GraceWorks.ca

In the tradition of Alan Knox’s series:

Mar 4:33 With many such parables finely crafted three point sermons he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it.
Mar 4:34 He did not speak to the church without a parable sermon, but privately to his own inner circle he explained everything his  strategic plans.

Hi there

I’ve been working on a big writing project.  I’m attempting to put my thoughts, ideas and values concerning church ministry in to something that will resemble a book.  I think I’m going to make it a website and publish it as a file one can read on e-readers.  It has been an engaging project for me.  I am very genuinely surprised how much I learn when I study the scriptures.  I have a couple of great software programs that have made the process of research and writing so much easier.

For years I used e-sword and really loved it.  It is a fantastic program and now that the ESV and the Good News Bible are available as free downloads it really doesn’t get any better as free programs go.  Because it is lighter and more agile I still find myself using it when I’m just reading the text and jumping between translations.   I still recommend e-sword over any other program for simple bible study. 

Logos has other advantages.  The sheer abundance of high quality resources puts it well ahead of anything I’ve come across.  While individual modules are more expensive than some other programs the packages provide an incredible discount over paper books.  It is easy to build the library with community pricing.  Before a module is developed they ask people to pledge money in a bid format.  When enough is pledged they develop the resource and those that bid get the resource for the amount that they bid.  So far I’ve picked up a handful of modules this way, most are old, but I now have a library on my computer that I’d be hard pressed to fit in any room in my house.

The ability to drill down in to a passage in unparalleled.   Type in a reference, hit the button the software goes to work for you.  Then you are one or two clicks away from lexicons, commentaries of all sorts, word studies, phrase studies.  What would take a half hour to just assemble in a library you can do in 10 seconds (especially with Solid State Drive and a half decent processor).  There are all sorts of language tools available that go beyond my skills. 

The interface is highly customizable.  There is incredible amount of power that lies in its menus but it takes some time viewing the tutorials to make use of it.

Scrivener is the software I’ve been looking for for my entire life but never really knew what I was looking for.  Take the power and the organizational features of Microsoft OneNote and combine it with a word processor then add features designed explicitly for composing novels, screenplays or intensive academic works.  Combined with dropbox it is extremely powerful solution for composing full length documents of all sorts.  I absolutely love it and it is only $40.  The only thing is lacks is a grammar checker. 

This software enables you to have your most important documents available to you on your desktop, laptop, smartphone and tablet.  It is very helpful to use with a smartphone. It makes transferring files quick and easy. 

I came across this video on facebook.  In it the preacher tells young single men to “grow a pair” and be more masculine when relating to women.  In one part he even makes fun of someone he ministers to in his message for not being manly enough.

Yesterday I was talking with someone else about a famous quip made by another famous preacher in which he proclaimed that he couldn’t worship someone he could beat up.  Sad to say the person he claims to worship let himself get beat up and instructed other men to turn the other cheek and follow his example.  Indeed many of them did. 

Can you imagine one of these uber-masculine folks ever say the following?:

“As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but instead we were like children among you. Or we were like a mother feeding and caring for her own children. We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.”

That was Paul in 1Thessalonians.

If we are truly following God what should that look like?

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
(Gal 5:22-23 NLT)

What?  Where is toughness, bravado, decisiveness, aggressiveness, assertiveness, boldness, or strength?

How then did Paul and his contemporaries manage to turn the Roman world upside down?

For God, who said, "Let there be light in the darkness," has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies.
(2Co 4:6-11 NLT)

What do we see here?  Fragility, pressed on every side, perplexed, hunted down, knocked down, and suffering.  But despite the very real apparent weaknesses they were never destroyed, driven to despair or crushed.  Why?  They had a power inside them that sustained them.  The weaker they were the more God’s power was observed and the more people came to faith in the same power.

That isn’t to say that Paul wasn’t willing to take risks, even bold ones.  That certainly looks masculine.  He put himself at risk because of his faith in God, not faith in his own ability.  The courage he had wasn’t source in self-reliance or personal toughness it was the divinely imparted confidence he had that he would never be abandoned. 

I think there is there is room for masculinity in the Christian faith but it doesn’t manifest itself through pride, bravado or anger.  A truly secure man is at peace inside and isn’t threatened by other opinions or being wrong.  A truly secure man has self-control and integrity and will stand steadfastly for what he believes in.  He will be a true friend to the disadvantaged.   A truly masculine man doesn’t need the leverage of oppressive gender roles that disenfranchise or limit the potential of women.  Why?  Because he is not afraid.

I don’t know the heart of the two guys I referenced in this post but I think that some of these uber-masculine guys get angry at less masculine guys because they perceive a weakness they hate in themselves.   They project masculinity in order compensate for their own weakness.  Instead of accepting their own weaknesses they shame themselves in to pseudo-strength and try to do the same to others.  Many of them aren’t brave at all. They will fight you but only when they have a steep advantage.  They will leverage the pulpit or their organization in order to intimidate.  They might face you, but only after they have stacked the deck in their favour.  Why?  Because they are cowards.

I believe that we could make room for men to be men in the church.  I don’t see how walking in to a crowded room of 1000 people to idolize some preacher with a tattoo making vulgar comments about his sexual prowess changes that.

From Wikipedia

Einstein had previously explored the belief that man could not understand the nature of God. In an interview published in 1930 in G. S. Viereck‘s book Glimpses of the Great, Einstein explained:

“I’m not an atheist. I don’t think I can call myself a pantheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws. Our limited minds grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations. I am fascinated by Spinoza‘s pantheism, but admire even more his contribution to modern thought because he is the first philosopher to deal with the soul and body as one, and not two separate things.^[6]”

In a 1950 letter to M. Berkowitz, Einstein stated that "My position concerning God is that of an agnostic. I am convinced that a vivid consciousness of the primary importance of moral principles for the betterment and ennoblement of life does not need the idea of a law-giver, especially a law-giver who works on the basis of reward and punishment."^[14] Author Anthony Alioto has referred to Einstein as an "agnostic theist"^[15] sometimes called a form of deism or panentheism.

According to biographer Walter Isaacson, Einstein was more inclined to denigrate disbelievers than the faithful.^[16] "The fanatical atheists," Einstein said in correspondence, "are like slaves who are still feeling the weight of their chains which they have thrown off after hard struggle. They are creatures who—in their grudge against traditional religion as the ‘opium of the masses‘—cannot hear the music of the spheres."^[16][17] Although he did not believe in a personal God, he indicated that he would never seek to combat such belief because "such a belief seems to me preferable to the lack of any transcendental outlook."^[18]

The problem I have with fundamentalism whether it be religious or Atheistic is that there is no room for doubt or mystery.  There is no acknowledgement of the readily apparent finiteness of human perception and human experience. 

I was a church planting conference today.  People might have to take my post here with a grain of salt.  I’ve been a house church guy for a long time and typical patterns and personalities found in conventional church circles are starting to feel foreign to me.  I feel out of place when I go to a place like this.  I tend to connect with the thinker/academic types more but your typical pastor irritates me.

There is a quote that made rounds a few years ago that is supposedly attributed to a Japanese businessman “Whenever I meet a Buddhist leader, I meet a holy man. Whenever I meet a Christian leader, I meet a manager.”

I had one encounter over a lunch.  The guy started grilling me about the nature of the house church I’m a part of.  He actually talked about the need for the church to be missional.  I actually confessed that my particular church isn’t terribly “missional” because I refuse to redefine the word so I can label everything we do under a buzzword label.  When I asked about how his church had become “Missional” he couldn’t point to anything.  I wonder why the conversation goes in this direction so often.  I don’t always feel like I’m being inspected when people ask me about my church but when I do it usually is some pastor sifting through the legitimacy the ministry I’m involved with.

There is a terrible irony to the whole process.  What we do looks remarkably like the churches of the New Testament.  I’m always entertained at the notion that the legitimacy of a house church is in question given that the church met in homes for hundreds of years.

I have to admit I did hold back in the conversation.  I didn’t tell this guy that my primary efforts outside of our local fellowship have been to minister to those who have been spiritually abused by church leaders.  I figured that might be an awkward conversation to have with a church leader.  This ministry is deeply rewarding if not heartbreaking at times.  It isn’t much of a church growth initiative though  as it takes years to walk with deeply wounded people.  Often they never even join us for our gatherings.  I do it because God loves these people, and He is the good shepherd that would leave the 99 for the 1.

This brings me to my major frustration with all our conversation on changing the church.  It is like we have all kinds of thinkers and practitioners offering us new and improved missional pumps or neo-reformed pumps to gather water in our tanks all the while water is gushing out the bottom of the tank through unrepaired cracks and holes.  The biggest crisis in the church today isn’t our lack of willingness to engage missionally in our communities, it is the reality that we can’t effectively engage in the mission  of reconciling people to God in our very own fellowships.

Over the last 50 years church membership among mainline denominations like the Anglican church of Canada or United church dropped about 50%.  Evangelicals have largely stayed the same with most dropping less than 10%.  However the population of Canada has almost doubled in the same time period.  If we were just to keep pace with our birthrate we’d be much larger than we are.

I think one of the presenters, Skye (cool name huh) does nail things on the head when he said we’ve commoditized people and even God.  We care much more about our programs than our people.  The people exist to support the organization rather than constructing and organization that supports the people.  When people fall out the back we return to tinkering with the system.

Now that I’ve vented a bit.  My most memorable part of the conference was the end.  I picked up two homeless hitchhikers and drove them to Regina through terrible weather.  They were musicians, I got to listen to their music, we made fun of Regina!  A good time was had by all.  I even got a CD!

Mr. Piper’s answer surprised me. Be sure to see watch the whole video to pick up how he frames things. There is one section that honestly and truly stunned me. He advises that women should endure a "season" of verbal abuse or being "smacked" for one night before they tell the church about it. He goes on to say that the solution for this resides in the church. There is no mention of where it might be appropriate to call the police, go to a crisis centre or get out of town.

I can’t say I know much about Mr. Piper, let alone his heart or background, but I find this sort of thinking appalling.  I’ll acknowledge that there is a difference between people getting angry and abuse.  Mr. Piper doesn’t make that distinction, he just draws a distinction between more severe and less severe abuse. 

I believe If conflict becomes physical then people need to be held to account.  If a spouse, man or woman, doesn’t feel safe in their own home and refuse to mention it to anyone because they are trying honour God what does that do to their relationship with God?  Regardless of how people want to interpret  biblical passages on gender roles should we not see our response to abuse through the central of theme of sacrificial love for one another?  If abuse of any form destroys people how can we tolerate it? 

If we tolerate physical abuse of any form in our families what message does that send to our children?  Will little Tommy grow up thinking its ok to smack his girlfriend once a year or so?  If there is a “season” of verbal abuse what example does that send?

If we submission  is so important what of the command for all Christians to be submissive to one another out of reverence for Christ.  If a husband can’t control his tongue and is engaging in verbal abuse should he not then be required to open up about to someone that can help him stop?  Would not any wife have the right to call him on it?

I’ve read stories about other church situations where the church surrounds the abusive man and leaves the women and children out in the cold.  In one sense I don’t get it.  If these men are supposed to be leaders in their church and in their family why are they so afraid to be held to account in such serious situations?  Why are other men so afraid to actually dig in to the situation and shed light on everything?

This stuff disgusts me, it really does.

In another sense I do get it.  The apostle John talks a lot about light.  Light shines in to the darkness and if our deeds are evil we fear the light.  We fear being seen for what we are.  We fear the exposure.  So often the people in charge don’t want people to be damaged by the truth of the situation.  They would rather cover it up, hide it, paper over it.  They don’t want the light exposing the faults and weaknesses in their community and in their leadership.

Paul understood that God’s power is best displayed through weakness.   When we are weak, when we are honest, when we are transparent it gives us the clearest perspective on what God is doing in our midst.  Paul had such confidence in the transforming work of Christ he didn’t have to pretend, project or cover up.  His whole life was on display warts and all because he knew people would see God working in him. 

The church would be wise to earn from his example.

Is it ok for Christian leaders to be open, honest and transparent about their failings?  Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians illuminates his perspective in his conflict with the influence of the super-apostles.

Paul appealed to Christians that willingly submitted themselves to authoritarian false apostles that proclaimed themselves as Lord, peddled the word of God for profit, and engaged in underhanded methods as part of their “ministry.”

Paul paints the super apostles as spiritual abusers in his appeal to the Corinthians. 

For you put up with it if someone makes slaves of you, if someone exploits you, if someone takes advantage of you, if someone behaves arrogantly toward you, if someone strikes you in the face. (To my disgrace I must say that we were too weak for that!) But whatever anyone else dares to boast about (I am speaking foolishly), I also dare to boast about the same thing.
(2Co 11:20-21 NET.)

How Paul responds to influence of the super-apostles is nothing less than remarkable.  He doesn’t proclaim to the Corinthians he is more super than the super-apostles.  He doesn’t appeal to a higher human authority, credentials or recommendations.  He doesn’t commend himself as superior…he reveals his weakness.

For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, regarding the affliction that happened to us in the province of Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of living. Indeed we felt as if the sentence of death had been passed against us, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. He delivered us from so great a risk of death, and he will deliver us. We have set our hope on him that he will deliver us yet again, as you also join in helping us by prayer, so that many people may give thanks to God on our behalf for the gracious gift given to us through the help of many.
(2Co 1:8-11 NET.)

Some guys roll in to a church Paul planted with letters of recommendation in hand, start pointing out Paul’s weaknesses and commend themselves as superior.  Less than 10 sentences in to Paul’s response he admits he was burdened beyond his strength in a certain situation.  He went through something he admits he couldn’t handle.

But there was a method to his madness.

In Chapter 3 Paul describes a new covenant ministry in which people are transformed as they behold and reflect the glory of the Lord.  Because it is the Lord that transforms people Paul rejects all sorts of trickery and underhanded methods.  There is no need to use the methods of human influence to try to change people’s behavior. People are not changed through the application of force or manipulation.  It is the Lord that transforms.  Our part in this process is to simply reflect the glory of the Lord unveiled.  The Lord’s glory is best reflected in weakness.

Therefore, since we have this ministry, just as God has shown us mercy, we do not become discouraged. But we have rejected shameful hidden deeds, not behaving with deceptiveness or distorting the word of God, but by open proclamation of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience before God. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing, among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe so they would not see the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’sake. For God, who said "Let light shine out of darkness," is the one who shined in our hearts to give us the light of the glorious knowledge of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that the extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.
(2Co 4:1-7 NET.)

One of the key differences between Paul and the super-apostles was that he believed that as a leader the best thing he could do was a mirror image of the glory of God as revealed in the miraculous progression and transformation of his own life.  He aimed to reflect the Lord’s glory, not to proclaim himself.  He did not say that people must follow him because he represents Christ to them.  His goal was to be open, honest, and transparent even in weakness and he trusted that people would see the work of the Lord in his life and then be attracted to the same transforming glory or presence.

People are not transformed by human strength, power, or authority.  They are transformed by God.  Our role in this is to simply reflect the glory of the Lord without distortion, amplification, projection, or manipulation.

We Saskatonian’s generally think where live is a great place.  A Global/Ipsos Reid poll found that over the last two years Saskatonians are the most happy with their city!  That wasn’t the only question though.  Saskatoon certainly wasn’t the best every category.  Regina is number one in a few that are worth mentioning!

Regina is #1 with the following:

My sex life is great. 
Saskatoon came in 3rd behind Montreal.

I have driven a car in the past year when I shouldn’t have because I had way too much to drink, but got away with it!
22% of Reginians admitted to drunk driving!  Montreal came in 2nd with 13%.

I feel safe walking alone in my own neighbourhood after dark.
The lowest on this one was Winnipeg.

Vancouver was tops for “there is real hunger in our home”, “I can’t afford to live here” and “I’m unemployed and not looking for work.”

A large majority of people in Halifax and Winnipeg feel their city is less safe than it used to be.

Saskatoon was highest in the following:

I have a good work life balance
Overall, my city is on the right track
My local municipal government spends my tax dollars wisely
My city is a great place to invest
My city is a great place to work
I’ve been a victim of crime in the past two years

There is a movement growing in the United States (and perhaps elsewhere) towards family integrated churches.  You can watch a documentary from their perspective at DividedTheMovie.com.  You have to sign up for their mailing list to view it for free.  I found it very intriguing. 

A house church is a family integrated ministry.  Nothing is separated by age group.  In their main thrust I find some of common ground.  The main points of the video are:

• Youth ministry is a relatively recent invention that follows the societal shift towards age segregated youth education. 
• It is largely a failure as a ministry strategy in recent years as somewhere between 40 and 80 percent of people leave the church once they go to college. 
• Youth ministry is unbiblical.  Nowhere in the scriptures is age segregated ministry described.

It is this last point that I found the most intriguing.  I am all for considering the bible an authority on how we structure church.  I agree with the notion that youth ministry is hard to find scripture.  What seems a little ironic about it is they don’t seem to apply this same standard to the rest of their church practices.  It was surprising to watch a pastor talk about how he gave up on youth ministry because it is unbiblical while sitting in a posh, movie theatre style sanctuary.  Such a setup wouldn’t really be consistent with Paul’s description of the church in 1Cor 12-14.

It it would be easy to take this argument against youth ministry to absurd.   I can’t find documentary’s or the Internet in scripture either so maybe we shouldn’t use those either.  Just because we don’t find something in scripture that doesn’t mean it is “unbiblical.”  The question has to go deeper than that. 

This movement can quote Eph 6:4 all day long and I know how people will respond.   They will say the existence of youth ministry is designed to supplement the work of parents not replace it.  It is the parents fault for not discipling their own children.  They will be correct to a degree.   The truth is so many parents are biblically and theologically illiterate.  They would not have the first clue of how to disciple a child.  They’ve never been discipled themselves.  Why?  Because conventional church ministry is not strong on discipleship for adults either.

I don’t think canceling Sunday school and youth group and having everyone together in a conventional worship service is going to make that much of a difference.  I imagine the solutions purposed by this group do go deeper than that, but the documentary doesn’t suggest anything deeper.  It would be interesting if they did another documentary on the hang ups and obstacles for parents in discipling their children.  That really is the issue.  By trashing youth ministry they seem to be demonizing the bandaid instead of addressing the wound.  Would we still need the bandaid if parents could disicple their children?  Probably not.

That being said there is much to criticize in the entertainment oriented approach of current youth ministry.  I was part of a youth group that had a lot of scripture and discussion and most of those people were still in church after they left home and most even went to bible school. 

I’m going to watch this debate.  I’ve already seen some very harsh criticism of this movement, and some of it seemed over the top irrational. It will be interesting to see if it evolves.