taking the beauty in

Several have asked me for this quote from C.S. Lewis I used on Sunday. You can't beat Lewis when it comes to nailing things on the head!

We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words — to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. That is why we have peopled air and earth and water with gods and goddesses and nymphs and elves — that, though we cannot, yet these projections can, enjoy in themselves that beauty, grace, and power of which Nature is the image.

That is why the poets tell us such lovely falsehoods. They talk as if the west wind could really sweep into a human soul; but it can't. They tell us that "beauty born of murmuring sound" will pass into human face; but it won't. Or not yet. For if we take the imagery of Scripture seriously, if we believe that God will one day give us the Morning Star and cause us to put on the splendour of the sun, then we may surmise that both the ancient myths and the modern poetry, so false as history, may be very near the truth as prophecy. At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door.

We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in. (C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory)

city of God

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled (Matthew 5:6).

The Church is not a building; it’s a dynamic forward movement of the Kingdom of God. It is an unstoppable force, an irrepressible energy in the universe. Christianity is much more than just going to a building once a week. The building is significant because it is a place of gathering (ecclesia). But even more and in addition to a gathering, the church emobodies the abundant life of her members, and calls us to the very best life possible (sanctification). That is the life Christ has called His body to—an exciting life, a life that is subversive to culture, a dangerous life. The church is to offend the gates of hell, to change culture. We are to be the city on the hill that changes the city of man. In the words of Erwin McManus:

I have no doubt that in the hearts of men and women there is a yearning to live the quest. We are all haunted with the fear of living lives of insignificance, and we all hear the voice that tells us we can live the dream. Somehow we all know that to play it safe is to lose the game. By definition an adventure is “an undertaking or enterprise of a hazardous nature.” And life as God intended us to live is nothing less than adventure. It comes at great risk and significant cost. (Seizing Your Divine Moment)

I have found that this kind of life does not come naturally. It is easy for us to take the path of least resistance and live comfortably, but not effectively. The good is often the enemy of the best. Christ calls us to a different kind of life, one in which we must pick up a cross. It is offered to all who hunger and thirst for it. As in everything else in life, you’ve got to want it, and you’ve got to be willing to do the hard work. Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow me.” An Olympic athlete sees the vision of what he/she wants to become, then goes into diligent training to accomplish that goal. Professional athletes get where they are by training and purposing to be the best. It is no different for the abundant life.

And I pray that your love will have deep roots. I pray that it will have a strong foundation. May you have power with all God's people to understand Christ's love (Ephesians 3:17b-18).

Paul prayed that the Ephesian church would not stay in mediocrity but that it would purpose to discover the full dimensions of Christ’s love. He prayed that the Church would become the unstoppable force it was designed to be. He prayed that it would not be static in spiritual growth but that it would be dynamic and full in it's understanding. The New Testament does not envision a church that is not in motion. A Kingdom-building church fills up all the space around it (Eph. 1:23). Paul’s prayer for the church was that it would be in Christ and that it would have the power with all God’s people to understand God’s love and that it would make God's love known to the nations. To pursue this kind of reality should be the passion and teaching of every church!

the trip along the way

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up (Galatians 6:9).

The summer after my son, Taylor, turned 13, we took a trip with some other boys his age and their dads to mark this milestone in their lives. We drove from Oklahoma City to Buena Vista, Colorado, to hike Mount Elbert, the second highest mountain in the continental United States. As dads, our goal was to take our boys on a trip they would never forget. We succeeded!

Our goal was to make the hike a challenge. It was! We wanted to show them the path to manhood.

We almost wimped out.

We set off with great enthusiasm from the trailhead at about 6:00 in the morning. The ascent took us eight hours. We passed the tree line about half way, progressing with air thinning and lungs weakening into the growing shadow of deceitful Elbert. Our legs were becoming jellylike, and each step grew more sullen. My son and I were alone toward the end, throwing ourselves against the mountain, painfully urging on each step. Our morning enthusiasm had given way to afternoon despair. Taylor complained passionately that we couldn't make it.

Whatever I might have hoped for in the planning of that trip, I could not have imagined a better way to get into the head and heart of my son. We sat down for extended periods, staring at the next 20 steps.

“Do you see that rock, Son? It is only a few steps. We will walk to the rock, and we will rest again.”

“No, Dad, I don’t think I can make it!”

“I know you can. We will do it together. There is no turning back.”

I have a picture of my son and I standing on top of Mt. Elbert Peak that I keep in my bedroom. The experience we shared on that trip was priceless! When I look at at that picture, I don't think about the difficulties we had making the ascent, I think about how much my son and I learned about each other- and life.

The journey is not nearly as much about climbing the last peak as it is about the experience along the way. It's all those steps leading up to the peak that make life so full.

The gospel is not just about destination, it's also about destiny. God is a God of history who is moving us through eternity. Truly, Christianity is not an event, it is a journey.

sometimes you only see what you want to see

I hate to admit it, but there have been times in my life that I have wanted something so badly, believed in my ideas so sincerely, that I have only seen what I wanted to see, in spite of the reality of what is in front of me.

This may be something of what scripture teaches when it says that one day we will see clearly even as now we are clearly seen. I have found that as I get older, I am a little more humble about my clouded view.

the journey defined

We describe our mission as a church in terms of a journey we are on together. Why a journey you ask? Scripture teaches that we (the church) are being led as captives in His train" (Ephesians 4:7-10). The image is of a conquering Suzerian King leading his plunder back to the city.

We go where the chariot goes, we are bound to His glory.

The journey is forward movement. It is an outward force moving toward a climactic end. It is taking up the cross and following Him. The church is the embodiment of Christ, who is "above all rulers and authority, power and dominion and every title that has been given, not only in this present age but also in the age to come. And God has placed all things under their feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way." (Eph. 1:21-22)

The story of scripture is the story of redemption. God has moved in history and we come to understand ourselves in that context.

God created man in His own image and put him in the garden and invited him into His fellowship. Man sought his own glory and sinned against God and was separated from Him. God in His mercy provided the way of redemption. He chose to relate to us by way of His promises (covenant); He gave the law to help us understand our own nature; He gave instructions for the tabernacle as a way of beholding His glory; He established a community of faith and gave man a new garden (the promised land). He established the davidic line to point to a new kingdom; When the kingdom was divided and His people exiled, He spoke through His prophets of the calamity of disobedience and pointed to a new covenant.

The affect of all of this was to reveal our utter falleness, idolotry and rebellion against God. The law exposed us, condemned us and brought clarity to our need for a savior. All of these things, of course, were mere shadows of things to come.

Our desire for the garden remains. We long for a new heaven and a new earth. Our sin separates us from God. We see death in ourselves and know that our souls are empty. We see injustice (OU vs UO comes to mind) and crime and disease and poverty and we know that something is missing. All creation is groaning.

But God has provided a way. Christ proclaimed the gospel of the new Kingdom and became our blood sacrifice. He took the holocaust in and drank the poison from the cup of wrath. The law, the tabernacle, the high priest, the table, the basin, the curtain, the sacrifice all point to Christ. The ecclesia (gathering) of the Old Testament became the Church after the resurrection of Christ.

The Church therefore was established on the biblical principles of celebration of God's promise (ceremony), connection with God's Word (the reading of scripture), community of God's people (koinia) and the cause of spreading God's fame to the nations (commission) and all of it was brought about by way of the cross. As Christ followers we are join to Him in this redemptive movement, pushing against the darkness, overwhelming the gates of hell. We make use of every opportunity, living our lives not as unwise but as wise, understanding what the Lord's will is. (Ephesians 5:15-17)

This is the journey that we talk about. It is the procession of which we are a part. It is a purpose that was born out of the riches of scripture. We express it this way:

I am on the journey when I am actively attending celebration worship; when I am connecting the spiritual truths of God's word to my daily life; when I am involved in genuine Christian community and engaged with others in the Great Commission cause!

These priorities are not vague in the text, but rather are sytstemic throughout scripture and transcend every era and culture. They are not automatic, however. We are not in the garden anymore and we are not in heaven yet, therefore they do not come to us instinctively. We must commit to them and take them seriously. They must be the result of our discipline and woven into the very fabric of our lives.

This is why we have held them up as our norm and have actually organized our structure around the environments of celebration worship, Bible study connection, community fellowships and the Great Commission cause.

moving from cultural christianity to biblical christianity

We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise. (2 Corinthians 10:12)

The operative question for those of us who are Christ followers is, “how am I doing in my journey of kingdom building?’ And the question for the church is, “how are we doing at helping people in that journey?”

The answer to these questions is seen in what we quantify. Our values are determined by what we measure. If you measure your self worth by your net worth, for instance, then you are attaching your emotions and your identity to your material wealth. If we say that our most important value is “to love all people to Christ and to help them on their journey with God and each other” then we need quantifiers in place that reflect that value. For years, churches have measured success by “buildings budgets and baptisms”. But do these things really tell us how people are moving toward life change?

Christ followers and Christ following churches have to deliberately evaluate their value systems and their measuring systems.

This is important because there is an essential difference between being ruled by self and being in Christ. It is the difference between the kingdom of me and the kingdom of God. The Christian journey is one that moves you from one kingdom to the other. It is what happens as you relinquish all other feelings of worth based on the pride of life, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes (1 John 2:15-17) and gain a new measure that compares self to Christ.

But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. (1 John 2:5-6 NIV)

So how do we do this? How do we put measures in place that reveal how God’s love is being made complete in us? The answer of course is that we major on the essentials and minor on the non-essentials. All of our measures must line up with the timeless teachings of scripture. In other words, we put less emphasis on cultural Christianity and more on genuine biblical Chrstianity.

the peril of practical atheism

Jay Leno has made “man on the street” interviews famous by asking people on the streets of L.A. simple questions about American history and politics. Leno asks questions like, “Can you name our Vice President?” The blank stares and hilarious answers make great comedy, but say something really scary about American culture.

According to Michael J. Flack, Phd:

"A crisis of basic biblical and theological knowledge exists in America’s churches, and church leaders must do all they can to address this growing problem, so say experts monitoring the beliefs of people in Christian churches across the United States.“The Christian body in America is immersed in a crisis of biblical illiteracy,” warns researcher George Barna. “How else can you describe matters when most churchgoing adults reject the accuracy of the Bible, reject the existence of Satan, claim that Jesus sinned, see no need to evangelize, believe that good works are one of the keys to persuading God to forgive their sins, and describe their commitment to Christianity as moderate or even less firm?”[1]

Other disturbing findings that document an overall lack of knowledge among churchgoing Christians include the following:

• The most widely known Bible verse among adult and teen believers is “God helps those who help themselves”—which is not actually in the Bible and actually conflicts with the basic message of Scripture.

• Less than one out of every ten believers possess a biblical worldview as the basis for his or her decision-making or behavior.• When given thirteen basic teachings from the Bible, only 1% of adult believers firmly embraced all thirteen as being biblical perspectives.[2]

Gary Burge, professor of New Testament at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, asserts that biblical illiteracy is at a crisis level not just in our culture in general but in America’s churches.
“If it is true that biblical illiteracy is commonplace in secular culture at large, there is ample evidence that points to similar trends in our churches,” he says.[3]

Burge points to research at Wheaton College in which the biblical and theological literacy of incoming freshmen have been monitored. These students, who represent almost every Protestant denomination in the United States from every state in the country, have returned some “surprising results”:

• One-third could not put the following in order: Abraham, the Old Testament prophets, the death of Christ, and Pentecost.

• Half could not sequence the following: Moses in Egypt, Isaac’s birth, Saul’s death, and Judah’s exile.

• One-third could not identify Matthew as an apostle from a list of New Testament names. • When asked to locate the biblical book supplying a given story, one-third could not find Paul’s travels in Acts, half did not know that the Christmas story was in Matthew, half did not know that the Passover story was in Exodus.[4]

Like Burge, George Lindbeck, the famous Yale theologian, has commented on the decreasing knowledge of Scripture from a professor’s perspective.“When I first arrived at Yale, even those who came from nonreligious backgrounds knew the Bible better than most of those now who come from churchgoing families,” he says.[5]

This is also the view of theologian and author David Wells.“I have watched with growing disbelief as the evangelical church has cheerfully plunged into astounding theological illiteracy,” declares Wells in his book No Place for Truth.[6]

Biblical illiteracy is not just a problem for American churches. A scientific survey called PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) tested the knowledge of people in thirty-two industrialized countries.

The results of the study show an “insidious biblical illiteracy” even in Christian circles, says Volker Gaeckle, dean of studies at Albrecht Bengel Center in Tuebingen. “Churches should heed the PISA warning that text comprehension is a major problem.” [7]

There is a huge gap in American Christianity between what we profess to believe, and the way we actually live our lives. While professing Christianity, many people who are moderately or even heavily involved in the life of the church are essentially “practical atheists”.

Are we okay with this? Is it acceptable to us that people can attend church for years and never actually change or be challenged or even learn to embrace the essential doctrines? Is it okay that there are people in our church who live in anger, or addiction or live in varying stages of abuse, and are perfectly comfortable with their church life without making any kind of advancement in their spiritual life?

We are dreaming of a church that will not accept this as normal. We are dreaming of a church that sees life change and genuine biblical community in which people are really loving and caring for each other, doing mission together and challenging each other to be drawn into Christ as a normative part of their life together. We are dreaming of a church that measures itself by the actual standards of biblical fellowship, discipleship, service and evangelism and that actually knows and believes the essentials of the faith.

1] Barna Research Online, “Religious Beliefs Vary Widely by Denomination,”www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PagePressRelease.asp?PressReleaseID=92&Reference=B,June 25, 2001.
[2] Barna Research Online, “Discipleship Insights Revealed in New Bookby George Barna,” www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PagePressRelease.asp?PressReleaseID=76&Reference=E&Key=bible%20knowledgeNovember 28, 2000.
[3] Gary M. Burge, “The Greatest Story Never Read: Recovering biblical literacy in the church,” www.christianitytoday.com/ct/9t9/9t9045.html.
[4] Ibid.
[5] George A. Lindbeck, “The Church’s Mission to a Postmodern Culture,” Postmodern Theology: Christian Faith in a Pluralist World (San Francisco: Harper & Row Publishers, 1989), 45.
[6] David F. Wells, No Place for Truth or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology? (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993), 4.
[7] “Biblical Illiteracy Spreading Among Christians,” http://news.crosswalk.com/partner/Article_Display_Page/0,,PTID74088%7CCHID194343%7CCIID1138212,00.html.