Reblogged from NBConversation:

Do you see Jesus in others? And not just when you see someone do good works or when someone is kind and compassionate. Do you see Jesus in the broken, the sinful, the despised, the angry, and the hated people of the world? As Christians, we are to view every encounter with another human being as an encounter with the image of God. The beauty and profoundness of that reality should override any differences and create space in us to willingly and lovingly embrace the other. All too often we give up on …

The yearly “family newsletter” is a fun tradition in many households. Often included with a family photo, the newsletter chronicles the happenings within a family over the past year, and is sent out so others too may know the stories. The details told might include sadness from the death of a love one, joy from a new birth in the family, laughter from a vacation memory, or even, anticipation of plans for the future.

This year, the family letter for New Beginnings Church would require multiple pages filled with stories of both brokenness and beauty, sadness and joy, division and unity. However, our family newsletter is still being written; the Author has yet to reveal the final pages. Therefore, we are asked not to revel in our brokenness, but to live as a community devoted to living out Christ-likeness. In a way, we are each a newsletter being sent out to tell the world of a faithful God who provides new beginnings.

As we look forward to another year, let us remember to carefully watch and listen, seeking to discern together what God is authoring within our church community. And as you pray, join us in praying for what we believe God has in mind in this next chapter of ministry:

• Strengthened unity. We are praying for clear understanding of the unity Jesus desires for his followers.
• A multiplication of our NBCommunities. May God call and help us equip leaders who passionately pursue planting of missional communities throughout our geographical area. This “scattered” element of our discipleship strategy holds great potential in our hope of being a Christ-like church.
• Continued and renewed partnership with New Generation Christian Church. May God help us find more ways to partner in this Kingdom-minded ministry for the sake of the Lee’s Summit community.
• Maximized resources. We are praying for God to lead us in ways of expanded building usage for ministry.

As we move into January, here are a few immediate opportunities to look forward to:

• Starting January 8^th we will reconvene our Conversation Hour classes.
• January 29^th we will have a combined service with New Generation Christian Center. This will be an opportunity to affirm our covenant partnership and create opportunities for fellowship.
• This year we will provide a daily devotion at www.nbconversation.com. This site will offer daily prayers, readings, and additional resources to help equip and prepare us for our Sunday gatherings.

So, as we celebrate the New Year, let us remember the faithfulness of God who loves us, corrects us, forms us, and sends us. And may Jesus’ words to his disciples in John 17:20-21 serve as our benediction from the year past and an invocation for the next:

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us sothat the world may believe that you have sent me.” – John 17:20-21

Let’s start the year off worshiping together! See you Sunday, January 1^st, 2012.

Pastors Shane, Margaret, and Justin

As predicted, some insisted it is Jesus’ and others suggest the rules allow for Jesus’s. Although there may be a confusing history within the manuals of style, the reality of life is simple…we must be prepared to admit there are things in life that belong to Jesus.

Sometimes churches like to refer to their mission or vision statements. Usually it is some variation of words printed on a letterhead, designed into the header on the website, or printed in the weekly flyer. But biblically, “vision” for the church is seeing the future through the lens of Kingdom mindedness…and “mission” is participating in what/how/where God is at work in His world…it is always about this and not the mission/vision of a local organized church. Jesus’s vision and mission for the Church is paramount…Jesus’s - as in the possessive noun form – the Church is his and for his purposes (and yes, I chose this time to use the allowed version of Jesus’s to make sure the emphasis is heard).

I am also wondering these days if perhaps even strategy for the Church is given to us by Jesus. Perhaps Jesus’ approach to discipleship is what is missing among many of our churches today.

I am reminded of a quote from Billy Graham. Although known for the great crowds that rallied around his preaching; Graham insisted he wished it were different, ”I think one of the first things I would do would be to get a small group of eight or ten or twelve men around me that would meet a few hours a week and pay the price. It would cost them something in time and effort. I would share with them everything I have, over a period of years. Then I would actually have twelve ministers among the laymen who in turn could take eight or ten or twelve more and teach them. I know one or two churches that are doing that, and it is revolutionizing the church. Christ, I think, set the pattern. He spent most of his time with twelve men. He didn’t spend it with a great crowd. In fact, every time he had a great crowd it seems to me that there weren’t too many results. The great results, it seems to me, came in his personal interview and in the time he spent with the twelve.” (Christianity Today, vol.3, no.1, p.5, Oct.13, 1958.)

Today I have spent time praying and pondering over what God has in store for us at New Beginnings Church in the year of 2012. I am dreaming of 20 groups of 12 (get it…2012…cute huh?) that would take serious the vision of being Kingdom people and seek to live out Jesus’ mission. What if this next year we became passionate about being Jesus’ hands and feet in Jesus’ world? What if we intentionally focused on Jesus’ instructions to “teach…and baptize them”?  What would happen? What could happen?

As a cute play off of the “there was no room in the inn” phrase common in many versions of the Nativity story, no doubt this question has been asked many times by many preachers throughout the past centuries. But wait, what about the fact that an “inn” is not actually mentioned in Luke’s version…a better rendering of kataluma would be “the guest room of the house was already taken.”

Perhaps the Gospel story would shine brighter if we asked the question actually implied in Luke’s words…what if we asked, “Is there room for Jesus in your home?”

Now we have illuminated the implications of an incarnate God becoming flesh. How we respond to the challenge of what to do with Jesus in our homes is the real question of Christmas.

Rather than reducing Jesus to a space in our hearts (private piety), or a borrowed space in the local inn (temporary comfort)…let us invite Jesus into our homes, our intimate spaces, our protected spaces, our “safe” spaces.

Is there room for Jesus in your home today?

For centuries, by following the liturgical Christian calendar, Christians have intentionally meditated on the life of Christ; we stand in awe at the manger, listen intently to the hillside teaching, grieve at the cross, and then, celebrate together as witnesses to the resurrection.

Even in the midst of “ordinary time” within the Christian Calendar (the weeks in-between the more well known celebrations) we are challenged to inspect our lives in the light of the returning King.

For much of my life I was unaware of the meaning and significance of words such as lectionary, liturgy, lent, advent, formation. Perhaps I was unaware because although many churches celebrate the common cultural days (Valentines, July 4^th, Mother’s Day, etc.) they often ignore the spiritual formation and intentional discipleship present within the liturgy of the Christian Calendar.

Today, I am becoming more convinced of the necessity for a common liturgy within faith communities. It offers both a connection to the past and a platform for the prophetic future. It leads us to organize our lives not just around kronos time (calendars, seasons, clocks, dates) but around kairos time (God’s timing…or the fullness of time). It creates common language and prayers. It opens our lives up to the work of the Spirit of God. And by continually reminding us of our place in God’s story, it calls us into anticipation of the rule of God over all creation.

Your thoughts?

Vision. Passion. Motivation. This scene from the tv show Friday Night Lights has it all. The potent moment of motivation at the end of this clip is culminated by those now famous words, “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose!”

Equal to the change in the western church these days is the changing role/expectations of what it means to be a pastor. As I too am searching for clarity, this mantra has helped me understand the motivation of a missional pastor in the missional church:

• Clear eyes…the ability to see and respond to the neighbor;
• Full hearts…the will to faithfully live out the ways of Christ;
• Can’t lose…a simple hope in a prevenient and incarnational God who is on a salvation-of-the-world mission.

The missional pastor’s role is to prepare the Church for the kingdom work set before them. How is this accomplished? The role is fulfilled with both demonstration and proclamation. And perhaps our demonstration and proclamation are best motivated with the narratives of neighbor, faithful living, and hope in a redeeming God.  Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.

After a short morning hike to break in us newbie’s, the experienced hikers of the group decided to challenge us with a lengthy afternoon hike. The reward, they said, was an amazing view of a waterfall cascading down a massive wall of rock. So off we went, excited by the pictures of beauty ahead. One hour past, then two, and three, each minute seemingly extending to match the slowing pace of our steps. At some point I had the thought to just turn around, knowing the painful three hours of rocks, rivers, and trees would only be matched again on the way back out. But someplace living within the motivation of each step was the image described by our fearless guides. The beauty of the cascading river became my motivation. And finally, endurance and determination were rewarded at the moment of the last turn in the trail. And although the description of the cascade was a bit over-generous, it was worth the effort.

A few weeks ago, when I originally rough-outlined this series, I named this final post “So what?” and “What now?”.  Two short questions peeking into the future and providing a glimpse of what is to come. No, I haven’t built a working time machine (although I might have recently tried), but I do have pictures in my head of what might be ahead. So I will share some of them here…in the timeless typographical form of the bullet point.

• So what? Anyone can point out the flaws within the current practices of many churches. Almost every day I read a blog post, sit through another conference, or see a newly published book detailing the error of the church’s ways. But I don’t want to just be another voice settling in the throes of criticism or cynicism; I want to be a practitioner who patiently but yet passionately re-aligns the practices with the biblical purposes. I want to remain faithful in the lineage of the apostles; fulfill the call of prophet by challenging the oppressive evils of the world; effectively evangelize through the proclamation and demonstration of the Kingdom way of life; sacrificially live out the role of pastor through a shepherding narrative; and teach with the intention and expectation of sending out other practitioners to do it all over again.
• So what? Because it matters!  It matters that we take every painful step to get it right. Our introspection should be tedious and our interior motives must be exposed. It matters that we respond to the call for “radical obedience that goes well beyond Christian platitudes or our comfortable weekly worship services” (Brueggemann). The Church matters because God has given us the ambassador assignment; we are His representatives in the world. Think of it for a moment…God has chosen to use you to demonstrate Himself to the world. We must make every effort to get it right. God is on a mission to redeem all of creation and we are invited to be a part…and God’s description of the beautiful life at the end of the trail won’t leave us disappointed.  We will be completely overwhelmed and overjoyed with what God has in mind.
• What now? This is where it gets tricky. Obviously, none of us completely know the answer to that question. I certainly don’t know all the twists and turns in the path ahead, but as long as we continue to walk together on the trail, eventually we will arrive.
• What now? We must recognize the forms used to effectively proclaim and demonstrate the Gospel are changing (I could easily argue they have already changed). There are many who are bravely leading the way into new paradigms for the Church. It will take a willing attitude and brave ambition to walk through the change. It will also require remembering the cascade…living with hope.
• Attraction to incarnation. One of changing forms is how we will choose to evangelize our culture. For many years the church has defined evangelism through the lens of advertisement. We created outreach events in order to move people into our primary proclamation environment (a Sunday morning church service). Today, for a myriad of reasons (broken trust in the witness of the Church is a major player) this strategy has lost its effectiveness within culture. We must re-form our evangelism strategies to include opportunities for others to “taste and see” an authentic witness and living out of Christ-likeness.  As disciples we must be willing to extend our lives and invite others into our lives to witness for themselves a different way of living. Our witness must become incarnational (an embodiment…or living-out) rather than simply dependent on words and cute gimmicks. People still long for a gospel that works, people long for the tree of life, and people long for people who will show them the way. Are we willing to create space in our lives for others? Are we willing to open our dining rooms, spare bedrooms and empty basements? Are we willing to expose our lives to others?
• Experience to discipleship. We must shift our definition of “church” from being a two hour, once a week experience to a people seeking to live out the ways of Christ. Biblically, it is an impossibility to go to church…we are the church. And we need to be willing to see our careers, homes, and everyday relationships as the church in action. We must move away from the tendency to create the next program or the next big event and begin to see everyday moments as an opportunity to “make disciples.” We must take seriously this command of Jesus. He wasn’t talking to only organizations, or non-profits, or just pastors…Jesus was talking to every follower. We are each responsible for passing along Jesus to others. Who are you discipling? And who is discipling you?
•  Obvious note: If our lives are not reflecting Jesus, it is impossible to disciple others in his ways. If our lives are filled with the sins of anger, gossip, greed, or lust…we will only produce more of the same. Discipleship starts with Jesus, extends to us, and then to others.
• The “what now?” in my life is also coming into view. Last week the nbc church board and church membership voted to affirm the re-election of my pastoral role, and I have accepted. It is a strange recipe of emotions: a gallon of hope, a cup of joy, a teaspoon of sorrow, and a pinch of excitement. Stir it all together and it creates a batter of resolved determination to love well, lead well, and live well. In a few more weeks we will gather with the body to re-affirm our covenant. For this opportunity, I am extremely grateful.
• In these days away, I have spent my time primarily twofold: renewing the spiritual disciplines in my life (including Sabbath) and studying the what/how of discipleship. I am eager to share some insights and put into practice some new efforts. But I equally desire to re-enter the pastoral role with respect and appreciation. I do not have the words to appropriately express my deep gratitude to the nbc pastors (Justin Roach and Margaret Tyler) and nbc board leaders for the efforts in leadership over the past few weeks. For now I will simply say, Thank You.  And to the people called New Beginnings…I pray we may live up to our name.

Since I was knee-high-to-a-South-Dakota-grasshopper I have acknowledged God’s call in my life. That call has not changed. But I have. Being a father of two growing children has changed how I understand and relate to God. The spiritual weight of pastoring within a lead role has changed the way I respect the pastoral office. The challenges in leadership have changed my awareness of the role of pastor. And witnessing disunity within a church body has inspired a longing for change to a deeper and more faithful Church and Gospel.

I love looking over the shoulder of experience and recognizing God’s forming work in life. But there are still many areas in my pastoral leadership in need of significant transformation. Max DePree once wrote, “We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.” And I know I must further change in order to be what God wants me to be. Here are three patterns in my leadership I am seeking to change.

For starters, I am an extreme people-pleaser. It isn’t a desirable trait. It is rooted in pride and arrogance. I want people to like me so much that when I disappoint someone I then see myself as bad, unworthy, a failure and deserving to suffer. Doubt and an unhealthy dose of self-criticism quickly consume my thoughts. And those self-hate thoughts can lead to temptations of laziness, lust, anger, over-eating and carelessness words. They become attractive sins to ease the pain of failure.

People-pleasing in a pastor can affect many areas and responsibilities, even the ability to preach. When fear of offending has enslaved the mind, how does one preach a gospel that runs so counter to human tendency and desire? If people-pleasing is in control, how does a pastor fulfill the mandate to instruct and correct? And I am not alone in this disease. Many pastors, although we know it’s impossible to please everyone, become ensnared by the emails, conversations, and rumors of discontent. The seeds of worthlessness get planted and then watered by the next email, phone call or conversation…and eventually the forest of frustration is too dense to find our way home.

How am I changing this tendency? Dallas Willard, speaking to a pastor struggling with the tension of expectations, once gave the advice, “You need to decide if you are the minister of the people or a minister of Christ.” He understood we can either be controlled by what people think and feel, or, if we are ministers of Christ, we can realize he the one in charge and we serve people on his behalf. I am learning to be a minister of Christ, and to let my service to him find its place among his people.

Second, too often I have a “poor me” attitude. When faced with consistent criticism I allow my thoughts to warp into, “Why are they always picking on me?” It might make me feel better in the moment, but obviously it isn’t true. I am not the only target nor am I exempt from deserved criticism. There are serious consequences in believing the irrational thought of “I deserve better than this.” It creates an attitude of bitterness, judging of others, and the tendency to withdraw from relationships. I am learning to more objectively evaluate and receive the hidden truth found in every criticism (It is important to remember that not always are the hidden truths about the criticized subject. Sometimes it reveals truths about the criticizer).

Both “people-pleasing” and “poor-me” are immature thoughts and part of conforming to the patterns of culture. The Apostle Paul said in Romans (12:2), “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you” (The Message). As I continue to seek transformation by the renewing of my mind, I am determined to think different thoughts…to dwell only on whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8).

Third; as a pastor, I am too tolerant. Perhaps there is nothing more dangerous than a tolerant pastor, especially if the tolerance gives way to lessening truth. Too often in the church, people come to expect tolerance for their sinful behavior. When it becomes more “wrong” to acknowledge sin than it is to sin…we have made tolerance more important than truth. While we do not want to become arrogant holders of truth; we must stop being tolerant of the sinful behaviors of the church.

An alternative to tolerance is biblical discipline (warning in love, speaking truth in love). And part of the biblical role of the pastor/elder is the spiritual discipline of the flock. Obviously, discipline isn’t a popular conversation these days and certainly it has been abused throughout the history of the church. But a church body will not stay healthy or on mission for very long without discipline. As a pastor, it is hard to confront people in patterns of sin. People don’t often desire accountability and they certainly don’t want to face the embarrassment of being called out. And there will be occasions when the discipline is flatly rejected. But none-the-less there is a biblical expectation of pastors to admonish (warn) fellow believers (Colossians 3:16).

One specific leadership challenge I failed at nbc was providing proper pastoral discipline for the sinful behaviors evidenced in the church (I wrote of these in Parts 2-4 of this series). As a church, we are first and foremost called to be one, it is our primary witness (John 17:23). So the theologies, thoughts, behaviors, and sins distracting the church from oneness must be confronted and admonished in order to protect the unity of the body and thus the witness for Christ.

Eugene Peterson, in an interview with Leadership Journal said, “The role of the pastor is to embody the gospel. And of course to get it embodied, which you can only do with individuals, not in the abstract.” This is a great truth and deeply personal challenge. Rather than people-pleasing, pouting, or tolerantly living in the abstract, we must embody Christ and lead others to embody the Gospel. Certainly it will require a renewed identity as a shepherding pastor, sincere humility, intense courage, and discipline.

An unrelated and random note: A couple days ago someone asked, “Shane, what are your reasons for writing this series?” It’s a good question and I suppose there are three answers: First, I think best in words. Writing helps me process and really establish my thoughts. And it is important for me to understand what has happened, why it happened, and how I am going to respond. Second, I want others to know what I truly think and feel. And if you were to crawl into my head and look around, these are the thoughts you would find. There are no hidden dark corners of bitterness or chained-up angry words. Third, as God leads me toward whatever is next, I want to have said publically everything I have said privately. I desire accountability and transparency, and if I am nuts I would like someone to tell me.

Individualism. The word speaks for itself. People as islands. I am my own person. Me. Mine. My rights. My faith. My personal relationship with God…just Jesus and me.

Somehow in our Western promotion of both personal and religious freedom we have latched onto the idea that individual autonomy is the goal. But from a biblical point of view, it is not. From the very beginning, the Church understood discipleship happens best within community. Actually, I would venture further and say, discipleship is not possible outside of community (and by “community” I am referring to a faith community where sacrament and liturgy (common learning) are shared. It is one of the marks of a true disciple of Christ; living within the context of relationships. Even the triune God doesn’t exist outside of reciprocal relationships…hence triune.

But as we the Church have moved further and further away from orthodox theology, we have become more and more shaped by the culture of individualism. In some circles “Christianity” has turned into a private, internal, me-and-Jesus-therapy-for-the-soul experience. We have become “spiritual” people with no regard for objective truth or an immutable God.

How does this play out in the life of the local church? I was recently emailed this quote from the book, Evangelical Social Gospel? Finding God’s Story in the Midst of Extremes. This is a great description of one of the ways individualism affects us today…and these words resonate deep within my own journey.

“People who tell me they are leaving our church always begin the decision with the same three words: “We have decided.” By the time those words are uttered, faith has already been broken. These are some of the most painful words I ever have to hear. “We have decided to leave for this or that reason.” The reasons they give vary and they usually have at least some merit. Yet they pale in comparison to the egregious sin of breaking fellowship – read faith, fidelity, faithfulness, allegiance, pistis – with that part of the body of Christ to which they have been given. This is one of the most insidious forms of individualism. Why do people feel as though they can make the decision to leave their community of faith in private, without ever submitting this decision to the rest of the body? In truth this action violates the unity of the body. It runs counter to the notion that our worship runs much deep than simply where we go to church on Sunday. Rather worship involves the whole of our lives. To “decide” privately to leave a church means we sever deep bonds of friendship and community that are meant to be reciprocal relationships. The phrase, “We have decided,” is a sign that individualism has so pervaded our lives and our Christian faith that we think we are fully justified in making decisions on behalf of everyone in our community without consulting them. This, I believe, is one of the most damaging effects of individualism on the church.”  – Tim Suttle

So many times I have sat tongue-tied in similar situations. Knowing if I were to speak into the individualism it would only light a raging fire of defense or accusation. Defense and rejection are part of the nature of individualism…we are free from any and all authority outside of ourselves…we have the right to grant the consumer desires of our souls and the freedom to believe the way we want…our subjective reasoning and beliefs are higher than any other. Any thought that truth might be objective or that community should be honored is rejected. We live out our “entitlement” without regard to others.

This disease of individualism is not new and nor, as thought by some, is it something only plaguing modernity. It is a human nature issue not an era issue. Even postmoderns who pride themselves on the rejection of the modern autonomy often express their individualism through the rejection of absolutes. David Wells provides great insight in his book The Courage to be Protestant. He recognizes the common thread of individualism between moderns, postmoderns, marketers and emergents. He says, “This thread is our understanding about the self. Then, as now, it has become loosed from every external constraint, be it to God, the past, or religious authority. We demand to be free. We today, post-modern as we may be, are more unconstrained, more emancipated from everything except our own selves than were the proponents of the Enlightenment. This, then, is a thread that actually connects how people have thought for a long time in the West.”

And as Nazarenes (and Wesleyans in general), we are faced with another issue. Just a slight twist of thought and our theologies will lead us into extremes. There are only a couple of twisted thoughts between a robust doctrine of holiness and a busted doctrine of hokey-ness. Clearly the history of scattered “faithful Wesleyan” groups and the enraged debates of the “concerned” the should teach us of the danger of religious self-righteousness (another form of individualism).

Often Nazarenes have been described as having a “big tent” of theology, meaning we have commitment to core agreements but freedom in the non-core beliefs. The beauty of the “big tent” is the inherent humility staking it to the ground. It allows for the sharing of thoughts, listening to ideas, self-inspection and shared accountability. No one promotes themselves over the other; each recognizes their passion as adding to the whole. Individuality goes out the window…or out the tent flap. Community and relationship become the norm. Unity and covenant become the link and “Kingdom Come” becomes the goal. It is time to get back to “big tent” kind of living.

How do we change? I would be a fool to think I could unpack this thought in this limited space, or that I could unpack it all. I am only beginning to clarify a few thoughts from examining this disease in my own life.

But as kindling for the purifying fire, here are a few thoughts: Theology (taught through creeds and sacraments) has become an afterthought for many of us within our gatherings for worship. Worship has become understood as personally experienced, self-focused, and something to be consumed. And as I have already briefly covered in Part 2, the church has exploited this tendency rather than rejecting it.

David Wells says, “Christianity is not just an experience, we need to remember, but it is about truth. The experiences of being reconciled to the Father, through the Son, by the work of the Holy Spirit all happens within a worldview.”

It is time the Church reaches back into its deep, rich history and revives the practices that ground us in a biblical worldview (and I am not talking about the worldview the church had just 100 years ago marked with enthusiasm, experientialism, legalism and camp-meetings). I am thinking we need to develop a deeper ecclesiology within the theology and praxis of the sacraments. A baptism ecclesiology will deepen our understanding and commitment to covenant. Membership, family and belonging will actually mean something within the local church. A Eucharistic ecclesiology will focus the Church on the incarnation of Christ, will motivate a missional response in the world, and will uphold a biblical eschatology…one that recognizes the “Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.” In short, covenant and kingdom must become the heartbeat of the local church.

Final note: I do find it interesting that as a result of how far we have moved from our roots, when some people today hear biblical language and orthodox doctrine they think it is new. Oh the irony. We have become so accustomed to the church conforming to culture that now people assume the orthodox movement among our churches today is just another cultural fad. I am convinced it is God renewing and calling His Church back to solid ground.

I resign the conquest for power in the church.

I could see the signs of sickness but I couldn’t diagnose the disease. At first I thought it was conflicting personalities. So I invested deeply in relationships, seeking to “get close” in order to bridge the gap. Then I thought it was a fissure in theology. So, I began to preach our core theologies and partnered with other teachers/resources to mend our theology. Then I thought it was a preference in practice. So, I invited others to our leadership tables and sought to both include and influence. But the sickness kept creeping its way back into the everyday life of the church. It was like a bad case of allergies, and just when you think the seasons are changing…boom, your nose is dripping on the front of your shirt. Or like an infestation of mice in your house, you can’t see them but they continue to destroy and leave behind their waste. Or, to use a medical analogy, it is like cancer, slowly deteriorating the body one cell at a time.

But then, with the help of wise counsel (both inside and outside our church), I began to see the root issues through a different microscope. And together, we discovered there was a culture of power in the church. It had become part of our telos…leading us to an inevitable end. I guess it shouldn’t surprise us; after all, churches are made up of people. And people, as Galadriel states in The Fellowship of the Ring, are “the race of men, who above all else desire power.”

This is a difficult subject to write about. There are many definitions and nuances in this subject that could throw it into an unrecoverable tailspin. I must admit it is a complicated and complex issue, crossing multiple fields (psychology, theology, and anthropology to name a few) in which I only have limited knowledge. So I have relied heavily on a couple of resources I would recommend for your reading; a paper entitled A Discussion of Power as it Relates to a Local Church Context, by Ruth Reynard and the book A Charitable Discourse: Talking About the Things that Divide Us written by Dan Boone (here is a excerpt from his book).

Dan Boone uses the term “jihad” to describe the war present in some churches today. Perhaps this present day example may give us the best insight into the experience and level of intensity of the battles present in the leadership trenches of the local church. The victims of this jihad are both the spiritually and emotionally wounded leaders and the innocent citizens of the church who are honestly seeking to live life in Christ…both scarred and discarded along beside the scattered shell casings of slander, misquoting, labeling, and intimidation.

Any local church must have a clear picture of healthy and biblical authority in order for it to be a life-giving community. And those in authority must have an understanding of Jesus-like leadership; a leadership that is inclusive and collaborative rather than individual and coercive (see Reynard article). At nbc there was an unhealthy desire by individuals seeking to reign, demonstrated by their coercive and resistant behaviors. It led to confusion about who we were as a people and about where/what/how we organized ourselves.

How did it get that way? Again, I appeal to that simple fact that all too often we in the church are shaping ourselves around our world culture instead of being shaped by scripture. In some ways it was correct to think theology was the root. Our Christology and eschatology shapes our ecclesiology. And so, with time, twisted theologies will always show up in the life of the church. Eventually, our wrong thinking will be visible through our wrong behavior.

We are also influenced by a culture that throws stones first and asks questions second. We are quick to speak, quick to anger…quite the opposite of James admonition (1:19). It is quickly making us an ungovernable people. Sadly, we Christians are often more shaped by the tactics of today’s politics than we are by the ways of Jesus. When people get disgruntled in the church they begin to immediately enact the tactics required to subvert authority and remove leaders. It is behavior gained in the sinfulness of man that is the premise for all evil…to subvert the authority of God. When this becomes a norm and accepted behavior in a church community, it becomes a difficult (perhaps impossible) environment to lead within.

Two quotes from Dan Boone’s book also help me understand what happened at nbc:

“Nothing unities people like a common enemy. When we are threatened, we mobilize to resist the enemy. It may surprise us what we are willing to do to defend ourselves from a threatening enemy. Angry religious fundamentalists know this and play on these fears in ways that are irresponsible and damaging to the cause of Christ. Once they have spoken, we are tongue-tied to say anything in opposition lest we be labeled a friend of the enemy.”

“When we declare someone an enemy, we unleash something in that person’s direction for which we become responsible. In the vernacular of the Old Testament we “curse” the person. A curse was words spoken with power to do harm. It was the exact opposite of a blessing – words spoken with power to do good. By cursing the enemy, we unleash upon him or her the wish for harm to be done, not the desire to good.”

What is missing from our tables of leadership and in the relationships between pastors and lay people is trust. Trust is the confidence that the person across the table from you has good intentions and there is not a need to be protective or cautious around them. My journey at nbc was filled with broken trust. In the moments of vulnerability and dreaming together as teams…repeatedly it was discovered the people at the table were not sharing equal intentions. The attempts and opportunities for collaborative leadership were broken of trust. The attitude was clearly presented as “if you’re not with us you’re against us. And if you can’t agree with us then we can’t be friends.” Rather than posturing as learners and co-laborers, there were some who only endured the conversations so that they could then go out to repeat their twisted version of reality and often causing more broken trust. It was a cycle of pathology and sin that had to stop.

Reynard says, “If any lasting change is to be affected, perceptions of power must be understood and challenged where necessary and a system of practice that includes rather than excludes individuals is required. Where this does not happen, congregations last as long as those in power. There is no progress possible beyond those individuals.”

And only when examining the full history of our local church does it really develop into clear view. The mindsets of some had led to patterns of brokenness and sinfulness. Although I believe the behavior was naïve and rooted in ignorance, the behavior caused major damage to the community as a whole. This struggle for power led to the attempts to destroy others with words. And it is destructive to the whole community when “holders of power” speak slander against other…and according to scripture is it also sinful.

“You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world? When one of you says, ‘I am a follower of Paul,’ and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world?” 1 Cor. 3:3-4

“When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear…hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division…” Galatians 5:20

By offering my resignation at nbc I hoped it would bring to light the issues present in the church. I “gave over without resistance” my positional authority as pastor to those in authority over me. I hoped it would provide opportunity for others to step out of the prisons of power and begin to speak truth to one another. By removing the target (the position of pastor) for those individuals set on disrupting authority, I hoped it would expose a culture of behavior needing to be called into accountability. It remains to be seen if I made the right decision.

There are some who will continue to live in denial and anger. And there are some who are beginning to awake to the truth of the matter. I pray for both daily. Does it always have to be broken? No. With confession (recognition of wrong-doing) and repentance (transformation of behavior) there can be forgiveness and healing of trust can begin. I pray for this repentance to be evident to all.

Let me also take this moment to admit my bias. I am an institutionalist. What that means in this context is that I believe that institutions have a place in the reign of Christ. Christian leaders are called to shape the institutions to serve as signs of the Kingdom in our midst. It is possible and it is necessary. (A side note…this is one of the thoughts that would separate me from the emergent church who seek to resist the conformity of institutions. While I sympathize with some of their complaints about the abuse within these systems, I hold onto hope for change.) It is why I am loyal to our Nazarene denomination, I hope for our institutions to serve as signs of God’s Kingdom in our world. The local church can be an institution that demonstrates the rule and reign and Christ. I hold onto that hope.