Question 5: Has the western church forgotten Irenaeus?

Apologies for the emphasis on Steve Chalke lately, but this will be the last question from his book; though once I've finished the book I may have something to say about his comments on the atonement...I just haven't gotten there yet.
Chalk claims that the Western church has become engrossed with the doctrine of Original Sin; while it seems to have forgotten the Original Goodness of humanity. He says it was Augustine who led the way for the West. Meanwhile, in the East, Irenaeus was much more influential with his teaching that humans bore the image of God and were "coaxed into full bloom by God's love."
In some ways, I think Chalke is not saying anything all that radical, he's just trying to stir things up by saying it in a controversial way - he basically says Jesus didn't believe in original sin, he believed in original goodness. I guess my question is Has the church in the West really forgotten Irenaeus?
There are two issues embeded in the question. First, is Chalke correct in his reading of Augustine and Irenaeus, and their influence on the West and East, respectively? Second, do we in the West need to rediscover the image of God in people?
In some ways, reformed theology (my heritage) is very good at remembering that people are made in the image of God. However, this understanding is usually used to draw conclusions about the nature of work and creativity, or else applied to discussions of apologetics/evangelism in the sense that people cannot run from the knowledge of God because they are made in his image. Rarely do we hear talk about being enamored with people because as people, they are beautiful. Blue Like Jazz really challenged me to see the image of God in people...to love them because of who they are. I think we could use that reminder a little more often in the reformed Western church.

Welcome Somer!

Somer has entered the blogosphere with Daily Offerings. Her cooking is world-famous (well, people on at least two continents know how good it is anyway), and now she is welcoming anyone who cares to stop by to sample the fare from our table. You'll also find the occasional glimpse into other parts of our life in London. I'm pretty sure her blog looks better than mine (as is the case with our persons as well), and she may have me beat for vulnurability as well. In any case, go check it out.

Question 4: Does God suffer?

Again, this one comes from The Lost Message of Jesus. See Question 3 for the first question Chalke's book raised. Chalke is fairly critical of the Westminster Confession of Faith and other Western Church creeds that claim that God is impassible, or without passions.
I guess I'm really wondering if Chalke is right in claiming that the major creeds assert the impassibility (and by implication the inability to suffer) of God. If he is, I suppose my issue is not so much with Chalke as it is with the creeds. I can see why they would want to shield God from suffering - in general, suffering is seen as a deficiency - if God is perfect and full of goodness and joy within himself, how could he suffer?
On the other side, though, there is the sense that suffering is often brought about not by a deficiency in the person who suffers, but by wrong committed against them by another. My understanding of forgiveness is that it involves acknowledging the cost of what was done to us and the pain it causes, and committing to absorb that cost ourselves rather than demand payment from the offending party. If this is so, God's commitment to forgive us would involve a significant amount of pain...rather than exacting vengeance on us, he absorbs the cost of the wrong we've done. Correct me if I'm wrong (seriously, someone please correct me), but isn't it generally regarded as orthodox to believe that God did not separate himself from the person of Jesus on the cross, but that it was in fact God himself who suffered for us on the cross? (My appologies to my systematics professors at WTS if I have just put forth a grave heresy. It's not their fault.)

Election Results

Seems like Tony Blair has won a third term as Prime Minister (though there's speculation that he may be asked to hand power over to Gordon Brown sometime during that third term...something I don't really understand). Labour lost 47 seats - mostly to the Conservatives. Margaret Hodge, the local MP from the area around Bethel Christian Centre won reelection. The scary thing is that the BNP came in third, with over 16% of the vote.
It's been interesting the different perspectives that people in the church here have on the candidates. Different people support the Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats, or one of the smaller parties. There is much less of an association between Christians and a specific party here than in the States.
So, congratulations to Blair and the rest of Labour for holding onto control of Parliament, and congratulations also to Michael Howard and the Conservatives for their strong showing and gain in seats.

Election UK

So I had a fun day. Our center was used as a polling place in the UK general election. It was really cool to be involved (even in a very small way) in the election process.
We basically sat outside the center and talked to people we knew as they left from voting. Saw a couple guys from the Hub and a number of the pensioners we know on the estate. The Labour party candidate for our district stopped by to say hello and greet a few people who were walking down the street. Margaret Hodge is her name, and she's also the Children's Minister in the current government under Blair. Another Labour worker was taking voting numbers from people, so he could cross them off the list as having voted. At 5 PM, they were going to start knocking on doors of people who said they were going to vote Labour but hadn't voted yet. Quite a system.
There was also a guy from the BNP (British National Party - quite racist in their campaign advertising). He had gotten permission to sit inside the polling place and check to make sure the poll workers were doing their job correctly. Quite intimidating if you ask me. At 9:30 PM I arrived back at the center to help close things down. The polls were due to close at 10 PM. There was a steady trickle of voters right up to 10. Then a flurry of activity to get all the ballot boxes sealed, packed up, and shipped off to the counting location. And now we await the results.

Question 3: Does God exact violent vengeance?

First, a confession: I'm currently reading The Lost Message of Jesus by Steve Chalke. Don't know if that's a problem for my American readers, but for some over here in the UK Steve's a controversial guy. I've been really encouraged, challenged, and moved by the book so far. Admittedly I haven't come to the most controversial part.
In Chapter 3, Chalke argues that John's definition of God - "God is love" - was the point of Jesus' message, and should control how we read everything else in the Bible. He says that in the Old Testament "Yahweh's association with vengeance and violence wasn't so much an expression of who he was but the result of his determination to be involved with his world. His unwillingness to distance himself from the people of Israel and their actions meant that at times he was implicated in the excessive acts of war..." But this asssociation was born out of love - God's love for his people. Basically, God was willing to get his hands dirty because of his love for his people.
So there's my question: Does God exact violent vengeance? or is violent vengeance the necessary result of his involvement with this world, but not really part of his character?
The only thing I'd add is that this morning I was reading in Numbers, where fire comes out from the Lord and consumes some of the camp of Israel because of their grumbling. Doesn't so much sound like the violence of the Israelites getting projected onto God as it does his vengeance lashing out at them. But I'll stop there, 'cuz I'm still wrestling with this one and more wanted to just pose the question and see where the discussion goes.

Question 2: What does "growth" look like?

This one was inspired by Ivy Beckwith's account of her conversion in Postmodern Children's Ministry. She grew up in the church, and made an outward commitment to follow Jesus at the age of 7. She makes a passing comment that there wasn't a whole lot in the life of a seven-year-old that needed cleaning up...and it got me thinking.
I was raised in the church, and don't remember a time when I didn't love Jesus and believe on him. So what does it mean for me to grow up in the way of following Jesus? See, my behavior when I was seven was a whole lot better than it is now. And let's face it, the church's doctrine of Sanctification is usually defined as growth in holiness - i.e. once a person decides to follow Jesus, their behavior, attitudes, etc. progress (however slowly and imperfectly) from bad to good.
But how does this explain my experience? By almost any standard, my behavior and attitudes have deteriorated since I was seven. As I matured, so did my ability to "invent ways of doing evil" (as one of Jesus' early followers says in the Biblical book of Romans).
I think we in the church need to wrestle with our understanding of what it means to grow in maturity as a follower of Jesus so that our understanding encompasses more than a change in moral behavior and attitudes. The understanding we come to needs to incorporate the reality that many people literally grow up knowing Jesus - and their "Sanctification" doesn't begin at a point in their lives when they've sufficiently matured to be able to sin like an adult. It begins from the very beginning of their lives.

Question 1: Who am I?

Thanks, Doug, for your comment. These questions are significant for various reasons...some are more life-long quests, others are important only for the small part they play in the larger story of my life. But here they are, in order according to when they first arose in my mind during our holiday.
Who am I? Hopefully not being asked in the sense that I need to be committed to a home, but in the sense that I was revisiting my sense of self-understanding.
My first thought about how to answer this question was: I'll read the Bible and make a list of every passage that says something about who I am. So the answer to "Who am I?" would look something like: I'm a child of God, an heir of the king, a sinner, a saint, deeply loved by God, etc. Then I wondered - Am I just a list? Isn't there something more to how I understand myself? I realize that many of those things in the list are profound truths and contain important elements about my relationship with God and other people, but in the end, it's still a list without any reference to my specific life. I mean, those things are true of every person who follows Jesus.
So I started thinking about the pomo preference for story/narrative. The idea that story communicates truth better than generic lists. I like this, though it means the answer to "Who am I?" is currently 26.4 years long, and getting longer every hour. I wonder if there's a way to condence the story of my life into a manageable format - like give little snippets that accurately reflect who I am, though without ever completely answering the question. Kinda like what John did with Jesus, where he says that many more things could be written, though they would fill many volumes, and that what he did write was written so that his readers would follow Jesus.
I guess maybe that's partly what this blog is all about - sharing glimpses of my life. So thank you, for reading and so helping to answer the question "Who am I?" I'll try to tell more stories in the future.

Back Home

I forgot to mention in my last post that the reason for the 1-week hiatus from TV and the internet was because we were going on holiday to Spain. So I didn't have internet access, but a TV was in the room - which we did not watch. So it was partially a forced break, but still a cleansing one.
We stayed at an apartment in Mijas on the Costa del Sol, and true to its name, it was SUNNY!! Seven straight days of bright sun and mid-70s. There was a pool ten steps from our front door, including a separate kiddy pool that the girls loved. We were often the first people on the beach in the mornings, and were joined by at most ten people by mid-afternoon, except on the weekend when it was more crowded. A very relaxing, refreshing week. The girls were semi-independent, which allowed Somer and me to do lots of reading. I finished The Name of the Rose, caught up from two weeks behind on my Bible reading plan, finished Postmodern Children's Ministry, and read half of The Lost Message of Jesus...more on some of those in a little bit. I also came back with about five significant questions...again, I'll share more later.
For now, it's good to be back.

Self Control

So I love my wife. She's right, a lot. We've been doing this read the bible in a year thing. The other day she says to me: "I thought about you today while I was doing the reading. It said 'We haven't been given a spirit of timidity, but one of self-control.' I thought about you and your addiction to television and the computer. You have a spirit of self-control...so use it."
Wow.
So, for the next week, I'll be watching no television, and using no computer. Kind of a cleansing.
See you in a week!

Doing good to enemies

The sermon went well yesterday. See the previous post for a link to the full text of what I said. One of the things that made it good was the discussion afterwards. It was quite a lively time of interaction, and not everyone was in full agreement with each other or with me, which is the whole point. In particular, I had said something about "turn the other cheek" not meaning that people should quietly submit to domestic violence. A woman pointed out that many of the Chrisitans in Eastern Europe during the cold war were willing to submit quietly to the tortures of the totalitarian governments, because they believed they were responding the way Jesus would want them to in light of this passage. I didn't disagree that it was right for them to respond that way, but I did say that just because it was good and right for them to do so, it doesn't mean that every person who encounters violence must quietly submit to it on an ongoing basis. Jesus' words are more in the "wisdom" genre than the "commandment" genre. That is, they are totally authoritative and binding, but that authority will demand different actions in different situations. Make sense? She didn't really agree with me, and I guess that's the point of a discussion. Also the point of this blog...so disagree away!

Rose quote

I've decided to continue providing short quotes from The Name of the Rose as they strike me along the way. I'm about half way through the book, and really loving it.
Adso the narrator writes:
"I was upset. I had always believed logic was a universal weapon, and now I realized how its validity depended on the way it was employed. Further...I had become aware...that logic could be especially useful when you entered it but then left it."

Tomorrow's Sermon

Well, you (whoever you are) have kept me honest, and forced me to finish my sermon before the day I'm giving it. Sorry it's so late, but hopefully some of you will still have time to view and comment beforehand. Here it is, again, as a PDF that will download automatically. I welcome your thoughts, whether before or after the fact.

Eco Quotes

Two quotes from The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.

"But as you see, heresy in many cases is wed to the revolt against overlords, and this is why the heretic begins by preaching Madonna Poverty and then falls prey to all the temptations of power, war, violence."

"...the order of things must not be transformed, even if we must fervently hope for its transformation."

two good warnings to us who are working for change in the church.

Shockingly Generous

So i'm preaching on Sunday. it's wednesday, and I decided it was probably time to look at the passage they want me to preach on. i open the bible to Luke 6:27-36, feeling very depressed because of another hard night at the Hub. and what does Jesus have to say? "love your enemies. do good to those who hate you...lend without expecting any return...God is generous to the stingy and the wicked, and you must be merciful, just as your heavenly Father is merciful."
I don't know what I'm gonna do...this thing's been bugging me all day. who cares what i'm supposed to say to the church, i feel like this is Jesus speaking right to me. when i read it, the first thought that came to mind was "i should take the guy who slapped me in the Hub out for a meal." i read the passage to Emma (co-worker at Bethel) - just because it was bugging me, and without any prompting from me, she said what I'd been thinking. I'm excited and freaked out at the same time. Tom Wright says this passage is all about which God you know: is it the God of astonishing, scandalous mercy or is it someone else?

The random order

Tonight I cut my wife's hair. I do it about once a month or so. I'm a terrible hair stylist. tonight i managed not to cut any fingers for the first time in four attempts. her hair comes out looking chunky and a bit like it's been hacked with a hedge cutter. it also looks very cool. she makes me do it because she's unwilling to pay money to have a professional do it. I can't stand the thought of paying money to have my hair cut either, so I just haven't had it cut since last year. tomorrow Somer will go buy a $4 cup of coffee at starbucks, then use $12 worth of hair coloring to turn parts of her head pink. i will put a bit of $15 gel in my hair, mostly to keep it from looking like a 'fro, but also because it smells good.
yesterday we went to an 800 year old church, and loved it. It was church of England, and between the Apostles' Creed, the Prayers of the People, and other items from the book of common prayer liturgy, we sang Matt Redman songs and watched a projection from the vicar's Mac.
Eclectic? A bid random? Exactly.

Unity in the church

At LCM's divisional day on Wednesday, John Nicholls spoke about unity in the church. He said when you look at the New Testament, there's very little instruction focused on the individual. Almost everything addresses the church as a community, giving instruction on life together. The splintering of the church in Western world is one of the great impediments to its having a significant impact on society.
John lamented the fact that every Sunday, there are many churches that meet withing blocks of each other (for example, in Ilford, a Baptist, a Catholic, and an Anglican church are all right next to each other on the main road). Other times, churches with only a handful of people continue to meet separately, meaning that several pastors are spending most of their time planning Sunday services, when all the people could easily fit into one Sunday service, freeing up the other pastors to pursue evangelism. He challenged us to think about ways we can be agents of unity - how we can begin to get churches to work together in our communities.
One of my initial thoughts is that maybe the problem of disunity runs even deeper than redundant Sunday services. Sitting together in a building and falling asleep together during a sermon doesn't make for much unity. Having a common vision, a common purpose in the community, and common passion for God and love for one another - these are the things that unite the church. I suggested it at New Life last year, and I'll say it again now: Maybe one of the healthiest things a church can do is call off its Sunday morning services for a month and provide other ways for people to stay connected to each other and pursue worship and evangelism together, so that people learn to focus their lives on worship of God and service to one another, rather than focussing on Sunday.

Lectio Divina # 2

So, I couldn't bring myself to write a monologue (i.e. a sermon) for the Wednesday afternoon meeting. Instead, we did Lectio Divina. If you don't know how it goes, see my previous post on the subject here. It was beautiful. Julian was skeptical of how it would go over with the group (everyone is over 60). But it was beautiful. God met us in a powerful, worship-inspiring, healing way.
We meditated on Psalm 46.

Thank You

I don't even know most of you, but you sent an entire suitcase of gifts with my parents last week. Three packs of Oreos (down to two packs plus four cookies at the time of this writing), five tubs of American peanut butter, several movies (we've already watched three of them), stuffed animals that the girls have named "Boris" in honor of Joe's rubber ducky from Blue's Clues, lots of crafts for the girls, sidewalk chalk (see picture) and so many other things that I can't type them all out. Jesus' love shines through you...Thank You!! May God return your generosity on you many times over.

I'm back...refreshed

We had a wonderful week with my family. The weather was great for the easter weekend, and we spent several days out in the city. Monday we went to Greenwich, as in - Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian. Here we are at the top of the observatory hill with Canary Warf business district behind us. After a little exhaustion from all the activity, we've had a couple days of minimal time at the centers to recover (Friday is usually finished after moms & tots, and yesterday there was nothing to do at Ley Street because kids are on easter holiday here). I've enjoyed the break from the internet...kind of a cleansing of sorts. But I'm back, with lots of thoughts brewing.

Busy Week

Lots happening this week. The hightlights:
Conflict Avoidance seminar at LCM headquarters tomorrow morning. I'm giving the talk at the younger Hub tomorrow night, then a glimpse of what God's done in my life at the Holiday Bible Club at Ley Street on Wed.
Thursday, my parents and brothers arrive for a week! Yea!! I'm very excited. Also probably won't be blogging much more this week. but we'll see.

Newsweek Article

Looks like the cover story of this week's Newsweek is "How Jesus Became Christ". From Jesus to Christ is a pretty balanced account of the early development of the Church as it centers on Jesus' death and resurrection.
a few comments:
1. I was surprised at how many Americans believe Jesus rose from the dead, and how many say they believe he was sent to absolve the world of its sins (75%! See page 2 of the web version of the article). It reminds me that informing people what they should believe about Jesus doesn't really cut it. As the article itself states, the disciples weren't all that clear themselves about the meaning of Jesus' death and resurrection, and their confusion lasted for quite some time. I'd rather someone follow Jesus and work things out as they go along than get it all straight first before being "allowed" to trust him.
2. The article picked up on some very foundational points in terms of how the early disciples of Jesus saw his death and resurrection. It was the focal point of history and of the scriptures. It forced them to wrestle with the Old Testament and sometimes find meanings there that could only make sense to someone looking back after Jesus' resurrection. The article didn't really mention the fact that for many Christians, we take the Bible to be the work of many people, and at the same time to be God's words. The way the early apostles reflected on Jesus' life/death/resurrection is also God's reflection and interpretation of what happened.
Your thoughts?

Grace Church Hackney

Went to Grace Church Hackney yesterday evening, and loved it. The highlight for me was when they brough the kids into the main hall after the sermon, so that everyone could take communion together. They asked the parents if they wanted their children to receive the bread and wine, and if not, then the people distributing took time to bend down and pray with the child. It was wonderful! We're going to try to get back next Sunday.

Spring is here!

Spring has arrived in London! It has been in the upper 60s the past few days, with bright sunshine! We spent the whole morning at the park, and had a picnic lunch. More pictures here

Fast Emperors

Somer and I saw Fast Emperors play at the Windmill in Brixton last night. they put on a good show. i'm hoping to score a copy of their yet-to-be-released CD today from my friend Luke, who plays bass in the band.
they were part of a 12-band Northern Ireland invasion taking place this weekend at the Windmill. Fast Emperors were the best of the three bands we heard.

Hightlight of the evening: It was our first time out without the girls since we've been in London - many thanks to David and Jan who babysat for us.

Surprise of the evening: the free BBQ out in back of the Windmill, complete with steaks, burgers, chicken, and our favorite - real hotdogs (or at least they tasted pretty darn close to the real thing - I think they just took some plane english sausage and smothered it with barbeque sauce).

betrayal

i led the "talk" at youth club at Ley Street Chapel on thursday night. we always have trouble getting the kids to listen to us (surprise, surprise) so I decided that I would listen to them instead. here's what I did (I should mention that I pretty much stole the idea from Reimagining Spiritual Formation)

Have you ever been betrayed by someone you thought was your friend?

What happened, and how did you feel about the other person?

Each time someone talked (4 or 5 people had things to say) the rest of the group would start making noise (they refuse to keep quite for 15 seconds). Each time I would silence the chatter and remind them that one of their friends had something to say that was important for all of us to hear. After a few times of this, they stayed quiet.
Then I read the very short story from Luke 22 where Judas agrees to betray Jesus. Quite a few of them had good comments about the story, and even connected it to the story of Moses that we had been looking at a few weeks ago.
Then I asked:
Why do you think Jesus let Judas into his trusted circle of friends if he knew he was going to betray him?

That was it. No "this is how you should think about the story" or "this is what you should believe" from me. I just wanted these kids to begin to explore what it's like to connect Jesus' story to their own.

Emergant Tour

Andrew Jones has started a one-week tour of the emerging church. i find it helpful given that I am a late-comer to this scene; and even though i feel like I connect with the way they are approaching church, my personal experience of emerging church is quite limited.
Andrew starts the tour with a vocabulary lesson and continues with a history of the emerging church's connection with the global counterculture.
Enjoy

Emerging Church Discussion

Great discussion on TallSkinnyKiwi on government in the emerging church

Sermon Update

Some of you have been asking for more details about Sunday.
I spoke at a church called City of Peace, which meets at the London City Mission centre called Cafe Forever. The church is mostly people from the Isle of Dogs section of London. A number of the men were away for various reasons, so it was mostly women on this particular week - maybe 15 people in all. Because I don't really know anyone, it's hard to guage how people were impacted...just have to trust the Holy Spirit on that one.
We had a discussion time afterwards, but I didn't introduce it very well. I had planned ahead of time to welcome people to make comments or give their own thoughts because they are valuable and God wants us to be sharing our hearts and speaking into the lives of one another. But instead I just said something like "Now we'll do a discussion?" Kinda lame. Don't know if that kept people quiet or not...several people made comments, but it only lasted about 2-3 minutes.
I think the most valuable thing for me was the time I spent praying and listening to God as I read the passage in Luke over and over.

Luke 5:27-32

The sermon's done...written and given. I'd like to start posting my sermons here for your review/comment, and maybe edification(?). In the future i'd like to post them before hand to give you a chance to help shape the message.
Anyway, here it is, warts and all.
Just so you know, I tend to write out everything I want to say, talk through it a few times so i have a general idea where I'm going, and then talk without looking too much at my notes...so generally it doesn't come out exactly the way I've written it.

Jesus for sinners

i'm preaching tomorrow on Luke 5:27-32 - the story of Jesus calling Levi and having to answer questions about why he hangs out and eats with tax collectors and other sinners. so today is being spent mostly in preparation.
Well...mostly. Right now I'm getting the girls dressed and then we're off to "Play Park", their name for the local park with geese, ducks, a slide, and some swings.

John 4 retold

Steve has a compelling retelling of the woman at the well.
A fairly good challenge to the evangelical church. One of the dangers we face is the tendency to pay lip service to the inclusiveness of the gospel. What I mean is, we'll say "We're all sinners in need of Jesus" with the silent caveat "but homosexuals need to stop their behavior in order to come to Jesus."
Reminds me of the Marrow Controversy.
"It is not sound and orthodox to teach that we must forsake sin in order to our coming to Christ" Auchterarder creed, 1717.

Emerging Church Link

Matt, a fellow WHMer in London, sent me this link to an article by Tom Sine at Mustard Seed Associates. It's a nice quick summary of many of the things that characterize the emerging church.

Give in to temptation

I found this picture fascinating on several levels. I had just spoken to the kids club at Ley Street last week about Jesus' temptation in the desert by Satan. This was handed to me on Monday afternoon when I was taking a couple American friends around Camden Town in central London. I won't tell you what your reaction to it should be. Be free to draw your own conclusions.

LCM Strategic Plan - Part 2

Continuing from the previous post on LCM's new strategic plan, I'd like to offer two critiques.
First, one of the reasons why I've followed Jesus to London is because of John Piper's book Let the Nations Be Glad!. Piper says that missions exists because worship does not - that is, the church's primary commitment is to the enjoyment of God (worship) and we go to people outside the church because we desire for God to be enjoyed by them as well. Now, this applies to LCM's strategy in this way: there is no mention of LCM being a worshipping community. LCM is seen as supporting the local church "in its task of evangelism" (quoting from the Core Values of LCM). The vision and values of the mission do not reflect the dynamic of evangelism flowing from worship. This does not mean that LCM doesn't value worship (most of its centres run worship services on a weekly basis). But my understanding is that even these services are meant to serve the overall goal of evangelistic outreach. LCM also would probably counter that it is not the job of LCM to be a worshipping community - it is the job of the local church. In practice, this sets up two separate communities - the community that centers on the LCM missionary(s) or the LCM centre, and the community of the local church (I'm speaking based on my experiences of the functioning of an LCM centre...I don't know what ministry is like for the work-place missionaries). There is no sense that evangelism involves inviting people to experience the life of a worshipping community.
Julian and I have talked about this to a certain extent as it relates to our decision about where to worship on Sundays. Partly we'd like to be part of the same church that Julian and Laura are part of, simply for the sake of people we're in relationship with at the centre. This would allow the work we do at the centre to flow more directly from the worshipping community at Oxlow Lane Baptist (Julian & Laura's church).
The second concern I have about the strategic plan is related to the first. The plan lays out a model for the relationship between the mission and the local church. It calls this the "City Mission Approach to Urban Evangelism". This approach lays out four concentric circles representing four steps in the development of evangelistic relationships. From outside in they are: 1. Making contact; 2. Building friendships; 3. Relevant sharing of Gospel; 4. Joining a Church
This is a pretty standard evangelical view of evangelism. It relies on at least two assumptions that I would like to question. The first is the assumption that people should only be incorporated into a church after they have been "converted". I'm certainly not the first to question this assumption. Bob, another Londoner with World Harvest, says that people need to become belongers before they become believers - people experiencing a sense of belonging to and sharing in the life of the community of Jesus' followers before they make a decision to trust Jesus themselves. Evangelism taking place in the context of relationship within the life of the church, not as a pre-requisite for experiencing that life. I like the belong before believe model because it helps to remind us that becoming Christian is not so much a one-time decision as it is a life-long process. deciding to trust Jesus is part of that process, but it neither begins the process nor completes it. There may be some who are incorporated into the life of the church who in the end decide not to trust themselves to Jesus' care, but that's o.k. (see Hebrews chapter 6 and the discussion of those who taste the good things of the Kingdom). Much of my current thinking on this idea of becoming Christian is shaped by Reimagining Spiritual Formation
The other assumption behind the four-step approach to evangelism laid out by LCM that I want to question is the assumption that the gospel is primarily information to be communicated. Now, I realize that the overall methodology of LCM indicates that they are very much committed to ministry to the whole person, and the statement "relevant sharing of gospel" doesn't necessarily mean the gospel is primarily information. In practice, however, "sharing the gospel" means communicating a series of facts that must be believed. That's why at every kid's club we do, there's a message about what people need to believe about Jesus or God or the Bible. In fairness, this is probably not so much a strategic decision by LCM as it is a result of the climate of the evangelical church in the UK from which LCM's missionaries come.

O.k. those are my critiques. Maybe in part 3 I'll imagine with you how some of my concerns would affect the practice of LCM. i.e. "What would I do differently?"

LCM Strategic Plan - Part 1

This past Wednesday all of London City Mission gathered for their monthly divisional day. This particular divi-day was devoted to the unveiling of the new strategic plan for the mission. First the things i really like about the new plan.
The plan lists three key goals: LCM will be "a growing mission, an all-the-people mission, and a church-filling mission." that second goal, to be an all-the-people mission, is the continuation of LCM's 170 year heritage of embracing the social outsider - the poor, the immigrant, those in prison, the sick...the kind of people Jesus hung out with. The exciting thing for me is that these guys aren't just talking about connecting to outsiders, they're actually doing it on a daily basis. Another part of this goal to reach all the people is the desire to reach all ages in the city. The general secretary of the mission mentioned that a number of the large city-center churches are planting daughter churches, but that these daughter churches look very similar to their parents - young, wealthy professionals. I have been challenged to avoid the desire to see churches planted that end up looking a lot like me.
Another thing i love about the new plan is the ongoing commitment to what they call "district evangelism". That is, while the mission itself is seeking to introduce everyone in London to Jesus, individual missionaries are assigned a specific geographic or relational district comprised of a sufficiently small number of people that they can reasonably maintain contact with each person in the district. I like the fact that they're thinking along the lines of communities and asking the question "what are the primary communities that Londoners feel part of?" For some Londoners, their community is the housing estate on which they live. so LCM have a centre on the estate. For other Londoners, their community is their work-place, so LCM have evangelists with the Metropolitan Police and the fire brigade. I also like the fact that they are commited to regular contact between an evangelist and her district. The same person going to the same people, sharing the joys and sorrows of life together...Henri Nouwen would be proud.
I have a few critiques, but I'm going to save them for Part-2, which is coming shortly.

Completion of the Temple

For those who did not work with me at the WHM home office, I'm a bit of a table football fanatic. you could say I worship the game. well, we just erected a new temple of table-football-worship in Dagenham at The Hub. Here Julian and I (the two head priests) are conducting the consecration ceremony.

Potty-training

we're doing the potty-training thing...not for me, for my kids. so it was a weekend in for somer and me. didn't even get to a worship gathering today. but, they've both had a fair amount of success! o.k. I'll stop there, with a modicum of decency and privacy left for my children.

Let Two become Ten

Ten Percent - that's the far-out dream of a group of Christians in Dagenham. to see 10 percent of the population of Dagenham be part of the Jesus-worshipping community. this surprised me. you see, when I came to London, i had heard the grim statistics - that less than 10% of the population went to church once a month. but then i found out that in the few square miles surrounding our centre, there are something like 25 evangelical churches. i figured God must be doing something in this burrough that he wasn't in other parts of London.
but then we had a united prayer meeting on Thursday night. i found out from Mike, an anglican pastor with a church building that's 800 years old, that those 25 churches comprise only two or three percent of the population of Dagenham. he pulled me out of my daze and reminded me that there is much work to be done if Jesus is to be exalted as Lord in Dagenham. He wants us to begin praying that God would increase the number of christians in Dagenham to the psychologically significant ten percent mark in the next few years (he gave a target...2015 or something...i don't really remember). This is a crazy dream from where i stand...just the kind of dream i want to jump on board with and pray for, expecting God to show up.

TNIV

Just ordered a copy of the new Bible translation TNIV (Today's NIV). among other updates, it uses gender neutral language. Tim Bednar has a great post on the new tranlation here.
I'm a little wary of the translation because of the difficulty one often finds in expressing the third-person singular in a gender neutral way. "each one must give account of himself" becomes "we must give account of ourselves" - this gender neutral rendering makes it much less clear that it's people individually who must give account, and not a collective group...maybe that's my western individualism getting in the way, I don't know.
i find it interesting that on Tim's site and the TNIV site, the argument is being made that the TNIV more acurately represents the English language as it is currently used among young adults. in other words, young people who loosely fit the description "postmodern" are increasingly using gender neutral language to express themselves. this would not be true of most of the people i know, although most of the people i know are not "postmodern", though they are young. in the small subsection of english evangelicalism to which i'm currently connected in London, men are still very much dominant. i find myself correcting my use of male dominated language, and my collegues react with a kind of mild amusement. i like the idea of a translation that confronts men and our lust for power and control.
on the other hand, i may have reservations about removing the culture-bound elements from the text. i suppose you always do this when you translate from one language to another, but we can't (and shouldn't) erase the patriarchal nature of society in the Ancient Near East. It's often this culture that allows the egalitarian gospel to shine with such dramatic contrast.

Bible Reading Plan

Last week I realized that Somer and I have been reading the same parts of the Bible over and over again - Isaiah 43, Revelation 22:17, Psalm 1, 16, 36. All great passages, but it tends to make us lose perspective. so i've found a bible reading plan to help us read through the bible in a year. you can find it here. i like this guide because you read parts of the old testament and new testament on the same days. i suppose you lose the aspect of the unfolding story that you'd get from reading it straight through. i'm ambivalent about dividing the readings into "family" and "secret". i could do without the extra explanation McCheyne gives...it reminds me too much of presbyterians who still try to think and talk like that today...too much of the good stuff in my heritage is absolutized and therefore made useless. but, the bible reading plan is a good one, so I'll use it.

It's Snowing!

It's snowing in London! Laura called from the car with Julian to make sure we had seen it...they know how much we miss the snow in Philly. The real question is, will it still be around tomorrow morning? not holding my breath.

Airline Emissions

The Kyoto protocol went into effect this week, though not in the U.S. thanks to our unwillingness to ratify it. Pres. Bush claims there are fundamental flaws in the protocol...maybe he's right, I have no idea. One of the flaws that the report I was watching pointed to is the fact that airline emissions are not covered by the protocol - meaning planes can continue to spill as much pollution as they want. I stumbled across a site today that allows you to offset the amount of greenhouse gases your flight emits by contributing a small sum to help plant one or more trees. It's called Climate Care . For my recent flight from Philadelphia to London, we emitted 1.5 tons of CO2 into the upper atmosphere. For £10.50 I can plant a tree that will recover all of that pollution. Pretty cool.

The Ban, The Comfort, and The Call

Had to ban a guy from the Hub yesterday. he was abusive towards the centre staff. not terribly violent, but totally unwilling to obey any of the rules we have in place for the protection of everyone else at the Hub. he was especially hard on me - pushed me a couple times, spit on me, tackled me into a couch, and tried to shove a cookie in my face (this is a guy in his late teens, mind you). also blew smoke in my face...not tobacco smoke either. none of these things by itself would be all that bad, even as i write this i'm wondering if his behavior was all that terrible towards me.
by the end of the night, i was feeling a lot of anger and resentment, and also a bit of shame. why doesn't he respect me? he respects some of the other LCM staff there. why do i let his behavior bother me? should i just take it?
I came home and read the beatitudes from matthew 5 and 6 (o.k., I'll admit it: first i sat and stewed for about 3 hours, and then at 1 a.m. i picked up the bible 'cuz i had nowhere else to go). jesus' words were full of comfort. i was feeling like the lowest, weakest, poorest guy around, and jesus says in his kindgom those people are highly blessed. i don't think i'm reading too much into what he says to see the abuse i took at the Hub as part of what Jesus was talking about when he said that his family is blessed when people abuse and devour them, because they also abused and devoured him. there's something redemptive about suffering abuse silently for the name of Jesus.
jesus also had some challenging words for me last night. he also says in Matt 5-6 that life in his family involves laying down our rights for the sake of others, and putting our heart motives into perspective. take for example what he says about anger in relationship to how i felt towards the Hub lad. i was particularly challenged by his call to pray for our enemies.
i had prayed for this guy earlier in the evening, but it was more of a cheesy Christian prayer "God, please come into his life and make him a believer"; and it didn't really flow from a heart that cared for the guy. After reading Matthew, i prayed that God would bless him with a job, and that his mind would be clear (he's a bit crazy, whether from drugs or what i don't know). i did pray that God would change his heart, but this time out of a desire to see him choose life instead of death, and desiring to see Jesus exalted as darkness is overcome by the light.
the bad feelings aren't gone, and i'm still struggling to figure out how to follow Jesus in the way of wisdom concerning how we as a centre should deal with behavior at the hub in the future, and what kind of relationship we should have with the guys (rule enforcers, friends, mentors, flies on the wall, all of the above?).

One Month

I was writting an update to our prayer team and realized we've been here in London for a whole month! We marked the occassion by driving to Romford in our new car and having lunch at a pub. our first pub visit since we've been here. the whole family ate for under 8 pounds. I had my indian fix for the week.

Car

We have a car! From the great folks at Ichthus Motor Mission . It's a Skoda - kind of a cheap VW. hatchback - huge trunk. about 10 yrs old or so, and in great condition. best part is, it's very cheap. we basically donate a monthly amount for insurance and road tax, plus a small per-mile subsidy to cover repairs. but it's very cheap compared to trying to buy and maintain one ourselves. wonderful experience. God's blessings on Ichthus and the sister/brother who donated the car we're now driving. I'll try to update this post soon with a picture of the car.

City Gates

Visited City Gates this morning. A fairly diverse church. many different countries and races represented, not many of them white. We showed up 15 minutes late and we still got to sing for an hour! we felt very welcome - kids were allowed to stay in the main service and they had a little play area in the back with toys. it was still hard for us to concentrate, and fairly stressful, but it didn't feel like anyone else minded the girls being there, and they certainly weren't the only ones being loud.
It was a fairly mixed group generationally as well. they have a strong outreach to troubled youth that's made some headlines this week - it's losing money from the government in the form of grants because it's too "Christian".
We'll probably go back next week. I'm interested to hear a Charismatic perspective on tongues...the pastor mentioned he'd be saying something about it next week during the sermon.

[update] Thanks, Steph, for the full link to their site.

Many cultures, one Essex

I've spoken at all sorts of different meetings this week. they all feel like they're part of their own universe.
the wednesday afternoon worship gathering at Bethel Centre. spoke on exodus 17 - water in the desert. many of the old people fell asleep during my talk...but julian says they fall asleep every week.
thursday i did the bible talk at the kids club at Ley Street chapel. talked on the exodus as God's keeping his promise, and jesus being the ultimate promise kept - both from God's perspective and ours. not sure how they took it...youth work is still new to me. as are urban kids in general. we again had to call the police, but the boy who was trying to force his way in left before we finished the call and so they didn't come.
today i shared at the evening gathering at Bethel (apparently we have a once-a-month service on Sunday nights). shared our story and a meditation from psalm 36. about 15 people there, mostly older, but there was another family w/ kids.
tuesday i'm doing a talk at the younger Hub.
all very nice. but i feel a bit like i'm on one of those turn-tables that you use to store kitchen gadgets. one minute i'm facing one context, another minute i'm facing another. the worlds don't seem to have much in common, even though the people live in the same parts of town and are from the same country. many cultures, one north-east London.

Groovin'

Starting to groove to the rythm of our life in Essex. Tuesday and Thursday are the l...o...n...g... days. Door-to-door and visitation in the morning/afternoon, plus any odd jobs that need done around the center. Preparation for the evening's activities in the late afternoon, followed by the Hub on Tues and kids club at Ley Street on Thurs. The weekend feels like it starts on Thursday night, though, because Friday is a nice short day, with Moms & Tots in the morning at Bethel, and then the weekend officially starts. Monday is a nice "ease into the week" day, with visitation and general service to people in the community.
I say "our life in Essex" because I'm figuring out that while we are officially part of London, the area we're in has its own ethos. I had one guy tell me I needed to get myself a running suit, a few large gold chains, and a Ford Escort with ground effects that I could drive around in while thumping to the base from my overly large sound system and hanging my elbow out the window. Hmm...
Here are a few thoughts rummaging in my head:
What is the church? - I know, it's vague. But one thing I'm learning about LCM is that it's very self-consciously NOT the local church. The mission seem to have a strong definition of what the church is, but I'm not sure how things I've been thinking in the past fit in with that.
How does handing out newspapers door-to-door bless the community, and how can I get excited about it?
How do I get on board w/ LCM's vision w/o coopting it for myself? Does "getting on board" mean just doing everything I'm asked to do? Somehow I don't think so...but maybe.
your thoughts?

Birthday Update

Well, I had a great plan for how the day was going to go. But, as often happens when living outside your home culture, things don't go according to plan. It took us much longer than expected to get to Ikea. The girls were miserable traveling, and we had only 45 mins before the store closed by the time we got there. When we got home (a full 5 hours after starting our journey), we couldn't get the video chat to work with my parents. Still got to talk to them a little, but it was frustrating. I did find a good Swedish cheese at Ikea and remembered I had a little wine left over from a few nights ago...but I was really too tired to enjoy them properly.
Such is life in another country.

Birthday Celebration

So, this is our first big family event since moving to London, and it's all about ME! Tomorrow I turn 26...some would say that's almost 30. We're having a whole weekend of celebration:
Today I played soccer with some other guys from LCM. It was a blast - very muddy. i'll try to remember to post a picture of all of us at half-time (that's right, half-time during a pick-up game. We had a time keeper and everything. the brits know how to do their football).
then it was off for a shower at tom & ashley's house. tom & ashley are some americans working with LCM, we knew them before we came over, and they've been great friends to us since we've arrived. we went to dinner with them to celebrate my big day. we had dinner at "Ask" - an italian restaurant on the Thames. it was cheap (by london standards - still way more than I'd want to pay in the states) and very good food. our appetizer of grilled goat cheese inspired Somer to try it at home.
tomorrow we're going to church at Ley Street Chapel (where I work on Thursdays) and then taking the train to go to Ikea. We're going lamp shopping (something I wouldn't normally get excited about, but I'm really looking forward to it) and will probably grab a bite to eat at the restaurant at Ikea.
then it's home to do a video chat with my parents. hopefully we can find some good cheese and a cheap but drinkable bottle of wine in our travels tomorrow, because that will be the best way to finish off the weekend.

Interactive London Maps

My friend Jason who's a GIS guy just pointed me to some great maps and articles about London. These were all published last friday in the Guardian newspaper. Some pretty amazing stuff! Even if you aren't a census geek like me, at least read the articles. They'll give you a good picture of the city I now call home.

Update to "The Question"

So, I thought I'd give you an update on what my time of repentance to Julian looked like.
I talked to Julian on Wednesday. I confessed my self-absorption to him with regard to the talk at the younger Hub, and he was kind of blown away. For a long time, he didn’t even think I’d done anything wrong to him. It wasn’t until I started explaining what was going on in my heart (the real source of my sin in the first place) that he began to understand. It wasn’t so much that I disagreed with him about how the talks should go. It was more that I couldn’t get past the fact that I had been to seminary and this was not the way I was taught to do “apologetics”. I cared more about doing it the “right” way (or at least the way I think is right) than I did about Julian or the guys at the Hub. That attitude dishonors Jesus by forgetting that he is the one who put aside all his rights to die for us who were going about things all wrong. In the end, it was a great moment of encouragement for both Julian and myself. He extended forgiveness, and we both agreed that our friendship was getting off to a good start. My prayer is that the pattern of openness, confession and repentance continues - and not for the sake of "openness", but for Jesus' sake, that his Spirit of life and peace would reign in us. Love ya' Julian, and I look forward to our partnership in the gospel.

The Question

Of late, the question I've been getting most is "So how are you finding your time so far?" I was asked it several times tonight at the Hub. I suppose it's the right question, if there is such a thing. What else would people who don't know me that well ask? It's probably what I'd ask someone who's only been in my country for a week and a half.
Half way through the night, I realized I don't really know how to answer the question. I'm in a new country, new culture, urban setting (more so than I'm accustomed to). Doing ministry with people who approach God, faith, evangelism, and the church in a very different way from me.
I'm struggling to keep my American-ness to a minimum, and knowing full well that I'll want to take things over and do them my way; so I try to avoid it and still take over anyway.
I've got to repent to Julian tomorrow - I kind of shot down one of his ideas for a talk he wanted to do at the hub. It wasn't a bad idea, just not the way I'd approach it. He wanted to go through proofs for the validity of the Bible. Not the way I'd approach it, but I don't know the kids there very well. My self-focus didn't allow me to see beyond the single issue of how we'd approach the talk to the larger issue of how to be a blessing and encouragement to my brother Julian.

Church

Last night we had Julian and Laura from the Bethel center over. We had a great time with them. They brought a bottle of wine and an orchid (both of which I was very excited about). Went with them to church today. Fairly standard Baptist church, a bit more casual than I expected, though the pastor was wearing a tie. Didn't know most of the songs. Sermon was from Joshua 1, and we heard a lot about Joshua, not much about Jesus. However, they did have a very "community" feel to the gathering - like Sunday morning wasn't the only time these guys saw each other. And it was nice to worship with people we know. Kids were very welcome - even had a major role in the beginning "community events/announcements" part of the service. And they have a nursery school - 10 pounds per day per child. So we're considering sending the girls there two mornings per week. We'll see.
We're also thinking about getting a car. There's a service that provides cars cheaply for missionaries that have come home to the UK - we don't exactly qualify, but we're going to call to see if they can help us. We thought public transport would work, but it's pretty tough to ride buses with the girls (well, the riding's not hard, but getting to the buses is quite a walk for them, and the stroller is massive). We're just far enough outside the center of the city that even the Brits we run into are asking when we're going to get a car.
And finally, for those who care to know (that's you lads at the WHM Sending Center): I've been assigned the task of finding a suitable foosball table for our center! We've been given a grant to pay for it. Here's one I'm thinking about. Notice the option for a floodlit pitch!!

Home

Anyone who knows how to get a picture to show as a thumbnail on my blog...your input would be appreciated.
Here are a few pictures, including one of Somer in front of the new house.

We've Arrived

Arrived in London on Thursday morning. This is the first good internet connect I've had since then...but in two more days, broadband come to my home courtesy of NTL. How exciting!
Speaking of exciting, I've been given a Mosaic glimpse of the promised land, and it looks a lot like the Apple Store on Regent St in central London! We visited there on Saturday - about an hour by train from our house. Words fail me.
today we visited LCM headquarters, and this afternoon we're off with Julien to visit the center where we'll be spending much of our time. tonight, it's in search of chicken for dinner(the only meat store we've found so far is about a 30 minute walk). there is a halal meat market right around the corner, so maybe we'll be buying our meat from the muslims. i know, it sounds like we're living in the middle of nowhere...problem is, when you're new to the city, you can be right in the middle of it and feel like you're in the middle of nowhere.
I'll post more once the internet arrives, but wanted to give at least a brief update now.

We leave tomorrow

went to the world harvest mission prayer meeting today. they prayed for us. it was nice. my brother andrew drove all the way up from Baltimore to say good-bye. he missed moving day on saturday (the lucky dog), though he was sick that day and therefore probably not all that lucky. thanks for coming up, Andrew! It was great to see you.
tomorrow we leave. heading to the airport at 4:30, and boarding the plane at 9! have no idea what Thursday will be like, but we'll keep you informed. this may be the final post for a few days. we've got to figure out an internet connection at our new place. it'll be ADSL, so no problem there, but I don't know how long it'll take to get set up. It'll give me time to work on a piece that I've been letting stew in my head for a while. I'm thinking about life/ministry in terms of wisdom...something along the lines of following Jesus in the way of wisdom (just to whet your appetite).

2 days to go

the excitement has died down, and we're now in waiting mode. we slept in to recover from the party last night. the phone's been ringing a lot - friends, family, even the VP of Westminster Seminary, calling for last-minute items. tomorrow my brother's coming up to say good-bye. he's the last family we'll see before we leave.

3

our going away party was Sunday night. had over 50 people come. I say that not to say we're popular (don't know if 50 people is a lot or a little in your mind, anyway), but simply to say that we were blessed by 50 people who came to say good-bye. it was hard to see all of them (somer and I are only 2 people), but we had lots of fun. our college/career friends stayed until 11 or so.
i'm finding that good-byes aren't that sad...and I'm a little surprised by that. maybe it's 'cuz we've got all this exciting stuff to look forward to. i wonder if we'll be hit by sadness after we've been in London for a while.

4

on saturday it poured in the morning. we loaded all our stuff in the truck by 11. got to Lebanon and had everything out of the truck by 4. I was beat. we treated ourselves and our helpers/family to dinner at Maggiano's. if only London had a Maggiano's. it was a little sad to go upstairs to our part of the house and find it empty that night. we're sleeping on the pull-out sofa in the family room for the next few nights.

5

we are packed! we fit most of what we think we want in London in our 8 suitcases. the rest goes to Matt & Beth's tomorrow. it's supposed to rain.
in the process of packing, we ended up giving away lots of stuff. probably half our clothes, one of our cars, a crib, and probably some other stuff i can't even remember 'cuz it wasn't all that important to me in the first place. but i've kinda got this weird feeling about the whole thing. almost like i want a pat on the back for giving that much stuff away; or maybe i just want to see that other people are being blessed by our giving. like all the stuff we gave to the thrift store...i don't know first-hand of anyone who's life has been significantly impacted by that store. i know lots of people have been deeply impacted, but I don't know them personally. or maybe i just feel like we gave all this stuff away, and it doesn't really feel like much of a sacrifice.
i've got a few thoughts from the bible floating around. first, Jesus often encouraged his followers to hold their possession loosely, and to give liberally to the poor. second, he promised that those who cling to him and walk in his ways will bear much fruit. those promises seem to have some bearing here. also, in the book of Matthew especially, Jesus talks about his kingdom being made up of "little ones". maybe giving isn't supposed to be a big deal. maybe that's the point.
anyway, that's what's bouncing around in my head at the moment, trying to grapple with those feelings and hold them up to the light of Jesus and what life in his Kingdom should be.

Days to go: 6

i'm going nuts! I'm seriously an extrovert, and spending lots of time without significant human interaction sucks the life out of me. i spent most of the day alone - packing, wrapping up last-minute details on the computer. i did spend a few minutes out - but it was at a lawyer's office signing wills and powers of attorney - not the kind of thing to soothe my desire for connection. maybe i'll see if i can convince my wife to just let me talk at her while she packs.

Family news

We found out yesterday that Somer's great-aunt died after a lengthy fight with a debilitating illness. i didn't really know her all that well, but i do know that she died in Christ. and God has promised that the dead in Christ will rise again, so we have that hope for Marian. It's a strong reminder of how much life is going on all around us, even while we're super-consumed with ourselves and the preparations we need to make for London. We aren't able to make it to the funeral on Friday because of needing to get ready to leave, and it reminds us that there will probably be many more important family milestones that we will miss while in London.

The Spirit and the Bride say
Come!
and let him who hears say
Come!
Whoever is thirsty, let him
Come!
and whoever wishes, let him
Take!
the free gift of the water of LIFE

Drink deeply, Aunt Marian!

Days to go: 7

went and transferred the title of my 15 yr-old ford escort. we're giving it to some friends from new life church. then picked up more boxes from the liquor store (we filled all the boxes I got last night). all our books are packed, as is most of the kitchen stuff. Somer is putting the few kitchen items we're taking to London in a trunk right now. I have about 25 books I wanted to try to take with us, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut that number in half at least. this afternoon, I gave a friend from World Harvest a test-drive of our Honda...he's thinking about borrowing it for a year so that we will have access to it again when we return to the states next January. Tonight we're having dinner with a couple who has just returned to the states from London. then it's home for more packing.

Days to go: 8

we had a beautiful time yesterday with some very close friends. probably one of the best good-byes I've said. saw the house/storage shed where we're leaving most of our stuff. it's bigger and in better shape than I imagined, and it's free! blessings to you, Beth & Matt!

woke up this morning and helped get the kids off to preschool. Somer dropped off 8 bags of clothes we don't need anymore at the thrift store, while I opened mail from the past week, rented a truck for moving our stuff into storage on Saturday, and responded to a few e-mails from potential financial supporters. this afternoon, Somer's buying trunks (4 of them) to add to the 2 we bought yesterday. by the time we're done, the walmarts in the northern philadelphia suburbs will be out of them - not that they'd know, because the trunks we're buying don't show up on the store's inventory...the clerks have to make up a price for them, and key them in manually. part of the struggle of being the biggest, i guess.
when she gets back, I'm off to the liquor store for boxes. tonight we're packing our bookshelves.

Update on "Language" and "Targeting"

my friend jeremy in india added a few insights/cautions by e-mail, and I think they warrant an updated post.
on targeting, he writes: "I think there can be a difference between 'targeting' (another missy war metaphor that can surely be done away with) and focused ministry. After all the gospel is contextual and what is the problem with saying...that you are there to (re)approach Jesus centered community for those who have lost touch with traditional religion". I like it. Among other things, it makes Jesus the center of why I'm there.
on the language metaphor for christianity, he cautions that we don't want to push the metaphor too far. people can become fluent in languages - they master them. walking with Jesus in the way of wisdom we never master.

Happy New Year

There, I've said it - Happy New Year! I'm not all that keen on celebrating the new year holiday. I'm not against it, I just always feel a bit like a detached observer during the countdown to midnight. I feel like there's this promise held out that the new year will feel different, and then the clock passes 12:00...and nothing.
But, I suppose there's something good about taking stock of what's happened in the past year, and where we're heading in the next.
From where I stand now, 2005 is covered in a thick fog. Visibility: 12 days ahead. I know that for the next 12 days, we have to pack all our stuff and store it at a friend's house, say good-bye to family and friends, and then get on a plane for London. After that, everything's shrouded in mist. I'm really not sure what to expect, or even what life will look like starting on the 13th.
So here we go, walking with Jesus into the mist.

Targeting in Missions

As part of a team at World Harvest Mission called the "Emerging Generations" team, I've always felt a small amount of discomfort. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I was never quite comfortable with the idea that we were going to London to "reach the emerging generations." I think Doug Pagitt put his finger on my discomfort. Sorry for being on a Pagitt kick tonight, but he's really speakin' to me.
Again, it's from Reimagining Spiritual Formation. He says "targeting is done by tobacco companies and snipers, and the one who is targeted is rarely appreciative."
That's it! I want to be able to talk freely about why I'm in London - not in code, not giving only half the story, but freely and openly, to the very people I'm "targeting". If I can't do that, maybe I need to rethink why I'm there!
I'm especially interested in feedback from my sisters and brothers in WHM. What do you guys think? How do you think about church-planting in a way that doesn't make us like snipers or tobacco companies?

Learning the Christian Language

I realize this title might turn some of you off - don't let it stop you from reading further. I'm not referring to learning a special subset of the english language for use in Christian settings. I'm talking about an approach to church that views the entire Christian life as analogous to learning a foreign language. I ran accross this paragraph in "Reimagining Spiritual Formation" by Doug Pagitt pastor at Solomon's Porch in Minneapolis. I'll quote the whole paragraph, then comment further. I'm not really sure of the etiquett for quoting and linking on blogs, if anyone has any input, I'm open.
Doug writes: "In many ways, becoming Christian is much like learning our native language; we pick it up when we are immersed in it. I would guess that nearly all of us spoke and communicated long before we started our formal education. What we then learned in school was not the beginning of language use, but the refining of it. In educational settings, the theory of language acquisition through immersion is by far the most successful means of learning. So it is with Christian faith. Rather than seeing Christianity as belief we acquire in a completed form, we ought to enter into it with the understanding that we are at the beginning of a life-long process of discovery and change. Ours is a faith that is lived, from beginning to end."
I like this comparison of Christianity to language learning for a couple reasons. First, when learning a new language, the worst possible way to do it is to learn a set of facts about the language. Some of the interns that were with me this past summer in Spain learned that even though they were getting "A"s in their spanish classes, they really weren't all that comfortable actually speaking the language. Training people in a set of truths about God, Jesus, and Humanity may not be the best way to help them actually live in the way of Jesus. Much better to immerse both ourselves and newcomers to the community of faith in life together.
Second, knowing facts about a language isn't the best test of how well a person knows the language. My best friend in high-school was Uruguayan. He also almost failed spanish class. Did he know Spanish? Sure. He spent most of the time correcting our teacher. But when it came to the rules of grammar and how to conjugate verbs, he was often at a loss. Many times in the church we measure how well someone is progressing in the faith (or whether or not they are even part of the faith) by how well they can explain the faith and their experience of it. Somer and I find it difficult sometimes to explain what we implicitly understand and do and experience with relationship to God. This caused us problems when we were evaluated by World Harvest Mission two years ago - making them wonder about our intimacy with God. I mention that not to criticize WHM, but to say that I've experienced first-hand the misunderstanding and frustration that comes from forgetting the language-like nature of our faith.
What if we viewed church as one long experiment in learning the Christian language? I think I want to ponder this some more and come back to it in a few months. I'd love to hear how some of you see these ideas playing out in your specific context.

Ilford

For those of you who are interested in where we're moving to, here's a map of London. Ilford is in the north-east part of the city. (Geography not your strong suit? Look in the upper-right section of the map.)

Party

Never lacking an excuse to throw a party and get together with people. That should be one of the marks of the church.
So, in that spirit, we are throwing ourselves a party before we leave for London. It'll be at Jim & Steph's house, where we've been living for the past few months. Sunday, January 9 at 7 PM.
It's hard (especially for me) to say good-bye to people. My wife has learned that when I say "it's time to leave", I really mean "it's time for me to say good-bye to people, and I'll be ready to leave in 45 minutes." So I'm hoping this party will allow us to see many of the people we care about in the Philadelphia area. We'd love to see you there - drop me an e-mail or post a comment if you're interested in coming and need directions.

Holidays

We're off to Baltimore tomorrow. Hoping to see some of you while we're down there.
Please ask God to help us enjoy time with family - really enjoy them for who they are, not for how they make us feel.
I'll have on and off internet access, so may update things a little less frequently for the next week.
Dan

Money

so i spent part of today filling out paperwork for my pension plan with world harvest. it's something that i've struggled with on several levels. first, i've heard all the stuff about being responsible with our money, planning for the future, making sure we take care of our families, being good stewards, etc. but it still gnaws at me: "why do i need a pension?" i feel like i'm just saving for the sake of saving. building up more wealth for the sake of building it up. the second reason i struggle with it is because i LOVE money. i like to think about it. i like to look at account balances because there's something alluring there. i felt the desire to be served by money sinking its hooks into my heart - beginning to force me to serve it instead. that's the way it always is with the things our hearts love. we think they will serve us, but in the end, we serve them. we think they'll bring life, but instead they suck it from us.
so, i finish the day feeling like a little life has been sucked out of me, right onto the page where i made my pension allocation instructions.

Rest

a friend recently said that she thinks busyness is a main manifestation of spiritual warfare in the u.s. given what i just said in my last post about being busy, this is personally relevant.

busyness
it's subtle. it feels good to accomplish something. who ever felt guilty for getting something done?

what does my enemy want? separation, barrenness, destruction, death. all easily accomplished through the forgetfulness brought on by my busyness.

how do i avoid it?

God says STOP IT and remember that it is I who am God - Psalm 46

this has echos in the book of Hebrews, where he says "There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who *enters God's rest also rests from his own work,* just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience." Heb 4:9-10.
How does one enter that rest? the author of hebrews says it's by fixing all their attention on Jesus - all their hopes, all their dreams, all their faith.

The rythm of the original "Sabbath" - taking one day in seven to rest, is expanded in Jesus. it becomes the daily rythm for all who connect to God through Jesus. life in Jesus is life in God's rest. every day is an opportunity to stop MY work, and enter his REST.
that's what i'm going to do right now - take some time to meditate on Jesus, and so cease from my busyness, and enter God's rest.

Drained

activity is going on at a furious pace in our house. monday and tuesday i helped assess new missionaries for world harvest. i told my father-in-law this weekend that i'm not sure what value i bring to the process. i feel like i'm so inexperienced, and so eager to take risks, that i'll approve anyone who loves jesus and still has a pulse (even if it's weak and erratic). but be that as it may, they let me sit and talk to some prospects for an hour at a time. not exactly my idea of the best way to get to know someone (not really even among the top ten best ways to get to know someone), but nonetheless it's the only way we know.
then tuesday evening I came home and made support calls. today we worked all day getting our visa applications together. please pray for favor (favour, in my new home city) from the authorities reviewing our application, and pray God's blessing on them. then it was on to more calls tonight.
last night i was a bundle of energy (I'm on of those people who gets more energized the more people we talk to). tonight, i'm writing, hoping to tire myself out.

Party in Baltimore

heading to London on 2-months notice means we have to raise a whole lot of money in a small amount of time. it's way too much for us to raise unless God shows up in a huge way.
however, one of the exciting implications for me is that i am forced to contact lots of people to see if God wants to provide some of our need through them. so we've been getting to connect to people we wouldn't ordinarily see. This past saturday we had a party at mom and dad's house in b'more. about 25 people there - some of whom have known me my whole life, and prayed consistently for me over the past 26 years. it's humbling and encouraging and energizing to experience the love of God's family in that way.
thanks to all who were there.
we found out about a few more gifts this weekend, and need only $328/mo in new pledges of support.

Barack Obama

Anybody know anything about Barack Obama? I mean, besides that he's this amazing speaker, a 'rising star' in the Democratic party? I caught a snipet of a book signing he was doing at B&N in NYC. Someone asked him how he reconciles his religion with politics. He had this very insightful response (I'm paraphrasing from memory):

Religious belief by its very nature is absolute. If I believe that Allah is God, then Allah is the only God - not Buddha or anyone else. If I believe that Jesus is my savior, then he is my savior, and no one else is my savior. But we live in a pluralistic world, and our political system is a pluralistic one in which people with opposing ideas and worldviews can come together in dialogue. This means there's a tension between the absolute of faith and the pluralism of American politics. Here's how I personally live with that tension: when I read scripture, my interpretation is subject to my own error, my own sinfulness. So I always approach it with an understanding that I could be wrong. I bring a sort of skepticism, like saying 'this is my interpretation, but what do you think about it?' That skepticism allows me to disagree with other politicians while at the same time listening to them to see if maybe I am wrong. It prevents me from preemptively shutting down all dialogue.

I've got to chew on what he said for a while. i'm interested in what his religious persuasion is.

Beyond the Postmodern

It has been fashionable of late in the circles where I find myself to discuss postmodernity. It’s hard to carry on a conversation without someone dropping the word “Pomo” in hopes of sounding hip. ‘the pomo church…’ ‘pomos want community, authenticity, blah, blah blah…’ there’s also the flip-side of the conversation, those in my church community who are trying to stem the tide as the culture flows downhill into the perceived abyss that postmodernity creates. several sermons in the past year have railed against postmodernity. ‘it denies all absolute truth.’ ‘it tells our young people that everything is relative.’ and on and on the criticism goes.
problem is, postmodernity as a project has come and gone.
Jeremy Rifkin writes “What we end up with at the end of the post-modern deconstruction process are modernity reduced to intellectual rubble and an anarchic world where everyone’s story is equally compelling and valid and worthy of recognition.
“If the post-modernists razed the ideological walls of modernity and freed the prisoners, they left them with no particular place to go. We became existential nomads…forced to find our own paths in a chaotic and fragmented world that is even more dangerous than the all encompassing one we left behind.”
pardon the long quote, but Rifkin beautifully captures what some in the church are saying about post-modernity. surprisingly, his purpose is not to destroy post-modernity. Rifkin argues that Europeans have already done that. Europe has moved beyond post-modernity in favor of a global quest for human rights and sustainable quality of life (according to Rifkin). meanwhile, many Americans are still stuck in modernist assumptions about the world.
so, who are we (my church community) speaking to when we engage ‘the post-modern’. Europeans? no, they’ve moved beyond us. Our fellow Americans? well, maybe the few who are ‘hip’ enough to cling to an ideology that the rest of the world has exposed as inadequate.
and we wonder why the rest of the world views us the way they do. they don’t hate us. they just kind of hold us in bemused contempt.

Call

so what’s your call?
we had a couple over for smores and peppermint hot chocolate; and to talk about London. we had asked them to pray about supporting us financially, and they wanted to know more about what we were getting ourselves into. i know the woman a little better than her husband, and it was she who asked me about my call to London.
my initial response to the question was: calling is a load of crap. this of course was not an appropriate answer, and she told me so. but i was speaking out of personal dissatisfaction with the way the term “calling” is used in the church in the USA.
it seems like much that passes for “calling” is little more than a strong desire. a guy likes to speak, and wants to do it in a way that people will listen to him…so he starts to think he’s “called” to preach. those who are not “called” into leadership in the church use the fact of their non-calling to abdicate responsibility. i have actually heard people say that it’s the responsibility of the pastor to preach the gospel to the unsaved (because that’s what they’re called to do) and other people in the church should just bring their friends to get preached to.
i'd rather have people say “hey, i like to preach” or “i don’t feel like sharing the gospel with my neighbor…it’s too scary,” and be done with it.
Os Guinness in his book The Call says that we are first and foremost called to belong to God. anything else we do in life is in response to that first call. i love that! whatever i do, i do it in response to the fact that i belong to God. hence the title of this blog.
so maybe i'm ranting a little, but i wish we’d spend more time responding to our call to belong to God, and less time worrying about what we’re being “called” to in life. what was it St. Augustine said? love God and do as you please?

Change

lots of changes going on in our home over the past week. our housemates had their baby yesterday - baby erika was born at 9:10 am. the other three kids are eagerly waiting for the new addition to arrive home.
we began contacting people about providing financial support to our family while we minister in London. the humble place of a receiver in a society that is built on the exaltation of self-sufficiency. just think of the twinkle you get in your eye when you hear about someone being "financially independent" and how much you want to be them. we are totally financially dependent - not exactly something most people strive for - not something i particularly want to strive for. but so it is.
we've begun to talk to andi and jodie about the move to london. so far, they want to bring their blankets, their pacifiers, their clothes, and their potties. i'm sure the list will grow.
the certainty and urgency of getting to london in January still feels a little surreal. especially given the way our lives have gone the past two years. here's how our friend michelle describes the course of our life in a recent e-mail:

ready, set, go
stop!
pause
switch tracks--go!
WRONG TRACK GET BACK TO THE FIRST ONE
RUN RUN RUN HURRY GO

Contemplative Prayer

ever consciously started to pray by being quiet and just listening? on sunday i led our adult sunday school class in an exercise in contemplative prayer. on of our elders began the morning by reminding us that prayer is about conversation with the living God. in conversation, we don't always talk...sometimes we listen.
so, we had people begin by reading a passage from Isaiah and listening for a word or phrase that spoke to them. they read either Isaiah 25:6-9 or Isaiah 53:1-10. we then took 3 minutes of silence to be quite and listen for God's voice in the passage.
then, because God speaks through the Bible, we read Matt 26:26-28 in conjuction with the Isaiah passage, and then took silence to listen for how God's message grew richer.
finally, we had people look at one of several paintings that were done in response to the last supper, and again took silent time to allow the visual images to draw out the multi-faced beauty of God's word.
we asked people to take five minutes to write a short prayer of response to whatever the Lord had been saying to them that morning. some people responded with repentance, others with adoration and praise.
then, the scary (and some would say bold) part: we asked for volunteers to read their prayers to the congregation during the celebration of the Lord's Supper at the main worship meeting that morning.

here's why i'm so excited about this: first, it was just plain cool. people who did the exercise were blessed immensely by it. second, it puts into practice a number of the values that i think are key in the emerging church. things like the need for "white space" as my buddy Dan Macha would say - a conjunction of time and space that is consciously carved out for listening for the voice of God. things like valuing the input of all members of God's family. modern churches called this "every member ministry" but didn't execute it practically in the way they run their worship services...Paul called it the way things were in the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 14:26 and following. I had always read these verses as a condemnation of the chaos caused by various people having things to say during the "service", of of the reason for why we only let the pastor speak and plan things out ahead of time, but lately i'm wondering if he wasn't saying that since everyone has something to offer, they should each be given a chance to offer it in an orderly way that demonstrates the value of what each person brings. maybe i'll post on this more later. Emerging Worship first turned me on to this way of understanding the passage.)

Election Perspectives

is president bush this country's David, or is he our Saul? In the book of Samuel in the Old Testament, Israel asked God for a king - and the Lord delivered...but it didn't exactly turn out the way Israel thought it would. saul was a man who appeared to be just what Israel needed at the time. but in the end, he led Israel away from her God. then the Lord replaced him with a man after his own heart - David.
i've heard a lot in the media lately about how the church got bush elected. so i'm wondering - will it turn out the way we hope it will? or will God maybe give us what we've asked for, only for us to realize we have no idea what we've really asked for?
Andrew Jones asks Is God up to something in USA? the ensuing discussion is great. certainly i don't agree with everything that's been posted, but people raise some great questions. i especially resonate with the post that connects the church's calling with God's call to Adam to fill the earth and subdue it. in Jesus, our true existence as humans is restored. we take our place as God's representative rulers - his "vice-gerents" as my seminary profs used to call it. this is what it means for the Kingdom of God to come.
what's all this mean for the USA? i'd love to read your thoughts

We're Going to London!

we heard from London City Mission today. they have invited us to spend a year at one of their outreach centers. the biggest news for us is that they want us to arrive in London the middle of January! that gives us just two short months here in the States before we leave. in a sense it's sooner than we expected...but in another sense, it's fantastic. our lives have been in limbo for a while - not a bad place to be, needing to meet Jesus in the midst of uncertainty - but it's also nice to meet Jesus on the road to London.

London City Mission

for the last two years the city of London has been on our hearts. the entire story of how it got there and what's happened as a result has interesected nearly every part of our lives. we were ready to move there a year and a half ago to be part of an effort to see new fellowships of Jesus-followers raised up in the city. the group we were going with, however, asked us to wait for a year. we had been living a whirlwind that involved seminary in three years and bringing two children into the world. we needed a break. we needed to learn to be near our Father. rest. intimacy. at 24, it's pretty hard to hear someone tell you you're burned out and your marriage is heading for trouble if you don't do something about it (that's a problem 40 year olds are supposed to have). but it was what we needed. it was what our Father knew would woo us into deeper romance with him.
but in the midst of all that, he never took London off our hearts. in the coming months, we are hoping to move to london for a year to learn more about the city and be involved in the movement of our Father's kingdom there. we have asked London City Mission if we can join the work at one of their outreach centers. on tuesday, they will be making their decision. pray with us that our Dad would make his will known to us in the decision of LCM, and that through it all his heart would become ours.

Maturity in the Emerging Church

we had a good time of prayer and laying our hearts out before each other and the Lord this morning. thanks to all of you who were joining us in prayer.
one of the issues that came up i think merits a wider discussion: what is the role of older, more mature christians in the emerging church? for many boomers in the american church, the emgerging church looks young and feels too 'hip' for them. we saw it when we started having a public worship gathering led by our college group at church. the older people who came to the first one felt like they were out of place. i don't think they disliked what was going on...but they felt like they didn't fit in. they didn't stick out to me, but they said they felt like they stuck out.
how do we as young leaders in the church draw from the experience and wisdom of those who have gone before us, and at the same time not push them into the background? it seems to me that the emerging church is a place for anyone who genuinely desires to express their devotion to Jesus in real, personal ways, and wants to experience the nearness of his Spirit, no matter the age. how do we empower the grey-haired (or no-haired) among us to be turned loose for powerful ministry in the emerging church?

London Prayer

We're meeting tomorrow morning at 9 to pray with two other couples about church planting in London. these couples are significantly older than Somer and me, and we would be privileged to minister alonside them. they have been serving in the church in america and in africa for many years. we have much to learn from them.
pray the Holy Spirit will make clear whether he's calling us to be a team together in london.

Lectio Divina

sunday night during our regular meeting with group of young adults from our church we practiced the ancient method of meditation on scripture called lectio divina. we used the story of Zachaeus from Luke 19. i had done something like it once before when i was in north africa, but it was the first time most of the rest of the group had done anything like it.
i really enjoyed it because it allowed each member of the group to seek the Lord on their own, and then to bring what the Lord was teaching them in the passage as an offering to the rest of the group. the primary focus was on listening to the Lord in his word, and out of that experience of him encouraging each other.
part of lectio divina involves looking for a word or phrase that sticks out from a passage, and then repeating that phrase silently, seeking to hear the voice of the Lord. at the risk of cheapening the experience, i'll share with you the phrase that hit me:
"here and now i give half my possessions..."
no further explanation...just let that sit with you for a while