Yesterday I had the privilege of speaking at the bi-annual national meeting of the Mennonite Church USA in Columbus Ohio. I love this group and am always delighted and humbled to be given a chance to pour into it.

I first engaged in an animated 90 minute conversation (Q and A style) with an auditorium packed with pastors and other Mennonite leaders. I opened with a few words reiterating my conviction that the Mennonites are at a critical point in their history. I believe that the way Mennonites respond to opportunities and challenges facing them over the next decade will determine whether they become increasingly stagnant and dwindle in numbers or experience incredible rejuvenation and explosive growth. I am passionately convinced that if Mennonites will hold fast to (and in some cases, return to) their historic vision of a non-violent, self-sacrificial, counter-cultural Kingdom that transcends nationalism and politics, and if they are willing to become very flexible with their distinctive cultural traditions, Mennonites are positioned to provide a home for the increasing number of people such as myself who are discovering this vision of a beautiful Kingdom and who therefore are repudiating “Christendom” (the traditional “church militant and triumphant”). Many of us want to be rooted in a historic tradition and fellowship that espouses this vision, and this makes becoming a Mennonite very appealing.

In any event, after my opening remarks, these leaders picked my brain on topics ranging from homosexuality to politics to evangelism. It was a lot of fun and seemed to help some of them work through certain issues.

Immediately following this I was quickly ushered over to speak to 4,000 youth at the Columbus Convention Center. I was impressed, and a little surprised, by how incredibly rowdy the whole thing was! Whatever remaining stereotype I had of Mennonites as quiet, shy and conservative was pretty much blown away ten minutes into this rally as I witnessed hundreds of kids jumping up and down and screaming to extremely loud worship music. But then in the next moment the whole arena was robustly singing a very sweet Mennonite hymn in beautiful four part harmony (a remarkable, distinctive aspect of traditional Mennonite worship). I loved the diversity!

After about an hour of this, I had a lot of fun giving a sermon on being filled with the Holy Spirit and practicing the presence of God. Though I think my subject matter was a bit esoteric by Mennonite standards, it seemed to be received pretty well. This was followed by an incredibly loud and rowdy rock concert by the band Kutless. This certainly isn’t my favorite style of music (I think it would be classified as “heavy metal”), but I have to say these guys were really good. Maybe not quite up to N.D.Y. standards, but that’s hardly a fair comparison. ; - )  Most importantly, the drummer in Kutless was kick’n!

After about an hour I left the concert with my ears ringing and made my way back to the hotel. I couldn’t seem to get tired, despite reading a boring book, so I thought I’d take my reading down to the hotel lounge and have a nightcap to hopefully get sleepy. There I ran into my old friend Jim Wallis who was just on his way out with some of his friends.  We ended up hanging out and discussing theology and politics for another hour and a half. I appreciate that Jim’s the kind of guy you can vehemently disagree with, and have fun doing it. No one’s mind was changed, but we had some good laughs and I learned a good bit about what’s going on behind closed doors in the Obama administration.

Around 2:00 AM I finally got tired and ended up getting a refreshing 5 hours of sleep, dreaming about screaming young Mennonites jumping up and down to rock music.

Peace

Greg

Hey this is Marcia, Greg’s faithful paparazzi. NDY drew an amazing crowd at O’Gara’s Friday night to raise support for Providence House in Haiti. It’s always a blast to party and dance together, but when you consider that this particular evening of fun will benefit some dear children in Haiti it makes it that much sweeter. You may check out Providence Ministries here if you couldn’t join us but would like to help.

Look at this pastor DRUM! Thanks Greg and NDY for using your talents and gifts for the kingdom!

F.Y.I., Not Dead Yet (the band I drum in — I’m the cute guy on the far left) will be playing  this Friday (June 26th, 2009) at O’Gara’s in St. Paul, Minnesota. The dance/concert starts at 7:30. For a link to O’Gara’s and directions go here.

We’ll rock the house with classical rock tunes from the 70’s up to today. It’ll be a blast. Best dance music on the planet (well, aside from horn funk of course, but that’s a wee bit outside our ability range — not my ability range,  mind you, but everyone elses… wheeze, choke).

All proceeds will go to benefit Providence Ministries (which is focused on caring for kids in Haiti). Check out Providence Ministries here.

So come prepared to dance, sing, holler and bless a whole lot of children in need.

Rock on for Haiti!!

Greg

Though I didn’t have time to show it in the sermon, the “The Cosmic Voyage” does a similar mind-bending exercise zooming in on smallness. Beginning with a tiny droplet of water on a leaf, it zooms in on a microscopic organism inside the droplet and then down to the cells, the DNA and finally the quantum particles within the organism. A sped up version of it, starting at the edge of the known universe, can be found here. This clip illustrates the truth that we are to the smallest known sub-atomic particles what the vastness of the universe is to us.  There is as much “small-reality” beneath us as there is “large-reality” above us.

In this light we can think of ourselves situated in the middle of a virtual infinity extending beneath us into incomprehensible smallness and extending above us into incomprehensible vastness. (I say virtually infinite because there’s no known finite terminus point at which our mind can stop in its thinking toward the large or the small, or in our thinking about God who encompasses both extremes. To be accurate, therefore, our thought must retain an “etc. etc.” quality to it that can only be described as “not finite” [= infinite]).

After putting my sermon together the other day, I sat on my deck and observed my environment while remaining aware of being situated in the middle of this virtual infinity extending in both directions. That is, I was conscious of events taking place around me (for everything is at its core an event) against the backdrop of a simultaneous awareness of the infinitely large and the infinitely small.  The bug crawling on the post, the leaves bustling in the breeze, the birds skirting by over head, the random memory that just popped into my head, the dandelion seeds whisking past me, the slowly evolving cloud formations– all were experienced with an awareness of billions of spinning galaxies, each spanning hundreds of millions of light years and each containing hundreds of billions of burning stars as well as an awareness of the innumerable sub-atomic particles popping in and out of existence within each of the smallest fractions of a centimeter in my observed environment. This exercise heightened my awareness of everything.

I was also aware that in doing this, I wasn’t engaging in some sort of mental trick. I was rather simply trying to get my consciousness to align itself with reality by including as much of reality in each observed moment as I could. I was, in essence, simply trying to observe events in their truest context.

Though I can’t claim my awareness remained unbroken, I found that with a little effort I was able to retain this bi-focus of infinity as long as I wished. In fact, I’ve tried to retain this awareness as much as possible since this time and have found that it’s no harder to sustain (but also no easier) than simply remaining aware of God’s presence on a moment-by-moment basis. Yet, this exercise adds a new dimension to the “practice of the presence” (Brother Lawrence) by incorporating the awareness of awe-inspiring largeness and smallness.

I encourage you to try this discipline of situating your awareness of each experienced event in the middle of infinity above and below.  I’m finding it very helpful in keeping my mind free from its fallen tendency toward self-centered myopia. I’m also discovering it helpful in remaining in the joy and peace of the Kingdom. Among other things, our problems are only as big as the frame of reference we experience them in. When our frame of reference is no bigger than our very small and very short lives, our problems will often seem extremely large, for the same reason an ant experiences a blade of grass like a skyscraper. When our frame of reference is the infinite above and infinite below, however, our problems become infinitely small.

Of course, our own lives are experienced as infinitely small when situated in the middle of infinity. In the total scheme of things, the gap between the years of our life and the nanosecond existence of a quantum particle is pretty insignificant. If we’re not careful, this can work against us by making us feel extremely insignificant if not close to non-existent.

For this reason, perhaps the most important aspect of the discipline of situating your experience in the middle of infinity is remembering that the Creator, for whom the virtual infinity of the physical world is itself microscopic, is a God of perfect love. The incomprehensible greatest of God’s glory expressed in the unfathomable vastness of reality above us and unimaginable smallness and complexity of reality below us is exceeded only by the absolutely unlimited, unending and unwavering perfection of God’s love.

As we stay awake to the infinite, therefore, we must remember that the power that holds in existence every quantum particle and every galaxy — and you — is the love that was expressed on Calvary. The awe-inspiring vastness and smallness of created reality should be viewed as a pointer to the even more awe-inspiring magnitude of God’s love. Though we are microscopic in size next to the vastness of the universe, the Creator loves each of us as if we were the only being he created.  For a God of unlimited love, size does not matter.

I encourage you to embark on the discipline of including as much reality in your awareness as you can, moment-by-moment. Try to remain aware of being situated in the middle of infinity – and surrounded every nanosecond by the infinite intensity of God’s burning, Calvary-like love.

Pacis exsisto vobis

I’m sure some of you have read Frank Viola’s Pagan Christianity and Reimagining the Church. In the first work he shows how a great deal of the traditional model of the church is pagan in origin and in the second he fleshes out a biblical model of church, showing how it is centered on organic community. While I’m not ready to discard the large group weekend venue as a missionary tool in the context of America, I’m in complete agreement with Viola’s core vision of the church.

In his most recent book, From Eternity to Here, Viola places the New Testament’s vision of the church in the context of God’s eternal purposes. Creation and all of world history is a magnificent love story in which God is looking for a “bride” with whom he can share the riches of his perfect triune love throughout eternity.

Here’s what I wrote in my endorsement of the book:

“In From Eternity to Here, Viola shows us that we’ve settled for dry doctrines and rote religious behavior when what God wants — and what God has always wanted — is to engage us in a passionate love story that will never end. As Viola unfolds the glorious story of God’s quest for a bride, readers will find their imaginations inspired and their lives transformed. The sheer beauty of God’s magnificent plan compels our allegiance and revolutionizes our lives. This retelling of the ‘old, old story’ is a much-needed gift to the church today.”

If your love affair with God needs rekindling, I strongly recommend this book!

For more resources, such as downloadable audios, the free Discussion Guide, the Facebook Group page, etc. go to the official website here.

Also, I’m posting this as part of a “blog circuit.”  Below is a list of other blogs posting reviews today.

Enjoy this day as the joyful bride of Christ, preparing herself for the groom’s return!

• Out of Ur
• Shapevine (June newsletter)
• Brian Berly
• DashHouse.com
• Vision Advance
• David Flowers
• Kingdom Grace
• Captain’s Blog
• Christine Sine
• Zoecarnate
• Church Planting Novice
• Staying Focused
• Take Your Vitamin Z
• Jeff Goins
• Bunny Trails
• Matt Cleaver
• Jason T. Berggren
• Simple Church
• Emerging from Montana
• Parable Life
• Oikos Australia
• West Coast Witness
• Keith Giles
• Consuming Worship
• Tasha Via
• Andrew Courtright
• ShowMeTheMooneys!
• Leaving Salem, Blog of Ronnie McBrayer
• Jason Coker
• From Knowledge to Wisdom
• Home Brewed Christianity
• Dispossessed
• Dandelion Seeds
• David Brodsky’s Blog- “Flip the tape Deck”
• Chaordic Journey
• Renee Martin
• Bob Kuhn
• Real Worship
• Fervent Worship
• Julie Ferwerda Blog
• One Million Arrows
• What’s With Christina?!
• On Now to the Third Level
• Irreligious Canuck
• This day on the journey
• Live and Move: Thoughts on Authentic Christianity
• Spiritual Journey With God
• Dries Conje
• Dries Conje
• Dries Conje
• Journey with Others
• Christine Moers
• Breaking Point
• Hand to the Plough
• Jon Reid
• Weblight
• D. L. Webster
• Searching for the Whole-Hearted Life

GB

Well, I have finished the book and I … am about to surrender myself to God.  I have decided on a certain place to do it.  There were times that your responses brought tears to my eyes from over emotion on what you were telling your dad.  More that half way throughout the book, I felt you were not talking to your dad you were talking to me.

So thank you for writing this book.  It has taught me how to love Jesus and me …

L - From London