer is 35 years old.  This culture was created in part as a response to a culture that is fearful and stripped of time.  Children are no longer free to walk home from school or run around town unsupervised these days.  Also, with school, sports and all the other time demands they have it is hard to get together with their friends in the real world.  So, online gaming presents a way for children, and as they grow into adults, to interact with their friends without leaving their own homes.  The other interesting thing about this culture is that the different games present complex narrative worlds that players fully immerse themselves into.  The gamer actually learns a tremendous amount about this other world and how to navigate the challenges faced in this world.  Schools are actually trying to figure out how they could integrate video games into the classroom because children can learn so much from these alternative narratives.

A second culture was that of “second life.”  I confess that I do not really get the appeal of this culture.  Nonetheless here are some interesting facts.  First, there are several hundred churches in Second Life—many of which have real services.  Second, it’s a very sexual world.  50% of the places are night clubs or adult clothing stores and apparently your avatars can “hook-up” although to be honest I’m not entirely sure how Dr. Bolger understands this word. 

A third culture—really a cultural trend—is the “do it yourself” DIY culture.  A host of technologies now allow for consumers to have tremendous power over what media they consume—for instance, RSSV technology, TIVO, and music programs that allow for creating one’s favorite lists.  Consumers have tremendous freedom to choose when and what they want to consume.  This is actually having effect both at Fuller Seminary and in local churches.  In the seminary more and more students are requesting highly personalized, inter-institutional degree programs (something that Fuller does not offer right now).  In the church world people are going to one place to hear preaching, another place for small groups, and a third place to have their kids go to youth group.

TV Fast—Part 3: “Mom! Sit Down! You’re Blocking the TV!”

I have great Evangelical Christian parents.  So, growing up that meant I experienced a certain amount of media censorship.  My mother often wore dresses and whenever there was a sex scene on TV, or in a movie, she would jump up and cover the screen with her dress so my brother and I couldn’t see.

To be honest, this never really bothered me.  Probably in part because our Christian peers had it much worse—some would not even be allowed to watch R-rated movies until they were seventeen.  Also, my parents let us watch as much violence as we wanted (I would have been pissed if my mom jumped up to block images of someone’s head getting blown away).

When I was twelve, to keep my eyes and soul holy (albeit not for God but for a girl at church) I started self-censoring my TV and movie watching by looking away during sex scenes.  This habit would last all through high school.

In middle school I was not allowed to watch South Park and wasn’t allowed to see American Pie.  I wasn’t really interested in seeing either of them except for the fact that many of my peers at school thought they were the coolest things ever.  In fact, not seeing the “Pie Scene” made me some sort of cultural outcast even into high school.

In high school youth group I would hear a talk every now and then about the dangers of watching TV and movies.  They would always piss me off for four reasons. 

First, in long standing family tradition, I abhor being told what to do by anyone. 

Second, I mainly watched the Lakers, and from a content perspective I was convinced that was not a problem—what’s less sexual than seven-foot tall sweaty dudes? 

Third, by the time I was sixteen almost all of my friends were involved in having real sex, or drinking real alcohol or doing real drugs and the consequence of me not doing that stuff was isolation, depression and my first suicide attempt.  That my youth group was mired down in not swearing and TV and movie censorship was the worst form of pettiness (and yes, that’s part of why I use swear words in this blog). 

Fourth, the one normal teenage weekend activity that was not partying was watching movies together.  So, I watched a lot of movies because I didn’t party (at least not until the end of high school).  To have adults telling me to loose the one token of normality I had infuriated me—I felt like I was already doing enough.

Upon writing this post I think it will be helpful to point out two realizations.  First, rehearsing this history makes me want to break my current TV fast—luckily there isn’t a TV in the house anymore.  Second, I find it shocking that I haven’t been involved with TV or movies since June—this never would have been possible in high school.  Life certainly takes some strange twists.

TV Fast Part 2: Sesame Street, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Simpsons, NBA, History Channel, 24, and I’m Sure a Whole Lot More

My professor, Dr. Mark Lau Branson, specializes in navigating intercultural church conflict.  One key method he encourages is to have congregants write autobiographies about contentious issues.  For instance, if a church is fighting over budget or money issues, he has different congregants write autobiographies about their personal history with money and then has them all share.  He describes this process as bringing various implicit background assumptions to the forefront.

I have never tried this technique specifically—usually my autobiographical writing has an epic, philosophical, existential flavor.  However, I think his suggestion is interesting and I am going to try it out in this post as it relates to my own TV watching and then tomorrow use the same technique as it relates to having people tell me I should not watch TV.

So, here is a brief history of my relationship with TV (for this post I have limited myself to the TV I watched up through high school both for reasons of space and for reasons that will become clear in later posts).

Some of my very first memories of anything are watching Sesame Street.  I don’t really remember what I liked about it or what I felt watching but my parents often remind me of how much I loved watching it when I was two and three years old.

As a pre-school and kindergarten aged child I remember watching Dino-riders and The Legend of Zelda.  These cartoons would not even have been legal before the 1980’s because they would have been deemed half an hour-long infomercials.  Dino-riders was based on a collection of toys and The Legend of Zelda was based on a video game series.  And yes, I owned an army of Dino-riders and The Legend of Zelda video game series.  I remember that I loved coming home from school to watch both of these shows.  Interestingly, the story of young warrior Link and his chivalrous relationship with princess Zelda, would profoundly influence my romantic life (it’s too complicated to get into here—but it’s a very important theme in War For My Soul).

When I hit grade school my parents let my brother and I watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles before school (my favorite turtle was Leonardo, the blue one).  My brother and I would eat breakfast in front of the TV and also always be late for school.  Upon getting home from school I would be exhausted (I had a reading disability and am an INFJ—can you really blame me?).  Usually, for the next two hours I would watch cartoons.  I didn’t really even like them and even upon sitting here and trying to remember their names I can’t, but I do remember that I loved watching TV.  About the time the cartoons ended I would usually punch my little brother Justin (I lucked out that somehow later in life he was able to forgive me).  He would burst into tears and my mother would threaten to never let us watch TV again.  She was a psychologist and was sure that violent cartoons were teaching me violence.

When I was 11 I was fully initiated into the Los Angeles Lakers.  That year I watched most of an 82 game seasons with my Dad and sometimes his friends from church.  That year I was cheering for Nick van Axel, Eddie Jones, Cedrick Cebalos, Elden Campbell, and Vlade Divac.  I remember seeing the Lakers before that but not really caring.  However, I do remember my father and grown men from the church caring—I still remember my mother trying to explain to me in 91, when the Lakers lost to the Bulls in the finals, why everyone was so upset.

Here, a side note will be helpful.  By the time I was 11 I weighed 184 lbs.  To give comparison, I am a foot taller now and weigh 155 lbs.  I was obese as a child and the TV certainly was not helping anything.

When I hit middle school I started watching The Simpsons, the History Channel (I'm a closet nerd), and I wanted to watch South Park but my mom wouldn’t let me.

In high school my TV watching coincided directly with a knee injury.  When I could play basketball I would never watch TV, when I couldn’t I would.  So, when I hurt it for the first time during the spring of my sophomore year (my life would fall apart following that), I started watching the Lakers very seriously.  That was during the 2000 Championship run and when the Lakers won I really thought God had facilitated them winning to console me. (Upon more thoroughly remembering the circumstances of the 2000 Western Conference Finals against the Portland Trail Blazers, that game 7 might actually still be my all time favorite TV moment.)

My senior year I couldn’t play basketball at all, and not only would I watch the Lakers, but also the first season of 24 on Tuesday nights.  That show was really addictive.

Ryan on Prayer, Football and Patience

Periodically I will have guest writers.  So without further adieu let me introduce my friend Ryan McAnnally-Linz.  He is currently a first year Ph.D student at Yale Divinity School.  Our parents went to the same church and I’ve known him since I was three and he was two and a half—we pretty much did everything together growing up.  Over the last seven years Ryan has slugged through three drafts of War For My Soul and his editorial comments have both helped to make that work what it is and also shaped me greatly as a writer.  So here is Ryan on, “Prayer, Football, and Patience”:

I have always had rather high hopes for myself. A less flattering way of putting that would be to say that I’m ambitious—very ambitious. I like to be good at things. I love to excel at them. But more than that, I love to excel at them naturally, and I hate it when I don’t. I quit snowboarding after one day in high school because I couldn’t stand to be stuck on the bunny slopes while my friends where off landing 360s. Now, this whole desire to be naturally great at things isn’t too big a deal when the thing in question is snowboarding, it’s a bit of a problem when the thing is prayer. 

The other night, I was at a homegroup that I lead. The idea of the group is to share our life stories with one another, to reflect on them, and to pray about the questions or tensions or problems that they include. Each week, one person shares his or her story, we ask questions, and we pray.

So the other night, after a friend of mine who is a new mother, beautifully and honestly shared her story, the rest of us gathered around to pray for her. I was silent as other people prayed powerful words. My mind was blank as other people offered words and images they thought God might have given them. (One of the ways we pray in this group is in faith that God doesn’t just listen, but still speaks to people.) After a while, I got frustrated. Why didn’t I have any words?

I did a bit of internal grumbling about my lack of inspiration, and then I got distracted and just sat in silence thinking about something irrelevant (probably football – I have a tendency to think about football in October). Then, surprisingly, my mind got peaceful, and I got the sense that I did have a word from God to pray. But it wasn’t the sort of word I had expected. What I sensed was the words: “Be patient.”

I like to think I should be naturally great at things. And I often think I should be able to ‘fix’ those things I’m not good at in no time at all. But the other night I was reminded of the importance of patience. Psalm 27, which Jonathan has been reflecting on, reminds me that it’s ok to “wait for the Lord.” And there’s a verse in Philippians that compliments it well. It says, in part, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion” (Philippians 1:6).

I found it comforting to be assured that in the end, it’s God who’s working in me in all those places that aren’t naturally great. God is shaping me to be the kind of person God intended. And often times, from my end of things, what’s needed is to be patient—to “wait for the Lord.”

Reflections from Week 4

Doug Paggit, the founding pastor of Solomon’s Porch, told me to be innovative at the beginning of class.  For my non-Christian readers, that’s kind of like if Mystery came in and told you to be a pick up artist.  I’ve read dozens of books where the exploits of Paggit are celebrated—so that was exciting.

Doug told us some things about his church that I was unaware of—but are key ideas.  First, they write all their own worship music.  I like this idea because my own brother once told me that church would be way better if rather than singing the songs of dead strangers we sang our own songs to God.  Second, they consider their church to extend out into all activities during the week.  For instance, one of their members owns a restaurant.  They consider everything that goes on at that restaurant part of their church.  This is a phenomenal approach.

TV Fast—Part 1: What Am I Going Out On?

The Los Angeles Lakers start the regular season tonight playing the Houston Rockets.  This season will be different than any in the last sixteen years.  I will not be watching all 82 games—in fact I won’t be watching even one game on TV (and no, I do not have season tickets.  And yes, I still love the Lakers and basketball and have the scars to prove it).

In June, a week after I finished Hebrew, I was in Carpenteria with my family to celebrate my brother’s college graduation.

The trip and my summer were about to be ruined.  It was the third quarter of game seven of the NBA Finals and the Lakers were down 14 points to the Boston Celtics.  My brother had 500 dollars bet on the Lakers winning and was on the floor in disbelief.  My father was slouched in a chair trying unsuccessfully to detach himself from the game and remind himself that it doesn’t really matter.

I was trying to reassure myself the Lakers were still going to win.  But, I knew if they somehow didn’t pull through by double zero I was going to be devastated (this is not an exaggeration—I’m a little choked up right now remembering being down 14).

Deep in my heart I truly believed the Lakers were still going to win.  I was so confident that during one commercial break I started to realize that this was going to be the single greatest moment of TV I would ever see.  It had been a decade since the Western Conference Finals Game seven where the Lakers came from behind in the fourth quarter to beat Portland (that was the previous greatest moment).

The story line of this game was perfect.  Game seven against Boston who had beaten us in the finals two years before (I spent a week after that series feeling completely numb inside).  Kobe, my childhood hero, was going to have one more ring than Shaq.  And, the icing on the cake was going to be coming back from so far down. 

I had been thinking about going on a TV and movie fast in the weeks leading up to this game.  Now that I realized this was going to be the single greatest game ever played—as long as the Lakers won—I decided I wanted to retire from TV until the 2011 Finals and possibly forever.

This was the TV experience I wanted to go out on.

At 14 down I was praying, “Lord, if the Lakers win I’m not going to watch TV again until the finals next year” (Kobe you owe me).

It wasn’t really a bargaining prayer—it was a prayer for freedom.  If the Lakers lost, the only way to cope would be to watch all the off-season acquisitions, anxiously watch 82 regular season games and then hope for vindication in the playoffs.  If the Lakers won I could have a year away from TV with an easy conscious knowing I wasn’t missing anything because nothing could compare to this game.

The rest is history—the Lakers gave me a quarter and a half of electric basketball, I would stop watching TV, and now I no longer even have access to a working TV in my house.

Reflections from December—Part 3: One of THOSE Days

Today was one of those days where nothing goes right.  I spent all weekend reading a book so I could write reviews for one of my professor’s blogs.  Not so subtly I was hoping to advertise for this blog with my posts (not even three weeks of blogging and I’m already trying to steal from other people’s blogs—pitiful I know).

I spent all night working on writing posts that I thought would attract new readers.  At 5:30 AM I was ready to post my little masterpieces.

I click on the “post” button and I get an error message.  “No problem” I think to myself, “I’ll just repost” (on my first day of blogging I learned the importance of typing posts in a word document and then cutting and pasting—I guarantee otherwise that frustration will ensue).

I click the “post” button again.  This time I get a message that I’ve already posted the exact same post.  So, I put my trust in a computer and collapse into bed dreaming of all the new visitors I would have today.

About an hour into class I get this sinking feeling that maybe my computer lied to me.  At a break in the class I go and explain my mornings adventures with my professor.  He looks at me like, “Sure you were working on it this morning and not right now in class.”

He checks the site and sure enough my posts are not there.

My stomach sinks, “weekend wasted”  (who am I kidding, I wouldn’t have gone out anyways). 

So, it was one of those days.

That is what I like about Psalm 27.  Though it talks about patiently believing the Lord will act and about following his light; it also talks about the bullshit of life.

The second and third verses read, “When evil doers assail me to devour my flesh—my adversaries and foes—they shall stumble and fall.  Though an army encamp against me; my heart shall not fear.  Though war rise up against me; yet I am confident.”

Although I think my computer hates me I’m pretty sure it won’t try to devour my flesh.  In comparison, the guy that wrote this was having the world’s worst “one of those days.”  People are trying to eat him (I know this is poetic language by the way), and there are armies and war all around him.  That’s messed up.

And yet, he confidently is willing to follow where the Lord leads, believes that somehow at the end of all this there will be goodness, and is willing to patiently wait for the Lord to act.  

Reflections from December—Part 2: God Doesn’t Run on Digital Time

After the Hebrew final, and now seven months of daily writing out the last two verses of Psalm 27, I decided to look up the rest of the verse.

The first verse is, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; who shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”

To an English reader these verses sound hopelessly redundant.  But fortunately I had been studying Hebrew syntax and instantly could see synonymous parallelism.  Hebrew has a less highly developed system of adjectives than English so for emphasis it often relies on repetition.  So, here the verse says the exact same thing twice with slightly different wording.  The point is emphasis.

The phrase “the Lord is my light,” reminded me of a story my mentor told me in the first months following my conversion.  To appreciate this story it will be helpful to know that I’m a planner.  As I write this I’m staring at what I call, “the war wall” in my bedroom.  I’ve got sheets of paper taped to my wall with plans—classes laid out for the next two years, a publishing to do list for War For My Soul, the titles of other Christian books I might want to write (5 more in the War For My Soul series and 4 small group companion books), and blog post ideas for months if not years.

My mentor rightfully saw this as a problematic tendency.  So, he would continuously tell me this: “Imagine walking up a mountain in a starless, moonless night.  All you have is a little candle that illuminates enough so you can see your next step or two.  And of course you know you are going towards the top.  You’ll get there—but you have to have enough faith to take one step at a time.  Being a Christian is often the same way.  God gives us enough light to see the next step or two and we have to trust that he’s taking us towards the top.”

I realized everything for the last year had been working against trusting God one step at a time.  My Christian friends were either all married or getting married, my younger brother was living on his own and about to start making real money, and some of the people I had started seminary with were graduating and getting jobs.

I wanted to toss the candle away and start sprinting up the hill on my own.  I wanted to catch up.

Then, I started remembering more of the story.  Although round about, and often totally insane (these stories fill the War For My Soul series), God had led me a long ways up the mountain in six short years.  Further, I was taking the steps I knew he wanted me to.

I had a strong sense God was telling me, “Patiently follow my path for another year and I’ll show you things you can’t imagine.”

I was working nights at the time and was keenly aware of how important light was for getting anywhere or doing anything.  So, I excitedly agreed.

Reflections From December—Part 1: The Creepiest Thing I’ve Ever Done

Facebook came out when I was a junior in college.  I was always proud of my college Facebook use.  First, of my 200 friends I had only sent out three friend requests.  Second, I never looked at the profiles of girls I liked.

I learned the second lesson watching one of my hall mates.  He did not have Facebook so he’d always want to look at his crush on my computer.  I was with him in the dinning commons one day when his crush came over to talk to me (she was MY Facebook friend after all). 

Within thirty seconds my friend asked her about a movie she had just seen.  She looked at him like he was a rapist (they had never talked before).  I almost died laughing.  All to say, lesson learned.

In December I hadn’t yet realized I like Family Guy, so to get through the relational doldrums of nights off I would log onto Facebook and look through pictures of past crushes (I know I’m violating my own rules).

I could never bring myself to look into their photo albums—that was too creepy.  But, I’d look at their profile picture and then read all their quotes.  They were all good evangelical girls so of course all of their quotes were Bible verses.

One girl had Psalm 27:13-14 written on her wall: “I believe I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”

That verse hit me like a rock.

For most of that quarter I had been hoping Chap Clark (my professor who writes all about mid-adolescents and wrote one of my favorite books of all time Hurt) could help me get War For My Soul on the fast track for a contract.  After six weeks of emails slowly going back and forth he told me he had no ideas.

It was devastating.

So, I wrote down this verse at the top of my journal page.

Below it I wrote, “Lord, I feel super creepy.”  Not only was I looking through their profile but I was writing down one of their favorite Bible verses--I had surpassed my hall mate from college in Facebook stocking.

I wanted to scribble the verse out but I couldn’t.  The words were perfect.  I was definitely stuck waiting in life—waiting for Hebrew to end, waiting to get a War For My Soul contract, waiting to graduate and move out, and waiting to find a wife.  Yet it was okay because I was waiting for God to act.  And, as the first verse bears witness too, God is a God of goodness.  So, I was waiting for God’s goodness.  Yet, it wasn’t going to be easy—it was going to take belief, strength and courage.

It became the theme verse for that journal that very night and I realized within a couple of weeks that was going to be the theme verse indefinitely.

Even though I’m now done with Hebrew, I still find myself mainly waiting.  But it’s okay because I’m waiting for the God of goodness.

By the way, shortly after this happened something changed in Facebook and I haven’t been able to access my account since January—so I think that might have been why I started watching Family Guy.

Reflections from May—Part 3: The Best Day of 2010 (So Far)

For this post I am going to do something a little different.  I am going to post my two journal entries from June 8^th and 9^th.  They nicely capture my closing thoughts from May and give insight into how I am creating all of these posts.  I do warn that these are not funny or creative but brutally honest.  To give the context I took my Hebrew final at 8AM on the 8^th and both of these entries were written on the last page of that particular journal.

7:09 AM Parking Lot Fuller Seminary

Lord I come before you on the verge of tears.  Lord, I’m not ready for the test in an hour, I’m super tired, and my neck, back and wrist are all in a lot of pain (in May I started having serious neck pain related to “forward head,” I hurt my back racking weights at 24Hourfitness two and a half years ago and whenever I type too much my right wrist flares up).  My neck and back are especially problematic.

Lord, the cost of the last ten months has been miserably high.  The result has been pitifully fruitless.

Lord, I’m in a panic about my whole life.  I’m a mess—I’m almost so crippled (hyperbolae) and poor (again hyperbolae) and such a romantic and other human person failure that I don’t know what to say.

Lord, my life feels like an utter disaster.

All I can do is pray out of Exodus.  (Here I wrote out Exodus 2:23-25)

Lord, please save me from this disastrous final and year.

Lord, help me to listen to Psalm 27: I believe I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!

Please deliver me.

Amen

2:11 AM Home

Lord, I come before you starting to do really well.  Lord, I think I did pretty well on the Hebrew test.  Or, really, I know I passed which is good enough.  Also, the Lakers won a key game 3 coming down to the wire.  Also, my neck is feeling somewhat better—although it is still pretty messed up.

Also, Lord when I look back at what this journal has seen in three months I see a giant shit storm.

So Lord, I start with Psalm 34 (when writing out this text I only write out the first part or sometimes only write out verse 18—the verse this blog gets its name from)

I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continuously be in my mouth.  My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad.  O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.  I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.  Look to him and be radiant so your faces shall never be ashamed.  This poor soul cried and was heard by the Lord and was saved from every trouble.  The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them.  O taste and see that the Lord is good, happy are those who take refuge in him.  O fear the Lord, you his holy ones, for those who fear him have no want.  The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Lord, in the three months of this journal and in the three months before this journal I groaned and groaned and groaned.  Lord, I wandered out into the wilderness in January by taking Hebrew II.  Yet, Lord, you have delivered me.  You have brought me back to goodness.  Lord, now as the summer starts which is full of potential goodness and hope I praise you for getting me here.  You got me through Lord.  Thank you!

Reflections From May—Part 2: Adult Swim Thinks I’m a Loser

Unlike most people who work night shift, I couldn’t sleep at night on days off.  For the most part this was convenient because I had a lot of Hebrew to work on—in fact my Lamentations 4 paper was already a couple of weeks late by this point—so I had tons of quite time to study.

However, there was a downside.  At 2AM I would start to get really lonely and even a little creeped out by sounds outside.  Fortunately, I was only an hour away at that point from being able to watch Family Guy on Adult Swim (every graveyard worker I ever met watched Family Guy at this time). 

With great expectation 3AM would finally come. 

About thirty seconds later I would have my first disappointment.  Despite hoping to see a new episode (to be honest I would have been perfectly content to see an episode I hadn’t already seen five times) it would always be one I had seen dozens of times.  I’m pretty sure Adult Swim only plays the same ten episodes over and over again (quite possibly to mock me).  I’d ponder turning it off but then realize that if I wanted human interaction my only choice was the Griffins (the featured animated family).  So, I always watched.

Then, ten minutes in, my second disappointment would come.  Just like Adult Swim only plays ten episodes they only play three commercials.  The first commercial is always a woman in a dark room in lingerie seducing you to call Lava Life.  “Lonely? Looking to meet sexy local singles without the trouble of leaving your house?” she would tease.  Then, in jarring fashion this upbeat Education Connection song starts.  This beat waitress sings about how she didn’t do good in high school, hates her job (and in my opinion her life) and how she now goes to college in her pajamas (she makes online college sound so fun—I’m not convinced).  Finally, this buff dude comes on and tells me that my lives’ dream has been to work on repairing boats and motorcycles and therefore I need to go to University Technical Institute.

By the end of these commercials I’d find myself arguing with the TV.  “I’m not a looser I swear!  I’m not like the people you are advertising too!  I graduated from college with honors.  I dated a model for six months.  I’m in a masters program now.”

The third major disappointment would happen after an hour.  I’d realize after the second re-run of Family Guy and now six or more cycles of commercials that I had just watched TV for an hour because I was lonely.  I’d get this horrible feeling that the commercials were right—maybe I was a looser.

I was twenty-six, living at home with my parents, no girl friend, had been working a job for years I was way overqualified for, and was procrastinating on a Hebrew paper I might not be able to finish.  Then, I’d stand up and see my dark neighbor’s house.  I was totally alone. 

At this point I’d have an existential crisis (I was a philosophy major—so you can’t blame me for this).  I’d feel like had woken up in some sort of strange post apocalyptic hell.  There were no other people around, just a TV, which mocked my existence, and seemingly everything was meaningless.

I would turn all the lights off and head back to my desk.  I’d feel somewhat queasy—I think at least in part from all the caffeine—and maybe in part from the artificial light.  Before I could start looking up Hebrew words again I’d write out Luke 15:1-7

Now all of the tax collectors and sinners were coming to listen to [Jesus].  And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

So he told them this parable.  “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and loosing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?  When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices.  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’  Just so I tell you there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

I would plead with God that he would come and find me on a dark street, in a dark house sitting all by myself while the rest of the world was asleep. 

Thoughts on The Bridges of God

For my less seminary inclined readers, feel free to skip this book review, however I am going to start with two stories.

A helpful way to evaluate this book will be to compare it to contemporary evangelical Christian practice.  So, I start with two stories.

First, about a month ago I was down in Old Town Pasadena with my INFJ friend (Curtis, this friend has become a stock character in many of my posts so to get the allusion you’d have to read some of my non-class related posts).  This random guy walked up to us and handed us each a tract and a flyer.  He asked us if we were saved and implored us to come to a Christian concert several blocks away.  My friend was immediately turned off.  I talked to the guy for a while because I was hoping he could tell me where he got his shiny tracts printed up (I was thinking my tracts would look really cute on such shiny paper).  As we walked away by name he reminded me to go to the concert while having already forgotten my friend.

Second, when I was thirteen my Sunday school teachers would always warn us about the danger of backsliding if we had non-Christian friends.  They were convinced that non-Christians would convert us out of the faith.  Not only were they worried about non-Christian friends at school but also about post-Christian friends that had once been part of our church.  I hate to admit it, but for fear of backsliding at numerous times in my life I have cut off friends.

So, as I turn to Donald McGavran’s The Bridges of God, it will be helpful to keep those stories in mind.

Chapter 1:

From 1800-1914, which is considered the great missionary century, the focus of missions was on spreading Christ to one individual at a time.  Regardless of class, culture, caste or race missionaries tried to convert individuals one at a time.

Chapter 2:

At this time all the missionaries were either from the west or had been educated by westerners.  This meant, that anything other than a personal, individual conversion was seen as dubious. 

So, as missionaries went around converting individuals, what happened was that community life for the individual was destroyed.  The missionaries were trying to convert people out of families, clans, tribes and castes.  Once individuals were effectively snatched out of their own cultures they would join the culture of the missionaries at mission stations.  These stations would have schools, churches, orphanages, hospitals and homes for the missionaries and quarters for the large staff of indigenous workers.  Many people who converted had no other option but to live and work at the mission station since they had been pulled out of their own culture.

McGavran here argues that this was devastating both for mission and for indigenous people.  McGavran wanted to see people’s entire communal social life come under the sphere of Christ while staying in their original culture.  So rather than convert individuals he was hoping to see families, chains of families and tribes collectively come to Christ as a community.

Chapter 3:

McGavran looks at how missions happened in the New Testament. Jesus, Peter and Paul did not focus on converting individuals but groups of people.  Often times the Bible records large groups of people accepting Christ. 

This has important implications.  For instance, when the Samaritans were converted, they came in large numbers.  If this had not happened, they would have had a very difficult time integrating into Jewish Christian society.  For example, it would have been very difficult for Samaritans to find spouses among Jewish Christians.  So a large group conversion made the process much easier.

Further, not only did large groups come into together, but missions would spread along relational lines out from these groups.  For instance, when Paul wrote the letter of Romans before he was going to actually go do missions in Rome, he already had a large social network that he knew in Rome.  Although it is easy to miss, there is a high likelihood Paul was doing mission amongst people’s familial networks.

Chapter 4:

This type of conversion is not just limited to the New Testament.  When the tribes of northern Europe were evangelized it was not done through individual conversions.  Rather, whole groups would come to faith when their leaders moved in that direction.

Further, during the Reformation, individuals, families, clans, and provinces did not make individual decisions to either be Catholic or Protestant but group based decisions.

Chapter 5:

During the great missionary century this all changed.  The issue was that Anglo-Europeans were trying to take the gospel into eastern countries.  There were no natural relational bridges and because the westerners were industrialized and the easterns were not there was a huge cultural gap.  This meant that even well intentioned missionaries could not live with the people they were working with.

So the missionaries built mission stations that were suitable to western living expectations.  This meant that when indigenous people did convert they felt that they were not only converting to a different religion but a different culture. 

What ended up happening was that there were very few converts.  So the mission stations started to work on other things like orphanages, schools, and hospitals.  These services would revolutionize the countries as generations of indigenous leaders were exposed to these ideas.  However, very rarely did these leaders become Christian—rather they worked to create more schools and hospitals—but now nationally funded.

Chapter 6:

However, outside of the mission stations Christian movements were starting.  McGavran calls these “God given people movements.”  These movements had indigenous leaders, were often times resisted by mission stations, established local and sustainable churches that were indigenous, allowed for spontaneous expansion and could easily grow along relational lines.  Further, the converts did not have a mixed motive of getting the cultural benefits of mission station life.  Rather, these converts were still living in their own cultural context but now with a Christ focused life.  During the great century of missions 90% of converts came from people movements even though they got almost none of the financial resources.

Chapter 7:

A lot of the reason for the discrepancy in funding was that mission boards were attached to the mission stations.  Further, because very few missionaries left the mission station very few people realized that these people movements were going on.

Chapter 8:

McGavran calls for missionaries to hold onto mission stations lightly.  Even though they were very expensive to build and took sacrifices of five decades or more to build they were hindering people movements.  If the resources that were being used to maintain mission stations were in part transferred to people movements those movements could grow even faster.

Chapter 9:

The apostle Paul did not trouble himself with building schools, hospitals, orphanages, teaching complex doctrine, and preparing to convert people at some later date.  Rather, Paul came to cities, converted people, organized leadership and then trust that God would do the rest and he would move on.

Chapter 10:

The mission stations are tremendously expensive to run and reach very few people.  However, People Movements, with no buildings are cheap to run and reach many people.

Chapter 11:

McGavran calls for wide scale empirical study so people movements can be understood better.  Here, I would critique him of being a modernist.  Setting up controlled mission experiments reeks of an over emphasis on calculation.

Chapter 12:

Just like God delivered the Israelites out of bondage God wants to deliver contemporary people out of the darkness.

Although McGavran is speaking of missions going on in Asia and Africa in the 50’s by analogy I think it more than safe to say that he would critique the street corner evangelist who was trying to peel me away from my friend and Sunday school teachers that discourage interaction with non-Christians.