Tis’ the Season of Despair and a Time for Waiting

November 26, 2012 by 2 Comments

Never before in my life, have I personally witnessed so much despair in the lives of so many people.  The economy has been depressed and depressing for five long years now.  It seems so many wonderful people are struggling on a daily basis to keep their head above water.  Most are struggling. Many are stumbling.  Collectively, we are surviving but few could honestly say they are thriving. We are still in a war. Politics offers few answers and little hope. And then there’s the church which pretends  as if nothing is really wrong and holds to sameness, gripping its collective fear of change and moving ever so close to the cliff of no return.

Five years ago this week I led a retreat for white collar workers in Denver. I asked the question, “How many of you are living with more fear in your life than at any other time?”  Every hand was raised.  Today, as I travel, speak and work one on one with leaders both in the market place and the ministry, fear is the predominate descriptor of emotion that most people I work with are expressing. Truly, we are living in a most sobering time–a season calling for deep searching and few answers. It doesn’t matter if we are white collar or blue. Democrat or Republican– American or African—we are quivering in our boots in an unparalleled season of floundering without breakthrough and endurance rather than hope.

Allow me to be honest and transparent.  All of this takes a tremendous toil on a small ministry where we seek to raise our support year after year to be a resource to leaders both in the business world and ministry sphere who themselves are struggling. I have my own questions. Can we survive? Will we make it? Is there something–anything I can possibly do that would help?

We are in “it” together. We are waiting for a better time. We are hoping to turn the corner to a time when so much struggling, work and effort to stay alive, sustain our lives and experience a fulfillment of a dream, a hope and a vision.

Friends, this is precisely what “ADVENT” is all about. Advent is a season of expectant waiting for something to happen that will turn the table and improve our most desperate situation. Most followers of Jesus wrongly assume that being saved is a once in a life-time event. But life teaches us that we need to be saved from MORE than just our sins. We need to be saved from despair. We need to be saved from coming unglued. We need to be saved from merely surviving to experiencing a robust sanity in life.

The coming four weeks of Advent are weeks to move away from the commercialization and sick emphasis on materialism as the answer to our dilemma. Advent is the intentional waiting on God to show up and do something about our sick condition. Many followers of Jesus are unaware of the practice of Advent. We’re throw the baby of this important season out with the water to be relevant and “seeker friendly.”  In doing so, we have found ourselves more caught up than ever before in Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Depressing December year-ends.

 

Returning to Advent is the beginning of a new way to look at life. Take each week and simply light a candle each Sunday marking the long, awaited wait for the Day that God will finally appear. Each week, watch your mantel, coffee table or dining table grow brighter and brighter with light. Isn’t that what we want—more light; more hope; more progress. The candles of Advent literally show us the way forward through the long, dismal season of darkness.  Here’s a link to one of the best resources I am aware of that helps us embrace not scorn this important season: http://www.adventconspiracy.org/

If you find yourself nodding your head in agreement to what I  have written here, you are not alone.  Read my opening sentence again. Many of us are struggling. Advent is an important part of the answer.  Let me encourage you to consider the practice of having a  small advent wreath in your home or use an Advent calendar—perhaps even before you decorate a Christmas Tree. I believe movement in a spiritual direction will help.  The Bible simply says, “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.”

This season, make daily efforts to mark this season different from other ones. Be with friends. Choose to attend services where Advent is practiced  and learn something. Perhaps, it’s not about finding a new church but finding a new way to worship God this season.  Choose to live Advent and turn the despair from disillusionment to hope.  Hope in God to turn our ways to His ways.

Here’s my prayer everyday in this season of Advent waiting:

“Lord, Help me to receive what you give, release what you take, lack what you withhold, do what you require and be who you desire.”

Filed Under: Church, Dailiness, Rhythmn Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

This Holy Place

October 13, 2012 by 4 Comments

Two Saturday’s ago, I was sitting in a beautiful day retreat with John Blase. It was a day of reading poetry and writing poetry. For some strange reason, I’ve been drawn to poems.  The brevity instead of prose makes me drawn to shorter expressions, brief insights into the world and into my soul.  For the last 10 years, this window has been open to me and I’ve found myself very glad.  This week, I got Mary Oliver’s brand new book of poetry (A Thousand Mornings) and on this rainy and cold Saturday morning, I’ve sat here reading and being drawn into Oliver’s insights and I’m the better for it.

John Blase encouraged us to take 30 minutes and write a poem–or start one based on a word or phrase we found in a book he gave us to peruse.  So, I took my book and went outside at our retreat and sat in a rocking chair basking in the morning Colorado Sun.  Then it happened.  I found on a page, a phrase which stopped me… it was simply this….”This Holy Place.”

In my work with so many church leaders, I often hear the laments of the broken church. Some hate it now. Some are leaving it. Some are sick and tired of it.  I have my own struggles.  And in that rocking chair, I was able to give words to my own thoughts about my church.

I”ll share my new poem with you here. It somehow brought my feelings out into the open and gave me a way to express this holy place called church–at least my church that I am discovering.  The high priest I refer to are the poets that have most inspired me, motivated me, transformed me and mentor me.

 

This Holy Place

by Stephen W. Smith

 

There are no stained glass windows here.

Only the gold of the Aspens and the cathartic blue of heaven’s skies.

Yet, this is a holy space.

And in my heart, I am bowing.

 

The high priests swing their incense,

And it is the words that sway me–that slay me.

No candle burns here but my heart alone.

and I feel ignited. I am burning–finally burning.

 

The open book is my Eucharist.

The wafer offered me by Oliver, Frost and Whyte.

My cup is the poem of words that draw blood.

Words that wound. Words that heal.

 

This place–this moment is my church

and I belong. I am free. And I am at rest.

The words–they do baptize my wondering heart

to come home. To finally know this place as church.

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Living the Life You Want To Live

September 6, 2012 by 5 Comments

Does it sound selfish—I mean to ask  yourself this kind of question: What kind of life do you want to live?  Let’s talk about this for a few moments today.  Do I want my life to be driven by others?  Steered by others?  Fueled by busyness?  Fulfilling lists and obligations?  How can we move into living an intentional life ripe with longings fulfilled; living with no regret and challenged by living with a greater purpose than survival?

I’m thinking through some categories of how I will answer this question. Categories are really helpful to help me break this question down and really try to answer the question.

For example…my health will matter in the answer. I want to be healthy. So learning to choose and make healthy choices will be important in living the life I most want to live. I don’t want to die early by making bad and unhealthy choices. So, health will be a category of how I want to live. I want to live in a healthy way will mean that I must eat in healthy ways. I must also choose to invest time in my body to exercise and to move more.  So, to answer the question, of what is the life I want to live will mean facing this category straight on and make some adjustments.

Here’s another category I’m thinking through.  I have had many roles in my life.  I’ve been a pastor, author,counselor, spiritual director, husband, father, brother and son.  What roles do I want to continue to serve in for my future which is both near and dear. Some of my roles, I need to give up and other roles I will want to assume. I noticed on Facebook that one of my friends changed their title of their Facebook page to Author John Doe.  That was interesting to me to look at and figure out if I liked that for myself. I don’t–even though I’ve authored six books now. I’m more than an author.  In the life I want to live, what roles are the most important? What roles do I sense a calling–a voice telling me to “Do this…or do that…”  What MUST I do with my one and ordinary life is the focus question.

Place is another category. Where do I want to live my only life I will ever be given. I settled this question 12 years ago because I decided I wanted to live in the West…where there is drama in the panorama of what I look at. I was tired of heat, humidity and the Bible belt…so with this in mind, we moved. It was costly. We sacrificed family ties and traded them for geographical beauty.  Place matters alot to many people. Where do you really WANT to live?

Community is an important category. Who do you want to live out your life with in the next 5-10 years? I’m facing this question head on now. In our move to the retreat, we’re leaving being spontaneous in calling a friend and saying “Let’s meet for dinner.” Now, it’s an hour drive. It cost gas money now and it takes time to drive down. So, we are thinking our new community will be fostered, developed and nurtured in whole new ways. We will have to re-think some things.  We’re realized that every relationship that is NOT reciprocal is not a relationship we will choose to invest in for friendship sake. Reciprocal living is one of the greatest Biblical values—all the 5o plue “one another” statements in the Bible only underscores the longing to live life out with a few people who can love and be loved; touch and be touched; celebrate and be celebrated.   So this category will force me to re-think what  I will do about my groups, my dearest friends and even my church.

Family is a category to think through carefully. Who really is our family?  I now live 1500 miles from my sons, my mother, my sister and my only brother. Jesus said that “Whoever does the will of my Father is my sister and brother.”  That’s a big statement to ponder. In my case, I have felt ties to family re-ignited. I’ve wanted to close old gaps. I’ve wanted old hurts healed. I’ve wanted the space between me and the ones I loved closed so that their are no longer huge emotional gaps and questions.

 

What other categories would you suggest to think through in fostering the life you most want to live?  What have I left out that seems blatantly obvious to you?

Filed Under: Church, Companionship, Family, General Tagged With: , , ,

Jesus and the Church: What’s gone wrong?

April 3, 2012 by 2 Comments

The Jesus Life: The Church Life is Not the Jesus Life

A response to the Newsweek Article/Cover Story

By Stephen W. Smith

 

April 3, 2012

 

 

The church is in crisis but being a follower of Jesus is not.  This week’s cover story in Newsweek correctly documents our dilemma. Let me explain.

You might find it interesting to note that Jesus spoke the word “church” only two times in his entire life that we have documented. While Jesus came to offer us the way to follow God and the way to experience life as he envisioned it, what’s true is this: we’ve lost our way that leads to life and the church has actually helped us lose our way rather than follow Jesus.

Let me explain.  While the Bible is seen and held to be authoritative and expresses God’s ways for us, the church has been the guardian of these ways and for many of us, seems to have hijacked the words of Jesus and held them hostage unless we get involved, get committed and follow the church more than we follow Jesus.

I once heard a preacher say while pointing to the floor of his multi-million dollar sanctuary, “This is what matters. This church and this building.”  It’s not surprising that his tenure did not last and that his church split several times. We have to have a greater reason to live, to be and to act than the church and the property that the church owns. Perhaps it owns far, far too much stuff. The stuff can get in the way of the message and perhaps this is what has happened. We’re tripping over the stuff the plethora of doctrinal statements, creeds and strategies for church growth and have lost our reason to exist at all.

While Paul, Peter and John, the authors of much of the New Testament, described what Jesus meant by his words and ways, we know that the people who followed Jesus got involved in power struggles, debates and arguing that even began the night Jesus was arrested, tried and hours before his death. John describes the vivid scene on the last night Jesus was alive. He gathered his followers for an intimate dinner and what resulted was a sad power struggle with arguments over who would be the greatest—and Jesus overhead the whole sad plight. While the Bible is true, people are somewhat less than trust worthy. That is why it’s important to trust the Bible but to hold people at arms length sometimes.

As in insider—one who has spent the majority of my life inside the church—and not outside the church, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s people who have screwed up the intent of Jesus—not Jesus himself.  Like the very disciples who argued the night Jesus was arrested about power and controls issues, we have not really changed all that much in 2000 years in the church business.  Jesus had another idea and we have twisted his intent and desires to meet our own need for power, authority and the need to be needed. If we want the life that Jesus promised, we will need to follow the ways that he lived. You can’t have one without the other.  But you can have church and you can have church without the Jesus ways. This may just be where we are today: church without the Founder’s values and insights is like the United States without the Constitution.

Jesus spoke more about the church of two or three than he did about the institution. He spoke more of following him that leading the throngs; than he did of organization, strategy and hierarchy.   We’ve gotten a lot wrong in the thousands of years that Jesus offered us his message. We’ve tried to understand and implement Jesus’ intent, yet when the facts are in and you look at the statistics about the church, it’s in jeopardy.

The way of Jesus is not the way of the church. It can be but when church promotes itself more than Jesus; when we speak more of the church than we do Jesus and we are per-occupied with denominations, splits and doctrine more than the words of Jesus, we only give witness to ourselves that we have lost the way—the way that leads both to Jesus and to life itself.

Having pastored churches in North America and Europe for more than 25 years, what is clear to me is this: We cannot have the life of Jesus—the life he promised and described without following the ways of Jesus. When a church helps you on the way, then it’s good, right and blessed. When, however a church hinders someone from following God; when the church becomes the place where the wounded are shot rather than healed; when the sins of our fathers continue on to this generation and beyond and there is little to no transformation, then we have to ask ourselves the really important question: Why didn’t Jesus speak more about the church than he did? Have we missed something?  These are good questions that need to be addressed.

In working with church leaders all over the world, one of the reasons that has become obvious to me that the church is in trouble is because the leaders of the church are in trouble. Leading busy, over-committed and running on empty lives, how can a leader find the way back to Jesus again?  Surely the answer lies in more than going to more meetings and attending more functions.

The answer is by returning to the very way and ways that Jesus lived his life. We cannot have the Jesus life without the following the ways of Jesus. We’ve replaced these ways with doctrinal debates, power struggles and activities—something Jesus himself disdained evidently because of his sharp words to the religious leaders of his own day—the Pharisees and other religious folks.

It’s not about being religious or playing the games of religion. It’s about following the way and ways of Jesus. Being a follower of Jesus is in—now more than ever before because so many are finding the life he promised by following his ways.  The church will need to also become a follower—to discover again what Jesus actually meant.

While I can not go as far as Thomas Jefferson did in cutting out words of the Bible he did not agree with, I could buy myself a “red-letter edition” of the Bible and focus on what Jesus actually said and did—thus finding the way—the way that will lead to life!

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Stephen W. Smith has written a new and exciting book, The Jesus Life: Eight Ways to Re-Discover Authentic Christianity published by David C Cook. Released April 1, 2012.  Smith’s views here are drawn from his most recent book in reaction to Andrew Sullivan’s cover story in Newsweek Magazine (April 2, 2012).

 

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Easter: Why do you really need it?

April 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment

In this week before Easter, each day I’ll post a few thoughts and a reflective question to sit with and reflect upon prior to experiencing Easter.

 

For Monday, here’s the thought and question:

 

Easter is about second chances and a new beginning. Nature is showing off these days that winter’s woes did not kill off nature’s glory. The Dogwoods bud; the Azaleas blossom in glorious hues of springs arrays; the daffodils buds are in full blossom. All nature is calling us to remember that death gives way to life. Easter is much more than flowers though. It’s about someone who was dead coming back to life. It’s about second chances to really live before you really die! It’s about the power of God over the power of dead-end situations that you might be facing this week before Easter.

 

In just a few days, we will be celebrating this fact on what is really the hallmark of this important lesson: There is a new beginning in every death.

 

Today, sit with this question and see where you go in your heart:

 

What in me is waiting for the second chance?  What in my life needs the touch of Easter upon it cause if it doesn’t touch this place, I will for sure stay dead?

 

 

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Here’s an amazing review of The Jesus Life.

http://beccawithpeninhand.blogspot.com/2012/04/jesus-life-book-review.html

 

Paste this into your browser and see what’s being said about the book and why you need to read it!

Amazon just released the KINDLE version. You can have it in just a few seconds right now!

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In Search of the Abundant Life

March 6, 2012 by 2 Comments

Our best hope for actually experiencing this abundant life is for us to go back to the One who said “I am the way, the truth and the life.”[1] The problem is that many of us have majored on only one-third of this amazing, self-disclosing, God-revealing decree. It seems we have developed a fetish for the truth. Churches offer what they think is the right doctrine instead of helping people discover the life Jesus came to give. We fight over dogma insisting that believing the right thing will yield the right life.  The truth is the Pharisees in Jesus day did the same thing so many Christians are doing today. We are on information overload. We go to Bible studies, attend seminars and have heard thousands of sermons but this one reality remains: information and the amassing of information, no matter how true it is does not lead to life transformation.

This is not the age of information…

This is the time of loaves and fishes.

- David Whyte

 

We have believed that the pursuit of truth alone will yield a life worth living, and so we have emphasized doctrine over life, facts over vitality, and information over transformation. Because of our relentless pursuit to get everything right, we’ve gotten it all wrong.

Transformation is an experience. It’s something that happens to a person that alters the trajectory and quality of life from that point forward. It’s transformation that we most need to live the life we most want.

It saddens me that my own church is embroiled in a denominational squabble which is now on the news and TV. We can build our theological silos and hunker down in them but the fact remains, that what most people are looking for is life–a life that is vital, real and sustainable. Here’s the bottom line, it’s Jesus who offers this life–not a denomination–not even a single church!  What worries me when churches squabble is that we move off center of the real message of Jesus. We get sidetracked in lesser messages; splintering people and making mountains out of molehills. Because I’ve been through this squabble once in my life in a former denomination which split, I just simply will not get involved in this one. There are far too many people who are surviving than thriving and my life’s purpose is about helping people THRIVE!  I want people to experience The Jesus Life!

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I’m excited that the Jesus Life is in the warehouse–and at the moment in trucks moving across the country–soon to be showing up in your local bookstores. Potter’s Inn is offering a very special offer to our friends!  If you buy your copy of The Jesus Life through Potter’s Inn, then we’ll send you FREE a copy of my book, Embracing Soul Care, which is a daily devotional; a 360 journey around your heart and soul. Each entry is topical and comes with three questions which go below the waterline to help you think through your own life more clearly. You get two books for the price of one. The Link on the blog takes you to the Potter’s Inn store when you can purchase this special offering–and only through Potter’s Inn!

It’s our way of saying thanks!


[1] John 14:6

Filed Under: Church, The Jesus Life Book Tagged With: , , , ,

Seven Movements Necessary to Re-Claim the Church

November 14, 2011 by 9 Comments

by Stephen W. Smith

Could this be Church?

I received so many emails from my last Potter’s Inn Journal and I’m very grateful for your thinking, comments and encouragement. In this issue, I want to explore with you, “Seven Necessary Movements to Re-Claim the Church”. I really want to encourage you to use the “Comment” section on the blog. This way, we can all participate in a lively and much needed discussion.

To reclaim Jesus’ intent for the church, we will need to experience at least seven different movements which will require change, transformation and reformation in how we are doing church today. A “movement” is defined as a group of people united on similar values which initiate change. When John Calvin and Martin Luther, the two most well-known reformers of the Catholic Church wrote, spoke and led people into change, the movement of the reformation resulted. Today, I believe we are in dire need of new movements which will focus on these seven aspects:

1. The movement from being an institution to becoming an organism. It’s clear from the New Testament that the leaders had in mind an “alive” organism which was alive, moving and dynamic. When an organism morphs into becoming an institution, we may be sacrificing the original intent. Institutions die. But organisms live and change, adapting to culture and forces. Being Spirit led is far different from being program driven. An organism which is restricted by programs and structure will diminish in life and morph into being a dormant institution.
2. The movement away from being led by an ordained clergy to being served by ordinary people who are gifted. You don’t find the word “ordination” in the Bible but you do find gifted men and women leading people into the mysteries of the faith. Ordinary people doing the extra-ordinary things of God is what it means to live out of faith in authentic ways.
3. The movement from the “me” to the “we.” Becoming a follower of Jesus means that we renounce the “me” and move to the “we.” We were made for community and were formed to live connected in vibrant, reciprocal relationships. Saying, ‘It’s just Jesus and me” is not a confession of faith you will find in a faith that is alive, contagious and vibrant.
4. The movement from being a “place that we come to” to being a platform that we send people out from. One of the major challenges for a church is when a church settles into a place—a building and an institution rather than becoming a platform from which to launch new, creative and relative initiatives which push the darkness back rather than congregate all the light in one place—perhaps under a basket even. We model and mimic God when we send rather than hoard.
5. The movement from the complex to the simple. Pastor’s roles changed from being shepherds to CEO’s because the church adopted so many programs that we needed first directors, then executive directors to run the programs and hold the reins of the church. Leadership replaced servanthood and a “professional clergy” evolved rather than releasing people to do the work of the ministry. Jesus, without any trappings! Can we return to the concept of being a simple church rather than a multi-layered organization which requires efficiency and excellence at the expense of washing the feet of people and giving a cup of water in Jesus name?
6. Being consumer driven to becoming real followers of Jesus. Yielding to the temptation to be all things for all people, the church can become a quasi-Wal-Mart which offers many things at discounted costs. Changing the question from “What do you like in a church?” to “What do we need to be and do to become church?” is the starting point from moving away from consumer Christianity to being followers of Jesus Christ.
7. Replace church talk with Jesus speak. When we talk more about “the church” than we speak about Jesus, we should note the clue that we are off course and change our conversation as well as our direction. “You should come to my church” is often code for “Come to my institution because we are offering a new program which we are trying to enlist as many people as possible to join or attend. ” This is different from a conversation which might go, “Let me tell you what God is up to in my life and my community. You won’t believe it, but it’s true. People are changing their lives and lifestyles and encountering Jesus.

Try this:
1)Write the two major words down on piece of paper with a line in-between them. Like this: organism————–institution. Place an “x” on the line which indicates how you feel your church is leaning.
2)Discuss how your church can become a movement rather than a static building.
3)Make a list of five adjectives you most want in the church you attend and share these with your “we.”

Let’s all do this: In the “reply” section write the five adjectives you most want in a church and let’s compare our lists and see what we agree upon! Go ahead. Pause for a moment and dig out the five things you most want and need in a church.

Filed Under: Church

Five Reasons the North American Church is in Trouble!

November 2, 2011 by 5 Comments

by Stephen W. Smith

Friends, because of some much reaction to my entry today in the Potter’s Inn Journal, we need to switch this discussion to the blog so more folks can read what I’m reading. So feel free to leave your comments here. If you want to write to me personally, then just email or use the “reply” to the Potter’s Inn Journal.

So here’s what I wrote and sent out to 1400 people this morning!

Never in my life time have I personally experienced so much discontent with the church. It’s been brewing for years but now it seems to be at a feverish pitch and in many ways this is very, very good. Many pastors and leaders are hemorraghing while thousands are giving up on the church. As one 35 year old market place leader told me, “I’m not convinced that Jesus wanted us to be “little churchians.” I want to be a follow of Jesus and that may or may not include the church as I experience it now.”

We are not the first, to become dissatisfied with the church. The history of the Christian church reveals epoch battles between people who hold the power and the keys to the church and those who are demanding change. The good news here is that the church can change; has changed and will change. I hope that in my own lifetime, we will witness a complete reformation of the church. I say this because it is my personal belief that the church is in deep trouble. It is holding on to old paradigms that need to die in order to be re-born. Please let me explain.

1. The church is in trouble because the church has become more shaped by culture than by the Word. Paul’s words are clear: “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. (Romans 12:2, Message). Like a dry sponge many churches and denominations have soaked the culture of bigness, greatness, technology, performance and being program driven without thinking through the consequences. The result—well, it’s easy to see. Architecture that has shifted from “sanctuary” to performance halls. No windows blocking out God’s glory in nature and Power-Point overload. When churches absorb the corporate climate of North America, focusing on leadership rather than shepherding, we have swallowed a pill that is resulting in a dis-ease within the church. When a church models a CEO mentality rather than servant leadership, the church has knelt before the idol of power and human personality more than the Spirit of the Living God.
2. The church is in trouble because we have forgotten that Jesus spoke more about the Kingdom than he did the church. When church talk and obsession with programs replaces meaningful conversation about God’s kingdom—namely ‘what God is up to in the world and in my own life’ we are in water which is way over our head with no bottom to stand upon. Let me be clear. The only church Jesus talked about to his followers was the church of 2-3. I sometimes wonder if Jesus would even recognize what we’ve shaped the church today to resemble? Would Jesus know: multi-site worship? Would he condone meganess rather than the church of two or three? Would he even understand all of the jazz about being missional? Would he bless a movement which would ordain gay and lesbian leaders? Somehow, I think we’ve been swept into a current that is just plain hard to find the shore these days. We’re caught up in whitewater and calling it church.
3. The church is in trouble because the church has forgotten the basic message of Jesus. We herald programs. We espouse tips and techniques. It’s very clear from even an initial reading of the red-letters of Jesus’ words that he was about: transformation, life-change and service. Making more grease to oil the gears of the machine—never!
4. The church is in trouble because we are more captivated by technology than we are the things of the Spirit. We have become addicted to our iphones and the church of Facebook connects us more than sitting in mass in an auditorium where no one know my name and no one even cares. We call Steve Jobs an icon, Facebook our life-line and have swallowed the purple pill which says “faster is better; bigger is greater and new is where the action is always at!” We forget—even deny that the Bible says the direct opposite: stillness is where the action really is; Jesus celebrates the individual not the masses; and being in a herd and following the herd has always, historically been the wrong choice.
5. The church is in trouble because we need modern day prophets to rise up like aJeremiah, Hosea and Amos who are not afraid of speaking the truth even when it hurts us and makes us feel bad. We’ve lost the way today because quite frankly many of us have settled to be secure and comfortable rather than follow Jesus. Last time I checked, Jesus never talked much about security—except in heaven and there’s very little at all about how any follower of his is entitled to a life of comfort. The true church of the 21st century must walk the tightrope of being cutting edge along with being anchored in truth.

What is fascinating to me is to realize that in the 4th century and gain in the 15-16th century major movements rose up which turned the established church upside down. People left the church like they are leaving today. They left the institution and whole new movements began to arise which offered hope, comfort and platforms for learning how to live the Jesus way. We need this again. I, for one, want to be in that number.

Lastly, let me remind you that I am not throwing stones because I am an insider. I’ve always been on the inside. It’s just that now, there’s so much smoke, I can hardly breath. How about you?

I’m not going to leave us hanging here. But there is no space to continue this week. I’ll offer some clues, hints and suggestions for how to reform what has gone wrong!

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The Jesus Life Is Not the Church Life

April 24, 2010 by 3 Comments

I’ve started writing a new book. It’s the book that has been the focus of my private research, private thinking, and private longings. It’s the sequel to The Lazarus Life but will be titled, The Jesus Life. The book will help explain the disappointment of many of us who signed up to be followers of Jesus but then were hijacked off course by pastors, churches, rules, regulations and over forces to say, “Is this is? Am I living the abundant life that Jesus offered us?” So many of us have equated the Jesus life with attending church and nodding our heads in catatonic agreement, when deep inside we are disappointed with life as we know it.

I’m putting together 10 chapters that explore 10 different aspects to The Jesus Life. A couple of these are: Living an anonymous or hidden live as a way to live the Jesus life. This chapter will explore the 30 or so years that Jesus was a “nobody” and what happened in his life in those anonymous years that shaped his soul for his very public life which was only 36 or so months.

For the past month, I’ve been focused on a chapter about Jesus and mealtimes. I’m exploring how mealtimes for the American family have greatly diminished and are going the way of the dinosaur but for Jesus–he used meal times for some of his greatest teachings; greatest invitations to spiritual intimacy and how by beginning what I’m calling, “the Jesus meal” we might better be able to taste and experience The Jesus Life.

I suppose in many ways this book will be my legacy–my chance to call it as I’ve experienced it with so many people who signed up and yet live quiet, disillusioned lives of discontent but continue to play the game of church. The church life is NOT the Jesus Life and I’m hoping to show a better way. I’d appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

It will take me 8 months to write the book with my plan for the remainder of this year by focusing on a chapter a month. Two are already written.

Filed Under: Church