Category Archives: Holy Spirit

Church Planting and the Lizard Brain

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What is the “Lizard Brain” you ask?

If you chose to skip the above video explanation, the lizard brain is that part of your brain (the amygdala) responsible for your “fight-or-flight” reflex. It’s the part of your brain that often sabotages you in overcoming the increasing pressure as you near the completion of a project or goal.  Seth Godin has a very short explanation of the dynamics of the “lizard brain” and “the resistance” on his blog (if you want a more detailed lecture from Seth check out this presentation).

So what does this have to do with church planting? Church planting involves a highly creative process that requires the pastor or team to continually “ship”, that is, follow through on their vision for the worshiping community they serve. As you near an event, or a meeting, or a service launch date the pressure builds and the resistance/lizard brain spikes in volume. What was once but a whisper is now a loud shout: “Are you sure this will work?” “Maybe we need to delay the launch”? “Is my team ready”? “Maybe I should wait until I have a larger core team”? “Should I just cancel this event?” “Am I the person for this job?” The lizard brain demands attention near the end and calls into question those things which we so certain of just days prior. The Lizard Brain seeks to sabotage the potential of “what could be” with the comfort of “what has always been.”

This was my experience last week with a service I had labored over in one of the local parks. Two days prior to the event, I found out all the people from the church plant that I anticipated going, legitimately couldn’t make it. My lizard brain started to howl: “Should I just cancel it.” “Will anyone actually read the flyers I put out and come?” “Will people even be in the park?” “How embarrassing” … But then God’s Spirit reminded me that I’m not called to “false self-preservation” as much as I am  called to faithful obedience to the Gospel.

So I overcame the mounting resistance and went to the park last Sunday afternoon. I spent a lot of time setting up and no one showed … finally my wife and daughter came … then my parents and their dogs … then two more couples with their kiddos. We met folks in the park and had a fun time together. Did revival break out? Did people come to know Jesus as Lord? Was my ego preserved? No… but I shipped! I followed through on what I told people I would do: I showed up at the park, grilled food and got to know folks better.

The above video offers some helpful tips to overcome the effects of the “lizard brain”, but I prescribe these words to you as well from St. Paul,

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Romans 12:1-2 

John Stott on Discpleship, Evangelism, and Holy Living

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Rest in Christ Reverend Stott – you have been a means of grace for many!

Hunting With Eyes Wide

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I have a prayer stand where I am learning to hunt. It’s elevated and beyond the senses of those who may stroll by on bike, car, or foot. I visit this location regularly as a farmer visits the soil. There is a pattern to my labors though. I just don’t close my eyes and draw an imaginary line from my concept of God to my concept of needs, and then  shoot out words rapidly like an automated assembly line in hope they will correctly assemble for me the desires of my imagination.

No. I cannot hunt with my eyes wide shut, but nor can I see with my eyes wide open. There is an emptying and a filling that must occur. An apophatic prayer, the emptying of that which entangles and inhibits me as an intercessor, but also a kataphatic prayer, seeing through the lens of the Great Victory of God.

So, I close one eye and focus the other. Steadying my breathing. Concentrating on my environment. Waiting patiently to see that which is imagined become manifest in objective reality. Growing in courage to pull the trigger when I see it break through… BAM!

Veni Creator Spiritus, Come, Creator Spirit for with eyes wide open I am blinded by the glory of God and with eyes wide shut I miss the cries of the needy.

But don’t be mistaken. My prayer stand isn’t so much about hunting as it is about daily orienting myself to the hunt. A daily abiding in holy attentiveness to Him who prays for His Father’s will to be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Epiphany In Worship

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The season of Epiphany, when the Church explicitly remembers how Jesus is revealed as God in the Gospels is now coming to a end.  In this season we have followed the Magi, remembered Christ’s baptism, and  witnessed the Kingdom of God. Yet before we look too far down the path of Epiphany, to the palms of Sunday and the ashes of Wednesday, let us consider Jesus’ revelation as God in Worship.

The synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) all mention the account of Jesus teaching at the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth. In the Luke account we find that  during this Sabbath worship service it was Jesus’ turn to read the scroll, which happened to have been from  the Prophet Isaiah. SO as was the custom, Jesus takes the scroll of Isaiah, stands up and gives the reading:

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

This verse is drawn from Isaiah 61:1-2 and 58:6. What was Jesus’ interpretation of these verses from the Prophet for those in attendance?  ”Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Lk4:21). There was amazement at the grace of his words and then the questions and challenges came, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” Jesus then begins to unpack his amplified interpretation of these verses from Isaiah in Luke 4:24-30 as the hearers with rage try to lay hands on him. To think that God would extend his grace and blessing outside of “clean & chosen” Israel to lepers, widows, the poor, and Gentiles!

The people of Nazareth missed Jesus as God in the reading and failed to glorify God, acknowledging him for who he is. Today I sometimes wonder if the church fails in this respect to acknowledge God for who he is in worship. Three benchmarks for worship as a response to God’s glory (that I have adapted from Simon Chan’s Liturgical Theology) are:

  1. Worship is not something we do for God - “Praise” does not bring down the glory of God. “Waiting” does not bring down the glory of God. “Playing Louder Music” does not bring down the glory of God. The glory of God is a self-giving gift and thus, everything we are and have to offer is a gift from God.
  2. Worship is its own end. In the pragmatic context in which we find ourselves in history, everything including worship has to have and end or purpose (mostly for us). What do you mean Jesus this reading is fulfilled in our hearing? Aren’t you Joseph’s boy? What’s in it for us? As William Willimon writes, “Worship loses is integrity when it is regarded instrumentally as a means of something else-even as a means of achieving the most noble of human purposes”
  3. Worship is a response to God’s total character. True worship must reflect the reality of who the triune God is. I agree with John Wesley’s observation of the verse that Jesus reads above, “The Spirit of Lord is upon me” as a reference to the Holy Trinity. Do we worship a triune God today in American Christianity?

My Birthday And Epiphany – Part II

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It’s always exciting when my physical birth date falls on the Lord’s Day (Sunday) as it did this year. In Sunday’s post I looked at the birth narratives in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew and how they revealed Jesus as God. In this morning’s post I will look at this “birth” motif from the perspective of the Gospels of John and Mark.

The Gospel of John begins immediately with the Word (logos gk.). The closest hint to the physical birth of Christ comes in John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us.” The opening setting of John is in Bethany across the Jordan. John the Baptist is preparing the way of the Lord with his baptism of repentance. John explained his reason for baptism, “I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And Jesus came and was revealed as God in Baptism. This revelation of Jesus as God, theophany is celebrated during the season of Epiphany (I wrote a post about theophany a few weeks ago).

The narrative of Mark also starts with, “The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ.” Like John it goes right into the ministry of John the Baptist as the path by which Jesus’ earthly ministry enters.  John proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.  I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” And just like that, “Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.” Just like the baptism account in Mark, Jesus is revealed as God in his baptism.

Both John and Mark as opposed to Luke and Matthew stress the adult ministry of Jesus that begins with his baptism. They include no genealogies, birth narratives, or childhood accounts of Jesus. The emphasis of the beginning of Mark and John appear to be on John the Baptist’s ministry, Jesus’ baptism, and subsequent ministry. John Stott says, “Baptism with water is the sign and seal of baptism with the Spirit, as much as it is of the forgiveness of sins. Water-baptism is the initiatory Christian rite, because Spirit-baptism is the initiatory Christian experience.” If the labor of our physical birth is the human rite by which we all must become part of a human community, then water baptism is the Christian rite by which Christians are imparted with the Holy Spirit that cries out in our hearts as adopted Children to God,  ”ABBA FATHER.”

Ryan, I’m Turning Down the Volume…

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So the other day as I was getting ready for a busy day on campus, I felt like Jesus said to me, “Ryan, I’m turning down the volume.”

Now when I write “I felt,” I’m not suggest some emotional run a muck fantasy. Or when I write “Jesus said,” I’m not suggesting that Jesus audibly spoke into my ears. What I am saying, is that when these words entered into my consciousness, every fiber of  my being  knew it to be from the second person of the trinity. It was unadulterated truth in an unexpected moment.

So then I ask the Lord, “You’re turning down the volume one what?” I remember thinking, what in my life is so loud right now? Then the sweet, sweet Spirit of the Lord whispered again to me, “I’m turning down the volume of your future possibilities.” This was a timely word for my soul to hear. As I approach my last year of Seminary, my spirit was almost deafened by the noise of  possible vocations that I may enter into upon graduation (not to mention the added pressure of  learning to be a father to my first child in September). My mind would race, thinking of the possibilities: pastoral ministry (but, with what denomination?), Air Force Chaplaincy ?, campus ministry?, ThM/PhD (but in what?)?, spiritual formation pastor?, do I look for jobs in Ohio near my families or near Wilmore where I currently reside? So, just as Jesus rebuked the storm and the waves and made everything calm, the comforter of my soul is calming the clanging of future possibilities. It’s not that these desires/possibilities no longer exist, but they no longer deafen me to what the Lord is doing in the “here and now.”

“We Believe in the Holy Spirit” – a creed.

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Recently I was  at conference at a local Church where the speaker was talking about the Holy Spirit. He made the comment that people treat the Holy Spirit as, “the crazy uncle of the trinity.” This observation struck me as hilarious, but very keen.  Perhaps such an observation of the western Church is due to people not being able to differentiate between the human responses to the Holy Spirit and the divine person. Perhaps also the lack of embrace of the Holy Spirit  in the western Churches is because of our recent “ontological hangover” caused by two hundred years of getting drunk on Enlightenment philosophy. I say all this to highlight that an adequate Doctrine of the Holy Spirit is not based human responses any more than a Doctrine of Jesus Christ or YHWH are. Also, an adequate Doctrine of the Holy Spirit shouldn’t be limited to an anthropocentric (interpreting reality based on human values, experiences ) view of reality.  The Holy Spirit, being of the same essence with the Son and Father (homoousios), deserves as much attention in our Theology and Worship as the other members of the trinity. The following is a simple (and incomplete) Creed on the third person of the Trinity taken from the saga of Scripture.

“We Believe in the Holy Spirit.”

We believe the Old Testament proclaims… that before anything was created, the Spirit of God swept over the formless and dark void that was to become the universe (Gen 1:2). Pharaoh testified to his servants that Joseph, the interpreter of dreams was “one with the Spirit of God in him.”(Gen 41:38) Joshua was set apart and led Israel because he had the “Spirit in him” (Num 27:18). The Spirit of the Lord gave Samson great strength and power to defeat the Philistines during the time of the Judges (Judges 13:25,14:6,14:19,15:14,15:19). When Samuel the prophet anointed the shepherd David with oil, the Spirit of the Lord forevermore dwelt with David the future King of Israel (1 Sam 16:13). The Psalmist cries out to God for the Holy Spirit not to be taken from Him (Ps 51:10).  Elijah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Daniel, Hosea, Jonah, Habakkuk, Haggai, Amos, and all the prophets, prophesied in the Spirit of the Lord. The Prophet Isaiah wrote concerning Christ that the Spirit of the Lord shall rest on Him (Isaiah 11:2; Lk 4:18).

We believe the  New Testament proclaims… that Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit (Mat 1:18,1:20; Lk 1:35,), was filled with the Holy Spirit (Lk 4:1;) cast out demons, healed, and performed miracles in the power of the Spirit (Mt12:28; Acts 10:38), and baptized people with/sent forth  the Holy Spirit on believers (Mat 3:11; Lk 3:16; Jn1:33,Acts 1:15). After Christ’s ascension to the right hand of the Father, the Apostles were instructed by the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:2), received power from the Holy Spirit to be witness (Acts 1:8), preached boldly in the Spirit (Acts 4:8; Acts 6:10), remained faithful in martyrdom (Acts 6:5;), and performed healing, deliverance, and other miracles with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4; Acts 5:13-15). After Paul’s eyes were opened by the Holy Spirit (Acts 9:17), he was filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:9).

We believe in the fruits and the gifts of the Holy Spirit today as it was recorded in the New and Old Testaments. The gifts of the Spirit are: prophesy, tongues, interpretation of tongues, healing, assistance, leadership, and discernment of spirits (1 Cor 12, 14). The fruits of the Holy Spirit are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit (Gal 5:25).