The Inevitable Dry Spell.

The Inevitable Dry Spell.

I like to think of myself as a creative person. I am part of the creative team at Common Ground, and I make really low-quality (but still funny) videos in that role. I also come up with silly things to do on Sunday mornings. outside church, I like to write music and poems and essays and whatever else strikes my fancy. However, I often find myself in dry spells, or in the throes of writers' block.

My spiritual side sometimes feels that way, too. Sometimes I am very in tune with what God wants from me (or at least I feel like I am), and sometimes I feel like I am going through the motions. My faith doesn't flag, but my passion is dryer. But, what's crazy is that I just keep going.

When it comes to writing, if I have writers' block, I keep writing. When it comes to serving, if I feel disconnected or dry, I just keep serving. And inevitably, the dry feeling goes away. EVERY TIME.

I'm currently feeling some writers' block, hence the long absence from blogging, but I'm just writing to write, and starting this post with no agenda, I now know to add one more thing to my considerable list of things to teach about and that's even though your passion may flag, God's does not, so if you keep serving, you will encounter him.

Feeling like an insider

I'm not sure if this has a specific application. But, I've been working at Starbucks for the past 2 weeks as a part-time job. I haven't liked it at all. I haven't felt connected to the store and have felt like an outsider- and haven't felt cared for.

Well, tonight I worked with the manager for an entire shift. It was my first time since I started working at this Starbucks. I was surprised that I suddenly felt more connected to the store. My theory is that it was primarily b/c I worked with the manager and I felt like I got to know her better and felt like she got to see a little more who I was. It made me feel cared for. I just found this interesting.

I'm not sure that there's any leadership lesson or church lesson. The only thing I could think of is, as a leader, people will naturally feel more connected to what I do by feeling more connected to me. So, it's at least worth being aware of that. Just something I was thinking about tonight.

Critique.

Everyone's a critic with big long fingers that point out flaws with the greatest of ease. I appreciate these people sometimes. They are the ones that open my eyes and heart. They show me where I can improve and close the gap between where I am and where I want to be. I think churches need to invite criticism to some extent, but where is the line?

It always seems to me that so many critics have no desire to get their hands dirty and make any changes themselves. At work or at church or at home, it is so easy to say there is something that is less than perfect, but if you aren't willing to sacrifice time to help make it perfect or to teach me how I can make it more perfect, then don't get mad if your criticism is ignored. If you talk to me about something someone else is doing in a less than perfect way, don't be surprised if it falls on deaf ears. The truth is that I don't want to hear it. That is a slippery slope into a mud pit of gossip and misinformation. The reality of things is often that things aren't perfect because there aren't enough hands to craft a perfect product or gossip has undercut the foundation of trust required to make a perfect product. It is my opinion that if you aren't willing to be constructive if even in the providing ideas and alternatives to the status quo, then your criticism isn't helpful. It is only a chisel nicking away at what apparently is already a shaky foundation.

This is why I'm sick of reading editorials in newspapers and why I don't subscribe to half the number of blogs I used to. My challenge is how does church leadership inspire a system or gracefully inform people that criticism is always welcome so long as it is intended to be constructive and aimed at improvement rather than undermining and focused on creating division?

In a World of Information

If there is one thing I notice the church realizes and is trying to work on is information overload. Americans get too much info. Yahoo is my homepage. I look down over the homepage, read the head lines and that's where I get most of my news. Sometimes I click on an article and read half of it- sometimes not. And I probably remember none of it. Sometimes I'll watch t.v. while looking on the internet- I wonder how much information I've been given in a 30 minute time span. I think the church sees there's a problem.

We can either A. Compete and try to put more info out there. Or B. Find a different approach.

Dallas Willard said, "We have counted on preaching, teaching, and knowledge or information to form faith in the hearer and have counted on faith to form the inner life and outward behavior of the Christian." He notes that we've used the concept of give people info and they'll go do it as our mode of spiritual transformation in the church. He doesn't think that's working, especially in our world of info overload today.

Another book I'm reading called, "The Big Idea," talks a lot about how we need to simplify what we tell people. The author talks of one pastor in South America who preaches the same sermon over and over until he feels his people put it into action. The author's church come up with one big idea for a sermon series and then every part of the church works around that idea- small groups, kids stuff, worship, etc.

Simplicity is in. Another book called, Simple Church talks about how church needs to simplify down to be as basic as possible. I think that instead of the church competing for our attention, maybe we do need to streamline and try to make everything more simple. Give every sermon one clear point- find ways to make it easily applicable. Make the church easily accessible for anyone. I'm not quite sure all the ways to do this, but I know that when you have a contemplative theologian like Dallas Willard and a cool church on the edge guy like the author of "Big Idea" and "Simple Church" saying the same thing, you need to listen.

Perspective

We all have a perspective. I've been thinking about this recently. There are a few theological ideas that I keep bashing my head on and all I end up with is a bruised head but no clear answers. For example the question of the role of women in leadership of the church. What does God want his church to do? I can honestly say I have looked into it about as deep as one can and still don't have a clear answer. Also recently a situation came up where someone stood very strong on a specific stance on baptism and I was trying to explain that that was only one way to look at it and that there are other valid ways to view baptism that also do not negate scripture. He would have none of it and posited that his way was the one true way to view baptism. I was frustrated and it really got me thinking how so much of the strong views we take we need to be careful about thinking that we have the best hold on God that there is.

It is frustrating b/c with some of these issues, i.e. women in leadership in the church, how one comes down on the issue affects a whole lot of people- not a great time to be ambiguous. But, I do think it is worth remembering that there are many God-fearing, Bible-loving people out there who come down on different sides of numerous issues. I just like to remember that. I was thinking that maybe this is healthy for the church in some ways b/c it helps keep church orthodoxy well within its bounds. One strong bible-believing group believe one way, another come down on the opposite side. Therefore one can look on that and figure out that orthodoxy is found somewhere between the two. I can see how that can be good for the church.

After thinking about it a lot I decided that we should contribute to this by taking a stand on certain issues b/c it can help contribute to keeping church orthodoxy strong. But, we also must realized that what we believe is only one perspective and there could be other valid perspectives that are not Biblically outside the realm of orthodoxy. It seems that all was can do is to respond to the Holy Spirit and the Bible and if we take on a belief that goes against what either are telling us- we sin. We must believe in accordance with what the Bible says and with where the Holy Spirit is leading us.

People have been trying to get a hold of God forever. Moses tried to ask God's name, possibly as an act of manipulation. God would have none of it, responding, "I'll be whoever I'll be." It is important to seek God to figure out who He is, but we should be wary when if we feel we alone have it truly figured out with no mystery.

Note: In this post, I'm not speaking about big Truths like Jesus is God, but more of the smaller stuff like mode of baptism, women in leadership, the stuff that people passionately believe in but may not have any direct link to salvation.

Openness and Communication are Key

To quote someone I know, "I like to think about church-to a point." I like questions like "What do I want a church I plant to look like?" and "How do I make people feel part of it?" I can sit all day and draw pictures in my head of what church should look like.

I can read things like this: "On the Day of Pentecost the Jerusalem congregation grew to more than 3,000 multicultural, multilingual Jews (Acts 2:41). Several thousand more were added in the days that followed (Acts 4:4, 5:14, 6:7). The church was multicultural and multilingual from the first moment of its existence. [United by Faith by Curtiss Paul DeYoung, Michael O. Emerson, George Yancey, and Karen Chai Kim]." I get excited by that.

I can read all our blogs since July and be overwhelmed (in a smiling, face hurting way) by how some of the ideas evolved through discussion. I think honest, open, sometimes even just stream-of-conciousness writing has really fleshed out some ideas, and I think that needs to be translated from a small group environment to a church-wide one. Not necessarily the back-and-forth aspects of the discussion, but the openness and honesty about church vision, mission, values, events; basically everything.

Let me be honest for a second. When I first joined Here Today in 1999, I was very suspicious of Christians because sometimes I didn't feel like I was involved in their circle because I felt I was being judged. I wasn't being judged, which I know now, but that suspiciousness developed because people weren't always forthcoming with what was going on. It would be like, "Hey we're going to play a show at a church." Then, we'd arrive at a church and have to participate in church-stuff before we played. I'd be there like, "What the heck?" It's not even that I minded the church stuff, and ultimately, it changed my life more than playing bass ever did, but if everyone had been forthcoming with me, I wouldn't have felt like I'd been tricked into going to church. I could have just gone and soaked it in without bitterness.

Especially if a church is going to unite people in their faith, I think a "cards on the table" approach is wise. Again, let me be honest; a lot of people don't naturally trust the intentions of people of other races. I was thinking about this a lot a couple days ago, and I know that my current openness to diversity is only through a years-long effort to be open and is not something that was necessarily passed down from my parents. Not that they are racist; they are status-quoists, and that's not good enough for me.

If nothing is hidden from people, and if the mission, vision and values are openly and often shared, then there will be no mystery. I have seen how suspisciousness can develop even where you feel it never could and cause division in the body. The more open and the more people know what is going on, I feel the less would have to be suspicious about. Obviously, in our world, division is going to find a way to crop up, but I feel like this would be one way to hellp protect against Satan and his plots to divide and devour.

Look at our country and how suspisciousness has arisen because nobody feels politicians are forthcoming and trustworthy. Transparency, love, and grace could help the church avoid becoming like the government and help church leaders avoid being seen as politicians.

Retreat Observations.

I want to be part of a church filled with Guerilla Lovers...not to be confused with Gorilla Lovers.

I went to a men's retreat this weekend and we talked about how Christianity is supposed to be a revolution rather than a religion. Christianity is supposed to be something that hopes to strangle out evil in the world, but not by frontal, accusatory assault, but rather through wild, crazy acts of love. The speaker called us to be Guerilla Lovers. Love where it is not expected. Show love where to do so is unusual and even crazy.

Life is uncomfortable so often, so often love will be, but love can cross all boundaries and there are nearly no defenses against it.