Thin~Spaces

No Emergent Superstars Please!

When considering the Church as it is commonly expressed in America can you guess whom I think we should accord the highest honor and respect? If you thought I'd say the "Pastor," you would be wrong. I've been a vocational minister and the job is difficult but there are people more deserving of praise in the Church.

I'm thinking of the people who work a 9-to-5, come home and take care of their children, then give their time to the church as a lay minister or volunteer. While many a pastor would say they put in 45 - 55 hours a week, the highly involved layman may have just as long a work week or more.

In the suburbs where we live, a typical workday with commute may start at 6am and last till 6pm. Now factor in family time, household chores, and time at the church and you have a very full day. In churches with a Wednesday night program, a volunteer may work and then drive straight to the Church. Many put in a 16 hour day before the time they return home in the evening.

Going Solo

Today my wife is going to our denominations "Church Planters Roundtable." I have to work so I can’t go. I think that this will be the 1^st time that a woman has gone to one of these solo. Most of the time there are only a few men who bring their wives. In the last four that we have been to, Cheryl was the only woman.

I think it is cool that she wanted to go even if I could not. Being the only woman in the room at the good-old-boys club may be intimidating to some, but Cheryl will not have any problems holding her own.

We are just such anomalies in their process. There is this whole "program" in place to get a "church" going. I get the feeling that our calling does not fit the mould their program creates.

I just don’t think that a network of house churches fits their bill. No church building, no budgets, no Sunday Service, no singing and the other things that typically "look like" a church.

In my thinking, I don’t need to be an official church by my denominations standards. Being a missional community that lives its faith in the world can take many forms. For us, the simple church notion seems to resonate with our calling.

I keep asking myself the following question: Why do we even bother with a program that has a focus which is so different than ours?

The Pastor as Mythic Symbol

I’ve been thinking of the social role that a Pastor plays. In modern Christian practice, the pastor has become somewhat of a mythic figure. Look at a congregation’s expectation of its pastor or the pedestal people put them on. This is not respect for the person holding the office. It is a respect for the position or symbol occupied by the pastor.

Think of it as being analogous to a Judge in a courtroom. We do not rise to respect the person. We rise to give honor and respect to the office of judge. When a judge dons the robe, they become a tool of the state and an embodiment of our social myth of equal justice for all.

When a pastor enters the pulpit or puts on vestments a similar thing happens. While we don’t stand, we show our respect by calling the person "pastor." When looking at the spotlight we put on pastors, I can only conclude that she has become a mythic figure in the Christian subculture. But what type of mythic figure? Christian, American, or both?

By a myth I am referring to the vehicles through which a society expresses its beliefs about the things it holds sacred. They are sacred stories that contain explanations of how things came to be the way they are and how they should be maintained.

Examples of modern mythic figures are sports stars, movie stars and other hero’s of our modern times. John Wayne is a mythic figure as is Donald Trump. Now let’s look at the Christian subculture. We have our superstar pastors. We have our Hybels and Warren. I’m sure you can think of those I missed.

These men started as church planters and have risen to great success from "nothing." What myth is that? I would surmise that it is the same myth as a Rockefeller or a Trump. The man who starts with humble beginnings and rises to social influence and power. It is the American Myth which stems from its Greek counterparts.

On a basic level I’d say that the modern myth behind the pastor it is a mixing (There are probably several myths here.) of the Christian ideal with Americanism. A leader worthy of following in the modernist era.

Yet this myth is breaking down as we emerge into a more (post)modern cultural ethos. The superstar pastor must give way to a new way of being a pastor if the pastorate is to survive. I’m not advocating the elimination of pastoral leadership nor the demythologizing of the pastor but a re:visioning of the myth(s) we invest into the pastoral office.

A Silent Voice

I sat by myself at lunch today, outside in the park.

----The warm wind blowing,
---- A storm brewing on the horizon,
-------- dark clouds swirling about
-------- dancing to some silent tune.
-------- Light, billowy, dark and ominous
---- ----they intermingled and embraced.

My silence was broken only by the traffic.

---- The sounds of cars, horns, sirens…a jackahmmer
-------- the activity of man.
---- In the sky the dance continued unabated,
-------- patches of blue sky appear and then vanish,
-------- clouds reform and pirouette,
---- weeping as they rise up.

I sat there mesmerized by the majesty all around me,
 
---- Horns blaring, engines racing, construction,
-------- the sounds of frenetic activity,
---- engulfed by the noise I entered the stillness.

Hearing a silent voice on the wind I perceived my Lord.

---- "Watch the Dance! Watch the Dance!"
-------- The wind increased, the clouds moved swiftly…
---- "Watch the Dance….watch the Dance,
-------- for you are part of a dance that I create.
---- Live the Dance…
-------- Feel the peace of the place you are in,
-------- the smell of the grass,
-------- the light fragrance of flowers in the air.

----Know that I AM behind all things,
--------Know that I AM directing,
------------Know that I AM"

I Know

Making The Sacrifice

The more I reflect on life the more I come to realize that being submerged in the presence of God is my greatest desire. Not to be absorbed and loose myself but to be submerged and completely encompassed by the one who created me. To drown in his presence. To know Him as She is. To die to myself and live for Christ with my entire being.

There was a time when I strove for position, title, prominence and honor of the pastorate. Much of my early adulthood was devoted to God and Serving Him. My training for the pastorate, being a youth pastor, serving the church with all I had and then returning to seminary – All Dross. God mercifully provided me a wife who indulged the sacrifices we made to serve God.

Over time I came to realize that I was serving myself by serving God. A very subtle and insipid self-deception had slowly crept into my life. My devotion to serving God had become an idol in my life. We cannot serve two masters.

Now I devote my life to God alone. I’ve learned to be abased and to abound. I’m content wherever God decides to place me in life. I still serve Christ, but only out of a deep love for him. I rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to guide and keep me on the path of peace.

I’m a visionary who has prayed and sought God for years. I’ve grasped the Vision God presented me and longed to see it come to pass. Within the past six years I have learned to continually let go of the Vision trusting that God will fulfill all that She has shown. Like Abraham, I had to sacrifice the Vision to see God.

I'm back

And I thought last week would have been better. Ha! What did I know? I’ve learned something new. When you have a sprained ankle you tend to favor your other leg. While that is not anything new, it does aggravate any back problems you may have. In my case, I pinched a nerve in my lower back. I had a very painful and unproductive week.

As I seached for a spiritual analogy for the debilitating effects of back pain, the closest I could come was trying to serve God without the full support of his Spirit.

Our back supports us and allows us the freedom to move and flex in many directions. When it is not supporting you, your ability to move and flex are hindered. Even the simple tasks become laborious and time consuming. Your energy and ability is diminished while you seek to avoid pain.

In the same way, the Spirit of God empowers our lives and allows us to serve Him in freedom. We can then move and flex with the situations we find ourselves in. While pain is a possibility, avoidance of it does not become the focus of our activity. We are more open to take risks and walk as the Spirit directs.

When we try to serve God on our own strength we are unplugged from the source of our effectiveness and without adequate support in what we do. Like back pain, our efforts become laborious and less productive. While we may succeed in the beginning, reliance on our own strength eventually brings about ruin and pain.

Simply put, our flesh is weak while His Spirit is strength and strong support for our lives. If I’ve learned anything from the last week it is this: Our strength will fail us while God will never fail us.

Blinded by the Vision.?.

So often when God has given people the promise of a great vision for what he wants to do they get lost in that vision. Think of Abram and Moses as examples. These men were given great promises by God and yet they spend many years wandering without seeing the fulfillment of the vision.

After many years, Abraham's wife decided that he should take her maidservant to bear a child for Abraham and fulfill the promise that God had given him years before.  Moses, sensed that God would use him to deliver his people and relied on his training as a prince of Egypt.  And what happened to these men.

Hagar bore Ishmael whose descendants are at odds with God's people to this day. He became a great nation but not one of the promise. Moses took on his people's cause and struck down an Egyptian oppressor and killed him. He then became a fugitive hiding in the desert of Midian.

What happened to these men? If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say that they began to seek God for the vision more than seeking God in the vision. These men tried to bring a fulfillment to the vision God had given in their own strength.

Rather than seek God for who he is, they began seeking for God to fulfill the vision and use them to make it come to pass. A very typical human trait when you think of it. We are active beings and always try to give God a hand, in our own strength of course.

When I consider the Emergent transition, I wonder how many of us, myself included, are making the same mistake. Have we lost sight of God for the vision of a Church that is native to the emerging culture? A powerful vision of the Church can be a blinding aspiration and a subtle idolatry if we are not on guard against it. Has a subtle elevation of the vision taken place? Are we seeking an emergent vision or God?

Moses re-acquired his God centered vision while in the desert of Midian. Seeing a burning bush is something that Moses had seen from time to time. But his curiosity was piqued when he realized that the bush was not consumed by the flame. When he put aside his daily duty, he encountered God in that bush.

While communing with God, the vision of freeing his people was given back to him. Moses was not quick to re-grasp it as that was a vision he had probably surrendered in defeat after his last experience in Egypt. God had to bring Moses to the place of complete dependence before he could energize the vision with His power.

My point being that just maybe we should let go of the emergent vision and simply be the church. While it is true that the church is emerging. I would only hope that our emphasis is not on the emerging itself but on the One who brings about this emergence of the church.

Keeping The Connection

I'm back to a more normal schedule once again. W'hoo! George made an interesting comment the other day. Finding the balance when one is very busy is always the hard part of life. I'd have to agree with him. It is easy to hear God and keep him in your mind when you are living at a leisurely pace. To hear God in the stillness is easy. To hear him among the racket of our daily life is another thing entirely.

Yet it is possible to maintain the consciousness of God in a busy schedule. For me, this requires taking at least ½ hour each afternoon to "re-center" on God. During my lunch break I'd walk over to a nearby park, find a relatively quiet spot and meditate on the Lord for a while.

Sometimes the Lord would speak to my soul and other times I would simply feel his presence surrounding me. In the midst of a busy city park, I communed with the Lord as if I were in a temple, sanctuary or cathedral.

Life Gets In The Way

I’ve fully entered the "Suburban Frenzy." I’m currently working 50 hours a week as we lost a team member at work. My wife is fighting bronchitis and I’m doing all of the household chores. Cooking, Cleaning, etc. and to top that off, I’ve badly sprained my ankle.

So I apologize for my lack of posting. Life has been getting in the way lately. I’m praying that things normalize next week and that I’ll have time to catch my breath and write again. I miss having hours available where I could think, ponder, pray and write. . .

Next week I’m back to a more normal work schedule so I should have more time.(Ideally)

BTW: please pray for Cheryl as her illness is lingering.