Too often IF discipleship comes up in a church setting it means a new program or a curriculum. It is a topic that every church knows is important, but doesn’t seem to really take place in most churches. Churches will say they value discipleship (and other sexy words like “mission” and “community” of course), but often this value isn’t embraced by the church culture. Discipleship is more often than not delegated to a program, a curriculum, or some class that people need to attend. Discipleship becomes a task instead of a relationship. A program to attend instead of an ongoing journey to discover.
Fortunately for me, this hasn’t been my experience with discipleship in the past and it’s not my vision for plant medina’s future. I view discipleship in the church as an invitation to a journey into Christ likeness with others. Discipleship is like being invited on a hiking trip by an experienced hiker and having this new friend show you how to use all your gear. Then actually going out and hitting the trails with you, showing you how to navigate tough spots and not just how to hike, but how to hike well.
Category Archives: Christianity
Unzipping Truth in the Seam of Time
Below are my thoughts that were inspired from watching a YouTube message from Timothy Tennent on living in a “seam of time” – between a change not just of government, or of financial status, or of global economics… but a change from the paradigms that have silently under-girded those systems for the past hundred years into a new paradigm or philosophy for the future.
If one would look closely at the landscape of our world, they will find that we are living between two folds or epochs in history. Despite our best efforts to sedate the symptoms of this paradigm change, we are faced everyday with the symptoms of a violent change in how we view reality.
The change isn’t just the gradual change of a season: the snow slowly melting away, the green grass returning to life, the sun radiating new heat, and spring flowers slowly break the surface. No these are tumultuous times of change: financial uncertainty, government incompetence, transnational corporations working a shadow agenda, and global wars and revolutions … all of which appear in stark constant to the serenade of the entertainment industry that lullabies us to sleep in the minority world (the West).
But what of faith? Do we have faith in anything anymore? Faith in each other, our neighbors, our sexuality, our government, our industries, our economy, our secularized culture, or our sanitized Christianity? Do we even have faith in faith anymore? How do we talk about truth for instance when we no longer hold to commonly understood categories of truth. What is truth? Even in the scientific community there are competing definitions of truth and conflicting findings from studies. There is a change that is happening (and has been happening since the 70s) in metaphysics (how we view reality). Are we still modern? Are we Postmodern? What, why, how, and who is truth?
Whether we stand like Pontius Pilate in judgment asking “What is truth?” or like Saul of Tarsus as one blinded by the truth, or like the Gerasene Demoniac as one delivered by the truth, or like the person outside of society who found acceptance in the truth, or like the nameless blind man who was healed by the truth, or like Peter who while fleeing from persecution was convicted by the truth… we stand not alone on this seam of time, but are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses to the truth: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
We are called not merely to consider, contemplate, and categorize claims about truth, but to embody the way, the truth, and the life of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are called to incarnate the truth, to resist and subvert the current folds of time that seek to zipper out our witness of the Gospel. We cannot help but to be what we behold, despite what idols seek to stand in-between.
Lent Reflections: The Servant of Gethsemane
Last week my friend Joshua Toepper (www.trinitarianmission.com) and I spent the day hiking, praying, and listening to God at the Abbey of Gethsemane. The following video is a reflection from one of the statues in the woods:
Re-Imagining ‘Fat Tuesday’ in the Waters of Baptism
Today is Shrove Tuesday, the day before the Ashes of Wednesday that inaugurate the 40 day season of longing, Lent. Dating back to as before 1000, Shrove Tuesday (‘Fat Tuseday’) is a time to prepare for the season of Lent. Shrove’s origin is from the English verb to shrive, which means to obtain absolution for one’s sins by the means of confession and penance. The origin of the celebratory aspect of “Shrove Tuesday” predates “Fat Tuesday”, “Carnival”, “Mardi Gras” and the Protestant Revolution. The idea was for people to release the “high spirits” before the “somber” season of Lent.
We have somehow translated “Shrovetide” or “Shrove Tuesday” into a variety of traditions that lack the bite of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What does eating pancakes have to do with preparing for lent? The rationale is that all the fatty ingredients that go into pancakes are often fasted during lent. Consider Mardi Gras or Carnival. What do the activities associated with these celebrations have to do with preparing for lent or even Christianity? Why does the church feel compelled to “celebrate sin” for a day before a season of fasting?
I want to suggest that we need to re-align our understanding of the Tuesday before Lent. We need to re-ground it in the narrative of Scripture. Specifically, we need to saturate it in the waters of our baptism into Christ. In yesterday’s post, I noted that it is immediately after Jesus’ baptism that the Holy Spirit sends him into the wilderness to fast and pray for 40 days and to be tempted by Satan. What better way to prepare for the fasting and temptation of Lent than to follow our Lord and remember our baptism into his promise.
It is often noted of the Reformer Martin Luther that when tempted by Satan he would reply, “I AM Baptized.” Notice this is not a past action according to Luther, but a present promise of the benefits of being in Christ. How much more fitting would it be for us to remember our Baptism into Christ the Tuesday before Lent than to celebrate in spite of it.
Transfiguration Sunday and the Longing of Epiphany
Yesterday was transfiguration Sunday which marks a peak of ascent in the Christian calendar and journey. It is from the vantage point of the mountain of transfiguration that we see behind us the season of Epiphany and before us the season of Easter. Behind us is Christ’s baptism and before us is his death and resurrection. It is from this vantage point that along with Peter and James, we see Christ transfigured before us and then from out of a cloud of unapproachable light, we hear the words, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” (Matthew 17:1-9).
These words spoken from God the Father act as a segue from Epiphany into the season of lent. From the action of Christ’s baptism (in Epiphany) to its meaning for us (Easter). The first phrase from the clouds of the Mountain of Transfiguration was first spoken at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel:
“And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” – Matthew 3:16-17
After these words were spoken at Jesus’ baptism in Matthew 3, we find Jesus being, “led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights.” (Mat. 4:1) This brings us to the longing of lent:
- To not live by bread alone, but by the words that come from the mouth of God. (Mat. 4:3-4)
- To not put the LORD to the test (Mat. 4:5-7)
- To dismiss Satan with our worship of “The LORD our God, serving him alone.” (Mat.4:8-10).
On the mountain of transfiguration where we stand in the Church calendar we are invited into this season of Longing, of Lent with the words, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” So we respond to the Epiphany of Jesus as God with obedience; listening and following Christ into a wilderness season of Lent that leads to the death and new life of Easter.
Fissiparous Fundamentalism
Specimen A: (The Ambiguity Guy) A promo video filmed for Rob Bell’s latest book, Love Wins: Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.
Specimen B: The Response (The Fundamentalist Folks) to the Promo (not the book since it is not yet released):
- “Farewell Rob Bell” (referring to Bell now being ‘outside’ Christian fellowship) – John Piper
- Jason Taylor after calling Bell an Universalist, ”Farther and farther away from anything resembling biblical Christianity.”
Specimen C: Fis-sip-a-rous, meaning, “Tending to break up into parts or break away from a main body; factious.”
Specimen D: Fundamentalism, meaning, “A strict adherence to specific set of theological doctrines typically in reaction against the theology of Modernism.”
Specimen E: Jesus’ Prayer:
John 17: 16 They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.
20 “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
25 “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
The Epiphany of Suffering
During this past week suffering and death have been ever before me: From a philosophy class I am taking on Suffering, Tragedy and the Christian Faith, to a Time article written by Rob Bell concerning him getting his call to be a pastor in the midst of severe headaches, to a guest lecturer in Chapel talking about growing up in the persecuted Church of Columbia, to filling out ACPE (Association of Clinical Pastoral Education) applications about my views of spiritual care and suffering, and last night hearing a friend’s testimony about God’s presence with him in the midst of his young wife’s death. These events bring me to today: the Lord’s Day, Sunday, the First day, and the eschatological eighth day… and then I’m reminded of the “reason for the season”, Epiphany – Christ being revealed as God in the Gospels… in the midst of suffering.
Before the Passion of Lent and the Resurrection of Easter comes the Epiphany of the B.C. proclamation in Isaiah 53, “Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.”
The picture and the Isaiah 53 passage above are an attempt to articulate the reality of suffering, tragedy, sin and death in light of the reality of Jesus as LORD. It attempts to show that the cross is not only a historical event, but it is also a reality of God’s cruciform love for the world. I remember Robert Mulholland saying in class, “The Cross is not just something Jesus DID, it is a revelation of WHO God is.” During the season of Epiphany we see Jesus transfigured before us as God: Healing diseases, exorcising demons, and raising the dead. We follow the reality of Jesus as God in Epiphany into the reality of Christ’s cruciform love revealed in the Passion of Lent.
Are You a F.A.T. Disciple?
I was a year into living the Christian witness when I transferred to Wright Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio. After 10 months of intense mentoring and training by a Navigator in Florida, I was now faced with a base that at the time did not have a Navigator missionary on staff. It was during this time I was sharing a meal with a new friend who was discipled by my former mentor in Florida.
In one of our first meetings he called me a FAT disciple… I never heard that before. When I heard it I thought, “Phat”? What’s this guy playing at? Is he trying to spit slang ?” He obviously noticed my glazed over eyes at his comment, and with a smile said, “You know… F-A-T. – Faithful. Available. Teachable. The qualities in a disciple of Christ.”
Looking back at this story now, I can honestly tell you that at the end of a tour as an M.Div. student at Asbury Theological Seminary, I am still very F.A.T.! I am called to be faithful both the “head and heart” knowledge and experiences that I have been PRIVILEGED to learn. I am still very much available to be mentored and to mentor. Finally, I humbly report that I have failed to live up to the standards of the name of my degree, Master of Divinity. I have not mastered the divine and am still very teachable by God’s Spirit, Word, and Church.
So… Ph.D.s, senior Pastors, priests, missionaries, Seminarians, social activists and writers .. have you managed to keep your weight on? Have you remained F.A.T.?
The Language of “T.G.I.F.”
When you read the title of this Blog and you came across the acronym, “T.G.I.F.” what came to your mind? If you were born in the 80s like me, perhaps a picture of Steve Erkel comes to mind? If you are a little older than me (or a little younger) perhaps the restaurant T.G.I.F. Fridays comes to mind?
Recently I read an article written in my weekly Anglican Mission News feed from their Winter Conference (click here for entire article). At one point in the article Dr. Len Sweet called Christ followers to, ”Learn the language of today’s “TGIF” generation (Twitter, Google, iPhone and Facebook).” Social media like the Internet is not going away any time soon. In fact, both will evolve and change with advancements in technology and education.
Christians neither should consider T.G.I.F. to be the only form of language nor forsake meeting together physically for the convenience (and dangers) that a Web-streamed service can bring. Consider T.G.I.F. not to be a language, but a dialect or medium to convey the Gospel. Think of T.G.I.F. as the 21st century translation of letter writing (which also could be complex rhetorically).
What are some of your thoughts, concerns, or ideas about T.G.I.F.?
Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail
Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail: Why Evangelicals Are Attracted to the Liturgical Church
By: Robert E. Webber
Article written by: rm Kocak
“Why would I, the son of a Baptist minister, become an Episcopalian? Why would I , a graduate of Bob Jones University, walk the Canterbury Trail? Why would I, an ordained minister of the Reformed Presbyterian denomination, forsake my orders? Why would I, a professor at a main-line evangelical college, risk misunderstanding and put my career in a possible jeopardy to follow my heart?”
- Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail - page 11.
In Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail, Robert Webber (and friends) seek to answer the question of “Why.” He tells his personal testimony of the journey into liturgical worship in a way that doesn’t suggest a superiority of the Anglican tradition over any others. The entire book is highly personal in its tone and invites the reader to join with the author on his liturgical journey.
The Book is broken up into three distinct parts:
- Why the Anglican Tradition?
- Six Pilgrims Share Their Stories
- The Church of the Future.
During the first part of the book, Webber takes you on his own sacramental journey and what attracted him to liturgical worship. To that end Webber gives six themes or motifs in his journey: a return to mystery, a longing for the experience of Worship, a desire of sacramental reality, the search for spiritual identity, embracing the whole church, and growing into a holistic spirituality. In the second portion Webber invites six other evangelicals who have made similar pilgrimages to share their story. Finally, Webber concludes in a brief chapter in Part 3 with the renewal movement within liturgical worship. Webber stresses that evangelicals can bring a lot of beneficial elements into the liturgical tradition and not forsake an “evangelical identity” for a “liturgical identity.”
The BIG Idea
Experiencing Worship
“It amazes me that I went through seminary without a course in worship, without any professor asking me to address the question: What is worship all about … My longing for more satisfying worship grew as each route I took in worship led me to a dead-end street.”
- pg. 36.
The desire for an experiential, mysterious, and sacramental reality in worship drips from the beginning chapters, as Webber reflects on mystery, experience, and sacramental reality in liturgical worship. This journey is rooted for Weber in a visit to a Roman Catholic worship service before Easter, the worship of the early church fathers, and hosting “Agape meals” with students and friends.
Idea #1
Discovering A Spiritual Identity
“I was introduced to the “Trail of Blood” theory. True Christians, it was argued, always stood outside the established church.”
-pg 59
Webber comments on how he felt divorced from the greater Christian body of believers. Webber was indoctrinated to believe that a true Christian was to stand outside the organized religions of Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox, and mainline Protestant denominations. Webber boldly discusses how he was rooted in the pride of the Puritans against Anglicans and Lutherans for what they perceive to be “rags of popery” and against Anabaptists for their pacifism. He said all these biases were good and fine until he would actually meet an Arminian, Lutheran, Anabaptist, or Roman Catholic who was devout in the Christian faith.
Idea #2
Eucharistic Spirituality
“Eucharistic Spirituality is the experience of being spiritually nourished and strengthened by eating the bread and drinking the wine… The mystery of what Christ did for me on the cross reaches into my inner person in a way that I cannot describe.”
- Pg. 83.
Webber has a chapter on “Growing into a Holistic Spirituality” that really captures the essence of having a spirituality of experience; namely, to be in Christ. Both justification and sanctification are communicated at the Lord’s Supper in a tangible, physical way. Webber also shows the spirituality of experience in following the church year as a personal devotion.
