Purple Pastor

The Shack book

This book is quite the buzz.  Not just in the so-called Christian market, but it has also debuted #1 on the New York Times bestseller list for paperbacks.  I just added it to 'books beside my bed' on this blog, but I actually read it some time ago.  There was an article about the author in today's newspaper in the Faith section.  Check it out.

When books or movies are the word-of-mouth rage of Christian America, usually I don't like it.  Don't know why, that's how it is.  Maybe because I read and watch everything through two grids - my own grid as a long-time Christian, and my intuitive grid of a hungry-for-God-but-not-yet-worshipping-Him person - people for whom I have great compassion and take into account in all of my leadership, preaching and writing.

I loved this book.  I heard two primary critiques from others.  The grace in this book is too big.  And theological weight.  Let me comment, please.

1. The big grace.  If you can imagine 'grace' and 'love' bigger than the grace and love of the God of the Bible and of Jesus Christ - then you have misunderstood the God who communicates to you through the Bible.  There is no bigger grace than that offered in Jesus and written of in the Scriptures.  If an author experiments with new/fresh/expansive conceptions of that grace, as long as it is anchored in the person and work of Jesus, they are incapable of offending me, blowing my mind, or threatening my faith.   I say bring it.   Make it bigger.

2. Theological weight.  Most comments (by supposed Christian spokesmen on the radio, who I NEVER appointed as my spokesman, so I am outraged!) focus around a desire for more theological precision and gravity in this.   I have a comment that is strengthened by reading the author's biography in today's news (son of missionaries, survivor of sexual abuse...).   Here's what I think about theology.   Good theology is ONLY accomplished by those who put in the time/sweat/money/thought of a theological education.  I am an emerging church voice FOR theologically educated pastor/preachers.

But GREAT theology is when the educated/meditative Biblical theologian engages in speculative or imaginative theology.   (My favorite examples: CS Lewis and the Space Trilogy - a reimagination of The Fall of Man - set in space; Tolkien and the first chapter of The Silmarilion - the most sublime commentary on Genesis 1-3 in existence, in fictional Middle Earth)   That is what I see the Shack doing.  Moving beyond doctrine into poetic imagination.  Wow.  It is truly beautiful and shocking at times.

My primary critique of the book is an echo of a Lake Forest person (sorry, I can't remember who to give credit to), who suggested that the wonderful picture of the Trinity might have felt more complete if there was a moment of absolute terror in the presence of a holy God by the protagonist.  I agree.  That would be consistent with every recorded human encounter with the divine in the Scriptures (except those encountering the en-fleshed Jesus).

I hope you will read this book.  And think.   And pray.

I Saw and Touched Faith

Today, I showed up to 'hump day' as a volunteer at VBS.  I was tired.  I worked before and after VBS yesterday.  My son Dylan was tired - he volunteered at VBS Monday and Tuesday, and had summer football workouts each evening.  It was not normal for that 14 year old to get up at 7am today to do VBS. 

I saw mom and dad VBS volunteers coming in this morning.  Tired.  They gave their all on Monday and Tuesday to a group of kids, in the heat.  Then went home and worked, parented, did chores, paid bills. 

But they came.  And they loved on children in the name of Jesus.  Again.  On a hotter day.  The Apostle Paul wrote about such people in Galatians 6:9 "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.  Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers."

I thought to myself after this morning 'in all of these VBS leaders, I actually saw and touched faith. Believing in the Lord's harvest of love, they were strong to participate in planting and tending the fields of faith today in young hearts.  While tired.  Hot.  Maybe a little bothered by screaming kids.  But they chose to 'do good' by serving.'

Thank you for showing me the tangibility of a lived-out faith in Jesus inside of human beings today.  Thank you for living your life on the Missio Dei - joining God on God's mission of love to all people, through the great news of Jesus.  Thank you for not giving up or giving-in to passivity, chaos, discouragement.  Because you believe - Jesus is the hope of the world.  And Love Wins!!!!!!!!!!!

Hero and BubbleBoy

Today was opening day of 'PowerLab,' VBS for 500 children at Lake Forest.  Here's my picture of the day:

What you see is one of our Crew Leaders - a 9th grader named Aaron- enthusiastically building a leadership relationship with one of his crew, by creating the world's largest bubble around him with a hoola hoop.  Cool.

All day, I saw teens and adults giving their time, energy, enthusiasm to communicate to these children 'you matter, God loves you and has a great plan for you.' By talking to them, getting to know them, discussing truth about Jesus, and yes, by putting them inside gi-normous bubbles.

I am inspired by this picture, and by these people.  Casual Christians do not make an impact in this world, or an imprint on other people.  Enthusiastic servants do.  I dream of Lake Forest being even MORE a Jesus-centered community of enthusiastic servants.  Knocking ourselves out to serve one another and our community.  Thus making an impact of love, leaving an imprint of Jesus.  Do you know anyone like that?  Are you stepping out (according to your own temperament) and allowing God to shape you into someone like that? 

All it takes is Willingness (Aaron said 'hey, I'll serve kids at VBS'). 

Availability (Aaron said 'I will sacrificially wake my teenage behind up early and serve a whole week of my summer vacation.'  I know other teens and adults who do this every Sunday).

Enthusiastic Relational Investment (Aaron got to know his group today, looked them in the eyes, played with them, and led them in discussion about Jesus - wow).

2 Peter 1:3-8  His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness...For this reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness, and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.  For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Colbert Report on Heaven

GREAT THOUGHTS ABOUT HEAVEN ON A SATURDAY NIGHT.  My friend Mark Denning let me know that my favorite contemporary theologian (NT Wright) was just interviewed by my second favorite comedian (Stephen Colbert - who is a Sunday School teacher at his church).  Please, please enjoy.  And Learn.

Here is the exact link to the clip with N.T. Wright. http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/videos.jhtml?videoId=174352

(if the link doesn't work for you, go to comedycentral.com, click into colbertreport/videos, and find Thursday June 19)

Love Power

So this month we've examined and meditated on these words from John, the beloved friend of Jesus: "God is love...This is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us, and sent his Son..."

This is so helpful and inspiring to me.  Because I'm in touch every day with some certain realities:

I should love others.

Life is best when I am loving to others.

I can't do it very well.  At all.  I stink at loving, but I'm great at figuring out all the ways others should have loved me better.

These words from John are hopeful.  No wonder I can't love well - love doesn't come from me, it comes from God.  I can't wamp it up by trying hard.  God has sent love to us in the person of Jesus.  Not just to show us how to love, but to be the power of love in us.  A Christian is a person who has not only repented and asked God to forgive her sins through the sacrifice of Jesus.  A Christian is a person in whom the Spirit of the risen Jesus has come to live, empowering that person to love, 'for no one has seen God, but when we love...' God is manifest in this world, according to Jesus' friend John, in I John 4.

So today.  Will you make this your prayer with me?  "Lord, I want to love _____ today.  I want to do so for his/her sake, and for Your sake Lord.  I can't love ____, but you can.  Please love ____ through me today.  I will take the solid actions of love - serve, submit, sacrifice - and trust that the power of your Holy Spirit in me will infuse those actions into love.  May you be seen in my loving actions today, and thus be glorified in me.  Amen."

Surfing Movements

ITHIS BLOG WRITTEN PRIMARILY FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN MINISTRY LEADERSHIP AND PHILOSOPHY:  I'm excited for Lake Forest to develop our plan to begin planting 'daughter churches,' so I'm reading 'The Multiplying Church' by Bob Roberts.  I was struck by the following quotes last night.  He started Northwood Church 20 years ago (www.northwoodchurch.org ).

He writes that his church "has never been a tight church with a model to which we strictly adhered." To which I fully relate.  That is us, Lake Forest!  Then he described discovering Rick Warren's 'Purpose-Driven Church' movement in his 20's and assimilating that into his thinking. The same thing with later models called 'GenX' and 'Post-Modern' ministry.  And now he is attempting to understand 'Missional' and 'Emerging' expressions of church.  Much like we are attempting to do.

Fellow church leaders and Lake Forest leaders, here's what I want you to hear, when it comes to your and my leadership together:  "Realizing this, I thought of a young pastor I believe will be a leader in the future.  I tried to explain this to him: 'I believe you're good for three movements in a life of ministry, maybe four if you stay really sharp.  Don't sign up for any of them; don't brand your hide.  Think of them as waves to surf, getting God's people where they need to be.  Each wave is important but not an end in itself.  The end is Jesus.  The wave is the rise of a generation.  The surfboard is the method of riding or communicating.  Don't stay with any wave too long--use your momentum to catch the next one.  If your life and ministry is defined by a wave, you go one distance.  If it's defined by surfing, well, that's another story."  

I love surfing with you, Lake Forest.

Party Man

Are you like me, and you never tire of all the Gospel stories about Jesus kicking tail on the legalistic Pharisees?  I bet you love it.  So I was surprised by Jesus today - yet again.  I was reading where he was questioned about his views on divorce.  There were two schools of thought at the time.  And guess what - Jesus' answer lined up with the Pharisees' answer!  But Jesus, I thought you were anti-Pharisee and I could count on them as the perennial bad guys in the Gospels!  I like stories with neat categories of good and bad guys, just like America likes its politics!

Then I realized it.  Jesus was not a party-man.  He was/is a Kingdom of God-man.  It would be cleaner and more predictable for all of us if Jesus were always aligned with one group or another - are you for the Pharisees or the Saducees, the Roman-sympathizers or the zealots, the priests or the people, the Republicans or the Democrats, Jesus??  Show me some ideological consistency, man!

But Jesus didn't answer to a party or a position.  He stood for Kingdom of God realities and values as embodied in Scripture and Himself.  What did he stand for?  Luke tells us one way to say his values: 'grace and truth.'  Jesus didn't balance the two.  Or spread a little grace veneer over the boulder of truth.  Or run the flag up for truth while standing on the mountain of grace.  He was grace and truth.  A shotgun with two barrels.  Fully loaded. Firing both at once full on.  All the time.

How about me, you?  In the upcoming political season, I am determined for Lake Forest to lead one another to a redemptive engagement with the issues and politics, in ways that are less or more than partisan.  If you find that, unlike Jesus in his day, all of your opinions and views completely line up with one political party or another, then I suggest you seriously examine whether when it comes to politics you may be more of a party-man/woman, than a Kingdom of God-man/woman. 

We all must consider (me first) this year whether or not we have fallen into reading the Bible through a party lens (or anti-party), or whether we are continuing to grow into reading politics through a Bible/Kingdom of God lens. For me as pastor, part of what that means is continuing to aim and fire both barrels of the grace-and-truth shotgun as I teach Scripture.  I wonder what it means for you?