The Forgotten Ways By Alan Hirsch
It all started for me here, and this book changed my life forever! After 25 years of serving in what Hirsch calls the “attractional evangelism church growth” model, I began to question nearly everything I thought I had learned about what church “should” be. Hirsch starts with two examples from church history: the explosive growth of both the early church, and the Chinese underground church movement. And all this without any of the trimmings and trappings of the modern/post-modern, church growth movement! Then he goes on to critique the consumer oriented approach that I had spent most of my life supporting. Finally he proposes a better, missional way. If you’re wanting to look into missional thought and praxis, start here! I read the original version. You can get His revised edition here.

The New Parish by Sparks, Soerens and Friesen
The authors here reintroduce us to the idea of Parish – the neighborhood church. Remember when the church was the center of life in the neighborhood, serving as a community center, even a place for civic meetings? You’ll find plenty here on the theology of place (place matters, folks). Do you live where you worship, or do you drive 30 or even 45 minutes to “go to church”? How can you serve your community if it’s nowhere near where your faith community gathers? How can you be involved in deep, meaningful relationships with others in your ecclesial family if you commute an hour to church? This book will cause you to rethink what it means to “be the church.” The subtitle says it all: “How Neighborhood Churches are Transforming Mission, Discipleship and Community.” I highly recommend it as part of your missional reading journey.

Slow Church by Smith & Pattison
Once again, the subtitle makes things clear: “Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus.” The authors introduced me to a new term, that I love – “McChurch!” We want everything bigger, faster, including church. Hmm, what’s wrong with this picture? They talk about the effects of Industrialization on our approach to church (Hint: More efficient may not always be the best thing). As Phil Strout likes to say, ‘It’s a slow kingdom coming, folks.’ Discipleship takes years of life-on life relationship – its not a six-week week course of instruction (i.e. Sunday School, Bible Study). It did get a little weird, kinda hippy-ish for me with all its talk of ecology, etc. But I still recommend you make this one part of your missional journey.

Church Refugees by Packard and Hope
This isn’t really a book on missional theology or praxis. Josh Packard is a PhD sociologist, and this is purely a work of sociology. Through in-depth interviews with those who’ve left the church, and compiling and analysis of that data, they identify trends. And the results are fascinating! Packard doesn’t have an axe to grind here (he’s a scientist), and he really doesn’t criticize the church. He is primarily reporting the data he sees on why the “Dones” are leaving the church (but not their faith), what they are looking for (and not finding in the church). If you are asking questions about why do we do church they way we do, or have left the church, or are considering leaving traditional forms of church in search of more authentic, relational, fulfilling spirituality, you may find yourself in this book (or at least find out that you’re not entirely crazy). Well worth the read.

Church 3.0 by Neil Cole
Cole calls for a revolution in the Church. Church 1.0 was the early church. Church 2.0 was the reformation (using something of a computer operating system analogy). For Cole, Church 3.0 is the ‘upgrade’ needed in the church today as we move into the future. Though not my favorite in this list, it’s a good book. If you’re looking for a “How To” manual on Cole’s model of Organic Church you’ll want to read his book Organic Church instead (or in addition to 3.0). For me, I’ve found that if the church is Organic without being missional, we’ve missed the mark (and simply created a smaller version of the internally focused Institutional Church form). We must be both missional and organic! Read more of my thoughts on that here. Don’t get me wrong. Cole is an important voice in missional-organic conversation. And he is all about making disciples (not just “house churches”). Read the book!

The Church as Movement by Woodward & White
If you think Forgotten Ways as the big picture work on missional, then this book is the “rubber meets the road,” “how to” for “Starting and Sustaining Missional-Incarnational Communities” (again the subtitle of the book). In fact, this book is the textbook for the V3 Movement‘s Church Planting Cohort. I’m not quite done reading this one yet, but I really love this book! It really gets down to the nitty gritty of “how do I actually go about making disciples” and forming missional communities? In the chapter on Ecclesial Architecture they talk about four spaces of belonging (p. 155 f.): Intimate (2-3 people), personal space (5-12 ~ what they call a “discipleship core”), social space (20-50, i.e. the Missional Community), and public space (70+ ~ what I call “Corporate gathering” of the ekklesia). My only regret with this book is that it really isn’t meant to be read as a book (in isolation). It is meant to be read in community (in your planting cohort, with your discipleship core, and/or missional community) – plenty of discussion question here (and praxis to be worked out) that you just can’t discuss by yourself. Get this book!!

Honorable Mention(s)
The Missional Journey by Bob Logan: this is next on my list. I haven’t read it yet so don’t have much to say about it, other than the fact that Dr. Bob Logan is a veteran church planter, missiologist, missional thinker & practitioner, and master disciple maker. So you should get it, read it, and then… let’s talk!

Reimagining Church by Frank Viola – While I agree with most of his critiques of the church [e.g. why do we sit like we’re in a theater or a lecture hall, instead of facing each other as if we’re actually in relationship with one another? And why do we even have a “stage” in our churches, or use language like “green room” if we’re “a family.” And then there’s hierarchical-ism, the clergy-laity distinction, spiritual elitism, etc. I could go on…). Viola is just too much of an Anti-Institutional Church conspiracy theorist (I talk about this more here) for my taste. One might walk away from this book convinced that everyone in vocational ministry is just a charlatan out to fleece the flock. As much as I have concerns about these issues, I just can’t go there. I believe that there are plenty of sincere, and well meaning folks in traditional church leadership roles, trying to serve God to the best of their ability, caring for His flock, even if there are many blinders that can be hard to see past. I just couldn’t finish it. I gave up at p. 108.

Wrapping Up
I hope this list has been helpful, and that you will consider embarking on you own missional journey. Or if you’re already on your way, add a couple of these books to your reading list for 2021! What are some of your favorite books on Missional thought and practice, and why? How have they influenced you? Let me know in the comments below…

Wait, what? You can do that?!? If you’re ex-stripper, Pastor, and author Monica Gary Sr. – yes you can!

Full Disclosure: Monica is a friend and a missional ministry partner. But I can tell you that she is the real deal. She has been through the ringer, found Jesus, climbed out of a dark pit, and lived to tell about it. But she will also tell you that she is still a work in progress as well.

Prayer For Women Like Us is just what it claims to be. A series of 22 short, one-page devotionals, with scripture references, followed by a couple pages for the reader to journal their own thoughts, feelings, reactions… prayers. Each devotional is written in the form of a prayer. I like that, because, I’m guessing that many of her intended readers might have no idea how to even begin to pray for themselves. Monica gives a voice to the voiceless! And she’s “been there, done that” so I can’t think of anyone more qualified to write a book like this!

You won’t find much in the way of religious fluff and platitudes here. Monica covers a wide range of “where the rubber meets the road” real life topics like children, addiction, finances, abuse, life in the club, hope, loss, legal troubles, homelessness, depression, and trauma – topics which are surely relevant to many in her audience. Again, she’s been there, so is imminently qualified to speak God’s truth into the dark corners of life in the sex industry. But Monica is also a woman of faith (“I believe you” – p. 1), and encouragement (“You have made me in Your image” – p. 5). She has such a great heart for these ladies! She is also not afraid to deal with the tough topics either – like parenting (“Lead them to You, Jesus, even and especially when I fail to” – p. 9). You might even find a prayer for their customers, and their oppressors (p. 37)!

“To all the incredible women I have worked with over the years, those who have left and those who remain. To those of you who are just setting out on your dancing journey…

You are loved beyond measure!

These are the words my soul longed to pray but eluded me during my days working in the clubs.

Now that I have found them, they are my gift to you.”

-Monica Gary Sr. (p. vi)

I highly recommend this book! And honestly, it’s not just for strippers. I know that a number of it’s truths ministered to me when I was reading it. Or perhaps you have a friend or acquaintance in need of a book like this. Also, this book is intended to be given away to girls in the clubs. If you know of anyone or groups that are ministering to this community, it would be great to get multiple copies into their hands! Prayer for women like us is available now at Amazon!

1.) ITS HARD – Yep! I don’t know what else to say. Its just hard. And lonely. Many of your friends will look at you like you’re crazy. “Why would you not want to have professional religious guy leading you in your spiritual life?” “Organic church – what the heck is that?!?” “Oh, you mean, like a house church?” – “Well, not exactly…” “But what about your kids? How will they grow spiritually?” And any time that you leave a church (and this has nothing to do with transitioning to Organic/Simple Church) you find out who you real friends were. Remember those 200 “friends” you hugged every Sunday morning and asked “how ya’ doin?” – “Great!” Yeah, 196 of those were just acquaintances (that you liked) because you were in the same “club.” Truth be told, we have maintained close personal relationships with at most 4 other families from our “old church.” And then there’s those awkward bumping into folks at the mall. Again, “How you doing?” “Great!” But it still feels like they’re thinking ‘Are we allowed to talk to them?’ “There must be something wrong with them, now that they don’t like the same church that I still do?” “Maybe they have fallen away from God?” Actually, they are mostly all really kind folks, but sometimes it can be awkward. And the loneliness. It feels like you’re out there all alone to face the world (without that hierarchical structure that you could once count for support in times of crisis). It’s lonely out here, friends. Especially for the first year or two.

1a.) THE DECONSTRUCTION PROCESS TAKES AT LEAST A YEAR OR TWO – If you’ve been in traditional forms of church for decades like so many of us, it takes time to unlearn all those assumptions of what you thought church was. It takes soul searching, lots of thinking though, questioning and re-questioning, and then rethinking again. Prayer, Bible reading, searching the scriptures, and if you can even find a friend to talk though your struggles with (it’s lonely – see 1 above), many long, late night conversations. [I should probably provide a suggested reading list for folks who are on the journey (but I think I’ll save that for a separate post)]. And once you begin to get a handle on that, the Reconstruction process will likely take just as long: What does it mean to “be the church” rather than just “going to church”?

2.) IT’S FREEING – For starters, honestly, waking up on Sunday morning and remembering once again that I “don’t have to go to church” feels pretty great. Realizing that I don’t need my Pastor’s permission to start a small group, gather with friends for worship, serve my neighbors or community, etc. feels pretty great. I also no longer worry about seeking my Pastor’s approval, as if her opinion is the more important than anyone else’s because, after all, he is the anointed man of God, right? (Its called veneration of the clergy). Now I can just seek God’s will and do my best to please Him. Also, the Priesthood of All Believers becomes more than just a theoretical truth that I believed in but never really lived out in the practical.

3.) IT”S CONVICTING (and motivating) – With professional clergy removed from my life, now the responsibility to do the work of ministry, proclaim the good news, make disciples, love my neighbor, lies solely on me. I can no longer rely on vocational religious leaders to organize the next outreach event, assign me to a discipleship group, or even better, give me an easy way out by encouraging me to “invite your friends to church” on Easter or Christmas. Its up to me to obey the teachings of Jesus!

4.) IT”S NOT PERFECT – First off, one of the biggest challenges of living out your faith outside of the Institutional model is finding others, like yourself, and want to do the same. Check out any Organic/House Church/Simple Church forum on the internet and you’ll eventually see a post from some “newbee” that goes pretty much like this: “Hey – Anybody in/around the Paducah, KY area? (fill in the blank with any small town or huge metropolitan area you like). Did I mention that it’s lonely (see 1 above). And if you think that finding a nice house church is going to solve all of your “church” problems, it has its own set of issues (many of them the same as in the IC). [See 5 below for more on Imperfections].

4a.) THERE”S A LOT OF HURT PEOPLE OUT THERE – And, in general, hurt people are angry people. Personally, I think there’s is a place for healthy venting in a safe environment as part of this journey. If having a “bad church experience” is part of your story of leaving the IC, it’s going to take at least a year to work through your anger, and begin to find healing and wholeness from those for hurts, working though all those feelings in a healthy way. And again, if you’re in those online forums, there’s gonna be some folks out there who are early in the process, so be prepared for some rants (I’m just sayin’). It’s hard (see 1 above).

5.) WHAT DO YOU CALL IT? – This is a bit of a pet peeve for me, so here I go. I’m not fan of the term house church. Mainly because, I don’t necessarily want to be associated with folks who think “Well, in the Bible, they met in houses, so we should meet in houses too, right? It’s God’s command!” If that’s how you think, I’d like to challenge you to consider if maybe your ecclesiology needs some maturing (to say nothing of Hermeneutics). [You can start with a study of the Greek word oikos, and what the Greek households in the Pauline churches were really like]. The reasons why we choose a more relational form of ekklesial gathering, why we emphasize making disciples over being good church members, and avoid top down, hierarchical forms of church government, go so much deeper than ‘In the book of Acts they met in houses.’ Sorry, I can’t go into all that in depth here.

Organic Church is not a bad term, but again, a lot of folks in this movement are just way to into the conspiracy theory approach for my own personal taste. Not everyone in vocational ministry is out to fleece the flock, steal all your money, spiritually abuse you, total hypocrites, etc. Are there bad leaders in the IC – of course (just read the newspaper). Is top down top down, hierarchical org chart part of the problem – yes! Are the decisions of career track, full-time, vocational ministers who are dependent on their church salary to feed their family and pay their mortgage, sometimes influenced by the bottom line – I don’t see how they could not be, at least sometimes. Then there are what I call the “christian anarchists” advocating for a leader-less church. I’m sorry you got hurt, but I just think its hard to make a case for this from the New Testament, which at least in the Pauline churches, seems to have been led by Elders & Deacons. [I’m a plurality of Elders guy when it comes to Church Government, and that hasn’t changed since I left the IC. Read all about it here, or see this piece from Luke Geraty]. Similarly, I’ve also seen a lot “organization is the enemy” kind of thinking, as if all structure is somehow inherently evil. In my understanding of ecclesiology, the church is not primarily, by its nature “an organization” but it can still, and often should be orgnaized. [There are 3 metaphors for the church in the New Testament: the church as the people of God, the body of Christ, and the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit (stolen form Geoff Holsclaw)]. As my colleague, Kenny Burchard, used to say: “All living things have structure but not all things that have structure are living things.” So again, Organic church is not a bad term, but it comes with a lot of baggage.

I personally prefer the term Simple Church. It’s like church, but stripped down to just the basics, without a lot of the unnecessary (and often not necessarily Biblical requirements) that come along with so much of what most of us have experienced in more traditional forms of church. But is that enough?

6.) CHURCH NEEDS TO BE BOTH ORGANIC AND MISSIONAL – This is what I’ve been learning most recently. It’s not enough to just reproduce the IC experience on a smaller scale, in a more relational format, or less hierarchical. Yes, the church needs to be organic, but it also must be missional, in order to be all that that God intends His church to be (and do)! [I am indebted to the influence of J.R. Woodward & Dan White Jr. here]. The church is both gathered and scattered! There is just as much danger of becoming internally focused in an organic/house church as there is in the IC.

7.) APEST PROVIDES A GOOD FRAMEWORK FOR IMPLEMENTING FLATTER LEADERSHIP MODELS – I reviewed Alan Hirsch’s 5Q here. If we’re going to follow a shared leadership or ‘plurality of elders’ model for our church structure, then the five-fold (Apostle – Prophet – Evangelist – Shepherd – Teacher) from Ephesians 4 can provide a helpful lens for guiding the appointment of ministry overseers. In this way, the ministry of the church could cover the full gamut of it’s calling in the world: speaking prophetically both to the church and contemporary culture (P); reaching those who haven’t heard the good news (E); starting new works by serving the needs of the oppressed, needy & hurting, forming missional communities in our neighborhoods, and planting churches in every nation (through the entrepreneurial skills of the Apostle); building loving, safe communities where believers can grow mature into all that God has created and called them to become (through the soul care of a shepherd); and the practical wisdom & understanding nuanced by the biblical worldview of the Teacher bringing theological truth to shape the consciousness of God’s people.

If you’re on the journey, I hope this helps. And feel free to reach out anytime.

Finally, share some insights from your own experience in the comments below. I know this post is not comprehensive. What have I left out? Let us know…

Who is Jesus? The disciples don’t know at this point. They are clueless – even they don’t understand His parables (p. 1775). But the clues are coming in: His family thinks He’s crazy. The religious leaders from Jerusalem think he’s possessed (p.1774). But what He does, He does by the power of God. He is filled with the Holy Spirit (p. 1775)! Demons in gentile regions recognize His authority and obey Him!?! (p. 1776)

But do we? Or are we more like the disciples who don’t understand Him, who He is, what He does, His ministry? The twelve were chosen “that he might send them out to preach and have authority to drive out demons” (p. 1774). Not everyone understood Jesus. Not everyone was supposed to. It takes effort, dedication, a constant, relentless focus to understand Him, to see what He is doing, to follow and join in. We cannot let ourselves become distracted by “the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things” (see The Parable of the Sower, p. 1775)!

God help me to stay focused, to avoid distractions, to hear Your voice, to understand Your word(s), Your teaching. Come Holy Spirit!

In Jesus name – Amen
Son

*The Books of the Bible, NIV (Grand Rapids, 2011). Mark 4:41 in other versions.

Last time we looked at John Mark’s original ending of his gospel (Mark 16:1-8), with his account of the empty tomb. But now, herein lies the rub! The modern/post-modern scholarly consensus is nearly unanimous in it’s assertion that verses 9-20 did not come from Mark’s pen – they are a later insertion. Most current translations even include an explanatory textual note to that effect. The NIV puts it this way:

“[The earliest manuscripts and some other ancient witnesses do not have verses 9–20.]”

The Holy Bible, New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mk 16:8.

It is not my intention to go into a long diatribe here on textual criticism and overwhelm you with a highly technical explanation of why you must accept the current scholarly consensus (you can read all about that here). To be sure, Mark’s original ending can feel unsatisfying, especially to us as modern/postmodern readers and/or long-time, good, church attending folk who’ve perhaps never spent much time considering the question we are examining here today. There are no post-resurrection appearances of Jesus, “no great commission, and no ascension report” (Geddert, BCBC) – how awkward is that – especially if you’ve read the endings of the other 3 gospels! But the bottom line is that the verses of Mark 16:9-20 were added, probably by a well-meaning scribe (who struggled with similar feelings that the original ending seemed “incomplete”) in the 3rd or 4th century. They do not appear in the best early manuscripts (Codex Sinaiticus & Codex Vaticanus), and even many of the early church father’s (Eusebuis & Jerome – note also that Clement of Alexandria and Origen exhibit no knowledge of the existence of v. 9-20) do not recognize them, as coming from John Mark (again, following Geddert).

So what then is a disciple to do with this information? Let’s look at the options (following Geddert):

1. We can ignore it! Under the assumption that “it’s not from Mark’s pen, and therefore it’s not canonical!” [Remember: one of the criteria for admission to the canon of the New Testament was that the book in question had to be written by an Apostle or someone closely associated with an Apostle]. While it is important to interpret verses 1-8 as the original ending of Mark (as we did last time), and this is perhaps the “go to” response from a hard-line Protestant perspective, it may not be our best option.

2. We can speculate as to Mark’s intended unfinished or lost ending. There is another view that Mark either, a) intended to finish his story (after v. 8) but, for whatever reason, never got at around to it, or, b) the final page of the Codex was damaged and fell off (that would explain the abrupt and strange ending of his final sentence with the Greek conjunction gar) and is now presumably lost to us forever (see R.T. France, NIGTC). But to base our “exegesis” on the absence of a text that we don’t have any record of is obviously problematic.

3. We can let the Church finish Mark’s story. After all, verses 9-20 were received by the Church and carried on through the majority of manuscripts for centuries! For Protestants, we might not read it the same as we would inspired scripture (proper), but it is still as valuable (if nothing else, as history) in the same way we might read the Apocryphal writings. For our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters, it might be a little easier to read this as scripture, received from church tradition. It is also worth noting here that there is almost nothing in v. 9-20 that hasn’t been “lifted” from one of the other gospels (the scribes in question have essentially cobbled together a “suitable” ending for Mark by borrowing from Mathew, Luke, and John). While it might skew our interpretation of v. 1-8, there is very little new “un-biblical” data here (with the exception of Mark 16:18 – but hey, a little snake-handling never hurt anybody – right?) that would lead us into heresy. If you decide to go this route, R. Alan Cole (TNTC) provides some helpful commentary on these verses.

4. We can consider other endings. The so called shorter ending of Mark (“And all that had been commanded them they told briefly to those around Peter. And afterward Jesus himself sent out through them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.” – NRSV] appears both instead of the longer ending as well as, in addition to it in the manuscript (variants) evidence.

5. We can respond to the invitation of Mark’s original ending and continue the story. “Jesus’ resurrection marks… the beginning of that time period when Jesus’ followers engage in “mission in the context of persecution” (13:9-13). It is the time to watch and wait, discern and serve (chap. 13), until some unknown future time, when the Son of Man’s appearance signals the arrival of the End (13:24-27)” (Geddert, p. 401 – Kindle edition). Which leads nicely into our final option…

6. We can continue the loop back to Mark 1:1 (“the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ” – ESV) as the disciples are invited back to Galilee (Mark 16:7) to follow Jesus again where it all began! Re-reading it not in a circular fashion, but as a spiral:

“Each time we follow Jesus into the Galilee of another reading, we have been changed by the power of the cross and the hope of the resurrection mediated by the text we have just read.” – Tim Geddert

Geddert, Timothy J. Mark (Believer’s Church Bible Commentary) (p. 402). Herald Press. Kindle Edition.

It is not my intention to try to sway you too heavily into any one of the options above with regard to how you should approach this final text in our series on discipleship in the good news According to Mark. If nothing else though, option 6 does invite us to consider again, anew, afresh the question: What does it mean for us to live as a follower of Jesus today?

Will you join me, there on the sea of Galilee, with Peter and Andrew, and James and John (Mark 1:16-20)? And just perhaps, we too will catch the gaze of Jesus, looking into our eyes, and hear Him say:

“Come, follow me”

Mark 1:17, NIV

Thanks for joining me on this journey! May Jesus, through the work of the Holy Spirit, continue to reveal more and more of Himself to you in an ongoing way, drawing you into a deeper and deeper “spiral” of knowing Him, and proclaiming & enacting the Kingdom of God “as you go” through the “ordinary” of your everyday lives. What an adventure…

With much love & gratitude,
Brad

Last time Jesus body was laid in the tomb by Joseph of Arimathea, the stone was rolled against the entrance, and the two Marys “saw where he was laid” (Mark 15:46-47). It is now Sunday morning. The sabbath is over and the three women (cf. Mark 15:40) can now go to the tomb and anoint the body (Mark 16:1-2). It is very early! The sun has just risen, not yet full daylight (Cole, TNTC).

The fact that these women are presented as the first eyewitnesses to the resurrection only attests to the veracity of the narrative. For the church would never have manufactured a story where the key eyewitnesses were considered so unreliable (based on their gender) that their testimony could not even be accepted in a Jewish court (Garland, NIVAC). Note also similarly the unpreparedness of the women:

Who will role away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?

Mark 16:3 (ESV)

These women were with Jesus on the way to Jerusalem, and heard His repeated predictions of His resurrection and even a future meeting with them in Galilee. But they did not come looking for a risen Jesus, they came to anoint His dead body. But all that is about to change, with a big surprise for them! As we previously discussed in the burial narrative, the stone once slid into place within the grove in the bedrock was quite difficult remove (Lane, NICNT), probably impossible for these women unassisted. Whether they fully realize it or not, they are dependent upon God. At this point ‘only a miracle could move it’ (Garland). And one is just about to happen!

“And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back”

Mark 16:4, ESV

Not only that, but upon entering the tomb, they see (what is almost surely) an angelic being. We are now beginning to get a sense that something supernatural is going on here (see R.T. France, NIGTC). [Though the text in v. 5 reads “a young man” (neaniskon), Mark’s description of his “white robe” and the women’s “alarm” (exethambethesan – astonishment or even terror) indicates that he wants his readers to see him as God’s messenger. But see Geddert (BCBC), France, or Garland for a discussion of the alternative].

And proclaiming God’s message is exactly what he does in v. 6. As with so many angelophanies in scripture, he begins with reassurance: “do not be alarmed” (ESV). He then announces who has been risen – Jesus of Nazareth. The same Jesus who was crucified, the same Jesus who led the disciples throughout their itinerant Galilean ministry. Geddert prefers the NRSV’s “he has been raised” based upon the Greek (egerthe – Aorist passive) to the NIV (and ESV): “He has risen.” For:

Jesus did not raise Himself. God did it!

See Geddert, Timothy J. Mark (Believer’s Church Bible Commentary) (p. 394). Herald Press. Kindle Edition.

And finally, the women are invited to inspect the empty tomb. He is not there! They have heard the divine announcement, they were witnesses to His death (Mark 15:40), and they were witnesses to His burial (Mk. 15:47). And now they will become official witnesses to His resurrection! [Following Geddert closely throughout v. 6.]

They are further instructed to “go, tell his disciples and Peter” (v. 7, ESV). The calling out of ‘even Peter’ (Geddert’s preferred translation of kai), the first time He is mentioned since his disgraceful failure, surely points us toward the restoration of the failed disciples. Note that the invitation to the reunion with Jesus in Galilee is not limited the 12 (men) disciples – these women are invited too (“you” is 2nd person plural in the Greek):

“he is going before you to Galilee.”

Mark 16:7, ESV

But don’t leave verse 7 without going back and re-reading Mark 14:27-28. Remember Jesus has already told the 12 (but not these women), before He dies and before their failure, of a post-resurrection reunion in Galilee – they will follow Him again!

“All are invited, no matter how far they have fallen.” -Tim Geddert

Geddert, Timothy J. Mark (Believer’s Church Bible Commentary) (p. 398). Herald Press. Kindle Edition.

But now things get a little dicey with v. 8. According to the best scholarship we have, the original ending of Mark’s ‘good news’ story concludes with these ‘faithful’ women disciples fleeing from the tomb in fear and saying nothing to anyone [Note: we will discuss the longer ending of Mark (Mk. 16:9-20) next time]!

What’s up with that? First, we should understand that the women’s reaction of fear and trembling is not unusual. From a normal human perspective, it is exactly what we might expect. And from a Biblical perspective, it is similar to what we typically see in the Scripture in a divine, or supernatural encounter such as this. Geddert see’s it as a failure on the women’s part – like the twelve men, these “faithful” women disciples ultimately fail Jesus too (BCBC, p. 399). But an incredible story like this can’t be kept quiet for long (as with so many of Jesus miracles throughout Mark’s good new story). The original recipients of Mark’s story would already have been well aware that the message of the resurrection did somehow get out (France, NIGTC).

What Mark may be up to with this ending is pointing back to us, the reader. As followers of Jesus, we cannot fix our eyes on the 12, nor even on these 3 first witnesses for our example of faithful discipleship. We can ultimately only look to Jesus Himself as our model! Like these 15 disciples, we must be obedient, and go to Galilee (where it all started) to meet the risen Jesus, as Geddert explains:

We must follow him, obey him, go where he goes. Then we too will met the risen Jesus. Then our failure will be forgiven and our courage renewed. We will take up our crosses in discipleship and proclaim the gospel in mission. “Followership is never perfect, never easy, and never ending.”

Geddert (BCBC) (p. 399) cites Malbon here.

The 12 are dead. These 3 women are long gone. It’s up to us, now!

“Jesus’ resurrection reverses the humiliation and degradation of his scandalous crucifixion… His resurrection sets the stage for his exaltation to the right hand of Power, where he now reigns and will return to judge (Mark 8:38; 14:62) and to gather the elect… The gospel is about the power of God, which overcomes human dysfunction and disaster.”

David E. Garland, Mark, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), 624-626.

The Kingdom of God is secretly advancing, dependent on God’s power, not on human ability (Garland cites Geddert, Watchwords, p. 202). Our own discipleship is established by Jesus call, and sustained by God’s mercy (Geddert).

The voice of our Lord Jesus cries out to us across the millennia: “Come, follow me” (Mark 1:17, NIV) …

Jesus died on the day before the Sabbath at about 3pm, and evening is approaching (v. 42). If He is going to be buried, and not hang on the cross (bringing desecration to the land, and during the Passover at that) then it needs to happen quickly. For Sabbath begins at sunset! And the Romans could care less. They would leave a corpse on the cross for days to rot or even be eaten by birds or animals (Lane, NICNT). As a convicted capital criminal, Jesus was not entitled to the right of burial.

Upon this scene, Joseph of Arimathea appears as something of a hero from the enemy camp, [cf. the centurion, and the scribe in Mark 12:28-34 (see Garland, NIVAC, p. 596)]. Joseph had both influence (euschemon) as well as means. It is unlikely that Pilate would have granted the body to the disciples (were they not still completely absent from the scene). Although he was a member of the council (that condemned Jesus) he was apparently a sincere seeker of the Kingdom of God, and likely open to, or at least sympathetic to, the idea of it’s coming in the person and ministry of Jesus (see Cole, TNTC). But, at considerable risk to himself (by appearing as sympathetic to one convicted of high treason against Rome), Joseph asks Pilate for the body of Jesus (v. 43).

Pilate is surprised that Jesus has died so quickly (v. 44). For it was not uncommon for the crucified to cling to life for two or three days before dying (Lane). So Pilate summons the centurion (the same one who had declared Jesus to be the “the Son of God” in Mark 15:39) to verify with certainty that Jesus was indeed dead. As an hardened and experienced Roman Sergeant, he had surely overseen many such executions, In fact, it was a core responsibility of his duty as the squad leader to ensure that the execution had been carried out as commanded.

Don’t miss this: in v. 45, an official of the Roman Empire certifies that Jesus of Nazareth is dead as a door nail! If we claim to believe the text of Marks’ gospel, we can put all swoon theories aside.

See R. Alan Cole, Mark: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 2, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1989), p. 332 & 334.

And as a result, Pilate grants the body of Jesus to Joseph of Arimathea (v. 46). This also seems to indicate that Pilate indeed had no reservations about Jesus’ innocence of the charge of high treason, and that he had only pronounced the “sentence begrudgingly to placate the irate mob” (Lane, NICNT, p. 579). But Joseph is rapidly running out of time. He hastily buys a linen shroud, takes Jesus’ body down from the cross, hurriedly wound the linen cloth around the body, and put it in the tomb (v. 46). Joseph would likely not have been able to have finish his task before the shining the first star (signaling the beginning of the Sabbath) without help of his servants (which a man of his means would surely have had access to). The placement of the stone, which was relatively easy to roll into place, but quite a chore to remove from the entrance, serves as an ominous conclusion to Mark’s burial narrative with an air of finality. But the two women disciples (again, in the absence of the 12) serve as witnesses both to the death of Jesus (v. 40), as well the location of his burial (v. 47). But the significance of this will not become apparent until Sunday morning when something unpredictable happens (Mark 16:1-8)!

The twelve are nowhere to be found here. They are probably cowering behind a locked door somewhere. In their absence, we find instead: a proclamation of Jesus as the Son of God by his executioner, faithfulness to ensure a decent, proper burial in accordance with Jewish custom (John. 19:40) by a respected member of the council that condemned Him, and faithful witness by the two Mary’s whose testimony, based solely on their gender, could not be accepted in a Jewish court of law.

As modern day disciples, we can follow the example of Jesus who was faithful to the end, even death on a cross (Phil. 2:8). We can also look to the unlikely heroes from among the “villains” of the story (i.e. Joseph and the centurion) for their words and acts of faithfulness. And finally, we can look to the fringes of society, to the weak and powerless, and imitate the women who (unlike His closest friends) stood with Jesus faithfully through horrific suffering, and as we’ll see next time, serve as the first witnesses to the resurrection of our Lord from the dead (His vindication by the Father) – and the first to proclaim the good news that, “He is risen!”

Until then, follow Jesus, my friends…

The previous passage takes place between 9 AM and 12 noon. It is now high noon (v. 33) and it’s dark for three solid hours (until the moment of Jesus’ death) – a symbol of God’s judgment (Amos 8:9) and eschatological fulfillment (cf. Amos 5:18). At 3 PM the silence is broken (as the darkness is lifted) with a loud cry from Jesus quoting Psalm 22:1 in his mother tongue of Aramaic (v. 34). Mark’s translation (into Greek) clues us in as to how the crowd might confuse “Eloi” for a reference to Elijah (v. 35). These are Jesus’ final words in Mark’s gospel:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” – Jesus of Nazareth (from the cross)

Mark 15:34 (ESV/NIV)

In this moment Jesus identifies with humanity, experiences the horror of the worst that human hatred has to offer, and bears the penalty and suffering for that sin of humanity, all the while trusting in the will of God the Father that He will ultimately be vindicated. Note that, Mark’s original reader’s (under persecution) would have identified with Jesus’ feeling of abandonment and desperation here (NIVAC quotes Hooker, p. 375).

Scholarly views vary on this but I’m pretty comfortable endorsing the view that Jesus has the whole of Psalm 22 in mind here, (though He likely does not possess the strength to quote it’s entirety – Garland, NIVAC).

The bystanders think Jesus is calling for Elijah to come and rescue Him, but (irony again) Elijah has already come (in the form of John the Baptist – Mark 9:13) not to rescue Jesus, but to prepare the way that leads to the cross. But this makes no sense to unbelievers who (including the 12) cannot comprehend a suffering Messiah (Geddert, BCBC). The wine vinegar (Mk. 15:36, NIV) is not the same as the “wine mixed with myrrh” in Mark 14:23. But it is the same “vinegar” given in the (also) Messianic Psalm 69:21 (“which begins in sorrow and ends in triumph”) which may also give us insight into Jesus’ mind at this point (Cole, TNTC, p. 328).

This drink may indeed have helped give Jesus the strength for the “loud cry” of v. 37, just prior to His final breath. Unlike His previous cry “with a loud voice” in v. 34, one of abandonment, this is likely “the victor’s cry of triumph” (Cole, TNTC).

The tearing of the temple curtain (v. 38) can be understood as:

1) a revelation – of Jesus as the Son of God (Mark 1:11, 9:7),
2) a releasing – of the presence and glory of God (cf. Mk 1:10),
3) direct access to God for all, including Gentiles (see Heb. 10:20 et al. & Eph. 2:14) or,
4) judgment on the temple system of worship – effectively an endorsement of Jesus’ prophecy of it’s coming destruction (which certainly fits well within the context of Mark)

[Following Garland, but see Geddert for an alternate list of five views].

The centurion’s confession in v. 39 is closely linked to v. 38, and functions in tandem with the curtain “torn in two.” Whether the centurion’s words are based upon genuine faith (and an accompanying conversion) is not entirely clear, but in Mark’s gospel they function to inseparably link Jesus identity as “the Son of God” (cf. Peter’s confession of Jesus as Christ, Mk. 8:29) with His death. And we should be careful not to miss that this soldier, with a sworn allegiance to the Emperor, has attributed Tiberius’ title to this executed Jew! In addition we should note that this goes completely against his Roman understanding of both power and divinity. And finally, as a soldier well acquainted with obedience, he would have seen Jesus as “someone who had been faithful in carrying out his mission” to the point of death (following Garland).

The women in v. 40 include Mary of Magdala, another Mary (possibly Jesus’ mother or some other), and Salome (likely the mother of James & John, cf. Mt. 27:56). They were among the inner circle of disciples (including the twelve apostles) who traveled with Jesus (v. 41) from Caesarea Philippi to Jerusalem (Geddert). They function here in Mark (in the absence of the 11) as witnesses to the crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus (William Lane, NICNT, p. 577).

In this passage we find that our Lord and Teacher trusts God, and is faithful to His very last breath, through the most horrific of circumstances. We will also find that God is faithful and will in the end vindicate His servant Jesus (through the resurrection). The mockers, and those who hate God, His Messiah, and all that He stands for are there too. In the execution of Jesus we find all that is horrible in humanity – including our own sin and hatred that put Him there.

As His disciples, we are called to follow His example, trusting God and remaining faithful no matter what! I wish I could soften this, for your sake’s and mine, but the text simply does not allow it. And the experience of the original recipients of Mark’s gospel account in Rome, who literally faced potential death for their faith in Christ Jesus, would echo this sentiment.

——————————————————————————————————————–
AN EXCURSUS ON LAMENT
Jesus, dying on the cross, also provides us with an example of Lament:

“Many Christians today shy away from ever crying aloud to God or making an outcry of reproach when they are not rescued. Some do not feel that they can lay bare their true emotions to God, including their anger. They feel that such honesty reflects a deficiency of faith or blasphemous gall. This timidity may in fact reflect a sense of distance and alienation from God, because they fear that God might reject them if they are too complaining in an hour of trial… Such laments, which were a central part of the worship of Israel, have disappeared from our prayer and worship. We cannot obscure the hurtful side of life. It might be helpful in giving pastoral care to those suffering from enormous grief to teach them about biblical lamentation that cries out boldly to God. We do not cry out from the depths simply to cry out. We cry out because God is the only one who can deliver us and can answer the question “Why?”

David E. Garland, Mark, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), p. 608-609.

When we find our circumstances too much to bear, the Psalms of Lament invite us to approach God (in relationship), with all of our anger and doubt, pouring out all of our raw emotion before our Abba (Daddy) God. He loves us more than we can imagine and is not afraid of our doubt, or put off by our anger and questions. When we bring our Lament before God, we stand in the shoes of our forerunners, those Biblical authors like King David, the Sons of Korah, and Asaph (that’s some pretty good company) who had the same doubts, questions, and frustrations as us. If we do this in a healthy way, we may just find a renewed faith and trust in God, even in the midst of our most difficult trials, as those before us most often did.
——————————————————————————————————————–

I don’t know if Mark intended for us to consider multiple meanings of the tearing of the temple curtain, but the context within the whole canon of scripture would seem to invite it, so I encourage you to spend some time, as a follower of Jesus, pondering these depths. The centurion teaches us that we cannot place our faith in the worldly power of Empire, but rather only in the slain lamb of the Passover.

Like the women (and unlike the twelve) faithfulness starts with showing up:

“In the current debate within the church on the ministry of Christian women, it is interesting to see this group, roughly the counterpart of the twelve, already engaged in a distinct, but just as real, ministry… two at least of these women were ‘witnesses’ of Christ’s death, his burial, and the empty tomb, even though official Judaism would not accept as legal the evidence of women (Lane). This cannot be accidental: God has accepted, indeed, chosen them as witnesses for the most important events of history.”

R. Alan Cole, Mark: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 2, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1989), 330–331.

Until next time my friends, follow Jesus… faithfully!

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: My thanks to Pastor Keith Beatty for allowing me to use his graphic as my featured image in this post. Check out his blog and webpage here.

God is so unexpected, and God shows up in the unexpected. And these times are so unexpected. In the midst of this pandemic, I’ve had the chance and the space to connect with God more than I have in a long time, and I’m still trying to figure out what God is doing. God definitely didn’t cause this crisis, and this pandemic is not God’s judgment upon the earth. I don’t want anyone to think that. But in these times, God is absolutely present in the midst of COVID-19. This Sunday is Palm Sunday, and I of course am thinking of the ways that Jesus threw off human expectations. Jesus wasn’t the type of King that the crowds expected him to be, and I feel like God is inviting me to see God in the unexpected.  

Whoever has ears to hear let them hear.

This entire season is unexpected. Churches all over the world are trying to figure out what they’re supposed to do next week: Palm Sunday, Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, Holy Wednesday (Spy Wednesday), Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday), Good Friday (Holy Friday), Holy Saturday, and then Easter. Churches, historically, have used Easter Sunday as the opportunity to tell people the good news about Jesus, about his love and mercy, and the ways in which he offers salvation. But I think it’s time for the church to learn, again, that Jesus is an unexpected King. He doesn’t move and operate in the ways we might expect him to act.

Palm Sunday is such an interesting Sunday from a preaching perspective. On this side of history, we easily side with those who “got it” about Jesus. We think that we’re special, and if we were alive back then that we would have understood Jesus’ mission. But more than likely, we would have been part of the crowds shouting, “Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” We all have expectations about who we think Jesus is, but if we’re honest with ourselves, our expectations are wrong.

Jesus is an unexpected King.

Even though Christians know the stories of Jesus and how he acted unexpectedly (ate with tax collectors, healed lepers, drank with a Samaritan woman), we are surprised when Jesus shows up unexpectedly. This entire COVID-19 situation is unexpected, but God is still in it (as God is in all things).

Let’s take a look at the Palm Sunday story once more.

Imagine with me the scene: thousands of people crowd into Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. Many are there to see Jesus, and many are there to see Pontius Pilate (Borg and Crossan’s book The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’ Last Days in Jerusalem is a fascinating read on this). Jesus comes in from the east, and Pilate from the west. Two very different types of rulers. Pontius Pilate comes into town expecting the love and adoration of the people. Because I just finished Tiger King, I imagine Pilate looking a lot like Joe Exotic. There’s a scene in that show where Joe’s running for a government position. He’s riding all over town on top of his Hummer limo, and I feel like that’s a good image of what Pilate was like.

The contrast is so evident, it’s surprising that many of us still don’t get it. Jesus arrives into Jerusalem riding a donkey (cf. Zech 9:9). Sure, the crowds shout and cheer saying things that are very true about him. He is a King. And he is worthy of this praise (cf. Psalm 118), but he’s about to do something completely unexpected (though he had just told his disciples in Luke 18 that he’s going into Jerusalem specifically to die…).

The wisdom of God is foolishness to us (cf. 1st Corinthians 1:18-31), and this should be something that most of us get. But sometimes we have to learn and re-learn this truth: God doesn’t work the way we expect God to work. This season is uncomfortable and foreign and painful. People are losing their lives, their jobs, their livelihoods, and their stabilities. But God is in the midst of the unexpected.

Jesus is the King of the Cosmos, and yet he did not consider his rights and privileges as something to be held onto. Instead he emptied himself to take on the form of a servant. And being found in human likeness, he became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. And he did it for us. He did it for all of humanity. This is how Jesus shows his love for us. He’s the type of King that’s willing to sacrifice himself for us.

God works through and in the unexpected to bring about something beautiful. God is a redemptive God.

God doesn’t fit within our own preconceived notions. God acts how God wants to act, and God is free to be the God that God chooses to be. God doesn’t fit within our expectations. Never has. Never will.

So as I approach Palm Sunday, I’m asking God to show me my own blind-spots. Do I have a King that I’ve formed in my own image? Have I boxed God in?

I want to be surprised again.

I feel like this entire situation is chipping and stripping away a lot of unnecessary things in my life. For many years, I’ve complained about being too busy to pray, and now I have so much time to do that. I’ve lost my job. I’ve lost my activities. And now I’m spending so much time with Jesus. I’m excited for the seed that is being sown in people during this season. There are, obviously, really painful things happening, and I am not dismissing that. But what I know about the Easter story is that God always brings life out of death. God alone can do that.

As we all prepare for this new thing that God is doing, let us continue to be amazed at what God can do in the unexpectedness. There is hope in the midst of this season.

Last time Jesus was mocked by the soldiers of Pilate’s battalion. And now they conscript Simon of Cyrene to carry the crossbeam for the severely weakened and exhausted Jesus (v. 21). His sons, Alexander and Rufus, are mentioned because they were members of Mark’s community (the original recipients of this gospel). Whether or not Simon was a later convert to the faith, for purposes of the narrative, he serves as a symbol of faithful discipleship, willing to take up the cross and follow Jesus all the way to His execution – precisely what the twelve failed to do (see Geddert, BCBC).

“the one who was not able to carry his own cross (15:21) is the one who enables us to carry ours.” -Athol Gill

cited in NIVAC by David Garland

Golgotha (v.. 22), a.k.a. Calvary, is so named (Place of a Skull) because of its rounded appearance* as well as its association with death. In v. 23, the soldiers offer Jesus a painkiller, but He refuses. For not only would this have violated His promise to not drink the fruit of the vine again until the consummation of the Kingdom of God (Mark 14:25), but He has committed to drink this cup of suffering (Mark 10:38 & 14:36), in obedience to the Father’s will.

Mark provides very little description of the crucifixion itself (v. 24), its horrors were well known in the ancient world. His concerns are with its theological significance (found in the follow on narrative). As an added humiliation, Jesus’ last remaining possessions, His clothing, are taken from Him. The citation from Psalm 22:18, seems to indicate that even this is in accordance with God’s will. In contrast, previously, touching His clothes brought healing to others (Mark 6:56, 5:27), and at the Transfiguration they revealed His future glory (Garland, NIVAC).

The third hour (v.25), a reference to 9am, is internally consistent within Mark with the early morning Trial before Pilate.** It was here on Golgotha that Jesus was nailed to the crossbeam and hoisted up onto the vertical beam already embedded in the ground, to which His feet were then nailed. The inscription of the charge against Him that was displayed as He was paraded through the streets of Jerusalem, is now affixed to the implement of His execution:

“The King of the Jews”

Mark 14:26 (ESV)

This is Pilate’s final revenge on those who had forced him into this most difficult position. Despite Jesus’ consistent resistance to the offer of political power, He is executed as a political subversive against Rome. The crowd came to arrest Jesus as a robber – now two robbers (v. 27) take the place that James and John (who are absent here) had requested, on His right and His left (Mark 10:37), at the cross. Jesus dies as He lived – in the company of sinners!***

It would seem that Golgotha was not a particularly high hill, since passers by were able to mock and hurl insults at Him (Mark 14:29, NIV).**** The wagging of their heads is an act of contempt (taken from Ps. 22:7). Their scornful allusion to the Jesus’ destruction of the Temple, and the accompanying challenge to “come down from the cross” (v. 30) would in truth mean Jesus disobeying the will of the Father (of which he had been assured just hours before in the garden). The irony comes in the fact that:

“Jesus’ death does destroy the temple made with hands and builds a new one not made with hands… a new community of worshipers who believe that in his death Jesus bore the sins of a jeering and murderous world and that God vindicated him by raising him from the dead. His death abolishes the need for any more temple sacrifices, and God will soon build a temple without walls through Jesus’ resurrection.”

David E. Garland, Mark, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), p. 590.

Similarly, the chief priests and scribes deride Him “He saved others… but he can’t save himself (Mark 14:31, NIV). What they intend as jest is again (as with the soldiers’ mockery) actually ultimate truth! As if that wasn’t enough, they really lay it on thick in v. 32. But they have no intention of believing in Jesus regardless of what they see. In their minds ‘saving others’ probably refers to Jesus’ healing ministry, but Mark wants us to think in terms of (spiritual) salvation. But again, if Jesus were to save Himself from this suffering, then He could not fulfill His mission of saving all of us. Jesus’ desolation in this passage is brought to completion as the robbers crucified with Him join in with the mockery of religious elites.

So what’s a disciple to do with the crucifixion? Well the first thing we’ll want to note is that the 12 aren’t present in this scene. So we are called to not imitate their negative example, by remaining faithful to Christ in all circumstances (trials) as Jesus does here.

“The Gospel story depicts many of the sins that put Jesus on this cross: pride, envy, jealousy, betrayal, cruelty, greed, indifference, cowardice, and murder.”

Garland, Mark, NIVAC, p. 605.

The soldiers are indifferent to the horror before their eyes, but instead focus on a bit of selfish gain (greed). The passers-by cannot even fathom Jesus’ self-sacrificial motivation, but only “save yourself” (selfishness).

The priests and scribes think they have won, but God has another plan that their pious, prideful religiosity could never imagine. Jesus will rise from the dead, and their Temple will fall into ruins! Jesus remains virtuous throughout the heinous ordeal, showing us how to be truly be human. Jesus lives out His own teaching with perfect integrity:

The one who tries to save his life will lose it. The one who gives up his or her life will gain it and will give life to others.*****

Garland, NIVAC, p. 609

No disciple can provide an example for us here (for they have all run away and saved themselves). Only the Lord Jesus Himself can do that in this passage. We must avoid sins like pride, hatred, violence, betrayal, cruelty creed, by living according to the kingdom values that Jesus showed us: kindness, compassion, love God-love people, selflessness, generosity, and faithfulness (to name a few).

Follow Jesus, my friends, and follow Him alone! Remain faithful to that, even when circumstances get really, really hard.

NOTES:
* Cole does not buy the two eyes of Gordon’s Calvary, and so prefers the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as the site of Jesus’ crucifixion.
** See Lane (NICNT) or France (NIGTC) for a discussion on the timing inconsistencies with John’s account.
*** following Garland here.
**** Note that v. 28 is likely a scribal addition taken from Luke 22:37, and is therefore omitted from the ESV, NIV, et al. (see Geddert, BCBC or Metzger).
***** Following Garland closely throughout this closing/application section

¹ The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
²     He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
³     he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
    for his name’s sake.
⁴ Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
    for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

⁵ You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
⁶ Surely your goodness and love will follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever.

Psalm 23 is a famous Psalm for obvious reasons. It’s provided comfort to folks over many generations, as it’s provided comfort to me over the years. This was the very first passage of Scripture that I memorized in First Grade. Of course, I memorized it in the KJV because that’s the only translation that we should be reading, right?

I’m not going to do an extended study on this passage because others have already done it, but I am going to speak briefly on the line that seems extremely pertinent to our situation right now.

Covid-19, or Coronavirus, is all anyone is talking about. It’s affecting every single person on this planet. I don’t think that anyone is actually benefitting from this, nor do I think we should try to find a way to benefit from it. People are dying. People are becoming sick. People are losing their jobs. Life is weird.

Though no one is winning in this virus, there is a way to find God in it all. People that know me know that I’m not one of those people that ascribe the atrocities of the world to God. There are evils and terrible things happening, and these aren’t judgments from God. I think that’s a pretty awful thing to say about something like this. But I do think that we can find God in the midst of this.

Throughout this entire process, I’ve been asking God, “What are you inviting me into?”

And I’ve felt, through it all, that God is inviting me into deeper intimacy and relationship. The other night, I was reading through some of my older journals and blogs. It’s funny how devoted and dedicated I once was to writing through my thoughts and emotions. I’ve become “too busy” to write, and I’ve also felt like I didn’t have much to say. But now, I feel like God is inviting me to get back out there.

God is making me lie down in green pastures. I’ve been going and doing for such a long time that God is making me lie down.

Three weeks ago, Nashville was hit by a tornado. Many parts of Germantown and East Nashville were affected by it. The restaurant that I had worked at for over a year had gotten hit. It’s interesting because the day before the tornado, I had spoken with our GM to tell him that I needed to cut back on my hours because I felt like I was supposed to do more for my church body. Then the next day, my job there was gone.

I had no other choice but to dive into what I felt like I should have dived into when I graduated seminary.

God is making me do something that I had been resisting for a long time. God’s funny like that. We often resist and are reluctant to do what we’re supposed to do, but God sometimes strips things that get in the way of true relationship.

What is God making you do right now? I have so many things that I could have written on in this passage, but this was the thing that stood out to me.

I am one of you. I left the Institutional Church (IC) in 2016, and have been on the journey with you of exploring what it means to practice Christianity outside of traditional church structures and models ever since. I share your concerns over the problem of church hierarchy, overbearing leadership styles, and a lack of discipleship. I too long for a more relational, more authentic church experience. I’m with you, I really am. But I need to get something off my chest.

It’s a trend that I’ve been seeing in our movement as we all continue to struggle with the reality of the Coronavirus Global Pandemic. Here it is. I’m seeing a lot of posts from people within our movement that basically go something like this: “So your church is cancelling public worship services? We are a small community, so the risk is low. Come join us!

Do we really want to capitalize on the grave situation facing our world (at least 6500 dead worldwide as of tonight) in order to win people over to our cause? Is it right for us to take advantage of something so very serious, so dangerous, just to further our cause, to get more people on “our team,” to win folks over to our way of thinking on this issue? I don’t think so. We are better than this. Christ calls us to live better than this.

Okay, that’s enough scolding. Is there an opportunity to reach others whom we might not otherwise have this opportunity to reach? Yes. Is there a chance here to serve our neighbors? Of course. Does this provide an opening to demonstrate the value of real, genuine, no kidding, face-to-face, life-on-life discipleship. Sure. But do we want to achieve these admirable goals with a cheap stunt. At best, this kind of thing has a really ugly appearance. At worst… well, I’ll just say that if we’re not careful we could find ourselves on the wrong side of one of the most important ethical issues in centuries. And instead of bringing glory to God, we could end up bringing disgrace upon the cause of Christ.

Okay, I think I’ve made my point here. There’s one more thing that I’d like to discuss here. And that is: To meet or not to meet – what’s an organic church to do? You see, I help to lead a small fellowship gathering, so I had to struggle with this decision myself within the context of our community. What follows is an edited version of a post I made to our little group (there’s just 8 of us) which outlines my thinking on this important issue. I share it here in hopes that it is of some assistance to others in the Organic church community.

Many will say that, it’s a small gathering so the risk is low, and therefore we should go ahead and meet. But I still feel a responsibility to make sure our response is carefully and prayerfully thought out. In the interest of full disclosure, I am influenced here by a recent post from the current President of my Alma Mater, Fuller Seminary (you can read that post for yourself here).

There’s basically two approaches I see here:

One, I’ll call the faith approach. It goes something like this. God is not going to allow us to get sick because we came together to worship Him. And/or, we’re not gonna allow the devil to keep us from gathering as the church of Jesus. OK, I get that. For me, I would tend to see this type of thinking as “hyper-faith” or “hyper-spiritual.” Others will see it differently.

The second approach I will call the love ethic. It goes something like this. This virus is real. The WHO and the CDC don’t take lightly labeling something a Global Pandemic. The best, and indeed most loving thing we can do in this situation is to observe the guidance we’re receiving to practice social distancing, and thus do our part to slow (and perhaps even reduce) the spread of this virus. Clearly this is the more pragmatic of the two approaches.

I look at it like this: if I observe the protocols, I have the potential of saving the life of someone (maybe many), perhaps 10 transmissions down the line in the progression of this illness. I will of course never know who it was, or have any confirmation that this has actually happened, so this too is an “act of faith.”

The key here is finding the “radical middle” between fear and faith, but also finding the right balance between being driven by fear into panic, and simply taking “reasonable precautions.” I am not so much driven here by concern for my own safety and that of my immediate family (although I do fall into higher risk categories). And I am of course concerned about the rest of our community, but especially I can’t help but think of the smallest and most vulnerable among us (i.e. we have a 1-year old in our group).

But basically, the approach above is an argument for doing what is best for others, and for my money that sounds pretty Christ-like to me! That said, I ended up recommending that our community err on the side of caution and postpone at least our next 1-2 face-to-face gatherings, and then re-assess the situation. But given that I don’t believe in top-down, hierarchical church structure (I’m a plurality of elders guy, and you can read about that here) I didn’t want to make a unilateral decision for the group, so everyone in the community was invited to chime in with their thoughts.

In the end, we did end up reaching a consensus to hold off on physically meeting together for a while. We will likely opt for some type of virtual online in order to “stay connected.”

I wish you and your community dismemberment, and Gods wisdom (James 1:15) in making your own decision in these challenging times.

Grace and Peace be with you friends,

Brad

In 2017, I walked out of the Missio Alliance conference with an armful of books, and when I posted a picture of my new stack of missional books on Twitter, Alan replied, ‘let me know what you think’ – well, it took me almost three years, but here it is!

For those who aren’t familiar, the acronym APEST, refers to the gifts given by Christ at His ascension to humanity (Eph. 4:8) – Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Shepherds (Hirsch’s preferred term over Pastors) and Teachers (Eph. 4:11).

First things first, Hirsch lays out his case, ever so meticulously, for why APEST matters so critically in the Church. If you read the book you’ll “hear” him harp on this again, and again (and he mentions it in almost every interview, speaking engagement or podcast) that’s its because the APEST gifts are given for the maturity and fullness of the body of Christ ( (Eph. 4:13) – to say nothing of equipping the saints for ministry, building up the body of Christ, and unity of the faith (Eph. 4:12-13). In fact he spends more than the first half of the book, 89 pages of a 175 page book (not. including appendices) building his case for APEST.

And to be honest, I really struggled with this first part of the book, not because it wasn’t interesting or good, but, for me, it just seemed to drag on and on! I think the reason for this is that Hirsch, as he states (or at least intimates) up front, is writing primarily to/for church leaders (see p. xxv, in the Preface). And since I am not only, not in vocational ministry, nor part of the traditional institutional form of church, I am not his primary target audience for this book! And as someone who is already a “fan” of his work and already a believer in APEST (for one thing it aligns nicely with my belief in flat leadership models / a plurality of elders form of church government, I didn’t need to be “sold” on the concept. So I found myself over and over saying, “Alan – I’m with you! Please, get to the point. Give me the ‘here’s how’.”

One more introductory note, and this again is something you’ll see in the book and hear in his teaching – most of our churches in the west are built upon the Pastor-Teacher leadership model. And most of the ministry staff in our churches have some form of the title, you guessed it, “Pastor!” In one of his interviews on 5Q, Alan talks about this using the example of a church that he had come across which had a “Pastor of technology” – what even is that?!? [I believe this link is the correct one for the Exponential podcast including this quote, but either way, you’ll get the gist if you give it a listen].

So on to Section 2, Living the Identities, where he lays out how APEST plays out in the praxis of the local church and its mission. I’ll be honest, there were times when I was bogged down in Section 1 that I wanted to throw in the towel. And I seriously considered recommending in this Book Review that you might just want to skip over Section 1 and go right to Section 2 if like me you’re “already a believer” and just want to get to the meat of how APEST works out in the trenches of real life and ministry of the missional church. But in the end, I’m glad I stuck it out, and will urge you to do the same! The foundation laid in the first half of the book, I believe, made later chapters like The Fivefold Functionality of the Church, Marking the Body, Tools for the Trade, and To Get From Here to There much more meaningful for me.

He really fleshes out his understanding of the individual APEST gifts with tables, charts and lists of the purposes, roles, functions, and callings of the Apostle, the Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd and Teacher (see ch. 7). There are, not surprisingly, tests one can take online both for individual and groups (I plan to take the individual test soon myself – it’s only 10 bucks).

As far as the appendices go, he makes a pretty strong critique of cessationism as a big part of the problem in Appendix 1. I haven’t seen anything that strong on this topic since reading Derek Morphew’s Breakthrough! There’s also an Appendix (3) on The Exiling of the APEs (which is essentially an extract from his book The Permanent Revolution with Tim Catchim) which explains how we got into our current predicament. Finally, I’ll mention Appendix 2 where Hirsch makes it clear that he does not share “the perception of the fivefold as primarily a hierarchical leadership paradigm” as “found in the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement” as well as within the Pentecostal-Charismatic tradition (p. 183). For Hirsch, APEST are vocational/functional callings, not Leadership “Offices!”

One critique: with all of the detailed work that he put into what was essentially an 89 page analysis of Eph. 4:1-16, I found it interesting and perhaps a little disappointing with the fact that he never dealt with the interesting Greek construction of Eph. 4:11 (“tous men apostolos, tous de prophetas, tous de euanggelistas, tous de poimenos kai didaskalous“) – at least enough to chime in on whether the grammar/syntax in question would pair the last two gifts together (i.e. Pastor-Teachers) or treat them as simply the last two in a list of five (i.e. “Pastors and Teachers). This is mostly just a curiosity (and something I haven’t completely resolved in my own mind either) and doesn’t really take away from the overall strength of the book. Never-the-less, the bottom line is that, throughout 5Q, he treats Pastor and Teacher as separate gifts on par with the other three.

In the end, I really like the book, and would recommend it to you. If you’ve read it (or after you finish reading it) I would love to hear your thoughts on it as well in the comments below.

Peace, friends!

Last time, in the Roman trial of Jesus, Pilate unjustly ordered Jesus to be scourged and crucified. Now Jesus has been handed over to the Pilate’s soldiers. It is interesting to note that the scourging is not described save 4 words (2 in the Greek) in the previous pericope – “and having scourged Jesus” (v. 15, ESV). So what we have in v. 16-20 is actually just the mocking of Jesus. [The scourging was actually far worse in terms of suffering].

Jesus is brought before the entire battalion (v. 16), as many as 600 men (Geddert and R.T. France, NIGTC). At this point, after the brutality of the flogging, Jesus is surely a pathetic sight, barely able to stand or walk, and certainly lacking any strength to resist (France). What we are about to witness is more about humiliation and especially mockery, than about torture (even though it was physically appalling, it was still nothing compared to the scourging), as Mark will soon make clear.

These Roman soldiers in Jerusalem, like Pilate, would have had no love for the Jewish people. And even less for Jesus, who in their eyes, charged as a false king, was a likely leader of a rebellion by the Zionists (like Barabbas) to whom they had surely lost comrades. Jesus presented these “bored” soldiers in dusty Palestine a welcome opportunity for diversion – a kind of cruel entertainment flowing from their pent up tension in Jerusalem around the festival (Lane, NICNT).

The soldiers outfit Jesus with a purple robe (NIV) and a crown of thorns (v.17). Both are done in parody of His “royalty.” In addition to mockery, the crown of thorns adds an element of pain. In His current physical state, Jesus would have appeared as quite a pathetic king for this public coronation. The mockery continues:

“Hail, King of the Jews!” – Pilate’s Battalion of Soldiers

Mark 15:18 (ESV)

And then they proceeded to beat Him on the head with a reed (probably a mock scepter), spit on Him (probably a parody on the kiss of homage – Lane) – as predicted by Jesus Himself (Mark 10:34), “and kneeling down in homage to him” (v. 19). By now it should be becoming quite clear that this is all a mock coronation ceremony! Remember Jesus’ crime is high treason against Rome (a false king opposing Caesar to whom they had all sworn allegiance).

And finally they stripped Him of His “royal” regalia in preparation for crucifixion (v. 20). In conclusion:

“In this text we can see evil at work… in boorish thugs, who carry out orders with sadistic pleasure” – David Garland

David E. Garland, Mark, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), 583.

But the glaring irony here is found in the fact that what the soldiers have done in mockery is in fact ultimately true. But they fail to recognize Jesus for who He really is, the King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. 19:16).

“As a scenario it is the perfect burlesque of the truth it caricatures.” – Jerry Camery-Hoggatt

Geddert, Timothy J. Mark (Believer’s Church Bible Commentary) (p. 373). Herald Press. Kindle Edition.

How does this text apply to us as followers of Jesus today? For one, we can examine our own nationalism in light of the example of Jesus, the suffering servant. We can look at our own heroes in most any popular movie, TV show or books. We prefer heroes who ‘blow our enemies away’ to:

“the passive suffering of a seemingly powerless savior who submits to beatings and mockery… Jesus’ way soaks up the injustice, evil, and oppression like the venom of a sting and unleashes a far more powerful force of love and forgiveness. God’s way responds to evil redemptively and short-circuits it… Our failure to choose this way stems from our failure to trust God. We may trust God to take care of the afterlife, but we do not trust God enough to let go of too much control of the here and now.”

David E. Garland, Mark, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), 583.

Until next time, my friends, follow the King – who today overcomes the oppression of Empire as God’s Suffering Servant!

Mark now shifts the action from Peter’s trial out in the courtyard back inside to the Sanhedrin and Jesus. It is now morning. They bind Jesus and send Him off to Pilate (v. 1), which seems like so much overkill given Jesus’ peaceful, nonviolent teaching and actions. While Jesus was found guilty by the Sanhedrin of the crime of blasphemy, before Pilate the charges have morphed into a charge of high treason against Rome:

“Are you the King of the Jews?” – Pontius Pilate

Mark 15:2 (ESV)

The Sanhedrin has carefully manipulated Jesus claim of messiahship into a political charge of leading a resistance against the Empire (see Lane, NICNT). Jesus does not resist the designation, but His own concept of His Kingship is entirely different from Pilate’s understanding. But Jesus’ somewhat reserved admission [“You have said so” (ESV/NIV 2011), cf. “It is as you say” (NASB ’95)] leaves Pilate less than fully convinced, and therefore requiring further examination.

The chief priests are more than happy to oblige Pilate by heaping more charges upon Jesus (v.3). Jesus makes no further attempt to defend Himself (v. 5), even at Pilate’s urging (v4), leaving Pilate bewildered. In His silence, Jesus is now beginning to look like the suffering servant of Is. 53:7. Pilate is caught in a political quandary. He has no love for the Sanhedrin or the Jewish religion, and he knows that they have only brought accusations against Jesus out of envy (v. 10). Here we begin to see that, similar to Peter in the high priest’s courtyard, Pilate’s character is on trial here (Cole, TNTC). [In the end, Pilate fails the test by freeing the guilty (Barabbas) and condemning the innocent (Jesus)]. He may have wanted to release Jesus, but he cannot without a denial from the one on trial here (Garland, NIVAC). So Pilate looks for another way out…

Pilate hoped to take advantage of an old custom to release a political prisoner (v. 6), as a means of weaseling his way out of his current predicament. Barabbas was apparently the leader of a revolt fighting to deliver Israel from Roman oppression (Garland), involved in a skirmish with the Roman authorities which resulted in some deaths (v.7). So he was likely a Zealot (Cole). Some of Barabbas’ supporters were apparently among the crowd that day (v. 8). So Pilate offers to release Jesus (v. 9). But, at the coaxing of the chief priests, the crowd asks Pilate to release Barabbas instead (v. 11).

NOTE: Contrary to popular teaching, it seems that this is simply a different crowd than the pious Pilgrims who met Jesus at the Triumphal Entry and among whom Jesus clearly remained popular right up to the trial (Mark 11:32, Mark 12:37, Mark 14:2) – see Cole on v. 9-12.

“What shall I do, then, with the one one you call the king of the Jews?” – Pilate

Mark 15:12, NIV

Pilate is perplexed. The crowd not only chooses Barabbas over Jesus, but they choose death by crucifixion for Jesus (see Garland on v. 13). Pilate pushes back.

But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him.”

Mark 15:14, ESV

Pilate’s plan has backfired! He gives in to the desires of crowd (and the chief priests), releases Barabbas, and orders Jesus scourged and then crucified. Pilate has chosen political expediency over genuine justice.

The irony here is both abundant and thick. Jesus takes Barabbas’ place on the cross. Jesus’ non violent ways were no threat to the temple as the chief priests feared. But the violence of men like Barabbas (who was released) leads to a continuing cycle of violence which eventually ends in war with Rome and the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple (in AD 70)!

Jesus trial before the Roman Governor, ends with the same outcome as His trial before the Sanhedrin – with a sentence of death for Israel’s Messianic King!

“Mark places the blame on the authorities for the crucifixion of Jesus. This includes both the Roman and Jewish authorities equally… Pilate was no unnatural monster; he was a man in so many ways like all others. This is what makes his story such a warning, and also so credible.”

R. Alan Cole, Mark: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 2, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1989), 318.

I think we can all find ourselves somewhere in this story. Pilate’s moral failure calls all of us, as followers of Jesus, to self examination. “Is it I” (Mark 14:19, NKJV), Lord? And Jesus’ refusal to resist evil (the oppression of God’s people by the Roman Empire) with violence itself, calls us (as His followers) to something greater than the violence espoused by the bloodthirsty zealots of His day.

Until next time my friends, Follow Jesus – the suffering servant and crucified Messianic King!

Last time we saw Jesus maintain absolute faithfulness throughout His trial before the Sanhedrin inside Caiaphas’ house. Now the action shifts to Peter’s “trial” outside in the courtyard. The two events actually occur simultaneously as we saw hinted at in v. 54 last time (cf. v. 66 here). As Jesus was interrogated, so Peter is interrogated (Lane, NICNT).

A servant girl tries to identify him with Jesus (ie. as His disciple, v. 67).

“You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus.” – a servant girl in Caiaphas’ house

Mark 14:67, ESV

As Jesus boldly, and unashamedly confesses His identity before the high priest, simultaneously Peter denies that he even knows Jesus (v. 68) before this servant girl (Garland, NIVAC). Peter is evasive and walks away.

“and the rooster crowed”

Mark 14:68, ESV

The accuracy with which Peter fulfills Jesus’ prophecy is both stunning and disturbing (see Geddert, BCBC)! This servant girl is proving to be quite the thorn in Peter’s side. She hunts him down, and this time she is even more confrontational!

“This man is one of them.”

Mark 14:69, ESV

With each successive denial, Peter calls the judgement of God down upon himself! And now the bystanders join in (v. 70). Peter’s Galilean accent gives him away here in Jerusalem. It is not much of a jump for them to conclude that he is a follower of this heretical Rabbi from the low-life north.

“I do not know this man of whom you speak.” – Simon Peter

Mark 14:71, ESV

The rooster’s second crow signals that it is morning, and it is time for Peter to wake up! There is an eerie similarity here to Peter’s failure(s) in the garden of Gethsemane.

“Three times Peter has slept instead of praying in Gethsemane. Three times Peter has denied Jesus instead of courageously confessing him in the high priest’s courtyard. He has failed to perform because he has failed to prepare!”

Geddert, Timothy J. Mark (Believer’s Church Bible Commentary) (p. 361). Herald Press. Kindle Edition.

Peter “awakens” to the nightmare of the realization of his failure to remain faithful to the one who loved him so much, as he remembers Jesus’ words just hours before:

“Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” – Jesus

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mk 14:72.

“And he broke down and wept” (v. 72).

The relevance of this account within Mark’s community is important here. They were facing persecution under Imperial Rome. The question “Aren’t you one of them?” is a very realistic one for them, and could easily mean that your life is at risk! And John Mark’s close relationship with Peter gives it even more punch. And what an encouragement, both for them and for us, that the one who failed his Lord so thoroughly, could be restored so graciously and completely (see Lane, p. 544).

Although it is not found in Mark’s gospel, John the beloved’s three-fold restoration of Peter (John 21:15-19) surely puts the nail in the coffin of Peter’s shame (and ours). So that, yes, we can all ‘feed His sheep’ (Jn. 21:17).

So, if you’ve denied Jesus, been ashamed of the gospel, and/or spoken all manner of evil against Him, even as a follower of Jesus, He bids you:

“Follow me!” – Jesus

John 21:19, NIV

And get on with the business of ‘taking care of My lambs’ (Jn. 21:15-16). Make disciples, my friends!

One of the things I love about Mike Turrigiano is that he is one of the most down to earth guys you’ll ever meet in your life. For starters, this book is an easy read at just over a hundred pages. Mike writes just like he talks, so the work has a very conversational tone (plus he’s a great storyteller). I could literally hear his voice as I was reading through the text. This is not the typical 1000-page heavy duty tome that you would expect to read about on a site called Think Theology. This is more like where Kingdom Theology rubber meets road of real life praxis – “Theology from the Trenches” if you will.

I was literally hooked from the very start with this Dedication:

To all those many followers of Jesus who dream of being used by God to
help advance his kingdom but disqualify themselves because they consider themselves too unqualified and ordinary. This book is for you…

I’m No Superman (Dedication)

That’s me. I’m in! I’ve spent my entire life serving in lay ministry – what far too many of us view as second class in our so often Pastor venerating church culture. Turrigiano believes that there are no “spiritual superstars or celebrities” (or at least there shouldn’t be). He believes that the practice of Holy Spirit led ministry is for everyone, “regular everyday believers” (p.1). Without specifically using the term, Mike calls us back to the Priesthood of all Believers – something that should be second nature to us as Protestants, but so few of us actually believe in our practice!

He begins with his own Christian journey which began in Pentecostalism. While he appreciates his roots, he:

“soon grew uncomfortable with what seemed to be showy, strange, and, at times, manipulative behavior. I loved Jesus and the people in the church, but I didn’t like the package.”

I’m No Superman, p. 6

It was only after this that he began to embrace a different approach to Holy Spirit ministry that he refers to as “naturally supernatural” – “no hype… relaxed, comfortable, real.” [This is fleshed out more in chapter 9].

“I learned that I didn’t have to put on some spiritual persona, change the tone of my voice when I prayed, or get dramatic or frenzied in
order for the Spirit to move. The most significant and liberating discovery was that I could just be myself”

I’m No Superman, p. 6-7

In chapter 4, he deals with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, again departing from the traditional Pentecostal understanding which ties it directly to glossolalia (i.e. speaking in tongues) as a one-for-one correspondence. I won’t say more than that here. Just get the book and read it for yourself!

Turrigiano deals with charismatic excesses & how to avoid them, and spiritual gifts (Hint: “your” gifts aren’t gifts for you, they’re for others) in chapters 5 and 6. Another thing I like about Mike’s writing is that he isn’t afraid to say when he’s just not entirely sure on a subject (p. 27). Not only does that show humility, but its just plain good hermeneutics – when scripture is not entirely clear on a subject or topic, we should not be dogmatic or pretend that it is clear. Pastor Mike also takes a pretty clear stand in the book that there is to be “no spiritual elitism” in the body of Christ (p. 28)! Nor is he afraid to embrace mystery (p.35) – something I think our typically overly intellectualized brand of Evangelical Christianity could benefit by embracing more of.

Being against spiritual elitism falls right in line with the assumption that ‘Everybody gets to Play.’ So Turrigiano wants people to think and do Holy Spirit ministry in the “marketplace” of their everyday life (as much or more than in the gathered church setting). So you’ll find plenty here about ‘seeing what the Father is doing and joining in’ (p. 39f.)

Chapter 8 hit home for me. Because it’s about control! Not only have I found the issue of control to be a struggle in my own life, but I have come to believe that it is the root of a lot of unhealthy relationships, patterns and dysfunction. Relinquishing control to the Spirit (the same way Jesus did) is the answer to so much that is dehumanizing and destructive.

Slowing down and listening are also keys to Holy Spirit ministry (p. 62f.), but these ideas won’t go over well in a “McChurch” environment. Earlier in the book, Turrigiano connects the idea of the contemplative life with the Charismatic (p. 3) – an idea that he (and I would guess most of us) have previously thought of as polar opposites. Our time spent with God, resting quietly in His presence, and learning to listen for His voice, equips us to be ready when Kingdom ministry opportunities come along just when we least expect them!

No Vineyard book on Holy Spirit ministry would be complete without a discussion of the 5-step Prayer Model. You’ll find it here in chapter 12. Mike ties it back to John Wimber’s understanding of Jesus’ own “watch, listen, ask and obey approach” (p. 69).

Vineyard?!? But what about that whole ‘barking in the Spirit’ thing? I’m glad you asked! When the Spirit comes in power, weird stuff does happen. But how can you attribute all that crazy stuff to the Holy Spirit? Well, for Turrigiano, he sees these things (shaking, falling, etc.) less as manifestations of the Holy Spirit and more as simply how people react to the power encounter that takes place during the clash of the kingdoms when the Kingdom of God encounters the kingdom of darkness. People’s reactions differ. I can tell you from my own personal experience that when I have experienced the power of the Spirit’s presence, I was filled with an incredible peace that I can’t quite express, as well as an awareness of the “hugeness” of God’s love that, again, I just don’t exactly have words for. But yeah, I was one of those that “you couldn’t tell by the looks of it” (p. 82) that I was having a profound experience with God. But don’t take my word for it. Read Mike’s full treatment of the whole “Shake Rattle & Roll” question in chapter 14 of the book.

Toward the end of the book, my good friend Luke Geraty gives a theological treatment of the Spirit’s work in chapter 15. Perhaps surprisingly for some, Geraty brings in ideas from traditionally “non-charismatic” theologians and movements to expand our understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit both in the church and beyond. It’s worth the read!

Always the Pastor, Turrigiano returns to close out the book with a real life illustration of how this all really works out in practice with “Rachel’s Story” (chapter 16). It’s fairly detailed and definitely moving! One final thing about the book that I haven’t mentioned yet is that there are great discussion questions at the end of each chapter. So I’m No Superman not only stands on its own as a great book, but could easily be used as a small group curriculum where you could literally put into practice the principles of Holy Spirit ministry that you just learned about right there in your own bible study, home group, house church, or missional community!

In short, I strongly encourage the reading of Mike Turrigiano’s I’m No Superman. But more importantly I exhort you all to put into practice the principles of Holy Spirit Ministry for the Rest of Us! Who knows? You just might change the world.

Read the book and be sure to share your own insights in the comments below.

The crowd that arrested Jesus now delivers Him to the Sanhedrin (v. 53) from which they were sent on their mission of seizure (v. 43). The fact that the council were called together in the middle of the night for a trial on the night of Passover is highly irregular at best, and quite possibly illegal – indicative that their purpose is insidious! Peter following at a distance (v. 54) begins to reveal to us that there are actually two “trials” going on here: the legal proceedings against Jesus, and the “trial” (testing) of Peter (more on that next time). Verse 55 makes it clear that the outcome of this “trial” has already been predetermined by the chief priests, elders, and scribes, despite the overwhelming lack of evidence. And we already know from previously in Mark’s gospel that the religious leaders of Israel have made it their goal to destroy Jesus!

“it has decided beforehand that the trial must lead to a guilty verdict and a death sentence.”

Geddert, Timothy J. Mark (Believer’s Church Bible Commentary) (p. 357). Herald Press. Kindle Edition.

Unfortunately for them, the “witnesses” they called were no help to their cause (v. 56-57). Their testimony (in v. 58) is in fact a distortion of a true historical fact. Jesus did predict the destruction of the Temple (as an act of judgment of God). But He never claimed that he Himself would be the one to actually carry out its destruction (following Geddert). For us, reading this in retrospect, ‘another Temple made without hands’ can be understood to refer to the new covenant community (1 Cor. 3:16-17) created by Jesus and His resurrection. Once it is destroyed, there is no need to rebuild it – in the new testament era the new Israel, the new people of God take it’s place!

The witnesses fail to provide any evidence that will convict Jesus (v. 59), so the high priest turns to questioning Jesus directly (v.60). But Jesus refuses to respond to the witnesses charges made against Him (v. 61). This had to have frustrated the council (Lane, NICNT). So now the high priest resorts to confronting Jesus by asking Him directly if He is the Messiah, the Son of God (the high priest is simply being pious in avoiding speaking God’s name directly). For the first time in Mark’s story, Jesus admits to it: “I am” (v. 62), only now “when there is no possibility that crowds will rise up and crown him king” (Garland, NIVAC). The secret is out: Jesus has just copped to being God (I am), the Son of Man (Dan 7:13), and the Messiah (cf. Ps 110:1 with Mark 12:35-37), exalted King (at God’s right hand), and eschatological judge (“coming with the clouds of heaven”)!

The high priest’s dramatic response of tearing his garments (v. 63) and the charge of “blasphemy” (v. 64) may be designed to win the others in the court over to his side.

“And they all condemned him as deserving death.”

Mark 14:64, ESV

The verdict is reached. The sentence is pronounced! And then they spit on Him, beat Him and mocked Him saying, “Prophesy!” (v. 65). The irony here is so thick. For these are straightforward fulfillment of three prophecies by Jesus – precisely what He said the “chief priests and the teachers of the law” would do to Him (see Mark 10:33-34)!

“we must see that those who hate revolutionary ideas and feel responsible to God for keeping intact their vision of the American way of life, for example, would probably have acted in exactly the same way…

Jesus was killed by self-serving religious leaders in control of the temple, who were intent on preserving their power…

The Jewish leaders feared what the Romans might do to them, not what God might do. They were swollen with ecclesiastical pride and filled with professional jealousy at the success of a true religious leader. They were embedded in a prosperous and mighty institution, and institutions can forget their original purpose and become concerned only with self-preservation… Confront them today and see what happens.”

David E. Garland, Mark, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), 571.

This is the very definition of Institutionalism! (“strong attachment to established institutions, as of religion.” see Dictionary.com definition #2) – when we love the organization itself more than the mission for which the organization was originally formed! Garland continues (concluding that everyone is ultimately guilty):

“Every group of religious people has in its midst the wily and unscrupulous ecclesiastical politician, the fanatically righteous headhunter, the spineless toady who stands up for nothing, the turncoat who will switch to whatever he thinks will be the winning side to further his career, and the pious who are intent on mercy and justice. These first-century Jewish religionists are not the only ones who were guilty. They embody the universal guilt of all religious people. Pilate was also guilty, and he embodies the universal guilt of an idolatrous state. Judas too was guilty; he betrayed his Master.”

ibid., p. 572

I’m pretty sure that we can all find ourselves in there somewhere. And with that happy thought, I conclude. Until next time…

Follow Jesus – the great I Am, Son of God & Son of Man, the Messiah, Divine King, and Judge “of the living and the dead” (Acts 10:42).

“But one thing I do: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us (Philippians 3:13–14).”

Memory can be a tricky thing. Case in point: a family reunion, when relatives reminisce about childhood memories.

It starts so innocently. A warm summer’s day in the backyard, a pleasant breeze, enticing aromas wafting from the BBQ, cold drinks in hand, and the familiar buzz of conversation and laughter. If you’re lucky, someone has managed to find a musical playlist that straddles generational tastes.

And then … without warning or fanfare, it happens. A voice rises slightly above the happy din, waxing cheerful and nostalgic over a cherished story that the raconteur recalls “like it happened only yesterday.”

All conversation abruptly ceases. The breeze dies; a random cloud may obscure the sun. The BBQ flares; blue-tinged smoke and charred hamburger fumes settle like a clinging fog. A profound hush—fraught with apprehension—holds the gathering in breathless thrall.

The calm before the inevitable storm breaks. Another relative raises a skeptical eyebrow and corrects the storyteller’s flawed recollection—based on their pristine memory of the tale. And, depending on how competitive your family is, a vigorous debate erupts over whose version is correct. Battle lines are drawn, allies are gathered, foes identified, and the backyard morphs into a jousting field.

Pretty much spoiling the nostalgic vibe. Whenever I see the tsunami approaching, I’m reminded of Admiral Akbar in Star Wars IV: “It’s a trap!”

Church memories are no different—memories of church-inflicted wounds, even more so. The further we get from “ground zero,” the less trustworthy our memories become. We don’t need a skeptical uncle to challenge our recollection; revisiting a shifting memory is its own unique prison. A spiritual/emotional ball-and-chain.

That’s why re-hashing old church wounds is counter-productive, to put it mildly. Hence St. Paul’s admonition to the Philippians: Forget the past and press on.

In the original context, Paul’s talking about the good things in his spiritual pilgrimage. He’s neither lamenting his sinful past nor his current trials (he was in prison at the time). He focuses on “forgetting” his mountaintop experiences in order to reach for something better, something as yet unattained.

Something on the road ahead, not the road behind.

It’s not a stretch to suggest that if Paul was willing—eager, even—to “forget” the great things God had already done in exchange for something better, how much more appropriate would it be for Jesus-followers today to “forget” our negative church experiences?

Yes, I know; I’ve been there. We can’t just flip a switch in our heads and/or hearts. Our brains aren’t wired like computers: “reformat: synapses 141–184; [bad church memories] = <erase>.” Recovery takes time, nurture, and wise counsel. But as the years go by—remember the family BBQ—we should curate a healthy skepticism toward our memories of the Bad Church Experience (BCE).

That’s not the same as second-guessing yourself,  or wondering whether or not you’ve made a mountain out of a molehill. It’s just another way of saying we won’t find the path forward by obsessing over the rearview mirror.

In other words, stop re-hashing everything. That’s more or less like ripping the bandage off an open wound to check on its healing progress. It’s worse than unproductive—it’s a soul-sucking addiction that steals our joy and turns recovery into a long, slow slog (or derails it).

Admiral Akbar: It’s a trap!

St. Paul: Don’t rest on your spiritual laurels. Press on.

Whoever wrote the book of Hebrews adds this helpful admonition: “Let us strip off every weight that slows us down … and run with endurance the race God has set before us (Hebrews 12:1, NLT).”

What is yet ahead—the “undiscovered country”—will be more than worth it.