From the Missio Church Team, to you, the Ethos Family

The language that we use at Ethos for those that have committed to live on mission with us is the term FAMILY. Family is permanent. It’s not something that can be separated by distance or circumstance. Family is bound together by something unbreakable...someone unbreakable. We are bound to our biological families through the blood of our veins, but it is the blood of Christ that binds us together with our Ethos family. Those of us leaving to join God in His mission for the city of Seattle through Missio Church got to experience that bond this past Sunday night in a powerful way.

Sunday night was amazing. Don’t get us wrong, every time we gather and worship our Savior, it's beautiful. But as we gathered in the top floor of the Cannery this past Sunday, we got to experience something truly special. We saw a modern manifestation of Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,”. Our cloud of witnesses continues on past those we read about in scripture. You are alive and present as we look around at our family here in Nashville.

As a team, Missio church has been preparing for our departure to Seattle for quite some time. Long before we had a name or even a city, Jared and Laura were pursuing the Lord and seeking His calling for the church they would one day lead. As the team began to form and the Lord started revealing the details of our mission, we never doubted his sufficiency. But never did we expect such an overwhelming outpouring of love, support, and encouragement from our family here at Ethos. We could never have fathomed the power that our sending off would hold. This blog is meant to be a glimpse of our overwhelming gratitude for the ability of you, our family, to posture yourselves in a way that allows the Lord to so powerfully propel His mission through each and every one of you. Today we’re grateful. Not just that the Lord has led each of us to be a part of this family at Ethos, but that he’s called us to get to step into a whole new city and invite a city of people into this same type of family. Into His family.

As we prepare to head off to Seattle in a few days, we find ourselves overcome with gratitude for the beautiful depiction of Christ we've gotten to see in our Ethos family over the past few months. For your sacrifice. For your prayers. For your financial support. For the outpouring of your gifts and skill sets. For all the words of encouragement. For being our mentors. For being our friends. For discipling us. For so beautifully displaying the characteristics of our father and showing us so well what it means to love like He loves. For all of these things and so many more that we’ll never be able to put into words, we say THANK YOU! Thank you, family, for loving us well, and more importantly, for propelling us to walk in the good works laid out before us. May we Love God, Love People, and Awaken a Movement in Seattle because of the way you’ve loved and sent us out.

With deep Love,
The Missio Church Team

Does Jesus Change Anything?

I can't handle it... I can't handle it. I look around at the world and shamefully put my head in my hands and weep. I have seen pain. I have seen greed. I have seen so much in my short life that barely stacks up to what the course of History has taught us about the emptiness the world has to offer. I watch the news, I read the headlines and the overwhelming narrative of our story breaks my heart. How could we have fallen to such depths? Ferguson, Ebola, Cosby, Gaming murders, sexual abuse, hatred, racism...and the list of headlines goes on and on.

Weren't we supposed to be the generation that changed the headlines? I thought intellectual ambitions would usher in an era of peace and fullness of life. I thought our best efforts would bring about social change, political honesty, the end of racism, hunger, bigotry and all the evils of our recent and ancient past. I thought we could rise above the plague of the worst of humanity and bring about lasting change. I hoped. I dreamed. 

I was let down. 

And yet, in the midst of my hopeless gaze, I began to see something. Something I felt could not be real. I began seeing humanity push back. I saw people who wouldn't settle for emptiness. Emptiness for themselves or emptiness for the people around them. I started to take notice of the lives of these "hidden" warriors, battling for the ground that people like me had so willingly given up to the evil that felt too much to overcome. And something began to happen within me. A feeling I thought was lost forever began to return...Hope. Perhaps we could be free from all that seemed to hold us captive. Maybe, just maybe, we could be set free. 

Hope began to rise.

The struggle within me was raging for weeks, months and years, as I couldn't reconcile the headlines of suffering, dishonesty, inequality, and bondage with the reality of what I was seeing in the lives of people who wouldn't settle for the norm, the status quo of subjugation in the world around them. People were rising up. They were offering themselves for the good of people they had never known. They were doing this for me. Who are these men and women? Why would they take such a stand and suffer for it? Why would they willingly place themselves in the fire of oppression and take the blow? And how....how do they keep standing? Keep coming? Keep the vision of a better world firmly pressed in their hearts and in their action? What is wrong with these people? It hurts to see them try to change a world unwilling to move. It hurts to watch as they fight for a freedom they will never experience. 

It hurts...and yet for some reason, I want to follow. I want the life they are living. I want this. I want freedom. I want the oppressed set free. I want healing for the hurt. I want the slavery of this world, sexual slavery, labor slavery, financial slavery, sinful slavery, to be no more. I want disease to be eradicated.  I want inequality to die. I want marriages to be healed. The impoverished cared for. The rich held accountable. I want to see politicians govern with honesty, integrity, and love. I want these things so much.....But they seem like a distant impossibility. 

And then I hear it. "You are Mine."

I hear the words I don't fully understand, but make my heart burn with a fire I haven't experienced before. 'You are mine.' They seem like normal words that should have little impact on my life. And yet I can't shake them. They bring warmth. They bring a sense of peace. And I can't explain why. The world is spinning with injustice and suffering and yet these words are ringing in my heart as if they have some kind of power over me. Who is saying this to me? Who has claimed me as their own and why? And then I hear one of those servants of humanity speak a name...Jesus.

Who are you?

Wait...Jesus? Could it be? Who is this Jesus? Why do I keep hearing the words, "You are mine?" What is this about? Who is Jesus? I have seen the "Nativity" movie. Could this be what the fuss is over? They think Jesus is the reason for this holiday? 

Not true. This holiday is about forgetting, even if for a moment, the suffering in the world. It is about forgetting that people are hungry and abused. It is about making us feel good about ourselves for a moment in time. But nothing more. The headlines haven't changed. Christmas only puts a wreath around the suffering of the world. 

And then one of those hidden warriors speaks to me. They speak to me and it is like I am drinking water after years of running with nothing but the strength of my own legs holding me up. My legs waiver and slow under the oppressive journey of life without water. And yet the words spoken to me bring me a strength I haven't known before. All of a sudden peace fills my veins. It fills my soul. And I am, at long last, feeling as though I am being lifted above all that I once experienced. 

A strange peace, I cannot explain or understand, begins to flood the entirety of my mind, my soul, my body. Could this Jesus be the reason? Could he be the answer to my life's question? 

So often my thoughts begin to wander this time of year as people are confronted by the harsh reality of a season that brings deep joy and a sense of cultural burden all at once. The headlines that have sprung up around our world present a hopelessness that is oppressive and seemingly impossible to overcome. And yet there is a fleeting voice that rings attempting to point people back to the birth of a movement...to point them to a person who could change the way they experience and view the world. 

And yet a question remains that must be asked, "Does Jesus really change anything?"

This is the question our world has asked for 2000 years and yet, throughout history, a constant word has flooded the hearts of those people searching for more..."You are Mine."

And its as if the burden of the world lifts from humanities shoulders and the answer to the question so many of us have asked surfaces, "Yes, Jesus DOES change everything." 

Jesus gave humanity the ultimate gift. He looked into the worst of humanity and He claimed it as His own. His concern was not for how the world would forever be tainted by the worst of humanity. But rather his concern was for how this humanity would be forever marked by the best of heaven. 

The story above represents the largest portion of humanity on earth. A humanity that has slipped into the hopelessness that the world has to offer and is struggling to understand the yearning of their soul for something more. They see the deeds done in the name of human progress and they celebrate. They celebrate because they desperately want to cling to some semblance of good. They see people feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and giving shelter to the homeless and we celebrate. As we should. But this is not the end. Because suffering still exists. 

So we build pubs where people can go and enjoy friendship, togetherness, and relationship. We build community centers so children have a place to shoot hoops after school. We build and create and innovate so that the BEST of humanity trumps the worst we have to offer. And yet still we are left with our hands in the air. Wondering, "this can't be it."

And the voice we all avoid comes with a resounding whisper..."You are Mine."

I hope you see that Advent, Christmas and our humanity does not rest on how well we can change the world. We fall short every time we try. 

Christmas is about recognizing that our human longing to change the world has already been accomplished through the life of Jesus. Through Jesus we are empowered to rise, and walk freely through the world touching the worst of humanity with the best of Heaven.

Advent is about so much more than Christians reading nice devotionals to remember the moment Jesus was born. It is so much more than fighting to keep "Christ in Christmas." Jesus wants to be involved in the lives of those celebrating Christmas, whether they celebrate "Christmas" or "X-mas." And he wants to do this through our action in their lives, not our signs invading their minds.

It is about the all consuming love of God who took notice of humanity and his heart began to break. He read our headlines. He saw the suffering and pain. He saw racism, inequality, murder, sexual exploitation and he did the thing none of us could do. He entered into the mess and provided a way out. He opened the way to a journey into life as he intended it to be. And doing so he looked evil straight in the eye and made the boldest proclamation of love and Lordship...."They are Mine. They no longer belong to  you. They belong to me. They. Are. Free!" 

My hope for you this Christmas is that you fight for things Jesus fought for. He laid his life down for the freedom of the oppressed. He fought for the hurting. For those people who look at Christmas as another example of a humanity that doesn't care for the betterment of the world. Jesus fought, died, and rose so that those people would hope again. So they would begin to hear, in the midst of the worst of life around them, a word that would grab hold of their soul and never let them go. A word that would help them navigate through life and give them hope for a broken world...."You are Mine."

Do I Need to Get My Mess Together?

I recently watched a movie called "The Judge." This movie stars Iron Man and Joseph Pulitzer from the 90s hit, "Newsies." And while the movie had good acting and a lot of dramatic themes, the thing that caught my attention was the very raw nature of the relationships being portrayed. The father-son tandem in the movie (played by Robert Duval and Robert Downey Jr.) are wading through the muck of a relationship that was filled with hatred, miscommunication, unmet expectations, rage, alcohol, vehicular manslaughter, divorce, death, handicapped siblings, and pain.

And as I was watching this movie unfold I began to realize that so many of us want so badly for the "Modern Family" relationship to look like what we see on ABC. And yet more often what it looks like is the family portrayed in this movie, "The Judge." And while many, I am sure, have not yet seen this movie, my guess is that many of us know exactly the kind of relationship dynamic I am describing.

Recently my sister wrote a blog describing how as followers of Jesus there is often an unwritten expectation on people's lives that says, "Get your mess together or get out." And how so often we have ignored a growing reality in the world around us. The reality that relationships are so much more messy than we are comfortable admitting. 

And while I do not want to rehash the content of my sister's blog, I do want to shed light on how we as followers of Jesus can turn the trajectory of our churches so that we are no longer running away from the reality of people's mess but are running toward it. Because what I think will happen as we start running toward people is we will begin to see the heart of Jesus forming, not only in them, but in all of us together. 

One of the things that is so hard about being a follower of Jesus is actually following him where he leads and who he leads us to. If you look at Jesus' life it is evident that Jesus attracted some of the most difficult people to himself. Over and over in scripture we see Jesus with people who were so hard to love. Jesus always seemed to attract the messiest people to himself. 

And this causes problems for us. Because if we believe Jesus is truly living inside us then we have to believe that the kinds of people who will be attracted to the presence of Jesus inside US are the same people who gravitated toward him in scripture....messy people. 

My first thought when watching a movie like "The Judge" that portrays people living in such dark places is to shake my head. I realize this is a completely human response where I am appalled that they would allow themselves to be overwhelmed with such hate, anger, bitterness, etc. And yet these people, with all their messy baggage, are the exact people Jesus was actively calling to himself. These were the people that Jesus attracted into his community. So what does that say about me? 

Following Jesus will inevitably lead us into uncomfortable situations with uncomfortable people. This is partially why Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to live within us. Because Jesus knew that the more we pressed into him the more we would be led to places where our comfort would be shattered by the mess of people's lives. 

This is why in Colossians 3 Paul talks about clothing ourselves with humility, gentleness, kindness, compassion and patience. He says in Colossians 3:13, "Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievance you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord Forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them together in perfect unity."

Jesus assumes that our lives would be intertwined with people who resemble the family from "The Judge." He assumes that the entirety of our lives would be lived in such a way that the most difficult people, the hardest to love, the messiest people would gravitate to us. Not because we are such amazing people on our own, but because the presence of the Divine is living in us. And He, Jesus, has the ability to heal broken hearts, to mend relationships, to form beautiful community out of the ashes of people's lives. 

Jesus never called people to "get their mess together." This is the single most important thing you can hear me say. Jesus doesn't want you because you have your mess together. Jesus wants you because you were born. Because you exist. He wants you because he made you, mess and all. Jesus laid his life down on the cross of our mess so we wouldn't have to. Your mess has been cleaned up. And the role of people following Jesus is to stand in the gap and call people to Jesus. It is to go where Jesus goes which is always into the hearts of people who need him most. And certainly Jesus doesn't always remove the mess from our lives. Rather, he repurposes everything about our lives, so that within the mess we bring him glory.

My sister's blog was difficult for me to read because so often I am the person she was describing. So often I have been the one standing above people judging them for the messy lives they live. And yet I  have often been the one living in the mess of my own reality and the bumps and bruises of my life that once brought pain have been repurposed for God's glory. I am no longer defined by my mess because I have been given identity in Jesus who has moved me beyond the past. I am choosing to press into the invitation and challenge of Jesus' grace for me. The invitation to accept the free gift of love and identity in Jesus, and the challenge to embrace humanity in all its quirky wonder and crazy mess. Because I believe this is where the heart of Jesus longs to be. The more we press into Jesus and run where he leads, the more Jesus' heart will replace ours and form a people living in the beauty Jesus intended for them all along. And the more I will begin to see the world around me not as some cancerous plague of ridiculous living, but rather as an opportunity for the fullness of God to display His wonder and begin to heal a world bruised and beaten. Let's embrace God and watch....because the mess of humanity will be healed. 

Let's Leave the Mountain

It seems that the longer I am a follower of Jesus and the longer I spend pursuing Him, the more I find myself amazed at how little I actually understand the working of God in this world. But isn't this true about most things in life? Scientists who study the universe are consistently baffled at the perplexity of life. Economists are able to understand market trends...that is, until, those trends begin to change and fluctuate. Historians are constantly unearthing artifacts, homes, ancient remains that speak to a level of understanding that was previously unattained. The more that we as humanity dig into the things we care most about the more we realize how much further and deeper our understanding and love can reach.

It is this pursuit of depth, in all things, that makes us so uniquely equipped to follow Jesus into the richness of his grace and love. And yet so often depth is the one thing in life that we avoid. When we dig deep into relationships we leave ourselves vulnerable to pain. When we dive deep into work or sports or another activities we often find that these things leave us dissatisfied.

So, often times, to combat the negative "feelings" we perceive from going deeper, we change our tactics and reach for the "Mountain Top" experience. That experience that gives us the feeling of ultimate satisfaction and joy.  This is why it is so easy to be a "bandwagon" fan in sports. Instead of sticking with a team through difficult years, we abandon our allegiance in favor of the team that will give us the mountain top experience of being a winner. It is why we often abandon relationships when they get difficult, rather than probing the depths and realizing how deep our love can reach. But ultimately the mountain top is a brief moment of satisfaction that quickly fades away and casts us back into the "valleys" of life where relationships are difficult to navigate and our feelings often gravitate toward recreating that one moment of ultimate satisfaction and joy.

Christians have been unable to escape the trap of Mountain Top aspirations. Following Jesus can be one of the most rewarding experiences imaginable but often times it is difficult and uncomfortable. So we look for the Mountain Top experience as way of escaping the uncomfortable reality of following Jesus into the depths of God's heart.

Growing up I attended Church camps and Youth events throughout the summers that could be defined as "Mountain Top" experiences for me. I would leave the summer filled to the brim with a feeling of ultimate satisfaction and joy. And yet the moment I stepped off the mountain and entered into the world of the mundane I would find myself longing to recapture the Jesus I met on the mountain. I was desperately afraid of finding Jesus in the depth of my humanity because I knew that he would not bring the feelings of joy that I felt in the summers. I was being sustained in the "valleys" of life by recalling the "mountain top" experience.

Throughout scripture God used mountain tops to reveal himself in powerful and dramatic ways. Moses went up to the mountain and received a great revelation of God's presence. Elijah heard the whisper of God's voice on the mountain. And Jesus took Peter, James and John to the top of a mountain where a unique experience was given them. However, in all of these mountain top moments God calls his people to descend the mountain and enter the world of depth. If you read each of these moments you will see that God never intended for the mountain top to be the pinnacle moment for these men. It was never meant to be the bar by which their future encounters with God were measured. Rather, it is quite the opposite. God spoke and revealed himself in powerful ways from atop mountains so his people would leave the mountain and begin a journey of depth into the heart of God.

I have become convinced that mountain top experiences, although short lived, are a blessing provided by God to propel us into the depths of his richness. Hopefully we all have mountain top experiences with Jesus where he shows up in a powerful way revealing his majesty and glory. Where we feel connected to his Spirit and like we can conquer the world. However, if this is the only place we meet God, then we greatly short ourselves of the depth of love and grace we could experience in Jesus. The mountain was always meant to reveal God, not be the gold standard by which we measure the entirety of our relationship with him.

Each Sunday I go to a worship experience with nearly 2500 other followers of Jesus. This time of worship is a place where God shows up in a mighty way. Traditionally Sunday worship was used as the mountain top experience meant to sustain us through a week of being bombarded and beat up by the regular world around us. We took what we experienced on Sunday at the forefront of our minds as a way to help us think, "Only 3 more days and I will get back to the mountain." But what if Sunday worship was a reflection of the depth of our journey with Jesus throughout the week? What if we showed up on Sunday full of the depth of Jesus love and grace and used that to propel us into an experience with God? How would this change the way we worship on Sunday? I tend to believe it would dramatically increase our worship to create a true mountain top experience that would invite us to leave the mountain and probe the depths of God throughout the week.

Currently we live in Nashville and work at the Ethos Church as embedded Church Planters. We are in the process of building a team to help us plant churches in Seattle that will reveal the presence of God to that city. As I think about how to create moments where people can enter into the presence of God, I am realizing that the only way I could ever lead a movement of God in that city is to leave the mountain and enter into the depths of the richness of God's grace and love. This means probing the depths of my own humanity and uncovering the parts of my life that have been hidden from God's presence. Humanity has a desire for depth that has largely been untapped. I long to see Seattle experience the mountain top of God's beauty and presence so it can descend and begin a journey that will never be quenched and ultimately will lead into a never ceasing search for the depths of God's grace and love.

What We Have Learned...

Two years ago when I started this blog I had every intention of using it as a means of sharing our life in ministry more so than a simple blog on theological matters. I realize it has now become more of a blog centered on the theological ramblings of a young follower of Jesus. However, I would like to get back to the original intention of this blog and begin a series of posts that will shed light on our life of ministry here in Nashville and how it connects to our future work of planting a church in Seattle.

For the past couple years we have been a part of a remarkable work of God in the city of Nashville.  I am not sure if you realize this but "the Church" is simply a group of people in love with God, being used BY God, to fulfill His purpose of filling the earth with His glory. I know that was a mouthful. But it is so important as we talk about the "work" we are involved with here, in Nashville, as well as in Seattle. Because the moment we make this work about US...about ME....about my ability to do amazing things in the Kingdom of God, we lose everything God intended to come from our time and energy. Namely, we lose the focus on Jesus.

And so for the last two years we have been a part of the working of God in Nashville through a church called Ethos. And we have had two tasks this entire time. To love God and to love people. The story of the gospels is so undeniably simple. To love God, by loving Jesus, and to love people, by showing them the way to Jesus. Pretty simple. But so often we try to complicate everything to the point that we forget what we were supposed to be doing in the first place. In Luke 10:27 Jesus says that the greatest commands are to Love God and Love Others. And if we do this well...if we can get this part down, the rest will begin to fall into place.

Now, certainly there is complexity to starting a church. There is complexity in building ministries. There is complexity in the fabric and DNA of humanity. It is complex to start teams of people and to lead them with a singular focus. It is a lot of work to train leaders to lead House Churches, to lead Regional House Churches, to lead a complex music ministry, to pastor people in the midst of their life baggage, to constantly be casting vision and moving forward, to discipling people who are discipling people who are discipling people, to fund raise, to plan and build strategies for the future, to communicate with thousands of people, to maintain administrative upkeep, to.....on and on and on.

But the complexity must always flow out of the simple reality that this is Jesus' church, it is by God's initiative, and it is the grace of God that made the first move on behalf of the world. There is not an ounce of power in my bones that has the ability to save one human being from anything. But there is someone within me who has the power to redeem not just me but the entire world through me. And it is my job to point people to him and him alone.

These last two years I have been on a tremendous journey. Learning more than I could possible write about here. But the most important thing I have learned has nothing to do with some complex strategy or theory for planting a successful church in Seattle. Instead, the most important thing I have learned has been simply to rest in the presence of Jesus because I am loved, beyond measure, by him.

The next few posts will unwrap this further, shedding light into what this means as we build a foundation for our church plant in Seattle.