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I’ve really got in to Kiva.  Each month I loan money to someone.  I’ve loaned to people in El Salvador, Cambodia, Lebanon, Togo, Tajikistan, Mali and the Philippines.  You can start today with a small $25 loan.  Loans go to ordinary working people that need things like stock for their store or animals for their farm.  These small interest free loans have proven to be a excellent way to help develop the grass roots economies of the developing world. 

Team Saskatchewan only has 12 people!  Sign up and join the team! 

If you find you don’t like it, wait until the loan is repaid and then take your money back.  If you like it then relend the cash and help someone else out.  With all loans there is no guarantee that you’ll get all your money back, but so far defaults have been very low.

When I go to a church conference or read the materials from a church association all the material seems to try to answer one question.  How can my church be a success?  It is the holy grail that inspired many a book, conference and consultant.  A great many of these books, conferences and consultants offer divergent solutions and conflicting assessments of our problems.   Most solutions gain traction for a while and then begin to fade. 

Often the solution being offered doesn’t provide the expected results in a context different from the one it was discovered in.  We see this a lot in Canada whenever we apply techniques, and models promoted by Americans.  Canadian culture and Canadian church culture are different than their American equivalent.  What works in Chicago and L.A. doesn’t necessarily work in Toronto, and is really far fetched in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

At the house church conference I was at there were lots of little formulas and techniques being taught.   I struggled with it.  It seemed so much of the content was offered in the same style as something from Willow Creek.  For me “simple church” isn’t about employing specific techniques and shared rituals but of genuine expressions of love and fellowship.  Each individual church should creatively structure things given the people involved and the cultural context.

Whenever someone says something like "church is T.H.I.S.: Theos centered, Holy Spirit empowered, Inspired by Scripture, Serving Jesus” I just want to flee.  Church is no less nuanced or complex as a family or a marriage.  Who would try to reduce the concept of marriage to some cute little acronym?  It seems particularly out of place where the emphasis is on relationships rather than programs. 

The conference wasn’t all information about formulas and techniques.  I found a track of sessions where the presenter had us practice a simple technique for drawing people out to share the real issues in their life and listen to God’s leading.  Introducing people to a little bit of simple / organic fellowship was probably the best thing he could have done.  He did wear down some of my aversion to trying some of these techniques with new people because a group of strangers bonded very quickly. 

Shared rituals or practices are an essential part of the church.  People shouldn’t uncritically adopt what some guy three thousand miles away came up with for his church.  The guy from three thousand miles away shouldn’t assume that he came up with the universal approach and proclaim it as the new better way to be the church.

So you are relaxing at the lake or camping somewhere and you can’t make it to church to deliver your tithe you might want to follow the advice in Deuteronomy.

Deu 14:23  "You shall eat in the presence of the LORD your God, at the place where He chooses to establish His name, the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock, so that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.
Deu 14:24  "If the distance is so great for you that you are not able to bring the tithe, since the place where the LORD your God chooses to set His name is too far away from you when the LORD your God blesses you,
Deu 14:25  then you shall exchange it for money, and bind the money in your hand and go to the place which the LORD your God chooses.
Deu 14:26  "You may spend the money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen, or sheep, or wine, or strong drink, or whatever your heart desires; and there you shall eat in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice, you and your household.
Deu 14:27  "Also you shall not neglect the Levite who is in your town, for he has no portion or inheritance among you.

So next time a fellow church member finds you at the liquor store up at the lake just tell them you are faithfully spending your tithe and that you intend to eat in the presence of the Lord and Rejoice!  Just don’t forget to invite the local pastor, priest or minister to partake with you!

Amazon.ca has a great deal going.  Pre-order Windows 7 Upgrade for $65!  Windows 7 is definitely worth it at this price.

HT Just Wondering

If I was a presenter at a conference on home/organic/simple church I’d probably talk about the following.

• Continually proclaiming the mystery of the gospel
• Making a safe place for people to be real
• Eating together, the ancient ritual that still makes sense
• Sacrificial love is the lifeblood of ministry
• Forget looking like a success just build the kingdom
• Interpreting the scriptures together
• Relating to conventional churches
• Leading from beside, gentle direction that empowers
• Creating culturally relevant shared rituals and experiences.
• Avoiding buzzwords and acronyms for all that is good and sane in this world

A lot of the presenters here make a big deal about Luke 10. 

Luk 10:1  After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him two by two into every town and place where he himself was about to go.
Luk 10:2  He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.
Luk 10:3  Go! I am sending you out like lambs surrounded by wolves.
Luk 10:4  Do not carry a money bag, a traveler’s bag, or sandals, and greet no one on the road.
Luk 10:5  Whenever you enter a house, first say, ‘May peace be on this house!’
Luk 10:6  And if a peace-loving person is there, your peace will remain on him, but if not, it will return to you.
Luk 10:7  Stay in that same house, eating and drinking what they give you, for the worker deserves his pay. Do not move around from house to house.
Luk 10:8  Whenever you enter a town and the people welcome you, eat what is set before you.
Luk 10:9  Heal the sick in that town and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come upon you!’
Luk 10:10  But whenever you enter a town and the people do not welcome you, go into its streets and say,
Luk 10:11  ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this: The kingdom of God has come.’

This passage is presented as the primary approach for planting new churches.  Much is made about most of the passages here.  I’m finding it difficult.

1) These 72 weren’t planting churches.  They were out to heal the sick and proclaim the arrival of the kingdom.  Proclaiming the gospel and the arrival of the Kingdom of God is not the same thing as planting churches.

2) The people who did receive the ministry of the 72 were likely invited to join Jesus disciples when he came through town.  No possible church was established with these people until after Pentecost.  By the end of Luke many of these 72 likely scattered.

3) Jesus specifically mentioned his instruction in Luke 10 and changed it Luke 22.

Luk 22:35  Then Jesus said to them, "When I sent you out with no money bag, or traveler’s bag, or sandals, you didn’t lack anything, did you?" They replied, "Nothing."
Luk 22:36  He said to them, "But now, the one who has a money bag must take it, and likewise a traveler’s bag too. And the one who has no sword must sell his cloak and buy one.

While these passages do change Jesus’ instruction Jesus is implying that his disciples will be sent out again.  It is obvious from history that they were sent out and proclaimed the kingdom after Pentecost.  I kind of wish more people here included Luke 22 because ultimately it adds more weight to some aspects of this approach because it is affirmed more than once.  On the other hand it implies that people need to understand their context and change their game plan accordingly.

The church grew in so many ways in Acts I would find it limiting to stick with just Luke 10.  It is obvious that Pentecost wasn’t like this.  Paul’s method for planting churches usually started in the Synagogue and we know he went to Mars Hill.  Paul got himself arrested and as a result proclaimed the gospel to Roman officials and guards.  It seems clear that

That doesn’t mean there isn’t something to learn from Luke 10.  There in lies the work for me. 

I’m safe and sound in a suburb of Minneapolis for what might be the longest stint I’ve ever spent in the United States.  A few observations:

• Minnesota and Canada are more similar than many other states.  Unfortunately I haven’t found anyone who sounds like the characters in the movie Fargo. 
• People drive bigger cars here.  In Canada the most popular cars are compact cars (Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Matrix, Chevy Cobalt, Mazda3, Ford Focus, Hyundai Accent).  We even have lots of sub-compact cars (Toyota Yaris, Honda Fit, Smart Cars) and I haven’t seen any here.  There seems to be an abundance of SUV’s but more Toyota Hybrids than I expected.
• It is more humid than I expected.  Most places are more humid than Saskatchewan, we are pretty much in a desert.
• When I say I’m  from the province directly north of eastern Montana it doesn’t help.  People don’t know where Montana is.
• People here actually watch Fox News thinking they are finding out what is going on in the world. 
• I saw a “Ron Paul was right” bumper sticker.  That was great.  Ron Paul is right about a lot of things but people aren’t listening to him.
• The donuts I bought at the grocery store are quite tasty. 
• Everything is cheap here now the American dollar has tanked.  I wonder if I could get some nice shoes here.
• The people at the conference seem pretty cool.  Organic church people do like to dialogue!
• My first session with Neil Cole was ok.  I like a lot of what Neil says but I could go without the buzzwords, and especially buzzwords converted to acronyms.  Maybe I’m a little too postmodern but I’d rather just here stories, rather than watch stories get reduced to bullet points.
• I listened to a little N.T. Wright on the way down.  That was some sweet stuff from the Bishop.  That guy understands the nature, power and depth of narrative theology.
• There are lots of trees and lakes in and around Minneapolis. 

Flaherty has a plan to return to surplus.  I can’t help but wonder if it is anything like this plan.

What next?  Will they admit that some of them are programmed to think they are human?

My last post might have seemed a bit harsh.  I may have given off the impression that I think nothing good happens in church. 

I strongly believe that the most powerful life transforming ministry happens in the context of personal relationships motivated by sacrificial love.  In most churches this exists.  It might happen in pockets or on the margins but there are signs of this life everywhere. 

Eventually I asked the question “if most people are changed more in relationship, why are we so busy with all these events and programs.”  I don’t really know why.  This is why I’ve become such a strong advocate of a simpler approach to church.  I say simpler because I think there is a spectrum, and I don’t advocate one approach as the only “biblical” approach to church. 

I’ve spent almost 7 years experimenting with simpler expressions of church.  I’m still learning lots and trying new things.  Here is my recipe right now.

1) Proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ

Most Christians don’t get it, or if they do get it in their mind, they have been conditioned by the legalism of their experience.  There are several metaphors in scripture for how we relate to God.  I like the following:

John

1Jn 1:5  This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
1Jn 1:6  If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
1Jn 1:7  but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Peter

2Pe 1:2  Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;
2Pe 1:3  seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
2Pe 1:4  For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

Paul

Eph 2:4  But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
Eph 2:5  even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
Eph 2:6  and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Eph 2:7  so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Eph 2:8  For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
Eph 2:9  not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

They all describe different facets of our relationship with God.  We must stop adding to the gospel because when we do we empty it of its power.

2) Love people

Sacrificial love is the lifeblood of the church.  Love has to be sincere and tangible and genuine.  I don’t know how it can be manufactured.  This love comes from God.  We love because He first loved us.  Until we know the love of Christ it will that much more difficult to sacrificially love each other.  Thus step 1 is so important.

3) Respect the inherent value Christ has woven in to each person

Do not try to control people, don’t manipulate them, don’t use them, don’t create fear.  There will always be some level of organization but it must always serve people.  Once this role is reversed and people are more assets of an organization we end up with a lot burn out and disappointment.

4) Offer generous amounts of grace and acceptance

In order for people to be able to help each other they need to feel safe.  Without safety people aren’t open.  If people aren’t open then it is very difficult to make a difference in their lives.  People can hear difficult truths from others that they know in their heart they are truly loved for who they are. 

There is a noticeable lack of methods and models in this recipe because those should change given the context and the people.