TheOrant

What is prophecy and how do we recognize it?

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:17:00 +0000

Last week I started a debate on facebook about the charismatic movement and it's compatibility with the Lutheran tradition that I grew up in. I have always had a love for charismatics, but have often run into people within the Lutheran church that do not agree with my stance on the issue.

This really brought home an age old question: What is prophecy and how do we recognize it?

How does one tell a prophet sent by God from one not sent by God?

It's easy to look back at the Prophets in the Bible and simply say God spoke then, but won't speak now. This provides a list of prophets that have been approved by the church. If you want to know if a prophet is genuine all you have to do is see if he's in the Bible. If he's not then you can just throw him out.

This is not a healthy approach to prophecy. It might be easy, but it limits God to someone who used to speak, but has stopped. It can even imply that God is limited in his power in some way.

Another option is that of the appraiser.

In this context a person who says they have a word from God is put in lockdown. Their teachings are evaluated in the light of the scripture and the creeds. Their writings are scrutinized. Their theology is tested.

This is a better option, because it allows God to speak, but it too has it's problems. It limits God to only being able to speak through people who have all their theological ducks in a row. By this test many prophets in the Bible would have trouble. Sometimes the message of the prophets was condemned by the religious establishment of their day, and sometimes not so perfect people were called to speak the word of the Lord. Saul prophesied in one place and he doesn't have the best track record of being faithful to God. There is even the story of balaam's ass speaking at one point.

On the other end there are people who say they speak from God, but they speak messages of driven by greed, pride and power. Many false prophets have come and led many people into danger. These people are not rare. Every generation seems to have a handful of would-be-prophets. If we accepted everyone who said that they had a message from God things would get out of control pretty fast.

At this point I don't really have a great answer. How can we recognize that God has spoken to people throughout history and can still speak through people in history, and yet avoid manipulation and narcissism from taking over.

Here is my simple rule... test the message.

It seems that most false prophets that have come along could be easily recognized by people who have a decent amount of biblical literacy and some training in historic Christian theology.

This is why false teachers often discourage their followers from getting a good theological education, and mock people who desire to go "deeper" in their faith.

If a leader wants to give you a message from God, but doesn't want you to delve deeply into the Word of God you know you have a problem. A message from God will point to the action of God. A prophet does not come to tell you to be nice to everyone. A prophet comes to call a people called by God to remember what God has done, is doing, and promises to do.

This is Centered in Jesus.

If Jesus can be removed from the prophecy and the message remains essentially the same you are probably dealing with a false prophet.

How do you understand sacrifice in light of Christ?

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 04:52:00 +0000

Some people today point to a golden era in church history where everyone got along. This golden age simply did not exist. Within the pages of the New Testament there are many accounts of warring factions vying for the authoritative interpretation of who and what Jesus was and what and how Jesus did whatever it was that Jesus did.

The theological discussions within the church in the earliest days were ugly.

Sometimes the fights were conflicts in personality or preference, but more often the conflicts were between contrasting worldviews.

There was a clash of two worldviews within the early church and how those worldviews were resolved would forever change how Christians spoke about God. On the one hand there were Greek thinkers, who looked to Greek philosophy to form their ideas about the world and God. On the other hand there were those influenced by Hebrew though. These believers drew from a Hebrew worldview of God and history.

Many of the Greek thinkers were deeply influenced by the ideas of Platonism. They believed that our physical existence was simply a shadow of a higher reality and God was a unchangeable force so beyond the world that nothing we could do could ever impact God’s mind or heart or decisions. They did not see the death of Christ as something that impacted God, but rather something that impacted man. Sacrifice was something that you did in order to make yourself welcome with God. It was the fulfilment of a vow (The Other Christs, Moss). Sacrifice was a gift.

The Hebrew understanding was somewhat different. God was seen as personal and involved in the life and History of humankind, in particular the life of the Jewish people. God was at work in the world seeking to accomplish a goal. As his people walked in ways contrary to the plans that God had instructed them in they were required to sacrifice. This was not seen as much as an act that was only impacting the giver, but they actually believed the sacrifice could touch God in some way. Sacrifice was expiratory and propitiated a wronged deity (Gorday. Origen’s Theology of The Cross, 108).

For there to be any serious consensus on what the Cross actually did there would have to be a great deal of thinking within the Early Church.

Why people with masculine gender identity hate going to Church

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:50:00 +0000

Over the weekend I read through a book called Why Men Hate Going to Church by David Murrow. I got a free copy from Thomas Nelson and figured it was worth a read.

And it was worth a read. There was a lot of good insights that were expressed. I found myself inspired at many times while reading through the book. As a man in professional ministry there is a lot I have experienced that he has warned against and I will be much more thoughtful in the future so that I can communicate the faith to people in the most effective ways as possible.

HOWEVER

I won't recommend this book to any members of my church. There were a lot of assumptions about masculinity and I think that giving someone this book might cause more harm then good.

Although David tries to make it clear that the assumptions about masculine preferences are not limited to men, the feel of the whole book make me feel uneasy. For a book that seeks to inform pastors and church leaders on how to have a properly nuanced sensitivity toward gender there is very little care given to how this might be revived by a man or women who does not fit neatly into a gender box.

In light of recent comments by John Piper it is more important then ever for people to stand up for feminine christian expression. The book is dismissive of these sorts of expressions and I think can be hurtful to people of both sexes.

It was a good message BUT it was not wielded with enough care.

ALSO

I was struck by David's anti-liturgical bias. I find it interesting that he spends time criticizing the praise songs that are sung and the feeling oriented worship of his own tradition, but still manages to point to these sorts of worship experiences as more "masculine" compared to liturgical traditions that are represented as drawing in males in spite of themselves.

David, there is a reason that the Orthodox don't suffer a "gender gap" and that when songs like "A mighty fortress is our God" are sung men start showing up.

Is WHERE, WHEN and HOW Jesus died important?

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:03:00 +0000

Although the Early Church did not use the cross in the overt and casual way we use it today, they still incorporated it into their theology, liturgy, and identity. When people look at the cross today they generally think of Christianity as a religion. When the first followers of Jesus looked at the cross they thought of it as a place in space and time and a seal that marks people of faith. The way that this twofold understanding manifested itself in the life, theology and worship of the early church is essential to understanding how they viewed the work and death of Christ and the place that death had in their own lives.

The Place
The place of the cross was centered on the historical event of the crucifixion of Jesus. Christians and historians alike generally agree that Jesus was killed on an actual cross made from an actual tree. The cross was set up on a area that was called Golgotha, which was located just outside of a real city called Jerusalem. Jesus was hung on that cross at an actual time, and died on the cross at an actual time, which was around three in the afternoon according to Luke 23:44. As early Christians began to reflect on the historical reality of the cross they began to realize that the cross was a historical event that was so important that the it’s effects were still actively being experienced in their own lives. They believed that the cross spoke a word from God that, when received, could actually bring about salvation across all time.

The entire salvation event was seen as so connected to the historical cross that the Apostle Paul goes so far to point to the Gospel that he preached as a λόγος (word) that came from the cross itself. The historical cross was not just something that people looked to and remembered. It was seen as a active participant in the christian life. To be a christian meant to be united with Christ and the cross on which he was crucified. It is due to this understanding that Paul teaches that the cross is used in his own time, decades after the crucifixion, as an active force which reconciles Jews and Gentiles and a location upon which the χειρόγραφον (certificate of debt) recording transgressions is removed.
One of the Early fathers, Athanasius, saw the place of the cross is where the church is drawn into Christ.

In John’s Gospel Jesus declares that when he is “lifted up” he will draw all men to himself. Athanasius, and many other church fathers, belived that the place where Christ was lifted up was on the cross. They believed that on the cross Jesus made a way for all people to go to heaven. Athanasius was inspired by even the posture of Christ’s death. He states that,

“it is only on the cross that a man dies with his hands spread out. Whence it was fitting for the Lord to bear this also and to spread out His hands, that with the one He might draw the ancient people, and with the other those from the Gentiles, and unite both in Himself”(On the Incarnation, 25)

Even the very act of lifting Jesus was seen as having an effect on the cosmology of the spiritual realm. Athanasius points to Ephesians 2:2 as indicating that the air itself was a should be seen as a sphere of the devil, and that by Christ being lifted up into the air the Devil was overthrown and a way was made to heaven.

The Shame of The Cross

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:26:00 +0000

The cross has become the quintessential symbol for the Christian faith. It’s placed on churches, bumper stickers, coffee mugs, lapel pins, necklaces, tattoos and even baked goods. It is a symbol of comfort, a symbol of faith, a symbol of allegiance, and even at times a fashion statement. The casual use of the cross that we see today would not have been what the first Christians would have expected in first centuries after Jesus was crucified. The early Church served a God who they believed had become human, and had suffered crucifixion. This was a huge scandal for the church. Crucifixion was the arguably the most shameful way to die in the first century and to own a leader who was crucified, was in part, to own the shame. This is why the story of the cross in the early church is so amazing. The church was a community that was able to embrace Christ, even in the shame of the cross and was even able to see beauty in the midst of the grotesque. The cross that finds itself so comfortable in our culture today was only able to find it’s place of ease through a gradual process of self reflexion by a community torn between love and aversion toward it.

The History of The Cross

The Cross was adopted by the Roman Empire with the intent to suppress any and intimidate people. It was devised as a method of execution that prolonged the suffering and death of a victim, emaciated the body brought death to the perpetrator at the highest price. Victims were impaled on a vertical wooden stake or on stakes formed together like the letter T. Victims would hang there for hours, or even days. While there they were emaciated alive. Measures were often put in place specifically to lengthen the the suffering of an individual by keeping them alive just a little bit longer. Bodies were so destroyed by the process that of the few that were able to find a pardon and come down before they died, a fair percentage still died. Once dead the body would remain there to rot as an example to the people who passed by what would happen to those who stood up to Rome. In most cases the bodies were not allowed to even receive a proper burial.

It was originally reserved exclusively for slaves and was considered one of the most humiliating and shameful things a person could ever endure, which was it’s aim. It was so humiliating that Roman citizens were only crucified for grave offenses, like treason, and even these crucifixions were not common. In fact Cicero argued that, “the very mention of the cross should be far removed not only from a Roman citizen’s body, but from his mind, his eyes, his ears.” The cross was a beyond the pale and taboo to the extreme for upstanding Romans.

It’s no wonder that the early church did not begin using the cross as the public symbol of their identity in the earliest years. The cross was still in use. Many Christians were still being crucified in the empire up to the time of Constantine. It was only due to the conversion of Constantine to the Christian faith that Crucifixions came to an end in the empire. Constantine ended the practice in honor of Jesus. The cross was a symbol used to openly mock Christians for what they believed. Archaeologists have uncovered an engraving from the time of the early church which reveals a bit of what the mind of the ancient Roman world was like. In the engraving there is a picture of a man with a donkey head being crucified. Next to him is another posture that seems to be worshiping the donkey-man on the cross. The image was a piece of graffiti often referred to as the graffito blasfemo that is thought to have been written by an ancient slave who was probably making fun of his fellow slave for his belief in Jesus. With the picture there is an inscription stating, “Αλεξαμενος ϲεβετε θεον.” This is translated as “Alexamenos, worship God” or “Alexamenos worships God.” It would appear that the slave being mocked was a man named Alexamenos. Scholars believe that the reason that the man has a Donkey head was due to a widely held misconception in the ancient world that the Jewish people worshiped a donkey, which had led them to water while they wandered in the wilderness with Moses. The artist mocks Alexamenos by pointing to how utterly shameful it was to worship Jesus as the Jewish donkey God, since Jesus had been killed in the most shameful way.

To overcome the historical and cultural shame of the cross the church had to re-frame the cross in a new paradigm. It was no longer seen as a place where Jesus was overcome by shame, but a location where shame was overcome by Jesus. The author of the book of Hebrews makes the argument that Jesus καταφρονέω (made nothing of, despised) the shame of the cross, so that the church would not grow weary and lose heart (Hebrews 12:2-3). In other words the Jesus transformed the cross from a place of shame to a place of victory. The early church found took up this tradition and more fully developed the understanding of the cross as a seal of victory placed on believers and a place of redemption. Both of these themes are worthy of a closer look.

We will take up these themes tomorrow

Prophet from Poetry

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 20:55:00 +0000

Poetry is a dying art. Few people write it, read it, or would even know how to if they tried. It requires a heart, an imagination, and the ability to sit within a tension.

In today's sound-bite culture people have lost the essential ability to live within a poem

This is a deeply tragic cultural illiteracy.

Being unable to dwell in poetry means you are unable to dwell in the world of the Bible because so much of the Bible is poetry.

Obviously there are poems that make up the Psalms, but poems also are scattered throughout almost every book of the Bible in one way or another. The prophets are almost entirely written in poetic form and some of the deepest theology in the the new Testament is created employing forms of parallelism in the Greek text that dwell on the rich heritage of Hebrew Poetry (look at Philipians 2 for example).

Jesus himself used poetry more then any other source to frame and define his action to the Jewish world he inhabited.

Like I said, understanding poetry is essential to understanding the Bible.

I have had difficulty learning how to read poetry poetry in the Bible. For many years I struggled just to get a grip on what the prophets were saying. It's a deep well that it's hard to master completely, but in reading about poetry I have the paradigm of Parallelism as a great starting place to begin.

Parallelism is at the heart of much of Hebrew Poetry.

What parallelism basically means is that one line of poetry has a direct relationship with another line of poetry, and must be read in that relationship in order to be understood.

The meaning of the passage is not just in the lines themselves but in the tension created between the two lines. It's like creating a perception of depth by seeing a truth through both eyes.

Parallelism can function in a number of ways. My teacher, Bob Hubbard, helped me to understand this better using the symbols = < and >

If a line of poetry is = to the line that follows it then the parts of the lines are interchangeable. The second line ECHOES the first line.

An example of this kind of poetry can be found in Amos 8:10

I will turn your feasts into mourning
and all your songs into lamentation;

You could switch Feasts with Songs or Mourning with Lamentations and the meaning stays about the same.

You could also see a form of this kind of comparison where the second line is actually trying to CONTRAST the first line. In this situation the parts are not so much interchangeable but in direct tension with one another semantically.

If a line of poetry is > to the line that follows it. The second line is used to qualify the first line, and help bring the first line into great clarity or more completeness.

This can be done by qualify the time of the first line, the reason for the first line, or the means of the first line. In other words the second line can show how, why, or when the first line came about.

An example of this is given in Amos 5:20

Will not the day of the LORD be darkness,
not light--pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?

The second line deepens the understanding of the first line

If a line of poetry is < to the line that follows it. The first line is used to introduce the second line, and the second line expands or completes the first line.

This can be used to continue the first line, compare something in the first line, intensify something in the first line, so specify something in the first line (this can be spatial, explanatory, for dramatic effect, or give the purpose of the first line).

An example of this is given in Amos 7:11

Jeroboam will die by the sword,
and Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land

This set of verses lays out a series of events. Line one happens and then line two happens.

This little tool isn't the end of studding Hebrew poetry, but it has helped me a great deal. Ever since I started reading with these eyes the Psalms have come alive to me, and reading through Amos this week was like reading the book for the first time.

Where I am in life right now... A Picture

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:16:00 +0000

In our lives there are many directions we can focus on. In Helen Cepro's Journaling as a Spiritual Practice: Encountering God Through Attentive Writing she encourages people to take time and figure out where you are by evaluating the compasses in your own life.

To Look South is to be focused on the "Sunny exposure" of your life. This is the creative and playful part of your own life. to evaluate this think about what is drawing creativity out of you. Make a collage or write down a name of a person who inspires you!

To Look East is to look toward a rising sun. What is beginning to appear on your horizon? What are you being asked to take hold of? What are you being called to embrace? What areas in your life are in need of transformation.

To Look West is to look at your life and see what is setting. Are there patterns or paradigms that just don't seem to be working anymore? What do you need to let go of? They aren't necessarily bad things, they are often good gifts of God that you need to move beyond in the next chapter of life.

To Look North is to look to what guides you (like the north star, sorry southern hemisphere types). It helps you keep the other directions aligned. What or who loves and guides you? What images of God sustain you? Take time to thank God for these sorts of things!

In The Center if you have thought about all these things write them down on a sheet of paper oriented like a compass. In the middle leave a space. Think about if you are willing to try to live your life by the compass you have just created. If you are, write YES in the middle.

I decided I would try to make a little compass like Helen talks about.

Here is where my life is right now:

Nothing fancy, just a little me

Congregational Vitality

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:08:00 +0000

One thing I love about the Covenant Church is the Congregational Vitality Program. I think a lot of Denominations could use this stuff. Here is a video of John Wenrich giving an overview of the process.

Congregational Vitality Overview from Covenant Communications on Vimeo.

Do you think your church could benefit from something like this?

Our Beautiful World

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 20:43:00 +0000

No theology today... just wanted to share a little beauty

Great Compline

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 05:03:00 +0000

Goodnight everyone!

Book Review: Same Kind of Different as Me

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 20:51:00 +0000

I don't generally review books that aren't strictly theological, but I recently read the book "Same Kind of Different as Me" after I was sent a complementary copy. I thought I would share a little bit about it.

The book takes a look at the lives of two men.One is a successful art dealer, the other is a homeless man. It tracks both of their lives from childhood until they meet, and then begins to share the story of how the met and grew to love and trust one another.

This book is unique among many books like this. It's not a book about how to save the poor, but rather a book about how people need one another.

In it the rich white guy learns from the poor black guy. That was nice to see. Most books of this sort seem to turn the white man into the savior.

I really enjoyed reading it for the most part because it was easy to read and entertaining. It's the kind of book you can read when you just want to relax and read something nice, and the book was nice.

I can't say it was all great though. It's a little over the top at times, and the spirituality sometimes seems forced. There is a way that the poor black man is still turned into the other. He is portrayed as a bit of a mystical prophet in a way that bothered me a little. It seemed forced, and it made him seem like a different "kind" of person. If anyone else has read this book I'd love to hear what they thought of it.

All Saints Day Reflection

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 01:57:00 +0000

This morning I decided to go to the daily liturgy at a local Ukrainian Catholic church.

It was interesting, beautiful, and difficult

I often take pride in my ability to feel at home in almost any worship context. I grew up in an ecumenical community and grew up going to just about every kind of church you can imagine.

It's good for me to be UNCOMFORTABLE sometimes...

This church make it difficult to feel comfortable. The whole service was in Ukrainian, and there were no worship materials available.

I have been to liturgy many times, I have even been to liturgy in Ukrainian many times, but this was different. This was the first time I didn't have a translation to follow.

Although I knew generally what was going on I was forced to worship with my eyes much more then my ears and mind.

I began to simply pray the Jesus Prayer over and over to myself and watch the movements of the congregation around me. The liturgy in this new context took on a new character and life.

In the midst of my confusion it was still clear to me that these people deeply loved and honored Jesus. Even though I didn't know a single word to pray I was able to worship with my whole heart.

It really brought home the reality of All Saints Day.

We are not united with the saints through a common language or culture. We are not united by a location or time. We are not united by a single liturgy or polity.

We are united by a Single Lord

Glory to Jesus Christ

Have a blessed All Saints Day

Refomation Day - That They May All Be One

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 01:46:00 +0000

Tomorrow is Reformation Sunday. This is the Sunday where Protestants remember the birth of the Protestant Reformation.

On October 31, 1517 Matin Luther is purported to have nailed his 95 thesis to the door of the church in Wittenberg, where he was a teacher. These were serious concerns about a system within the Catholic churches where many dangerous abuses had crept in. His concerns were translated, and gave voice to many of the concerns of people throughout Germany. People took hold of Luther and soon he was at the center of a movement.

What followed was a tide that swept the world.
Luther was eventually excommunicated and many other reformers took up the torch of change.
As protestantism spread the church splintered into hundreds and eventually thousands of different communions.

This is an event that as a member of a Reformation church I take very seriously.

I take Reformation Sunday as a day of repentance.... and I think all Christians should.

Here is my prayer:

"that they may all be one."

Please pray it with me this weekend over and over again.

ALSO

If you want to watch a fun movie that talks about Luther, check out the Luther Movie below.

What ARE Lay Leaders?

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 23:19:00 +0000

In the 1960s the Catholic Church released the document “Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity”. In it the Catholic Church strove to add new life to the laity by giving firm theological affirmations about what it means to be a Christian lay man or women. In it they declared that God’s plan for the world is for human beings to “renew and perfect” the temporal order. In other words human being have been created in a special role in the world, and the laity are called to lead the charge. I think the “Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity” is a essential document, in it’s emphasis on the importance on the laity in the world and in the church.

If you are not from a mainline, Catholic, or Orthodox background the term “lay leader” or laity might be somewhat foreign. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines the laity as those people who are “distinct from the clergy.” I think that this definition underscores a problem that is endemic to the conversation of about laity. Often laity are defined by what they are not rather than what they are. For example we think of laity as unpaid, or not ordained, or, as the definition states, not clergy. Laity are however more than a collection of those defined by apophatic negation; clergy are people with particular roles and calls. In order to understand the importance of the ministry of the laity in the work of God in the world, an understanding of what positive affirmations can be said about their role is essential.

Recently I had the great pleasure of interviewing some men who are in lay leadership in the church. Although they come from diverse backgrounds and roles in the church, they had a great deal of wisdom that highlights some of the ways that all people are called into service in the church and the world.

What Lay Leaders Actually Are

1. As Christians Laity Are Ordained

The late Alexander Schmemann points out in his article, “Clergy and Laity In The Orthodox Church”, that within the sacramental life of the church all Christians are, in a sense, ordained with the positive power and grace to be Christians. All Christians are ministers. Although the men I talked to are not paid for what they do to serve the church they affirmed that there is a certain call on their life just because they are Christians. When I asked one man why he started doing ministry his response was, “um... because I was there?” He said that It just doesn't make sense to him to, “work 8-5 then relax all evening and play all weekend, taking an hour off for God on Sunday morning, and call that discipleship.” To be a member of the Church of Christ is to have a calling. The Job that pays the bills is a part of that calling, but the vocation of minister doesn’t have a punch card.

2. Laity are an expression of the overall vocation of service

I find it interesting that one of the titles of the Pope is “the servant of the servants of God.” In a very real sense the expression of leadership in the church can most clearly be seen in the expression of service. One man I interviewed told me that leadership in the church “looks a lot like a combination of janitorial work, nursing, errands, valet service, and tutoring somebody else's sons for their exams.” They told me that they prefer lay ministry over ordination because there isn’t the distraction of power and prestige. He told me ordination sometimes “leads to misplaced respect and an unwarranted assumption of wisdom - and [can be] mistaken for humility.” He feels that the more formal power he has the more damage he would do if he were to mess up. All Christians are called to the ministry of service and the more prestigious the call the greater the danger to ones soul, and potential there is for distraction from the foundational call to service.

3. Lay leaders are gifted by God

When asked why they serve, one man responded, “I felt a call to Youth ministry from God and wanted to fulfill that calling, and I have skills relating to teens.” Another responded, “ I want to serve the Lord. I have gifts and training. I see unmet needs and try to meet them.” There is one theme that pervade the motivation for service among almost everyone I have ever talked to about why they serve; they are gifted. Although gifting can be both natural propensities, and learned skills, the lay leaders I talked to all recognized that the gifts they had were given by God for a purpose and that that purpose was what they hoped to achieve in their service in the church. An important lesson I have learned in my years of “professional ministry”, is that God has given the clergy every gift they need to minister to the people, but more often than not that gift is found in the members of the congregation, not in themselves.

4. Lay leaders are more than their ministries

After all this talk about everything that lay leaders are it is important to remember that lay leaders are also more than their ministries. If we affirm only what a person can do and forget about who they are their can be a lot of dangers. One of the men I talked to mentioned that he wished he had known that becoming a liturgist would not be able to sustain his spiritual health. He said, “if you don't have a prayer life outside of the services, you won't have a prayer life. Going to church once or twice a day sounds pious, but if you're leading the service then you’re always looking at the next prayer, the next reading or hymn, and every time you pray, you're flipping pages to the next thing.” If the laity is seen as only people that fill roles of service in the church and not people deeply in need of God’s grace and mercy there can easily be cases of spiritual abuse.

Living in the kingdom of God
To be a Christian is to be one who is at one time both greatly in need to receive God’s grace and greatly called to demonstrate God’s grace. All Christians are ordained into the ministry of reconciliation that Christ has done, is doing, and promises to do. The life is never easy. The men I talked to had many struggles personally and within their vocations, but I was encouraged by their faithfulness to the call of Christ in their life. In the midst of trials they persevere. They continue to serve the Church in all her brokenness because they believe the promise of Christ, that the church dwells with God in all God’s fullness. May we all live as servants of the servants of God, for that is the heart of greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Occupy Your Vocation

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 03:06:00 +0000

The Lord’s Day Ceremony: Prayer before the meal

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 14:25:00 +0000

I. The Lighting of the Candle:

Leader #2 [the designated assistant] leads the following meditation.

Leader #2

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Heavenly Father, in honor of your Son, true light of the world and Author of Life, I am about to kindle the light for the Lord’s Day. On this day You raised up Your Son Jesus from the dead and began the new creation. May our celebration of His resurrection this day be filled with your peace and heavenly blessing. Be gracious to us and cause your Holy Spirit to dwell more within us.

Father of mercy, continue your living kindness toward us. Make us worthy to walk in the way of your Son, loyal to your teaching and unwavering in love and service. Keep far from us all anxiety, darkness, and gloom; and grant that peace, light, and joy ever abide in our home.

All: For in you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. Amen.

Leader#2 lights the candle, then with hands raised over the candle, prays:

Blessed are You, Lord our God, who created light on the first day and raised up you Son, the light of the world to begin the new creation. Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has taught us to kindle the light for the Lord’s Day.

Opening Song and Praise

II. The Reading of the Word

The reading of the Word should be taken from the proper readings for that Sunday. If the leader chooses to comment on the reading, or if he/she desires to share some reflections at this time, it would be appropriate.

III. The Blessing of the Meal:

Leader #1 leads the following blessing:

Leader: This is the Lord’s Day.

All: Let us welcome it in joy and peace.

Leader: Today we set aside the concerns of the week in order to honor the Lord

and to celebrate His resurrection. Today we cease from work in order to

worship God and to acknowledge the eternal life to which He calls us.

All: The Lord Himself is with us to refresh us and to strengthen us.

Leader: Let us welcome the Lord among us and give Him glory.

All: Let us love one another in the Lord.

Leader: May the Holy Spirit be with us, to deepen our devotion to the Lord and

increase our zeal for the particular way of life He has called us to embrace.

The Leader pours the wine into a cup, raises it, and recites the following prayer:

Leader: Let us praise God with this symbol of joy and thank Him for the past week

-for health, strength, and wisdom; for home, love and friendships; for the

discipline of our trials and temptations; and for the happiness that has come to us out of our work. Let us thank Him especially for the great blessing he has bestowed on us in Christ.

All: From His fullness we have all received grace upon grace.

Leader: We who were dead through sin have been brought to life in Christ.

All: And we will be raised up with Him on the last day.

Leader: Lord our God, you have brought us into the peace and rest of Christ. Now

we live with Him through the Holy Spirit, and look for the day when we will dwell with Him in your everlasting Kingdom. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who has created the fruit of the vine.

The Leader drinks from the cup and then passes it to the other members of the family. After the cup is passed, he/she blesses the break saying:

Leader: Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the Universe who brings forth the bread from the earth.

(Dinner follows)

IV. Blessing and Prayers After the Meal

When the meal is over, the father/leader leads the following prayers and blessing:

Leader: Let us bless the Lord.

All: Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forever.

Leader: Let us bless our God, of whose goodness we have shared.

All: Blessed be our God, of whose goodness we have shared and through whose

goodness we live.

Leader: Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who feeds the whole world with your goodness, with grace, with steadfast love and mercy. Through your great goodness, food has never failed us.

All: May it not fail us forever and ever, for your great name’s sake.

Leader: Blessed are you, O Lord our God, who gives food to all.

All: Amen

Leader: Blessed are you, O Lord our God, for by your great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

All: And you have called us as your sons and daughters to share in your life

forever.

Leader: Blessed are you, all merciful God, for giving us new life in Jesus your Son.

All: Amen.

Leader: Blessed are you, O Lord of our God, for the rest we enjoy this day. We welcome this day with gladness. We thank you that we can celebrate Your resurrection by giving this day to you in joy and thanksgiving.

All: Look graciously upon Your servants. Show us Your glory.

Leader: Blessed are You, Lord our God, who gives rest to His people.

All: Amen

(Prayer for your community or church)

Leader: Lord our God, we lift up our brothers and sisters serving in our parish to you. Watch over them. Protect them from the snares of the evil one. Strengthen and confirm them in your grace. Guide and protect us through our shepherds.

All: Bring us all together into the fullness of Your Kingdom where you live

forever and ever. Amen.

(It would be appropriate at this time to intercede for specific needs of your community or church) and for specific individuals who are in need of prayer.)

(Here the leader blesses those gathered according to the Aaroinic blessing from Numbers 6:24-26.)

With hands extended:

Leader: The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace.

All: Amen.

Closing Song of Thanks and Praise

What makes a Christian Leader?

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 01:31:00 +0000

A mentor of mine once said, “you’ll know you’re a leader when you turn around and there is a group of people following you.” That very practical definition has stuck with me it get around who is “in leadership” and who is not and cuts to the core of what an actually is. A leader is anyone that leads people from one place to another. They might lead somewhere good, they might lead somewhere bad. A leader might do a great Job of caring for those they lead, and they might not. Equipping someone to be a leader is as easy as giving them a megaphone and a location to go to. Equipping ministers in the task of discipleship is not so easy.

Jesus commanded his followers that as they went out to new locations they should make disciples by baptizing them into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; teaching them to obey all he had commanded. This passage points to the location towards with all pastoral and lay ministers should be leading, the community of the Trinity. It also shows that one of the primary goals of christian leadership is to create new Christian leaders.

Not only is the Trinity the destination of Christian leadership it is also the vehicle. A good minister in the church leads by the power of the Holy Spirit, with the gifts of the Father, through the authority of Christ. The first mission of a leader in the church is to help define this reality in light of the culture they find themselves in. These three aspects need to be fleshed out a little bit.

By the power of the Holy Spirit - Being a leader in the church means you are joining a movement that has been underway long before they got there, and will be there long after they leave. Christian leadership must be in cooperation with the Holy Spirit’s work not the other way around.
With the gifts of the Father - To lead well it is essential to recognise that all good things come from God. This includes the gifts, the people, the resources, and the history of the community you hope to lead. Recognizing and affirming what God has given is essential to effective church leadership.
Through the authority of Christ - Christ has given authority to the church to do great works. Believing in Christ means believing in those he has chosen. This means that those in pastoral leadership need to believe that God is at work in the members, and places trust in the lay leaders. It also means recognizing that there is a particular call in the office of the ministry in which Christ moves in unique ways through the word and sacrament. In all roles it is essential to recognize that Jesus authority is rooted in His humility (Phil 2). To be a christian leader in any capacity requires being a servant of all.

How would you define worship?

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:03:00 +0000

Worship in Greek can mean to kiss toward

If I asked 15 people to give me a definition of worship I would probably get 15 responses. It’s hard to define. It’s something that people do, and angels do. It’s something that creation calls forth and the saints around the throne join in with. People have worshiped with the blood of goats, with golden bowls, with candlesticks, and with incense. People worship with pledges of their lives, with ancient liturgies, and with their dying breath as they give their lives in worship as martyrs and saints.

Worship is something that is hard to define as a theology of a practice because almost any definition seems to fall short of the majesty of it all and leave room for someone to say, “I have done it” rather then “I am doing it” worship of God is not so much an act to complete by a posture to maintain. In fact the word for worship in the scriptures, προσκυνέω, describes a bearing of deference much more then a description of action.

I like thinking of worship as a posture of the heart rather then an action to complete because it gives worship more room and more dignity. If worship is an action it seems almost trite to call a song we sing “worship” when placed next to the action of a martyr for the faith, but when it is seen as a posture any action can become a kind of worship. The goal of a worship leader is not to teach people what to do as much as how to go about doing everything. The practice of worship is just that; it’s practice. It takes time to learn how and it’s an action that is never done. True worship is not an action that we do but a response to the action that God has done, is doing, and promises to do. The response of worship is to take all our lives and all our giftings and point them in love toward God. This is what προσκυνέω is all about. In fact it can be literally translated “to kiss toward”.

This is why at the heart of Christian worship there is Word and Sacrament. It is in these places that God has promised to act. By surrounding ourselves with the action of God we are always called to respond in true worship.

My take on the Six Covenant Affirmations

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:55:00 +0000

There is a great deal of freedom within the Covenant Affirmations (my denomination's statement of faith). Each one is so broad pastors and churches with a wide variety of perspectives on each issue can all agree to the affirmations themselves. I think the greatest concern with being a pastor in light of the affirmations is learning how the culture of your own church interacts with each of the affirmations. That being said I personally do have a theology of ministry related to each of the affirmations.

We affirm the centrality of the word of God.

The word of God is a multi-faceted designation. It is generally understood to be the holy scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments. It is the central record of what God has done given to us by the church. It provides the story that frames all ministry and points to the authority through which a pastor has been given their office. A ministry apart from the world of God ceases to be the church, because it ceases to have the formative declaration of Christ that brings it into being. Because of this the Bible must always remain as a core piece of any christian ministry. That being said the Scriptures must never be the central object of worship. God must remain central to worship, the scriptures must always be found in the core of the worshipers.

We affirm the necessity of the new birth.

New Birth is a bit of a loaded term. I am sure there are many in the Evangelical Covenant Church who disagree on exactly what this is or what this looks like. To be a pastor in the covenant requires the minister to have a deep and rich theology of what “new birth” is and also what it can mean to others. At the heart of this affirmation is a recognition that Christianity is not an ethnic boundary marker or a cultural designation. It an identity that comes from God and God alone. For many in the church that means they want you to be able to demonstrate tangible signs that you have been claimed by Christ; this is dangerous. Nowhere in scripture is their a objective litmus test of who is (or who is not) “born again.” As a pastor, creating a culture where the places where God promises to be (baptism, Eucharist, worship) are emphasised more then the experiences and feelings are essential to keeping this important affirmation in the right focus.

We affirm a commitment to the whole mission of the church.

This affirmation strikes at the heart of a dichotomy that emerged within the protestant church in the 20th century. For reasons too complicated to innumerate here many churches began to focus EITHER on Social Justice OR winning souls for Jesus. This bifurcation of the mission of the church often resulted in a demonization of all those who were in the other camp. Social Justice churches seemed to have an allergic reaction to talk about the “sharing the Gospel” while soul winners looked at social justice initiatives as unimportant (or even wrong). Living this affirmation out means that if someone visits your church they will have a really hard time figuring out which “camp” you fit into, because both are strongly present. Point to what Christ has done. Live in what Christ is doing. Stand on what Christ has promised to do.

We affirm the church as a fellowship of believers.

There is a common belief held by many people today that they are spiritual not religious or perhaps that following Jesus is a relationship rather then a religion. This de-emphasis on religion is endemic of a culture of individualism. God is someone who you can meet on your own. This is simply not what the scriptures tell us. The church itself is an institution created by God to be the means by which people come to know God. This affirmation reminds us that it is when we are in community with one another, when all of God’s people are interacting with one another in worship and service, that God’s will is most clearly revealed and discerned. Without the church there is no promise that what is experienced is from God. There is no word (for it was given by the church), no sacrament (for itis administered by the church), no assurance of grace (for it is found within the church), no bond that unites us in Christ (for the church extends to all people). The church is foundational to being Christian.

We affirm a conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit.

The Covenant church affirms over and over again in it’s history that without the Holy Spirit they would have died a long time ago. The Spirit is the one that empowers and enlightens the church and gives life to all within it. The spirit inspired the scriptures and continues to illuminate them. The spirit meets us in the waters of baptism, where we are claimed by Christ. Without the spirit the Cristian life has no power. The Holy Spirit should be affirmed in all we say and be relied on in all we do.

We affirm the reality of freedom in Christ.

There are many who are within the Church, but disagree on some very important issues. It is important not to view homogeneity as holy or to consecrate conformity. As Christians we serve a God which is much larger then any system of doctrine. Theologians throughout history knew it was dangerous to try to define God cataphaticly. This affirmation states that church is a place where people who challenge our assumptions about God should always be present, and that God’s grace is much bigger then any theology about it.

The Story we find ourselves in

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 13:31:00 +0000

I recently gave a talk for the Word of God Community's Fall retreat. Here is a recording of the morning session.

Classic Rich Mullins teaching

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 12:36:00 +0000

Here is a video I have always loved

15 books that will MAKE you belive in GOD?

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 14:16:00 +0000

Fellow theology nerd and UberBlogger David Withun has created a list of 15 books that he claims that is you read them all (and process all the ideas) you will no longer be able to remain an Atheist.

I have read 1, 3, 6, 7, 13, and 15 ALL of which are fantastic... I can't say how great (or not so great) any of the others are, but I thought this was an interesting list.

What do you all think about this list.

What would you add?
What would you subtract?

Check out David's Blog : http://www.piousfabrications.com/

Praying The Jesus Prayer

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:23:00 +0000

The Jesus prayer is the simple prayer, “Κύριε Ιησού Χριστέ, Υιέ του Θεού, ελέησόν με, translated: “Lord Jesus Christ Son of God have mercy on me.”^[1] It is one of the central prayers of the Eastern Christian traditions. It forms the primary practice encouraged in The Philokalia, a monumental and massively popular book in the Eastern Orthodox tradition.^[2] Many have wondered why such a simple prayer has become such a central part of the Orthodox spirituality. The power of the Jesus Prayer lies in the truth that it aims to transform the heart, and that the heart is the seat of the human person from which the spirit seeks to bring transformation to the whole person, and through them the world.

Where does the Jesus prayer come from?

The Jesus Prayer in its current form seems to have come from the Desert Fathers. The earliest reference we have to the Jesus prayer is in the Discourse on Abba Philimon, from the 6th century^[3]. Inscriptions of the prayer was also found on the wall of a monk’s cell dated to approximately the same time of the Desert Fathers.^[4]

The Jesus Prayer appears to have come out of a early tradition of Desert Fathers and Mothers where they would say their private prayers in the form of short aspirations.^[5] These might be passages from scripture, or the name of Jesus. This led to an interaction with certain key passages in scripture that began to form the Jesus prayer. Chief among these passages of scripture, from which the monks seemed to have gleaned the Jesus prayer is Mark 10:47. In this passage a blind man calls out to the Lord, “Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.” Luke 18:13 is also influential; in this passage a tax collector beats upon his breast and says, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” As the prayer has continued to evolve, some have found inspiration in Matthew 16:16 where Peter declares of Jesus, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Today the Jesus Prayer has many variations from its “traditional” form. It is sometimes recited as simply as “Jesus mercy”, or as long as “Lord Jesus Christ Son of the living God have mercy on me, a sinner.” At times people have found it powerful to say “have mercy on US” rather than “have mercy on ME.” This reflects a flexibility that goes back to the heart of where the prayer came from. The Jesus Prayer did not come out of a rigid formalism, but from the living faith of a community set on sharing life with God.

The Power of the Jesus Prayer

The power of the Jesus prayer is rooted in a conviction that God’s presence is transformative. When people are around God they are changed. Just as Moses’ face shone after he entered God’s presence at mount Sinai (Exodus 34:35), so too, we are changed and begin to take on the life of God. However, how can we, who are finite, come to a place where the transformative energies of God will come in contact with us?

Orthodox theologians believe that the Name of God is a place where God is present. This theology comes from reflecting on the many passages that deal with the power of the name of God in scripture. The reign of God in the world is described in Micah 4:5 as people walking in God’s name. An invocation of God’s name on a people makes them belong to God in Genesis 48:16 , Deutoronomy 28:10, and Amos 9:12. There is a sense in which the name of God, just like the word of God (or logos), reveals the very person of God. Philippians 2:9-10 tells us that Jesus has been given God’s own name, and that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow. Invoking the name of Jesus is more than a cognitive devotional practice it is a declaration that reveals the victory of God over sin in the person of Jesus Christ.

The call of humans to bear the name of Jesus

The Jesus prayer is more than just a prayer; when done in accordance with the teachings of the church fathers it becomes a way of life, and a vehicle for the Holy Spirit. It is a little phrase that becomes a catalyst to change the one who undertakes it to the very core, this is why it is so powerful. It has the ability to change a human being into a servant of God.

But why would God choose US to bear His Name to the world? At the heart of the Christian message is the conviction that God has chosen to save the world through human beings. In the person of Jesus Christ, God joined humanity: lived, died and rose again. God assumed all our brokenness and called all of creation to enter into His wholeness. Incredibly God continues to save the world through humanity. Through His church God calls people into Christ’s death and guides them into the new life of resurrection. Christians are people with a powerful mission: save the world.

Leo Tolstoy once wrote, “Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself.”^[6] I really like this quote because it highlights one of the great paradoxes of the Christian faith. God is changing the entire universe by transforming individual people. The kingdom of God is ushered in one man and women at a time.

At the heart of this individual transformation is what the church calls spiritual disciplines. Spiritual disciplines are the paths that help bring individuals into a life of communion with God. These seemingly simple patterns of life hold in them the power to change the world. Regular scripture reading forms the intellect into the patterns of God’s Kingdom, a regiment of fasting brings the body under the lordship of the Holy Spirit, Participation in the liturgy can create channels of worship in the sub-conscience. The Jesus prayer works to bring the whole person into submission to the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of an individual. This is why the Jesus prayer is sometimes called “the prayer of the heart.”^[7]

How to Pray the Jesus Prayer

When I first encountered the Jesus prayer I was drawn to its simplicity, and later realized the depth of its power. I included it among many other prayers that I had learned and had a special fondness for it, however, I didn’t experience a great deal of change in my life because of it. I wondered how it was that it was seen as so important to so many Fathers of the church, but seemed too trite to me. Upon examining the issue further I learned that for the Jesus prayer to have the greatest power in a person’s life it should be done in a particular way, and should be done to achieve two things: ceaseless prayer and stillness (Hesychia).

Ceaseless Prayer

In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 there is a simple command, “Pray constantly.” Although this verse is one of the shortest in the whole of Sacred Scripture, it is one of the most difficult commands to follow. How is one to pray without ceasing? We are humans who need to eat and sleep, are we not? This question is the question that plagues the mind of a anonymous pilgrim in the 19th Century spiritual classic, The Way of the Pilgrim.^[8] In the novel the pilgrim eventually discovers the secret to ceaseless prayer, after months of fruitless searching, when he happens upon a monk from Mount Athos who shows him the Jesus Prayer.^[9] The pilgrim uses a rope with knots to count how many times he has prayed the prayer and prays the prayer over and over hundreds and hundreds of times a day. Soon it becomes something natural that repeats in his heart as he goes about his day. Even in the midst of the daily routines of life the pilgrim finds himself in prayer.

The advice given in The Way of the Pilgrim. is consistent with the prescription of the Eastern Churches for hundreds of years. Kallistos, patriarch of Constantinople, once wrote, “Unceasing prayer consists in an unceasing invocation of the name of God. Whether talking, sitting, walking, making something, eating, or occupied in some other way.”^[10] Even earlier in the writings of the Desert Fathers we find that Macarius of Egypt taught that by constantly ruminating on the name of Jesus, like chewing on gum, people will find salvation.^[11]

My own attempts to find ceaseless prayer in this manner have not met with perfect success. I have not yet found myself refreshed by the name of Jesus at all times, and in the midst of all activities in my life. However, I have found a good deal of change in my life as I have tried. After reading The Way of the Pilgrim I began to use prayer beads to say the Jesus Prayer a few hundred times every once in a while. I also began to keep prayer beads or a prayer rope in my pocket. This way I was reminded to pray throughout the day and had a tool with me at all times to help facilitate prayer. Through these simple steps I have personally found a great deal of peace, and my heart more consistently set on Christ.

Hesychia

Hesychia is the second thing practitioners of the Jesus prayer seek to achieve. It is a Greek word for “rest”^[12] that has come to have great significance in the Eastern Christian traditions. It is a way to pray though which the one who prays goes on a journey, through inner stillness and silence, into their heart. Hesychists believe Jesus, when He says, “The Kingdom is within you” (Luke 17:21), and they seek to find it.^[13] Hesychia is the way that many Eastern Christians have found to follow the command of Jesus to, “go into your closet” to pray (Matthew 6:6). It is in this space of silence that people find there is more than a negation of sound, but “an attitude of attentive alertness, of vigilance, and above all of listening.”^[14] One of the most common ways this stillness is achieved in the Eastern Churches is though the Jesus Prayer.

The ancient desert fathers viewed hesychia as their natural habitat, they viewed their cells as places of silence and would return to them as much as they could to enter into the stillness of prayer. This constant state of prayer was so important to early desert monastics that on one occasion one of the fathers compared a monk outside of their cell to a fish out of water.^[15] Although most people do not have the ability to follow in the rigor of the hesychists masters, there is still a good deal to learn in this practice and the Jesus Prayer is a powerful tool to achieve hesychia. Unlike ceaseless prayer, which is rooted in prayer within the day to day rituals and concerns with life, this effect of the Jesus Prayer is strengthened from taking time out of the day to day rituals and concerns of life, and spending time in devoted prayer with God.

One of the common ways to use the Jesus Prayer to foster stillness is done by finding a quiet place to sit and close your eyes. This removes the distractions from all around you. Begin to repeat the Jesus Prayer over and over. Some have found it helpful to let the head rest on the chest while sitting upright. This is a simple posture that can help reflect the hoped for goal of bringing the mind into the heart. The mind naturally grabs hold of images and thoughts, let these pass without taking hold of them. Praying the Jesus Prayer is similar to watching clouds pass by. Thoughts like clouds will come, but let them drift on without focusing on them, return your mind to the task at hand: entering the heart. Saint Theophan the Recluse names three stages of prayer that one enters into: first is the oral prayer where there is simple recitation, but the prayer remains an external prayer apart from the practitioner. This is sometimes called the “prayer of the lips.” Second, there is the stage of “focused prayer.” In this stage the mind becomes focused upon the words of the prayer. The prayer becomes the prayer of the prayer themselves. Thirdly, there is the prayer of the heart. In this stage the prayer is no longer something we do but who we are.^[16]

Some Tools to help

The church, in its wisdom, has passed on a number of tools to help people along the way as they pray this prayer. We have touched on some of these tools already, but will expound on them more here. Hopefully these tools can be incorporated in the appropriate ways in your own prayer life so that the Jesus Prayerwill help you to live more completely as the person God has called and created you to be.

A “spiritual father”One of the most important things tools to have when praying the Jesus Prayer is a “spiritual father”. This is someone who can help give you direction in the process. The Jesus Prayer has many pitfalls people can fall into. People can become more concerned with achieving feats of spiritual athleticism rather than praying. A spiritual father (or mother) can help direct how you should pray the Jesus prayer and what other tools might be helpful in this process.
A prayer rope
We have already mentioned this tool a little bit. There are many ways in which you can use a prayer rope. I mentioned that mine helps me remember to pray by being in my pocket. Prayer ropes can also help you count the number of prayers you have done. Many prayer ropes will have 100 knots on them so that when you make it all the way around you can keep track of how many prayers you have said. This is important if you have taken on a particular prayer practice of praying a set number of prayers in a day, or at a given time.^[17] A prayer rope can also act as a tool to keep the mind from following other thoughts. The knots or beads in your fingers offer a reminder of where you mind should be, just like the words of the prayer are used to draw a the prayer back into the awareness of God.
Breathing exercisesBreathing is another tool that has been traditionally used in the Jesus prayer. One can create a rhythm of prayer along with the breaths that they take. Often the first part, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God’, is said while inhaling, and the second part, ‘have mercy on me a sinner’, while exhaling.^[18] There are also those who argue for alternating inhaling and exhaling on every word. Any way you breathe in and out this technique is designed to help you bring the mind into the heart just as air flows next to it in breathing in. This focus on the location of the heart is why some people also say the prayer in rhythm with the heart. It is highly recommended that this is done under the guidance of a spiritual father or mother.^[19]
A good location and postureHow and where you pray are also quite important. Finding a spot where you can pray free of distraction is one thing that can be done to assure that there will be less distractions to take hold of the mind. There are also certain postures that are recommended:

St Gregory of Sinai places an emphasis on posture when engaging in prayer to achieve hesychia. He suggests

sitting on a low stool, about nine inches high;
the head and shoulders should be bowed,
the eyes fixed on the place of the heart. ^[20]

Others have recommended the head should be held between the knees, following the example of Elijah on Mount Carmel^[21]

The Words of The Prayer

The actual words of the prayer in their simplicity have a treasure of deep meaning. Exploring the great depth of each word is far beyond the scope of this small guide. However a brief look at each word in the prayer will prove a good start.

Κύριε / Lord

The word “Lord” is loaded with meaning. Many times in our own Bibles it is used as a replacement for the Holy Name of God יהוה‎. The word in Greek means “master” or “Lord” or “owner.”^[22] This word is a declaration of who we are in relationship to Christ. We are servants and slaves to the Lord and Master.

Ιησού / Jesus:

As we mentioned before the name of Jesus is the name by which every knee will bow. It is a testimony of the mystery of the incarnation. Jesus was given this name when He become incarnate, and took on flesh. This word is a testimony to the humanity of Christ. We remember here that it is because God became man that man is able to find transformation in the presence of God.

Χριστέ / Christ:

This word comes from the word מָשִׁיחַ which means anointed. In this word is an affirmation that God has chosen the person of Jesus to save His people to bless the whole world. It reminds us of who we are in Christ, and our mission to heal the world.

Υιέ του Θεού / Son of God:

Although this is not a single word, it is a unified concept. Since the days of the early church this phrase has been a confessional title^[23] for who Jesus is in the Trinity. It reminds of Jesus’ special relationship within the Trinity, and our special relationship to God through Him.

ελέησόν / Have Mercy:

Although many westerners think of mercy in judicial terms. In the east, where this prayer has taken root, Mercy has more of a holistic understanding. It means means God's love poured out to heal. This word is a prayer of hope. It seeks that Christ Jesus will make everything right, and testifies that we can not.

με / On Me:

By declaring that we are in need of mercy we give up the right to make any claim on God^[24], for the one who asks for mercy has no claim on the one to whom they ask. This word is a testimony of humility. We declare that God is greater than we are.

As you pray the Jesus Prayer be aware of where you place emphasis. In The Way of The Pilgrim the pilgrim is told that the phrases that are focused on can teach a person a great deal on where the Holy Spirit is moving in the heart of the one who prays. For example if one places emphases on the phrase “Lord Jesus” it could show the Holy Spirit is moving them to faith in the divinity of Jesus. If they pray with fever at the words “have mercy” it could show a movement toward humility.^[25]

Conclusion

The Jesus Prayer has a unique power to transform the heart through the working of the Holy Spirit. Out of this practice many have been transformed, and become salt and light to creation. With the great power of the name of Jesus comes a great responsibility to follow after the example of Christ for the life of the whole world. I pray that this short guide has helped in some way to instruct you in this little prayer, and may lead you to a greater life in communion with Christ and the work of His church

[1]Kadloubovsky, E., and G. E. H. Palmer. Writings from the Philokalia on prayer of the heart; . (London: Faber and Faber, 1951), 74.

[2]Chamberas, Peter A..Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain: a handbook of spiritual counsel.( New York: Paulist Press, 1989), 21.

[3]Gillet, Lev. The Jesus Prayer . Rev. ed. (Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1987), 38.

[4]Guillaumont, Antoine. 1974. "Jesus prayer among the monks of Egypt." Eastern Churches Review 6, no. 1: 66-71.

[5]Ibid, 31.

[6]Tolstoy, Leo. Pamphlets. Translated from the Russian . (Christchurch, Hants.: Free Age Press, 1900), 71.

[7]Funk, Mary Margaret. Tools matter for practicing the spiritual life . (New York: Continuum, 2001), 93.

[8]Savin, Olga, tr. The way of a pilgrim . (Boston: Shambhala, 2001),1.

[9]Ibid, 120.

[10]Brianchaninov, Ignatius. On the prayer of Jesus . (Boston, Mass.: New Seeds, 2006), 62.

[11]Harmless, William. Desert Christians an introduction to the literature of early monasticism.. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 220.

[12]Plante, Thomas G..Contemplative practices in action: spirituality, meditation, and health. (Santa Barbara, Calif.: Praeger, 2010), 63.

[13]Ware, Kallistos. The Inner Kingdom . (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2001), 89-93.

[14]Ware, Kallistos. The Power of the Name: the Jesus prayer in Orthodox spirituality. (Oxford: S.L.G. Press, 1986), 3.

[15]Harmless, William. Desert Christians an introduction to the literature of early monasticism. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 228.

[16]Consiglio, Cyprian. Prayer in the cave of the heart: the universal call to contemplation. (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2010), 87.

[17]Saying a certain number of Jesus Prayers is not always recommended and is often discouraged. It may be wise to talk to a spiritual mentor of some sort before undertaking this kind of practice.

[18]Ware, Kallistos. The Power of the Name: the Jesus prayer in Orthodox spirituality. (Oxford: S.L.G. Press, 1986), 12.

[19]Ibid, 12.

[20]Ibid, 12.

[21]Ibid, 12.

[22]Steele, A. T. Exegetical Study Guide Series: an Expositor's Field Manual. (S.l.: iUniverse Inc, 2009), 228.

[23]Strauss, Mark L.. Four portraits, one Jesus: an introduction to Jesus and the Gospels. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2007), 485.

[24]Ware, Kalistos. The Orthodox Way . New rev. ed. (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1995), 69.

[25]Savin, 123.

What is "Church Growth"?

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 23:03:00 +0000

When I first started working in ministry I asked a local ministry leader if he could teach me what he knew about doing youth ministry. He told me that he would meet with me once a week and talk about how he did things, and why they worked (or didn’t work), and then he handed me a book entitled “The Purpose Driven Youth Ministry,” saying “this is a ‘must read’ for anyone serious about doing youth ministry”. This was my first experience with the philosophy, theology, and sociology of the Saddleback church. For decades Saddleback has been one of the largest churches in the United States and has gained a national platform to talk about what it means to be the church in the 21st century. Much of what has made Saddleback so influential is something called the church growth movement.

The church growth movement was started primarily through the writings and teachings of a man named Donald McGavran. His book The Bridges of God sparked the interests of many in the missionary community and eventually became a way that pastors within the United States itself began to look at how to make their churches more successful. In his book The Purpuse Driven Church, Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback, explains the ways that Church Growth ideas were a turning point in his ministry, and the reason that he planted Saddleback church over 30 years ago. That church has become one of the prime examples of “successful church growth.”

Although I haven’t thought much about what Saddleback was doing since my earliest days of ministry. I recently read through Warrens 1995 best seller, The Purpose Driven Church (PDC), and was drawn into revisiting what this church (and the church growth movement in general) was all about, and how it continues to be a paradigm that shapes the church today.

The church growth movement was started primarily through the writings and teachings of a man named Donald McGavran. His book The Bridges of God sparked the interests of many in the missionary community and eventually became a way that pastors within the United States itself began to look at how to make their churches more successful. In his book The Purpuse Driven Church, Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback, explains the ways that Church Growth ideas were a turning point in his ministry, and the reason that he planted Saddleback church over 30 years ago. That church has become one of the prime examples of “successful church growth.”

Philosophy

Church Growth philosophy is grounded in three affirmations:

God wants His lost children found and enfolded. Church growth explodes from the life-giving nature of the eternal God.
Responsible research into the causes and barriers to church growth must be completed.
Leaders must craft specific plans based on the facts that are discovered.

Motivation

To understand why this developed its important to understand the culture of the 20th century mission world. McGavran had grown up in the mission world and became disenchanted with how so many efforts seemed to be failing to bring people in. He noticed that some movements would have great success. He began to look for the reasons these movements, mostly led by people native to the culture, were successfully.

Problematic Elements

There are a few problems that emerge out of the “church growth philosophy”.

The affirmations McGavran developed were a response to successful movements created by people within the culture that was being reached with the Gospel. As the affirmations were implemented, however, sometimes the culture was evaluated by those outside the culture. As a result some of the things that were evaluated as barriers were removed rather than redefined in culturally significant ways. This has resulted in many churches that have been accused of being to shallow in their theology and their discipleship.
Secondly the Philosophy of Church Growth was designed to be implemented in the sphere of world missions. When it was imported in to the United States by people like Rick Warren, and many others problems began to surface. Church Growth was designed in many ways to reach “un-churched” areas of the world. When Warren stated his church he planted in an area where most of the people had access to healthy churches. In PDC Warren confesses that although he had intended the church to be geared at unbelievers his church also attracted people who were already involved in Churches. Even though Warren encouraged people to remain in their home churches many people left healthy congregations to join the Saddleback community.
In this model if your church is shrinking it must be because you are doing something wrong. This can place the emphasis on numbers rather than the faithfulness of the church. Rick Warren writes "If your church is healthy, growth will occur naturally.” This sets up a false expectation and places God in a box.

Redemptive Elements

This “philosophy” gets a lot right. It offers a hope in every context that God is at work and that God’s people can have an impact in significant ways in the place they live. Church growth forces people to do less navel gazing, and more cultural exegesis which is something very important. Church Growth leaders are generally doing good things in their community. I belive that the philosophy is beneficial as long as church leaders:

keep on exegeting the cultural
Are led by members of the indigenous culture
Evaluate if their movement might be creating new barriers for others

Theology

Church Growth Theology is grounded in looking at the scriptures for principles that can be implicated in any context if proper cultural exegesis is done. In explaining how he went about writing PDC, Rick Warren explains he used primarily the scriptures, calling the Bible the best handbook on how to grow a church.

Motivation

The Theology of church growth stems out of McGraven’s concerns with ethno-theology. Ethno-theology is a theology based on context rather than a systematic look at the scriptures. In this framework many missionaries were doing acts of mercy, but doing very little preaching. McGraven was concerned that people were missing on the central purpose of mission saying "A chief and irreplaceable purpose of mission is church growth.”

Problematic Elements

Reading the Bible through the lensRedemptive Elements
of church growth can mean you won’t see places where God is moving in other ways. By dogmatizing growth as something that needs to happen other elements of the life of the church can be put by the wayside. God needs to be given room to move in other ways. Limiting God to one mode of operation guarantees you will miss out on the things God is doing that don’t fit into the paradigm.

Redemptive Elements

The Church Growth Movement recognised a real problem. When the work of the church is separated through the very particular events of God’s redemption it can easily devolve into simply a philosophy to believe rather than a person to follow. When the work of Christ on the cross is given a “back seat” to issues of justice the true power to break the bonds of sin that cause injustice in also removed from the foreground.

Sociology

The Sociological implications of the church growth movement are deeply tied to the missionary mindset of McGavran. Churches who follow this model often see themselves as missionaries to their community and seek to address particular people groups with the Gospel message. McGavaran believed mass movements were always tied to a people (tribe, caste, or clan). In PDC warren tells pastors that they need to know their community better than anyone else. He specifically targeted people in his community that fit the demographics he was trying to reach. In other contexts warren tells people to target the group they are trying to reach with context that fit their particular context. This is all to create groups of “disciples” that can impact the wider culture.

Motivation

People are drawn to those which they are like. Warren believes Saddleback is a church created to love God, and others through making disciples. In order to reach the people in his community his church needs to look like the community. His whole church model reflects this. People make a deeper and deeper commitment to the church and are then sent back out into the community to bring in more people. Warren’s goal is to reach every person in his community.

Problematic Elements

One problem that has come out of this general “philosophy” is that churches like Saddleback can often target a “type” of person. Having a “type” can mean that those who don’t fit the “type” can be excluded. If the people (tribe, caste, or clan) you are reaching are the powerful and prominent members of a community, often the outcast (those that Jesus often tried to associate with) will be the ones left out.

Redemptive Elements

There is a reason that the Church Growth “philosophy” has sparked a social movement. It meets people where they. It help to affirm cultural values and cement the cultural identity of individuals. This has a power that can help redeem the church in many ways too. Being aware of culture is essential if are serious about affirming the wide implications of the Gospel. As the church becomes more and more aware that the torch of Christianity will be a global endeavor, learning how the Gospel fits within cultures without being defined by cultural barriers can dispel fear and open people to embrace the work of God in other contexts. The Church Growth Movement has forced many people to be intentional about contextualization and serves as a constant reminder that diversity is something that God embraces.

We Finally Got The Gospel Right!

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 00:09:00 +0000