En Route

Recently someone mentioned that they enjoyed reading my over-the-top sentences about Jesus that I’ve posted to Facebook and Twitter. So I looked up a few of them and thought I’d post them here.  

The idea behind this discipline is simple; I enjoy thinking through a theme or word and meditating on it for a minute and then writing a sentence using that particular word often and letting it point me to Jesus (the Word) and His mission. Call me strange, but I dig it. I hope it encourages you in Christ. He’s sufficient and amazing. 

{Family} - The Great Family became a broken family to create a new family out of broken families

{Jacked} - Jesus came to a jacked up world and got jacked up so that jacked up people might be restored and share Jesus with other jacked up people.

There is much good that comes out of cities, things like creativity, beauty, commerce, entertainment and diversity. But as we all know there is also much brokenness that comes out of cities, such as poverty, fatherlessness, human trafficking, violence, racism, and power mongering.

While I was in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico a Christian from Cabo said to me “In Cabo you see both a foretaste of Heaven and Hell.” From what I observed from being in Cabo they were spot on. And I would say their observation, to varying degrees, is true of any city I’ve been in. So we can do a couple things in response: a) We can accept it as it is and with defeatist attitudes continue to gather in our Christian circles and pray that Jesus returns soon and saves us out of this broken place or b) We can agree with this observation and decide that in the power of the Holy Spirit and for the fame of Jesus we together as the Church in a particular city will do something about bringing more Heaven to Earth until Jesus returns. Whew that was a long sentence.

Here’s the earth shattering truth: We can join God as HE makes all things new! We can join God in bringing redemption and renewal to broken cities, structures, families and people. And here’s something even more exciting; God already brought redemption and renewal to the broken. Jesus came to our broken places and both begin the process of making all things new and showed us how we can join him in making all things new. We simply need to respond by repenting, believing and imitating.

I’m going to go ahead and say that the Church’s job in a city is to bring more Heaven to that city then Hell. In other words, if Christians live in a city there should be a decrease of poverty, fatherlessness, human trafficking, violence, racism and power mongering. And there should be an increase of worship, creativity, beauty, unity, equality, good jobs and familial culture. Every Christian in every position, vocation and walk of life can and should be reflecting Jesus and His Kingdom in the sphere of influence God has placed them. This is how the Kingdom of God continues to come to Earth.

So until HE comes let’s together reflect the New City, both in word and deed, in our broken cities.

MANUP. That phrase is used a lot today. It’s used both within the Church and outside the Church, some people love the term, others hate it; but no one denies that it’s a human issue. All one has to do is google “manup” and they will find countless hits from major brands using it to advertise, books written on the subject and conferences addressing the issue. The Dos Equis man, Jason Bourne and Tim Tebow are to some extent this generations John Wayne, men with grit, with confidence and men with an air of mystery. Men have always and will always look up to men but it’s becoming harder and harder to find men to look up to. The fatherless rate is at an all time high and there is obviously a void of men in the lives of the emerging generation so why, when one uses the term “manup” is there significant push back?

I think the reason is primarily two-fold:

1) Over strung feminism: Yes, over strung. Feminism has been a part of our world since at least the early 20th century and it’s had both a positive and negative effect. And part of the reason people are reacting negatively to the term man-up is because they are always strung out on feminism. They think everything that is wrong in the world has to do with men. They are like over strung drug addicts who can no longer see straight or think straight. Anytime anyone mentions that men need to man-up around them they freak out and they shoot up on their feminism and get all high on men-suckism. Here’s a hint: Feminism isn’t the end all idea that saves the world and when you begin to use it as the lens to which you see everything you err, greatly. In fact what you end up doing is creating a even greater disunity between men and women. That’s reason number one.

2) Over strung manism: Just like extreme feminism there is extreme manism. And man-up in extreme manism often means eat red meat, punch harder, be a jock, wear the pants, have a lot of sex, have a beard…you get the point. And so you can see why people get a bit weary and sensitive when dudes throw out the term man-up. Manism is just as bad (nay, worse) than extreme feminism. The amount of arrogance and damaging behavior that comes from guys that buy into manism is astounding (I’ll get into some of the ugly results of manism more in my second post). I can’t imagine what Jesus will do with the proponents of manism. I know this, it’s gonna be ugly. So news alert; extreme manism won’t save the world either, it will destroy it.

Ok, so that’s the two extremes, and those extremes are why I think the term man-up is so polarizing. But folks, hang on there’s a third way and yes it has something to do with the New Family.

Recently I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the family. I’ve thought about the beauty of family with it’s potential for trust, intimacy, laughter, acceptance and lineage. But I’ve also thought about the brokenness of family with it’s distrust, abuse, neglect, abdication and divorce.

The world is full of broken families. And I think there are a few things the world wants to see and experience, one being a new type of family.

Where then are they going to see and experience this new type of family? Hollywood, politicians and sports stars are familially broken as the rest of us. So if the brightest, smartest, strongest and richest can’t help us who can?

The greatest and the weakest.

THE GREATEST

There is a great family out there. Really there is. It’s actually the real first family. There’s three in the family; Father, Son and Helper. And they are truly great, perfect even. This Family has had a history of intimacy, trust, faithfulness, love, laughter, acceptance and a lineage that I’ll get to in a bit. You might know this family as Creator, or God. Or if you come from a Christian background you will know this family as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in Christian theology we call this family the Trinity.

One of the greatest things about this family is the fact that although they were all entirely forever faithful and loving toward one another they were willing to put forward One in their family who would leave the family inheritance and become an outsider. He would be divorced if you were from the family. But it wasn’t because there was some kind of disharmony in the Family, no it was because there was disharmony in our families. So the Son, whom we know as Jesus came to earth to become broken and create a New Family. In other words, the great family became a broken family in order to make a new family.

THE WEAKEST

This new family that God created through Jesus is the lineage of the Great Family. They are a group of diverse, broken people from every ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, continent and time period in history. Some people call them Christians, while others call them the Church. But what they really are is family, God’s family. They were all orphaned by sin and have been lovingly accepted and adopted by God through Jesus’ brokenness. They are the weak. They were all broken and now they are all being made new.

What’s up with God’s new family now? This new family is being commissioned by God to reflect his familial love on the earth as it is in heaven. So in heaven where perfect unity is constant, so here on earth they should strive for unity. And in heaven where joy and laughter are part of the DNA, here on earth in the new family it should be too. And just as Jesus was sent to become a broken sacrifice for the good of others, so the New Family also are sent to sacrificially give themselves for others.

So despite our familial brokenness there is hope and it comes in the form of a great yet broken God and his New Family.

1) The Appearance of Maturity: It can create a false maturity by downloading an extreme amount of content without balanced action. Therefore one can seem mature because they can read Greek, quote the Church Fathers and exegete and exposit Scripture. Unfortunately they can lack pastoral sensitivity, missional engagement & above reproach character. 

 2) (Un)Proximity to the Mission: Seminary often takes the minister out of the mission. For example, someone may go to Seminary in suburban Illinois but feel called to urban Philly. Taking someone out of their context isn’t always bad but it’s important to think if it’s best before signing up to go to Seminary outside your city and context. 

3) Debt: Starting out an already low paying or bi-vocational vocation with extreme debt borders on un-wise. If the Seminary student has a family it puts their family in a high risk financial and emotional burden before they even start ministry (which is where the stress really starts). 

4) Arrogance: I have yet to meet a humble Seminary student. Many Seminary students are argumentative, know-it-alls who think they can fix everything that is wrong in the Church. They have a false messianic complex but are orthodox in their gospel centrality. Seminarians often sound right but act wrong. I’ve been an example here.

5) A Narrow Skill Set: I know a lot of people that go from Christian high school, to Bible college to Seminary. The result is thousands of Seminarians graduating each year with a very narrow skill set and not a whole lot of options (which is why some churches have hundreds of applicants). This puts the graduate in a bind if they can’t find a position to pay them full time and the next thing you know they are pouring coffee at Starbucks for $8.35/hr. Again, please see Sam Smith as example.

6) An Unrealistic World: Seminarians often don’t work a job, they study full-time in the library, read hundreds of books, and hang out with their buddies and talk theology. Unfortunately for the book-worm this isn’t reality. Truth is if you want to go on the mission of God you have to engage with people outside your Seminary bubble, read less and do more, and get some sort of job that brings in income for your family. 

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Sometimes I wish I never spent four years studying the Bible and Theology. But if I didn’t I wouldn’t be in Chicago. So I see God’s hand in it and I learned a lot from it. Thankfully I had a wife that pushed me to work a job while studying and I had the desire to be involved in mission and my local church. However, I fell prey to the many negative things that traditional Seminary can create and I don’t want the same to happen to you. 

I know there are some stirrings of a new way to do Seminary and I hope something changes soon. The Western way of education and training just can’t keep up with reality and I believe it is deeply unhealthy for the Church and her mission. 

For a few new ways of training see: http://lifeasmission.com/blog/ — http://www.porterbrooknetwork.org/ — http://forgeamerica.com/ —http://retrain.org/

So here’s to a new way of training and equipping God’s called out Church leaders!

March is always an exciting month for me. Spring Training baseball begins, Spring begins March 21st, my birthday is March 22nd and Harper was born March 27th. But there’s another significant event each March: World Water Day.

SInce World Water Day shares March 22nd with me, each year I get to remind people of something we take for granted in the USA…water. It’s somewhat significant that I am turning 33 and that Harper is celebrating her 1st birthday but what would be really significant is if we could give the gift of clean water to millions of people who are in danger of water-related illnesses. 

Harper and I don’t need anything so would you consider celebrating World Water Day with me by giving the gift of clean water to someone who needs it?

Please consider checking out the official World Water Day website here or visit Project 7  and support what they are doing.

If we try to reach our floor, our neighborhood and see the vision for the New City to come to Old Town without the Triune God we will burn-out, create idols, and fail. 

Here’s the truth. We are weak, broken, fearful, selfish, and idolatrous. We need rescued, empowered, healed, and forgiven just like the rest of mankind. We can’t do this; only God can (Mt 19:26), yet so often I live like I am the Movement Leader. 

In light of this we pray in three ways:

1. We pray for God to help us, heal us, empower us, rescue us, forgive us and use us despite us. We pray for love and faith, for without these two things we are wasting our time (Heb 11:6; 1 Cor:13). We must, like children, rely on our Father for all good things.

2. We pray too for God, the Lord of the Harvest, to send laborers to the harvest field to join us as we join Jesus in renewing all things (Mt 9:35-38; Rev 21:5). 

3. And we pray for the shepherdless sheep that fill Cabrini and Old Town. When Jesus saw the crowds he felt compassion because they were like sheep without a shepherd. We desire that many in the high-rises, schools, single family homes, cafes and parks become followers Jesus and part of our family.

And as we pray, we remember, God is with us, Immanuel. 

• he will help us because Jesus came to our hood and died for our sins and rose from the dead for our justification (Jn:1; Romans 4:25).
• all power has been given to the Sent Son and the Son has sent the Holy Spirit to help us and dwell in us (John 20:21) . 
• we have been sent and commissioned by Jesus to make disciples with his authority, and he is with us always (Mt 28). 

The Triune God has taken care of our sins and empowered our sentness. And so we pray to him, the One who dwelt among us so we can dwell with him and among others. 

<Dwell> will be a series of short posts about living incarnationally and going on mission within proximity of where we live.

GOSPEL COMMUNITIES

Yes by God’s grace we want to reach people on our floor and in our direct neighborhood and yes we want to see a Gospel Community spring out of those relationships but I would be lying if I said that was it. We live in a neighborhood called Old Town in Chicago and we want it filled with Christians living together as a family on mission. In other words we want Gospel Communities filling Old Town; in the high-rises, in the single family homes, in the parks, in the schools, in the businesses, and in the projects. We want to see the Church inviting broken families into a New Family and we want to see the Church reflecting the city that is to come in Old Town. Indeed we want to see the New City inhabit the Old Town.

We imagine multiple GC’s finding their identity in Him and living out the rhythms He lived out. Old Town needs to meet Jesus, crush their idols and find their identity in Him and they need to see Christians living as He lived. 

GOSPEL URGENCY

Guess how many gospel proclaiming churches are in the the Old Town neighborhood? Zero. And guess how many Gospel Communities are in the Old Town neighborhood? Zero. The blue highlighted section on the map below is Old Town and currently it’s empty of a gospel witness. So by the power of the Holy Spirit we want to join God in the renewal of all things. We want to see Gospel Communities planted here, a Sunday gathering planted here, schools planted here, gardens planted here, brewpubs planted here, all for the good of Old Town and the glory of Jesus. 

Please pray that it will be so. We can’t do it only Jesus can…but we can join HIM. Will you consider joining us as we join Jesus?