Thank you, Mr. LaHaye...

[note- this post originally appeared on my Xanga blog. Clicking the link will take you to the original article, which will allow you to read the original comments]

Okay, I'm officially going out on a limb.

I'm really heartbroken about the conflict in the Middle East. I'm heartbroken because tremendously inhumane acts are being committed and the US is refusing to step in. I'm most heartbroken of all about the Christian response, or lack thereof.

Check out this excerpt from an interview between Newsweek magazine and Tim LaHaye, co-author of the "Left Behind" series:

NW: Does this explain how living right with God, in a Christian sense, would entail supporting the Israeli state right now?
LaHaye: I think those two things are related. Christians who take the Bible literally are generally supportive of Israel because God promises to bless those nations that are a blessing to Israel and curse those nations that are not. And the history of America bears that out.

I can't think of a more damaging PR statement for the cause of Christ. Consider the implications of this statement to the rest of the world: We believe the Bible tells us to support Israel, therefore we will stand by, regardless of what atrocities are committed by that nation.

Flip this around and see it from the opposite perspective. Are we not currently engaged in a war on terror with nations and people groups who believe the same thing- who believe that the Qua'an says they will be blessed if they act a certain way? And this is how they justify their acts of terrorism.

Are we anything more than terrorists in a different wrapper? Many in the Middle East would argue that we are not, and in light of Mr. LaHaye's comment, I think they're justified in their position.

Personally, I would be more blessed in my life (in an eternal sense, not a current temporal sense) if someone were, in love, to hold me accountable to my wrongful actions rather than turn a blind eye to them. Shouldn't the same apply to our relationship with Israel, God's chosen nation? I don't equate "being a blessing" to Israel with refusing to call them to account for their actions.

Consider this final quote from a European security research fellow at the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London.

"The U.S. angle is to put Hezbollah in the same box as the global war on terror: Hezbollah, Hamas and al-Qaeda are all part of the same basket. The Europeans are more inclined to acknowledge the world is far more complex than this Bush mantra."

Friends, I'm no justifier of Hezbollah or any other terrorist group here. But I think the Europeans have a good perspective. The world is not as simple as our foreign policy makes it out to be.

Part The Last: Vision

[note- this post originally appeared on my Xanga blog. Clicking the link will take you to the original article, which will allow you to read the original comments]

Currently Reading Visioneering : God's Blueprint for Developing and Maintaining Personal Vision By Andy Stanley see related

In his book Visioneering, Andy Stanley examines the story of Nehemiah, who set himself apart for the purpose of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah’s vision was about a lot more than a wall, though. It was about restoring Israel to their status as a people set apart by God. If I could, I’d quote Stanley’s entire elaboration for you. It’s that good. If you want to dig into crafting a vision for your life, or for any part of your life… get this book.

I’m suggesting that our vision as CTI fulltimers should be synonymous with our expectation of having an experience of significant spiritual formation through our involvement with the ministry. The passive becomes active: let’s stop expecting some program to turn us into someone we want to become, and instead, choose to actively pursue a vision of spiritual formation for our lives, using the environment and structure of the CTI experience to help us realize that vision.

The fourteenth chapter of Visioneering is all about distractions. Stanley cites three kinds of distractions that can kill a vision: opportunities, criticism, and fear. He goes as far as to say that anyone who pursues a vision will encounter these distractions.

It is our response to those distractions that determines how our vision will be realized – how well our expectations will be met.

The potential distractions for a CTI fulltimer are too numerous to mention.

When Nehemiah was nearing completion on the wall, his adversaries (rulers in the region who didn’t want to see Israel restored) sent him an invitation: “Come, let us meet together at Chephirim in the plain of Ono.” (Nehemiah 6:1-2a) Though this could have represented a chance to make peace (seemingly a good opportunity,) Nehemiah’s response, according to Stanley, evidences his commitment to the vision that God had set him apart for:

“I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?” (v. 2b – 4)

Nehemiah had set himself apart, and saw even a potentially good opportunity as a distraction from the greater work he had been set apart to do. (Oh yeah, and they were plotting to kill him anyway… which really would have derailed the vision.)

Stanley maintains that “any vision worth pursuing will demand sacrifice and risk.” Unquestionably true. So what are the sacrifices we need to make, and the risks we need to take, as we pursue our vision for spiritual growth?

I can come up with a list of suggestions (and, for the sake of future fulltimers who don’t have the benefit of context, I plan to…) but I want to end this exposition on that line of questioning:

What sacrifices do we need to make as we pursue that vision – that expectation we all say we have for an experience of personal spiritual growth? I am convinced that no environment can create that experience for us without our personal willingness to be set apart.

And being set apart begins with the realization that we are doing a great work, and we cannot come down.

Part V of VI: Set Apart

[note- this post originally appeared on my Xanga blog. Clicking the link will take you to the original article, which will allow you to read the original comments]

Just as creativity blossoms when focused by limitation, and water becomes power under constraint, so I believe that our expectations of having an experience of significant spiritual formation can realized through our commitment to be set apart, accompanied by a personal diligence in spiritual disciplines, and a realization that no environment or structure can make those choices for us.

My vision for the fulltime program is that of a community in which passionate and authentic disciples of Christ grow each other in His image, are equipped for ministry and evangelism, and are released into the world as young leaders. At the end of each individual’s season of ministry with CTI, I long to see team members equipped and motivated to lead others in discipleship, equip them for ministry and evangelism, and grow them in Christian leadership. Ideally, I want to see everyone leave the fulltime program with an expanded worldview, and to continue to have a leadership impact in their church and community, equipping others and embracing ministry and discipleship as a lifestyle.

Isn’t that in keeping with what we all say we want to see happen in ourselves as participants in this program?

The fact that we get the opportunity to live in community for a year with others who also desire to have this experience of personal spiritual growth puts us in a position of tremendous ability to spur each other on towards that goal.

It puts us in a position of tremendous responsibility too – to each other – because it may be the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live in such a community. It’s an opportunity not to be wasted, in my view. It’s an opportunity to be set apart.

Part IV of VI: Relevance

[note- this post originally appeared on my Xanga blog. Clicking the link will take you to the original article, which will allow you to read the original comments]

Currently Reading In the Name of Jesus : Reflections on Christian Leadership By Henri J. Nouwen see related

What is it about submitting to a structured pursuit of personal spiritual disciplines as an integral part of a corporate experience (i.e. CTI) that turns so many of us off?

Is it the fact that we’re told by other people that this is what we should be doing? That we’re often led down the path of spiritual discipline by our peers – people that we don’t see as any more qualified to guide us spiritually than we are to guide ourselves?

“Don’t tell me what to do to maintain my own spiritual health.If you like to read the Word, then that’s great for you, but God hasn’t given me that same passion, and therefore it doesn’t have as much bearing on my spiritual development as it does on yours. I have other ways of staying intimate with God… like playing Mario Kart.”

Maybe it turns us off because personal quiet time, corporate prayer, team devos and the like… don’t feel like they’re much more than just “going through the motions” and are therefore not authentic or relevant enough for us.

Henri Nouwen was like 52 when his book In the Name of Jesus was published in 1989 (long before any of us knew what it meant to be postmodern,) yet in it, he makes a statement about the seeking of relevance in ministry that ought to be startlingly convicting to the emergent generation that we’re a part of:

Aren’t we priests and ministers called to help people, to feed the hungry, and to save those who are starving? Are we not called to do something that makes people realize that what we do makes a difference in their lives? Aren’t we called to heal the sick, feed the hungry, and alleviate the suffering of the poor? Jesus was faced with these same questions, but when he was asked to prove his power as the Son of God by the relevant behavior of changing stones into bread, he clung to his mission to proclaim the Word and said, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4)

Sometimes I am able to see my personal hangup on authenticity and relevance for the stumbling block that it is. If some motion or degree of action doesn’t 100% represent how I feel, what I believe, or what I’m about… I won’t go forward with it. I thereby effectively declare that no motion at all is better than motion that contains any degree of misrepresentation.

And so, though I won’t be wrongly associated with something I don’t fully buy into, I don’t produce anything good either. Not in the outside world… not in my inner world.

Nouwen goes on to make this assertion:

The leaders of the future will be those who dare to claim their irrelevance in the contemporary world as a divine vocation that allows them to enter into a deep solidarity with the anguish underlying all the glitter of success, and to bring the light of Jesus there.

Part III of VI: Discipline

[note- this post originally appeared on my Xanga blog. Clicking the link will take you to the original article, which will allow you to read the original comments]

I am persuaded that most CTI fulltimers come into the ministry wanting and expecting to experience significant personal spiritual growth. I know I did. Most of us said as much on our applications:

Q: What do you expect to receive during your time with CTI? What do you want to see happen in and through your life?

A: I expect to grow closer to God and deepen my desire to serve Him and others. I expect Him to use me to reach the world. I want to develop a deeper passion for His word. I want to develop a deeper love for people. I want to seek Him more regularly through personal devotions…

newsflash:::… Most of us end up at least partially disappointed in these expectations, and I think it’s because we’re expecting an institution, ministry, or program to turn us into the kind of person we say we want to become, without having to expend a lot of personal effort to see it happen. We expect it to be a passive process. We want it to be relatively painless - maybe a little bit sacrificial - but overall, fun… because of the camaraderie of knowing that other people are on the journey with us.

We expect that by just experiencing a program, our desire for significant personal spiritual growth will be realized.

I believe that we make a critical mistake in assuming that any program can be an effective replacement for the rigorous personal pursuit of the spiritual disciplines that truly bring about this kind of change in a person. We rely on an environment to do the work for us. And then we feel cheated when the environment doesn’t come through.

Our expectations of having an experience of significant spiritual formation through CTI (or any other program) will only be realized through our willingness and commitment to be set apart and allow ourselves to be structured by an active pursuit of spiritual disciplines that are independent of our environment.

Part II of VI: Free Will

[note- this post originally appeared on my Xanga blog. Clicking the link will take you to the original article, which will allow you to read the original comments]

I think one of our biggest issues with structure is this whole generational/cultural hangup on authenticity. I know that the quest for the ultimate in authenticity and relevance has often hindered me from just doing something because it’s tested and true and right. I’ve often felt like I’m not qualified to direct others spiritually, or challenge them to live within a structure and be disciplined, because I hold fast to this idea that God has granted everyone the sovereignty to choose their own path.

Where did I get the idea that structure prohibits choice, and somehow limits free will??

I struggle with this on a political level too. I’m very much in the camp of people who believe that there are moral absolutes, but I’m also repulsed by the image that we too often tend to present as politically active Christians (which seems to be that our real goal is changed laws and political systems rather than changed hearts resulting in changed lives.)

Should we legislate morality?

Here is truth: God has revealed His will to us about many things. There’s not a lot of argument as to whether or not it is okay to take another person’s life or property from them. And we’ve gone ahead and legislated that kind of stuff. But people still have the choice, given them by God, to do what is right, or to do what is wrong. That’s free will. And the structure provided by law hasn’t taken away anyone’s free will. It has only set up a system by which we can measure action and apply consequence.

God’s extension of free will doesn’t exempt us from the consequences of our actions. He gave both structure and freedom to Adam and Eve when he provided them with the capability to touch something which He also commanded them not to touch. They chose to touch, and He did not prevent them from doing so. And the consequence of that choice is what we now refer to as the fall of man.

Part I of VI: Focus

[note- this post originally appeared on my Xanga blog. Clicking the link will take you to the original article, which will allow you to read the original comments]

moving as though fast was too slow
the chick cranked loud her radio
and crashed into a bus full of screaming dancers

Ever played with one of those magnetic poetry sets? We have a “rock star” themed edition on the fridge at the ministry. The team members joke about how it sucks me in. It’s true - I’m addicted. There’s just something about creating phrases out of a pre-determined set of words that I find irresistibly compelling. I’ll just zone out between the pantry and the trash can, pushing the little magnets around and losing track of time…

get me backstage punk
drunk groupies screaming my name
I’m number one here

That one isn’t actually mine. It’s Heidi’s. It’s one of my favorite offerings from our fridge over the past year or so. (It’s actually a haiku too, which just enhances the inherent coolness.) Heidi commented on the one I did about the chick and the screaming dancers. She liked the first line (though she wasn’t a big fan of the third line.) She particularly liked the imagery of “fast” being too slow. As if fast were an absolute.

Here’s the thing: I never would have thought to use that kind of imagery if I had the entire English vocabulary at my disposal. There is something about constraint and limitation that brings definition to creativity.

Consider a certain amount of water that flows placidly through a large culvert. If you take that same amount of water and pump it through a garden hose at the same flow rate, you’ll have the power to erode a hillside.

Have you ever participated in a jam session that left you frustrated? One where no one seemed to be on the same page… everyone was going their own direction… you never felt like you ever “arrived” anywhere? Yeah, that’s how most of the ones I’ve ever been involved with go.

One of my favorite jam experiences of all time was made possible by Brian Kingsley, who happens to be a fantastic guitarist. Only he didn’t play the guitar. I think there was already another guitarist there. I was on keys, and someone (Ramirez?) was on drums. So Kingsley picked up the bass. But he definitely “led” the session. He just started a groove that was predictable and repeatable. And he did that for like 10 minutes straight each time. He set the structure within which the rest of us had the freedom to create. We went on for hours. It was amazing.

Serving Notice

[note- this post originally appeared on my Xanga blog. Clicking the link will take you to the original article, which will allow you to read the original comments]

I'm going to be posting a multi-part exposition of my thoughts on the concepts of being set apart, living in the structure of spiritual disciplines, and the impact of those and other concepts on our ability to exercise the free will given to us by God.

As friends and alums of CTI, I want to invite you all to take part in this discussion with me.

I'm organizing these thoughts as I plan for next year's fulltime program. My basic premise here is that CTI team members (summer and FT) come with the expectation of having a somewhat monastic encounter with God through the CTI experience. For summer, I think this is reasonable, because CTI summer = uberstructure. Thus far, I haven't really seen this expectation realized for FT, and I think that is mostly because we haven't presented it as a choice for fulltimers.

So here's my thesis: TM’s expectations of having a “monastic” experience through CTI will only happen because of their willingness and commitment to be “set apart” and allow structure to focus them.

And by the way, I'm serving notice that I intend to incorporate blogging in multiple formats next fulltime year, and want you all to feel welcome to live fulltime life vicariously by participating in them. Not totally sure what that is going to look like yet, but I'll let you know.

Donald Miller on culture and the church

Currently Reading Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality By Donald Miller see related

[originaly posted on my Xanga blog]

A friend of mine, a young pastor who recently started a church, talks to me from time to time about the new face of church in America - about the postmodern church. He says the new church will be different from the old one, that we will be relevant to culture and the human struggle. I don't think any church has ever been relevant to culture, to the human struggle, unless it believed in Jesus and the power of His gospel. If the supposed new church believes in trendy music and cool Web pages, then it is not relevant to culture either. It is just another tool of Satan to get people to be passionate about nothing.

Passion about nothing is like pouring gasoline in a car without wheels. It isn't going to lead anybody anywhere.

Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz