New Message: “Can you hear me now?” John 10:1-21

For anyone who is interested, I was given the opportunity to teach at REALITY on Sunday on John 10:1-21.  Great time preparing and sharing.  It was really neat to me to see how the Spirit put the message together in the end.  Hope you enjoy it if you take a listen.

Can you hear me now? John 10:1-21

Fractal Church

Yeah, I know.  Most people reading this don’t have a clue (or care) what a fractal is.  And, the fact is, the guy who popularized them (building on the work of others)–Benoît Mandelbrot–recently passed away, so in lieu of the man himself, we’ll just have to settle for Wikipedia (Wow, did Wikipedia just replace a brilliant man?).

According to the freely edited wisdom of the crowd, a fractal is, “a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole.”  So, zoom in on a fractal and what will you find?  Basically, another re-presentation of the whole.  Zoom in further.  What do you find?  Another representation of the whole.  Zoom in further…you get the idea.

So, what does this have to do with anything?  Only this: at every layer of the Church, no matter what “zoom”, we should find the in-containable, incomprehensible Christ ubiquitously present (Ephesians3:16-19; Colossians 1:15-20).  And the implications are huge.  Because every part–individual, missional community, Olympia’s churches, and the big “C” Church–carries Christ, every part carries within them the possibility of the whole.  Put another way, “In the seed the whole tree lies coiled, and in the tree, there lies the potential for the production of countless other seeds.  In the tree is the full potential of the forest.” (Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways, 206).

I’m not saying that every follower of Christ is meant to plant a church.  I am saying that the presence of Christ in you and within those of us who are his body, are enough for him to breathe a new movement of life in this world.  Here’s the reality: If we believe any less than that Jesus could repopulate the earth with a people passionate for his name and Kingdom through us, then we are living with a truncated Jesus who is not truly Lord at all.

As much as I may struggle to believe the incomprehensible Christ lives in me, he is calling and leading you and I believe that he can and will do incomprehensible things through us.

Church

Just a quote from my present read:

“Here is a marvelously coherent and compelling picture of the participation of the church in world history. History is interpreted here as a struggle for liberation. The Christian has his place in it not just as a fighter for liberation but as one who has been liberated. Through the presence of the Spirit he is already a free person, bearing in his own life the freedom which belongs to the end. The community of those who follow Jesus is called to share in the struggle for liberation as those who are full of eager and patient hope: eager, because they have already tasted the freedom to which God calls all; patient, because God is to be trusted to complete that which he has begun.” (Newbigin, p. 120, The Open Secret)

Good stuff!

Belong/Believe/Behave

Thinking a lot about churches and how they grow, when I ran across a blog post, now buried deep in my browser’s history, on the order one journeys through belonging, believing and behaving in to the church.  Which comes first?  And what follows?  In what order?

Is it behave-belong-believe?  Believe-belong-believe?  Belong-believe-behave?  There are six options to choose from.  Let’s take a look…

When Behaving Comes First…

I don’t really think it matters what follows when behavior is the gate in to Jesus’ kingdom.  I simply cannot imagine how it doesn’t lead to some sort of moralism.  When behaving comes first my belonging is always at stake and I will become an awesome Pharisee.  On the other hand, if belong proceeds believe, then it leeches the potency inherent in the life altering Truth I have come to know in Jesus.

I Believe Therefore…

Though I’m relatively certain there are plenty of people who have come to faith this way, I’m afraid it leaves me with one major question: Why is the Church here?  If belief comes apart from the church as sign, first-fruit and foretaste of the Kingdom, then what’s God thinking keeping us around?

On the other side, belief coming before behaving, seems like a really good idea.  If Jesus is who he says, and God is telling the Truth when he tells us his story, then I must capitulate, I must change.  If I do not change, then I have missed something of the story, because the story (which spans from creation to new creation) demands that I live in it.

Belong/Believe/Behave

Keeping the believing-behaving order, belonging is the only “B” yet to take its turn at the front of the line.  Of the options listed, this one seems to be the only truly viably incarnational approach.  Since belonging is not based on the prerequisites of believing or behaving, Jesus’ followers are finally allowed to love those around them freely.

One thing about this ordering however is that I think many will confuse it with behave-belong-believe.  Only the Jesus followers who follow him out of the holy huddle on to the streets will truly ever preach a gospel where belonging is not preceded by behaving.  In other words, if you must come to me to belong, then belonging will always only happen on my terms.

Again, this is not meant to be preaching at the choir, so much as it is intended to be preaching at my own heart.  More often than not, I stray back to moralism because I want a savior who saves me because I’m a great guy, or I find Truth has moved to the backseat where it sits helpless to steer anything.  I’d love to hear your thoughts as this is something I am only beginning to explore myself.