The Hard Work of Being Still: Part 3

What a journey this has been. I've been honored (and not a little scared) to have had the opportunity to share with you some of our most deeply personal and spiritual moments in this three post series about Being Still. I am so stoked to finally be writing the portion where we get to share some of the results from nearly a year of intense journeying.

What we know is that God had beautiful plans for this world, and He still works to usher in his kingdom on earth. We cannot help but to desire wholeheartedly to be a part of His kingdom work. Because what he desires for us are lives of power and beauty made radiant in relationship with Him. My new favorite image from scripture of God's hand upon the earth is from Psalm 85: "Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other..." He has not only the power, but the deepest of desires to bring restoration to broken lives and a broken world to make this image a beautiful reality in our cities and homes.

This is our drive. Through a phase of humbling ourselves we came to focus on this vision, solely on God's work in and for the world, allowing our role in that work to become hazy and unfocused on the edges. From this we've had a change in trajectory from European missions, which has been on our hearts for so long, to domestic missions. We are on a path to head back to the Northwest, probably the Seattle area, to begin a church plant (after another year or so in Nashville). Six months ago if presented with the opportunity to plant a church in the NW I would have said (OK, notwould have, I actually did say) "Nope!" I'm not even sure if I could explain why I felt that way. But through a beautiful, and seemingly impossible, process God has closed doors to London and opened them to Seattle. The impossibility of it all, based upon where we were several months ago, is that we are both ecstatic about it. And the beauty of it is how our path to London was the perfect path to prepare us for work in Seattle. So much of our preparation for London fits not only well, but better.

There are, of course, a million different odd and ends about this process that have led to this decision, but I'm not going to get into specifics. We obviously spent a long time (nearly a year!) heavily discerning whether what we were facing was a holy discontent from God or an attack by Satan through which we needed to persevere. We struggled through the emotions of what a change in direction would mean and the lies Satan took the opportunity to whisper to us: "This is just taking the easy way out" or "You are a failure." By God's grace we were able to cling to His words and promises in order to drown out the doubts from Satan. And now those accusations seem so absurd! First, making the decision to go to Seattle instead of London was definitely not the easy path. Believe me, it would have been much easier to stick with our European trajectory. And second, our brief venture into and away from London is honestly the most powerful and radiant part of our story. It's propelled us forward in ways nothing else could have. We are happy (and indeed eager) to have further conversations with any of you who want to know more, but this is all I want to leave you with for now. We can't wait to share more about our small role in God's kingdom work.

Oh, and you'll definitely not want to miss my next post in which I will hopefully be introducing our son to you! There won't be any of this heavy stuff, only really cute pictures that will make you want to snuggle something sweet and tiny.

Living in Community

There are moments in my life that I truly envy the talents and gifts I see in the people around me. I especially envy their gifts when I do not possess them myself. This is all too true when it comes to blogging. My wife just posted a blog that goes far and above any blog that I could write. And the thing that really gets me is, she wrote the blog in like 2 hours....while I was at the gym. Ok, ok. I didn't want to admit it, but I was only at the gym for like an hour. And see, that makes it even worse because she pumped out that blog in an hour.

But I have to admit that I am actually more proud of her than I am anything else. I am proud, and glad, that we do not excel at all the same things. How boring our lives would be if everyone around us was passionate, gifted, and talented in all the same areas. If this were true for me then the world would be full of people who enjoyed sports, Superman and had an unhealthy fascination with cleaning. However, thankfully, this is far from reality. Especially in my marriage. Certainly Laura enjoys sports, Superman and cleaning (I have obviously undersold the vast array of my passions, gifts and talents for the purposes of creating a moderately humorous analogy) but these things do not move her to action. As mentioned above, she has a wonderful writing gift that I adore and am deeply proud of. It is not the similarities in our passions, gifts and talents that define us and help us move forward. Rather, it is our ability to utilize and lift up our differences that help create the building blocks for a powerful and active life together.

It is amazing to me how often people try to "go it alone" on their life journey. And certainly this rings true for many Christians. We have an unhealthy belief that our faith is our own and so our journey must be done on our own as well. There were moments when I actually convinced myself that I had all the answers to my own walk with Christ. I didn't need other people telling me how to walk my faith journey. It was mine after all.

Have you seen the movie "The Way?" It is a story of a man who loses his son on the Camino de Santiago (The Way of St. James). He goes to France to pick up his son's remains and ends up walking the Camino in his son's honor. He is filled with grief and pain as he begins his journey but along the way he meets three other "pilgrims" who become his pilgrimage community. Everyone in this four member pilgrim community has separate reasons for walking the Camino de Santiago and all are content to remain allusive as to the truth behind the journey. As the movie progresses we see each member dealing internally and externally with the reality that walking the journey alone will simply not cut it. It is as they begin to discover each other's personal story, passions, gifts, and talents, that they see the truth that the journey is better done in community.

I have become increasingly more convinced of something that I should not have had to be convinced of. And this is simply that following Christ is so much better when done in community. And I am talking about more than simply doing small groups in church to help foster community interaction. I am talking about a holistic community approach.

If you live in the Western world then you live in the reality of individualism. In our culture we cling to our individual rights and abilities to pursue what most drives us, personally. And this individualism has seeped into our understanding of a relationship with Jesus and his church. So often we "go it alone." Certainly we will talk as if we believe community is important. We write books about community, preach on it, study it, and do everything we can do to discuss it without having to live it out. We have personal Bible studies. We pray to our personal Lord and savior. We sing along to Christian radio stations when no one is around.

Now don't hear me say the things mentioned above are bad. They are quite the opposite actually. These are vital components to our spiritual journey with Jesus. However, if this is all we seek on our journey then we will be met with constant frustration and doubt.

Jesus consistently sought the solitude and silence of God's presence for spiritual nourishment. However, he was constantly in community with his disciples as he sought to go deeper into his relationship with his Father. Throughout scripture we see that our faith journey was meant to be done in community. Even when Jesus was at his lowest point and needed the solitude and silence of God's presence, he invited his disciples to join him in the garden for a time of prayer. Paul often discussed living our faith out in community. In 1 Corinthians 12 he tells the church that not everyone should have the same gifts. The spirit gives different gifts for the glory and majesty of God to be declared. And all the gifts, talents and passions are used in harmony by God to fulfill his divine prerogative.

I have to admit that as a minister there are times when this is difficult to follow. It is sometimes easier to do things on my own and execute them for a group of people. But I have come to believe that this cheapens the journey for those I am leading. I am short changing them of the power of community by ministering in this way. And so a change has been taking place in me as I view ministry in God's Kingdom in a community driven way. It is my job to develop a community of people who are committed to walking their faith journey together....with me right along side them.

This changes the way we approach leading ministry at our church. First, we preach out of community. This means that our content, study and preparation for preaching to a community is done in community. Second, we teach our House Church leaders to surface the passions, gifts and talents of their community and from that to form their vision and mission for their group. Third, we teach people to give up their individualism and embrace living as God's family. There are many more ways we try to connect people to each other in community but these should help to understand some of what we do.

The House Church we attend is led by two of our closest friends here in Nashville. This couple has a divine gift to create a community of love and acceptance with anyone and everyone they meet. They have a heart for their friends and family and for the people living in their neighborhood. Recently their neighbor's daughter was baptized at Ethos. The House Church they lead is far from perfect. And that is the point. The Boyd's have created a community where people are allowed to be who they were created to be by God. And together, in community, we navigate our faith journey, highlighting our different passions, gifts and talents so that we can increase our impact in God's Kingdom!

Life lived in community is exciting, fun, difficult, and sometimes painful. But it is the way that God intended his church to live. I cannot imagine what my life would be without my family. I cannot imagine what my relationship with Jesus would be without God's family that has walked with me as I learn how to dive deeper into the love, majesty, mystery, and character of God.

Raleigh Community Church

This past weekend Laura and I had the opportunity to attend a marriage retreat with the Raleigh Community Church in Memphis. We had a wonderful time spent relaxing, playing games, hanging out with friends, and most important, no kids. We love our girls a great deal but sometimes it is important to break away without them just so we can spend time alone. And this weekend provided us that opportunity.

It also provided me with the opportunity to preach, something I am finding I really enjoy doing. But the thing that I most enjoyed about this weekend away was to once again be encouraged by a wonderful group of people that I have come to truly love and respect.

As I look back over the last few years of our life it is easy to see the hand of God moving and directing us to move into places and contexts which have transformed us in different ways. Each place we have lived has provided us a new and unique opportunity for growth. And our time in Memphis certainly provided many of those growth opportunities.

Laura and I anticipated spending our time in Memphis in formal education. We were naive enough to believe that all we needed to be highly effective workers in God's kingdom was a "formal" education to accompany the vast (recognize the sarcasm) experience we had in practical ministry. We quickly learned that Memphis would be much more than just formal education. We saw where we wanted to be as Kingdom workers and where we were upon moving to Memphis. And the distance between those two seemed insurmountable.  So we began our journey of creating spaces where growth could occur.

We sought out ways to grow in our formal education, ability to connect to people around the city, ability to communicate and cast vision, love for people, ministry skills, and a general understanding of what it takes to build a church. We started a business which connected us to a wide range of people and provided us the opportunity to develop communication and vision casting skills. HST gave us the space to explore a formal education. But it was the Raleigh Community Church that provided us the opportunity to dive into our creativity and stretch our abilities and understanding of Kingdom work. And through their grace and patience we learned how to cross cultural barriers, develop ministry plans, create new ministries, reach into the heart of communities with grace and the gospel in hand, communicate Jesus to people who knew him but did not walk with him, connect people together to form community, and network with people from the city at large under a unifying vision of God's Kingdom work.

If you ask someone from the Raleigh Community Church what they feel like they offered Laura and I as young apprentices in Kingdom work you will probably get a wide range of responses. But I am certain that none will know fully the impact they have had on us in a pivotal moment in our lives. Certainly there were bumps and bruises along the way. But this church offered several important lessons that have become a foundation for our future. First, love and accept people because they are God's creation. Do not ignore cultural differences, but also do not allow them to hinder our ability to love and accept people as children of God. Second, provide space for people to grow. What we needed from Memphis had less to do with formal education and more to do with space to grow. This involved our formal education. But it was so much more than that. Raleigh helped provide that space where we could explore, create and be transformed by God's Kingdom. Third, we learned how to keep going. At times life can be a complete mess. This was certainly what we felt in Memphis. Laura and I were both pursuing M.A. degrees, started a business, worked as Apprentices at Raleigh Community Church, worked part time for a non-profit, had a baby and a 2 year old...all at the same time. You have to be completely insane to do this or have a community of people surrounding you that is providing what is needed to help you through. We went with community over insanity (although at times it felt like insanity). Raleigh was a big part of that community that surrounded us so we could accomplish what we did.

This past weekend was important for Laura and I because we were able to be near some of the people that made our time in Memphis so valuable, so great. We are so grateful for the Raleigh Community Church and the people who lead and serve there. They will forever have an imprint on our hearts. We are who we are in part because of their willingness to walk with us on our journey. Thanks Raleigh Community Church!

Ethos 5th Birthday

Ethos 5th Birthday

November 3rd marks a special day for the Ethos Church. We will celebrate our fifth birthday by worshiping together in Allen Arena on Lipscomb's campus. This is going to be an awesome celebration as we look back at the ways God has worked in and through us to reach every corner of Nashville. I can't wait to finally see everyone together in one place. Laura and I have been in Nashville for 1 year and have never had the opportunity to worship with our entire church family altogether. We eagerly await the moment we will look across a sea of faces, many we do not know, some who have become dear friends, all of whom are on a journey of faith in some way. Whether a person is there for the first time or hundredth time does not matter. Journeying with Jesus means making a decision to be curious about the wonder of God and surrendering to his work on and in us. Every Sunday we get the opportunity to worship alongside people who are curious and learning how to surrender. This doesn't mean we all are at the same mile marker along the way. It does, however, mean that God is alive and is working on the hearts of his people. November 3rd will be great because we will get to be together with our entire church family for the first time since we have been in Nashville. I think it is going to be a lot of fun!

The Hard Work of Being Still

"Be still and know that I am God..." (Ps 46:10)

These beautiful words have become ubiquitous in our Christian circles, but in the words of Inigo Montoya, "I do not think it means what you think it means." (Hey, what kind of a blogger would I be if I didn't quote the most quotable movie of all time?). We use it to create a state of peacefulness. Who can help but take a refreshing breath while a lazy smile creeps onto his/her face after hearing these charming words? It's used as a stress reliever in our overly busy lives. How convenient for us. We even have a beautiful song using those words, the tune of which exudes peacefulness. What a joy-filled, peace-inducing phrase. Right? I don't think so.

Being still is the hardest work you will ever do. Not a physical stillness, but a stillness that demands the inactivity of pride, a stillness before God that truly gives Him all authority, exaltation, and permission to work mightily as only the God of the universe can and as He wills. Glory! It may be somewhat easy to say, and to even shout 'Hallelujah!' after, but it is agonizing to do.

This post is going to be personal and raw for us, because this has been our life, our work, and our ministry for the past six months. Stillness. Stillness before God. I'm letting out a sigh right now, not a sigh of pleasant peace, but a sigh over the (hopefully) nearly completed hard work done in us during this time of stillness before God. I apologize for the length of this post, but since I frequent the blog world only about once a month, you can split it up and read a few paragraphs a week. Then maybe by the time you finish this post I'll have another (shorter) post ready :) It's important for me to write this though 1) so you can know what's going on with us and 2) as a necessary component of this oh-so-wondrous season of being stilled and humbled.

As most of you know we have a strong call to serve God in ministry to this world. We spent our first semester while Jared was at Harding School of Theology in focused prayer for direction in our ministry. From that time on we have been pursuing church planting in London. Our time during grad school was the busiest of our lives. During this time of insanity we saw God walking powerfully before us into work in Europe, opening countless doors since we had no excess energy to spend to help get there ourselves. From an encouraging survey trip in 2011 with clear direction, to wonderful support from White Station CoC and Kairos Church Planting, to friends and connections in the UK, to my schooling through the Uof Leicester... The path was being laid before us. We made the decision to step out on faith and to move our family to Nashville last year in the hopes of getting our last leg of valuable training with Ethos, a 2,000 member, four-year-old church plant working mightily for God in Nashville. After 3 months of a "getting to know you" period, we took on an official role with Ethos and were so excited to be actively en route to London and our future ministry there.

At literally the exact time that we became official planter apprentices with Ethos, we went on our second survey trip to London, and the boom hit. This trip was the opposite of our first survey trip. We dealt with negative feelings, closed doors, the realities of how much we can accomplish as Americans, and much more reserve from the British ministers. This kicked off a time of continually closing doors, uncertainty, and spiritual warfare. Obviously we've been wrestling with so many questions about whether this is God helping us change directions for the future or Satan working to prevent that ministry. At the precise moment that we thought we were actively heading into our ministry, we were asked to be still before God...

I cannot express how difficult it is to have an exciting vision become unclear and powerless. It has put us in a difficult position with fundraising, which has meant we get the added stress of dealing with limited finances through this time (brilliant). It's made things harder for our work with Ethos since we are unclear now what we are working toward. That's definitely not to say we have not been working. We've been working hard through all of this, both actively and joyfully with Ethos (hopefully we've been sharing this well through our newsletters) and on our own in an active state of stillness before God. Not a day has gone by when we have not worked ourselves into a sweat whether physically, emotionally, or spiritually. It has been a long, hard road to work ourselves into this active state of stillness before God. And I think both Jared and I will agree it's probably been the hardest six months of our lives. But, though no decisions have been made yet, we think we are coming close to working our way through to a clear and mighty vision for God's kingdom and our future work.

Here's some things we've worked through and concluded so far:

1. God has been leading us and we've been obediently following his guidance to get us to where we are now. We absolutely trust in what he was doing during our time at HST which led us here. Whether he intends to use this path to renew our vision for the UK or alter it for another work, we're unsure. But whatever we decide we won't feel like we've made the wrong choice or been disobedient to His call either now or in the past few years.

2. We have a heart for lost people and will work in ministry to them. If we don't go to London we will most likely do church planting stateside, probably somewhere in the Northwest.

3. We are working on seeing either decision in a positive light (I can't say we are necessarily there yet). For months we felt stuck in a lose/lose situation. On the one hand we could go to London and have a strenuous work ahead of us, isolated from family, spending years breaking into a proud culture, possibly seeing few results...or on the other hand we could change direction which would seem like starting over, failure, etc. Those negative feelings are not from God, and we have been trying to see both paths as positives. Exciting works for God's kingdom. What wonderful opportunities we have before us.

4. We could not have been in a better position to develop this practice of being still before God. The relationships we have made during this year have been priceless. We are so in love with our friends here and will treasure them our entire lives. Doing kingdom work alongside Ethos has been awesome. We are learning so much and being spiritually fed while watching countless people develop faith. We have learned from past difficulties how to cling to each other in tough times, so our relationship is beautiful. We could not have asked for more precious girls, and we have the joy of a wonderful baby boy on the way. Only through the work of the Holy Spirit can I say through this "agonizing" time, life is good!

5. As hard as it was to try to express how agonizing it can be to be still before God, it is even more difficult to help you understand the amazing things that happen when you learn to stay in that position. I'm just not good enough with words to do it justice. I can stutter out some words that come to mind: power, growth, strength, glory, lessons, peace (aha! there is peace in that phrase!). Through all the little lessons in life, I can name a handful of overarching life lessons that I learned during a phase in my life. One in high school, one in college, etc. I can count 4 of those major lessons from within the last 6 months alone, lessons that would normally take years to learn and meld into my life. Seriously, I could write a book.

6. Not only do good things happen in you when you dwell in the stillness of knowing thathe is God, but you invite him to work. You want to know an even better verse about being still before God? Zechariah 2:13 - Be still before the Lord, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling. Bam! Please tell me you are jumping out of your seat and shouting Hallelujah! at that thought of God rousing himself from his dwelling to be active among us. It sounds absurd to think that we don't already invite God's action, but I can honestly say I didn't fully do that before this time, and I think it's the same for a lot of Christians. Even if it's hard to admit, we limit God and invite him to partial works that fit our ideas (though they can still be awesome and miraculous). It's only natural. People in the bible fell on their face before God's angel in terror. How much more terrifying is it to have God himself come down and work powerfully? Let me just say, whatever decision we make about the future, I cannot wait to share with you what is to come because of the might and majesty of God that will come out of this moment in our lives. Glory to God!

Ethos has blessed us with a weekend away for spiritual renewal and vision casting. Tomorrow we will drop off our kids with some friends and head out to a cabin for two nights. I want to beg some prayers from you over this time. I don't know if we'll come back with a decision about our future work or not, but I trust this is going to be a powerful time in our spiritual and ministerial formation. I'm so excited and can't wait to share more with you about God's work in our lives. I hope each of you will have the (excruciating) opportunity to truly be still before God.

What is Our Story?

Several years ago I was discussing faith sharing with a friend of mine. This friend grew up in the church and lived, as he would have called it, the typical Christian life. When I asked if he had ever shared his faith story he responded that he had no story to tell. No story to tell? How could anyone walking in faith with Jesus not have a story to tell? What my friend was conveying is a response that I believe a lot of Christians have given. I too used to believe I had no story to tell.

As we begin to uncover some practical tools to help us make discipleship and evangelism a core part of our DNA it is helpful to begin with recapturing the vision of our own story. Many of us who have been followers of Jesus for a long time have forgotten the power of our own narrative in Christ. And we sometimes convince ourselves that our stories have nothing special to tell. I remember listening to people tell their stories in youth group or in college and I would be overwhelmed with the power of God to overcome some of the darkest moments in a person's history. But I would also feel a little let down because my story was not filled with such dramatic life changing moments as the ones I had heard. Have you ever felt that way? Like everyone else has a better story to tell than you? Then perhaps it is time to recapture the vision of your story.

The truth is everyone has a beautiful story to tell. Jesus doesn't reserve his love for those whose stories will prove best in our culture. And when we begin to follow Jesus our stories are no longer about us. They become a reflection of Jesus' story. A story of resurrection and life.  And that is a story worth being told.

If we do not have a deep sense of our own story in Jesus then the previous posts make little difference. However, a clear vision of the power of Jesus' story working in us will drive us into God's mission for his world.

How then do we begin to engage our world, our cities, our communities, with the story of Jesus? It would be easy to just give a list of things to do or say to try and help you become better at sharing your faith story and discipling others. However, I do not know every person's natural rhythm and context and therefore a list would not be very helpful. Instead I want to give a few tools that will help you explore ways to engage the people you interact with in your natural rhythm.

1. Intentionality rules the day. In my previous post I discussed that many of us allow our rhythms to pass by without actively engaging them. We walk through our day, moving from one thing to the next, without intentionally looking at what doors God has placed in those rhythms. There are three ways we can become more intentional in our natural rhythm.
        1. Intentionally Create Relationships: Think about how many people you see on a regular basis that you have never talked to, asked their name, waved high to, etc. Let's commit to intentionally creating relationships with the people who are moving with us in our natural rhythms (the barista at your local starbucks, the cashier at your grocery store, your landlord, your neighbor...). Begin creating a habit of introducing yourself to the people you see in your natural rhythm. Commit to meeting 8 new people this week simply to learn their names.
        2. Have Intentional Conversations: How many relationships do you have where all you discuss is the weather? Do you have friends and know nothing about their story? It is important to listen to people's story. Everyone has a beautiful story they are dying to tell. Will we be the kind of people that go to them and listen? Hearing people's stories begins with creating Intentional Conversation. One way of creating intentional conversations is by asking three types of questions: Polite questions, Interest Questions and Caring Questions. Polite questions are simple introductory questions such as, "How are you?" They initiate discussion. Interest questions take conversations a step further. They are questions such as "do you shop here often." This will help lower people's defenses and allow for safety in the conversation. The Caring Question shows that you care and are interested in hearing their story. It could be something like, "What can I pray about for you?"  
       3. Intentionally Disciple Others: We sometimes believe that discipleship will happen if a relationship is deep enough. We are too often content with allowing discipleship to happen accidentally.  However, we should learn to intentionally take people deeper into the heart of God. Intentional discipleship is key to helping people truly transform into the image of Christ. It could be as simple as beginning a Bible Study with a person or as intimate as taking a person on a spiritual retreat or mission trip. However, the key is that it is planned, intentional and is leading somewhere specific.  
2. 10 Second Rule. The 10 Second Rule is a book by Clare De Graaf in which he describes how most Kingdom decisions are made in a 10 second window. We drive by someone broken down on the side of the road or contemplate whether or not to share our story with a co-worker. If we do not make a decision to engage our natural rhythms in 10 seconds then we will typically allow the moment to pass us by. God is an expert at opening doors to us. Sometimes those doors remain open for long periods of time. However, many times those doors are open only briefly and it is up to us to decide if we will engage them. The 10 Second rule is not hard and fast, however, it allows us to engage our natural rhythms in a more intentional way. The next time you see someone broken down on the side of the road or the next time you are out with a co-worker, will you choose to use those moments to impact the Kingdom of God?
3. What do we have, Who do we know, How can we Help. Dave Clayton gave this as a challenge in a sermon a few weeks back and it has stuck with me ever since. It is a simple way of viewing your natural rhythms. It asks the question, "Do we have something to offer the people around us?" This question is answered both spiritually and physically/emotionally. What about our story can we offer the people around us? Are the needs of our neighbors spiritual or physical? When we begin to actively engage the people in our natural rhythms we begin to unveil the needs that are present. We learn that our neighbor just lost their grandparent or that the lady at the grocery store has been burned by church in her past. As we learn about the needs of those around us we can begin to ask the important question, "what do I have to offer that person?" Do these people need a home cooked meal? Do they need encouragement? Do we have these things to offer people? Let's become intentional about learning about the needs of the people around us so we can make the decision to engage those needs in a way that will show the Love Jesus has for them.

What other ways can we begin to engage our natural rhythms? How else might we develop the disciplines of evangelism and discipleship so that they become a part of our DNA? The three tools mentioned above are not the only ones out there. They are not hard and fast, however, they are meant to help us creatively engage the world around us. But even these tools will be meaningless unless we recapture the vision of our own story. We all have a beautiful story to tell. Now is the time to tell it.

Ezekiel Speaks to Dry Bones!

I am supposed to be continuing the series on Evangelism and Discipleship in this post, however, I am going to deviate from this series just this once to share with you a sermon from Ezekiel 37. The chapter paints a wonderful picture of the heart of God and his concern for the spiritual poverty of our world. God invites us into the acts of creating communities of faith who have the breath of God breathed on them. This story reveals what is happening as God invites us into evangelistic and discipleship experiences. Take a few minutes to listen to this sermon. You will be blessed by it.

Rhythms of Life

You may remember from the previous post that I said evangelism and discipleship are spiritual disciplines that should be practiced routinely. What if they could become a part of the rhythm of your life?

Did you know that your life has a natural rhythm to it? Did you realize that there are things you do daily, weekly, monthly you do not divert away from? We all live within a natural rhythm of life. It is our flow. We go to the same restaurants, grocery stores, and entertainment venues. Typically we work with the same people in the same location. Our rhythms give structure to our lives and allow us to keep a sense of routine that our human nature naturally gravitates toward.

Disciplines are embedded within the natural rhythms of our lives. When rhythms change, disciplines can slip, and we may lose our ability in a certain practice or skill. A good example is the significant transition from high school to college, a time when everyone warns you, "Beware of the freshman 15!" My own rhythm changed dramatically at this time. In high school I was active, constantly in the gym, working out, playing basketball, soccer, etc. But in college, my rhythm changed to hanging out in dorms, sitting in classes, and a lot of studying (though my wife tells me this makes me sound much more studious than I actually was). When my rhythm changed, my discipline of exercise slipped, and, well, I said hello to my freshman 15 (for those of you who don't understand the reference, it means I got a little fatter...). Disciplines can easily fit in to our life rhythms, but if our rhythm changes, we need to learn to adjust if we want to keep up any disciplines that may not have transferred.

For decades churches thrived at sharing the gospel and discipling individuals into a relationship with Jesus. However, a transition point occurred when culture began to change its assumptions of truth and reality. People were no longer "attracted" to the attractional model of church and a chasm grew between the church culture and the culture at large. This transition changed the natural rhythms that people operated out of and the discipline of evangelism and discipleship began its rapid descent to the background of the Christian walk. I think a lot of churches recognize the importance and significance of evangelism and discipleship, but have no idea how to reinsert them into their DNA.

The process has to begin with reevaluating our rhythms. The way most people stop and reverse a weight gain trend is first to examine the way they were living life before the weight gain and what changes have taken place that has caused the gain to occur. Then they can begin making changes that will help reverse the process. It is not that cut and dry when it comes to evangelism and discipleship, but the process still begins by evaluating our rhythms. Beginning to look at our rhythms as something that we control and can actively engage is the first step to making evangelism and discipleship a part of our DNA.

Many of us allow our rhythms to happen without active engagement on our part. We go to the store, restaurant and work and do not think twice about the opportunities presented to us. I believe there are, at minimum, ten people that we all see on a regular basis that we have never met beyond a casual wave or "hello." The barista(s) at your regular starbucks, the cashier at your grocery store, the person who braves the gym at the same time as you... There are multiple opportunities during the regular rhythm of our day, week and month, to present the gospel to people who desperately need to hear the story of Jesus. Too often we view evangelism as an event that is done outside the natural rhythms of our life. We have to set a time to go door knocking or bring people to a church event, things that not only are contrary to our rhythms, but interrupt the rhythm of the other person involved. However, missional living requires that we begin to actively engage our natural rhythms and not let them simply happen to us.

People are most successful at maintaining a healthy weight when they make the disciplines of diet and exercise a part of the natural rhythms of their life. The same is true of all spiritual disciplines. We should not assume that we will become better at praying, fasting, confession and worship without actively making them a part of the flow of our life. Disciplines that are practiced sporadically and unintentionally will never become a part of our rhythms. If we begin to find ways to make evangelism and discipleship a part of our natural life rhythms then we will be on our way to bringing these much needed disciplines to the forefront of our journey with Christ.

Make sure you check out my next post when I'll talk more about what to do with the opportunities our natural rhythms provide us (so you don't feel the anxiety of thinking that if you see the same barista twice in a row you have to jump in to a 30 minute gospel shpeel).

Faith Sharing is a Discipline?

I once heard my father-in-law say that evangelism and discipleship are spiritual disciplines. I have to admit I had a hard time wrapping my mind around this statement mainly because I always assumed that evangelism and discipleship were a part of a person's giftedness and not a discipline to be practiced. However, as I started looking back at my life, particularly the evangelistic and discipleship experiences I have been involved in, I noticed a striking trend. The more I was involved in faith sharing events and experiences the more comfortable and competent I became in telling my own story of transformation. And conversely, the more time I spent away from these faith sharing experiences the more difficult and less comfortable it was.

If you are like me then you will understand the value of discipline in all areas of life. The benefits of living a disciplined life are innumerable. I played on the basketball team in high school and often I would imagine a world where I could skip practices and remain on an upward trajectory regarding skill, fitness and stamina. However, the reality is quite the opposite. There are a host of catchy phrases regarding practicing a discipline; "practice makes perfect," "What happens in the game is a direct result of the work put into the practice,""There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, learning from failure." The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital." The reality is simple: if you want to be competent at something you must take the time to develop the discipline, to practice the discipline. And the unfortunate nature of our humanity is seen in how quickly we can lose our competency in a discipline when we fail to put it into practice.

The same is true of our spiritual disciplines. Prayer, fasting, meditation, confession, solitude and silence are examples of spiritual disciplines that we are well aware need constant practice in order to stay healthy in our lives and spirits. Now, certainly the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to continue in these disciplines and he is the one who is doing the transformative work in us. However, the need to continue practicing is there. Because we know that when we cease to practice, our spirits begin to dry up and we grow weary on our spiritual journeys. 

But where does evangelism and discipleship fit into all this?  As my father-in-law said, evangelism and discipleship are spiritual disciplines meant to be practiced so we can increasingly become better at sharing faith and helping others experience the salvific work of Christ. 

Growing up we talked a lot about prayer, confession, solitude, etc. as important disciplines that all Christians needed for growth to occur. Even as I got to college and graduate school, we spent a lot of time discussing the "standard" spiritual disciplines as laid out by people such as Foster, Willard and Barton. I am indebted to the people who taught the importance of these disciplines because they are vital to the Christian journey. However, I have struggled with how little time and energy we have put into engaging evangelism and discipleship as a part of the Christian journey. Often we looked at evangelism and discipleship from a deeply theological and historical stance.  We did a great job discerning evangelism and discipleship as it was done in NT times. But I have often wondered where the disconnect took place regarding how these spiritual disciplines fit into our everyday existence as God's people. 

Jesus certainly assumes that we will spend our time practicing such spiritual disciplines as prayer and fasting, but does he not also assume we are constantly practicing the disciplines of faith sharing and discipleship? Matthew and Mark's versions of the Great Commission each issue an imperative for Christians to follow. First, Jesus gives us the imperative in Matthew to "make disciples." Certainly there is the aspect of preaching and teaching people to obey. But the call to action in this version of the great commission is in making disciples. Similarly, Mark's version contains an imperative to "preach" the gospel. This evangelistic faith sharing is not suggested. Jesus assumes we are sharing his story with the world. Salvation for the multitudes hangs on our obedience to Jesus' call to preach, to participate in evangelistic experiences throughout the world. Just as Jesus assumes we are praying, he assumes we are participating in faith sharing and discipling others. And as such, we should be in the habit of consistently practicing how to share faith and disciple people around us. If we fail to practice these disciplines then they will begin to fade further into the background of our faith.

Over the past four weeks I have had the privilege of teaching a class at Ethos titled "Missional Evangelism and Discipleship." The purpose of this class was to engage scripture, particularly the story of Jesus, to surface a model for evangelism and discipleship. Over the next 4 or 5 blog posts I will explore the content of this class and how it is shaping the way I view my own work here in Nashville as I prepare to plant a new church in another city. We will explore ways to practice both these disciplines so that they become a part of the flow of our Kingdom living.

Masters and Lectures

The last couple of months have felt like a blur. We have been busy working on many exciting things and have felt like God has been working in a powerful way to lay the foundation for our work here in Nashville. Over the next couple of blogs I will attempt to illuminate different areas of our life and how it is shaping our work in Nashville and our future in church planting.

A couple of weeks ago I finished the last final of my master's degree. This is a big deal, mainly because I am finally on equal footing with my wife. Well, ok...I am not quite at her level of academic excellence. But at least I finally have an M.A.  If you have been keeping up with Laura's blog then you know that back in January we took a trip to England so she could walk at her graduation ceremony. It was a great experience except that from that point on she consistently reminded me that she had an M.A. and I didn't. So, now, finally...I have my Master's of Arts in Christian Ministry. May 18 was the graduation ceremony in Memphis, TN. Unfortunately we were unable to attend because of prior engagements, but we heard it was a great ceremony. I am sure that it was not quite like Laura's graduation at Leicester, but hey, still feels good to be done!

I firmly believe that Laura and I will look back on our time working on our M.As as one of the most formative times of our lives. We learned a great deal beyond the degrees that we have received. Certainly we learned specifics in our areas of study. We learned a host of technicalities in our fields. But I think most of all we learned how to think. A lot of people miss the point of formal education. I don't believe education is meant to be a way for people to simply absorb information. It should be about giving people the tools and ability to think critically about life as they actively participate in it. This is what graduate school has done for Laura and me. We have grown our family, explored our personal and collective abilities to achieve great things, and have relentlessly pursued God's Kingdom in all that we do. 

Prayer

Last week Laura and I took the girls to beautiful Malibu, CA, for the Pepperdine Lectureships. We arrived a day early so we could take our girls to Disneyland. Disneyland was not the purpose of our trip, but it certainly was the icing on top of a wonderful week in sunny So Cal.

Laura and I were blessed to be on the program this year at Pepperdine. On Wednesday evening we, along with two other couples (Borchers and Thomases) were given the opportunity to share some of our journey into church planting. Each couple was given roughly ten minutes to present a vision of a new church that God has placed on our hearts. The Borchers painted a wonderful picture of Providence, RI, and the struggle to bridge a highly intellectual population into the story and experience of Jesus. Jonathan Thomas shared a vision of a church that is intentionally calling people off the mountain top experiences and into the valleys of life where God is reaching into people's hearts and transforming them with love and compassion. Laura and I shared our goals for our time here in Nashville:

1. Build 1-2 Missional Communities (30-70 people) that are going on a journey of faith together
2. Engage our community by using tools such as: Financial Peace University, Alpha, H2O, service projects and more.
3. Create and participate in regular preaching experiences
4. Develop a system of discipleship and leadership development using the Emerging Leadership Training (ELT) that Kairos Church Planting has developed.

While each of the presentations had elements of sharing goals and discussing strategy, the consistent theme running through each was about sharing the reality of the crazy journey of becoming a church planter. This is the most difficult part to present because it opens us up and allows people to see directly into who we are...and the struggles we have.

The Borchers shared a bit of the challenge of moving to Rhode Island and the journey God was taking them on to develop a deep love for God's lost people. Jonathan and Dawnette Thomas shared their fears about entering into this mission and how God used their children to both rebuke their feelings of inadequacy and to affirm their calling from God. Laura and I shared how God is using our time in Nashville to reevaluate our vision and draw us back to himself and his ultimate vision, which is to see lost people enter the Kingdom of God. We are refocusing our eyes on Jesus and weighing our future through the lens of Christ.

It is my prayer that people were able to see the journey...to see the struggle. Planting a church is not easy work. It takes us deep into the heart of God and forces us to bare our lives. But it is well worth the cost to see thousands of people come into the Kingdom of God.

I want to leave you with four challenging prayers from fellow Kairos church planter David Clayton's keynote on Wednesday night:
 
 Pray...

1. That God will help us become a movement that is desperate for Jesus again.
2. That God will help us trust His plans when they don't make sense.
3. That God will give us the courage to sacrifice our life for His mission.
4. That God will make us true worshippers of Jesus, in Spirit and Truth

This is my prayer as I work here in Nashville. Pray with us. Pray for us. Pray for the thousands upon thousands of people who will hear the gospel of Jesus because of the new churches that are being planted and the established churches that are experiencing revival.

Body Builders: Biblical Fund Raising

Growing up I never thought that I would someday go in to full-time ministry. And I definitely did not anticipate doing church planting or missionary work which would mean fundraising. So you can imagine my anxiety as we began to pursue God's calling in our lives to plant new churches. Let's be honest, fundraising is tough. Ok, maybe it isn't always, and it probably shouldn't be, but more often than not, it just sucks. Money matters are one of Satan's greatest tools, and fundraising too often leads to  questions of doubt and self-worth. But the truth is, fundraising doesn't suck. It is God's directive, it is a method of his powerful provision, it is significant to His work, it is an invitation to practice a spiritual discipline, it is an opportunity to be on mission for Him, minister or not. Last month I attended a weekend training on Biblical Fund Raising, and I am dying to share some of my takeaways from that time with you.

The Fund Raising conference was put on by the Center for Mission Mobilization, formerly known as Body Builders. The instructor, Steve Shadrach, teaches ministers how to raise funds using the biblical model of fund raising. It was an intense weekend requiring hard work and dedication. In fact, you can't even show up to a conference without having first completed the 40 hours of prep work, a large portion of which is digging into scripture. I won't share everything I learned that weekend, because I don't have the time and I'd rather not put any of you in a boredom induced coma. But in our fellowship we have done a poor job of talking about money and developing the spiritual discipline of giving, and it's time we work to correct that. So I won't be embarrassed, in fact, I'm honored to share a few takeaways with you.

Fund Raising is Biblical
Often we praise Paul for supporting himself as a tentmaker while he shared the gospel. But did you know that he also asked for support...often? (Romans 15:20-24, 2 Corinthians 1:16, 1 Corinthians 16:6) Paul was in good company, do you know who else was supported in his ministry by others? You guessed it, Jesus, the Son of God was supported financially by many people, including several women mentioned by name (Luke 8:1-3) Nehemiah made a request to King Artaxerxes for financial support to rebuild Jerusalem, while Elijah asked for provision from a poor widow who had little more than a single loaf of bread. In the Old Testament God commanded one twelfth of an entire nation not to earn their living so that they could, instead, provide spiritually for the nation of Israel. So how did these people, the Levites, live? The other tribes gave 10% of their income to the Levites as a joyful offering.

Fund Raising is about God
"So, I need some money because I really want to do this, and I need to cover my living expenses and be able to eat, and we just had another baby so we need more money, and..." Unfortunately, this is often our idea of fundraising, and it takes God  almost completely out of the picture. Biblical fund raising asks, "How do I view God, my ministry, myself and my financial partners?" Too often we doubt that God is willing and able. We are sometimes not fully convinced of our own ministry vision. We feel inadequate and we doubt that others would be willing to partner with us in our mission. However, when we change our perspective to be God focused then we can easily answer these questions. God is more than able and completely willing. My ministry is incredibly important and worthy because God is the one who called me into this ministry. I know that I am able to accomplish great things because God is with me and is in control. And many people are waiting eagerly for the chance to be a part of the ministry God has placed on my heart, I just have not asked them to join in.

People Don't Give to Needs, They Give to Dreams
In raising funds you should not present your needs and then ask for money. Rather, you need to share a vision given to you by God and then invite people to join that vision. Because that's exactly what they are doing if they support you financially. They are participating in the mission with you, what an honor and joy for you and your entire support team to be on mission together! We have three promises we make to our support team to let them know they are on mission with us. We promise to:

• Work diligently to touch the lives of people for Jesus Christ
• Regularly let you know how God is blessing our ministry
• Share prayer concerns with you and pray for your concerns monthly

Of course we learned many other things like specific tools, the twelve steps of successful fund raising, etc. If you want to know more then please contact me, I'm happy to share! But these that I mentioned are a couple basic ideas that have helped me be more confident in knowing how to get our family from where we are now to where we want to be in order to fully engage in this adventurous life to which God is calling us. In full disclosure, this journey is still hard at times. But the Body Builders training has helped us learn how to take pride in what we do, rest in God's provision, share our vision, bless our supporters, and above all to know that this is God's mighty work, we are just a small piece.

Please go to the "Support Our Mission" tab above to learn more about joining our support team. We can't wait to have you as a part of this mission!

Teaching Scripture

Do you own a Bible? Do you read it often? I'm blown away by the continued impact of this ancient text that is the best selling book in history. Below are two graphs from the Barna Group, a statistical research group. The first graph shows the percentage of people who own a Bible, those who say the Bible is sacred, and those who wish they read the Bible more. This graph may not surprise you, but it did me. I was blown away with the high percentage of people who own a Bible and wish they read it more often. Perhaps I was naive in believing that the numbers would have been much lower. But the truth remains...people desire to be more involved in the word of God but don't know how to engage it. This is where we as Christ followers step in. What an amazing opportunity to dive into the word of God with our neighbors, co-workers, friends and family.

At Ethos we believe that the word of God is powerful and will help people walk in a new, resurrected, relationship with Jesus. There are a number of avenues that we use to teach scripture, and both Laura and I are diving into these opportunities to teach God's word.

First, and probably the most prominent and powerful is through our Sunday preaching. This preaching is grounded in scripture and focused on helping people develop a love for the word of God. Dave Clayton, our preacher, has developed a way to train young preachers to proclaim the word of God in a powerful, relevant, transforming, and scripturally based way.

Starting tomorrow (Thursday, April 4), I will be joining this preaching group led by Dave. This group will help me hone the preaching skills that I desire to obtain in order plant a church. I have had some experience preaching and I believe that each time I improve in certain areas. However, this will help me grow my skills as an orator of God's word. Stay tuned for more on how this group is helping me grow as a preacher.

This next graph shows that the influence of the Bible is gradually losing ground in our country. While a lot of people have a Bible in their home, many do not believe that the Bible can speak directly into their lives. 61% of people wish they read the Bible more. These percentages have been declining over the last three years and will continue to decline if we as God's people do not step up and begin teaching the Bible.

I am excited to work with Ethos' many different avenues to teach scripture. While Sunday serves the purpose of teaching scripture to the whole church together, there is value in having smaller groups of people who are able to pour over scripture in community.

One of these smaller group settings we have used to teach scripture is House Churches. Every week groups meet around the city of Nashville in homes, coffee shops, and other locations to study the word of God. This format is designed to be more of a discussion than a formal time of teaching. We take the sermon from the Sunday before and we, together, dive into the content and pull out application for our lives. This is a powerful way for smaller groups of people to interact with God's word together. It also provides an avenue for leaders of House Churches to teach and develop spiritual leadership without theological training or being a "minister."

House Churches serve a great purpose in teaching scripture in a small group setting, and another avenue we use to teach at Ethos is called GROW Classes. These classes are meant to be more formal in style with a teacher bringing prepared lessons before a group. The things we teach are directly from scripture yet have a direct application into people's lives. This takes our people a level deeper in their study of scripture. These classes take place during the summer months (June-July) while our House Churches are on a break.

This summer both Laura and I will be teaching a GROW class. My class, entitled "Missional Evangelism and Discipleship" will focus on identifying the biblical model for evangeslism and discipleship. Laura will be taking a group of women through the Beth Moore study "Living Beyond Yourself: Exploring the Fruit of the Spirit." She is a gifted teacher and will bless the women at Ethos and in our community through this study.

These are just a few of the main avenues we use to teach scripture at Ethos. We see statistics, like those above, concerning the Bible and our hearts break. The Bible offers a wellspring of life and guidance that we cannot do without. Recently Dave Clayton posted on his Twitter account, "God's Word is like the ocean--deep, mysterious, overwhelming, full of beauty & adventure. I pray I never tire of playing in these waters." This is our hope for all people. That as we begin to help people see Jesus we point them to God's word which will help them see the very heart of God. We want people to experience the great adventure that is the Word of God.

Guest Blog: Josh Granberg's Take on the Morality of Europe

Josh Granberg is my brother-in-law and one of my best friends. His ability to see the undercurrents of cultural thought and experiences is amazing. He has a gift for understanding the world around him as it relates to the gospel of Christ. He is attending the Florence Academy of Art, one of the top art schools in the world, and has worked tirelessly to understand the world of art as it relates to culture at large. Art has the incredible ability to influence every aspect of thought and culture and God has intentionally placed Josh in the middle of it all in order to create lasting change for the Kingdom of God. In his blog below he is discussing one of the reasons we as the church should focus our time and energy on reaching into the hearts of the European people. I hope that you are blessed by what he has to say. 

Throughout college I understood that America was Philosophically about 30 years behind Europe.  Most philosophers identify the 1890's as the birth of the post-modern mind in Europe and the 1920's in the USA.  I understood that to mean that we could view Europe as a foreshadow of what would eventually come in America.  I don't believe that any more.

Much of our worldview is established through the questions we ask.  The questions that led to the shift from a Modern worldview to the Post-modern one were different in Europe than the ones being asked in America.  In Europe there were two areas that were the platforms for questions; the identity of authority and the problem of pain, more specifically the pain brought about by the world wars.  Philosophers such as Nietzsche and Sartre had philosophically undone the absoluteness of truth.  The result was the death of God and the loss of the church as the ultimate authority.  Governmental revolutions shook the trust the people had in their governments and the World Wars destroyed the confidence and purity of man.

With the loss of both absolutes and authority we are now facing the instability of a crumbling foundation on the grounds of morality.  There is no longer anyone or anything to tell us or help us identify our moral code; and yet I believe we, as humans, require a moral code.  So were do we find it?

While studying at the Florence Academy of Art in Europe I have found it fascinating how highly the students I am studying with value morals.  I can't count how many times I have heard someone say how much they admire another student after that person has declined a cigaret or stated that they no longer drink based on moral grounds.  The other two common areas of moral conversation have to do with life partners and, surprisingly, food and diet.  Everyone has a moral code that they live by, but it is their moral code.  So, again, where does it come from?

It seems to me that the moral code comes from that ever persistent topic of pain.  The European moral code seems to be established on pain.  If I do something or experience something and it causes pain then that action is labeled morally bad.  The opposite is also true.  If you take enough time to talk to one of these students that stopped drinking you will find that they have experienced an incredible amount of pain because of alcohol.  Most of the students I study with come from broken homes.  They know the pain that divorce causes, and therefore label divorce as wrong.  They solve the issues that ensue from this line of thinking by simply not getting married to begin with.

Because the authority has been removed from God, church, government, society, and even man, what does that leave?  Nature.  The result is that your diet is no longer a personal choice but a moral issue.  We see our natural world being paved over by humanity.  We see the pain Mother Earth is enduring and wish to do our part, and we do it by controlling what we eat.

What should the Christian response to this be?  It seems to me that the answer is fairly simple; the Christian life is a good life.  Being a Christian will make life more enjoyable, more fulfilling; you will have more peace, assurance, and confidence.  Naturally being a Christian does not mean that you will never experience pain again.  But it does mean that when those times come there is someone deeper than yourself to rely on.  It is no longer the fallible you that needs to have the answers or the strength but the infallible one.

There and Back Again: Part 2

Laura and I take times of debriefing and processing seriously. These times are sacred to us because we feel that God reveals himself in profound and life changing ways. So, after several weeks of prayer and debriefing with family and friends, it is now time to finish my blog about our survey trip with a bit of insight into some of the things we learned, as well as to share some of the questions that remain in our hearts. 

There and back again... (Part I)

Two weeks ago Laura and I returned from a 10-day survey trip to London. We went as learners ready to soak in all that God is doing in London, and as dreamers discerning what the Lord is calling us to do in this great city. We left London with a more focused understanding of the work being carried out and the work that needs to be done.

What is a Survey Trip? Part 2

In less than a week Laura and I will be heading to London for a ten day survey trip. As we have shared our plans with friends and family, the overall reaction has been, "That is awesome...so what exactly do you do on a survey trip?" This is an excellent question! I'm glad you asked...

In the last post I discussed three foundational pieces of a survey trip: information gathering, networking, and prayer. Now I want to get specific about our upcoming trip...

What is a Survey Trip? Part 1

In twelve days Laura and I will be heading to London for a ten day survey trip. As we have discussed our plans with friends and family the overall reaction has been, "That is awesome...so what exactly do you do on a survey trip?" This is an excellent question! I'm glad you asked...

Webster's definition of survey is:

God is on the move

Can you imagine a place rich in history filled with enchanting church buildings whose aged walls bear witness to centuries of gatherings of God’s people? Imagine vaulted ceilings holding the echoes of thousands of songs of praise heard long ago, stone floors worn by the knees of prayers, and weathered pews that remain empty year round. This is the state of most churches in Great Britain: empty rooms ‘waiting for the believers.’