Raising the tide of Prayer I

I have loved the last few months.

God is so incredibly kind. He is ever teaching us, transforming us into his likeness and into his deeds, so we can partner with Him in these gospel adventures.

Prayer. A simple word that most of us limp with. It is a word that creates in us a reminder of what we don't do enough of or well enough. Yet it is a beautiful word. It speaks of a God who is not a distant deity, disengaged from our world, challenges and celebrations. It speaks of a redemption story that allows us to be reconciled to a loving, caring God who is intimate, who speaks and who is passionate about our life's journey.

A small group of us prayed together on Wednesday night. We framed our time of prayer around the Lord's Prayer - no, not the one He uses to teach us to pray. Rather, the one He actually prays. (John 17)

Here are our pointers:

1.   Glorify! Amazing how the text always points to Jesus. It is humbling to start our prayer like this. It will then follow with "not my will but yours be done". It is worship that captives us. It is adulation that declares His wonder and majesty. It is reverence that reminds us just how holy and all powerful he truly is.

2.  Know you! The early church revealed remarkable community. As they found their God life, it was loaded with meals, fun, laughter, discipleship, teaching and prayer. Yet, the load punchline was "and the Lord added to their number daily, those who are being saved". A truly healthy church is a church that 'increases' through men and women, boys and girls coming into a revelation of a living Jesus faith. So, we prayed passionately for unsaved family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, coaches of children's activities... Oh Jesus that 'they may know you, the only true God'

3.  I have kept them! Jesus is very passionate in crying out to the Father for those that He has loved, taught and discipled. 'Keep them from the evil one' was His cry. In our community, there has been such an assault against marriages. The enemy has snuck in and tried to bully the marriages into destruction. We are pounding the throne of grace for the sake of our marriages. Some have stood strong. Some have teetered on the brink of defeat. Others have not made it. But we will not give up for these marriages. Jesus was and is praying for them. And so will we.

4.  They may all be one! Disunity, divisiveness and the community's demise is always on the radar of the enemy's devices. Over her history, our community has had two splits. The enemy got it right. We cannot be 'unaware of the devil's devices'. If a strategy has worked before, he will try it again. Jesus models this beautifully. He does not become a 'ghost buster' looking for demons around every corner. Rather, he prays, petitions and pleads for unity. We know, this brings such a smile to the Lord's face that he cannot help himself but 'commands a blessing'. Make us one oh Lord!

5.  I have sent them into the world! Mission, oh what a sweet word. What a privilege that we are now to sent into the world to complete the great Jesus assignment - 'greater works than these will he do'. Jesus did not isolate us into monastic communities, closeted away from the world. Rather He catapults us to the frontline of new gospel frontiers to bring a broken world His extraordinary grace. Each believer on assignment, with the joy of being an ambassador of the most High in our world.

These are prayers worth praying...

Mercy Town Morning

The new adventure has begun.

Last Sunday I had the privilege of contributing for the first time as part of the Mercy Town community. So I have to be honest and say, it was a rather vulnerable morning. We were in a new hall, with new layout, and for some of the folks it was vulnerable having a new member of the team who was going to provide some leadership, adding to what has been laid in to the foundation of the community for the last few years.

I saw eyes looking at me - some delighted for the new adventure; some intrigued by what the future may look like; and I think some were close to fearful - 'to what extend is our world about to change?'

The answer to all those questions is simply "We do not know? God rarely does things our way". It is such a privilege to join in such a wonderful God story with an established, raw, naked, honest sense of community.

Maybe one of the most obvious questions I asked myself the week before was: "Who was God going to send us?"

That was not very difficult to answer. The community was already full of "dones" & "nones".

"Dones" are those who are "done with church". whatever their experience may be, they love Jesus but have often been deeply disillusioned by the excessive professionalistic, corporate nature of the church. Added to this they may have had some relational experiences that have damaged their weary souls. David Kinnaman calls them the "Nomads and Exiles". But the Spirit of God has drawn many of them them back to this authentic community. More of them are coming!

"Nones" are those who have no or little Jesus or church exposure. They are wonderfully real, raw and often aggressively anti. Their language is crusty. Their perceptions are in no way biblical and their questions are deeply truthful, without Christianizing them. Many more of these are on their way to us. Are we OK with that?

That is who we believe will come into our world. Are we ready for more just like us to join the journey? We have been faithful with the little, now the Father will afford us the opportunity to be faithful with the many.

Fun times at the frontline of LA urban evolution.

Some Missional Thoughts

Some of my thoughts on being ‘missional’:

• The Gospel centrality has to be the hub around which every thing spins – that means:
• Understanding the full width the 
• Creation,
• Rebellion,
• Redemption,
• Consummation,
• Land all our preaching in the gospel – to provide meaning, clarity, liberty,
• The key to our discipleship,
• The Priesthood Priority - of all believers must find expression both inside and outside the community,
• The Family Model – this mindset requires us to see healthy kingdom minded families as the foundation for all missional activities,
• The Missionary Mindset - Every believer should see themselves as being both incarnational [to serve their community] as well as missional [to save their community]
• The Zip code Ownership - Missional believers see that God has ‘ordained the time and places where they should live’ – this means that the perfect storm in their lives take place where talents, giftings, relationships, vocation, the gospel and context come together,
• The Cobbler Connection - Every person’s spiritual journey is valid and essential. The attractional model empowers the superstars to great acts of faith. The missional revelation empowers all believers to do ‘good works God has prepared in advance for us to do’ Eph 2,
• The Cultural Conversation - Exegeting culture is the second language of this missionary – there is an understanding that I must adjust to impact my world but never at the expense of scripture,
• The Contextual Evolution - A missional mind is never stagnant. By its very foundation it is adjusting as the people, context and situation requires… the wineskin changes to accommodate the wine,
• The Poor Partnership - They never forget the poor…it is a matter of continual kingdom focus,
• The Prayer Passion – It is impossible to enter the world of missional impact without a weighty theology of prayer, matched with a sustained lifestyle of prayer and fasting with appropriate spiritual warfare,
• The Ant Trail – we need both observer sharpness matched with revelatory edginess to discern where the flow trails of city life is,

Cultural Questions we must answer

As we step into the Mercy Town story tomorrow, [very excited ] I am busy reading much on the question of mission, culture, context and the sacred text.

Here is a summary that Ed Stetzer uses of the questions we have to ask stepping into a new cultural context:

Ed Stetzer quotes Steffen on the list of question that we need to ask when entering a culture:

• What is the worldview of the target audience?
• What is the culture’s decision-making pattern?
• What does it cost a person in this culture to become a Christian?
• What redemptive analogy is best for this culture?
• How does the culture view Christianity?
• What does the culture understand about the basic components of the gospel story?
• Is this culture based on shame or guilt?
• How will culture understand Christian rituals?
• What is the best delivery system for exposing the people of this culture to the gospel?

Mercy Town - The Church Plant

It was a most wonderful Sunday ministering to the Bridgetown Church in Portland. John Mark Comer and the crew are doing a truly remarkable job at engaging a very disinterested Pacific North West with the gospel of Jesus. Their ability to live in both the large crowd space as well as the small intimate, missional space, is a testimony of their tenacity to favor neither, over the other.

This Sunday M and I will be prayerfully released from Southlands Church - a community we led for 14 years and have loosely been based out of for the last 4 years. When we were flying over the Atlantic to come and lead her back in 1996, I felt the Lord say to me "It would be very hard to leave... when the time comes". I never knew what that meant until now.  For various reasons reasons it has been one of the most difficult things to do.

Then Sunday night we will be set in to Mercy Town church in the Pasadena area of LA. Choosing our language very wisely, we are joining the MT story, as we are added to the elder / pastoral team bringing our gifts and contributions  - leadership, vision casting, a global gospel story and teaching.

Jesus said: "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up" Matt 15:13.

I would love to blog you through our journey. This is a remarkable community, planted around 4 years ago. They have some huge muscle groups - like doing life together, a love for the sacred text, worship that fills my life, servant hearted, generosity. But they also lack some key ingredients to be a truly healthy New Testament church.

It is a huge privilege to come into this amazing family and to help "set in order that which is lacking" Tit 1:5. What they have is beautiful. We will add to the story without dispensing with what already exists.

Over the next months I will blog around the story. With Glenridge Church we planted back in the  80's, with a small group of friends. With Southlands Church we replanted, taking an existing but broken church on a journey back to health and multiplication. Now we are so privileged to listen, learn and lead as we help build Mercy Town into a growing, multiplying, mature, beautiful community.

She is planted by the Lord. Of that we are certain. Now the next chapter in the adventure begins.

How should I pray for Me?

I love the year starting off with a bang - and 2015 certainly has.

Pulling down the Christmas decorations is always kinda sad, another moment, rich in family and memories is over - with all that we have as the best of Christmas traditions. Spinning our eyes toward this new year, requires finding our new God-grace rhythm, matched with the big God ideas that we will discover with our communities over the next months.

Of course for us, we are stepping into the Mercy Town story, fully on the 25th of January, so that is like Christmas with a new baby - loads of excitement.

But preparing our hearts of the new adventure is essential. In fact, knowing how to pray for ourselves is possibly one of the least understood components of many a christian, especially leaders. We may be really good at presenting our petition lists to the Father. We may even be good at personal worship. But how do we pray for ourselves in a way that keeps our soul pure, clean, light, healed?

Using Psalm 51 as the matrix here are a few under-developed thoughts:

Intimacy vs Function
Our time with our Father is and must remain, a "date with Dad". He is neither our valet, always on standby to serve our needs, nor is he the harsh taskmaster, forever demanding more of us. When David cries out "Cast me not away from your presence", he is saying, 'please do not distance yourself from me - that is the thing I fear the most'. We so dearly need to find our identity in being sons and daughters of the most high, and not be defined by our position, title or role. The latter will certainly change, while the former should only deepen.

True North vs Drift
I remember seeing a movie when I was about 12, of a boy who is flying to meet his father when, the light aircraft he is flying in crashed in the Namib desert, killing the pilot. This young boy is left to survive in the desert against all odds. One of the final scenes in the movie, sees the boy, now somewhat delirious, pushing on whilst muttering to himself "My father will find me". As the camera pans out, the audience sees that the boy is pushing on, but his bias actually has him walking in circles.
We must orientate ourselves to "true north" daily. Our time of prayer draws us back to the anchor of our souls, so we are not drawn to walking in circles because of our propensity to build, erroneously around our strengths or because we are being blindsided by our weakness. The Father will speak to us.
David says "Let me hear joy and gladness [vs 8]... restore to me the joy of my salvation [vs12]. May I suggest, when the joy goes, we have probably left the trail of divine destiny.
  
Brokenness vs Bruising
Simply stated [in all its complexity, we are custodians of our souls, we simply cannot let our souls remain  butchered!.
"Let the bones you have broken, rejoice" [vs 8].
These early morning times require us to i) forgive ourselves for our own sins; ii) forgive others for the sins they have committed against us. This glorious assignment is called 'expiation'. Time and space does  not allow me to explore the wonder of this great grace gift, but we simply cannot move forward without perpetually settling that God breaks us to soar us to greater heights. We get bruised when we sin against ourselves and others sin against us. We cannot live with these bruisings without dealing with them. They will grow, deepen, develop into the cancer of anger, bitterness and resentment. That will eat us away.

Discerning vs Dismissing
We are a people at war. We simply cannot forget that - to use a military slogan "Carelessness costs lives". David should have been at war, but dismissed its relevance when he saw Bathsheba. We have an enemy. He knows both our vulnerable points and our vulnerable moments [he waits for an opportune time]. As Richard Forster wrote of so truthfully in "Money, Sex and Power", we are all vulnerable to at least one of these major collision forces where darkness and light meet in our frail humanity.
These personal prayer times act as thermometers for the condition of our soul and its vulnerability to the enemy's devices. We can discern it and find the great grace of the Father to stand strong in the face of the onslaught.

So, how can we respond to this matrix for personal prayer? Our exquisite soul does yearn for this kind of protection.

Why do I still love Jesus and His Bride?

Yesterday we had loads of fun at Exploration [our monthly gathering of pastors and planters in So Cal, conversating around matters of common import]. Using the TEDtalk model of shorter discussions, we looked at how we can deepen our devotion times with Jesus -

Lisa Proctor did a fabulous job talking very honestly about preparing our soul privately so as to be publicly helpful;

Todd Proctor walked us into his private devotional world esp in worship; 

I stepped in for Ger Jones who was not able to be there, chatting around "How do I pray for me?"

Matt Larson journeyed us through "Meditation and the Sacred Text".

So stepping up to the plate a little late, I asked myself some very honest questions. The first was - "Why do I still love Jesus and His bride after all these years?" I can't say it has always been easy. There was a window of around 8 years that were excruciatingly painful. But in the light of 30 plus years of ministry there has been some very amazing God times of privilege as well.

Here are some of my honest thoughts as I sought to answer that question:

After around 30 years of ministry and around 35 years of walking with Jesus, I would have to say, the reasons I still love the Lord and his church are because:

1. An incredible wife who has loved Jesus and me more than she has loved her dreams and desires - Meryl has been a most wonderful God-gift to me. Not trying to be disparaging, she has never been a light-weight cheerleader. She bought into the God journey with the same sacrifice and passion as I did.  With her deep love for the bride and her profound prophetic insight she has given herself away without reserve. Matching that with weighty wisdom, she has been a sublime co-laborer in the kingdom. She taught me much about that kind of love.
2. My kids who have loved the Lord and his bride and seen our journey as theirs - They have been amazing as they have dived into this adventure where "we have no talent for certainty" [thanks Daena for the Jane Austen quote]. All of our major moves of obedience have come out of left field, where the pathway that the Father opened for us, was not one we wanted, imagined or even prayed for. The kids took the steps with us, without combat yet seeking to find their own faith for the vulnerabilities.
3. My friends who have loved me for who I am, not for the gift I bring, when the ‘friendship’ is purely functional, it will come to an end when the assignments ends - We have all tried to build around and through a relational matrix. Sometimes we have done it well and way too many times, we have done it badly. Some of the most painful lessons we had to learn were those relationships that were really true and valuable but simply for that season of function. When the function changed, so the relationships drifted to the album of yesterday's memories. That was very difficult to understand initially. But then through the mists of heart ache come the true and authentic friendships, that were never created for a one off season only. These men and women who love us for who we are, without position or title. This exquisite love, deep and meaningful, has withstood the deepest and darkest days. I love Jesus and His bride in part, because these friends love me, warts and all. 
4. My devotional life - when God called me to himself in the early hours of the morning, not in legalism but in love - I have no doubt that Jesus calling me to the early hours with him everyday has been my most sublime empowering moments. This was never a duty or an obligation. I wanted to have my daily 'dad' time! This was not Chris the vision-caster, or the ideator, or the apostolic-catalyst, pastor or teacher. This was the Father / son daily date. It is about Him and me. The conversation is richly documented in my journal, as each day's conversation unfolded. Here I could be honest - fully, completely without the slightest fear that he would dismiss my naked humanity, in despair. Rather, he would love me, correct me, listen to me and leave me with a fresh glimmer of hope and a new well from which to draw.

Thank you for reading this honest reflection. There is no time to let our light of love grow dim. The bride deserves rivers of living water that comes from our life and lips. He is worthy our praise and she is worthy of our love.