Live.Awake

What Kind of Church Do You Want?

// May 16th, 2010 // No Comments » // Church Life

I need to repent of trying to replace the power of the Holy Spirit with pragmatism.

So do you.

We need to drop our excuses about why we don’t see miracles and the kind of community that is modeled in Acts 2. We need to stop making cynical and tired excuses about why we don’t “give beyond our means” like in 2 Corinthians 8. We need get dissatisfied with the status quo.

I want the church that Jesus is building, not the church of my imagination or your imagination. I want a church that infuriates the Pharisees and religiously comfortable. I want a church that rebukes with holy rage those that would use the gospel and the Church to make themselves rich and glorify their name over the name of Christ. I want a church that is a haven of mercy for the lost and the broken. I want a church that calls the prodigal home to repent before a loving, merciful, and holy God. I want a church that refuses to give an inch on Biblical truth even in the face of extreme cultural pressure do so, but still manages to proclaim a grace-filled gospel that can overcome every sin, every addiction, and every sickness. I want a church full of disciples that freely share each other’s burdens to such an extent that outsiders look at us in disbelief because they see relationships that reach beyond mere human charity and reflect something divine from the heart of Christ. I want a church that not only preaches, and lives, the gospel with wise and persuasive words but demonstrates the reality of the gospel with signs, wonders, miracles, and power.

Pragmatism cannot bring about this kind of church. The application of good marketing principles, operations strategies, and cultural savvy has never, will never, cannot ever build this kind of church.

We need the Holy Spirit to come. We need Acts 2 to reach ahead into 2010 and set us ablaze with the kind of zeal and power that can once again revive a stale and religiously comfortable Bride. We need God’s holiness and God’s love to collide in our hearts with such a force that it destroys every trace of ambivalence in us about whether or not Jesus is worth giving up every bit of the empty and momentary comforts of this life.

What kind of church do you want?

In order to become the kind of church that breaks free from the church model wars and the worship wars and the culture wars, ad nauseum to become something like what we see in Acts 2, then we need a move of the Holy Spirit. We need a visitation from God that is on scale with Pentecost. I say we wait and pray for just that.

It’s “upper room” time, Church.

Is He Alive? Prove it.

// March 31st, 2010 // 9 Comments » // Christian Living

This weekend on Sunday, Christians will gather all over the world to celebrate the greatest event in human history. The resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This simply means that we do not worship a dead God. He’s alive. We have a living hope.

Among other things, this means that God is actively involved in our lives. When we pray, he hears us. When we sing, he hears us. He’s doing things right now, in your life and in mine.

So, I’m looking for proof. I’m looking for stories from your life that demonstrate that Jesus did not reamain dead in that cold, damp tomb 2,000 years ago. I want to hear testimonies of what God has done and is doing in your life right now.

Is He alive? Prove it in the comments below.

Enjoy What Makes Life Beautiful

// March 8th, 2010 // 8 Comments » // Christian Living

I preached on keeping the Sabbath this weekend and studying the topic was a loud reminder to me of the importance of getting off the crazy carnival ride we’re on most of the time to take a breath.  The importance of weekly rest goes all the way back to creation and the nature and character of God.  God stopped to take in and enjoy all that He had done during the first 6 days of creation.  His greatness didn’t diminish when He rested.  His glory doesn’t come only from doing but also from His being.

I think most Americans are taught the opposite.  A strong work ethic is equated with never having to rest.  Taking time for solitude, reflection, and rest makes us feel a little guilty, even apologetic.  That’s insane!  God made us with finite amounts of emotional and physical energy.  Rest is a necessary part of life and serves to remind us of our weakness and dependence on God to supply our needs.

The point of Sabbath goes back to the cross and Jesus.  You are reminded that you are accepted not because of what you DO but because of what Jesus DID. Your value doesn’t diminish because you are not “doing”.

Maybe you need to take some time off where you are completely unavailable so that you can discover that the universe did not tear in half because, lo and behold, the world and all that is in it does not revolve around you and your god-like abilities to hold it together.

Unplug from the collective.  Get out, smell some unprocessed air, find solitude, find friends, reconnect with all the things that make your life beautiful.

Excellence or Authenticity?

// February 27th, 2010 // No Comments » // Church Life

I’ve written a lot about the importance of excellence in the Church on this blog before.  I believe it’s important to do things in a way that communicates that we value what we are doing, we value those we are ministering to, and most of all we value the God we are worshiping.  However, I also believe that there is a higher ideal that we must pursue without forsaking excellence.

Authenticity.

Boiled down to it’s root, authenticity is about truthfullness.  It’s about not concealing reality behind a veil of mystery and false piety.  It’s about letting the seams show a little as if to say, “this was made by human beings, not by a machine.”  It’s about celebrating the risk over the result to the point of being willing to celebrate failure as a true sign of a big risk that has been courageously taken.  This is not something we traditionally do well.

The church growth and seeker sensitive movement has produced mixed results.  Churches have certainly grown, which I believe is almost always a good thing.  However, I think we’re all in danger of placing pragmatism and professionalism in a place of greater importance than Spirit-led, Christ-centered authenticity.

Here’s the thing:  our culture values authenticity over spit-polish any day.  I think we are about to see a wave of reactions against the auto-tuned, over produced, over sold, over hyped mainstream music and film industry.  I think people are sick of the trite and begging for the real.  And isn’t this something Jesus-followers should be experts in?  We of all people should get the fact that we are all broken, that the greatness in mankind is only an imperfect image of a perfect God.  Aren’t we the ones that get to “boast in our weakness”?

Several months ago during our Sunday morning worship set a mistake was made.  Our guitarist (who rarely makes mistakes on his instrument) began the song in the wrong key.  It was awful and impossible to ignore.  Most people would have made an adjustment and tried to stumble forward acting like it had never happened.  But, instead of doing that he stopped playing, waved at the congregation and said something like “Thanks very much, everyone!  That was me over here.”  It was a beautiful moment.

What was beautiful about it was that a sigh of relief went through the room as if to say, “Oh, thank God.  We can make mistakes here and it’s ok.”

I find that in most churches the opposite is true.  Performance mistakes are highly criticized and covered up.  Sermons are memorized, worship is auto-tuned, every moment choreographed.  No mistakes.

But “no mistakes” isn’t realistic for most of us and we need to see that reflected in our churches.

I believe that at some point every leader, and every local church is faced with a decision.  They will have to make a choice between becoming more excellent and polished or becoming more authentic and real.  At some point, one will directly compete with the other.

Again, this doesn’t mean that we can say excellence doesn’t matter because it really, really does.  It just isn’t the ultimate value because in the end it’s authenticity that will connect with people.

Incidentally, this gives the small church (with a small budget, and few people resources) some hope.  You can overcome a LOT of in-excellence with extra doses of authenticity.  If you don’t have a good worship band, or your building is old, or your preaching is boring, you can overcome a lot of those things by hammering authenticity and relationships.

People will say, “Yeah his preaching isn’t that great but he’s so REAL.” or “The music isn’t that great, but there is so much love and acceptance there that I can’t help but go back every week.”  When people say those kinds of things they are making value statements.  They are saying that excellence is important to them, but what really matters MOST to them is authenticity.  Authenticity doesn’t require money.  It doesn’t require a lot of people.  All it requires is grace, which is the one thing the Church has in great supply no matter how small.

You Have Never Met a Mere Mortal

// February 9th, 2010 // No Comments » // Christian Living

I first came across this quote listening to John Piper teaching about C.S. Lewis.  I have been pondering lately the idea of discipleship in the Bible and how that relates to the mission of the Church.  In doing so, I’ve come to realize that so much of the effort spent in our lives (and in our churches) is wasted on things that are good, but not best.

People matter.  Jesus thought so.  So much so, that He died for them, offers to occupy their hearts, and then places the hope of the world on their shoulders as the Church.  People.  Really. Matter.

It is a serious thing to…remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another… all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.

There are no ordinary people.

You have never talked to a mere mortal.

Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.

This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.

And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to…[God Himself], your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbor he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ—the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden. ~C.S. Lewis

How does this truth change the way we view and treat the people around us? I think it changes everything.