Jesus and The Art of Pruning Tomatoes

(If you read here often then you know our family has a little vegetable garden in the back yard. What you might not know is that lately it seems this is the only place God speaks to me.)

Sometimes growth isn’t the solution, it’s the problem.

Given plenty of water and sunlight a tomato plant will literally grow itself into sickness. Stems fork indiscriminately, shooting at oblique angles that crowd other branches and leaves.

This crowding limits access to sunlight and can lead to disease, but the more surprising problem is too much fruit. The wildly branching “sucker” stems soon sprout blossoms that multiply the fruit of the plant. This may not sound like a problem – and early in the season it’s fun to see so much fruit on the bush – but that early promise never really pays off. Too many tomatoes rob the entire plant of the limited nutrients, rendering all the tomatoes too small to be useful.

By regularly pruning these “suckers” the tomato plant can be limited to a few (or even just one) growth stems that yield larger, healthier fruit.

For me, the difficult part of pruning is making the decision to cut off something I have been lovingly growing for quite some time. When you have much invested, it’s more than a little unnerving to cut off an entire stem, especially one that is blossoming. Often the decision is not between stems that are producing fruit and stems that aren’t – those are easy decisions. Sometimes it’s a judgment call: which are closer to the main stem? Which show the promise of stronger fruit? Which are getting in the way of the plant growing in a strong and stable way?

It may sound silly, but these can be agonizing decisions. It takes real courage to place your knife at the base of a strong stem and sever it from the stalk. This is particularly difficult when you fancy yourself an “organic” gardener and have fallen prey to the misunderstanding that “organic” means abstaining from structure or intervention. It’s easy to think that multiplication of fruit is better than the heartiness of fruit. But that is what it means to be a good gardener, to take responsibility for the health of the whole plant.

It turns out, it’s not enough to be organic; one must cultivate as well.

Technorati Tags: Church growth, discipleship, Gardening, Pruning

The Danger of Worship: Untamed, Chapter Two

(During the month of April I’m blogging through Alan and Deb Hirsch’s latest book, Untamed. Previous posts: Chapter 1)

Your sincerity is not enough. Everyone is sincere, but there is a real-live God, with real-live thoughts, values, and expectations that exclude other thoughts, values, and expectations as possibilities of goodness.

If the first chapter of Deb and Alan Hirsch’s latest book, Untamed, concerned the re-affirmation of a personally accessible God, then the second Chapter wants us to know that God is dangerous. Moreover, as history’s slew of cult leaders and televangelists attest, it is also dangerous to miss the truth about that God. Such false prophets are very sincere about their faith, as Martin Buber has noted:

“False prophets are not godless. Rather, they adore the god “success.” They themselves are in constant need of success and achieve it by promising it to the people. But they do honestly want success for the people. The craving for success governs their hearts and determines what rises from them. That is what Jeremiah called the “deceit of their own hearts.” They do not deceive; they are deceived, and can only breathe in the air of deceit.”

This means getting the “fundamentals” about God right, but before you make the mistake of hearing a re-hashing of fundamentalism here, you must understand what the Hirsch’ mean by this term; for them, the fundamentals refer to being like Christ:

“We easily lose focus on what is essential. We miss the fact that discipleship has to do with becoming like Jesus, living the Shema, and not forgetting that the “more important matters of the law,” namely love, mercy, forgiveness, justice (Matt. 23:23–24), are nonnegotiables in the equation.”

This is in sharp contrast to the fundamentals of fundamentalism, which are unquestionable, universally certain  doctrinal propositions of truth that must be consciously affirmed. For the Hirsch’s this is too abstract, and this places them squarely in postmodern territory (though, not lost in its wilderness). Indeed, it’s likely that many sectors of Christendom will dismiss the these ideas as legalistic because some of the focus is being shifted to include what we do (what they call, “living the Shema”), as well as what we believe (i.e. “believing in Jesus”).

The authors indirectly reject fundamentalist conceptions of legalism as a false dichotomy, instead seeing legalism as too much emphasis on doctrinal purity. They affirm that, “The reality is that what we believe about God does have consequences. History is full of people who have wreaked enormous damage and even killed for what they believe in.”Our theology dictates our conception of what it means to be good and right, and how it will look to build a just society.

For the authors, this is where the Shema – the core Jewish prayer, taken from Deut 6 – comes in. For the Hirsch’s, Jesus’ placement of the Shema (or what Scot McNight calls “The Jesus Creed“) in Mark 12:29-31 as the central explication of faith is his remarkable distillation of right theology and praxis in one simple statement, a statemnt which holds the two concepts of belief and action firmly together – making his “way” into a concrete, bodily faith:

“The follower of Jesus broadens his or her knowledge of God through living truth, not just believing in it. True knowledge of God must be expressed in practice or action—that’s why the Bible is one-third ethics. Obedience— body and soul—is part of the condition of God’s covenant (for example, Exod. 24:7; Jer. 11:3) as well as the momentous parting words of commission under which we live (Matt. 28:18–20). As C. S. Lewis says, “Obedience is the ‘holy courtesy’ required for entering into the divine relationship.”

This is how we truly come to know God: by faith, which means believing Jesus’ teachings to the extent that we put them into bodily practice and learn how, through trial and error, to become like him through the enabling grace of God given by the indwelling Holy Spirit. The teachings and actions of Christ, including the Shema, are not only the starting point for our theological conception of God, but also our guide for whether we’re getting it right or wrong.

Another distinctively postmodern aspect of this chapter is the Hirsch’s insistence that such a life simply cannot be lived individually. While we all can know God, no one individual can know God completely. Rather, because everyone is wired differently with a variety of temperaments, strengths, and weaknesses, we must pursue the knowing of God in community. That is the place of proper theology.

The rest of the Chapter explores some of the ways that people are derailed in their discipleship – with emphasis on the big three of sex, money, and power – but the core message remains the same: we recapitulate what we worship, therefore we must endeavor to know God as God really is. For the authors, this means that the first order of Christianity is a full-orbed, holistic worship (not just singing), which they call “dangerous” because it has the capacity to put us in contact with an untamed God who transforms us beyond our meager lusts.

Some Questions For Reflection:

1. Do you agree that we imitate that which we worship? Can you think of examples from non-religious life?
2. What is your concept of worship? What are the most effective ways you engage in worship?
3. What are you thought on the proposition that we can only know God in community?

Technorati Tags: Alan Hirsch, Christianity, Deb Hirsch, discipleship, God, missional, Postmodernism, Scot McNight, The Shema, Untamed, worship

April Reading Blog: Untamed by Alan and Deb Hirsch

Last weekend I invited you to vote on what book I would blog through in April and the winner is Untamed: Reactivating a Missional Form of Discipleship by Alan and Deb Hirsch! Here’s the back blurb:

Discipleship is costly. Are we willing to critique and even challenge much we’ve been taught for the sake of the kingdom? For this is the radical nature of the discipleship to which Jesus calls us. He did not allow the outside culture to hold him captive; instead he established the kingdom of God and turned the world on its head. Jesus was untamed, and he calls his church to be the same. In this provocative and compelling book, internationally known missiologists Alan and Debra Hirsch overthrow culturized understandings of theology and culture, and cast a vision for a distinctly mission-shaped way of living the Christian life. Written for any Christian serious about issue of discipleship, Untamed covers such topics as church, humans as bearers of the image of God, family life, culture, and sexuality. Through it all they seek to answer the question, how are we to think and live day to day as followers of Jesus? Each chapter ends with suggested practices to help readers begin to live out the book’s principles as well as questions for group discussion.

I’ll be blogging through Untamed, chapter-by-chapter, every Tuesday and Thursday in April, staring tomorrow. Thank you to everyone who voted!

Technorati Tags: Alan Hirsch, Books, Deb Hirsch, discipleship, Untamed

Church as Screen Time and Pastor as Parasocial Personality

Just a quick riff on a couple of news items coming out this week:

• First, the introduction of the hologram pastor.
• Second, research published in Pediatrics suggests that childhood obesity in pre-school age children is directly linked to dislocated familial attachments facilitated by too much time in front of the television and too few communal meals with the family.
• Third, a second unrelated research project coming out of New Zealand suggests much of the same conclusions with regard to teenagers. Teens with more “screen time” have significantly lower attachment to their parents and peers (HT: Kara Powell).

There’s a fascinating sentence in the last summary:

“However, it is also possible that adolescents with poor attachment relationships with immediate friends and family use screen-based activities to facilitate new attachment figures such as online friendships or parasocial relationships with television characters or personalities,” the authors write.

I’ve written about this before, calling it the “mediation of experience.” If “screen time” inhibits our social interactions and relational attachments by replacing the real thing with “parasocial relationships” with unreal characters can the same be said to be true of other instances where we replace real live relationships with unreal characters or personalities?

Obviously I think the answer is yes.

One of the problems with the prevailing mode of church in America is that it has turned the pastor into a celebrity personality, complete with a performance-oriented and technologically mediated relationship with an audience. Once the church reaches a certain size, the pastor’s interaction must occur as a performance by a character through media. Cultural expectations about church structure coupled with assumptions about the virtues of media nearly require this. The trouble is, the character that pastor portrays, in my experience, in never quite the real thing. Some pastors try very hard to “be themselves” on stage, but others intentionally slip into a very different persona. But even for the pastor trying to be genuine, it’s very difficult in my opinion – perhaps impossible – to avoid some level of acting when you’re a preacher on stage, largely because of the entertainment-based expectations we currently impose upon the notion of what it means to be a “good preacher.”

One of the bizarre side-effects of this mediated relationship between the pastor and congregation is that, because of the high level of mediated exposure to the preacher, many in the church (most, in the case of very large churches),  actually feel a personal connection to the pastor that doesn’t actually exist. They don’t really know the pastor, in much the same way they don’t really know Oprah or Dr. Phil. They only know your stage persona. This is greatly magnified in those churches who embrace the personality-driven church model and use a charismatic pastor’s performance skills as a means of growing the church.

Hence, the church gathering becomes just another version of “screen time.”

Now consider how “screen time” becomes literally true in the proliferation of video venue churches, where many congregations only interact with a version of the pastor that is literally unreal. Now replace the video screen with hologram which remains unreal, but magnifies the level of illusion.

Moreover, much like the teens in the second study cited above who talk to each other about the fictional characters they’ve mutually engaged as relational surrogates, church members will often interact around the pastor’s persona. In this way a false persona can become a means of false social relationships. This is akin to kids talking enthusiastically about what “happened” to Hanna Montana in the latest episode (nothing happened…she doesn’t exist!). In celebrity-driven churches much of the social energy occurs around the campfire of a false persona.

Does it matter? Is there harm being done by moving church toward just another version of “screen time?” What are the consequences of this to discipleship? Perhaps, like the studies above, the consequences are spiritually obese, socially disconnected and disaffected Christians.

Technorati Tags: Church, discipleship, Media, Mega-Churches, Pastors, Teenagers

The Challenge of Community

I’m processing some of this publicly in the interests of transparency, and in the hope that some of you out there will have something to share that might help.

For about 3 weeks now at Ikon Community we’ve been engaged in an intentional conversation about what it might mean to be a “missional church.” The first week I talked about the basic paradigm shift from attractional (Christendom) church to missional church and proposed a “Discipleship > Community > Mission” rhythm of life. Then the second week I unpacked the subject of discipleship, or spiritual formation. So, at last night’s gathering we talked about community (I’ll bet you can see where this is going, eh?).

I’m sure many would disagree with me, but in my mind this is the critical topic in the formation of a post-Christendom church. Why? Continue reading…

Technorati Tags: community, discipleship, Ikon Community, Missional Church

Introducing Ikon Community

For those who want only the facts, here’s the link: ikoncommunity.com

For those who like a story, here’s the tale…

As many of you know Jenell and I moved to San Diego one year ago for the purpose of eventually starting a church. We were committed to spending the first year immersing ourselves in the local culture, making new friends and finding new career paths so we could pursue the vision of a grassroots network of Jesus-followers.

That vision started taking shape in March when we began to gather regularly with a few family and friends – all of whom were hungry for a deeper expression of Christian community, more focused on justice and mercy. Since then we’ve come together every Sunday night to enjoy each other’s company, watch our kids tear around the house, eat good food, drink cheap wine, celebrate communion, gather around scripture, and pray for one another.

Continue reading…

Technorati Tags: Church, community, discipleship, ecclesiology, Ikoncommunity.com, missio dei, mission, Sermon on the Mount, training, Vision

How Eddie Gibbs Ruined My Life

Picture me in the year 2002. A blissfully content 30-year-old youth pastor for a delightfully hip little church nestled in an upscale Rocky Mountain resort town. Skiing and snowboarding with affluent teenagers was my job. I highly recommend it.

What I don’t recommend is disturbing your ambitious ministry career with the highly upsetting claims of trouble-makers like Eddie Gibbs. IVP seemed insistent, in those days, on sending me books in the mail and on one of those fateful days of the young millennium they sent me a slyly unassuming book titled, Church Next.

I’m quite sure I was duped into reading it by the tastefully conservative cover art; its throng of crowds promising ministry prosperity to all who thumbed the pages. As if that weren’t enough, early on Mr. Gibbs sprinkled his prose with references to “post-modernism,” an intoxicating topic for young Gen-X pastors longing to make their own profound ecclesiological mark in an Evangelicalism largely dominated by ex Jesus movement hippies who still waxed wild-eyed from time to time about the “Christian communes” and counter-cultural radicalisms of their own youth.

Continue reading…

Technorati Tags: Church, clergy, consumer church, discipleship, Eddie Gibbs, gifts, Gospel, marketing, mission, twoshirts.org

Discipleship As Fitness

This is Part 4 in a multi-part blog series laying out a philosophy for spiritual formation. You can read the earlier installments here: Part 1: Everything is Spiritual, Part 2: Everything is Worship, and Part 3, Grace Takes Practice.

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In Part 2 I said that a good way to subvert the modern spiritual prejudice of dualism, while also overcoming the false-dichotomy between grace and work, is to take advantage of the biblical correlations between the principles of spiritual formation and physical fitness training.

What, then, can we observe about physical fitness that biblically correlates? We’ll begin with a definition. Crossfit, a grassroots fitness training organization, defines physical fitness in this way:

“There are ten recognized general physical skills [...]  you are as fit as you are competent in each of these ten skills [...] The essence of this model is the view that fitness is the ability to perform at any and every task imaginable.” (Glassman 2002:2, emphasis added).

In other words, physical fitness is no single function. This is a paradigm-shifting claim, so let me use an example: Let’s say a person excels at bench press – they are able to push hundreds of pounds –  but that’s all they’re really good at. Are they truly “fit?”

According to Crossfit, the answer is “no.”

If a person excels at only one or a few areas of physical strength or endurance, then they’re not truly fit because true fitness is the ability to perform well at the broadest possible set of physical tasks. The truly fit person is strong in all areas.

This comprehensively-oriented definition returns us to the holistic purpose of physical fitness. For example, the bench press alone is an inadequate indicator of fitness because the purpose of physical fitness is not to be able to push weight away from our chests, or to have large pectoral muscles, or to look good without a shirt on (that might be someone’s purpose, of course, but that would make them foolish); rather, the purpose of fitness is to live well (i.e. physically healthy, strong, and capable of dealing with life’s physical challenges and emergencies). Crossfit understands this, and states,

“Our specialty is not specializing. Combat, survival, many sports, and life reward this kind of fitness and, on average, punish the specialist.” (Crossfit Journal 2002:2, emphasis added).

In other words, fit people are equipped overall to live better, precisely because they ready to respond well to the physical demands of life’s circumstances. Jesus indicates the very same purpose for spiritual formation, saying, “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full” (John 10:10). The purpose of spiritual formation is to live life well (i.e. spiritually healthy, strong, and capable of dealing with life’s spiritual challenges and emergencies). Spiritually fit people are equipped to live better because they are ready to respond to any circumstance from a heart of genuine goodness or “righteousness.”

This is what it means for people to fulfill their vocation as the eikons of God, resembling and reflecting his image, and becoming a dwelling in which He lives by his spirit (Eph 2:21-22).

For example, I have a friend who was a competitive weight lifter. He was 6′ 4″ 335 lbs, able bench press over 600 lbs and dead lift over 800 lbs. That is a truly world-class level of performance in those exercises; there are only a handful of people in the world who can do that. However, one day he and I and some other friends were boating when we decided to stop in the middle of the lake for a swim. We all jumped in and enjoyed the water. But my weight-lifter friend had a tough time swimming. His body just wasn’t well-formed for swimming, so after a few minutes he said, “I’ve got to get back in the boat.” Not wanting him to feel awkward about it, we all climbed back in. Now, the boat didn’t have a ladder, so we all had to grab the top bar and pull ourselves up over the rail from the water below. Anybody who has ever done this knows it isn’t easy, but we all managed.

All of us, that is, except my Herculean friend. Even though he could bench press over 600 lbs, he wasn’t able to pull his own body back into the boat. It took four of us pulling from inside to get him back in. I thought to myself, What’s the point of all that training if you’re not even able to keep yourself from drowning?

Have you ever met people who were like that spiritually? Maybe they could rattle off bible verses for any occasion, or pray beautiful and elaborately sincere prayers, or preach with incredible power and charisma…but their actual lives turn out to be a mess (often these are our leaders!). It’s like they can’t even pull themselves back into the boat.

What’s the point of that?

(There are those who will object at this point and say that the gospel is all about “not being able to ever pull yourself back into the boat.” In fact, there are entire denominations who cling to this. But they’re wrong. They’ve confused the call to repentance with the life of wisdom and maturity. It’s true that the latter always depends on the former, but the former doesn’t exclude the cultivation of strength and virtue – it empowers it. Saying that we’ll always be miserable sinners is like telling an alcoholic they’ll not only always be an alcoholic, but they’ll always be drunk too. The difference is significant.)

Jesus embraces this same kind of broad, generalized definition of spiritual fitness in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7) where he describes a total life of goodness across a broad variety of circumstances. For Jesus, the people of the Kingdom are not just honest, or kind. They’re honest, kind, perseverant, tolerant, humble, gracious, merciful, etc. They turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, bless those who curse them and show generosity even to their enemies. In fact, they’re such comprehensively good people that they are “the light of the world.” As such, they are literally a blessing to the earth, which make them the fulfillment of the original Abrahamic covenant (Gen 12) and the eschatological hope of Judaism (Isa 2:1-5) as well as the Sermon on the Mount and all the teachings of Jesus’ earliest followers.

Hence, the only way to know if someone is physically fit is to observe as many indicators as possible and infer fitness. One cannot know if someone possesses true physical fitness without observing their performance amid a variety of exercises; running, swimming, climbing, pull-ups, etc. The better one performs in all exercises, the more fit that person is. Poor performance in any area is an indicator of weakness and an opportunity for growth.

The same is true for spiritual fitness. One can only observe as many traits as possible and infer good spiritual formation. Strength in any one area – such as church attendance, faithful giving, volunteerism, etc. – doesn’t indicate good, mature character. Only the demonstration of ethical strength in as many areas as possible is a good test of character. This is why Jesus and Paul both teach us to observe the overall fruit of people’s lives in oder to determine authenticity and maturity (Matt 7:18; Gal 5:22; 1 Tim 3:1-13).

The implications of these observations are critical for spiritual training: a broad definition of spiritual character requires both a broad assessment and a broad training regimen. It is simply inadequate to limit spiritual training to a few religious activities such as reading the bible, petitionary prayer, tithing, and congregational singing. This would be akin limiting an athlete to only three or four exercises and expecting them to become comprehensively fit. Our physiology just doesn’t work that way.

Neither does our spirituality.

Moreover, limiting spiritual formation to a sequestered set of religious practices simply perpetuates the false dualism of spirit vs. body and the fragmented modern worldview of the sacred vs. the secular. As we’ve observed, all of life is worship – therefore, all realms of life must be seen as the training ground of the spirit. In fact, the broader the training the better the overall fitness.

Advantages of the Fitness Model

There are several advantages understanding the Christian life in terms of the physical training metaphor. First and foremost, it’s thoroughly Biblical. Jesus and Paul both taught a spirituality that is deeply rooted in tangibly observable character development, and Paul directly correlates this character development by analogy to physical training. Moreover, there appear to be several correlations between the dynamics of spiritual training and physical training, including method and purpose.

Second, this model is conducive to a lifelong perspective. Everybody understands that remaining physically fit requires ongoing, lifelong training. One of the  weaknesses of the modern church approach is that discipleship programs are often short-term, classroom-oriented, and event-focused – leading to a course-completion attitude toward discipleship: that is, once the class has been completed, the discipleship training is done. By contrast, genuine spiritual training requires a lifelong commitment to self-discipline, one of the significant points Paul is making in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Research, too, indicates that a posture of lifelong learning is critical for leaders to minister successfully through the end of their lives (Clinton 1994). Certainly the same must be true not just of leaders, but of all believers.

Third, “discipleship as fitness” is conducive to creating a community of radical commitment. Everyone understands that the kind of training which leads to physical fitness is intensive and costly – which is why most people never try, and those that do mostly don’t. Christian discipleship is no less costly. As G.K. Chesterton pointed out,

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried.”

A church built on the principle of lifelong spiritual training would likely attract the highly motivated and quickly eliminate the unmotivated. If, as I’ve claimed, one of the problems in Church today is the masses of people who are uncommitted to discipleship, yet consume most of the resources (i.e. the 80%), then a truly “missional” church based on the great commission must be willing to regularly eliminate of the unmotivated.

Jesus did this all the time: he eliminated the unmotivated by teaching in parables (Mk 4:12), by having radically high expectations (Lk 9:57-62), and by teaching very hard truths that he knew would drive away those who were following only to have their immediate needs met – which turned out to be the majority (John 6:25-71).

Fourth, this approach also helps dismiss the false dichotomy between belief and behavior, faith and work. Certainly belief is primary: one wouldn’t train rigorously day-after-day without believing that such training was profitable. Indeed, without some measure of belief one won’t even begin. As Dallas Willard asserts,

“The will must be moved by insight into truth and reality. Such insight will evoke emotion appropriate to a new set of the will. That is the order of real inward change” (Willard 2002:248).

In other words, one must genuinely believe in any course of action – at least to some extent – before one will act. Accordingly, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he sent” (John 6:29).

On the other hand, it would be absurd for an unhealthy, sedentary person to proclaim, “All I have to do is believe, and I am an athlete!” Obviously that’s not all they must do, for, although belief is primary it is not fulfilled without the body. As Glen Stassen points out, “Every successful athlete knows it takes major sacrifice and serious discipline to achieve success” (Stassen 2006: 187). One must follow through on beliefs by taking intentional action in order to realize the ideas, dreams, and goals to which one aspires. Everyone in the world, in every vocation, sport, or field of study seems to understand this truth except certain branches of Christianity who continue to insist that God will do all our work for us if we only profess the right belief.

Finally, utilizing a training metaphor creates an opportunity to embrace external measures of progress. Again, with fitness training one would naturally expect effective training methods to yield observable increases in performance. Likewise, Paul testified to King Agrippa,

“First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds” (Acts 26:20).

No wonder throughout his epistles Paul – like Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount – explicitly identifies the characteristics of righteous and sinful behavior (Romans Ch 1 & 12-15; 1 Cor 5-12; Gal 5-6; Eph 4-6; Col 3-4; 1 Thess 4; 1 Tim 5; 2 Tim 2-3; Tit 2-3). Athlete’s in training need performance benchmarks in order to be sure their training is effective. This is part of “praxis” – action with reflection, or “learning by doing.” Likewise, disciples of Jesus are grateful for the indicators that help them assess the effectiveness of their own training in Godliness.

Technorati Tags: Add new tag, character, Church, Crossfit, discipleship, eikons, fitness, goodness, Sermon on the Mount, spirit, spiritual, training, virtue, Vision

Grace Takes Practice

This is Part 3 in a multi-part blog series laying out a philosophy for spiritual formation. You can read the earlier installments by clicking these links – Part 1: Everything is Spiritual, and Part 2: Everything is Worship.

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So far I’ve said that everything we do is spiritual, therefore everything we do is worship. When it comes to discipleship, or “spiritual formation,” that means every realm of existence is open to spirituality – and that spiritual training should involve a high expectation that we would become genuinely good people.

But many will object that doing so will lead to religious legalism.

Yet this is already the case! According to the data, the Western Church by-and-large already produces a kind of insincere religious legalism - it just happens to be a shallow form. But shallow religiosity is still religiosity. Setting a low bar of expectations has not saved us from the error of the Judaizers, it has only created a modern, secularized form of it. We’ve pressed the lessons of Luther and Calvin to the point of complete absurdity, making salvation nothing more than a matter of pure motives and approved doctrines. Now, instead of suffering under the blight of a works-based righteousness, we suffer under the blight of an information-based unrighteousness.

But genuine grace does not eliminate the expectation for righteousness – as the book of Galatians pointedly illustrates – it empowers a different kind of righteousness that is deeper – a righteousness that is from God, and surpasses that of the scribes and pharisees – a genuine Godly righteousness at the deep level of the heart which produces people who are conspicuously kind, merciful, and loving. This is the kind of righteousness that Jesus and Paul teach.

In fact, we’ve forgotten that “salvation” was never an answer to the question, “How do we escape hell after we die?” but rather to the question, “How can we escape the hell we currently live in?” From its earliest usage the word we translate as “salvation” was used to describe freedom from sickness (Is 38:20), troubles (Je 30:7), and enemies (Ps 44:7). By the time Jesus was born salvation was understood to mean freedom from the enemies of God who occupied Israel. But no single story in the bible captures the essence of “salvation” more than the Hebrews’ “exodus” from Egypt. Salvation literally means “deliverance,” and just as the ancient Hebrews were delivered from slavery, so the salvation that Jesus Christ inaugurated is deliverance, here and now, for those who are enslaved to sin, sickness, exploitation, and despair.

But apprehending that deliverance requires obedience to Christ’s teachings, and that obedience requires significant effort. The opportunity to do so and the ability to do so certainly are a freely given gift of grace – that is, completely unmerited – but the obligation, the responsibility, and the choice to to obey lie squarely with us. Consequently, failure to learn obedience makes us worthless, foolish, and wicked (in that order…Matt 5:13; Matt 7:26; Matt 25:26-30).

Therefore, we must not be afraid to take Jesus and his teachings about how to live life seriously (Matt 5-7). We must strive to, “[teach] them to obey everything I have commanded” (Matt 28:20). This requires the willingness to expect genuine character change in God’s people through the open availability of a grace-enabled intimacy with God. After all, that is exactly what Jesus did with his own disciples; he immersed them in his ongoing presence, taught them a different way to live, and set them loose to practice it.

Practicing is the key we often miss.

I believe that as a wisdom tradition the Christian life is best understood as an exercise we practice – that is, learning by trial and error. One metaphor in scripture for helping us with this – while also avoiding the market-driven church model – is Paul’s frequent use of athletic training to illustrate the Christian life. Paul wrote,

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.” (1 Cor. 9:24-27).

Paul utilizes this kind of metaphor several times to illustrate the importance of training, or self-control (1 Tim 4:7-8; 2 Tim 2:4-5). Even the phrase “strict training” is translated from the greek word gumnazo, which is the root for our modern word “gymnasium.” Reflecting on this metaphor is an excellent way to resolve the tension between grace and work.

Consider the way we use these words in reference to physical training: Even though athletes or dancers practice constantly and work very hard in order to become excellent in their filed, we frequently describe them as having “grace” or possessing a “gift.” Yet we never accuse these terms of being in contradiction with one another. We seem to inherently understand that even though an athlete might be “gifted” through no merit of their own, they still must work diligently to cultivate and refine their gift.

Because this metaphor is prominently used in the New Testament, and because spiritual devotion is an inherently bodily exercise (as we have already seen), I’m convinced that the principles of spiritual training are best explored alongside the principles of physical training so that in an age prejudiced by dualism we might recover an effective, incarnational approach to Christian life and discipleship.

Technorati Tags: character, Church, discipleship, gifts, goodness, Gospel, heart, practice, spirit, spiritual, training, virtue, Vision

Everything is Worship

This is Part 2 in a multi-part blog series laying out a philosophy for spiritual formation. You can read the earlier installment by clicking this link – Part 1: Everything is Spiritual.

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Everything we do is spiritual, which is why Paul says that true Christian “worship” is not merely a visit to the temple or even time spent in prayer or scripture, but rather the sacrifice of one’s whole life to God:

Therefore I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship” (Rom 12:1).

Worship is not only certain things we do at certain times – such as singing, or praying, or receiving communion. Since everything we do is spiritual, worship is whatever we do with our bodies. We spend every moment of our lives – waking and sleeping – devoting our thoughts, dreams, decisions, and subsequent actions to something. Sometimes what we devote ourselves to is another person, or group of people; sometimes it is activities or objects – cars, motorcycles, sports, or hobbies; other times it is to the pursuit of sex, money, food, or some other form of surrogate power.

All of it is worship.

Moreover, whatever we do with our bodies is itself always a result of the condition of our spirit. Always. We always act in accordance with the true values and beliefs that reside in our spirit, whether they be motivated by faith or fear. We simply can’t help it. We may have competing beliefs that will cause bizarre, erratic, or even contradictory behavior, but our spirit – however fragmented – dictates our actions nonetheless.

Hence, just as we are indivisibly spiritual beings, so are we indivisibly bodily beings. Therefore, not only is everything we do spiritual, everything we do is worship. Humans are worshipping creatures. We were literally created for the purpose of existing for something, and to offer our bodies to anything is to worship that thing.

This is like saying everything light does is shine. Light does a million different things and resides in a million different places, but all of it is the act of shining. To say that humans are only worshipping when they are in a religious space or when they are doing a religious activity is like saying light is only shining when it is emanating from the sun or when it is shining on a certain kind of object. Light is always shining, just as humans are always worshipping. Consider this:

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 6:15-23)

Paul is pointing out that offering our bodies to any particular kind of thing, for any particular time, is literally to make that thing our lord. That is worship. I don’t mean that to sound sinister…it isn’t. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it; it’s simply how we’re wired and it’s a good thing. When we find great worth in something – for whatever reason – we literally sacrifice ourselves to it. That is the definition of worship.

Moreover, it’s this ability to offer ourselves whole-heartedly to something that makes us astonishingly powerful beings. Because of our capacity to worship we’re able to raise children, love others, design complex structures, organize social movements, bring political order, create art of all kinds, and generally govern the planet.

Of course, it’s this same power that enables us to destroy ourselves and others with horrific efficiency as well. And that’s exactly what Paul is warning about.

The most important question, then, is what or whom are we worshipping in the midst of our everyday activities? The answer to that question will determine whether our devoted bodily efforts produce life or death. This is why the chief pre-occupation of the Old Testament prior to the Babylonian exile is with idol worship (afterward it is with genuine goodness, which as Paul points out above, should be the natural by-product of good worship). Rightly-placed worship is the most powerful force for good on the planet; misplaced worship is a waste of time at best, and a firestorm of destruction at worst. One need look no further than the history of religion to confirm that. But this is not just a religious reality. The atheistic, hedonistic, and political atrocities of the 20th century were also by-products of mis-placed worship.

The goal of Christianity is that our worship would cease to be pointless, fragmented, double-minded, and destructive, and become, instead, whole-heartedly unified and directed in our devotion toward one truly good, consolidating object; namely, God. Furthermore, because God encompasses all good things (James 1:17), the worship of God doesn’t divorce us from real life and all the good stuff it potentially entails (like food, fun, friendship, sex, work, rest, art, entertainment, etc.); on the contrary, everyday human worship rightly fulfilled in God finally reconciles us with a truly good life, allowing the proper enjoyment of those things to become redemptive, righteous worship.

Because everything is spiritual and everything is worship we can readily know the condition of our spirit or heart by simply observing our behavior. This is a hard truth, but it is exactly what Jesus taught when he said, “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit,” (Matthew 7:18) and likewise, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt 12:34). Paul agrees, saying,

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Simply put, for the purposes of spiritual formation, the quality of one’s spirit can be readily discerned by the character of one’s outward acts. Therefore, if we’re to assess and train our spiritual condition we must begin in the realm of the mind, the will, and the emotions – but, because we are indivisibly both spiritual and bodily beings we must not be afraid to look to outward behavior as both the indicator and the fulfillment of our inward spiritual conditioning, and use outward acts as a means of teaching and training – just as Jesus did.

Technorati Tags: character, discipleship, goodness, training, virtue, worship