Windows of my Soul

Monday, September 01, 2003

i have changed blog url's my new one is http://mark.alleloneagle.net

Wow its been way to long since i blogged last. Now that summer is over i will get back on track. As many of you know we had an Allelon gathering this week with Dallas Willard. I continue to be amazed by how much he is willing to give us. He is a blessing to the whole allelon movement.

The weekend was great. As always it is wonderful to be with the gang, sharing and hanging. My wife and I wouldn't trade this for anything. This is truly our lifes work. Many people blogged during the weekend...see blog notes from...eric, bishop, malcolm.
-----


Here is a recent short essay i had to do for school. I also posted it on the Allelon website. It was very difficult because it had to be under 1500 words. It is basically just a short reflection on our journey as a community of faith.

Hope all is well.


Reflection Paper Rembrandts Community Of Faith

Acknowledgments
The following is a short reflection essay for one of my classes at Regent College. Due to limited space (no more than 1500 words) and the nature of the assignment , I could only provide a small snap shot of our journey. In addition, I did not acknowledge the significant role my wife Jeanette, Eric and his wife Beth played. We are co-leaders, partners, cohorts, journeying together from the beginning—allies of the kingdom, who looked out for one another, feeding one another, carry each other’s burdens, bandaging each other’s wounds, and celebrating the beauty of the kingdom as it invades the lives of people. This is their story as much as it is mine. Along our journey we were blessed to have some wonderful river guides —NT Wright, Willard, Guder, Newbigin, Fee and many more. Rembrandts is a part of the Allelon Fellowship Of Churches


Reflection Paper
Rembrandts Community Of Faith
Prologue

In plain view just outside the circle where we gathered stood a large white board. Written in bold black marker were the words of a fiery Pentecostal theologian. IT SIMPLY READ:



THIS IS WHAT WE DESIRE TO BE

“A community of redeemed people among whom God can live and who in their life together will reproduce his life and character in all its unity and diversity. Everything in the life of the church is to be done allelon. We are to be members of one another, compassionate to one another, regard others above ourselves, live in harmony with one another and slaves to one another in love. God is not looking for a set of unconnected individuals, but rather a people who will bear his image and be a radical alternative to the culture.” 1


So began our journey in the winter of 2002 — twenty or so travelers who took a chance and tried to navigate through the untamed river waters of what is commonly referred to as “Missional Church.”


A new starting point

It’s over! Those words would prove to be prophetic and would set the tone for the rest of our lives—literally! Everything my wife Jeanette and I did was outside of our city. Our kid’s school, my office, the places we ate, our friends and church. In a matter of weeks we refocused our lives and moved everything into our local neighborhood and started a small community of faith with our best friends Eric and Beth.

On Saturday evenings, in an old white Baptist church we would gather from 6:30 pm. and finish sometime before 12:00 am. We often sat around in a circle and dialogued about the kingdom, worshiped, prayed, and broke bread together. We would allow space to be honest and vulnerable, sharing our pains, hopes, fears and dreams.

I guess the process we went through would be called deconstruction. We set ourselves on a journey— a mission to discover what it really means to be a Christian and what it means to be the church. Below is a small reflection of our journey together.


What does it mean to be a Christian?

Our challenge here was to rediscover the simple but profound story lines that scripture contains; creation, fall, redemption, and future hope—dramatic narratives that we apply to all areas of life. As Christians, we seek to let the biblical Story shape our imaginations—as actors we enter into the Christian story, accepting it as part of our own existence. Or, in the image Paul uses, we are now in the position of young architects discovering a wonderful foundation already laid by a master architect. Our role is to creatively work out what sort of building was intended and faithfully build upon that foundation.

We asked questions such as: What does it really mean to be a Christian? What is the gospel? Is the gospel just about saying a prayer—giving some mental assent to one theory of the atonement—so that when you die you’ll go to heaven? Or, is the story we live in a larger all encompassing story about becoming the people of God—radical followers of Jesus—joining together in reshaping the world as his disciples. A people called to reflect the divine nature and redemptive love of our Triune God—“to become humanity as God intended.” 2

What does it mean to be the church?

In North America the church is typically defined as a person, place or event. Some studies suggest that as much as eighty percent of the time, money and energy of many churches go to make weekend services happen. At worse, in the words of George Hunsburger, this turns the church into a “vendor of religious services and goods,” 3 instead of a kingdom community sent on a mission. This, of course plays right into the hands of a Western individualistic, consumer-oriented society.

Our task was to become less “event oriented” and place more emphasis on forming and shaping a loving community deeply concerned for one another’s needs—a new collaborative order of interdependence, shared responsibility, mutual instruction and commonality.

For many people, however, community can become annoying. Could I see past people’s weakness and instead see them through the same shade of glasses that Jesus does? Could we really commit to allelon one another? How could we use ordinary situations to come together and celebrate the life of our community? Ordinary life can be wonderful and powerful—it brings a sense of closeness, a sense of what it means to be “family like.”

How could we form a loving community, but also recognize it exists “not just for” each other, but for the sake of the world? We explored questions like, What does it mean to be a missionary? Is a missionary someone who goes to the third world? Is the PTA mom or dad who coaches soccer considered a missionary?

Many of us still viewed “missions” as an activity of the church, one of several programs—instead of seeing our vocation as ambassadors of God’s kingdom—“a sent people” who routinely embody God’s redeeming love and hope, compassion and reconciliation, harmony and justice to our neighbors and the whole of society.

As a community we de-emphasized “planned evangelism,” and instead celebrated, encouraged and enthralled each other to make room for those around us in our everyday lives—naturally and organically. One person in our community captured this point with humility as he shared his experience.

Our lawn looked like a tropical jungle. Our neighbors hated us to the point of actually threatening us with a lawsuit if we didn’t “take care of our stuff.” But hey we were busy doing church. Our neighborhood is actually pretty cool. People do things together for 4th of July etc. We never participated. We waved and smiled at them and headed to another town to go to church. I was a part of the newest church evangelism program—we would drive 45 minutes each week to give away free cokes to people we didn’t even know and completely neglected the people that lived next door to us. We lived in our neighborhood for almost five years without knowing anything about our neighbors, without caring or showing love. This has changed. We now make a conscious effort to be the church—to love our neighborhood and neighbors. Not in a philosophical way only but in an actual way where we focus on our neighbors well being, not first and foremost to “evangelize” them, to sell the Gospel to them, to have them join our Church, but really more from an angle of love. We’re not perfect in this. Our lawn gets a little unruly sometimes, but we are repairing relationships with our neighbors. We now participate in the life of the community we live in. We hang out more with neighbors doing “over the fence talk.” We feed our neighbors pets when they go on vacation. We are planning this year to go to the local 4th of July celebration. Things have changed. Things keep changing and we’re excited.


Epilogue

I wish I could say that our time together was without problems or pain, but that would neither be accurate nor realistic. Here are some areas of concern for our community and as a whole.

That theology does not stand outside of community. God’s desire is to call into being a community shaped and nurtured by the Holy Spirit. We need to be careful that we don’t just become a discussion group.

To intentionally guard against the propensity of becoming isolationist. Often many of us would want to retreat in small little groups—to tired, afraid or arrogant to establish/build new relationships. We need to be hospitable for the seeker. People want to be able to watch, listen and observe without the danger of forced intimacy or sharing. We must hold in tension a bounded set and centered set.

We must not become romantic about community. True community is a dangerous way to live. People will fail each other and that may bring up past hurts. We must be gracious to one another—at times giving each other space.

We must be careful to not fall into an “us/them” mentality. People often despise or put down the “traditional” church. There is no place for this in the kingdom.

The role of “authentic leadership” is crucial. Smaller communities sometimes often see leadership as unnecessary, but it remains crucial for authentic spiritual formation.


As I reflect upon our time together, much of what we have explored has been helpful and in many cases life changing. The words on the white board are still deeply painted on the canvas of our hearts. They are a powerful and profound symbol of our journey and life together as a community. At times it seems to be the life jacket that holds us afloat. My hope is that we will continue to allow the Holy Spirit to challenge, stretch, comfort, and nourish us throughout our journey. My desire is that we would not “sit upon the shoreline and say were satisfied,” 4 but rather “choose to chance the rapids and dare to dance the tide” 5 — boat people convinced that the danger of untamed river waters are minor compared to the regrets of never taking a risk. My prayer is that maybe, by God’s grace, we could truly be some of those people and some of those churches.

1 Gordon fee, Paul the spirit and the people of God, pg 66
2 NT Wright, Romans in a Week, course notes
3 George Hunsburger, Missional Church, pg 84
4 Garth Brook, The River
5 Ibid

Wednesday, June 04, 2003

REGENT OR BUST

well as most of you know i have been in Vancouver taking some classes for my M-Div at Regent. Yes...i may be 95 years old by the time i finish...but as winn always says "its about life long learning" aint that the truth.

I took two intensives. One on the "O.T." and the other on "building christian communties." My time there was unbelievable!!! I must say that my biggest highlight was spending time with my bro Kevin Rains. He came and joined me for a few days and we hung out and talked about the kingdom. We seriously talked non-stop. Ask him if he can spell the word "lost" We seriously got lost atleast 5 times. And i will confess the car I rented even had a GPS. Go figure. Truth be told we didn't give a rip becasue we had so much fun just cathing up. I swear it as if we have known each other for 20 years.

I will give you some updates real soon...I still need to knock out some papers.

Tuesday, May 06, 2003

Leadership And The People Of God

Over the last several weeks there has been a lot of dialogue on the role of leadership. What is this thing called leadership? Who leads? Who follows? What difference does it make? Who cares? The question of leadership always leads into a lively debate. The great urgency always comes down to; Who the hect is in charge around here?

My intention here is to share some of my thoughts on the role of leadership.
I will also post this on the allelon site see thinking out loud "Leadership And The People Of God".

The role of leadership will be communally oriented, meaning it will not stand outside the context of the community, but rather will be spirit-led from within the community. The purpose of biblical leadership is to serve, nourish, sustain, shape, and equip a community of people who will routinely demonstrate, announce and embody the purpose and direction of God.

Gordon Fee has been a big help to me regarding leadership.

"Historically the church seems to have fallen into a model that eventually developed a sharp distinction between the people themselves (laity) and the professional ministry (clergy), reaching its sharpest expression in the Roman Catholic communion, but finding its way into almost every form of Protestantism as well. The net result has been a church in which the clergy all to often exist apart from the people, for whom there is a different set of rules and different expectations, and a church in which the "gifts" and "ministry”, not to mention significance, power structures, and decision making, are the special province of the professionals. Being "ordained" to this profession, the later tend to like the aura that it provides, and having such ordained professionals allows the laity to pay them to do the work of the ministry and thus excuse themselves from their biblical calling. The rather universal model, with a few exceptions, looks something like this"

He goes on to say that the model would look something like the clergy sitting outside the context of the gathered community. For instance, think of clergy being in one box and the laity in the other.

----------
Clergy
----------

----------
Laity
----------

Clergy seperate "unto themselves"


Then he goes on to illustrate a biblical model that looks something more like this (one box). Without clergy/professional at all, but with identifiable leadership ("gift’s) who were simply part of the whole people of God.

----------------
Leadership
People
-----------------

No separations, all are a part of the whole people of God

As we go back into the story what we see is under the old covenant the king and priests in particular, were at the same time recognized as having an existence apart from the people with their own set of rules and expectations. It is precisely this model of leadership that breaks down altogether in the N.T. The basic reason for this is the lordship of Christ himself. Christ himself has now come down to dwell among us...he is king. As god intended to be himself king over Israel, so Christ has come as god's king over his newly constituted people. Christ is the head of the church, all others, including leaders, "function as parts of the body". (Eph 4.11-16)

Biblical leadership challenges the us/them paradigm
The Spirit has come upon all believers; we have been immersed in the same Spirit. There can be no kings or priests in the new social order, there can be no "us" and "them", mentality. There is no elite body of insiders, no first class or second class. No distinction of any sort i.e. rich/poor, male/female, or for that matter clergy/laity or professional/laity.

This is not to down play the role of human, spirit-led leadership, (we need it) but defines it and sets its limits of power, authority and governance. But, rather it is to recognize that leadership in the N.T. is seen as part of the whole people of God, never as a "group" unto "themselves," essential to its well being, but governed by the same set of "rules." They are not "set apart" by "office", but rather their gifts are a part of the Spirit's work among the whole people, functioning as apart of the community using his or her own gifts to help prepare the community for its mission to itself and for the sake of the world.

"Gifted" to do so as one "gift" among others in the body...each one being celebrated...no one "gift" looked upon higher than the other...each one looked upon as valuable for the formation of a people who's vocation is to bear God's image and likeness.

Leadership exists for the sake of the people
Leadership is not for someone's own personal advancement or pleasure, on the contrary, that is the very antithesis of community, there are to be seen as service, as gifts to the body, given to, or better, through the individual for the common good of the community.

For Paul, leadership in Ephesians is a function/task (Ephesians 4.11-16) especially "to prepare God's people ("the saints") for works of service ("ministry") which seems to emphasize the formation of God's people so that they can lead a life worthy of the calling to which they (including leadership) have been called, so that the body of Christ may be built up."

Here is a little love from Peterson, the message
"He handed out gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christians in skilled servant work, working within Christ's body, the church, until we're all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God's son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ." (gota love E.P.)


Questions to reflect upon.

As soon as we separate ourselves into some sort of class or office, or special position, the result becomes a potential breeding ground for pride, love of authority and lack of accountability. When this happens the result is death to community. Do you see yourself sometimes following into this mentality? Yes/No? Reflect!!!

Can you imagine a lifestyle in which we lead from within the community, not above it, or outside it? How does it make you feel to think of "gifts" as a function and not an office?

Monday, April 28, 2003

I spent some time reading some N.T. over the weekend. I thought I would just share some of his thoughts. Here is a quote from one of is chapters.

N.T. Wright "For All God's Worth"
Chapter 1:The God Who Is Worthy of Praise

"What is the most beautiful thing you have experienced this week?
Maybe something you heard. Maybe some beautiful music – perhaps in church, or in a cathedral.
Maybe something you saw in the world of nature: the sun breaking through the mist of making the autumn leaves luminous; the curl of a squirrel’s tail as he sat nibbling a nut.
It might be something you smelt: the scent of a rose, perhaps, or the smell of a good meal cooking when you were very hungry.
It might be something you tasted: an exquisite wine, a special cheese, that same meal well seasoned and well cooked.
Maybe something you experienced in work: things suddenly coming together, an unexpected new opportunity.
It might be something you experienced in human relationships: a quiet, gentle glance from someone you love dearly; the soft squeeze of a child’s hand.

Hold that moment in your mind. And ask yourself: what does this beauty do to you?

It enriches you; yes. It warms you inside; yes. It makes you more alive; yes. It makes you stronger; yes. It makes you, perhaps, a little humble: you didn’t cause this beauty you didn’t make it, it just happened, and happened to you. Yes.
And what does this beauty call out from you?
Gratitude – of course; delight – yes, naturally; a sense of awe – well, perhaps; a sense of longing for something beyond, something just out of reach – quite possibly, though if your experience of beauty was the smell of a good meal I hope it didn’t stay out of reach for too long.

What about – worship?

Does beauty call worship from you?
We don’t very often use the word ‘worship’ to describe our attitude to things or people other than God himself. Almost the only place we come across it is in the marriage service in the Book of Common Prayer, where, to my mind utterly appropriately, the man declares to the woman, ‘with my body I thee worship’. And, of course, there are good biblical injunctions not to worship, in the fullest sense, anything or anyone except God himself. But the word ‘worship’ means, literally, ‘worth-ship’: to accord worth, true value, to something, to recognize and respect it for the true worth it has. And that sets us on a trail that leads us from the squirrel in the garden, the steak in the oven, the singing in the choir, and the squeeze of the hand, all the way to the one who created all of them in the first place.

If we are to worship God truly, it is not enough to thing of God’s greatness and majesty, his power and sovereignty, his holiness and absolute otherness. That’s all enormously important, as part of the story. But we wouldn’t ordinarily use the word beauty to refer to any of that...our ordinary experiences of beauty are given to us to provide a clue, a starting-point, a signpost, from which we move on to recognize, to glimpse, to be overwhelmed by, to adore, and so to worship, not just the majesty, but the beauty of God himself. And, just as we don’t very often use the word ‘worship’ in connection with beauty in the natural world, so we don’t very often use the word ‘beauty’ in connection with God. That is our loss, and I suggest we set about making it good.

The beauty of God is the beauty of love; love in creation, love in re-creation of a world spoiled by sin. It is the same love; which is why all the beauty of the world, the beauty that calls forth our admiration, our gratitude, our worth-ship at the earthly level, is meant as a set of hints, of conspiratorial whispers, of clues and suggestions and flickers of light, all nudging us into believing that behind the beautiful world is not random chance but the loving God. He who made they eye, does he not see? He who made the ear, does he not hear? He who created all beauty, is he not himself beautiful? Woe betide those who offer to the creature the worship due to the creator alone; but woe betide those who fail to read the hints, who fail to hear the subtext, who have the experience but miss the meaning, who are deaf to what may be heard, half-hearted, in the stillness between two waves of the sea.

St. Augustine, in a famous passage, rightly denies that our loves for the material world are the same thing as love for God. Yet, he says, our loves for the material would give us both a sign of, and the vocabulary for, our love for God. And we don’t have to apologize for speaking of this love in this way. The world is God’s creation, and its beauty is the steady, quizzical pointer to the beauty of God. This is what he wrote:

What do I love when I love my God? Not physical beauty, or the splendor of time; not the radiance of earthly light, so pleasant to our eyes; not the sweet melodies of harmony and song; not the fragrant smell of flowers, perfumes, and spices; not manna or honey; not limbs such as the flesh delight to embrace. These are not the things that I love when I love my God.

And yes, when I love him, I do indeed love a certain kind of light, a voice, a fragrance, a food, an embrace; but this love takes place in my inner person, where my soul is bathed in light that is not bound by space; when it listens to sound that time never takes away; when it breathes in a fragrance which no breeze carries away; when it tastes food which no eating can diminish; when it clings to an embrace which is not broken when desire is fulfilled. This is what I love when I love my God. (Confessions 10.6)

People often quote Oscar Wilde’s dictum, that a cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. We live in an age of cynics, where ‘worth’ means ‘price’ and ‘price’ means month and money means power. But the gospel of Jesus Christ puts worth back into the world, worth beyond price, worth beyond worldly power; for the gospel of Jesus Christ summons us to worship, to worth-ship, to lay our lives before the one true and living God, to worship him for all he’s worth. Give to this great and loving God the honour, the worship, the love, due to him."


Father help me to understand what it really means to worship you with all my heart, soul and mind. Holy Spirit continue to remove in me those idols that keep me from offering you all my worship. Jesus penetrate the depths of my being that I may be a reflection of you.

Tuesday, April 22, 2003

as some of you may know our friends the palmers have been dealt a blow. on thursday jennifer goes into surgery which will assess the state of her recently diagnosed cancer of either the stomach or ovaries, the surgeons will actually be removing all of the cancer they can find (stomach, ovaries, uterus, etc.), so it's very major surgery. the surgery begins at 11:30AM and will last 5 to 7 hours. many of us have been praying for them, we are trying to organize communities to fast for them from weds night until thursday night. we are asking god to heal her.


Father God we come before your throne of grace and ask that you would bring about complete healing to jennifer's body. Lord, would restore her back to full health. Jesus allow your healing hand to touch her tonight. Amen

Wednesday, April 16, 2003

props to webmeister winn who has been working hard to update the allelon site holder, we know its not the hippest link on the web but it has a lot of good infromation. Should be up in the next hour. check it out.


we have a new web address. Here it is.
www.allelon.net
www.allelon.us
www.allelon.org

Tuesday, April 08, 2003

Community As God Intended

Well, its been one of those evenings… the baby woke up several times and for the life of me I can’t get back to sleep. So thought I would squeeze in some blog time. I had mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I had been giving a lot of thought these days regarding several things;

The Spirit as God’s divine presence here on earth. Have you ever thought of this, that as followers of Jesus, we are agents of God’s divine presence here on earth? That is a radical concept.

Community: How do we show the realities that the promise fulfillment of the “new creation” is visible, tangible and experienced in our communities? That the joy, freedom and wholeness of life within the reign of God can already be tasted as we embody the “gospel story.” That although not perfected, as we walk in the spirit, in the context of community, our life will naturally reflect, embody, witnesses and mirror to one another and the world the divine nature of our triune God.

Spirit led Leadership and its role in community
Risk
Character
Prayer (was looking forward to hanging with Foster but he got snowed in)
Fly Fishing on the Salmon with some of my bro's

So since its 5:30 a.m. and Creecher is still sleeping, I guess fly fishing is out (well at least for now…come on bro shout me out)…..so… since several of you have shouted and e-mailed me regarding some thoughts on community, here is some stuff to chew on. Some of this is based on Missional Church as well as Fee, Newbigin, Wright, Willard and Marva Dawn and others.

I think it was Mike who asked me what I meant by community (church). When I think of community, (among other things) I think of a new social order, one who “indwells the gospel story”, a story that calls human beings, individually and corporately, to find in the cross, resurrection, and Spirit, the gift of true humanness. A community of people who embody a new way of being human. (humanity as God intended…a Wrightism), cracked vessels full of glory, wounded healers among whom God can live and who in their life together will reproduce his life and character in all its unity and diversity. A people who endeavor to become radical followers of Jesus, co-labors who joyfully participate in reshaping the world as his disciples, while sharing and bearing the pain, despair, and bewilderment of the world. A humble people, who long for the coming (now and not so yet) of the kingdom, who long for justice and peace, for the hungry to be satisfied and the poor to have their needs supplied. A people who walk in the power of the spirit, who naturally embody, demonstrate and announce the rule and reign of God in their everyday lives. A people who are a radical alternative to the culture…mirroring to one another and the world the divine nature of our triune God. This is what I mean by community, this is what I mean when I speak of the church as “a “community of redeemed people”…on a life’s journey, who in prayer invoke the one true God of the entire cosmos, the one who is the source of all things.

Here are some notes, non exhaustive, non edited etc etc etc...As a community we have been working through and processing much of this over the last year.

Missional Church Communities: Cultivating Communities of the Holy Spirit

As a missional church community we are called to represent the compassion, justice, and peace of the rule and reign of God. The distinctive characteristic of such communities is that the Holy Spirit creates and sustains them. Missional church communities don’t just happen. They must be intentionally cultivated. They are not formed solely by human intentions and efforts, individual or collective, but instead by God’s empowering presence.

Cultivating can imply preparation of soil by plowing, fertilizing so that crops can grow, as well as nurturing while growth occurs. A part of the cultivation process is to discover as we journey together: Who we are? What our character is? Why do we want to be missional? What are some of the natural organic ministries that we can do as we are sent?

The Holy Spirit And Community

The community-forming activity of the Holy Spirit challenges us to move beyond the contemporary assumption that the Spirit’s actions center exclusively, or even primarily, on the individual. God is not just saving individuals and preparing then for heaven; rather, he is creating “a community of redeemed people” among whom he can live and who in their life together will reproduce God’s life and character in all its unity and diversity.

Based on the work of Christ the Holy Spirit is at work “creating and sustaining a “community” in whom humanity can be enlightened by faith and return to God in true worship and love as the first fruits of new creation.

“The Spirit of God is the dynamic, life giving power of the church, the unseen Lord, Master, Guide, and Inspirer of the Christian community.” The church owes its origin, its destiny, its structure, its ongoing life, and its ministry to God’s empowering presence.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, missional church communities embody a “new way of being human”, a sent people commissioned to represent God’s reign of love and hope, compassion and reconciliation, harmony and justice to the whole of society. Through the power of the Holy Spirit the “gathered community” is to be the light of the world, “God’s divine presence here on earth.”

Some thoughts to ponder, maybe while your up with you kids in the middle of the night, (hope not, I’m exhausted). So often we have been wrongly taught that the primary purpose of the Holy Spirit is to meet our own personal needs. To make us “feel” good. What are some ways in which you still think that community (church) is about meeting your own personal needs; that church is all about you?

More later, I am tired and oh yes I can hear in the faint background of my key tapping..yep that's her, the baby is up again. Here is a prayer from N.T. that I like. See ya!!!

Father almighty, maker of Heaven and earth:
Set up your kingdom in our midst.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God:
Have mercy on me, a sinner.
Holy Spirit, breath of the living God:
Renew me and all the world.

Lord may we be all that you desire.