Holding us to Account: Activating Faith

Dear SGF,
How have we "been church" this month?  I am responding to the Lord in this: I will keep us accountable to the activating of our faith. 

When I next see you, I mean to ask you in what ways we've been church this month.  By that I mean to ask two things: 1) how have we related together AND 2) how have we been His instruments/tools/lamps/witnesses . . . choose your metaphor--the question is the same.

--

I "been church" yesterday when I treated those 8 guys from Teen Challenge to a day of paintballing.  (They thought it was more fun than a kick in the pants!)  I'm hoping to go lead some devotionals there at Teen Challenge center this summer.

You all are connected to me, and so please grin a little knowing that--by extension--you blessed the Teen Challenge guys.  Imagine an aircraft carrier crew that cheers a successful mission: the crew cheers and says "look what WE did" even though the actual disabling of enemy fortifications was the work of a handful of fighter pilots.  The whole boat owns the actions of the few.  We cheer when WE have success!

If you tell me that this week you volunteered at the ____________, I'll grin a little, too, knowing that by being connected to you I've shared in that good work you've done.  Thanks for that.  A handful of us gathered last Tuesday and Wednesday nights and changed the heavenly atmosphere through prayer.  Y'all who didn't come to GoDeep can rejoice that the team you're a part of did this important thing.

If you had someone over for BBQ on purpose to develop relationship with them, I'd like to know about it, because that's something I was somehow part of.  When I worked with the Swordbearer youth (8-11) last Sunday, that's something that you also did--by extension--through me.  You did a good thing with those kids, BTW.  It was important.

Being a good mom, bringing home the phat paycheck, taking the kids to soccer practice . . . I would never dismiss those things as unimportant.  They're the first line of necessary!  If you feel like feeding and clothing your kids this week is something Christ enabled you to do, let's hear about it.  But if not-neglecting-your kids (or bringing home the paycheck) is normal behavior for you, then allow yourself to be called up to the next level.

If you've been struggling with ________ and had a breakthrough, or if you've been wanting to develop a discipline in your life and had some success, please share--we'd like to know that "we" had this success among us.  If you stood up for the name of Christ and bore witness, let your team know!

When Teachers Fail

What do I do with my Ted Haggard sermon-tapes?  My Nooma videos from Rob Bell?

What if they fall morally into unrepentant sin . . . does that invalidate their previous contributions?  What if they get into dangerous territory with their theology/cosmology?  Does a bad theological apple ruin the whole barrel of teaching?

This is a real question--I don't know for sure how to answer it.  Please comment if you have an answer.

Strangers are Friends

This morning I'm preparing for a technology conference sitting in a local coffee shop.  My daughter (age 10) is with me working on some homework.  It's a Sunday morning.

It's a Sunday morning and I'm not in church.  I think none of SGF's home churches are connecting hearts together this morning, though some of those folks will gather later today for Super Bowl celebrations.  Honestly I don't know what SGFers are doing with their Sunday mornings today, and I wish I did, just so I could celebrate the way we use our Prime Time.  We're a church that deliberately keeps Sunday mornings open for relationship-building.  It's a Sunday morning, and nobody else in the coffee shop is in church, either.  That's okay with me.

Anna and I bought a vanilla drink to share and asked what the most popular drink would be this morning.  She said the "Dirty Hippie," which is a chai with a shot of espresso, and we paid for "the next person who walks in and wants a Dirty Hippie," tipped well, and went and sat down.  We came here this morning on purpose.  We have a sign on the end of our table that says "Strangers are just friends we haven't met yet.  Care to sit and talk?" 

We're being intentional.  We don't want to force ourselves on anyone, but we want to be available if someone wants to talk.  Bringing people to the table isn't our job, but being available is!

Can you quantify success?  How about Kingdom-heartedness?  Is there a measurement for that?

I want to be increasingly Kingdom-hearted, and I want my life to bear more fruit.  I can see by casual measurement that my fruitfulness is neither as weak as it might be nor as strong as it could be.

Should?  Let's not talk here about "should," though if the Holy Spirit wants to engage you on that topic, don't resist him--it could be a conversation well worth having.  I'm talking about "could" and "might." I see there is a spectrum of zeal, obedience, piety, and trust, and on that those spectrums I move both up and down over time.  And on those spectrums I desire to move up from where I am, not down--I want to bear more fruit, not less.

How do I measure the fruit that I bear?  It's possible, but not wise, to measure it in units or hours:  "This week I visited the sick and helped the poor 3x, which is an uptick from the week before when I was holding at 2x.  I also spent 2.5 hours hosting a game-night to build community within my home church, and . . ."  While you can see that it's possible, you probably have a gut reaction that tells you it's not wise to measure like that.  Believe your gut: that kind of measurement isn't for you.  The very action of measuring steals the life that you were trying to measure; Religiousness is born--the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge consumed.

And yet, the fact is that I don't always bear the fruit I want to bear.  And this concerns me.  I know I'm not saved by the things I do, nor damned by the things I don't do, but I still want to know if I'm really living the life that I have committed to live--a life devoted not to myself but to One who is bigger than I.

Let me make it personal.  I didn't get up early Sunday morning to go serve breakfast in the local food-pantry.  I wanted to.  I told myself I would.  But in the dim light of 7:00am it didn't seem as important as getting a little more sleep (it was, after all, a late New Years Eve).  I have been meaning to get to the Community Kitchen many times in the past months, in fact, but my good intentions HAVE NOT resulted in me actually getting out of bed to go volunteer.  Remember the Keith Green song: "Jesus rose from the dead, and you can't get out of bed!" No fruit has been born of my good intentions. 

Let's make it Biblical.  A tree that looks like it should be producing fruit but in fact has no fruit has . . . wait for it . . . no fruit.  Right?  It might be pruned way back.  It might be cursed to wither and die.  I don't find a Bible example of the fruitless tree (or servant) being congratulated for its fruitlessness or comforted and told "there, there, fruit or no fruit, you're still a fine fellow."   Fruit is vitally important from a Biblical perspective.

I also see in the Bible that the wood, hay, and stubble in our lives will be consumed in fire and only the valuable pieces will remain.  And while I don't think I can compile a list of all that will or won't count as gold, silver, and costly stones, I have experienced moments when the Spirit is pleased by the things I do and I have felt his pleasure.  Sometimes when I tell a story to my kids, sometimes when I hug a friend or council a hurting marriage or delight my wife . . . sometimes when I've put myself in a place where my very soul is stirred to worship, I do feel that I've contributed something that will last.  I want more of those gold, silver, and precious-stones moments.

I do want to measure, as long as I can do so without negatively affecting the very fruitfulness that I'm measuring.  I want to know where I am fruitful and not deceive myself into believing that all is well if I appear leafy-green in one area of my life . . . but with nary a fruit on the branch.


Four quadrants for measuring my own fruitfulness:  Upward-Downward-Inward-Outward


Upward: worship, Bible-reading, reading other books that turn my focus upward, prayer, hearing sermon-podcasts

Downward: helping the poor, caring for elderly, parenting orphans, volunteering in the community

Inward: praying together, developing church-family community, pastoring children, church retreats, SGF Saturdays

Outward: triangular relationships, marriage/parenting courses, joining a Karate class or kids' soccer league, Sunday brunch

Canadian of Kish: Telling Biblical Fiction

I told more of the story of Saul to my kids last night. We're all still a bit off-clock here in Tulsa, and when Anna asked for a story at 10:15 my first response was "no" but then I reflected that it was still 8:15 for their bodies and nobody was really wanting to sleep. So the "no" died on my lips and I invited the three kids into the storytelling bedroom to continue the life of King Saul.


You may know that the secret to historical fiction is to take a no-name character who can view and take part in historical events, while engaging in personal conflicts that don't make it into the history texts. We do that with Bible stories at our house. Last summer we told the story of a little Hebrew girl who was born the very week of the first Passover and the exodus from Egypt. Her dad sat in on the council of elders who heard from the 12 spies sent in to Canaan and brought the report of how the meeting had gone (and his editorial opinions) back to the family that night. Her aunts and uncles had been some of the ones pressing Aaron to make a golden calf, and in fact one of her uncles had been . . . well, you get the idea.


Each kid gets to name the no-name character, and our kids are uninhibited with regards to naming conventions.   It turns out (although it's not mentioned in any of the histories or commentaries I've read) that Saul's servant was almost exactly the same age as he was, and was named "Canadian." Yep--you heard it here first. Canadian's parents had been servants in Kish's household, and Canadian grew up playing with Saul in childhood and continued on the employ of the house of Saul when they became adults. It was Canadian who had some pocket-silver they could use to buy a prophesy from Samuel (regarding the missing donkeys), and it was Canadian who actually delivered a donkey-shipment to Ekron in his younger days in order to see what the Philistines were doing with the Ark of the LORD.


 So last night we began at the part of the story where Saul cut up two oxen and shipped the pieces all over the country to gather help for Keriath Jearim. I bet you thought it was just Saul doing the cutting and packaging, right? And copying the threat-letter all those times? As of last night, my kids know that it was Saul's idea--and that he helped some, to be sure--but the grunt-work of actually getting the messy task done fell to Canadian and his sons. Yicky!


And then when the evil spirit sent from God was tormenting Saul, Canadian was the first to suggest that they find a musician to soothe him. He knew a guy in town who could play the bugle, so he suggested that at first. Saul picked up a spear and threw it at Canadian, who was becoming very good at dodging spears. Canadian's 19-year old son was also serving dinner that evening, and he suggested maybe finding a good drummer (he was part of a garage band and had recently taken up drums). Another spear. Canadian's 10-year old daughter, though, suggested timidly that maybe they could find a harpist? This met with approval! They were all charged with finding a harpist . . . who could dodge spears.


Try telling Bible stories this way. You'll find that you need more details than you normally remember. This morning I woke up knowing that I'd better go re-read the next chapters of 1st Samuel, because the kids will almost certainly beg for another story tonight. <grin> I need to be ready!

Ask a kid . . .

We asked our kids last night an important question: "What do you have to do to be Righteous in God's eyes?"

I'm curious what your kids would say.  Ask them and put their response in the comment field below?

Ours gave us responses that caused us to look at each other, not shocked but troubled. "Did you teach them that?"  "No.  Did you?" "No."  WHO?!

The older two kids both said "To be righteous in God's eyes, you have to obey God's laws."  The youngest kid asked what righteous was.

Who has been teaching our children that righteousness is built on obedient works?  That's the very thing we spend our adult energy trying to unlearn!  Our righteousness is based on faith--Relying on Jesus.  We don't get more righteous if we have Jesus + no stealing.  Neither Jesus + tithing nor Jesus + fasting is more righteous than just Jesus.

Ready for the hard inverse truth?  Faith-in-Jesus + adultery is not less righteous than just Jesus.

Can it sink in?  Can our kids learn that their own righteousness doesn't add to the glorious righteousness that faith in Jesus applies to us?

Investing with the SGF Savings and Loan

George: "We don't need Potter over here!"

Townspeople: "I'll take mine now!"

George: "No, but you...you... you're thinking of this place all wrong. As if I had the money back in a safe. The, the money's not here. Well, your money's in Joe's house... that's right next to yours. And in the Kennedy House, and Mrs. Macklin's house, and, and a hundred others."

Recognize those lines?  That's George Bailey calming down the hysterical townsfolk who fear that the banks have lost their money.  George is explaining that their money in the Savings and Loan is invested in the homes of their community--that it's not liquid assets ready to be withdrawn at a moment's notice.

I got to thinking tonight about the church as a Savings and Loan, and particularly in light of what it means to be a "member" of the church.  Why is this "church membership" such a solemn event to us--why not just have it be something where a person can come and participate (or not) as they choose?  Why make "joining" such a big deal?

And the answer is . . . membership is not about the one(s) doing the joining.

Picture a set of 9 sticks all set upright (teepee fashion) leaning in on each other.  Each member needs the others because they're all leaning in to the center.  And as long as they keep leaning in, their structure is so much more stable than a bunch of sticks standing upright near each other.  The term interdependence comes to mind, (and also its unhealthy cousin, independence, but that's material for another blog post).

I know that the others in my home church won't pick up and leave the church just because of a difference of theology or preference of when to take communion.  I trust that when they become hurt/offended (and everyone does, given enough time and opportunity), they are "leaning in" enough to solve the problem some other way than by withdrawing their hearts.

It's that "ability to withdraw your heart" that we hope you'll give up to gain something greater.  At a bank, you are anonymous and independent.  You can come in any time and withdraw everything and close the account.  At the Church Savings and Loan, your heart is not so easily liquidated, because it's invested in the other lives of your home church.

Back to membership, then.  We need you to "join" us for a period of months without commitment so you can see--really see--who we are and how we live.  Please-oh-please don't make a hasty commitment to us, because we want you to be sure you know what/who you're getting into.  On the other hand, don't be a visitor forever, because the longer you stay in "visitor mode" the harder it will be for us to mutually invest in each other.  I don't know of any way to prove this to you--it's just an observation I've made from years of watching people come, stay for months and years, and go again without ever having invested their hearts.  

More thoughts on the process of becoming a member at the <SGF Website>.

The transcript from the movie (below) can be translated to any crisis where an invested community steps in to lovingly support.  In the last three weeks, our home church has had two small crises where we stepped in like this.  It's the reason we run a "Savings-and-Loan-style" Church:

Clarence: Go on home. They're waiting for you.

- George: Mary!  Mary!

- Well, hello, Mr. Bank Examiner.

- How are you?

Mr. Bailey, there's a deficit.

- I know. Eight thousand dollars.

George, I've got a little paper here.

- I'll bet it's a warrant for my arrest.

- Isn't it wonderful?

- I'm going to jail.

Merry Christmas!

- Reporters?

- Wh-Where's Mary?

- Mary!

- Oh, look at this wonderful old drafty house.

- Mary! Mary!

- Mary!

- Have you...

- Have you seen my wife?

Merry Christmas, Daddy!

Merry Christmas, Daddy!

- Kids!

- Pete!

- Oh!

- Kids!

- Janie! Janie! Tommy!

- Oh, let me look at you.

- Oh, I could eat you up.

- Where is your mother?

She went looking for you with Uncle Billy.

Daddy!

- Zuzu! Zuzu!

- My little gingersnap!

- How do you feel?

Fine! Not a smitch of temperature.

- Not a smitch of tempe...

- Hallelujah!

George! George!

- Mary! Mary!

George, darling!

Where have you been?

Oh, George, George, George.

- Mary! Let me touch you.

- Let me touch you.

- Oh, you're real!

Oh, George...

George.

- You have no idea what happened to me.

You have no idea what happened.

Well, well, come on, George, come on

downstairs, quick. They're on their way.

- All right.

Come on!

Come on in here now.

Now, you stand right over here, by the tree.

Right there, and don't move, don't move.

- What's happening?

- Who's gonna come?

I hear 'em coming now, George,

it's a miracle!

It's a miracle!

- Who's coming?

Who's gonna come, Daddy?

Who, Daddy?

- I don't know.

Come in, Uncle Billy.

Everybody! In here!

Isn't it wonderful?

- So many faces!

Mary did it, George!

Mary did it!

She told some people

you were in trouble and then,

they scattered all over town

collecting money.

They didn't ask any questions - just said:

"If George is in trouble, count me in...

What is this, George?

Another run on the bank?

Here you are, George,

Merry Christmas.

The line forms on the right.

Merry Christmas!

- God bless you.

- Oh, Mr. Martini!

Merry Christmas!

Step right up here.

I busted the jukebox, too!

- Mr. Gower!

I made the rounds of all my charge accounts.

- Violet Bick!

I'm not going to go, George. I changed my mind.

I've been saving this money for a divorce,

if ever I get a husband.

There you are, George.

I got the faculty all up out of bed.

And here's something for you to play with.

I wouldn't have a roof over my head

if it wasn't for you, George.

Just a minute.

Just a minute.

Quiet, everybody.

Quiet, quiet.

I just got this. It's from London.

- Oh.

Mr. Gower cabled you need cash. Stop.

My office instructed to advance you

up to twenty-five thousand dollars. Stop.

Hee-haw and Merry Christmas.

Sam Wainwright.

- Mr. Martini. How about some wine?

"Hark, the Herald angels sing

Glory to the new-born king.

Peace on earth, and mercy mild,

God and sinners reconciled.

Joyful all ye nations rise,

Join the triumph of the skies,

With angelic hosts proclaim

Christ is born in Bethlehem."