Why Dallas Willard Sometimes Frustrates Me

“A missional church, in a wording often used today, is actually one that cannot be stopped from increasing, because it grows by contiguity – skin on skin.”

 

Why I Love Dallas Willard

 

 ”Life is primarily devoted to work.  All legitimate work is devoted to the creation of value, of what is good to a lesser or greater degree.  That was God’s plan.  He not only creates; he creates creators – you and me.  One of the saddest things in human life is the desecration of work in a loveless world.  Discipleship to Jesus, properly guided by pastors, enables individuals to find in their work a divine calling and see the hand of God in their efforts to create what is good and to serve others in love.”  

 

 

Have You Ever Felt Like an Investment?

One thing I mentioned Sunday as we continue to  press and deconstruct the idea of “Relational Ministry” is that our language truly reflects our meaning and intentions…even when we’re not aware of it.  One of the words I’ve always used and heard used in teaching, training, and discussing ministry is a form of the word “investment”.  

“I’m going to invest in him.”  

“We’re investing in kids this summer”.  

“I really want to invest in you.”

The word “investment” is a financial term that comes from the world of finances and banking (it’s always a warning sign when we flippantly use financial metaphors to discuss human relationships).  Investment specifically refer to getting a return on something we put in.  We invest when we expect something in return.    

What do we mean when we say we’re going to “invest” in a person?  Usually we mean that we’re willing to pour a certain amount of time and energy into a person with the expectation that we will see a certain result from our efforts.  We often justify this because the return we’re going for is something good (i.e. accepting Jesus, etc).  Maybe the return is good – but is this truly relationship?  Is this a healthy practice?  Is this what God does with us? 

As I mentioned Sunday, I don’t know if I’ve ever had a relationship with a church or para-church organization when I didn’t feel like an investment of sorts/”invested in”.  I am invited into relationship but only with the understanding that the relationship will provide a certain return.  Although having people “invest” in you often feels affirming and strokes the ego (“you think enough of my potential that you’re willing to pour into me?”), it inevitably leaves us feeling rather used and abandoned.  

Is investment what happened through the incarnation?

I offer the following quote to provoke the imagination and discussion:

“The incarnation is not about influence but about accompaniment”  (Andrew Root)

Small Groups & Discipleship…hmmm….

I commented Sunday that according to my observations most churches are structured in a way in which small groups equal discipleship.  In other words, everyone agrees that discipleship is important and, it seems, most agree that the best way to become a disciple (apprentice to Jesus) is through small groups.  Sunday I simply asked the question, is this true?  What’s the link here?  I confess…after experiencing countless small groups in my evangelical life, I have to pause and grapple with the two concepts and try to connect them.  

The best answer I can come up with which justifies the linking of discipleship and small groups is that a small group is a community where you can’t remain anonymous.  In other words, you have to engage – you have to know and be known.  The New Testament – especially the epistles – are jammed with instruction and commentary on how we are to live together.  Small groups provide a very hands-on format/structure to begin practicing the disciplines involved in loving one another (forgiveness, sharing burdens, humility, etc).  

All well and good in theory.  Here are my “push backs” in practice:

Almost every small group I have experienced or witnessed falls into one of two categories:

• They are successful and last a long time primarily because they are largely made of people in similar life stages and experiences who share a lot of natural affinity for one another.  These people like each other and find it relatively easy and comforting to be together.  Their group often functions as a sort of “safe harbor” from the daily grind of life in the world.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with this.  In fact, these groups are often very helpful and healthy.  My point is simply that the epistles are specifically written to communities comprised of wildly different people – the kind of people who normally (culturally and sometimes legally) would have nothing to do with one another.  The real “discipleship” component comes from doing the hard work of loving people you don’t naturally like.  Which leads into the second kind of small group…
• People who don’t have natural affinity for each other and find it somewhat taxing to give an extra night of the week to the group.  Ironically, in many cases, these folks are set-up to actually begin practicing a serious form of discipleship, but they find it hard and quit.  

I have to conclude with my conviction that true discipleship is about following Jesus in bringing wholeness to a broken world.  Healing is needed in our relationship with the world, with ourselves, and with each other.  No doubt small groups can play an important role in this, but some thought is needed to make the link between discipleship and all spheres of life.

Continuing the Conversation

Our conversation Sunday was framed around the question, “why this – why now?”  In other words, Paul has just written one of his longest letters (1 Corinthians) which whole-heartedly concentrates on the issue of congregational behavior.  His entire letter has been grounded in a “thesis” statement of sorts found in 1:10 when Paul urges the church to “get rid of divisions and be united in mind and thought”.  At first glance, it seems rather odd that Paul would end this letter with an extensive dissertation on the importance of Jesus’ resurrection.  Wouldn’t it make more sense to end this letter in chapter 13 with an exhortation to “love one another”?  Why not write a separate letter about the resurrection and its significance?  

It almost seems as if Paul is suggesting that our faith in the resurrection is intimately linked with our communal behavior.  Hmmmmm………

Fun and encouraging conversation Sunday.  Thanks everyone!  And a special “thank you” to those of you who reassured me that I’m not the only one who has grown somewhat hesitant to use the phrase “saved” in its various evangelical shapes (i.e. Jesus Saves, We’ve been Saved, etc.).

Continuing the Conversation

What a posture our faith places us in!  We recognize the reality of evil, and we don’t deny the presence of suffering, grief, and pain.  Yet we are also a people characterized by hope.  Sunday we reflected on the question, where does this hope come from?  The answer to this question is the core of the Easter message…

Contrary to Western Enlightenment thinking, our hope does not lie in the “Myth of Progress”.  We aren’t hopeful because we believe in humanity’s power to achieve and move the human experience forward.

Our hope also does not lie in Platonic dualism.  In other words, we aren’t hopeful because Jesus Christ has promised to simply save us from this evil world.  We don’t cling to a doctrine of “escapism”.  

Our hope lies in the resurrection of Jesus.  We believe and hope that God will do for us and all creation what he did for Jesus on Easter morning – make a whole new creation.

Continuing the Conversation

Thanks for the great conversation Sunday regarding 1 Corinthians 12, our corporate formation, the discipline of celebrating differences, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Reflecting on our time together, I simply want to post one of the amazingly provocative (and un-current) quotes from Bonhoeffer we looked at Sunday as well as his list of disciplines that community offers if we engage it consciously and intentionally.  I welcome and invite any thoughts these may stimulate…

“If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if, on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ.”

• The Discipline of Holding Ones Tongue (developing the habit of saying very little that comes to ones mind)
• The Discipline of Meekness (becoming aware of ones own shortcomings)
• The Discipline of Listening (harder and less practiced than we might think)
• The Discipline of Helpfulness (becoming able to bend our schedules for the unplanned)
• The Discipline of Bearing (bearing each others personalities – the whole personality)
• The Discipline of Proclaiming (speaking truth to each other – even when it’s hard)

We could easily have a sermon series on these disciplines, and maybe someday we will…

Continuing the Conversation

I love discussions about the conscience.  I find them to be amazingly provocative, and I believe the conscience is perhaps the most revealing issue pertaining to human nature, God, and morality.  I am thankful for Paul revealing the very difficult yet truthful reality that all communities are comprised of different consciences.  As I’ve shared the last two weeks, I am continually challenged by the idea that the primary task of the church is not to bring everyone’s conscience into conformity, but, rather, to practice humility by learning how to be aware of and serve each others conscience as we promote a healthy conscience individually and communally.  Convicting indeed.

May our community be marked by a seamlesssness between our knowing and our doing.  Amen.

Continuing the Conversation

Sunday we spoke further on Paul’s message of life in God’s Kingdom.  As he juxtaposes the way of the Cross to the way of the World he continually emphasizes the difference between humility and pride.  Among other things, we asked the question, “what does the prideful church look like?”  This is a worthy conversation.    

I have become intrigued by Paul’s metaphor in 1 Corinthians 5 of a “flat bread” church/a church without yeast to “puff it up.”  What would the “flat bread” church look like?  How would the “flat bread” church market itself?  

Here are some suggestions from our conversation Sunday:

• The flat bread church wouldn’t pretend to have the corner on truth.  Rather, it would be a student of truth.
• The flat bread church would face hard issues rather than bury its head.
• The flat bread church would be experts at getting along and not breaking fellowship in the name of individual preferences and opinions.
• The flat bread church recognizes the myth of universal agreement.  The key to their unity is humility – not agreement.

Here are some thoughts I had upon engaging in discussion with folks afterwards:

• We do need to move things forward and engage our communities, but there are ways to do that which foster agreement and unity rather than gossip and discord.  It’s not easy, but changing allegiances from one realm to the other is not an easy thing.
• We must remember that Paul’s instructions on humility are specifically directed to the church.  There is a standard God’s church is to live up to that is simply not possible in the broader world community.  
• One intuitively senses from Paul’s writing that there are differences between issues which call for humility and submission in the name of not breaking fellowship (i.e. covering women’s heads for worship) and issues that are immoral and need to be confronted (slavery).  Although it’s tempting to suggest these issues reveal themselves by simply using common sense, it must be admitted that in today’s society the church is often divided about which issues are tolerable and which need to be confronted (homosexuality).

Continuing the Conversation

Sunday we discussed the issue of pride in the church and how it contributes to division and factions. Paul’s consistent answer to this in 1 Corinthians is to learn to live in the way of “Christ Crucified”.  Living as Christ Crucified…hmmm…..  

As I wrestled with this topic all week I kept coming back to the question, “why do people leave churches (to find better churches/churches that fit them, etc.)?”  Although in our culture of choice and freedom we take it for granted that it’s virtuous to exercise our rights of choice whenever we see fit, I couldn’t help wondering if this pattern of living resembles American individualistic consumption more than “Christ Crucified”.  

The phrase “Christ Crucified” implies (to me at least) a way of life that involves difficulty, submission, humility, and perhaps even some suffering.  Yet if it’s through the church that we learn to live into this kind of life, is there not a tension inherent in the idea that we shop for churches that “fit” us the same way we shop for clothes?  

I certainly would never want to imply a static “rule” that it’s always wrong to change churches.  I just think we could benefit from taking the issue of Christ Crucified seriously as we look at various ways pride (the elevation of self at the expense of community/looking to one’s own interests before the interests of others) effects the church experience in our lives and culture.