I have trouble being brief. I am going to try to get to the point and then invite your comments to complete the conversation…

In his recent book, Reimagining Church, Frank Viola speaks to the question of what the “sustaining force” is of this gathering we’ve come to call a worship service.

This Viola quote speaks directly to a really troubling reality:

In the typical institutional church, the religious machinery of the church program is the force that fuels and propels the church service. Consequently, if the Spirit of God were ever to leave a typical institutional church, His absence would go unnoticed.

The “business-as-usual” program would forge ahead. The worship program would be unaffected. The liturgy would march on uninterrupted. The sermon would be preached, and the doxology would be sung. Like Samson of old, the congregation would go right along with the religious program, not knowing ‘that the Lord had departed’ (Judg. 16-20)

By contrast, the only sustaining force of the early church gathering was the life of the Holy Spirit. The early Christians were clergyless, liturgyless, programless, and ritualless. They relied entirely on the spiritual life of the individual members to maintain the church’s existence and quaility of their gatherings.

Thus, if the spiritual life of the church was at a low ebb, everyone would notice it in the gathering. They couldn’t overlook the cold chill of silence. What is more, if the Spirit of God left the meetings for good, the church would collapse altogether.

Questions, questions, questions…

- How much of the sustaining force of our church gatherings is actually our own efforts and programming?

- What is the defining mark of the Holy Spirit on our gatherings? How do we know if He is really the sustaining force?

- Is anything happening at our gatherings that couldn’t happen without the Spirit of God?

- Would we ever be willing to encounter the “cold chill of silence” in order to recognize the need for the life of the Holy Spirit in our gatherings?

I’d love join you in a lively dialog around these questions.  Please click “comment” below and weigh-in.

Hi Guys:

I’m checking out these books to help us break out of the “good songs - good sermon - good bye” pattern of worship. Can we really know Jesus? Can we really experience His presence? I’m on a mission to find out:

Jason Barnhart and I are spending the weekend in the Canaan Valley in West Virginia. We’re here to participate in an “Advance” hosted by Leonard Sweet. There are about 23 of us gathered in the living room of a mountainside house with a wall of windows looking out across the broad, flat Canaan Valley.  The Advance is a planned, casual conversation about spiritual issues, with no real agenda or objective beyond shared conversation.

One of the people invited to join us is Alan Jamieson, author of A Churchless Faith, and his new book, Chrysalis. Alan is a Kiwi who is spending a lot of time and heart seeking to understand and communicate Christianity as a journey. When describing the new book he says “Chrysalis was written for those who leave organized church but also those who loyally stay when the lights have gone out within.  But there was also one other major reader in mind – the church leaders/pastors. I wanted to include them so they might understand, validate and be able to accompany people in the midst of faith transformations…”

One of the most profound ideas Alan shared was a metaphor of the northern rata tree found in New Zealand. The northern rata usually begins life as a seed that floats in wind and settles in the humus that rests in the top branches of another species of tree. Its roots actually grow down the sides of the host tree, from top to bottom, finally reaching the ground and establishing in the soil. As the northern rata grows, its roots thicken and create a scaffold totally surrounding the host tree, enclosing it, but not feeding off it or harming it. Eventually as the the rata matures, its framework around the host tree strengthens and actually supports and upholds the declining, decaying host tree.  Eventually the roots all join up to form one single trunk around the host tree. This takes considerable time and when the host tree finally declines and dies a natural death, the rata establishes itself as a full-fledged tree up to 80 ft high with a trunk up to 8 ft through. The amazing thing is that neither the rata or the host tree harm each other. In fact, they support each other through an important transition from one expression of life to another.

Our generational culture and the nature of our church are in transition. Ready or not, it is upon us. This metaphor of the northern rata is a vision of the kind of transition that we need to make within the church:  cooperative, intentional, progressive, complete. Each generation and its expression of faith has to support the other- the host tree supports more at the start, the rata supports more at the end of the transition. Each generation should retain its identity, but there must be stages there too…the host more prominent at the start, the rata at the end. They both should be rooted in the same soil with the same purpose, but with a different look…same family, different species. Each has life and each sustains other life.

Every host tree in the world has a death. Every rata has a birth. It’s inevitable. This picture of transition should be one that we study and follow. The host cannot live forever. As it declines it should support the new movement. The old should lend its space, strength, height to the new. It should not change its identity, but it should not determine the identity of the new. It should finally succumb to the new, not begrudgingly, but thankfully. Its remains should feed the new, its heritage actually being nourishment for the future.

At the same time, the new expression should not kill the host.  It should not starve it or suck its nourishment dry.  The new should embrace and protect the host as they both mature. It should follow the outline of the old while not giving up its own distinct character.  It should honorably stand in the place of the host when the host has faded away. It should attract the other forms of life that the host was no longer able to sustain. It should be new life with roots intertwined with the roots of the old.

What would it look like if we would would allow nature to be the design for transition of our church and culture?

…so I have two friends who are pastors. One is a Brethren pastor. One used to be. Both are solid, savvy guys. Both are committed followers of Jesus. Both are totally respectable in my book. One is voting for Obama. One is voting for McCain.

So, what’s the deal? Is one of them voting God’s way and the other has been blinded by the Enemy? Is one a liberal and the other a conservative? Is one hearing from God and the other is ignoring Him? Hmmmm… such good questions.

Tomorrow at the Crossing, we will have the chance to hear why some other respectable people are voting for McCain and why some others are voting for Obama. We will see why this issue of voting for a President is not as cut-and-dried and black-and-white as we wish it would be.  Maybe we’ll even see that God calls people to vote for different candidates for different reasons, and our “rightness” comes more from seeking His will and following it than it does from voting for a particular candidate. I dunno…

What I do know for sure is that there is a whole spectrum of emotion behind this presidential election. Some of us truly couldn’t care less. Some used to care but have been burned and have lapsed into indifference. Some of us feel a great responsibility to exercise our freedom to vote and others find it a great temptation to draw lines, judge and indulge in hatred. Our purpose at the Crossing is to allow our passion, or lack of passion, to be a part of our Kingdom citizenship. It is to gain understanding and then seek direction. It is to see the presidential candidates and process inside the will and nature of God, not before it.

I saw this story on ABC’s Good Morning America yesterday:

‘Foreclosure Angel’ Saves Stranger’s Home

This is the kind of bail out we need to see more of in our neighborhoods!  I totally believe that our resources within the Kingdom are to be shared. “Love your neighbor” is right up there with “love God.” Those who have extra should give to those who are in need or in trouble.  It’s sort of the way things were meant to work and is a picture of the unique and scandalous Kingdom.

It will work best, though, if we take personal responsibility instead of depending on the government or someone else to do it! If we do this on a personal level, we have the ability to work from within a personal relationship that is the best environment for encouraging responsibility, accountability, and follow-up. It’s more efficient and effective then an impersonal, governmental program approach.

Lately, we Jesus-follows have become intoxicated by a government that offers to extend compassion on our behalf.  People who live in the Kingdom need to show our culture that we are the leaders in applying ample, progressive, responsible compassion when, where and how it is needed. We don’t seem willing to take that role as long as something/one else is assuming the role.

There’s been a tale of two walls playing out recently:

1) The Tale of Wall St. and its rapid crumbling and tumbling. The toppling is being heard and felt in purses and board rooms all over the world.

2) The Tale of the Wall of the Kingdom, as symbolized by the rebuilding of the wall in Nehemiah. We are seeing our “Wall” being built in really tangible ways around here and it’s not reliant on Wall St.

I don’t want to deny or overlook the seriousness of the economic situation. We have friends who have lost their jobs and parents who are visibly concerned about their shrinking retirement nest-eggs. It’s a shaky, ulcer-giving time for a lot of people who are only a street or phone call away from us.

In spite of all of that, I have this sense of excitement. And I am not a sadist or anything. I believe that it is times like this, like when all that Wall St. stands for is failing, that we turn to depend on God and each other for our existence instead of depending on our country or the dollar or interest-only loans. It is a perfect time for the “Children of God to be revealed.”

I believe that we are starting to see stories come in “from the field” that show that building the Kingdom is taking place. And that the crumbling of Wall St., and other crutches, is actually making the Kingdom more real and more urgent and more miraculous in people’s lives. We are seeing renewal and refreshed sense of identity and confidence as we build the Kingdom Wall in the shadow of the toppling wall of consumerism, materialism and convenience.

What does this have to do with spiritual expression? I’ve sensed for a long time that our Worship lacks guts and nerve and passion because we are approaching God as an intellectual reality. And intellectually realities are not very moving or personal. They don’t live where we do, and they don’t work out crazy, powerful good in our lives.  To be honest, we haven’t sensed any need for God. We have wanted this cosmic pacifier to help us through our neurotic drama, but that where the need stopped. As the Wall St. Wall crashes, we’re starting to see real need for God, and we are becoming real expressions of God’s love and liberation for people in all kinds of need.

So, here’s how worship (or Spiritual Expression) was meant to work and is starting to work…When our world starts to lose its sense of security and comfort, we are called to bring a sense of security and comfort to it, as extensions of God’s love and power. When we become part of real stories where we see that process in action, where we actually are depending on God to do and be what only He can do and be in these situations, where we are depending God to come through or else someone dies, we recognize that He is at work. And He becomes alive to us. And we gather to talk about what He’s really done in our lives - things like parting the financial seas, like healing desperate relationships, like finding peace in turmoil, like finding a God that loves us - we naturally worship Him as if we’ve finally awakened to the fact that He is real.

Honest spiritual expression is an acknowledgment the reality of the living God in our lives.  Worship is a response, not a duty or a pleading.  It is the coming together to tell and enjoy stories that show God and us working together in ways that matter and that change things. As our trust in the Walls of materialism, money, government, consumerism fail us, let us down, and fall on us, we find that the Kingdom of God and its walls growing. And it is amazing enough to draw out our praise for the King of the Kingdom.

I hope you’ll check back soon to get a link to some real, local stories and expressions of God working among us as we become His Living Wall. I hope it draws honest worship from all of us!

Every time my alarm clock rings, or when I’m brushing my teeth or mowing the lawn, I’m reminded of the horrible, brain-numbing monotony that drones in the background when there isn’t some bright, important sense of purpose to pull us through life.

Thousands of years ago a rich, bored guy named Solomon volunteered to experience a lot of the tasty looking stuff in life - booze, ladies, money, power, stuff, etc - to see if he could find the meaning of life.  While the whole trip sounds like a joy ride, what he found out was pretty surprising…

Without even realizing it, most of us are on the same ride. We are cycling through lots of things that look pretty satisfying. Starting this Sunday, some of us are going to join Solomon on his ride, and we’re going to find that his experience was totally relevant to ours and the punchline is the same…

Please join us for a straight-up study of Solomon’s journey into pleasure as we work through the Old Testament book, Ecclesiastes, together. There won’t be any extra books to read or any homework. Just an hour of shared understanding of some really important ideas.

We will be getting together every Sunday morning at 9:45, at 710 Park Street.  This is for any young adult, regardless of church affiliation. There’s room for a ton of people, so bring someone with you.

On Sunday, we relived the the last half of Nehemiah, Chapter 2 and all of Nehemiah Chapter 3. We looked on as Nehemiah quietly checked out the devastation of the Jerusalem Wall, and then went to the leaders of the area to inspire them to start rebuilding.  Then we saw how the job was divided up into sections of the wall and gates.  Whole families and groups saw the overall vision of the rebuilding job, and then took their part seriously enough to get to work.  We even saw that the High Priest was hauling rocks and slinging mortar.  The vision of Nehemiah became a rallying point that everyone embraced and dived into with passion.

A few thoughts come to mind.  A couple are phrases about vision that have been rolling around in my head since my former life as a bush league church and business consultant:

Without vision the people perish. - the Bible

If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. - Some Wise Dude

It seems true that if there is no clear vision or specific picture of what God is calling us to, we humans just kind of get mired down in the drama of existing.  We have nothing to pull us forward and together so we get stagnant and aimless.  I don’t think that God has EVER called us to stagnation and aimlessness!

So, we too, here in Ashland, Ohio, need a vision for all of us and a vision for each of us. A vision for the whole wall and a vision for our individual gates.

Some of us have been reading Andy Stanley’s book, Visioneering and in it he says that a real vision will require the communication of four important things : The Problem, The Solution, Why Something Must Be Done, and Why Something Must Be Done Now.

Here are my thoughts on how this plays out in the here and now:

The Problem:
We have convinced ourselves that the way it is is the way it’s gonna be. And we wait for others to lead. People say that “it is what it is” but the problem is that we should all be saying…”it is not as it should be.”

• People around us in this community are dying a slow, numbing death because they aren’t aware of the freedom and hope that Jesus and His people bring. Even we here have allowed this lack of passion for Christ and this indifference toward our purpose to put us to sleep. We are settling for much less than god wants to share with us, and we are not fulfilling our role to show this life to other people.
• We are okay with just kind of looking out for ourselves and our own sense of satisfaction when we don’t realize that the most satisfying thing we will ever do is take part in looking out for other people and taking care of them.

The Solution
God is calling us to take responsibility for the spiritual, social and cultural well-being of our community. He has equipped us with everything we need to do the job except for the desire and confidence to do it.

• We can bring words and acts of love that heal people’s spirits and set them free.
• We can put our hands to work in becoming an answer to our own prayers and to those who are needy and hopeless. We can feed the hungry, visit the lonely, bring care and prayer to the sick, help the unemployed find jobs, and bring light to the depressed.
• We can use our creativity and imagination and sensitivity to create art, music, food, entertainment and business to our community that bears the mark of life and that restores joy and beauty and interest to our surroundings. We can not only bring the life of Christ to people but also our culture.
• We can lend leadership and support to this effort. Our community sits and looks to others to lead into new expressions of hope and thriving…We are the people this community has been waiting for!

Why Something Must be Done?
People in our neighborhood are becoming too familiar with indifference and resignation to a bland existence without the adrenaline rush of hope and energy and passion and purpose that comes from knowing Christ and living out His dreams for our lives. This indifference is not how it has to be and is actually a huge weapon of the Enemy to take away our identity and to disarm us. He is sucking life away and we can’t stand for it. People are choosing spiritual sleep instead of life. We have to make a choice ourselves to snap out of it and then begin to breath the life of Christ into everything around us.

Why Something Must be Done Now
Our neighborhood has never been more ripe and the time has never been more perfect for the Children of God to be revealed in this city than right now. All of the things that we have depended on for life are wearing thing and giving out:

• National security, economy, weather, politics, environment, poverty, health, depression are all concerns that have us feeling worried and hopeless.
• People are looking for real and lasting meaning and purpose, and we have the message and ideas that they are looking for. People inside and outside out faith need a breath of fresh air that comes from people who know Christ and are motivated by the power that comes from His hope and freedom.
• We need people to find their roles in this, their section of the wall or gate. It takes everyone and it takes each of us working together.

We need people to step forward and stop waiting for leaders of the church or of the government to get things started. It’s time for ownership and leadership to do things like:

• Organize community gatherings, build new relationships, bring ideas alive that revitalize our neighborhood and the people in it,
• Find the cracks in that wall and do something about it.
• Make all of life wrapped around this!

So, here are some questions for each of us:

• Where do you fit in?
• Where do you see yourself fitting into this overall picture of renewing our neighborhood and community?
• What will it take for you to step out sleepy existence into passionate purpose?

Stay tuned…this Sunday we’ll talk about the importance of spiritual development and we pursue our vision.  We’ll emphasize the importance of having each other’s backs and keeping each other sharp spiritually.

On Sunday we gathered around the idea of “positive presence” which is a short way of saying “making and being in relationships with people who are not part of the church.” We continued to use the story of Nehemiah (Ch 2:1-10) to show how a person who is trusted, close, and respectful to those who are in places of influence can actually work with that influence to make things more like God wants them.

Positive presence and relationships go a couple different ways. First, they are individual. It should be a totally natural thing for each of us to connect with people who don’t believe or even act the same as we do. I mentioned on Sunday that people who don’t live or believe the way we do will never care about our beliefs or lifestyle unless they know that we care for them and like them as friends. We need to be a positive presence within their lives and hearts if we are to have any chance at loving them as completely as we should.

Relationships are also cultural. I mentioned on Sunday that we cannot change something that we’re not involved with.  People outside of Christianity don’t seek guidance or direction from Christians or from the Bible. They are influenced, for the most part, by things like the media, entertainment, education, arts, government, science, etc.  If Christians are to have a chance at changing the world for good, we have to influence culture. To do that, we have to be part of the things that drive the culture.  We need to be a positive presence within the world culture.  We need to be positively present in news rooms, locker rooms, studios, court rooms, executive suites, classrooms and laboratories.

I want to punctuate this week’s conversation and look to next week’s discussion with words that have had a big impact on me. A few weeks back we shared a 2nd Century description of early Christians who were making their presence know in Greece, Rome and Jerusalem in very positive ways. These writings not only express the positive reputation of early Christians, but they also sketch a vision of the Church as it is still meant to be today. These words are from The Epistle to Diognetus:

For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonored, and yet in their very dishonor are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honor; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.

To see our video on this topic, click here:  Our Wall

Sunday we gave the back-story of The Wall that plays such a big role in the story of Nehemiah. We barely touched on Nehemiah, the man. He’ll show up in the conversation next week…

(One thing to get out of the way right off the top: this whole study will make SO much more sense if you actually read the book of Nehemiah. If you haven’t already done so and you want to get caught up, please go here and read chapter one.  I talked to some people who sort of didn’t pick up on everything we were trying to communicate yesterday and I found out they hadn’t read the chapter in advance. I think if you read it, some lights will come on.)

For God’s people in Nehemiah’s time (400’s BC), the wall of Jerusalem was more of a “who” than a “what.”  The Wall surrounded the entire city and it created a sense of identity, community and security for God’s people. Don’t get me wrong…it wasn’t like the wall was an idol or that it took the place of God. It was more a symbol of God’s promises and love for the people. It really defined God’s people and their culture.

The people of that day didn’t view walls as we do today. In this day of individuality and personal liberty, we see walls as negative symbols of division or as barriers. This wasn’t the case for Nehemiah’s people. The wall was them. When Nehemiah heard from a distant city that Jerusalem was attacked by the enemy of God’s people and that the wall was destroyed, he mourned and wept, much as we did when we watched the World Trade Center’s towers come down at the hands of terrorists. A part of us died, and so it was with Nehemiah’s people. It shook them to the roots and left them exiled, devastated, or enslaved.  Nehemiah could have just shot a few sincere prayers in the direction of Jerusalem for healing, or he could have said “Our strength is in God, not the wall. Good riddance!” But after a time of contemplation and mourning over all that the wall meant, he was moved by compassion to lead a rebuilding project that would restore the identity of God’s people. And God honored Nehemiah’s plan!

To bring this historical story to life here in this place and time, we need to understand what parts of our culture have the same significance for us that the wall had for Nehemiah’s people.  In the Ashland area, what represents our sense of identity and security and life? What makes us feel connected to God? What reminds us that He is with us and that we are part of His ever-growing, ever-greening Kingdom? Those things make up our wall. The enemy, Satan,  has destroyed so much of this Wall that represents life and growth in our area.  Many of our churches are declining and stagnant. Thousands of jobs have evaporated. Shops and stores have closed down. Young people are moving out of the city. Morals and decency have decayed. We have a pessimistic outlook when it comes to our future and even we Christians seem to have a shriveled, skeptical view of our role here.

If we believe that our mission on earth is to be part of God’s Kingdom and to join Him in making “all things new again” we should be mourning and devastated about the souls and spirits of our people that seem to be dying or losing hope. God invites us into a season of loss. To think of the life that was meant for this city in comparison to the reality we tend to settle for. He wants us to remember His original dreams for His creation and to be aware that the enemy has invaded and has devastated and has lulled us into apathy and has dragged us into captivity.

We need to awaken to the news that our wall has fallen. Weep. Pray. Fast. That moment of somber reflection will make room for compassion and a groaning for God’s dreams to be restored in our city. And I pray that it will move us to lead that restoration.

To see our video on this topic, click here:  Our Wall