Energion Direct

Tag: discipleship

  • Bruce G. Epperly: Spiritual Transformation and Philippians

    by Dr. Bruce G. Epperly, pastor, professor, and author of Philippians: A Participatory Study Guide, FInding God in Suffering: A Journey with Job, Jonah: When God Changes, Process Theology: Embracing Adventure with God and more!

    Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.                        – Philippians 4:4-9

    Recently, I coined the term “theospirituality” to describe the interplay of our theological visions and our spiritual practices. I believe that the apostle Paul is a master of theospirituality, especially in his Letter to the Philippians. He makes the following assertions in the course of the text:

    • God will bring the good work God has begun in our lives to fulfillment and it will be abundant. (1:3-11)
    • Christ’s mind dwells in us. (Philippians 2:5-11)
    • Christ’s mind is relational and affirmative, and grounded in love and not fear. (2:5-11)
    • Our salvation or wholeness is a matter of God’s grace and our agency. (2:12)
    • God is intimate. (4:5)
    • God empowers us to respond to every situation. “I can do all things.” (4:13)
    • God will provide for our every need. (4:19)

    Paul’s Philippian vision is grounded in his belief that God is with us, moving in our lives, providing us with wisdom and energy, and inviting us to be God’s partners in bringing beauty to the world.

    Paul also provides us with a way to experience his vision of reality that involves an integration of practice and action. As a matter of fact for Paul everything we do is a spiritual practice. Central to Paul’s spiritual formation is a life of constant prayer. For Paul prayer is a state of mind, transcending mere words. Pray about everything, small and large. Ask God for what you need and give thanks for your blessings. Don’t worry, but place everything in God’s hands. Make a commitment to live joyfully. This was good news in Philippi; it is good news today!
    Perhaps, more telling for our time is Paul’s counsel to “think about these things,” to live affirmatively rather than negatively. This is a challenge these days: we are constantly surrounded by negativity. Politicians bully, insult each other, and tell us to be very afraid. The 24/7 news cycle gives us language of doom and gloom, and imagines a dystopian future for all of us. Even weather reports on sunny days speak of news from the “storm desk” and see a drop of rain as a potential crisis.
    We can’t escape the realities of negativity, but we need not be ruled by them. In a world, shaped by negativity, Paul counsels us to live affirmatively, guarding our minds by positive thinking: “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable.” This is the power of affirmative faith that transforms our minds, and opens us to God’s presence in our lives.
    For Paul, the Christian life is joyful. But, joy is not an accident, but a matter of intentionality. God’s grace permeates all things, and we can, by our openness, awaken to that grace in every moment of our lives.


  • Tuesday Night Hangout: Gathering to Scatter – Scattering to Gather

    Our guest on Tuesday night was Rev. Chris Freet, author of A New Look at Hospitality as a Key to Missions, but we were talking about his church’s approach to Christian education. Chris prefers the word “discipleship.”
    What about a “no” to a “Sunday School hour,” and a strong “yes” to small groups to meet outside the context of the church building?
     

    A New Look at Hospitality as a Key to Missions

  • Tuesday Night Hangout – The Computensian Polyglot and Mentoring Young Leaders

    Discussion Ahead SignLast night I had the privilege of discussing these topics with Thomas Hudgins. Thomas has just turned in his dissertation dealing with the manuscripts used in the production of the Complutensian Polyglot, and he discusses the relationship of this text to some other manuscripts as well as some of its history.
    During the second half of the program we discussed discipleship, or rather other words we could use to describe the process of training. Thomas centers his idea of training around the Great Commission and proposes a focus on mentoring, especially couples mentoring couples.

    Please join the discussion in the comments section.

  • Don't Take Jesus Seriously

    by Chris Surber

    Rich Ruler banner            The most dangerous thing you can ever do is take Jesus seriously. If you like your life the way it is, then don’t do it. If you are comfortable and want things to stay the same, take Jesus teaching as mere metaphors and nice ideas, but don’t ever, ever, take Him seriously.
    Was it a figure of speech when Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell everything he owned, give it to the poor, and only then he could be His disciple? (Mark 10:21) I’ve taught it that way. I’ve heard others teach it that way. Truth is, we were both wrong. Jesus simply told that man, “Hey, sell your stuff, give it to the poor, and then you can be my disciple. Oh, and by the way, you’ll be trading wealth in this passing, fleeting world for wealth in Heaven that can never pass away.” He said what He said. That’s what He said and that’s all He said!
    We cling so tightly to the stuff of this life that we seldom experience the rich, deeper beauty that is available to us when we let go of this world. We are in love with houses that constantly need maintenance, cars that break down, entertainment that only lasts a few minutes, and all the while Jesus is saying, “That stuff will never satisfy the inner cravings you have for meaning. I’m offering you a better way.”
    My wife Christina recently came back from leading a week-long mission team to Haiti to work and support our friends and activities there with our ministry Supply and Multiply. She came back from giving her life away for a week refreshed. A very sweet older woman in the church I Pastor told me, “She just looks so beautiful after having come back from Haiti.” The truth is that she looks the same. The difference is that her countenance is different. Her soul is smiling through her eyes and face.
    You see, what she and I have discovered is that the more we give away this world the more God gives us things that really matter. The less money we have the more joy we have because we’ve used God’s money for things of eternal value. The less time we have, the better we sleep because we’ve used our life for lasting Kingdom things.
    When you share a cup of cold water with the least of these, you are in turn unleashing the cool refreshing spiritual water of the Holy Spirit in your own life. That’s not to say that we serve to be served. That is simply to say that when you participate in God’s plan for your life in this world you step into the stream of His pure love and gain things far greater than things.
    In Matthew 10:39 Jesus says, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (ESV) Material stuff is only as valuable as its intended purpose. If I were drowning I’d not want a life preserver made of gold. Today, people are drowning in oceans of meandering meaningless connection to stuff that is dragging them down. The only way to float is to let go of those heavy earthen treasures so we can swim to shore grace.
    If you love this world be careful taking Jesus too seriously. When you lose your life for His sake, His promise is that you’ll enter a life of sacrifice where His joy becomes your treasure.

    [slideshow_deploy id=’2771′]

    Click on a picture for more information or to order

  • What's Hampering Our Congregations?

    By Steve Kindle

     
    Empty banner
    It’s almost impossible for a congregation to spiritually thrive in America. The American ethos is constructed to oppose it at almost every turn. According to the apostle Paul and the witness of the Book Acts, New Testament churches were egalitarian societies—societies whose chief concern was the well-being of the community. Everyone looked out for the other, and suffered and rejoiced together. Power was conceived as service, and wealth was God’s blessing for the community. Quoting Exodus, Paul declared, As it is written, ‘The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little.’  In a later time he might have said, “All for one and one for all!”
    [ene_ptp]But here in the West, we acknowledge the individual as the highest form of human achievement. The ego rules, self-esteem is our pursuit, self-aggrandizement is our religion, and “It’s all about me.” When we think about others, it’s always after we’ve satisfied ourselves. We’ve elevated John Wayne to national sainthood largely due to his personal motto that “I ask nothing of anyone, and give nothing.” No wonder Robert Ringer’s book, Looking Out for #1, became a New York Times #1 best seller. (His first book, also a best seller, was Winning Through Intimidation.) Independence is our goal and anything short of it spells failure—in our own eyes and others.
    Capitalism has the status of a godsend where we are taught that competition achieves the best results. We honor, even glorify winners. We look down on, if not denigrate, losers. “May the best man win,” is not restricted to boxing matches; it’s a way of life. Gordon Gecko said it all when he declared, “Greed is good.” One’s value is measured in dollars, not in worthwhileness.
    Now, plunk average Americans down in a pew and what do you get? To be realistic, their main concern is for themselves and their families. The extent of their involvement is limited to how it impacts their lives and the lives of their loved ones. And why not? This is how we are expected to behave; anything else would be un-American!
    Certainly it is true that our congregations are filled with people who understand the gospel and lovingly serve their neighbors, who sacrifice their time and resources for the betterment of others. But we burn these wonderful people out because they are largely left to do the meaningful work of the church by themselves. Too many others are willing to be served while sitting on the sidelines, observing, appreciative, but idle.
    What needs to happen for a congregation to truly deserve the name Christian is transformation. The ethos of the West needs to be exchanged for the ethos of the servant gospel. The fact that transformation so seldom happens—congregation-wide—is a testimony to its difficulty if not its impossibility.
    What you are about to read will appear to be outrageously off the mark by some and blasphemous to others. The degree of hostility will be in direct proportion to how committed to a certain form of idolatry one is.
    I was raised in a pro-family home. I heard over and over again from my parents, “The only people you can truly count on are family.” Over the years I have learned that families are as untrustworthy as even the highly touted biblical families. Our biblical heroes’ families were full of intrigue (Jacob and Rachael), unfaithfulness (David), fratricide (Cain), betrayal (Aaron), and treachery (Laban), just to mention a few. There is nothing inherently superior of family over any other institution. All human institutions are flawed to one degree or another.
    Of course, the church is also a human institution; yet, it is also divine. Instituted by Jesus as the principle vehicle of the Kingdom, it is ruled over by him and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Members of the church of God have a “leg up” over any of its rivals, including family. Choosing family over church is selling our birthright for a mess of pottage. It is to commit idolatry.
    But, can’t we have both? Some of Jesus’ statements are true on their face, especially this one: “You cannot serve two masters.” Making a successful life is, in part, prioritizing properly. Something must come first and all else subordinated to it. What we select as our first priority will determine how well our life goes, or not.
    What, exactly, is this idolatry?
    It is the placing of our family over every other commitment in our lives, especially the church.
    We often hear people say, “My family comes first,” or “My priorities are God, family, church, nation, society,” or some other order after family. A high commitment to our families is honorable and certainly necessary. Nothing I write here should be in any way taken to denigrate the importance of family. But the family is only well-served when it is prioritized after the church.
    How is it that the family becomes an idol?
    One way to answer this is when the needs of the family conflict with the needs of the church—the family wins.

    1. “We’d like to help out, Deacon, but Bobby has a game this Sunday and it starts at 10:00.”
    2. “Well, pastor, with all the running around I have to do to get the kids to their lessons, scouts, athletics, and play practice, I’m too tired to be on that committee.”
    3. “We’ll be fairly regular until summer. That’s when we’re spending weekends at the lake so the kids can enjoy the outdoors.”
    4. “Confirmation? Saturday morning interferes with Beth’s basketball league. Sorry.”
    5. “I won’t be able to continue as church moderator. I got a promotion and am being transferred to another state. We will miss this church, but I need to think of my family.”[i]

    In each of these examples, the interests of the family take priority over the needs of the church. What are we teaching our children here? We are teaching them that the family is more important than the community of saints that cares for our bodies and souls.
    “But,” you say, “my church is hardly the place I’d commit my well-being to.” Yes, poorly serving congregations are a fact. But why are they so? I believe it’s because we don’t teach and/or expect anything more from our families than what we get. After a few efforts to increase involvement, we fail and fall back on our ready-to-burn-out servants. This has to change. And it will only change when we recognize the problem. The status quo is killing congregations.
    Here’s how to avoid the idolatry of family. Prioritize this way: Church, family, (the rest is up to you).
    If God is indeed one’s highest priority, worshiping and serving God is how we live this out. For most Christians, this means we do so in the context of a congregation. Whereas many today think the church should be at the service of the family, in actuality, the family should be in the service of the church. The former is idolatry; the latter is discipleship. In this way we teach our children and order our own lives in such a way that seeking first the Kingdom is our highest priority.
    The answer—form true community
    Churches are, in part, human institutions, and suffer from human foibles. All the imperfections found in our biblical families are alive and well in the church. This can lead to the false assumption that putting the church as our first priority is misguided. I would argue that this is true because the church is not the first priority of its members. Because our commitments are to other things, we allow the church to wither. The answer is to create true community in a congregation where each member lives for the well-being of the others. This is how “the last shall become first and the first, last.” By serving one another, we are all served well.
    How does your church measure up? Better still—how do you and your family measure up?
    [i] This is a particularly difficult example. In this case the decision to move may very well be the right decision, but it too often is made without any consideration for the needs of the congregation. It is just assumed to be correct on its face.
    [slideshow_deploy id=’2356′]

  • “On Warming Ourselves by the Fire”

    A Good Friday Meditation
    John 18:15-27

    by Steve Kindle

     
    FireIt must have been a cold evening in Jerusalem the night Jesus was taken before “the powers that be” for interrogation and trial. The text lists three occurrences of people warming themselves by the fire. Two times Peter is singled out as among them.
    But this is not a story of inclement weather and how to escape the chilling cold. It’s an escape story, all right, but an escape from the obligations of following Jesus.
    All four of the Gospels record Peter’s record of denials, but only John adds the detail of warming by the fire, twice. Are we to think of this as adding atmosphere to the narrative, or providing an eye–witness report to the events? I think not. So, what is John up to here? Or Peter? Better yet, since Peter is but a stand-in for a certain kind of disciple, what are WE up to?
    The first thing that strikes me is that Peter is following Jesus as he is led away to his execution, “from a distance.” Peter is keeping his distance. Peter is playing it safe. I kind of get the feeling here that we all have when we’re working with live electricity or drying off very sharp knives: better be very cautious, and not be too quick to move ahead.—Danger feels very close at hand.
    Just like Peter in our text, when it comes time to “put up or shut up”, we, too often, choose to warm ourselves by the fire.
    Warming ourselves by the fire means:

    Surrounding ourselves with creature comforts rather than living simply that other may simply live

    Sending checks, not investing our lives while letting others do the heavy lifting

    When we reduce Christianity to a belief system of the head rather than a trust relationship from the heart

    Our focus is on getting to heaven and not on relieving the hellishness found here on earth

    When we warm ourselves by the fire, we remain at a safe distance from the total commitment that Jesus requires of those who would be his followers.
    Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously said, “When Jesus calls a man, he bids him ‘Come and die!’” Today this is probably not a major motivation in being a Christian. Yet, you cannot come away from the Gospels with any other conclusion.
    After 2000 years, Christianity has settled into a comfortableness in America, as we join Peter around the warming fire.
    One of the most memorable stories in the Gospels is Peter’s “great confession” that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
    Having made this pronouncement, Jesus feels he can now deliver to Peter and the disciples the precise meaning of messiahship: “I must go to Jerusalem and die!”
    Peter, acting on behalf of the disciples (and ourselves), is bewildered.
    “We will never let that happen to you, Lord!”
    Matthew, Mark and Luke all agree that when Jesus “set his face toward Jerusalem,” he knew his life would soon be over.
    Mark especially emphasizes that to be a follower of Jesus means we risk having the same fate as his. He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. (Mark 8:34-35)
    We think of Good Friday as centering on Jesus death, but it really should be centered equally on our own.
    As Paul put it: For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; 20and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal. 2:19-21)
    Now the man who wrote these words did not die in the physical sense. Not just then, anyway. No. He was speaking of a spiritual death. Death: a metaphor for spiritual transformation.
    It is a dying of the self as the center of one’s concerns and preoccupations. It is a dying of the world that beckons us to exploit each other and live as enemies to one another. It is a dying of a life of meaninglessness and rising to a life of purpose.
    Isn’t this dying, after all, what baptism is all about?
    Paul wrote to the Roman congregation, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3-4)
    Our metaphorical deaths are the path to a new life—a life centered in God. It is a life of new priorities.
    Jesus went to the cross because it was the inevitable outcome of one who lived his life, again to quote Bonhoeffer, “as a man for others.”
    Because Jesus challenged the oppressive domination system of his day and taught his followers to do the same, he and they could expect the worst.
    Jesus, Paul, Peter, James—all were executed at the hands of those who would rather be served than to serve, who would rather live for themselves than follow in the footsteps of “the man for others.”
    These martyrs prayed for and worked for the day that God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.
    If you don’t know how that can get you killed, you are warming yourself too often by the fire.
    Therefore, the apostle Paul writes, May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Gal 6:14)
    Just imagine a new advertising campaign for your church: “Our congregation helps crucify the world to you and you to the world.” If we step back from the warming fire, we just might see again a church that turned the world upside down!
    Bonhoeffer’s last words may have been those he spoke to a Flossenberg inmate as he was on the way to the gallows. “This is the end—for me the beginning of life.”
    The good news is that we don’t have to wait until our bodies perish for us to “go to heaven.” When we are transformed by dying to ourselves and raised to newness of life, eternal life begins now.  Right now, right here.
    So, on this Good Friday, when we remember how Jesus went resolutely to his death, we are afforded an opportunity to step back from the warming fire and rejoin Jesus on the way to Golgotha.
    After all, this “is not the end, but the beginning of life.”  AMEN
    [slideshow_deploy id=’2356′]

    Click on a book for more information or to order

  • Mark’s Unsatisfying, but Compelling Ending

    by Drew Smith

    [ene_ptp]While all four canonical Gospels narrate women (In John it’s just one woman, Mary Magdalene) going to the tomb of Jesus, the scene in Mark is a bit remarkable to say the least.
    To understand the distinctive nature of Mark’s resurrection story, or, as some have suggested, an empty tomb story, we have to deal first with where exactly this Gospel ends. Anyone picking up a good English translation of the Bible can turn to the 16th chapter of Mark and find that verses 9-20 are bracketed off and the reader is directed to a note that generally reads, “Some of the most ancient authorities end the book at 16:8.” This means that the best textual sources available to us have the Gospel of Mark ending in 16:8, while other sources include verse 9, and still others go all the way to verse 20.
    This is all too complicated to discuss here, so I will simply state what has become the majority consensus on this issue. Although there are still some very reputable scholars who think differently, the overwhelming number of scholars of Mark believe that the Gospel ends at 16:8. Of course, there is the very slim chance that there was an ending that has been lost, but we have no evidence of this.[1]
    It is easy to see why the precarious verses that follow 16:8 would have been added later. All we have to do is read 16:8, where we discover that the women who go to the tomb, where they are told to go tell his disciples to go to Galilee, actually leave the tomb in great fear and they tell no one. Moreover, and perhaps even more troubling, the resurrected Jesus does not appear again in Mark’s story. And so, perhaps it is better to call this an empty tomb story.
    This ending must have been very unsatisfying to someone who felt the need to add a more interesting ending, one in which the disciples are told of Jesus’ resurrection and the resurrected Jesus does appear. In fact, Matthew and Luke, who write after Mark, but who generally follow Mark’s outline, were both unsatisfied with Mark’s ending, and thus they included appearances of Jesus after his resurrection.
    But if the ending of Mark is at 16:8, why would the author end the story here without including something other writers felt was needed?
    Of course, we cannot travel back in time to talk to the author of this narrative we call the Gospel of Mark. Indeed, Mark may not even be the author’s name. Church tradition ties Mark to this Gospel, but the story never mentions that he is the writer. But we can read what is there in the last chapter of the story and propose some reasons why the narrative ends at 16:8 and what this might mean for our own faith and discipleship.
    While having the women leave in fear and tell no one is problematic for us, and while not having the resurrected Jesus appear in the story is even more difficult for us, these may really be the best clues we need to solve the problem of why Mark’s Gospel ends at 16:8 as it is understood within the framework of Mark’s overall narrative.
    First, although Mark does say that the women were afraid and told no one, we must assume that the message of the young man in the tomb did get out somehow. After all, we are readers of Mark’s story, and thus the message was passed on. Since only the women go to the empty tomb and none of the male disciples receive the message directly from the young man at the tomb, we can be fairly certain that these women told someone, even if this is not included in the story itself.
    As to their fear, we should take a close look at similar responses to numinous experiences throughout Mark’s story. Responses of awe, wonderment, and fear characterize the way many characters react to Jesus’ miracles in the narrative. The women’s fear is not a fear as if they are scared from a threat, although that is possible. Rather, they have experienced something from beyond the realm of creation; the in-breaking of God.
    Concerning the missing Jesus, while Matthew and Luke, as well as John, were concerned with this problem, Mark is not worried the least about this. In fact, the absent Jesus works well for his story.
    What we should understand is that Mark’s story is not about believing in Jesus’ resurrection. It is about how one follows Jesus. It is a story about following Jesus in discipleship; perhaps even a manual on discipleship.[2]
    Indeed, we should notice that this Gospel does not begin with a birth narrative, as do Matthew and Luke. Instead, Mark begins with the baptism of Jesus. Thus, Mark’s story begins at the place where Christian discipleship begins, baptism, and takes us through the life of Jesus, a life defined by challenging the religious and political powers. In this way, Mark’s Jesus is the paradigmatic disciple, who proclaims God’s rule of justice, and who, in doing so, takes up his cross unto death.
    The message the young man tells the women, “He is going ahead of you into Galilee,” is a commission to return to the road of discipleship, where one continually follows Jesus to the cross. Thus, Mark’s resurrection story is not so much a promise of what is to come, nor does believing the story require us to believe that Jesus was actually physically raised; again, he never appears again in Mark. Rather, the resurrection or empty tomb story is a story that empowers us to perpetually return to the road of discipleship to follow Jesus.
    It’s not the ending; it is the beginning.
     
    [1] For arguments for the different views on Mark’s ending, see David Alan Black, ed., Perspectives on the Ending of Mark: Four Views (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2008).
    [2] See Philip G. Davis, “Christology, Discipleship, and Self-Understanding in the Gospel of Mark,” in Self-Definition and Self-Discovery in Early Christianity:  A Study in Shifting Horizons, Essays in Appreciation of Ben F. Meyer From His Former Students, ed. David J. Hawkin and Tom Robinson (”Studies in Bible and Early Christianity,” 26; Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 1990), 101-19.
    [slideshow_deploy id=’2613′]
     

  • Faith vs. Mental Assent

    Note: Today we bring you a sermon from a brother in Kenya, Bishop Simon O. MacOnyango of the Kenya Center for World Evangelism. This sermon is reprinted here with his kind permission.
    bishopmaconyangoPreached By Brother S. O. MacOnyango on 11th August 2013 at Kahoya Believers Fellowship, Eldoret.
    Main Text: 1 Corinthians 1:21-29 … New Living Translation (NLT)
    ……20 So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish.
    21 Since God in his wisdom (revelation or divine truth) saw to it that the world would never know (receive his truths or receive Him by revelation) him through human wisdom (head knowledge – mental assent), he has used our foolish preaching (revelation) to save those who believe (receive the truth or revelation). 22 It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom (mental assent). 23 So when we preach that Christ was crucified (the revelation), the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense (doesn’t make sense against all proven human facts)….24 But to those called by God (embrace the truth) to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom (revelation) of God.25 This foolish plan of God (revelation) is wiser than the wisest of human plans (mental assent), and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.26 Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise (had revelation or had the capacity to receive the divine truths) in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. 27 Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish (not appealing to our mental faculties) in order to shame those who think they are wise (have head knowledge or mental assent). And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful.28 God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.29 As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God (when and if we receive these divine truths)
    Note: words in brackets are mine and only meant for teaching purposes
    John 7:38….New American Standard Bible (NASB)….38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being (from the revelatory not mental assent) will flow rivers of living water.’”
    Many of us Christians have mental assent of things of God and take it for FAITH….We may know that God exists but actually DO NOT have faith that HE exists. Mental assent looks so much like faith that there is a very fine thin line between the two.
    Mental assent means intellectually accepting or knowing the Word of God to be facts but not receiving it as a Truth – admiring it and agreeing with it BUT not receiving the revelatory element of it …. That doesn’t do us any good. In essence, mental assent agrees with and knows more about God but does not believe in God.
    The mental assent agrees and knows that the Bible came from God and that it is God’s word BUT does NOT take it as revelation, and that every Word of it is a fact BUT NOT the Truth see! When a crisis comes however, s/he says, “Yes, I know (NOT BELIEVE) the Bible is true, but it does not work for me in this situation.” We often quote Scriptures we don’t really believe to be TRUTHS.
    We so many times mentally affirm the promise! In many years in my ministry and family life I  lived like that BUT wondering why I am not making any haed way despite my superb memory of the scriptures….. that …….  “God will supply all my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Phil 4:19”,….. that in itself was beautiful ….  but for so many years I never took these bible verses as God’s TRUTHS by making them personal. Such a Christian may be successful in knowing much about the Word, but as far as spiritual life is concerned has failed. The true believer is a doer of the Word who receives it as a TRUTH. The believer builds on rock, while the mental assent builds on sand. (See Matthew 7:24-27.)…… In Africa witchdoctors, sorcerers, and fortune tellers keep Bibles as one of their paraphernalia….if you happen to consult one…the first consultation is for you the client to open a bible at random…. keeping the bible in itself DOES NOT help a thing….we can have so many of them in public places, in public schools etc, but who teaches people to receive it as GOD’S TRUTH not like any other novel!!
    A variation of mental assent is “sense/head knowledge.” This is the attitude that says, “If I cannot see it and weigh it against all available facts known, then it is not real. I’ll believe it when I see it.” The Bible tells us, “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor 5:17). This means that faith and sense knowledge are not compatible….I am not against teaching of critical thinking because I am a student of the same.
    Faith is the substance and evidence of things that our sense of conventional knowledge cannot see. (See Hebrews 11:1, for definition of Faith). Sense knowledge is the biggest obstacle to faith because; in many cultures we are trained and conditioned to live by our five senses. If we cannot analyze something and empirically conclude that it actually works, then we do not believe it is real. However, God says He has promised is already reality. Yet it won’t become manifested reality in our lives  until we believe it is real before we see it-through fully trusting in Him and His Word. That is how faith operates.
    Again, the Bible says “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1. Note carefully that this verse does not say that faith is the EVIDENCE of things that do not exist. It says that faith is the evidence of the things you CANNOT SEE.
    For example, you cannot always see how God will meet your need. However, God says, “It’s already met; believe me.” That is living by faith. If you live by any other means, you will have high blood pressure, depression, and fear and end up in a mental institution. You will live in frustration because you will try to figure out how to meet your own needs (even spiritual) when you do not have that capability. God says, “I will supply all your needs. I have everything worked out. Trust Me to do it.”
    If we are mentally assenting to the God’s word and NOT receiving it as a divine truth, we will continue to live below your privilege for too long as SONS. We will need to start living by faith (the truth of God’s word) so that God’s Word can come to pass in our lives and ministries and in every spheres of our involvement.
    I may say “Well, I need more faith.”……Brethren Faith is SIMPLE BUT NOT EASY to obtain. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God (Rom 10:17). Here is the thing……..When we receive the Word then exercise that knowledge (the heard WORD) by the enablement of the Spirit we let it filter through our knower man to our spirit man then we receive it as a revelation (GOD’s TRUTH), it is then that our faith begins to grow…..
    I HAVE known many Christian that I have personally led to the saving faith and BAPTIZED IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST who never went beyond the baptism leave alone to command anything in that NAME!…in fact one Brother remarked to me during one of my teaching sessions……Brother Simon, you are a remarkable teacher of the word…I realized that He truly agreed with every scripture I put forth…. But down the line what I did to the Brother at the river here in Eldoret was ‘DRY CLEANING IN JESUS NAME’ not ‘BAPTISM IN JESUS NAME’. Why? Because he did not receive my teachings on Baptism as the TRUTH but FACTS of the Bible!
    Mental assent is what defeats the child of God who regularly attends church more than anything else. Most Christians are not missing it in what they know about the scripture, but in what they believe (receive as truths). Faith is an act that emanates from our spirit NOT mental faculty! Mental assent just says; “I am blessed and highly favored” while refusing to receive it as a truth provided in the Word. Here is what mental assent is:
    • Mental assent knows 100% that the Bible is the word of God .
    • Mental assent agrees and knows that Jesus is the Son of God.
    • Mental assent agrees and knows that Jesus was raised from the dead.
    • Mental assent will say I believe the Bible from Genesis to Revelations. Mental assent knows that BAPTISM IS IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST …. Mental assent is beautiful, BUT IT WILL NOT embrace the truth …. Every time we read the Word or hear good teaching then we let filter through our mental faculty….that is the process…. by the enablement of the Spirit of God and put it to practice, our Spiritual life is strengthened a little more. The Word is the seed. Once we put the seed in the nursery (knower man) then it turns into a seedling then eventually transfer it to the actual garden (the spirit man) the seed is going to grow because the power is in the seed.
    James 1:22 says, “Do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves. DO WHAT IT SAYS.” This verse separates mental assent from faith. James says if we think listening to the Word by itself will make the difference, then we are deceiving ourselves. We must learn what we have heard and received by believing and then acting upon it in faith NOT AS A MATTER OF RITUAL.
    Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people…. There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first son and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ I will not, he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered. (Matt 21:28-31)
    The second son mentally assented to the words of the father but never did anything beyond receiving the word.
    Although the first son was initially rebellious (hardened in the heart) he ended up agreeing to his father’s request and doing it. Jesus was showing us that we cannot just say we know BUT we must believe. WE HAVE TO LIVE OUT OUR FAITH BY DOING WHAT GOD ASKS. WE SHOULD NOT ONLY AGREE WITH HIS WORD AND WILL, BUT ALSO embrace it as a TRUTH not simply what the Bible says (facts)….
    Brethren, faith is not a feeling though it produces a feeling. Faith will make us feel good when our bodies are healed, our needs are met and our lives are victorious! But it is not a feeling! The feeling and the healing (manifestation) follows the saying and the doing (faith)! You say it by faith (knowing it to be the TRUTH not what the Bible simply says) when you feel nothing or even feel terrible and you act like what God has said is true. This is so simple that a child can understand it yet most children of God struggle with grasping it.
    May the Lord bless us and every one of us in the coming weeks!
    Brother Simon MacOnyango
     

  • Transforming (Mainline) Congregations II

    Today we continue the series of interviews with Energion authors on transforming mainline congregations. Last week Dr. Bruce Epperly responded to the interview questions. Today, Dr. Bob LaRochelle, pastor of Second Congregational Church, Manchester, Connecticut, (United Church of Christ), and author of Part Time Pastor, Full Time Church (Pilgrim Press, 2012), Crossing the Street (Energion Publications, 2012), and the forthcoming book So Much Older Then … (Energion Publications, 2013).
    1. How do you take a church with an old, historical landmark building and a congregation of maybe 50 on a really good Sunday, average age about 60, and transform it into a living, growing faith community?
    This resonates with my current situation. I believe it involves the following:
    1. Attentiveness to good preaching and worship
    2. Active, intentional engagement of participants in the process of INVITING others into participation
    3. Stepped up visible presence in the local community and wider communities, including exploration of technological options, possibly including the use of cable TV
    4. A church retreat offered once a year. I describe that in my book Part Time Pastor, Full Time Church (Pilgrim Press, 2012)
    5. Looking to create youth opportunities that bring young people and their friends onto your property!

    Establish a personal pastoral relationship.

    2. How can you engage someone brought up as a scientific rationalist in (say) the last 30 years in your church sufficiently long to enable them to have some kind of transformative experience, and how do you get them to stay?
    Establish a personal pastoral relationship, invite to be an active participant in educational programming-
    3. Can a charismatic, evangelical. mission-based church find a home for a post-modernist theologian/mystic?
    I believe so, though I would caution that it must also be a church that takes intellectual inquiry seriously and is open to different expressions and to serious inquiry. The church must be seen as less than monolithic in approach. Overall, I think most churches benefit from pluralism in worship styles.
    4. What are the possible roles for young people in a church in renewal? Would you give them opportunities to read, speak, lead a service, provide music, etc.? In other words, how fully can those in their teens (and even younger) participate in leading renewal?
    Young people are CRUCIAL in church renewal…. They should be engaged in all church committees, including board of deacons…. Yes on reading, music and PREACHING! Churches should be seen as comfortable places for youth.

    Churches should be seen as comfortable places for youth.

    5. What role would theological or doctrinal distinctives play in such a church? Is the particular theological flavor of the church important?
    It is. Personally, I like a ‘big tent’ approach as exemplified in Augustine and John XXIII- ‘In things, essential, unity; In things, doubtful, liberty; In all things, charity.’ I say this understanding fully well that people will quarrel over essentials….

    I also understand that those from a particular doctrinal perspective simply have to seek communities more conducive to their flavor.
    6. What role does liturgy play in church renewal? Is it important whether the church is formal or informal, “high church” or “low church,” or what style of music is used?
    Liturgy is crucial. It both expresses who the church is and is the key contact point each week. I think BLENDED is best and the ecumenical potential of it enormous. High, low or whatever, there are some keys: It can’t be rote or routine, preaching and music should be done well, the service should hang together in terms of readings, music and liturgical style. People need to prepare worship with the sense that the entire service preaches the Word.
    7. Can a pastor in a church that is part of a denomination lead that church in renewal? Do denominational politics prevent the kinds of creative actions that are necessary for church renewal?
    Yes to the first question. With respect to the second, I think it is easier wherever local autonomy is operative. However, I have found much impetus for renewal in the work of denominational leadership also.
    8. How can a pastor assigned to a new church discern the needs of that church and find the path to renewal for that specific congregation?
    In my denomination, we are not assigned. The needs and paths to renewal can be discovered through the search process. I talk about this in Part Time Pastor Full Time Church.
    9. What is the role of the pastor’s personal prayer and devotional life (or that of the lay leadership)?
    Simply put, it is CRUCIAL!
    10. What is the role of the pastor’s academic and professional development in church renewal?

    Renewal should be rooted in good theology.

    CRUCIAL as well. Renewal should be rooted in good theology. Strong theological knowledge and a working knowledge of the history of the church and renewal movements within it are crucial as well. I also believe openness to the WHOLE Christian tradition is necessary. I believe, as example, that Catholics and Protestants have for too long lived inside their own houses. This led me to want to write Crossing the Street (Energion, 2012) I strongly recommend a serious reading of Hans Kung’s On Being a Christian as well. The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind by Mark Noll is a good cautionary work with respect to the need for pastoral leaders who take study seriously!
    11. What spiritual practices can transform congregational life?
    – expanding the use of different styles of services and rites e.g. Healing, Taize, Blessing of Animals, sprinkling rites ways of doing Communion…. The list could go on and on…. Basically, utilizing resources from the broad, ecumenical tradition … not being bound to perceived denominational worship styles
    – Spiritual Retreat opportunities
    – Opportunities for sharing with respect to the sermon…. I even explore doing this within the service of worship in my new book So Much Older Then (Energion 2013). Minimally, providing opportunities for after worship sermon discussion
    – Opportunities for service to others with opportunities to REFLECT upon that service – the shared praxis approach.
     

  • Transforming (Mainline) Congregations

    Today I present the first of three interviews with Energion authors about how mainline congregations can be transformed and can renew their ministries. As I read the responses, however, I sensed that these answers don’t just apply to mainline congregations—any congregation can benefit from some of these practices.
    While I presented the questions for this interview, I collected them from others. Each question represents either a question exactly as I heard or read it from someone who was concerned about ministry in aging and dying, or otherwise dysfunctional congregations, or my summary of a number of questions I have encountered on that topic.
    Our first respondent is Dr. Bruce Epperly, author of a large number of books, many of which you will find listed under suggested reading, including Energion titles Philippians: A Participatory Study Guide, Healing Marks, and Transforming Acts (forthcoming, June, 2013).
    Next week, we will publish responses by Bob LaRochelle, and the week following by Bob Cornwall. I hope that readers will engage with the content. If you are a pastor or church leader, consider answering these questions for yourself. Comment on what is said and engage in dialog. This is an important topic and there are some very helpful—even critical—ideas expressed. If you post on this topic on your blog, please let me know (pubs@energion.com) and I’ll be happy to provide a link. Alternatively, you can provide your own link in a comment.
    — Henry Neufeld
    EPPERLY RESPONSES
    1. How do you take a church with an old, historical landmark building and a congregation of maybe 50 on a really good Sunday, average age about 60, and transform it into a living, growing faith community?
    As one who has integrated pulpit and classroom for over thirty years, primarily in university and small congregation settings, I see congregational transformation and vitality as involving the interplay of intentionality and grace. There are a multitude of patterns or models for lively congregations.  Our emerging Saturday night church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, seldom had more than thirty in attendance in the Quaker social hall where we met.  Yet, our services were always lively and spirit-filled: the nondescript social hall was adorned with banners, scarves, and candles; often the aroma of bread baking for communion coming from the adjoining kitchen wafted through the air; and young children camped out on blankets at the edge of our circle of chairs.  We were participatory: sermons almost always joined a pastoral word with community reflection and sometimes were inspired by moments of holy reading, or lectio divina, in which the congregation pored over a passage, listening for the divine word in the words of scripture.

    … from a mustard seed, a great plant grows; from five loaves and two fish, a multitude is fed.

    We had small numbers but a big theology and our welcoming theology was matched by our radical hospitality, everyone welcome at the communion table, children bringing the elements for weekly communion to the table with the offering, and willingness to follow the Spirit’s movements and change course at the drop of the hat.  We never felt small or irrelevant or compared ourselves to other churches; we had a vocation and mission and that was good enough for this moment in time.  In that regard, I encourage congregations to begin where they are, not judging themselves by other congregations’ size and apparent vitality – after all, some megachurches have mini-theologies – and remember that from a mustard seed, a great plant grows; from five loaves and two fish, a multitude is fed.
    Our music was global as well as traditional, sometimes simply the sung voice, other times accompanied by guitars, tambourines and maracas (the kids loved that!), keyboard, and clapped hands.
    We had a sense of mission and that guided our approach to worship and decision-making: to be a radically hospitable, “come as you are,” inclusive, open and affirming, and progressive congregation.  I think mission is everything in vital communities:  cast a vision, meditate upon it, placard it, and see it as the flexible polestar guiding everything you do.  Our mission at Disciples United Community Church (www.ducc.us) involved both the inner and outer journeys – spiritual formation and care for each other and openness to being a light to the larger community through refugee resettlement, advocacy for the GLBT community, and affirmation of diversity.
    Out of our experiences as pastor and church musician, Daryl Hollinger (the church musician) and I penned the book, From a Mustard Seed: Enlivening Worship and Music in the Small Church.   We reminded our readers that the average Protestant church in North America has 75 or less congregants gathered for worship each Sunday and out of what seems like scarcity, great worship can emerge.  Everyone is gifted, and simple and low cost instruments (rain sticks, maracas, finger cymbals, simply-constructed hand bells) can bring life to worship.

    When worship ended, we left the communion bread on the table and placed other snacks around it, creating a love feast with every worship service.

    One last note about our experience at Disciples United Community Church: whereas Christian formation of adults has been abandoned in most mainstream and progressive congregations, we placed a premium on adult theological education.  Perhaps, we had an advantage: a theologian as one of the pastors.  Whereas some large congregations barely get a dozen for adult education, our education-worship-fellowship were seamlessly tied together.  If we had thirty five in worship, we would likely have twenty to twenty five in adult education.  Folks would move from the education tables to worship by simply turning their chairs around and placing them in a circle.  When worship ended, we left the communion bread on the table and placed other snacks around it, creating a love feast with every worship service.  While geography can shape logistics, vital and lively worship requires flexibility in space and movement: the sanctuary of traditional churches should be respected, but in most sanctuaries there is room for gathering either in the chancel or narthex, thus making hospitality, community, education, and worship an integrated whole.
    Here are some ready to hand and easily taught resources for congregational adult theological education and worship:
    Diana Butler Bass, Christianity After Religion (HarperOne)
    John Cobb, Praying for Jennifer
    Monica Coleman, Not Alone: Reflections on Faith and Depression (Inner Prizes)
    Bob Cornwall, Ephesians: A Participatory Study Guide (Energion)
    Bob Cornwall, Ultimate Allegiance (Energion)
    Maxie Dunnam, Workbook of Living Prayer (Upper Room)
    Eric Elnes, The Phoenix Affirmations: A New Vision for the Future of Christianity (Jossey-Bass)
    Bruce Epperly, Healing Marks: Spirituality and Healing in Mark’s Gospel (Energion)
    Bruce Epperly, Philippians: A Participatory Study Guide (Energion)
    Bruce Epperly, Emerging Process: Adventurous Theology for a Missional Church (Parson’s Porch)
    Bruce Epperly, The Center is Everywhere: Celtic Spirituality for a Postmodern Age (Parson’s Porch)
    Bruce Epperly, Immersion Bible Studies: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah (Abingdon)
    Bruce Epperly and Daryl Hollinger, From a Mustard Seed: Enlivening Worship and Music in the Small Church (Alban)
    Joyce Rupp, The Cup of Our Life (Ave Maria)
    Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith
    Phyllis Tickle, The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why (Baker)
    2. How can you engage someone brought up as a scientific rationalist in (say) the last 30 years in your church sufficiently long to enable them to have some kind of transformative experience, and how do you get them to stay?
    The greatest challenge for the church is to be “relevant” to the needs of seekers, spiritual but not religious, self-described “nones,” and the scientific community.  When you ask young adults, even within the church, about their perspective on the church, they use terms like: intolerant, anti-scientific, homophobic, small-minded, racist, and sexist.  And, quite often they are right.  But, worse yet, is when they describe the church as “irrelevant” to their lives.  A lot of Christians believe that the desire to be “relevant” waters down the faith, but I believe that the church is always called to minister concretely and not in terms of some Platonic ideal, beautiful in its abstraction, but unrelated to real life.  If the message isn’t relevant, it isn’t the gospel!

    If the message isn’t relevant, it isn’t the gospel!

    I think one of the most important things churches need to do is to cultivate spiritual practices and develop a vision of reality that is non-dogmatic, yet transformative.  Diana Butler Bass says that the words “doctrine” and “doctor” have the same roots and this should remind us that doctrines are intended to be “healthy teachings,” not exclusionary devices or walls intended to separate “us” from “them.”
    Ironically, except for the hard-core atheists who themselves resemble religious fundamentalists in the “how” of their faith, most rationalistic people are open to the transcendent.  A Pew Report notes that 50% of the population claim to have experienced something they describe as self-transcendent or mystical.  While people are not necessarily more spiritual or mystical today, this figure is nearly twice as high as forty years ago, indicating an openness to experiencing and sharing experiences of the holy and spiritual.  Some Christians malign “Oprah-spirituality,” but the popularity of her program points to a need the churches should be addressing in light of the gifts of our traditions.
    In my writing, I have focused on spirituality, healing, and global theology.  I believe that churches will be vital both among their members and to seekers and rationalists if they:

    • Sponsor meditation groups
    • Have healing services and dialogue with holistic and complementary medicine
    • Present a big vision of the universe.  Imaginative and poetic readings of the Genesis creation accounts, Psalm 8, Psalms 148-150, Paul’s speech at the Areopagus describe a grand, unfolding, creative universe in which God is still at work, bringing forth new possibilities in the human and non-human worlds.  Bring photos from the Hubble Telescope to church, show Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos Series,” gather people to watch “Nova.”
    • Provide possibilities for wonder.  Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel asserts that one of the primary religious virtues is “radical amazement.” Do amazing things at church.
    • Get involved in mission.  What are you doing to lower the carbon footprint?  Does your church address global climate change?
    • Seek justice.  Sadly, many people see Christianity as about God, guns, anti-immigration, and slashing government programs that help the poor.  To risk a bit of controversy, there is no inalienable Christian right to own a gun or lower taxes. These issues aren’t even on the biblical radar, either concretely or abstractly, and while I do not oppose gun ownership, given the words of the Sermon on the Mount, a fixation of gun rights may be quite incompatible with gospel Christianity!  But, the scriptures are clear – care for the immigrant, welcome the stranger, insure economic justice, provide for the vulnerable.  This needs to be done both politically (see Amos, Hosea, Micah) and congregationally (see Acts 2 and its vision of having all things in common ownership.”
    • Concretely get your hands dirty in mission projects: give money, but also time.  Seekers want something to give their heart and hands, as well as their heads, too.
    • Take science seriously as a companion, not a threat.  As early Christian theologians, proclaimed, “Wherever truth is present, God is its source.”

    For further reading, let me suggest:
    Philip Clayton, The Predicament of Belief: Science, Philosophy, and Faith
    Bruce Epperly, Emerging Process: Adventurous Theology for a Missional Church (Parson’s Post)
    John Haught, Cosmic Adventure: Science, Religion, and the Quest for Purpose
    John Haught, God and the New Atheism: A Response to Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens (Westminster John Knox)
    Alistair McGrath, Surprised by Meaning: Science, Faith, and How We Make Sense of Things
    John Polkinghorne, Science and Religion in Quest of Truth (Yale University)
    John Polkinghorne, Testing Scripture: A Scientist Explores the Bible (Brazos)
    Paul Tillich, Dynamics of Faith (Harper)
    3. Can a charismatic, evangelical. mission-based church find a home for a post-modernist theologian/mystic?
    Yes, provided that its theology is open-spirited and adventurous.  Doctrines are often treated as idols rather than guideposts.  Moreover it needs to be spiritually and globally open, seeing diversity as a divine gift and source of growth and threat.  Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and so did we.
    Acts of the Apostles provides a good model for such an open-source spirituality.  Neither structures nor doctrines had been developed. The first followers of Jesus were making it up as they went along, inspired by the Holy Spirit to constantly revise their faith and sense of boundaries.  The mission and welcome of the Gentiles, as difficult as it was, opened the doors to new inspirations and challenged old and sacrosanct orthodoxies.

    To reach out, we need to risk changing our own understandings of God and our faith.

    Post-modernists don’t want to hear about God, they want to experience life in its wonder and beauty.
    They want to “taste and see” God’s goodness.  They have questions and visions and need to be heard.
    To reach out, we need to risk changing our own understandings of God and our faith: that’s what happened to Philip when he encountered the Ethiopian eunuch and Peter when he dreamed of unclean food and discovered nothing was unclean.  Remember that the old-time religion was once new-fangled.   The Protestant Reformers have a good word for us: the Reformation is always reforming and so should we.
    For further reflection:
    Rob Bell, Love Wins (Harper One)
    Bruce Epperly, Transforming Acts (Energion, [forthcoming June 2013])
    Patricia Adams Farmer, The Metaphor Maker (Create Space)
    Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy (Zondervan)
    Brian McLaren, A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions that are Transforming Faith (Harper One)
    Brian McLaren, A New Kind of Christian (Jossey-Bass)
    Thomas Oord, The Nature of Love: A Theology (Chalice)
    Doug Pagitt, A Christianity Worth Believing (Jossey-Bass)
    Doug Pagitt, The Church in the Inventive Age (Sparkhouse)
    4. What are the possible roles for young people in a church in renewal? Would you give them opportunities to read, speak, lead a service, provide music, etc.? In other words, how fully can those in their teens (and even younger) participate in leading renewal?
    The future is now. Young adults, like the young boy with the five loaves and two fish, can be agents of transformation.  Young adults are not just future leaders, they can be leaders now.  Given good mentoring, they can grow in the faith, challenge old assumptions, suggest new ways, and pioneer in new technologies.  They can combine high tech (social media, web site construction, and fearlessness around technology) with high touch (hearts open to God) to advance God’s mission of love, healing, and Shalom.

    Young adults are not just future leaders, they can be leaders now.

    We need to listen, be willing to let go of control and power, and open to new ways of doing ministry to make room for a creative synthesis of tradition and innovation in church life.
    For suggested reading:
    Kenda Creasy Dean, Almost Christian: What Our Teenagers are Telling the Church (Oxford University Press)
    Kenda Creasy Dean and Andrew Root, The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry  (IVP)
    Kenda Creasy Dean, The God-Bearing Life: The Art of Soul Tending for Youth Ministry (Upper Room)
    Sharon Daloz Parks, Big Questions, Worthy Dreams: Mentoring Emerging Adults in Their Quest for Meaning, Purpose, and Faith (Jossey-Bass)
    5. What role would theological or doctrinal distinctives play in such a church? Is the particular theological flavor of the church important?

    As Paul Tillich and Reinhold Niebuhr recognized, all human activity is ambiguous, and so are denominational distinctives – and I will make the bold statement that even non-denominational churches have plenty, if not more, particular theological and liturgical baggage than many denominational churches; they just don’t think so!  Denominational distinctives can be spiritually suffocating and they can also be spiritually liberating.  They respond to different emotional, experiential, and spiritual styles.  They remind us that “we didn’t invent this,” and they serve as a challenge to those who want to jump over twenty-one hundred years of history to rediscover the illusory “New Testament church.”
    The church is always contextual and filtered through the lenses of our experience and as long as denominational distinctives can be allowed a degree of fluidity and transformation in relationship to global spirituality, the diversity of Christianity, and congregational spiritual and mission needs, they can be positive factors in Christian formation of persons and communities.
    For further reading:
    Edwin Aponte, Santo! Varieties of Latino/Latina Spirituality (Orbis)
    Bruce Epperly, Emerging Process: Adventurous Theology for a Missional Church (Parson’s Porch)
    Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy (Zondervan)
    Rowan Williams, Tokens of Trust: An Introduction to Christian Belief
    Rowan Williams,  Faith in the Public Square (A&C Black)
    6. What role does liturgy play in church renewal? Is it important whether the church is formal or informal, “high church” or “low church,” or what style of music is used?
    Liturgy and worship are central to congregational transformation.  The whole fabric of worship – hospitality, preaching, music, prelude, postlude, technology employed – can transform the life of faith. Today, worship needs to be global as well as local.  We need to embrace the experiences of Christians across the globe as well as across history.  This can as easily occur in a congregation of fifty as a congregation of five hundred.

    Liturgy and worship are central to congregational transformation.

    Everyone can be part of worship as readers, singers, greeters, musicians (with simple instruments such as maracas, finger cymbals, rain sticks).  Worship flourishes when it truly is the people’s work and when sermons inspire conversation and reflection.
    For further reading:
    Bruce Epperly and Daryl Hollinger, From a Mustard Seed: Enlivening Worship and Music in the Small Church (Alban)
    Michael Hawn, Gathering into One: Praying and Singing Globally  (Eerdman’s)
    Michael Hawn, One Bread, One Body: Exploring Cultural Diversity in Worship (Alban)
    Thomas Long, Beyond the Worship Wars (Abingdon)
    Marcia McFee, The Worship Workshop: Creative Ways to Design Worship Together (Abingdon)
    Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Worship (Baker)
    7. Can a pastor in a church that is part of a denomination lead that church in renewal? Do denominational politics prevent the kinds of creative actions that are necessary for church renewal?
    All congregations face limitations, but within the limitations emerge the possibilities.  While it is easier to transform a “new” church than a congregation with traditions, physical plant, and denominational distinctives, transformation can occur and transformation is always contextual.  The challenge of “non-denominational” churches is that they, in fact, have more baggage than they admit – the ego of the founding pastor, the lack of theological and liturgical structure, the temptation to assume the superiority of a certain style of worship (usually the illusion of the founders that they are doing something for the first time), the lack of connection with the communion of saints through history.

    … within the limitations emerge the possibilities.

    The times call for an appropriate boldness: the right blending of tradition and novelty in doing new things, experimenting with new paths of worship and evangelism, and exploring new types of worship spaces.  We need to launch out into the deep in ways that reflect the most imaginative possibilities for our communities.
    I suggest that all congregations that have a “history” explore using the “appreciative inquiry” process as a way of discerning their passions, gifts, and visions for the future.
    I suggest the following books:
    Mark Branson, Memories, Hopes, and Conversations: Appreciative Inquiry and Congregational Change (Alban)
    David Cooperrider and Diana Whitney, Appreciative Inqiury: A Positive Revolution in Change (Barrett-Koehler)
    Bruce Epperly, Emerging Process: Adventurous Theology for a Missional Church (Parson’s Porch)
    Darrell Gruder, Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America (Eerdman’s)
    Loren Mead, The Once and Future Church (Alban)
    Loren Mead, Transforming Churches for the Future (Alban)
    Margaret Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science (Barrett-Koehler)
    Alan Roxburgh,  Introducing the Missional Church (Baker)
    8. How can a pastor assigned to a new church discern the needs of that church and find the path to renewal for that specific congregation?
    Put briefly, he or she needs to pray with her or his eyes open!  He or she needs to recognize the gifts of the congregation, its specific challenges, and the context of its ministry.  Ministry and congregational life is always concrete and contextual and transformation occurs right where we are.
    The pastor needs to claim a flexible vision, grounded in prayer, but not a specific agenda that overlooks the spiritual gifts of this particular congregation.  We see in a mirror dimly and need to open to the unexpected movements of the spirit moving through this time and place.
    A life steeped in prayer and meditation, an openness to God speaking through the everyday moments of congregants, and a deeper realism, cognizant of the bottom line, but also aware that God can do great things within our limitations, are essential for renewal.   We need to apply the wisdom of Acts of the Apostles for our time and place – lively, making it up as we go along, open to the Spirit, building bridges not walls, welcoming otherness, and faithful to the best of tradition.
    I suggest the following texts:
    Robert Cornwall, Ultimate Allegiance: The Subversive Nature of the Lord’s Prayer (Energion)
    Robert Cornwall, Ephesians: A Participatory Study Guide (Energion)
    Bruce Epperly, Philippians: A Participatory Study Guide (Energion)
    Bruce Epperly, Tending to the Holy: The Practice of the Presence of God in Ministry (Alban)
    Bruce Epperly, Transforming Acts (Energion, [forthcoming June 2013])
    Kent Groff, Clergy Table Talk: Eavesdropping on Clergy Issues in the Twenty-first Century (Energion)
    Renita Weems, Listening for God: A Minister’s Journey Through Silence and Doubt (Touchstone)
    9. What is the role of the pastor’s personal prayer and devotional life (or that of the lay leadership)?
    The pastor’s prayer life is absolutely essential.  While the adage “pray as you can, not as you can’t” applies globally to spiritual formation, we have to begin by making the effort to place ourselves consciously in the flow God’s gentle providence.  I believe that all of life is a “call and response” in which God calls to us in every life situation.   God’s call is for us and for those around us.  Accordingly, pastors’ prayer life awakens them to God’s vision for their congregation and for pastoral encounters.
    In the spirit of Acts of the Apostles, pastors are challenged to be practical mystics and Pentecostals, constantly imbibing of the Spirit and then letting the Spirit flow from them to others.

    … pastors are challenged to be practical mystics and Pentecostals …

    I would begin simply, if I have found that the tasks of ministry have crowded out my prayer life, with a simple prayer to be open to God throughout the day.  This prayer is always answered, although the answers may transform your life.  I would invite pastors to simple breath prayers: taking a few minutes each day for stillness, breathing in God’s Spirit in “sighs too deep for words.”  One of my mentors used a breath prayer that followed this pattern:
    Inhale: I breathe the Spirit deeply in and
    Exhale:  blow it ___________ out again.
    (expressing how I feel, knowing that God is the ultimate recipient of
    our feelings – so blow it “happily,” “angrily,” “joyfully,” “peacefully,” etc)
    Our prayer life can and ought to be integrated with our preaching and pastoral care.  Praying without ceasing is a way of life, not one more thing to do in ministry.
    I suggest the following books on spirituality of ministry:
    Bruce Epperly, Starting with Spirit: Nurturing Pastoral Leadership (Alban)
    Bruce and Katherine Epperly, Tending to the Holy: The Practice of the Presence of God in Ministry (Alban)
    Bruce and Katherine Epperly, The Four Seasons of Ministry: Gathering a Harvest of Righteousness (Alban)
    Bruce and Katherine Epperly, Feed the Fire: Avoiding Clergy Burnout (Pilgrim)
    Kent Ira Groff, Clergy Table Talk: Eavesdropping on Ministry in the Twenty-first Century (Energion)
    Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step (Bantam)
    Gerald May, The Awakened Heart (HarperOne)
    Flora Wuellner, Feed my Shepherds: Spiritual Healing and Renewal for Those in Christian Leadership
    (Upper Room)
    10. What is the role of the pastor’s academic and professional development in church renewal?
    Pastors are the rabbis and theologians of their congregations.  Study and continuing education are always contextual and related to your congregational dynamics.  Accordingly, there is no one ideal for the pastor-theologian.  Still, it is essential to the preaching of the gospel and pastoral care that we take continuing education seriously.  After all, would you want to go to a doctor who failed to keep up with medical research, a tax preparer who did not keep up with IRS regulations, or an attorney who hadn’t kept up with changes in the law?  We should expect the same from ourselves as pastors – and our congregants should expect gravitas and reflection from us!
    Study is often, like the good seed of Jesus’ parable, choked by the many demands of ministry.  But, despite busy schedules, preachers need to commit themselves to intellectual-theological and professional growth. This can be done in a variety of ways: workshops and retreats, on-line courses, D.Min. programs, weekly study time, and research of on-line blogs.  It may also include the arts, immersing yourself in great music (jazz, classical, etc.), going to museums, and attending plays.
    Our Jewish parents saw study as a form of worship, and we should do likewise as a way to “love God with our minds” and provide good theological and spiritual nourishment for our congregants and seekers.
    For further reflection, let me suggest:
    Marcus Borg, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time  (Harper One)
    Marcus Borg and N.T. Wright, The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions (Harper One)
    Philip Clayton, Transforming Theology (Fortress)
    Monica Coleman, Making a Way out of No Way: A Womanist Theology (Fortress)
    Bruce and Katherine Epperly, Tending to the Holy: The Practice of the Presence of God in Ministry (Alban)
    Bruce Epperly, The Four Seasons of Ministry: Gathering a Harvest of Righteousness (Alban)
    Bruce Epperly, Process Theology: A Guide for the Perplexed (Continuum)
    Bruce Epperly, Starting with Spirit: Nurturing Your Call to Pastoral Leadership (Alban)
    Bruce and Katherine Epperly, Feed the Fire: Avoiding Clergy Burnout (Pilgrim)
    Douglas John Hall, The End of Christendom and the Future of Christianity (Wipf and Stock)
    Catherine Keller, Toward the Mystery (Fortress)
    Patricia Adams Farmer, The Metaphor Maker (Create Space)
    Jay McDaniel, Living from the Center: Spirituality in an Age of Consumerism
    Brian McLaren, Why Did Jesus, Mohammed, and the Buddha Cross the Road (Jericho Books)
    Rebecca Parker and Rita Nakashima Brock, Proverbs of Ashes (Beacon)
    Marilynne Robinson, Gilead: A Novel
    Walter Wink, The Powers That Be (Theology for a New Millenium)
    Renita Weems, Listening for God: A Minister’s Journey through Silence and Doubt (Touchstone)
    N.T. Wright and Marcus Borg, The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions (HarperOne)
    11.  What spiritual practices can transform congregational life?
    Congregations are called to be laboratories of spiritual formation, lively worship, and healing and wholeness.  The good news is always contextual, and grace abounds, but we need “practices,” ongoing disciplines that awaken us to God’s transformative love and power in our time.  Becoming a “practicing” church also invites seekers, many of whom, are in search of spiritual experiences and healing of body, mind, and spirit to try the church again “for the first time” or simply walk in the doors, letting go of previous preconceptions.

    Congregations are called to be laboratories of spiritual formation …

    I believe that pastor and congregants alike need to take seriously the long tradition of Christian spirituality, reflected in practices such as lectio divina (holy reading), imaginative prayer (Ignatian spirituality), centering prayer, sung prayers or chants, and healing worship and practices.  These invite the church to experience the liveliness and creativity characteristic of the community described in Acts of the Apostles.
    I suggest the following books on spiritual transformation:
    Diana Butler Bass, Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith (Harper One)
    Diana Butler Bass, The Practicing Congregation (Alban)
    Dorothy Bass, Practicing the Faith (Jossey-Bass)
    Maxie Dunnam, The Workbook of Living Prayer
    Maxie Dunnam, The Workbook of Intercessor Prayer
    Bruce Epperly, The Center is Everywhere: Celtic Spirituality for a Postmodern Age (Parson’s Post)
    Bruce Epperly, God’s Touch: Faith, Wholeness, and the Healing Miracles of Jesus (Westminster John Knox)
    Bruce Epperly, Healing Marks: Healing and Spirituality in Mark’s Gospel (Energion)
    Bruce Epperly, Holy Adventure: 41 Days of Audacious Living
    Bruce Epperly, Philippians: A Participatory Study (Energion)
    Bruce Epperly, Healing Worship: Purpose and Practice (Pilgrim)
    Bruce Epperly, Tending to the Holy: The Practice of the Presence of God in Ministry (Alban)
    Bruce Epperly, Transforming Acts (Energion, [forthcoming June 2013])
    Kent Ira Groff, Active Spirituality (Alban)
    Kent Ira Groff, The Soul of Tomorrow’s Church (Upper Room)
    Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
    Sara Miles, Take this Bread (Ballantine)
    Kathleen Norris, Cloister Walk (Riverhead)
    Joyce Rupp, The Cup of Our Life (Ave Maria)

Energion Direct
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.