Growing Community

Our circle of people who are followers of Christ but not part of a brick and mortar church is growing. We connected with and spent some get-to-know-you time yesterday with a family of SEVEN kids! They've been attenders of a brick and mortar church before but have discovered that "home church" (for lack of a better word) has been much more fulfilling for their lives.

When we got home last night, I began to process what was happening in our lives through the community lens. In other words, judging our current situation on the basis of whether we are really doing life together with other folks on a faith journey. I believe we are. Last night was not a formal accountability meeting by any means. But, as I watched the interaction of the parents with six of their seven kids, not to mention the interactions of the six kids, I felt compelled to alter parts of my life. Neither of the parents sat down with me and said, "Here's a change you need to make in your life . . ." Their example did it and it wasn't a planned action on their part.

As our circle grows both in number and in closeness, there will come a time when somebody may actually lovingly confront us about something. We will do the same for them I'm sure. It's all about relationships and that's a natural extension of the Core. What happened last night on a very surface level can happen on a deep level. As relationships grow and deepen, their effects grow and deepen.

As the circle begins to include people who are not on a faith journey, the spiritual effects will begin to show. Someone once said that Christianity is more caught than taught. I agree. That's how it happened for me. It's how it has happened for a lot of people I know. It's all part of growing community.

More on the Core

I wanted to continue some thoughts on The Core, specifically why relationship is such a good way to define it. When I first decided (somewhat finally) that being in relationship with God is the Core, I immediately began to draw analogies to marriage. This is not meant to exclude singles, divorced folks, or anyone else not in a marriage relationship for whatever reason, but marriage is the ultimate relationship. It's no wonder that throughout Scripture we see our relationship with God compared to marriage. The Church is the Bride of Christ.

I call marriage the ultimate relationship because of all the stuff that comes with it. There are legal ramifications. If you decide to end the relationship permanently, you have to go through all sorts of rigamarole to divide up property, etc. One of the partners may remain financially obligated to other as a result of the relationship. There are certainly physical and emotional ramifications. Even here the legal system has intervened and person can actually sue someone for "alienation of affection" if the spouse is drawn away due to an affair. If you are the person who has been cheated on, the emotional cost is way more than when your best friend doesn't invite you golfing or to the neighborhood cookout.

I think marriage is the ultimate relationship because of all the work that has to go into it. When I signed my marriage certificate, it did not mean that I never had to do anything to keep the marriage alive. It actually meant that I had to begin to actually work harder. I had to learn to live my wife. I had to learn how to be selfless. I had to learn how to change when I was wrong and apologize for it. We didn't just move in together and share the bills. Do I understand my wife better today than I did fourteen years ago? Yes. Will I understand her even better in fourteen more? Yes. Has it always been easy? No. Was it worth it? Definitely.

This sounds like I'm beginning to formulate a belief system, complete with rules and regulations. If I apply this to the Core, then it seems to move beyond just being in relationship with God. Actually it doesn't. If we focus on maintaining our relationship with God, the how-to's will take care of themselves. Here's a word of warning. It can become real easy to follow an already established set of rules and regulations to do so. You could even make up your own involving ritual sacrifices and feasts on chocolate bars.

I will also admit that this line of reasoning could also very easily lead to a universalist orientation that says all religions are a path that leads to God. That's why the relationship aspect is so important. I had to listen to my wife, not just do what I thought needed to be done. When we are in relationship with God, we have to listen to him. He'll talk to us. He'll guide us. The Holy Spirit will point us in the right direction. It's also important to be around other people who are also in relationship with him. Either become part of a brick and mortar church or get together regularly in some fashion with others so you can encourage one another in your relationships.

So how's your relationship? Is it defined by do's and don'ts? Does your relationship really mean anything? Don't live on either of these extremes. Live in the middle. Live in the Core.

Finding the Core

Continuing last week's thoughts sparked by the Curse of Knowledge, let's talk about the Core of being a Christian. If we were to boil down what it means to be a Christian, what would that look like? I had said maybe we should look for the ending point instead of the starting point. I pondered that idea some more while mowing the lawn. I'm not sure that approach is any better. Someone posted some excellent thoughts in response to this dilemma. Be sure to read them.

Anonymous' comments are heading in the same direction that my own thoughts are. As I contemplated what the ending point would be in the pursuit of the Core, I began to think about it terms of a relationship. Many people would say the ending point is heaven itself, where we hope to spend eternity after death and/or the end of the present world, whichever comes first. Heaven is the end destination, but I don't think it's the ending point of the Core.

God is the beginning and end of all things. Therefore, I think being in relationship with him is the beginning AND end of the Core. That's what he wants from us. Deep down, I believe that's what all of us want - we just don't always realize it. It's as simple as that.

For those of you who are burdened by the Curse of Knowledge, you're probably thinking I'm some kind of liberal theologian who believes everyone will be going to heaven, assuming there is one. You're wondering where does sin, the atonement, and Christian living come in? What about the Holy Spirit? Baptism? Those are all important issues, but I don't think they are part of the Core.

The Core is nothing more than God wants to be in relationship with us. When we understand that, we can begin to do just that - live in relationship with him. When we seek to live in relationship with him, we will begin to discover all those other things. We will learn how hard it is without outside help. We will seek that outside help once we discover what it is. The Holy Spirit will reveal to us things like only the selfless sacrifice of Jesus can restore the relationship. We will begin to experience the power of the Holy Spirit as it changes our lives and empowers us to live in that relationship and become more like him.

Realizing the simplicity of the Core will liberate us to live more fully in that relationship with God. When we shed the burden of all the extraneous rules, regulations, and belief systems, there are less barriers between God and us. We can experience true repentance. Click here to read an excellent post by OT professor Brian Russell from Asbury Theological Seminary on what Jesus meant when he said "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near." I think Brian is describing the Core.

Of course, even though relationship is the "end", it doesn't mean "stopping point". More on that later. I pray you can live in the freedom of the Core.

A Kindred Spirit

Tonight we had a cookout with my youngest son's assistant baseball coach. I have been an "unofficial" assistant all season because I've been at every practice & game and I said "Yes" everytime the coaches asked me to help. It's amazing how our families are on parallel paths. Never in any of my conversations with the other coaches (or parents) did I mention I was a pastor. None of the others ever mentioned their vocations either. We were just there for the kids.

Well, there was always something about Coach Sonny that made me feel like this dude was a follower of Christ in the "I want him (Christ) to be part of my life in every possible way" way. One evening before a game he just happened to mention having been a pastor, but looking for another way to do church. When I said, "Me too," and began explaining the current stage of our journey his eyes bugged out. He called his wife on his cell phone just to say, "I'm standing here with Matt Guthrie and guess what he just said? . . . " It turns out our stories are very similar. He too is looking to get away from the brick and mortar church.

Tonight we just got together to share our stories, some food and some good times. When the evening was done, we agreed to do "church" together, whatever that means. We'll study the Bible together, encourage one another, maybe even find a way to serve someone in need around us together. It's just one more example of how we both feel God is leading our families on this path. It will be interesting to see how this goes.

Just Another weird Sunday

Sorry I haven't followed up on Thursday's post. Be sure to read the comments by a reader. I've got some thoughts started, but need to polish them a bit before posting. I hope to have them up tonight or tomorrow. For now, read about my weird Sunday.

The Bangles hated Manic Monday (I can't believe they're still touring!) They preferred Sunday because that was their "fun day". For me, today (Sunday) was another weird day. For approximately thirty years, I have spent practically every Sunday in a brick and mortar church. For the last ten years, I have spent those Sundays in church as a pastor. Yesterday as I prepared for Sunday to arrive, the weirdness began as I knew I would not be in "church".

The difficulties began when my wife, who has been stuck in the house all week with the kids, said, "We have to go to a church tomorrow. I need some social contact outside this house." I predicted this would happen if you would recall. She even said, "We don't have to go every week, just once a month or so." We than began to list the possible places to attend this morning. As we listed them, weighed the pros and cons that we knew of for each one, we came up with zero choices. By the time we turned out the light last night, we had agreed that we would stay the course we are on. FYI, it was her decision, not mine.

Part of our discussion last night centered on what it meant to be a follower of Christ in the social, personal, and behaviorial contexts. We examined our social lives over the last two years. We reviewed how the brick and mortar church with its set schedules dictated our social lives. Our only social contact throughout the week occurred only on the appointed church related events. That's not a bad thing, but we had become dependent on this organizational structure to take care of too many parts of our lives.

This morning while Tammy cleaned up the breakfast dishes, I began putting the final touches on our family service. I came across Isaiah 58. It's a great chapter on what God considers true worship - feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, etc. But it also talks about the importance of keeping the Sabbath (verses 13-14). Here I began to question our current course again. Are we doing the right thing?

As I contemplated that last question, Tammy began playing the piano. She played through a book of familiar worship songs, new and old. As she played, I prayed. Memories of corporate worship services, singing with other believers, rolled through my mind, and an emptiness carved itself out of my heart. "God," I prayed, "are we doing the right thing? Am I leading my family in the right direction?"

Eventually, all four of us gathered in the living room. I read Isaiah 58 and the four of us discussed it. We talked about Acts 2:42-47 in light of this chapter. As a family we decided we were not giving God our true worship. We made a list of things that we could become intentional about doing as a way of giving God our worship and demonstrating his love to those around us. So look out - a friendly neighborhood visit, canned food drive, and some even more radical and ambitious projects are coming your way.

After over thirty minutes of discussing Scripture with my wife, my ten year old and my seven and a half year old sons, Sunday was not so weird. We had truly given God our time. And we didn't necessarily end it at the conclusion of our "service". We made commitments to make God a real part of our lives without an organizational crutch. Sunday turned out to not be so weird after all.

The Curse of Knowledge

On my other blog, I've posted some thoughts on the concept of the Curse of Knowledge as depicted in the book Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. Click here to read those thoughts. The Curse of Knowledge is the inability to remember or imagine what it is like to NOT know something, thereby makig it difficult to communicate that knowledge to an unknowing individual. Here, I'd like to address one other effect of the Curse of Knowledge - the tendency to make simple things complex. The Heath brothers also address this in their book. I want to apply it to our faith.

After two thousand years of Christianity and approximately twenty-five hundred years of organized Judaism before that, we have turned our relationship with God into a pretty complex affair. We have a pretty well thought out system of beliefs. We may not agree on all of them and different groups may emphasize certain nuances, but by and large, there is a set of universally agreed upon beliefs that characterize Orthodox Christianity.

It doesn't take long for the average person to be affected by the Curse of Knowledge once they begin their faith journey. Part of this is the result of being part of the institutional church. Over the last forty-five hundred years, we have reasoned out our theology pretty well. With each new development, we add to the list of requirements necessary to be a church member or even to be a Christian.

I will admit to my impatience and frustration with both the well-meaning person and the self-righteous person who insists on an adherence to a list of requirements in order to be considered a Christian. Over the last two or three years, I have put considerable study, prayer, and thought in boiling down what it means to be a Christian to the most basic core. It has not be an attempt to list the bare minimum for the sake of convenience. It has been an attempt to strip away all the complex baggage so people can be liberated to more fully live in relationship with God.

Many people point to the Apostle's Creed as this core. I'm beginning to wonder if even that is more than is necessary. Jesus said that we need to receive the kingdom of God like a little child. I don't think that meant we needed it to make it more complex.

Here's where the Curse of Knowledge rears its ugly head. As I have tried to identify the core, I always look for the right starting point. I usually start with "God loves us and wants to be in relationship with us." I then begin to identify how the relationship is possible, what impedes it, etc. Soon, it's no longer simple. Maybe the problem is I'm looking for a starting point when I should be looking for an ending point.

I feel myself beginning to get wordy and a well-articulated thesis is trying to escape my brain. So I'll stop here for now. I'll come back and continue later. For now, help me out. What are your thoughts?

Rediscovering & Re-implementing Biblical Leadership

This morning I came across a great article by Alan Hirsch on leadership in the church. It's a great article no matter what type of church you are part of. Here it is.

Here's a quote that particularly struck me:

During Christendom, the centuries when Christianity dominated the culture, the church acquired a fundamentally non-missional posture. Mission beyond the walls of the institution was downplayed because every citizen was deemed at least a nominal Christian already. What was needed were pastoral and teaching ministries to care for and instruct the congregation, and to draw underdeveloped Christians back into the church on Sunday. (emphasis mine)

For the last several years, I felt like I have spent most of my time doing that last part. I always referred to it as reconnecting de-churched Christians. What I really wanted to do was be more involved in the apostolic, prophetic, and evangelistic aspects of leadership. For one reason or another, the particular environments I was in made that difficult. As I embark on this new chapter of ministry and life as a follower of Christ, I must be careful that I don't overemphasize these roles to the neglect of shepherd and teacher.

Transitions

If you read yesterday's post about the need to intentionally pursue community, you've probably come to a couple of conclusions. One of those is that we are not nor will we be attending church. Since stepping down as pastor from our last church, one of the most popular questions asked of us now is, "Where are you guys going to church?" We usually answer humorously with something like, "The First Church of The Living Room" or "Guthrie Memorial Home Church". I have a some friends who are now pastors without a flock and I have asked them the very same question. They have or currently are experiencing the same situation I now experience - the weird transition from being pastor/leader of a church to a guy who sits in the pew.

It's not an easy transition. I talked to one colleague who spent over a year and a half searching for a new church home went he entered early retirement. He never found one. Nothing ever felt right. Currently he is doing some interim pastor work. I haven't asked him, but I bet he feels the most comfortable he's felt in almost two years.

When I have talked to these other pastors, they all detail similar experiences. Like any other person searching for a church home, they are looking for church where the Holy Spirit is moving, the worship is uplifting and quality, the preaching is solid, and hopefully even a place where they can get involved in ministry. When we first resigned our last post and began searching, we too looked for all these things. The difficulty for us was we felt like after a year or so of healing, we would be starting a new church. We felt awkward searching for a place where we did not feel right about becoming too comfortable because we knew we would be leaving. I'm not saying we had the right perspective, but it's the one we had.

I'm discovering that my transition goes beyond moving from clergy to layperson. I'm undergoing a transition in what I understand church to be. We have faithfully had church services in our home for our family. In fact, we hope to add people to our group and eventually expand into a network of house churches. Those church services looked just like the ones held in all the brick and mortar churches around the country. We had some music, prayed, and expounded on Scripture. Does that make it church? If we did it with one, two, or even three other families, would that have made it church?

I've got some thoughts and opinions, which I'm reserving for the moment. I want to be able to explain them better after they have more time to ruminate. I will share this thought - it's amazing how trapped we allow ourselves to be by forms.

BTW, about the conclusions re: our church attendance. We'll stop by the traditional brick and mortar church on occasion. We're not avoiding church but we are coming to a new understanding of what it is.

Day 1 - The End

Day 1 of posting my journey has ended. Not much happened but a lot of questions filled my mind. The most important question dealt with how to be part of a faith community if we are not part of a church. If you read my other blog, you know that being part of a faith community and journeying with others for mutual support and accountability are big deals to me. If I'm going to avoid the brick and mortar church, where will I get that?

It's especially important to me because it's important to my family, especially my wife. She voiced her concerns and desires for community outside our family. She misses the whole idea of Sunday School and catching up with other people, greeting everyone before and after the Sunday morning worship service. Plus we need to make sure our boys get outside social contact because we homeschool.

These seem like death rays to the notion of living faithfully without being part of the regular Sunday morning church thing. Perhaps selfishly on my part, I'm rather excited about facing this challenge head on. In thinking about it today, I realized just how intentional it will require me to be if I am to live in community. I cannot depend on the organizational structures like Sunday School, Sunday morning worship, and other church functions that facilitate gathering together. I'm excited because people get to relate to me as a normal person again, not as a pastor, or as someone called me this weekend, "The Preacher".

I'm looking forward to building new relationships on a different basis now. I'm looking forward to being missional in my faith as I still do the work of spreading the Gospel. I think it's going to be a great year.

Day 1 - Here we go!

Welcome to my faith journey. I hope you took the time to read the left hand column to see why I'm doing this. Unfortunately, it was impossible to fully explain it all without writing a 25 page thesis. So I tried to hit the highlights. There are lots of reasons and those close to me will recognize some of the hurt and disillusionment I'm experiencing come through. But today I want to begin with the positive elements motivating this experiment.

I'm excited about helping people outside the influence of the brick and mortar church find their meaning and purpose in relationship with their divine creator. A lot of people will never cross the threshold of a church building except to attend a wedding or a funeral. I may call myself a pastor without a flock, but it's probably more accurate to say I'm a pastor without a church building and organization.

I'm excited about experiencing my own relationship with God without some of the organizational trappings that I have thrown upon myself. I'm excited about experiencing my relationship with God personally instead of professionally. I'm excited about sharing this all with you.

I know this will raise many questions and genuine concerns. Feel free to share them with me. I hope that many of them will become clear in the coming weeks anyway. Come back often as I will be continually adding links and comments. It would be really cool if anyone out there has a some kind of futuristic direct brain-blog link so I could post all my thoughts as they happen. Until then, I'll do my best to keep you up to date.