Worship Conversation

the corporate church

2007-04-17T07:08:00.000-07:00

I was an elder of a large – and growing – local church. We had many ministries, multiple paid staff and a large facility that had to be managed. We had to handle a six-figure budget with precision and negotiate contracts with maintenance companies for our HVAC and security systems. Sometime during the church’s life, our pastor discovered an article that defined the ‘modern’ church as a cause, community and a corporation. The article gave us permission to re-vamp our governance structure. We hired a Christian business consultant who provided definitions and roles for a leadership team that championed the three aspects.

Since then three things have happened that have made me re-consider the validity of applying any corporate model to local church governance. The first thing is our church stopped growing. Oh, granted, there were other issues involved, but it is not a simple coincidence that when we introduced a corporate model, and a corporate personality in the leadership that our church started to decline. The second thing that happened is my son – a wonderful, artistic, activistic young Christian – made me watch the video "The Corporation." And the third thing was reading Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat’s Colossians Remixed. It has been very easy and very destructive for the contemporary church to adopt corporate operating principles.

The problem is that the corporate model puts the success of the corporation above everything else; over the needs or concerns of any individual. People don’t matter as long as the corporate vision is being accomplished. So non-productive people should be fired, and the success be measured with numerical goals. The vision is everything (even if that vision is biblically based) and non-visionary people be removed from their positions.
Walsh and Keesmaat make a very compelling case that we, as Christians, are to be as radically wary of the modern corporate empires as the Colossian Christians were to the prevailing Roman Empire.

And, further, Paul’s descriptions of church structure is that of individual importance and organic structure. Each has a gift to offer the local church, and the church becomes that place where everyone can serve meaningfully. A "corporate" church soon begins to value competence and excellence as the acceptable standards of service. The late Mike Yaconelli told a poignant story in his Messy Spirituality of a woman, Connie, who was a poor reader, and who wasn’t able to enunciate her words properly. But she desperately wanted – just once – to read the scripture in front of the congregation. The pastor let her, and the elders reamed out the pastor: "The girl can’t read or speak. Her reading took ten minutes! The church,’ they said, ‘is not a place for incompetence." (p. 33). But, on the contrary, the church is the place for the incompetent, unfinished, unhealthy, struggling and imperfect people.

Let me suggest that the church that will reach the next generation will be a church that actually stands as a counter-culture to the corporate empire that rule us. We are called to be distinct, even radically so, to the prevailing culture. Maybe it is time we wrote an article calling the church to be a spirit-led, humane, and safe place for us incompetent people to call home.

Jim Dethmer, "Moving in the Right Circles," Leadership (Fall Quarter, 1992), pp. 86-91.

the sin competition

2007-01-15T06:56:00.000-08:00

While I don’t think I am going to go out and shoot anybody, I don’t like Monday’s. (reference to a song by the Boomtown Rats, in case you don’t know). This a.m. the world (at least that portion I live in) is covered with a sheet of ice. It’s now raining; the word dreary might be the most accurate. Oh well, take what we get, I suppose…

In an order to order my attitude somewhat, I have a devotional book and page-a-day calendar I am reading each morning.

The book is excerpts from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s writings. The more I read his work, the more I found him relevant. Today he cast a new light on Paul’s words, "I am the chief of sinners." I always interpreted this to be Paul’s way of boasting; kind of like being proud of one’s humility. Paul, as if one’s sin is in competition with others’, was boasting of his humility. I don’t like that, and it cast a bit of a shadow on Paul for me.
But Bonhoeffer suggests that in community we all should have such an attitude. The context of Paul’s words was about ministry in a local church. Tim, as the leader, must serve his community with humility, and believe the members of his community are somewhat "better" than he is. Bonhoeffer wrote: "If my sin appears to me to be in any way smaller or less reprehensible in comparison with the sins of others, then in am not yet recognizing my sin at all. … How could I possible serve other persons in unfeigned humility if their sins appear to me to be seriously worse than my own? If I am to have any hope for them, then I must not raise myself above them. Such service would be a sham." (life together)

No, it’s not a competition but a recognition that, at the very least, we are all the same in terms of sin, not that I, by virtue of any position, education, or experience I have, am in any way superior to those in my community. I can only serve them authentically if I think i am the worst sinner; if I view those in my community as "higher" than I am. I am to think of my self "soberly" and others as "better".

The second daily read I do is from a wonderful calendar called "the fisherman’s year" (or something like that). Today’ read instructs me to choose the reel with the proper gear ratio for the type of fishing I’m doing. A high gear ratio is good for cast and retrieve, but not for other types of fishing. Who knew?! Wow, am I glad to read that this morning. I am going to run down right now and check my gear ratios.

Oh, it also pointed out that today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. So, in his honour, let's pray for peace.
David

crap! it's the New Year

2007-01-04T06:41:00.000-08:00

The symbolism was rich; I just don’t know exactly what it symbolized:

The first major event of 2007 for me was a funeral. There I sat, looking at the closed casket of our best friend’s father. My wife and I didn’t know the deceased very well, but we were there to support our friends.
Whenever New Year’s celebration shows up in movies, it often symbolizes the transition from the old to the new. If you analyze the story, you would discover the ‘reality’ behind the symbol. So I sat trying to discern the reality behind the symbol. Was 2006 dead, and I had to grieve it, and start over? Duh!

’06 wasn’t the best year for me. It was year of pursuing a number of dreams, and none of them really coming true. I have to bury the frustrations of last year, but not the dreams. I am facing the new year with a determination to take my future into my hands and create the opportunity for some of those dreams to come true. I think I waited for the whole of last year for someone else to make them come true. That is, I pursued employment in order to get "the job" that would meet my financial needs and my career needs.

However, just bubbling under the surface all year, was the idea (dream?) of starting a web-site on which I launched my self, my work, and created a virtual home from which to market my skills. In other words, take my future into my own hands.

Maybe God will help those who help themselves? I think I’ve waited on God, and I got this dream. I kept asking him for a job, and he reminded me of this dream. "But I don’t have what it takes to do it myself!" I yell at the dream. "I know. Do it anyway," it yells back.

Crap! I think I have to do it anyway.

My favourite Christmas greeting: L'Chaim

2006-12-24T08:48:00.000-08:00

Last night our house church lit the last of the advent candles. The first candle represents Hope. The second, Peace. The third, Love. The fourth, Joy. Last night we lit the central candle, the big gold one; the one that represented Jesus.
We had a few visitors so I didn’t get a chair. I sat on the floor and looked at the assembled group: To my right is a Jewish believer whose family survived the Holocaust and she fled Europe during the last years of the war. She and her husband brought a visitor who is a medical doctor originally from India who worked in Muslim countries in the Middle East. Despite the potential consequences, she organized carol sings and prayer meetings during Christmas!
My daughter and her daughter sat on the floor in front of the tree. Our friends shared stories from their memories, reports from missionaries who experience Christmas differently "over there." And we sang carols – the sublime and the ridiculous.
But we shared communion. The incarnation is the Eternal becoming flesh. It was that flesh that was broken. So, with the candles of hope, peace, love, joy and Jesus burning, we shared the bread and "Kosher" grape juice (supplied by the Jewish woman). We held the cups of wine and I felt the urge to say "L'Chaim" – "to life".
One of our group asked if this was appropriate during communion. We discussed that for a minute. We decided it was OK; Jesus came to give us life, so let’s celebrate the life he gave, even amidst the (in fact, via) the death he suffered.
L'Chaim !!

why bother?

2006-12-12T09:27:00.000-08:00

I am part of a writers' forum; we post our writings to be critiqued and critique each other's work. A good exercise, and a nice place to post writings. But it seems almost incestuous. Writers, reading writers and commenting on writers. Nobody else reads the words.

Yesterday, I received a rejection letter in the mail from another publisher. We writers quickly loose count of those letters. We receive lots of them and each one hurts. I am not supposed to write the editor and say, "eat shit and die!" but am supposed to take the rejection philosophically. I'll keep trying, but it raises the question, why?

The only people, apparently, who read my words are those who also like to write. some of that group are published, some are wannabes.

But, i continue to write. Why?

beats me.

The Kingdom is like a hedonist

2006-12-04T06:23:00.000-08:00

I know we’ve all heard this before, but I was reminded about it again this morning…
Jesus told a story: The kingdom of God is like a man who found a treasure in a field. He buried the treasure in the field, sold all he had and, in great joy bought the field.
In Jesus’ terms, and in his words, the "gospel" simply meant "the Kingdom of God." The kingdom, or the gospel is supposed to be something that produces two things: Joy, and the abandon to "sell all" to get it.
Twenty years ago a Christian writer took a lot of heat from the piety police over the sub-title of his book; "Meditations of a Christian Hedonist". His point, following Christ should produce pleasure – or in more biblical language, Joy.
Why are there so many up-tight, stressed-out, ticked-off, sour-faced, messed-up Christians? Maybe we’ve got it wrong. Maybe I’ve got it wrong; I must confess to not being very joyful and full of abandon.
Just a thought.

Jesus Claus

2006-11-20T13:44:00.000-08:00

I saw a thought-provoking ad from the United Church. My thoughts were provoked. The ad was a simple picture: a "Jesus" person sitting on Santa’s chair in a mall with kids on his lap. I don’t remember the caption, but the image is all it took to raise the question – what is the appropriate relationship between Jesus, Santa, Christmas Trees and Tonka Trucks.
I remember a writer from a generation ago described art as a lie that forces us to contemplate the truth. In this 21st century world, art and advertising images are usually one in the same thing. Jesus in a mall is a Lie that forced me to contemplate the Truth.
There is a competition of images going on in my mind. A number of years ago local Christian bookstores sold a bunch of Kneeling Santa images. "That’s more like it," we evangelicals said. "Santa has to pay homage, has to worship at the manger too." Is that image any better? It is the same mixture; sacred/secular; Christ and Culture; Christian/Pagan. I decorate a Christmas tree. I buy gifts for my family. I eat (too much) turkey, wear red sweaters and wonder what to do with the "Just Like…" cologne from Aunt Betty. Have I lost the Christ in Christmas?
What would Jesus do if he were here today? I don’t think he’d spend much time in a mall’s concourse, sitting on an elaborate throne nestled between the Gap and La Senza having kids sit on his lap. I see him sitting on a curb downtown, sitting with children from single moms and street kids. I believe that the point of the incarnation is (almost) equally undermined by a sentimental image of a manger or as Santa Claus.
Jesus came (the first Christmas) for two reasons, as far as I can tell. The first was to usher in the Kingdom of God. That kingdom is/is going to be one of justice and love. The church’s job is to partner with God, through the Spirit and follow the example of the Son and bring justice and Love to our world. Buying a Tonka Truck for a child of a single mom as part of a ministry effort just might be the most Christ-like thing we can do. The second reason (in no particular order) was to die. Neither of these are particularly sentimental.
But, if a sentimental image of the nativity brings us back to discussing Jesus and his mission, maybe it is a good thing. If in image of Santa reminds us to buy a gift for a homeless man, or a needy child, then let’s have images of Santa around. And if an image of Jesus sitting in Santa’s chair sparks conversation about Christmas, let’s have more images. (Even if the image bugs me. But wasn’t that their point?)
Hope and Peace and Merry Christmas.

Please, a simple answer to a simple question

2006-11-05T17:14:00.000-08:00

I’m feeling a bit stuck, these days. First of all, Saturday was my last day of employment; the contract was temporary and it is over. I have a part-time gig in an office, but nothing that can sustain us, and certainly not a career. Here I sit a man in search of a career. Simon and Garfunkle’s song comes to mind: "Seeking only workman’s wages/I come looking for a job/but I get no offers…" The next line certainly does not apply (you’ll have to look it up, the song is The Boxer), but I really would like a career that would pay a bill or two, and be somewhat satisfying, and allow me to continue to write.

Speaking of which, the second reason I am stuck is that I am working on a story and just wrote myself into an emotional spot. The main character, Ryan, has to tell his new girlfriend that her best friend and first lover (you’ll have to read the whole story to realize it is not as weird as it sounds) was just murdered. I stopped writing at that point. She still doesn’t know Matt has been killed. I just don’t have the courage to tell her. I really don’t know how she’ll react, so I stopped writing...

And lay on the couch in our study and read a book, avoiding the inevitable. I’ll write that later. So I read. A safe escape. Safer than internet porn, or stupid TV. I between pages, I lifted my eyes to the framed degree on the wall. Words like "hereto" and "bestowed" or it is "conferred", I forget. Anyway, there it was on the wall, my degree: Master of Theological Studies. This leads me to the third reason I am stuck. When I enrolled in graduate school, I thought it was the ticket. I wasn’t sure to where, but it certainly was the ticket. I read the last line of the certificate "…and all the Rights and Privileges pertaining thereto…" Could someone pleas tell me exactly what my Rights and Privileges are?

So here I sit: under-employed, over-educated, avoiding fictional characters because I am afraid of their reactions to the bad news I have to give, and wondering what my rights in fact are. Would someone please help?
I’d be most obliged.

Does God want you rich? - Maybe

2006-10-30T06:31:00.000-08:00

I’ve been thinking about a couple theological issues recently: the God Wants you Rich issue, and the never-ending debate about free-will and election. It has made me stop and think, not about the issues, but more about the nature of God, the nature of humanity, and God’s revelation to humanity.
The Bible story contains episodes about rich people and poor people, both of whom were loved, followed and honoured by God. Paul said he knew what it was like to be in plenty and in want. Most of the disciples died in prison, not "Adult, Christian communities" complete with shuffleboard and swimming pool (no bridge tables or dancing floors, of course). What does God want? Nothing singular; He wants different things for different people. We modern people keep trying to identify "GOD" by labeling, describing, theologizing and naming. Remember, God only reluctantly gave his name to Moses; and that name meant nothing (or everything). God wants my friend to have money, and he gave him the gift of giving, and a heart for missions. What he gives to both the local church and to missions I wish I made in a year! (oh, oh, am I hung up on money? Maybe that’s why God doesn’t want me rich.)
This raises the issue, however, of how God reveals himself to us, humans. "The Bible teaches," is, at once the best and the most dangerous thing I teacher can say. The best because it is God’s revelation and is the standard by which we must measure our theology. The most dangerous because our Modern notion of "teach" is didactic. That is, we look only at those verses that state truth in abstract forms. E.g. "by grace are you saved…" The problem is, most of scripture is story. God has chosen to teach us through story, not through a theological text. In the story of Job, for example, God answers Job by saying, in effect, "I’m God. You’re not. Live with it."
When the teachers of predestination open scripture, they quote many didactic verses. But when their opponents suggest that many of the stories suggest that God is moved and even God’s mind is changed by the pleas and prayers of his people, (suggesting something other than an iron, sovereign, immovable Will), the teachers disregard those scriptures (a majority!) with "that’s God accommodating human readers. The bible doesn’t really mean that. And if you believe that you are working from a human pride position.
What does the Bible teach? Does God want us rich? Sometimes and perhaps. Does God foreordain who will believe? Perhaps and sometimes. Does God’s mind change based on the pleas of his people? Sometimes. What does the Bible teach about God? "I’m God. You’re not. Live with it." It asks us to follow, to seek, to ask, to wrestle, to risk, and to change the world.

dreams, wasteland, frustration and faith

2006-09-29T06:07:00.000-07:00

To my left is a rough draft of a novel i've been working on and trying to sell for six years. To my right is a phone bill. i am keeping an eye on the clock; i've got to go to my temporary job to i can pay my right hand. I don't dream of being a John Grisham (OK, maybe i do, just a little) but i do think God gave me a gift and a dream and i am trying to pursue it.

But in the pursuit of dreams, there are wastelands that must be crossed, and bridges that must be jumped off. God is interested in character more than characters, and pursuit more than conquest (at least is seems to me), so i pursue this dream.

I am reading this little book about hopes and dreams. The book wants to be encouraging, and describes the wasteland and the pathway to one's dreams, but never quite gets behind the description. I know we are in a wasteland, but how does one get out?! Ok, the book does talk about pushing on, even in the face of opposition. A thin encouragement; the phone company still wants to be paid.

Then maybe i'm fixated on money. Doesn't God promise to provide our needs? and aren't my needs met? I am on a computer, a rather full stomach (I am trying to compose a pun about wasteland and waist-land, but nothing is coming), the phone bill is not over-due. So, maybe i just need to stop bitching about my condition, and keep pushing on. But, crap!, ten dollars an hour! Doesn't our God value the dreams he gives us a bit more than that?!

Oh Oh, there I go again, back to money.

Oh Oh, the clock just moved a bit. Time to go to work.

Oh Oh, the pages i wanted to edit will have to wait.

David

how to think

2006-09-28T05:32:00.000-07:00

September 18, 2006 edition asks the question, printed over the front end of a Rolls Royce, "Does God Want You Rich?" I read the article and, in the name of objective journalism I read about preaching that I had read about and listened to for years. It was touted as new. I learned little. The writer reported about the new generation of preachers who proclaim that God’s blessing includes prosperity. Some of them might stop short of God wants you rich, but certainly preach that material prosperity is a part of God’s plan for His followers. They quote verses from Scripture; quoting from both Old and New Testament, ending with Jesus’ own words.
On the other hand the writer quoted other high-profile Christians who oppose the teaching. These teachers, too, quote scripture from both Testaments and including Jesus’ own words. So we, thoughtful Christians who want to follow God as revealed through scripture, are faced with a dilemma: Does God teach prosperity or not?
I won’t address the question directly, but use it as an example of thinking theologically. We have to interpret scripture’s words through principles of interpretation, through weight of evidence, through comparison with other scriptural teachings and see what makes the most sense.
On what basis do we assess the journalist’s report? Who defines the terms? Who weighs the evidence? Is Christ against, part-of or absorbed by culture? It seems to me that these questions are very important. The article spoke about a recent phenomenon in Christianity – mega-churches and their teaching. It also seems to me that some of the definitions of prosperity are cultural, not biblical definitions. (Oops, I think I’m starting to show my opinion. Oh well!)
These are theological questions. And these questions are vital to understanding what’s happening in Christianity, in our culture, today.
So Does God want us rich? Let’s think this one through.

Islam and me

2006-06-06T08:46:00.000-07:00

A certain man was walking from Ottawa to Washington and fell amongst thieves. They robbed him, beat him and left him for dead. A Canadian walked by and when he saw the injured man, crossed the road. An American, too, walked on the other side. A Muslim, walking along the road, saw the man and took pity on him, bound his wounds and took him to a hospital. He paid the bill for the man's healing and went on his way. ...

As I hear the news about the Americans in Iraq, the Canadians in Afghanistan (we’ve lost a bunch of soldiers there in active combat with the Taliban) and recent arrests in Toronto of radical Islamic men training and purchasing explosive, I am intrigued about my reaction. I live a block from a Mosque. I see Islamic people coming and going. I wrestle with the judgement: Muslim = Terrorist.

What Would Jesus Do? How do I temper my judgement? I have been taught (explicitly and implicitly) that Islam is a violent religion. Their history of expansion is through the sword. To die in Allah’s name is a sure-way to paradise. Is this true? Or, more accurately, how do I look at my neighbours with the love of Jesus?

Just a bunch of questions I am wrestling with.
David

Summer Camp

2006-06-03T13:47:00.000-07:00

I will resist the temptation to, in a cliched way, ask where the year went. But June marks a significant moment in the year, end of school and beginning of summer. (I don't think there is a comparable day to "the last day of school" now that I am an adult. Too bad). Summer can only mean one thing, for me at least: summer camp.

I spent much of my growing up years at a Camp my parents founded and ran for years. Here is a tribute to it and my father.

A Handsaw and a Dream.

I own a handsaw. The handle, carved out of a single piece of hardwood feels warm, natural in my hand. It fits. Not like leather gloves that cover, hide and protect. It fits intimately – inside my hand, fingers and carved wood in an embrace. It belongs. My hand is exposed and given purpose. A work glove protects the other hand, but the saw is made to be used by my naked hand.
The blade is a single piece of steel. It flexes and gives off a metallic moan. Its chisel teeth, bent at opposing angles, bite through the gold-brown lumber. They spit out fibers leaving a clean kerf and musty aroma.
My father owns a handsaw, too. I have a picture of him standing atop granite bedrock his saw at his hip. He rests his hand on its handle like a cowboy with his Winchester. A pile of lumber stands, square, uniform waiting to be used. Dad envisions cabins, campers and campfires by the lake. His hand, given purpose by his dream and saw, will create community from a pile of two-by-fours.
The lumber and dreamer stand amid barren, rough, black landscape. A recent forest fire left naked scorched trees like black skeletons reaching for the sky. Young saplings timidly grow in the sparse earth, reluctant to replace the old, the dead. Hands will grip cold, steel saws with long, sharp, angry teeth and cut away the blackened dead-stand. A new fire, controlled and contained, will finish the burning its rogue cousin started.
With the purging fire burning in the background, my father surveys the cleared area. Again he sees beyond the denuded granite, scraped clean ready to be a foundation. He sees a simple rectangular building to serve as a kitchen, dining room and chapel – the heart of the new community. The first piece of planed lumber rests on the sawhorses. The pencil, after leaving a precise mark, is returned to its perch between ear and peaked cap. My father, hand holding handle, freshly sharpened teeth resting against pencil mark, stops – to pray.
Simple, even primitive tools – saw, pencil, sawhorse – and simple, even primitive material –cut, planed pine lumber – produce simple, even primitive buildings. When complete, the buildings meld into the landscape. Green poplar, white birch, brown-black pine trees grow around, embracing the new buildings. Wooden structures, slick with linseed oil protection, left raw and real. Granite founds them, new growth embraces them and children inhabit them.
The building stands, 45 years later. It’s been expanded. Hands wielded saws and shovels found new granite on which to rest extensions. A stand of white birch grew in front of the building, providing a measure of shade from the noonday sun. It germinated, matured, died and was burned as generations of kids inside ate – and learned.

Being a Person

2006-05-31T12:35:00.000-07:00

I have just got to go back to a bible story that I have read so often that I am loosing count. (actually I have not kept count. I feel like I am repeating myself like a skipping record like a skipping record like a skipping record like a ...)
Read with me: Luke 7:36-50
Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is-that she is a sinner."
Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you."
"Tell me, teacher," he said.
"Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"
Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled."
"You have judged correctly," Jesus said.
Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven-for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."
Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."
The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"
Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
Last week I suggested that we need to rethink the relationship between God and us, humanity. Here, I believe, is the second step in this reconsideration. (The first step is a whole discussion about "Created in God’s Image", but I don’t have the smarts to unpack that phrase.) Our theology teaches us that Jesus was God, and so to know God we just need to look at Jesus. Jesus ‘blasted’ Simon for not noticing a woman - a person. ("Do you see this woman?) He saw a "Sinner" (with the appropriate gasp of repulsion and "tsk tsk") not a person created by God and Loved by Jesus.
What does the church do? It sets up rules to follow for us to be accepted. Last generation those rules were, don’t drink, smoke, dance, play cards or go to movies. This generation it think it is, attend church, contribute lots of money, get involved in a ministry that saps all your spare time and spare energy because, after all "the local church is the hope of the world!" If we don’t do all those things, we are not worthy of love.
Jesus loved that sinner because she was a person. Personhood needs to be re-thought in Christian circles. What is a healthy person? What is a healthy, mature Christian? Are they significantly different?
I am created in the Image of God, and Jesus sees me without labels or judgements. That’s kinda significant.
Hope and peace
David