learning to listen

Changes

2009-04-17T08:36:00.000-07:00

Hey interested readers,

I wanted to write to you to give some updates on the transition at The River and what we're up to. Since last fall, we have seen some pretty incredible changes happening at the church. I stepped down as the senior pastor and was rehired as the associate pastor through the redevelopment transition. During this time, we changed locations and began holding our church services at our local movie theater. This has been a great opportunity as we have seen a number of new families discover our church through the downtown presence at a more visible location.

Additionally, in October a local businessman donated us the use of an empty store on the major highway through town for us to use as a ministry center/office building. We've been working on fixing it up over the past few months and have already seen numerous opportunities to minister to people who simply stop by the office needing someone to talk to. In March, our pastoral search process came to a close and we hired a man named Joe Arwood to be the next senior pastor at The River. Joe has hit the ground running and is working hard to continue the momentum as we minister to those who are hurting in our community. We are well on our way to seeing The River Alliance Church become a viable and significant ministry in Chaska.

As part of the transition, Corey is now the part-time associate pastor. His main roles include evangelism to those on the fringes of our community, continual operation of the youth ministry (which continues to have amazing stories through our outreach concerts, etc.), some worship leading, and leading of small groups. In the process of transitioning, we began to seek out where God was directing us for the rest of Corey's income. As we have prayed and talked with other area churches and ministries, God has placed on our hearts a new ministry opportunity that we fits perfectly with the experiences and passions that we have developed over the last 8 years.

We have spent much of our time working with post-high school young adults that have come from at-risk backgrounds. We have watched as teen-focused ministries have done amazing work with them, but after they graduate from high school, they are on their own. We believe that many young adults desperately need assistance launching into successful adulthood.

We have decided to start a new organization, called Launch Ministry, which will meet a significant need in this demographic. The mission of the organization is to promote holistic life transformation as youth transition into adulthood by providing them with tools to develop life skills, opportunities to lead and serve, and by promoting spiritual and character formation. We will do this through mentoring, leadership training, life skills classes, volunteer service opportunities, discipleship houses (where people would live and learn in community), counseling, and spiritual development opportunities.

Over the past two months, we have been developing partnerships with area youth ministries and have seen amazing results. Everyone sees a desperate need for a young adult ministry that can help students to discover their God-given potential while assisting them with the practical things that they need to make that a reality. Since this idea was hatched a few months ago, we have started an initial Bible study to connect with people in this age group. It has been tremendously successful with 15-25 young adults attending weekly. We have held several community events that have also been well attended. Once we are in position to more fully launch the organization (programming, etc. in place), we will have no trouble finding interested students who desperately need the kind of mentoring and assistance that we can offer. On the organizational side, we have put together our board of directors and have begun our strategic planning and partnerships. We have begun the application to receive our 501(c)3 nonprofit status, but until that is approved, we will function under the banner of The River.

This is a scary and exciting journey for us as we seek to follow God's leading in our lives. Thank you for your willingness to participate with us and may God bless you as you serve Him.

In Christ,

Corey and Lori

p.s. - Check out the Launch Ministry Blog frequently for updates, stories, and more!

New Church Website

2009-01-12T11:08:00.000-08:00

Our new church website is up and running. For the time being, any blogging I do will be there.

2008-08-13T10:10:00.000-07:00

Jesus taught us, saying: ‘Sell your possessions and give to those in need. Get yourselves purses that do not wear out, treasure that will not fail you, in heaven where no thief can reach it and no moth destroy it. For where your treasure is, there is where your heart will be too.’
Luke 12:33–34

Yesterday, I was thinking about the 'places' where Jesus isn't and the state of our hearts. This morning's Scripture reading above describes the places that we allow our hearts to go that we value above the presence of Jesus.

When reading this, my first thought was that I'm not terribly concerned about treasures in heaven, jewels in my crown, rewards that I will someday get when my soul floats off into heaven to be with Jesus for all eternity. That doesn't really inspire me to action. It's so distant and intangible. My own treasures, the things that I value above Jesus, are often a lot more real than these ethereal heavenly ideals.

But then I reread the passage in terms of heaven breaking into our present reality. The passage takes on an entirely different tone at that point. Instead of treasures being stored up in heaven somewhere, the treasures are genuine reality as the kingdom becomes more present in our midst. Instead of storing up treasures as rewards, the treasures are resources that are used in the inbreaking kingdom to further the mission that God has invited us to be a part of.

When I love someone unlovable, the kingdom of heaven becomes more real in our midst. When I forgive the unforgivable, bring hope to someone who has none, when I reflect the presence of Jesus into places that desperately need him, heaven becomes more real.

Even better, what happens if I can somehow view this passage in less individualistic terms? It's not ME storing up treasures for MYSELF...rather it's each of us storing up treasures that benefit all of us and the world as God's kingdom invades.

I guess that the essence of what I'm saying is that the things that we do as part of Jesus' kingdom advance matter NOW as well as for eternity to come.

Looking Where He Isn't

2008-08-12T07:27:00.000-07:00

Every year his parents used to go to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up for the feast as usual. When the days of the feast were over and they set off home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem without his parents knowing it. They assumed he was somewhere in the party, and it was only after a day’s journey that they went to look for him among their relations and acquaintances. When they failed to find him they went back to Jerusalem, looking for him everywhere. It happened that, three days later, they found him in the Temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them, and asking them questions; and all those who heard him were astounded at his intelligence and his replies. They were overcome when they saw him, and his mother said to him, ‘My child, why have you done this to us? See how worried your father and I have been, looking for you.’ ‘Why were you looking for me?’ he replied. ‘Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ But they did not understand what he meant. He went down with them and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority. His mother stored up all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and with people.

Luke 2:41–52

I was reading this passage this morning and the thought struck me that for three days, Mary and Joseph looked for Jesus in many places where we wasn't to be found. Eventually, however, they looked for him in the place that they should have looked all along...in his Father's house. They didn't understand that Jesus would always be about his Father's business.

It got me thinking...Do I 'look for Jesus' in places where he won't be found? Like Mary and Joseph at first, do I forget to look for him at all? Would I even notice if he wasn't there? What kind of 'places' does Jesus avoid?

I think that the 'places' that Jesus is not to be found today probably has to do more with states of heart than location. People experiencing brokenness, hopelessness, and frustration are places where Jesus spends his time. People living out their faith in love, bringing hope to the hopeless, bringing peace in the midst of conflict...these are places where Jesus spends his time.

Places that Jesus avoids are those who are filled with pride, self-justification, confidence in their own holiness, people who are more concerned with looking spiritual than being spiritual, people who reject the lost and broken, those who hate justice and mercy. It's unfortunate that I probable spend too much time here and much less time where Jesus is.

Complaint Letter About The River Church

2008-06-03T16:22:00.000-07:00

[Note...Make sure you read all the way to the end!!]

The only thing worse than being ignorant is not knowing how ignorant you are. That's The River Church's problem. The first thing I want to bring up is that The River Church can't possibly believe that the rigors that its victims have been called upon to undergo have been amply justified in the sphere of concrete achievement. It's conscienceless but it's not that conscienceless. In The River Church's quest to engender ill will it has left no destructive scheme unutilized. The River Church wants nothing less than to convince impressionable young people that every word that leaves its mouth is teeming with useful information. Its deputies then wonder, "What's wrong with that?" Well, there's not much to be done with tasteless riffraff who can't figure out what's wrong with that, but the rest of us can plainly see that I've repeatedly pointed out to The River Church that it is at least partially right in that I pledge -- in my daily life, in my family, my work, my community, my country, and my region -- to counteract the subtle, but pervasive, social message that says that human life is expendable. That apparently didn't register with it, though. Oh, well; I guess The River Church should think about how its adages lead nasty wheeler-dealers to welsh on all kinds of agreements. If The River Church doesn't want to think that hard, perhaps it should just keep quiet.

According to The River Church's distortions, distractions, and outright deceptions, The River Church has been robbed of all it does not possess. Fortunately, most of the people who are seriously interested in preserving our civilization know that the reality is that when it comes to The River Church's machinations, I definitely aver that we have drifted along for too long in a state of blissful denial and outright complacency. It's time to improve the lot of humankind. The sooner we do that the better because we can never return to the past. And if we are ever to move forward to the future, we certainly have to supply the missing ingredient that could stop the worldwide slide into fetishism.

In spite of all The River Church has done, I must admit I really like the organization. No, just kidding. The River Church says that it could do a gentler and fairer job of running the world than anyone else. What balderdash! What impudence! What treachery! If The River Church were to get its hands on the levers of power it'd immediately displace meaningful discussion of an issue's merit or demerit with hunch and emotion. If you don't believe me then consider that we must explain a few facets of this confusing world around us. Only then can a society free of its ruthless rodomontades blossom forth from the roots of the past. And only then will people come to understand that its methods are much subtler now than ever before. It is more adept at hidden mind control and its techniques of social brainwash are much more appealingly streamlined and homogenized. Lastly, the dynamics of the situation are such that The River Church's apothegms bespeak a spiritual crassness, a materialistic and short-sighted stupidity that will test another formula for silencing serious opposition sooner or later.

Wow...I knew we were questionable, but I didn't know we were THAT bad!

Actually, that was an automatic complaint letter generated from this site. Fun stuff.

HT - Mark Bjorlo

Graduating!!!

2008-05-29T08:57:00.000-07:00

The finish line is in sight...light at the end of the tunnel...pick your own metaphor. On Saturday I graduate with my Master of Divinity from Bethel Seminary!! I'll still have a few details to finish up this summer, but after 4 years, I'm definitely ready to be done. It should be a fun weekend with family coming into town and some surprise that my wife has cooked up for us.

You Be the (Youth) Pastor

2008-05-14T06:56:00.000-07:00

I'm reviving the "You Be the Pastor" posts to address a situation that happened at youth group last night.

During our teaching time, one 16 year old student (we'll call him Tom) raised his hand and said "I've been reading the Daoist scriptures and one thing it said was that if you want to be great, you must make yourself low. The ocean is the greatest body of water because it is the lowest." It was actually a perfect segue into our discussion on discipleship, so we talked about how that statement was relevant and how Jesus said similar things.

After youth group, Tom came up to me privately and said, "I'm thinking about becoming a Daoist. Is it a problem to be Daoist and a Christian?"

You be the (youth) pastor: What would you say?

Don't Break the Cross!!

2008-05-14T06:47:00.000-07:00

Since our church building was just purchased by another church, we've been doing some selling, giving away, sorting, and throwing away seven years of assorted junk. My friend Jeremy was helping one afternoon when he came across a homemade wooden cross which had been in the closet for several years. I wish I would have been there to hear the conversation. The three people were trying to figure out what to do with the cross. Their Catholic upbringing kicked in. None of them wanted to throw the cross in the dumpster. It somehow seemed wrong to put the cross in the garbage with the other junk.

After arguing back and forth, Jeremy finally suggested that if they took the cross apart, it wouldn't be a cross anymore which would make it okay to throw away. So he decided to try and break the cross in half. As he broke it, the end of the cross snapped back and hit him in his man-parts, leaving him rolling in pain.

That ought to put the fear of God in you, Jeremy!

Shure Thing

2008-05-06T07:39:00.000-07:00

So our rented church building was purchased by the local Assemblies of God church. We're good friends with them, so we're going to be able to stay and hold our main service on Sunday evening instead. Our first Sunday night service was this past weekend, and I think it's going to be really good.

Part of the process of getting resettled is that New Life wants to fix the place up. They moved out the portable stage risers to build a permanent stage, and underneath one of the risers, they found this...our long lost microphone

The most amazing thing is...it still works!!!

All We Talk About is Sin

2008-05-04T11:05:00.000-07:00

Sorry, back-to-back child stories. But often children help us become aware of spiritual realities that we're too set in our ways to notice on our own.

This week, Jaron had a substitute teacher. One day, he came home and said that he thought the substitute was a Christian. When my wife asked him why, he said that they were all trying to think of words that contained the "in" sound. His teacher suggested the word "sin", therefore she must be a Christian.

I find it deeply disturbing that my five year old son has already noticed that a fascination with sin is the mark of a Christian. This is clearly not the kind of abundant life that Jesus talks about. What about becoming a new creation - the old is gone, the new has come? What about no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus? What about loving your neighbor as yourself? Why doesn't he recognize those things as the marks of a Christian?

Maybe it's because I'm not all that great of a new creation, so certainly I get some of the credit (blame?). But I think that the problem is bigger than that. I think that we so often forget that we don't have to be stuck in that place of guilt and shame. We can become something new, where we are defined by the good that is within us and that works through us rather than by the evil that still haunts us.

Dallas Willard coined the phrase "the gospel of sin management" as the predominant approach to discipleship in the church [The Divine Conspiracy]. In this perspective, our whole goal is to control our depravity to manageable levels, just trying to survive long enough to make it to heaven mostly in one piece. As a result, discipleship is generally about not doing certain things - sin avoidance. Willard suggests that discipleship should instead be about kingdom advancement (my words) - living out our relationship with God, focusing on the positive, living as new creatures, creating new habits that reflect the glory of our Creator.

I would love it if someday my son would say something like, "That person just did something very kind and loving. I bet that she's a Christian." Wouldn't it be great if that was our lived out message in the world?

My Son's Favorite Bible Verse (pray for us!!)

2008-04-29T11:03:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the lack of posting. I'm trying to finish my last class at Bethel Seminary. Anyway, I've got time for yet another lighthearted story from everyone's favorite five year old. We were driving home from Grandpa and Grandma's house in Iowa and Jaron was being a little problematic in the back seat. Here's how the conversation went:

Me: Jaron, what was that Bible verse that you just memorized? Children...

Jaron: (growling) Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. That's a crappy verse. That's a really crappy verse.

My Last Word

2008-04-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

As Erik asked in the comments of the last post, I suppose I should express my opinions on this book. If you recall from the first post in this series, my goal was not just to talk about the book, but to actually develop my understanding of the role and function of Scripture in the life of the church today. How are we to understand words like inerrancy, infallibility, authoritative, inspiration, etc.? Are these modern creations and categories that would not even make sense to the original writers?

What I appreciated about Wright's book, like most everything he writes, is the balanced approach that he takes toward the questions. He makes it his goal to step away from the heated controversy in order to approach Scripture in meaningful ways, without getting caught up in minutia. I appreciated the historical look at the function and role of Scripture throughout church history. I also appreciated his continual emphasis upon the fact that any authority that Scripture possesses is God's authority working through Scripture which results in kingdom mission being fulfilled. This missional outlook forces us to stop treating the Bible like a theological answer book and more like a living, active, life-giving channel for God to speak into the church. The final chapter in this book with the description of the five acts was especially helpful.

There were two places that I struggled a bit with Wright. First, as an Anglican bishop, Wright's high church perspective definitely seeps into much of what he writes. This is not such a big deal as it isn't difficult to contextualize his ideas into a low church mindset. Second, and somewhat surprising to me, Wright came down particularly hard on postmodern approaches to Scripture. He allowed that postmodern thinking has been mildly corrective by highlighting other ways that Scripture can be read, but he claims that the end result has been negative because the end result is nihilistic and relativistic. I think that he has not given enough credence to the necessary corrective to modern approaches to Scripture (both fundamentalist and liberal) and has not given postmodern perspectives enough of a chance to develop.

Apart from those two critiques, the book is fantastic. I would strongly recommend it to anyone who is wrestling with the issues of how to approach Scripture. I would also strongly recommend the article that I linked to in the last post.

The Last "Last Word"

2008-04-08T07:30:00.000-07:00

Today I'll be finishing up our look at N.T. Wright's The Last Word: Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of Scripture. In chapter eight, after having just discussed the interpretation problems that both conservatives and liberals demonstrate, Wright offers some suggestions on how to get back on track. He writes that the phrase 'the authority of Scripture' needs to be integrated to 'highlight the role of the Spirit as the powerful, transformative agent'; to 'keep as its central focus the goal of God's Kingdom'; 'envision the church as characterized by prayerful listening to, strenuous wrestling with, humble obedience before, and powerful proclamation of scripture'.

Major conclusion: "The shorthand phrase 'the authority of scripture' when unpacked offers a picture of God's sovereign and saving plan for the entire cosmos, dramatically inaugurated by Jesus himself, and now to be implemented through the Spirit-led life of the church precisely as the scripture-reading community."

For Wright, this means that "'the authority of Scripture is most truly put into operation as the church goes to work in the world on behalf of the gospel, the good news that in Jesus Christ the living God has defeated the powers of evil and begun the work of new creation."

Wright proposes a 'multilayered view' of Scipture, which contains his five-act hermeneutic. He writes, "The Bible itself offers a model for its own reading, which involves knowing where we are within the overall drama and what is appropriate within each act. The acts are: creation, 'fall', Israel, Jesus, and the church; they constitute the differentiated stages in the divine drama which scripture itself offers."

Implications:

"We are currently living in the fifth act, the time of the church...Those who live in this fifth act have an ambiguous relationship with the four previous acts, not because they are being disloyal to them but precisely because they are being loyal to them as part of the story."
"Our relationship to the New Testament is not the same as our relationship to the Old, and we can say this with no diminution of our commitment to the Old Testament as a crucial and non-negotiable part of 'holy scripture'."
"We who call ourselves Christians must be totally committed to telling the story of Jesus both as the climax of Israel's story and as the foundation of our own...It is an essential part of authentic Christian discipleship both to see the New Testament as the foundation for the ongoing (and still open-ended) fifth act and to recognize that it cannot be supplanted or supplemented."
Improvisation: "All Christians, all churches, are free to improvise their own variations designed to take the music forward. No Christian, no church, is free to play out of tune. To change the metaphor back to the theater: all the actors, and all the traveling companies of which they are part are free to improvise their own fresh scenes. No actor, no company, is free to improvise scenes from another play, or one with a different ending. If only we could grasp that, we would be on the way to healthy and mutually respectful living under the authority of Scripture."

Wright concludes with five strategies for honoring the authority of Scripture - We do so by a reading of Scripture that is:

Totally contextual - (the passages read in the context of the narrative, in the context of history, and appropriated into our context)
Liturgically grounded - (the reading of Scripture plays a central role in our public gatherings)
Privately studied - (individuals read Scripture to grow and change)
Refreshed by appropriate scholarship - (giving freedom to scholars to explore new meanings of biblical texts while not blatantly disregarding the historical and cherished perspectives of the church)
Taught by the church's accredited leaders - (the church ought to be led by Bible teachers, not by bureaucratic administrators)

For more by N.T. Wright, read THIS FANTASTIC ARTICLE which is a helpful perspective on how we read Scripture appropriately.

I just saw a bank robbery!

2008-03-28T05:53:00.000-07:00

...well...kind of. I just saw part of the high speed chase after the bank robbery. I was on Interstate 694 eastbound when I saw a car screaming past heading the opposite direction with about a dozen police cars chasing it. I turned on the radio and heard a live update about the chase. Ten minutes later, they announced that they had pulled him over and had footage of him throwing bags of money out of his car window (no, I didn't pull over and help myself...). Five minutes after that, the radio reported that they "pulled him over" by shooting him from behind and that the bank robber was dead on the scene. More updates as I hear them...

...UPDATE...
The suspect was shot, but not killed. "He'll be just fine" according to the new reports.

...UPDATE 2...
They still haven't released the name of the suspect, but they believe he's been involved in other area bank robberies. Dude, quit while you're ahead!! Full story here.

Thoughts on the Obama/Wright Fiasco

2008-03-24T09:36:00.000-07:00

Since the media isn't about to let the issue go yet, I decided to weigh in on the comments by Obama's pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright. I'm going to go after this on two fronts - first, the cynically politicized and second the hopefully Christian.

Cynically Politicized
Why are you people making such a big deal about things that Obama's pastor says? Of course he hasn't left the church. That church is the largest black church on the south side of Chicago. The reason he goes there is because he needed it to form his political base when he was first running for office. He doesn't take Rev. Wright seriously. No one does. Just relax and recognize that our political system requires candidates to be church-going people. Therefore, candidates choose the most prestigious churches that they can find. This whole issue says nothing about Obama's judgment or his beliefs. He simply used the church for his own benefit...just like every other politician does. He stuck with Wright and his church for the same reason that Hillary stuck with Bill...power and politics.

Hopefully Christian
Wouldn't it be great if it wasn't an assumption that the minute we disagree with our pastor we are obligated to leave our church? I know, I know, you're going to say that it's not just disagreeing with the pastor, it's the level of hatred and vitriol that would make it impossible to stay in a church like that. But what if Obama is more interested in the community than the pastor? What if some aberrant beliefs aren't enough to cause him to leave the church where he found his faith, where his kids were baptized, where he finds emotional and spiritual support from a community that loves and embraces him? What if Wright also offers spiritual counsel that is very different from these publicized comments? What if he also offers good and faithful teachings that have been beneficial to Obama's spiritual development? What if Obama recognizes that Wright's comments are wrong (which he does) but instead of leaving, he decides to be a voice of change in the community that he loves? Can't we find a way to be Christian without dividing into tinier and more fragmented groups ALL THE TIME!!

Good Friday Reflection

2008-03-21T08:45:00.000-07:00

Due to the inclement weather on this second day of spring, we have elected not to have our Good Friday Experience this evening. Instead, I have posted a reflection that contains some of the thoughts and reflections that we were going to talk through this evening. God bless!

For Christians today, it is virtually impossible to talk about the crucifixion without simultaneously thinking about the resurrection. We know that death isn’t really death…out of death, life. But for today, Good Friday, our goal is to try to forget that we know how the story ends.

Today, we are going to explore abandonment, loneliness, the absence of God. It is a moment when we experience for ourselves Christ’s cry on the cross. It is a moment when we ourselves feel abandoned by God and alone in the world. That day is always a little closer than we are comfortable with, as we have all experienced the unsettling feeling of abandonment, when perhaps everything we believe is empty words and hopeless dreams. This is the tragedy of the cross…not just the suffering of an innocent man…but the removal, the absence of God.

For Reflection: When have you felt lonely, alone, abandoned? When have you felt that even God didn’t care?

Read Matthew 26:36-46

Poem: The Sins of the Father

I was hungry for love, and you ignored me
I was thirsty for encouragement but all I received was criticism
I was naked - ashamed with no self worth; you couldn’t even look at me
I felt like a stranger in a strange land – you did not make me feel at home
I was sick with depression, and all I felt was your condemnation
I was in the prison of the soul, and you were silent
I tried to sing, but my songs did not touch you
I spilt out my inky soul onto pages, but you would never read a word
You were there, but all I felt was absence
Your presence was my desert
The image of you tormented me, for it became a memorial
A reminder of love’s privation
The absent father, who was there, but was not there
Cursed are you in your abstraction - for there you can mean nothing to me
I remember that day I sat down in front of you
And asked you to say that you loved me
For any father should love his child
But you just looked back at me blankly…
…you made a bastard out of me.

Read Matthew 27:11-16

Put yourself in the crowd as you respond to Pilate's questions:

Pilate: “Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?”
Me: Barabbas!
Pilate: “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?”
Me: Barabbas!
Pilate: “But he is a criminal.”
Me: Barabbas!
Pilate: “A thief.”
Me: Barabbas!
Pilate: “A troublemaker.”
Me: Barabbas!
Pilate: “He cares nothing for you!”
Me: Barabbas!
Pilate: “I don’t understand!”
Me: Barabbas!

Pilate: “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?”
Me: Crucify him!
Pilate: “Why? What crime has he committed?”
Me: Crucify him!
Pilate: “But he is an innocent man!”
Me: Crucify him!
Pilate: “He is your king!”
Me: Crucify him!
Pilate: “Your Lord!”
Me: Crucify him!
Pilate: “He heals the sick!”
Me: Crucify him!
Pilate: “He raises the dead!”
Me: Crucify him!
Pilate: “I don’t understand!”
Me: Crucify him!

Pilate: “I am innocent of this man’s blood. It is your responsibility.”
Me: Let his blood be on us and on our children!
Pilate: “Do you know what you are saying?”
Me: Let his blood be on us and on our children!
Pilate: “You will carry this weight?”
Me: Let his blood be on us and on our children!
Pilate: “You will carry this guilt?”
Me: Let his blood be on us and on our children!
Pilate: “You have said it. Let it be so.”

Reflection: How many times have we chosen Barabbas over Jesus? A person. A secret sin. A cherished possession. An unspoken longing. Reputation. Prestige. Each of us has a Barabbas. And each of us has willingly placed his blood on our hands. What have you chosen today in place of Jesus?

Read Matthew 27:27-50

Reflection: Sit for a few minutes and think about Jesus' loneliness. Abandoned by his friends. Abandoned by God. Abandoned by you. Alone.

Court Case

In a world where following Christ is decreed a subversive and illegal activity you have been arrested and brought before a court.

The prosecution has quite a case against you. They begin by offering the judge dozens of photographs which show you attending church meetings, speaking at religious events and participating in various prayer and worship services. Next they present a few of the religious books that you own, followed by some of your worship CDs and Christian artifacts. After this they step up the pace and present many of the poems, pieces of prose and journal entries that you have written about faith. Then in closing the prosecution offers your bible to the judge. This is a well-worn book with scribbles, notes, drawings and underling throughout, evidence, if it were needed, that you had read and re-read this sacred text many times.

Throughout the case you have been sitting silently in fear and trembling. You know deep in your heart that, with the evidence amassed against you, you face the possibility of a long imprisonment or even death. At various times throughout the proceedings you have been on the verge of standing up and denying Christ. But while this thought has haunted your mind you resist the temptation and remain focused.

Once the prosecution has finished presenting their case the judge proceeds to ask if you have anything to add, but you remain silent and resolute, terrified that if you open your mouth you would deny the charges made against you. After a few moments of silence you are led away while the judge ponders your case.

The hours pass slowly as you wait to be summoned back. Eventually a guard appears and leads you into the courtroom in order to hear the verdict and receive word of your punishment. The judge enters the room, stands before you, looks deep into your eyes and begins to speak,

“Of the charges that have been brought forward I find the accused not guilty”.

“Not guilty”, your heart freezes. Then, in a split second, the fear and terror that had moments before threatened to strip your resolve is transformed into confusion and rage. Despite your fear, you stand before the judge and demand that he tell you why you are innocent of the charges in light of all the evidence.

“What evidence” he replies in shock.

“What about the poems and prose that I wrote?”

“They simply show that you think of yourself as a poet.”

“But what about the services I spoke at, the times I wept in church and the days that I offered myself for prayer?”

“Evidence that you are a good speaker and actor, nothing more. It is obvious that you fooled those around you, and perhaps even yourself, but this foolishness is not enough to convict you in a court of law”

“But this is madness, no evidence would seem to convince you”

“Not so” replied the judge as if informing me of a great, long forgotten secret,

“The court is indifferent toward your bible reading and church attendance; it has no concern for worship with words and a pen. Continue to develop your theology, and use it to paint pictures of love. We have no interest in such armchair artists who spend their time creating images of a better world. We exist only for those who would lay down that brush, and their life, in a Christ-like endeavor to create it. So then, until you live as Christ and his followers, until you challenge this system and become a thorn in our side, until you die to yourself and offer your body to the flames, until then my friend you are no enemy of ours”.

My Catholic Daughter

2008-03-14T07:10:00.000-07:00

Last night when I put my two-year-old daughter to bed, I asked her if she wanted to pray. Here's how the conversation went...

Corey: Would you like to pray first?

Lily: I pray to Mary.

Corey: What did you say?

Lily: I pray to Mary, Jesus' mommy.

Corey: Well, why don't we pray to Jesus instead.

Lily: Dear Baby Jesus...

So she's either becoming Catholic or Will Ferrell, I'm not sure which yet.

The Last Word 8

2008-03-05T07:42:00.000-08:00

In chapter 7 of "The Last Word", N.T. Wright describes how the polarization of left, right, conservative, liberal, modern, and postmodern have resulted in misreadings of Scripture on both sides. He lists these misreadings as falling generally into the "right" and "left".

Some of the misreadings of the right include:

The openly dualistic 'rapture' readings of 1 Thess. 4
The explicitly materialistic 'prosperity gospel' understanding of biblical promises
The support of slavery (not currently, but historically used by the right)
The endemic racism of much of Western culture (again, generally historically, but some groups still use scripture on which to base their racist claims)
Undifferentiated reading of the Old and New Testament
Unacknowledged and arbitrary pick-and-mix selection of an implicit canon-within-the-canon
Support for the death penalty (which was opposed by many early church fathers)
Discovery of 'religious' meanings and excluding 'political' ones, thereby supporting the social status quo
Screening out the Jewish dimension of Paul's writings, Romans in particular
Attempting 'biblical' support for the modern state of Israel as the fulfillment of scriptural prophecy
An overall failure to pay attention to context and hermeneutics

The misreadings of the left include:

The claim to 'objectivity' or to a 'neutral' reading of the text (the classic modern position)
The claim that modern history or science has either 'disproved the Bible' or made its central claims redundant, undesirable, or unbelievable
The 'cultural relativity' argument: The Bible is an old book that we can't take seriously in a modern world
Rationalist rewritings of history which use as a starting point the things that the Enlightenment wanted to prove
Caricaturing biblical teaching on some topics in order to be able to set aside its teaching on other topics
Discovery of 'political' meanings to the exclusion of 'religious' ones
The proposal that the NT used the OT in a fairly arbitrary or unwarranted fashion, leading to the conclusion that we can use the NT the same way.
The claim that the NT writers did not think they were writing Scripture
Pointing out that the church took a while to settle on the precise canon and using this as an argument to discredit the canon and privilege other non-canonical books
A skin-deep appeal to 'contextual readings'

Some might disagree with Wright's perspective on this (and might also wonder how he determines that his understanding of these issues is, in fact, correct). But the point remains that people regularly misread Scripture based on their backgrounds. How to reconcile these differences is the subject of the final chapter of the book.

Kid Free Living

2008-02-24T20:22:00.000-08:00

My parents just arrived to take care of our kids so my wife and I can go to our district pastor's and wives retreat...three days of kid free living!!

The Last Word 7

2008-02-22T07:44:00.000-08:00

In chapter six of The Last Word, N.T. Wright faces the challenge of the Enlightenment and its influence in how we read and understand Scripture. He begins by discussing the role of reason as the 'central capacity of human beings' and the 'arbiter of which religious and theological claims could be sustained'. In reading the Bible through the lens of the Enlightenment, Wright sees two challenges. First, the Enlightenment challenged the church to read Scripture historically, looking for original meanings in the text. Second, some theologians intentionally sought to prove that in discovering the original meanings, the Bible would be proved faulty and the central claims of Christianity would be disproved. Much of Biblical scholarship since has been attempts to rationally 'disprove' the Christian faith with an equally strong rebuttal of those who use the same methodology to 'prove' it to be true.

According to the Enlightenment, we need to understand Scripture according to Enlightenment values. The problem of evil is that 'people are not thinking and acting rationally' which reduces the importance of Jesus to simply moral teaching. The Kingdom of God becomes only hope for heaven after we die and Jesus' death is simply a 'mechanism whereby individual sinners can receive forgiveness and hope for an otherworldly future', which leaves the rationalists in charge of everything else in the world. God is 'kicked upstairs', making religion only about personal piety and personal forgiveness. Scripture is abused by both sides: dismissed by secularists who deem it irrelevant and inaccurate; equally misused by devout Christians who ignore many of the cosmic and global teachings and reduce Scripture to personal piety and the source of doctrine about eternal salvation.

What are we to think of the authority of Scripture in this climate? Often the appeal to the authority of Scripture means nothing more than, "Stop talking with all those big theological words! Stop thinking! All we need is the Bible (read through the lens of 16th and 17th century theologians)." This irony is that "fundamentalists" and "liberals" essentially approach Scripture in the same way: conveniently ignoring the passages that make them uncomfortable, albeit different passages for each. Wright states, "There is a great gulf fixed between those who want to prove the historicity of everything reported in the Bible in order to demonstrate that the Bible is 'true' after all and those who, committed to living under the authority of Scripture, remain open to what Scripture itself actually teaches and emphasizes." In other words, it is very easy to attempt to prove the Bible true or untrue and far less easy to actually live under its authority.

Wright then shifts to the postmodern climate that we currently find ourselves in. He claims that postmodern readings of scripture have rightly noted the 'cultural imperialism' that we have tended to read into the Bible, but also notes that deconstruction has failed to replace it with anything helpful. He talks about the role of 'experience' as an illegitimate source of authority because for Christians, 'experience' is itself something that happens in the context where 'the reading of Scripture exercises its authority'. Experience cannot be a separate source of authority because it is shaped and formed by submission to the reading of Scripture. However, experience and context cannot be ignored either. Wright uses the following illustration to help flesh out this idea:

Experience is what grows by itself in the garden. Authority is what happens when the gardener wants to affirm the goodness of the genuine flowers and vegetables by uprooting the weeds in order to let beauty and fruitfulness triumph over chaos, thorns and thistles. An over-authoritarian church, paying no attention to experience, solves the problem by paving the garden with concrete. An over-experiential church solves the (real or imagined) problem of concrete (rigid and 'judgmental' forms of faith) by letting anything and everything grow unchecked, sometimes labeling concrete as 'law' and so celebrating any and every weed as 'grace'.

Do Not Judge

2008-02-09T19:07:00.000-08:00

Today's church service is being held in multiple homes around the Chaska area. Those of you who are not able to attend one of the groups, feel free to participate anyway by listening to the podcast and adding your thoughts in the comments section below.

The podcast that we'll be working from is HERE... You can either stream it live or download it. Several times during the podcast, there will be times to pause the audio for discussion in your groups. You can follow the outline below for your discussion times.

Traditional Righteousness:

^{Mt 7:1} “Stop judging others, and you will not be judged.
^{Mt 7:2} For others will treat you as you treat them. Whatever measure you use in judging others, it will be used to measure how you are judged.

Describe a situation when you have seen your judgment of others come back to haunt you. In other words, have you found yourself to be judged by the standard which you hold others to?
Does Jesus mean that we can’t make any ethical judgments about right and wrong?

Vicious Cycle:

^{Mt 7:3} And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?
^{Mt 7:4}How can you think of saying, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?

What groups of people do we automatically exclude? Who do we not have the capacity to see as human, worthwhile, or good? What blinders do we have in our own eyes that prevent us from seeing others authentically?
We also do this with individuals…Which pet sins do we condemn? Which sins do we ignore that are more socially acceptable?
Discuss this quote by Dale Allison: “Human beings unhappily possess an inbred proclivity to mix ignorance of themselves with arrogance toward others.”

The Way Out:

^{Mt 7:5} Hypocrite! First get rid of the log from your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.

Sometimes we err on the side of being over-critical or over-condemning. Other times we err on the side of ignoring the problems we see within our relationships and our community. How do we find balance?
Discuss Dallas Willard’s (The Divine Conspiracy) guidelines for correcting someone. Are these helpful? Would you add or subtract anything?

Always start with the benefit of the doubt – if there is any question about whether sin occurred or offense was intended, assume it did not

Not everyone is called to correct – those who are living and working in a Holy Spirit inspired/empowered way have the right (and the capacity) to correct with love

It is not a matter of “straightening them out” or threatening punishment if they don’t change…It is a matter of restoration – nothing is to be done that isn’t intended to bring restoration and help people on their path to kingdom living

Those who are doing the correcting do it with the full knowledge that they have now created a standard which they will be held accountable to. This removes any sense of superiority or self-righteousness because they know full well that they may find themselves doing the same thing someday.

What would happen if we actually lived this way? Can we live this way?

Bleahhh....

2008-02-07T06:50:00.001-08:00

When your 2-year-old can imitate the sound of your vomiting, you know it hasn't been a good week....

The Parable of the Elephants and the Donkeys

2008-02-04T10:22:00.000-08:00

I wrote a parable for the Jesus Manifesto webzine that seems particularly relevant for Super Tuesday. Check it out at www.jesusmanifesto.com.

The Last Word 6

2008-01-31T11:56:00.000-08:00

Today we visit chapter 5 of N.T. Wright's "The Last Word: Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of the Authority of Scripture". In this chapter, Wright covers the history of biblical interpretation and authority of scripture in the first 1600 years of the church. It is more a cursory look at those 16 centuries as that isn't the entire focus of the book.

Wright describes the early church, the Christians in the second and third centuries, as keeping the scriptures central (along with the tradition of the church) in their defense against the attacks on Christianity that had risen from Marcion and the Gnostics. He views the early church as a 'scripture-reading community' at its heart. The appeal to scripture led to an 'emphasis on the historical nature of the church', which stressed the continuity from the time of Jesus to their own as well as the continuity from the days of Abraham.

The emphasis on the Jewish nature of the Scriptural story was difficult to maintain as the church expanded into the Greek world. As time went on, the idea of scriptural authority became detached from the context of the biblical narrative, which then isolated it from the goal of the kingdom. Scripture instead developed into a court of appeal (the rule-book from which doctrine and ethics were decided) and lectio devina (devotional reading where individuals could hear God personally).

The next major shift in the use of Scripture was the development of allegory as a major technique for understanding the Bible. The church leaders insisted on the importance of keeping the whole Scripture central, yet they developed ways of lessening the tension between the authority of Scripture and the interpretation. The big question that Wright asks here is, "How far can a reinterpretation of the text go before it ceases to carry the authority which was the point of interpreting it in the first place? At what point in this process are we forced to conclude that what is really authoritative within such an operation is the system of theology or devotion already believed or embraced on other grounds, which is then 'discovered' in the text by the interpretive method being used?"

The medieval church developed four different "senses" of Scripture in order to help ascertain meaning: the literal (the original meaning, which may itself include allegory if that allegory was originally intended), the allegorical (the discovery of Christian doctrine in a passage where the original meaning did not have anything to do with it), the anagogical (a way of discovering in the text a picture of the future life - i.e., Psalms that talk about going up to Jerusalem as referring to lifting up the heart and mind to contemplate higher things), and the moral (discovering lessons on how to behave hidden in texts which were not straightforwardly teaching such things). As with the allegorical interpretations, these four senses provided a way to ensure that the church would live under the authority of Scripture, even though at times they failed to pay attention to what Scripture itself was saying. The trouble was that once interpretation becomes this broad, you can make Scripture say anything and it no longer becomes authoritative in that it is no longer 'leading the way, energizing the church with the fresh breath of God himself'.

Along with the development of the 'four senses' came the development of the parallel authority of 'tradition' and the church became the guardian of that tradition. One of the major complaints of the Reformers was that tradition beliefs and practices were nowhere to be found in Scripture. They battled for the recovery of the literal sense of Scripture against the other three senses. Again, the "literal" sense refers to the original meaning of the text. For example, when Psalm 18:8 says that smoke comes out of God's nostrils, the "literal" sense is that this is a metaphor talking about the anger of God against those who oppress his people, not that God actually has giant smoke-filled nostrils.

Unfortunately, in their focus on the details of doctrine and practice, the Reformers missed the sense that Scripture is the narrative of "God, Israel, Jesus and the world, coming forward into our own day and looking ahead to the eventual renewal of all things". Their readings of the gospels focus a great deal on the saving events of Good Friday and Easter but do little to integrate those events into the Kingdom-proclamation that preceded them. While the Reformers recovered many things that had been missing, they left other important issues open for discussion.

The Last Word 5

2008-01-30T07:02:00.000-08:00

Continuing our journey through N.T. Wright's The Last Word, today we cover the fourth chapter where Wright describes the perspective of the early church on the Word.

Wright begins the chapter by looking at the early apostolic preaching which he describes as "neither a standard Jewish message with Jesus added on at the end, nor a free-standing announcement of a new religion cut off from its Jewish roots, but rather the story of Jesus understood as the fulfillment of the Old Testament covenant narrative, and thus the good news - the creative force which called the church into being and shaped its mission and life." This was the story in which the accomplishment of Jesus made sense.

In Romans, Paul described how the retelling of this ancient story which found fulfillment and climax in Jesus somehow carried power to change the hearts, minds, and lives of those who heard it. This power, which is described as God's power at work through the outpouring of the Spirit, called into existence a new covenant people, 'the restored Israel-for-the-world." The 'word' was not just information, not just agreed upon doctrinal truth statements, but was and is "the way God's Kingdom, accomplished in Jesus, was making its way in the world."

The church, known from the beginning as the "transformed people of God, as the community created by God's call and promise," was created and sustained by the powerful, effective and 'authoritative' word of God, written in the Old Testament, embodied in Jesus, announced to the world, and taught in the church." This was the heart of the church's mission, it's common life, the the call to holiness which would reflect both the true Israel and the new identity.

As the apostles began to write, they believed themselves "called to exercise their calling as 'authorized' teachers, by the guidance and power of the Spirit, writing books and letters to sustain, energize, shape, judge and renew the church." Those who read their writings quickly discovered that they carried the same power, the same "authority in cation" that had characterized the earlier oral preaching of the same 'word'.

Throughout the rest of the chapter, Wright wrestles with the early church's reading and application of Old Testament scripture. He argues that from the beginning, the church read the scriptures in a new way. They recognized that parts of the ancient texts were no longer relevant for their lives going forward - not because they weren't good or God-given, but "because they belonged with earlier parts of the story which had now reached its climax."

The early church was forced to quickly discover how to maintain continuity between the fulfillment of the covenant promises while recognizing that the new covenant was, in some senses, new and different. Wright gives a number of examples of continuity, including viewing the world as God's good creation, God's sovereign duty and promise to deal with evil, the covenant with Abraham as God's means for doing so, the call to holiness, and the renewal of genuine 'humanness'. The examples of discontinuity are myriad, including ancient Jewish purity laws (since Gentiles are welcome on equal terms), the temple and its sacrifices are not longer the focal point of God's interaction with his people, the sabbath and other rituals are no longer mandatory, etc.

Wright argues that since the emphasis is on the unique accomplishments of Jesus, the Old Testament could not continue to have the same role that it had before. Christianity doesn't repeat the earlier parts of the story; it celebrates the unique work of Jesus and builds upon it. Wright uses the illustration of travelers taking a voyage across an ocean. When they arrive at the distant shore, they leave the ship behind and continue over land. This isn't because the ship is no good or wasn't useful or that they had been misguided, but rather that the dry land portion of the trip required something different. Yet as they travel over dry land, they are still the same people that previously inhabited the ship.

This has implications for how we understand Scripture to interact with culture. Wright argues that we can never assume that any part of any culture is automatically to be endorsed or rejected. Much of ancient Jewish culture was embraced, as was much of the Greek culture, but much of both was also rejected. Wright summarizes: "The New Testament understands itself as the new covenant charter, the book that forms the basis for the new telling of the story through which Christians are formed, reformed and transformed so as to be God's people for God's world. That is the challenge the early Christians bequeath to us as we reconsider what 'the authority of scripture' might mean in practice today.