I have a new Website…

I have decided that instead of resurrecting this blog that I would simply start a new one that is much more interactive and capable of doing what I want it to do. You can check it out at www.flanneljesus.com. Check it out and let me know what you think!!

Stuck in an Ideological Time Machine…

Have you ever come across someone who was stuck in the past? Or so preoccupied with the future that they missed the present? Or so focused on the present that they forgot the past and ignored the future? Lately it seems I have been running into people who are stuck in an ideological time machine. Whether they are too focused on being “cutting-edge” (whatever that means to them), or they are like Brendan Fraser in Blast from the Past who just walked out of a bomb shelter from 35 years ago, they seem to be crossing my path and raising my blood pressure.

James 4:13-17 still says…

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. So then, if you know the good you ought to do and don’t do it, you sin. (TNIV)

So here is what I ask of all of those who are stuck in their ideological time machine…

(1) Understand that you CAN Contend AND Contextualize.
(2) Stop harassing those who are trying to be Biblically faithful and culturally relevant (and contrary to what you might think you can do both…just look at Paul in Athens)
(3) Be open to methods and concepts that are not your own. Test it, but make sure you check it out before you reject it as “selling out” or “compromise” or “heresy” or “wordliness.”

Basically I’m asking you to think like a missionary…to be Missional (some of you just got goose bumps (or got angry) from me even using that word.

Can we please make the church a non-time machine zone?

Selling Jesus…Maybe More Like Selling Out…

Can I rant? I mean, of course I can, it’s my blog after all. But I want to tell you something that really bothers me. It really bothers me that the Christian retail industry is this massive money-making machine. Have we not ever read what Jesus did to those who were the first to corner the “God market” in the Temple? If my memory serves me correctly Jesus threw them out and was furious at the distortion of what God had always intended.

Having said that here is my plea. If you’re not making a living off of something (not a killing, but a living) that could be considered as Christian materials (whether books or teachings or clothing or whatever) then quit selling it!!!

If you have something that can help people mature in their walk with the Lord and it is God Himself who gave you the ability (and all too often the concepts, structure, or truths that you present) then why don’t you give it away? If it wasn’t your idea in the first place (and if it has to do with God, faith, Jesus, theology, ministry, etc. and it’s biblical…that means it isn’t original) then why are you selling it to your brothers and sisters for profit?!?! I don’t have a problem with selling things. It costs money to print books and make CD’s and DVD’s. But it makes me angry to see someone teaching God’s word and letting you know that you can purchase this “special teaching on DVD for only $25.00”! WHAT!?!?! Can you imagine if God charged us to read His Word, or Jesus expected a “love offering” before or after the Sermon on the Mount?

So here is what I am asking. If you have something worth sharing…SHARE it. Don’t take advantage of and put barriers up for people who can’t afford these things. “Freely you have received, freely give.”

This is the premise of The Xapis Project Resource Network…if something is made for God’s glory and the strengthening of the church…then let’s give it away to as many people as we possibly can. Chances are we were paid for it when we created it. If not God will bless us for sharing with the kingdom in ways that an employer could never do so.

Jesus FREELY laid down his life for us only to take it back up again as our triumphant Savior and Lord. Let’s not slow down the work of the Kingdom by trying to make a buck to help others. Let’s give it all away. Wouldn’t it be great to stand before God someday and be able to say that we were thankful for the opportunity to bless many people and to give all that we could to the cause of Christ? That’s where I want to be.

Are you selling things like these to make a living? I don’t have any animosity towards you whatsoever as long as you do so in a God-honoring way that brings others to him and growth to the Kingdom.

What do you think? Are you tired of others selling stuff in the name of Jesus? Join the quiet revolution…give it all away.

theprojectonline.org is now LIVE!!

We are excited to announce the official launching of The Xapis Project Resource Network (www.theprojectonline.org). The Project (as we refer to it) exists to Utilize Kingdom Resources to Meet Global Needs. We want you to subscribe to this blog as we will use this to tell you about new resources and partnerships as well as to update you on various opportunities and events throughout the world. Check back regularly. Thank you for joining us. We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with you.

Yeah It’s Been Forever…

I realize that is has been a relatively long time since I have written on my blog. There are numerous reasons for that. One of which is that we don’t have internet at the house yet (I just haven’t had the energy for the hassle). There are a lot of things that have been going on so here is the update…

Kris and I have now really settled in to living here in Denver. She is going to school full-time and working for a Developmental Optometrist doing vision therapy. I am a level two teller at Elevations Credit Union. We are both starting to plug in at church. Kris will probably be teaching the Kindergarten and 1st grade on Wednesday nights. I am co-teaching a class on John with my Dad on Wednesday nights and yesterday morning I preached.

Things are definitely different here. Not being in a ministry position (for the time anyway) is strange. It’s kind of like visiting a different country (in this case the financial world) and not having a guide. It feels really awkward to sit and listen as opposed to teaching and leading and sharing with others. Both have their advantages.

Our presentation at Harding University is coming up almost too quickly. We are really hoping that The Xapis Project Resource Network (www.theprojectonline.wordpress.com — This is the preview blog) will be a great success and a valuable asset to the Kingdom. But for now we just have to get it UP and RUNNING. This seems like an ever-increasingly difficult task in the last few weeks with slow turn around times from the host and lack of time on my part. It will get done I suppose…after all it absolutely has to.

I’m tired. Physically, emotionally, spiritually. Maybe I am just having a hard time adjusting. I spent all day learning banking software and thinking about theology. I’m torn between two worlds right now. I don’t have anyone near by that I can talk to about the ministry and theological things that are swirling in my mind. My dad doesn’t have the energy and others just don’t seem all that interested. It sucks. Maybe the Network will allow me to get some of that out in the open. Maybe I just need more access to this blog, then all three of you could read what I have to say.

Yeah it’s been forever…in fact, lately everyday has felt like an eternity.

(un)Complicated Ramblings (Chapter 2)

Here is the continuation of my late night (un)complicated ramblings… Let me knwo if I am stupid or if this is something that you too might be struggling with…

So this is the second night in the last three days that I haven’t been able to sleep when it was already way past my bedtime. It is really gnawing on me that I know that there has got to be something more simple to this thing that dominates my life. I think that part of the reason that it bothers me so is that I am a person who prides himself (even the phrase itself smacks of something that I shouldn’t be doing) in studying and in turn interpreting or re-interpreting it into something that people can understand. Is it possible that I have done the same thing to Christianity and to the gospel with detrimental affects which I will have to answer for on the Day of Judgment? “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” Have I, in a sense become a stumbling block to people who were earnestly seeking Christ not because I didn’t tell them about Him but because I did so in a manner that was more complicated than it should or had to be in order to stroke my own ego and feel more comfortable in my own “educated” skin? When people think of me do they think of someone who “knows a lot” (which feels totally ungenuine because I know that this isn’t really the case) or as someone who is just seeking to know Jesus? I have never heard someone say the second option. What an indictment of my character that is!!!

 

I think one of the other reasons that it bothers me so much is because it is causing/forcing me to rethink a lot of the things that I have spent/wasted so much time focusing on. Do I really need a philosophy of preaching for postmoderns or do I just need a thirst for Christ that flows through everything I say? Do I need to truly utilize the parallel curriculum model or just help people to develop a heart for God, His Word, and His people? Do I really need to be worrying about teaching a hermeneutics course for a church when my brothers and sisters throughout the world are in terrible conditions? I am trying to contemplate and architect my “legacy” while the brothers and sisters in the Yucatan are facing (or are by now) without ANYTHING. Where is the heart, head, and hands of Christ in all of this? Maybe it is in the fact that it is bothering me and that the Holy Spirit is trying to teach me that there are some things (some drastic things) that need to change in my life. Why does it have to be some complicated? I used to be so critical of the shallow nature of those people who would go to sporting events with John 3:16 hand painted on a piece of posterboard. “How ignorant,” I used to think “there is so much more to it than that.” Is there really? “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life.” Is it, could it, might it possibly, is there any way, just maybe that it really is this simple?

 

Doesn’t the concept of Christianity being simple really make it what it has always been…namely absolutely revolutionary? When we make it difficult it becomes “murkier”.  You have Evangelical Christianity, Denominational Christianity, Non-Denominational Christianity, Missional Christianity, Emerging Christianity, Postmodern Christianity, Ultra-Conservative and Legalistic Christianity, and on and on. Something is missing. Namely it seems this man that had no special appearance and that was hated, mistreated, and eventually killed by those who didn’t realize that his simple, revolutionary message was the very words of God Himself. The message of grace, love, and forgiveness really was just that, a message of grace, love, and forgiveness. When he said “my yoke is easy and my burden is light,” I think we “interpret” that to mean that Jesus isn’t oppressive or unduly difficult and yet the message that we pass on about the faith that bares his name seems to smack of the exact opposite. “Oh for a faith that will shrink though pressed by every foe, that will not tremble on the brink of any earthly woe!!”

 

It’s time to try to get some sleep. I want what Jesus has always offered. I don’t want to be someone who peddles a Gospel that is different, more complicated, or more “innovative” than that which Christ Himself delivered almost 2,000 years ago. I desire for the heart of Jesus to BE my heart, for the hands of Jesus to BE my hands, for the mind of Jesus to BE my mind. The world is so desperately seeking the simple revolution of a Jewish Rabbi who was that and so much more. He was the Son of the Living God and he came to share a message that “God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life.”

 

Father, in my life let the simple revolution of your Son begin afresh. Change me from the inside out and from the outside in. Mold me and make me into what you would have me to be. May I be a humble servant, faithfully proclaiming the simple truth that “while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Lord, reign in me.

                                                                                                            Amen.

 

(un)Complicated Ramblings (Chapter 1)

I am alive!! I know that it has been forever since I have posted on here. In that time Kris and I said goodbye to our family in Pryor, OK and have since moved to Denver, CO. We have both been looking for jobs, getting Kris in school, and attempting to find our place in a new congregation. Things are certainly different. I have continued to work on the final foundations of and the creation of The Xapis Project Resource Network (www.theprojectonline.org). They (the group that is building it for us) assures me that we can be live in three weeks. We will see.

Anyway, I have spent the last three days wrestling with and thinking about the simplicity/complexity of the Christian faith. I understand that there are complex and difficult concepts (e.g. the Trinity, the foreknowledge of God, and other theological issues), but I have been struggling to see why Christianity really has to be so difficult. So here I give to you (unedited, so please ignore the roughness) my initial musings from Sunday night.

If I had to explain to someone who had just come to faith in Christ Jesus just exactly what it means to follow Jesus as I understand it what would I say? Would I be able to articulate just exactly what I believe it means to follow in His steps? What do you say? Where do you start? What do you leave out and come back to at a later time? How many of my presuppositions and beliefs that I “hold” because I have been given to them do I need to ignore and or revisit for my own personal faith? So far, there are a lot of questions and not nearly as many concrete and forthright answers. Obviously any explanation of the Christian faith must have a solid Christological foundation and be rooted in Scripture. At what point do you share about hermeneutics, exegesis, the historical, theological, and worldview issues that surround the text in its original context? Doesn’t it almost become self-defeating when this whole “Christianese” vocabulary comes to the forefront in such discussions? Do we make it more complicated than what God himself did by communicating to the world of its day in the language of its day through people that the original recipients could relate to and/or understand? Isn’t that why God used things like physical visual aids, written and verbal messages, and the Spirit living inside of us? Why can’t our exposition and education of the faith be SIMPLE? Did the early church really deal with hermeneutics, exegesis, historical research, ontological issues, and other things that we use in our propagation of the Gospel or did they simply love each other, meditate on God’s Word, and be the physical incarnation of Jesus in their community and their world? Why do I have this sneaking suspicion that we have made it harder for people to come to know Christ, the same “sin” of which the Pharisees were guilty? Are we binding things on people that are unnecessary, unhelpful, and even harmful because of the way that we have constructed and/or portrayed the Gospel and the message of Christianity? So, if I had to suggest a way to lead people who are new or recently converted to Christ in their faith what would I desire to emphasize? Here are the things that I am thinking of at this present time (in the spirit of making the Christian faith the powerful and simple thing that Jesus came proclaiming here on earth):

·       The disciplines of prayer, meditation on Scripture, and giving (not just $ to the church).

·       A summary of each major section of the Bible and a “one-liner” for each of the books of the Bible. (This could even be a resource instead of something that it just encouraged for memorization.)

·       Place them into a SMALL community that will help them in their spiritual development, that will balance their new and reasonably inexperienced hermeneutic, and that will provide encouragement and accountability as they come to more fully understand the theological and ethical implications of the Christian faith.

 

I will post chapter 2 in just a moment…

What Christianity is Really All About (Part 1 Revisited)

Last time I dealt with this subject I made two observations about people’s Christology. (1) That often times an individuals understanding of Jesus is little more than his death, burial, resurrection, and possibly might even categorically include his life in that equation. (2) I suggested that often times a persons understanding of the Christian faith is myopically oriented in Acts and the epistles. Both of these views I think have the possibility of being something that is damaging to the theology and ultimately to the living out of the Christian faith.

If an individual sees Jesus Christ only in terms of his death, burial, and resurrection then they are very likely (and if you haven’t seen this in people in your church then you need to open your eyes) to grow little or none following their baptism. For they have “fulfilled” everything that they find in their Christology. If all Jesus did was to die, be buried, and on the third day rise again and I participate in that in my baptism then I am “finished”. And so some, wanting the salvation that comes from Jesus being their Savior, see no need for Him to be their Lord and they never darken the door again. I’ve seen it. People want the benefit, but not the commitment that it requires to follow Jesus. What I’m suggesting is that maybe a big part of the problem isn’t their selfishness and spiritual immaturity but our underdeveloped Christology when we share who Jesus is with those who don’t know Him. Could it be that our sometimes frail or wanting Christology is actually the cause of the “save ’em and never see ’em” syndrome?

Then there is that second point that I think hits home a little more closely to me and the fellowship that I am a part of (Churches of Christ). I think sometimes we are quick to dive into the book of Acts and the epistles (and rightly so) to explain our Christology and Ecclesiology, but too often we do so to the neglect of the life and teachings of Jesus Himself. It is silly to think that those who wrote the remainder of the New Testament didn’t know Jesus (either personally or in their relationship with Him through the Holy Spirit) in a way that for us today is facilitated by the Gospels. Peter and John write their epistles as those who have walked with Jesus. Paul writes his epistles out of a vibrant and passionate relationship with Jesus Christ. Luke writes with his understanding of and relationship with Jesus Christ. But for some reason we choose to ignore the Gospels. WHY?!!? That’s where Jesus is! (Not that He is absent in Acts and the epistles…that is a ridiculous suggestion.) But why in the world would we ignore His very words?

Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus walked. (1 John 2:6)

Without the Gospels and an understanding of Jesus that is larger and richer than his death, burial, resurrection, and on a good day a few of His ethical teachings, this command to be like Him is simply not going to happen. We cannot follow in the footsteps of one that we do not know. We cannot know how to be a CHRISTian until we place ourselves in a position to better and more intimately know the Christ.

The Next Stage in My Life…

It’s true. (Not the rumors, but the truth). On Sunday, I officially resigned my position here at the Pryor Church of Christ. When I took the job I knew that it was possibly an interim position. Well now it is. The reality (no matter what I want to believe) is that this church cannot at this time support three ministers. With that in mind here are Kris and I’s plans.

On August 9th we will be moving to Denver, Colorado. There Kris will get back into school to work towards the completion of her undergraduate degree in Early Childhood Education. I will spend a semester working and preparing to hopefully enter Denver Seminary in the Spring on a part time basis. It is my hope to attend that school and complete an M.A. in New Testament with a thesis-track emphasis on hermeneutics and exegesis with the desire to pursue a Ph.D. in a similar field. But, as always, if God has something better in mind (which he often does) I will follow His leading.

As for my work with The Xapis Project, I still intend to work to develop it more extensively as life allows. The next step in its evolution, The Xapis Project Resource Network is well on its way to becoming a reality. I will definitely be deeply involved in that.

For those of you whom I have come to know here in Pryor, I want you to know that Kris and I love you all very much. For those of you who have treated me, my friends, and the Pryor Church with less than a Godly attitude and spirit I say, I love you very much too. I pray that God will be gracious and merciful to all of us.

Life is full of change. In fact, faith is full of change. Thank God that He never changes. New challenges, new place, new opportunities, same God. Thank you Lord.

The Xapis Project Resource Network…

This is the project that I have been working on that I am SO excited about. Check out the video and then you can go to the preview blog www.theprojectonline.wordpress.com to learn more about this as we build the website which will hopefully be up and running by late August or early September.