A Happy Mother's Day

... is usually had by more than just the mother ... it's the kids who are often very happy on this day as they count their blessings and recognize God's goodness to them in the gift of a mother who has loved them and raised them well ... at least that's my experience today. So ... a Happy Mother's Day to me, because of the mother I've been given! And a Happy Mother's Day to her ... because she deserves it as much as anyone I know (of course, "deserve" can take on different connotations depending on how much you know about us, the children ... ha, ha).

The thing I think my mom would probably appreciate the most is a few pictures of Trey. A couple of these were from today a really cute place called Hill Ridge Farms where Trey got to feed goats and catfish and play in a huge pile of dried corn! Enjoy Mom ... we love you so much!

So, About Missional ...

We desire Movement Church to be a missional community. In the last blog I put down some brief thoughts about community, so what about missional? What does that mean? Did I make that up? Am I in a cult? No ... and no. The word missional is used in some church leadership circles today to describe a certain type of church. A church that is more outward focused than inward focused, a church that is more about people than programs, a church that would sooner attend an event in the community than ask the community to attend one of their events, a church that would rather bring the church to the people than expect the people to come to church.

The term is sometimes put up against the term "attractional." In an attractional model, your church seeks to attract the lost in the community to come to you; in a missional model, your church goes to the lost in the community and brings the message to them. Let me say that I don't think it is wrong to be attractive to your community, in fact, a loving body of believers practicing the one anothers should be attractive. I just think the attraction should be genuine relationships, not cutting edge programs.

So, as a missional church we desire to be involved in the events and culture of our city and to have a presence in our community on the common man's turf. To be there, and to be intentional about connecting with people, loving people, and, in loving them, sharing the truth of the Gospel with them. This is the mission we are on. This is a snapshot of what it means to be missional.

On the Edge ... Movement Church

Joanna and Trey and I will be moving to Richmond VA this summer to do something crazy ... start a church. We will be joining Cliff Jordan and his family in this faith-stretching strategic venture for God's glory. I want to do some quick blogs over the next several weeks and work through some of our vision for what will be Movement Church. (For a more thorough discussion see www.moverichmond.org)

That's me ... and Cliff, Cliff Jordan. We were on a huge rock on the edge of a cliff (different cliff) that dropped down to the Arkansas River. And as we sat there and looked out ... and down, I realized my situation was similar to what it will be when we move to Richmond this summer to plant a church ... on the edge. The edge of what? Lots of things I think ... but mostly I'm praying we're on the edge of a glorious move of God to make His name and character known in the City of Richmond. And that's a church, that's the church we hope to start.

Here's a brief thought about our heart for Movement Church:

* A missional community - when I say community I mean a group of people that value Relational Depth. Valuing Relational Depth will be demonstrated by genuinely caring about people, and cultivating mutual accountability and encouragement. That means ... when someone in our church is sick, celebrating, hurting, happy, or living in patterns of addiction or sin ... we're there, we're there to bear their burdens (Gal. 6:1,2), to celebrate their sanctification, to cry their tears, and to join their joy.

There's some thoughts on community ... check back in, more on missional later.

Resonation With Reconciliation

That may sound weird, but I'm pretty sure there's a huge part of our heart that resonates with the concept, the value, the principle, the picture ... of reconciliation, that beautiful thing that takes place when two hearts return to one another.

So, here's what happened ... we had our friends, Spencer and Jana, over to hang out, eat spaghetti, watch a movie, and eat brownies and ice cream - classic Saturday night. We were discussing which movie to watch ... the potentials were: Elizabethtown, First Knight, Hitch, Knight's Tale ... all good options, but then a movie was starting on TV ... Just Like Heaven. (Reese Witherspoon and that guy from 13 Going on Thirty ... not that I've seen 13 Going on Thirty, but I heard he was in it ... anyway) We decided to just watch that.

Well, like any good movie it had us wrapped up pretty good about halfway through as we were starting to really wonder whether the two main characters were gonna get together. And it really had us wrapped up right at the end when one of them decides to do something crazy in the name of love. But sure enough, at the least opportune time a basic commercial break turns into a 10 minute break due to tornado warning updates from the weather guy ...

We were considerably less than happy about this (I know, very insensitive) and the four of us sat there, waiting, wondering ... what was happening in the movie (which at this point had gone from fiction to reality in our story driven minds), how much longer is this guy gonna be, will they pause the movie or will it continue and we miss the most crucial part of the whole thing? I could just picture the weather guy saying "we now return you to your originally scheduled program" ... only to have the screen change to a picture of our lovers kissing in the sunset and us having no idea how the conflict was resolved! And it was killing us!

Just when we thought we couldn't take it anymore, the movie comes back on ... and our worst fears were realized ... no, the tornado wasn't headed our way ... the story had gone on without us, we got dumped back in having missed the most crucial aspect of any narrative - the conflict resolution! We quickly turned the channel while expressing our true brokenness over not knowing how things got worked out ... not to fear, we live in the age of the internet ... within minutes we've pulled the movie up on Youtube and are finding where we left off ... sweet relief ... as you may suspect, the story ended with the kiss of two lovers ... together again ... ahh, sweet reconciliation ... the heartbeat of human longing.

What in the name of narrative was going on in our hearts that made us so set on finishing the story, knowing what happened, and HOW?! What were our hearts communicating to us about how we're wired? Why were we so irritated with the poor meteorologist who was keeping us from the narrative our hearts had connected to and needed to return to? Ok, I get it, tornado warnings are important, lives are at stake ... but in our hearts something else big was at stake ... reconciliation ... and not just reconciliation, the means of reconciliation. We're hard wired for story, relationship, and purpose ... and in a broken world, reconciliation is a key part of any of those. Our hearts demand several things ... to be part of a story, to know that it works out in the end, AND to know HOW and WHY it works out in the end! Why wasn't it enough to just see them kissing at the end and be happy knowing they got together? We had to know how, and this isn't just some culturally conditioned movie madness ... the desires we experienced open a little window to our hearts ... and to our design.

I believe every human heart understands that we live in a broken world, and they long to know that it's going to work out, but as much as they want reconciliation, they also want to know how it can be. As Christians, we value Genesis 3 because it lets us know why the world is broken, we value the Revelation because it lets us know that it's going to work out for good in the end, God wins. BUT ... Revelation wouldn't be near as satisfying without ... the Gospels ... the MEANS of reconciliation. We long to know it's going to be ok, but we also long to know how it is possible that it's going to be ok ... and for Christians, there's only one answer ... the cross ... our means of reconciliation.

May my heart beat as passionately for a deeper understanding of the beauty of the cross as is did to finish the movie tonight.

This Could Be My End

That's what I was thinking as I sprinted through the woods ... angry barking dog at my heels. I had been walking in the woods for some fellowship with the Creator. A beautiful day, a babbling brook, cool breeze, and some great time to breathe deep, focus on the goodness of God, and remember why I exist. And as much as I enjoyed the time it was time to head home. I was walking through someone's backyard for just a sec, headed back into the woods to take a shortcut home ... still in a meditative peaceful mode ... when I heard the sound of a ferocious man eating dog barking and charging me. I went immediately into a dead sprint, dodging trees and hoping for the best. But at one point I was quite certain this dog would indeed catch up with me, tackle me from behind, and proceed to eat my flesh. At that point I decided I wasn't goin' out like that, so I stopped, turned around and proceeded to yell at the dog. Amazingly it stopped (which I thought at the time was due to an invisible fence but ... people don't bury invisible dog fences in the woods ... he was intimidated by me), but he continued to snarl and bark and desire me for his next meal. So I took off again and he didn't follow, but I heard its owner calling him. I thought that it was a call to come back home and leave the poor innocent pedestrian alone, but when I got out of the loud rustle of leaves and was on the road I heard quite the opposite: "good boy, get him ..." What kinda nut? Anyway ... It's funny how quickly I went from peaceful communion with God to running for my life. Sounds a lot like walking out the front door of a church after a service. I think my ferocious dog anecdote paints a good picture of the reality of the world at war that we live in. Whether we stay aware of it or not, the world is not a friendly place to those who are in Christ. And as important as it is to have those times of peaceful communion with God, it is just as important to stay alert as we re-enter the world at war. I Peter 5:8 puts it like this, "Be self controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." Lion, dog, whatever, the point is - the enemy is real, and just like the owner displayed no pity on the poor shmuck running for his life through the woods ... our adversary shows no pity. So it is extremely important to seek and enjoy those intimate times with God, but always be alert and re-enter this world ready to fight (or run in my case ... maybe that's where the analogy breaks down?) ... remembering Jesus' words: "In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world." John 16:33.

Some of you are wondering how I managed to get a picture of the killer dog ... let's just say sacrifices were made to enhance the effect of this post. Dedicated bloggers press on.

Forgive Me, But ...

I don't think I care. Not that I don't care about Penelope Cruz, I do. She's a beautiful person made in God's image for His purpose. But I don't care much for a big deal headline about how she almost fainted for winning an Oscar. The caption: "Penelope Cruz says she almost fainted after winning the night's first Oscar." … Is "so what" an appropriate response? … I could tell you about many people around the globe tonight who didn’t “almost” faint … they did … from hunger, thirst, drunkenness, loss of a loved one … from real issues, in the real world, that’s really broken and in need of a real Savior. Not a functional Savior (thanks to Driscoll for the insight), someone or some experience to distract us from our emptiness and give us "heaven on earth." The more the news dishes out shallow trivial anecdotes about superhuman movie stars the more we are potentially lulled into thinking that we live in a shallow world that has no need for the depth of the Gospel. Am I overreacting? Comments welcome.

Let's Be That Generation ...

... that throws off ambitions of vanity and lives for a bigger cause than self gratification ... that turns away from societal norms and cuts a new path ... and most importantly, let's be that generation that doesn't react so sharply to the disappointing flaws of those before us that we lose the value in their convictions and belief systems. Think about it - there have been generations before who have thrown off the norms and blazed new trails, of course they weren't always leading in the right direction (the 60's come to mind), but even those that sought to lead in the right direction often went so far into that direction that they introduced a whole new set of injustices and heresies to be corrected. By whom? The generation after them of course ... who would react so strongly that they ended up back in the same pile of mess the other guys were reacting to. Confused yet? Reacting to something that does not line up with God's heart and plan for redemption is completely appropriate. Reacting so much that we are disgusted by anything associated with the crowd and/or convictions that we're reacting to, regardless of its validity in the Christian worldview, is not appropriate ... but often practiced. Perhaps you have noticed some of this in the past half century. Strong orthodoxy absent of compassion for the broken leads to a social gospel devoid of the truth about sin and the need for a Savior ... which leads back to fundamentalism combined with skepticism about anyone who tackles issues of social injustice (hello Dr. J) ... which leads to ... you get it. Overbearing dominant leadership in the church combined with (the one man answer-all show) combined with stiff sermons laced with lengthy theological rhetoric leads to a an unhealthy skepticism about leadership in general and an anti-authoritarian bent that even slips into questioning that authority God's Word claims for itself (hello McClaren). Overemphasis on the church building and its structures and hierarchies leads to a distrust of institutions and organizations (hello ... me). So, where do you stand? What are you reacting to? If you are passionate about the mission of the church you have likely noticed the oregano in its teeth and are prepared to remove it with a pressure washer ... but may I suggest that a simple water pick might do the trick. What am I saying? That we don't have to react so strongly that we do more damage. The orthodox ogres are right about the importance of sound doctrine ... and the meek mercy-givers are right about the need for that doctrine to translate into a mission to loose the chains of injustice. So it is my prayer that as we are reacting ... we slow down, pray more, seek God's heart, not our own agenda ... and somewhere in the middle of the swing back in the other direction stop and realize that balance is needed in these issues. Let's be that generation ... the generation that doesn't react so strongly that we need to be reacted to.