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Month: May 2014

Dying on Field

May 27, 2014 /

Dear Friends,

Last week I opened the topic of our citizenship as people of God’s Kingdom. Today I continue these thoughts.

Missionary Graves

Wesleyan Missionary Graveyard in Sierra Leone

Missions has change a lot in the past hundred plus years. There was a time when missionaries boarded ships to head to distant lands knowing they would probably never return to the land of their birth. The symbol of this commitment was what they choose to pack their stuff in. Not a suit case or steamer trunk but a coffin. The pioneers walked away from the privilege and position of their home countries to unite with peoples across the oceans. This is the kind of commitment Paul is speaking of the profound mystery of Christ and the church (read last week’s Milk Can).

Today it is rare for a missionary to die “on field.” Terms and length of commitments have gotten shorter and shorter. Missionaries enjoy phone calls, e-mail, and even the ability to Skype with family. Today one can be a missionary without ever leaving and cleaving to a new people. While this has opened missionary work to many who would never have gone, it can dilute the true depth of Christ’s call onto the life of everyone who calls themselves a Christian. As the German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer says in his book The Cost of Discipleship, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

One does not have to go to foreign lands to follow Christ. For many, a generation ago, the call to leave and cleave meant joining those in the Civil Rights Movement. They marched alongside their African American neighbors and boarded Freedom Buses to lay down their lives to battle injustice.

Today many are being called to identify with and carry the burden of the immigrant in our own nation. Simultaneously giving up and using their position, power and prestige to care for their neighbor. More on the work of our own denomination can be found here: http://www.wesleyan.org/1045/faq-on-immigrants-and-immigration-questions-and-answers

Bonhoeffer would also say being a Christian is about “. . . courageously and actively doing God’s will.” Many times I have prayed those words at the end of The Lord’s Prayer, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” What if God intends to answer that prayer through you and I? What is God’s will courageously and actively calling you to?

Blessings,
Pastor Stephen

What is stamped on your passport?

May 20, 2014 /

Dear Friends,

I used to think Ephesians 5:32 was a tack-on phrase. Paul has been talking about the relationship of husbands and wives. He has laid out a radical model of mutual submission . . . wives submit to your husbands, husbands lay down your lives for your wife. Then almost as an afterthought, he decides to throw this phrase on at the end: “This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church” (NIV). I used to think Paul said these words as way to soften the blow to what he has said. Maybe he said it to answer the annoyance of those who are not married wondering what this section of the letter has to do with them. Maybe Paul said it to make the topic sound more spiritual. That is what I used to think about the phrase, and for that reason I largely just ignored it.

Now I think of the phrase as a light bulb moment for Paul. As he is writing along suddenly he realizes he has been speaking not just about husbands and wives but also the church and the words are thrown into the flow, said with shouted excitement. Instead of being an add-on these words are the climax of the whole section.

Let’s take a step back and see what I mean. Immediately before the exclamation Paul sums up his argument for mutual submission with these words: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh (5:31, NIV). In western culture, of which I am a part, these words are not particularly stunning. But in the Asian/Eastern culture they were originally written in, they are disturbing. For the recipients of Paul’s letter his words struck at the very fabric and foundation of society. A child’s duty to their parents is supreme. The expectation is you will move your family, abandon your career, adjust everything to take care of your parents. To do anything else is to threaten the very core of society.

While we may not understand the child’s duty to parents we all have areas we feel duty bound to that what we see as the core of good a society. Many of us hold allegiances to civic groups, to family, to career, to political ideals, to nation. When we become disciples of Christ we leave all of those things behind. No longer can we claim to be married to them. PassportNo longer can they dictate our values, customs, and choices. Now we are married to Christ. Now we are united with him. Now this relationship is supremely and exclusively the center of our life.
All of the demands and expectations of society must always be considered not just as secondary to Christ but in the context of and through the lens of Christ. Once we were citizens of the United States, Russia, Australia, China, Pakistan, or England. For the follower of Christ, we have renounced our citizenship. We are citizens of the Kingdom of God and to its laws we must submit.

If a passport was printed to show your real citizenship what would be on the front? The United States of America? Materialism? Happiness? Career? You last name? or Kingdom of God?

Blessings,
Pastor Stephen

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In Only 4 Months

May 16, 2014 /

Dear Friends,

Nearly every day I pass a storefront sign that reads, “College graduate to store manager in 4 months.” Two thoughts come to mind when I read the sign. “I don’t want to work for that manager.” and “leadershipThe manager of that store must not have any real responsibility if the job can be learned in four months.” However, as I think about it more and more, truth be told, most of our jobs, even mine (but don’t tell anyone) can be learned in four months. The
technical or hard skills of being a leader are not terribly complex. Even so, it does not stop book after book after book being written about them. It doesn’t prevent unending conferences from being hosted.

This is the stuff that excites. The authors and conferences all feed our insatiable desire to find the magic formula to building bigger organizations, larger churches, amassing wealth, influence, position, power, and prestige. The stuff ever leader craves . . .

So a vacuum is left in another area of leadership. One no one wants delve into: The area of the leader’s soul. For those who call themselves “Christian” and use the title “leader” the challenge of the soul is particularly demanding. For it is a call to do more than sacrifice, more than be a servant, it is a call to die.

David McKenna in his book Christ-Centered Leadership: The Incarnational Difference writes of the difference for a Christian leader:

Leadership automatically involves the advantage of position, power, and prestige . . . There is nothing wrong with position, power or prestige in leadership. These are resources needed to fulfill the responsibilities of leadership. If, however, these advantages become vehicles of self-interest or substitutes for character, they can be demonic. Leaders of integrity hold them lightly and use them wisely.
Incarnational leadership asks us to go farther. Imagine seeing a job description for Christian leadership with this expectation: We are seeking a leader with the mind of Christ who has a transforming influence upon followers by being:
. . . vulnerable to human need at the risk of being called weak;
. . . obedient to the will of God at the risk of being called foolish, and;
. . . humble in spirit at the risk of being held in contempt. (45)

For the Christian leader it is a daily struggle to die to the siren songs of position, power, and prestige and to instead ask if I am following the call of Christ. “Once again, the mind of Christ is taking us where we do not want to go. How many Christian leaders are willing to make sacrifices for the sake of Christ as the risk of being considered weak, called crazy, and treated with contempt?” (46)

Jesus was called a drunkard and gluten. John Wesley was scorned and rejected by the church he loved. Billy Graham was ridiculed by the Christian church for much of his career. We look at these men who changed the world and see the end of their life. We fail to see the years of darkness and rejection that defined the majority of their lives. All because of a decision to follow the call of God.

Why do we as leaders, in this modern age, think we somehow get a pass?

Blessings,
Pastor Stephen

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Tapping the Main

May 5, 2014 /

I have two favorite TV shows: This Old House and Ask This Old House. Maybe it is because I live in an old house. Saturday nights from 5:30 – 6:30 pm are sacred. This is when the new episodes come out. If I happen to miss them for some reason, they are released on-line at 6:00 pm, central, each Sunday night.

Water MainIn one of the recent episodes the house they were working on had a water pressure problem. Its water inlet had become plugged and even though they were connected to the water main it just wasn’t getting to the house. The solution was obvious; they dug a trench and ran a new water line to the house.

Of course, there were other options they could have done. The family could have shouted, “Hey, Culligan man?” and had bottles of water delivered to their home every day. They could have set a large barrel on their roof to collect rain water for the family’s needs. Each night, they could have snuck over to their neighbor’s house and filled jugs of water off of their outside faucet. They even could have scheduled a daily pilgrimage to Wal-Mart to buy cases of bottled water to quench their thirst.

All of these methods could have worked, and sometimes we have to do them. But the ordinary means for getting water is to connect a line to the water main. Right?

Sometimes a person may ask me why they have to be baptized, take communion, read their bible, pray, attend church, or serve others. Is this really the only way we can experience God’s grace? Are these really the only ways God speaks? They may say, “I don’t like structure and rules, I want to experience God in my own way. You are making it sound these things are requirements to be saved.” It is true they are not necessary for salvation, but yet, they are. It is one of the many paradoxes of faith.

God works in many different ways. There are many different ways we might experience and receive God’s grace. Just like there are many different ways we can get water into our homes. However, God has also set-up ordinary means by which we receive his grace. It is not that we don’t sometimes receive his grace in other ways, but the spiritual practices are the ordinary way we receive his grace. If the ordinary way of getting water into your home is to tap into the water main and the ordinary way of receiving God’s grace is through the spiritual practices, does it not make sense to tap in?

Pastor Stephen

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