All Things are Yours
“…and all things are yours, whether Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, death, the present, or the future— all things are yours, but you are Christ’s…” (I Cor 3)Reflections on community
Fifteen years ago God birthed in my heart a desire for community…. and I went on a search. I wanted to find a community that was calling me, or that I was being called to, or that I could at least join in good conscience feeling that I was getting involved in something I could relate to and that would embrace me as well.
I wasn’t really looking for a Sunday morning service deal – I was looking for believers who either lived together or almost lived together. I used to say, “When I graduate college I’m going to join a christian commune.” This might strike fear into the hearts of those for whom “commune” somehow conjours up Jim Jones or some other cultic picture, but for me, I figured since Jim Jones was dead and gone that he couldn’t be messing up all the good and decent communes out there at present…
And there is an old adage, “If you find the perfect church, don’t join it, because then it won’t be perfect any more.” I found an amazing group of people after a decade of searching, and felt in my spirit the liberty and invitation to become part of them. I did – I joined and gave my heart to them, and had a season in my life that I count as a precious gift from God. But a year or so after I joined, they disbanded. Was it the fault of the old adage about the perfect church being ruined by your presence? I say that altogether in jest… but the fact is that my community is scattered and gone, although forever in my heart and the hearts of those who I shared that experience with.
After Gemeinshaft scattered, I went on my search again. And here is what I found -
I found a lot of “christian peacemaking communities.” These communities exist to “create peace and end war.” This is good. I applaud them for their efforts. The problem is, that I’m just not very highly dedicated to that topic. I mean, I like peace…but the theme of war and peace doesn’t resound with me on a totally deep level. It’s something I might donate to, or help out with here and there, but not something that I really feel called to give my whole life to pursuing. And, doctrinally, I’m not really a believer that it is always wrong for a government to use military action. Regrettable? Yes. Overused? Definitely. But just…not really my area of passion. Perhaps I need to revisit this, and essentially repent. I dunno.
But at any rate, that makes it hard for me to decide to join one of these groups….even though I’m a hippy at heart in many other ways (organic, environmental, free thinking, etc…)
On the other hand, you have the monastic groups. And I’ll break these in to two categories:
1) Charismatic monasticism (generally NOT called this) represented by places such as the International House of Prayer
2) New Monasticism.
Generally, the charismatic groups do not seem to actually live in community. They tend to still live very individualistic lifestyles, except to come together regularly for extended periods of prayer. And then, even then, it is more like a performance thing than a community thing – with a stage, and spectators. I love the idea of praying 24/7. But doing so in such a performance rather than organic way bugs me.
It also gets old. I can only pray in a room so long before I am dying to bust out of the room and tell someone about Jesus. And these groups don’t usually have much of a grid for doing things like that together. So I don’t think I’d fit. Unless I live on donations and get them to send me off with YWAM or some other missionary organization. I can’t see myself doing that.
On the other hand, there are the New Monastic communities. These guys believe in “living it” as a community. Reaching the poor, the hungry, the needy, the destitute. There is no stage, performance, or spectators. Life is together – life is happily messy, people rubbing each other the wrong way and learnign to work it out and so forth. But here’s where I don’t mesh – I don’t relate to God through ritual. And these communities readily embrace christian rituals, christian meditation, and tend to disregard or reject most forms of charismatic practice. I really want to participate in charismatic gifts with any community I would be part of, and I just can’t see rituals fitting in real well with my spiritual practice, simply because I don’t seem to meet with the Lord in most rituals or liturgies. It just doesn’t work for me..whereas singing in the spirit or praying in tongues, especially with others, is awesome.
So how do I reconcile all these things? *sigh* I wish I had a community. I need to find my destiny, and I truly do believe that will only be walking side by side with others in Him.
Walking in Sonship and Dominion
I have been absolutely blown away by the spiritual ingenuity and wisdom coming from the think-tank known as “Plumbline Ministries.” Plumbline, led by Arthur Burk in California, is a teaching/prophetic resource dedicated to the discovery of Biblical truth not often explored elsewhere in the body of Christ – and I daresay they do it WELL. Teachings revolve around the idea of understanding the spiritual dynamics of one’s own spirit, the “spirit” of an organization or a geographical location, and understanding the blessings, cursings, and pitfalls that various types of redemptive gifts can unwittingly step into.
Sound like same old same old? Or sound unusual? Depending on what part of the Kingdom you traverse in, that description may or may not mean anything to you. but I assure you that Plumbline WILL absolutely bless you AND challenge your thinking – while staying altogether orthodox and true to scripture at the same time.
Discover things about how you can take responsibility for growing your own spirit and that of those around you, identify and deal with problem areas (read: curses) and grow a legacy in your own life.
Plumbline has a niche in these topics that is difficult to describe in one blog post, but altogether unparalleled by any other spiritual warfare/ self-help / spiritual mapping / any other esoteric topic you can name / ministry that I have ever encountered.
My reason for posting this is somewhat selfish. The topics and ideas and projects that you will find birthed out of traversing the well of insight and knowledge that Plumbline presents will leave you desiring others to explore these topics more deeply with as it pertains to your own life and service to the Lord. I am hoping to find such comrades, so I need to create them – go explore the riches God has blessed Plumbline with for the body and come back here and discuss the implications of what you find, here on my blog!
For those of you looking for the web link already, here it is: http://www.plumblineministries.com
In the future, I will likely post blog entries relative to topics unique to Plumbline, so stay tuned. But go ahead and explore this wellspring of insight for yourself, because Plumbline is definitely a diadem in the Kings’ crown.
Spirit-inspired imagination
My friend Mike just posted something that I enjoyed reading over on his blog. I figured this would be a good time to learn how trackback works…?
http://zoecarnate.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/wwjd/trackback/
I am struck by the parallels between this example of Peter’s writing and what someone might experience during a Theophostic counseling session. (Theophostic doesn’t generally work real well for me, but I know for many others it has been lifegiving. )
Even without theophostic though, I think I like this blurb from Peter for at least two reasons -
- His theological imagination seems to really tap into intimacy – heart to heart, with the Lord – with a deep appreciate for who He really is, and the divine connection that any encounter with Him brings
- Have we not all at one time or another, envisioned ourselves into the story, knowing not what they knew, but what we know now, and played out a scenario in our heads? Perhaps these imaginings take us to places of reality in our own hearts before the Lord, and are filled with more meaning than we realize.
Can’t wait to get the book and read it!
Placing all bets on Jesus
I was reminded of this story by responses to my note yesterday, in a backwards sort of way. So – it was two summers ago, and I was driving through the desert southwest. And I saw a casino.And I had this faint sense, that the Lord was inviting me to go into the casino with Him. Since I had nothing else to do, and it seemed intriguing, I decided to take Him up on the offer.
I had little experience ever being in a casino. I also had very little expendable money – this was probably a good thing. I went into the casino prepared to waste $30. (I have since learned that not all casinos are as cheap as the ones in the southwest, but there most bets were between $2 and $5)
So I meandered about the casino, literally taking the opportunity to explore the Lord in the midst of it. My mind was filled with all sorts of info about chaos theory and chance, the Heisenberg Uncertainty principal, and how God seems to do most of miraculous stuff simply by playing with the rules of probability. In that zone of possibility afforded by the rules inherent to the functioning of the Universe, God has left Himself the ultimate loophole by which He can literally do anything. And I was enjoying exploring how to connect with Him in that aspect of His working – testing out whether I could discern when to bet and when to abstain, what to bet on, etc.
So I sat at the craps table, and learned how that worked. I played some blackjack. I wandered in on a poker game. I really didn’t know how most of this stuff worked but I spend some time listening and learning. And over the course of an hour or two my $30 went down to $15, back up to $40, down to $10, back up to $35, so I just kept playing figuring I’d either wipe out or win something.
So two hours into this, I was starting to lose interest, but still felt like I had not yet fully discovered what I was in that casino for to begin with, so I didn’t leave. I picked a new table and sat down – it was blackjack. I sat out a lot of the hands but whether I was in or out, every single hand the dealer either won or tied. (something like that..I don’t remember totally right now except that it was frustrating.)
So at some moment I turned to the guy next to me who was as frustrated as I was and said something like, “Wow – do you ever feel like the cards are stacked against you?”
The man answered resignedly, “Sometimes the card gods smile at you, and sometimes they don’t.”
And something rose up in me. I didn’t immediately know what to do or say. I tried to sense the Holy Spirit for a leading, but got nothing. Still, I felt compelled to say something – and yet I was afraid to put the Lord’s name on the line.
Somehow, something stammered out of my mouth to the man next to me – “Card gods? No….. there’s only One God.” And somewhat sheepishly, I did something I hadn’t done the entire night – I took ALL my chips, all of what remained of my play money, and put it in front of me all at once as my bet on the next hand. I felt like a fool. What was I doing? Yet I did it anyway.
The dealer dealt the hand. And suddenly I was looking at an ace and a king – blackjack. All my money was returned to me – with double and a half. I was utterly stunned. I looked at the man next to me and said again, “See? There’s only One God.” He nodded politely and respectfully, as I grabbed all my chips and figured I had found my cue to leave – I had what I came in for.
Not the money. I walked out a full $20 richer than when I went in. But I walked out in awe and fear. I had not seen God move until I put ALL my chips on Him. I had not seen Him move until His testimony was on my lips publically. I didn’t for a moment think that God was teaching me how to make money in casinos… I knew I had just lived a parable. He wanted all my chips on Him. I had to be willing to lose everything for His name’s sake, and just perhaps, He would bless me in that moment. If I wasn’t willing to lose all, I would never see how He might move.
I was gushing in the parking lot, and as I drove off, in awe – “Lord, what does it mean? How do I put all my chips on you? I want to do this for real – show me how.”
It’s good to remember this.
What is the emerging/emergent church?
Let me reiterate – simply because someone is recommending doing church in a new or different or unconventional way does not mean that they are part of the emerging/emergent church.
The other day a friend of mine was talking about two christian authors I know – Frank Viola, and I forget off hand who the other guy is. She said that she doesn’t always agree with what these “emergent church” authors have to say. That’s fine, except that – neither of these authors is part of the emergent church! Frank in particular has opened up lines of fellowship and communication with those in the emergent movement – but he has also done so with many other groups as well. I do think though it is true that he is not specifically part of the emergent church movement.
The emerging church IS a little hard to define – some have described it as “nailing jello to a wall.” But let’s not confuse any church that has a seeker-sensitive vibe, or any church that is organic, or any church that does things a little differently, as an emerging church. Because it’s not.
On the other hand, the emergent church itself really isn’t halfway as dangerous or evil as people are making it out to be. In fact, I think they have a lot of worthwhile things to say! But people are out to keep you from ever investigating for yourself, by shouting as loudly as possible, “Unclean, unclean!’ And this just isn’t right. If you’re going to criticize a movement, then by all means, please:
a) Make sure you actually know what the movement is about
b) make sure you actually know who is or isn’t part of that movement and
c) make your criticisms specific, not vague and fuzzy.
http://emergentvillage.com
http://www.theooze.com
are two sites that are much more truly representative of the emergent church. However, the emergent church is a “conversation”, not a specific set of beliefs or doctrines. IE – one group of people in the movement may have wildly different views than another group of people. To be part of the movement, it would bemore fair to say one simply needs to have the willingness to “converse” about various ideas rather than to sign on the dotted line of a particular creed.
Along those lines, a book which is very helpful in understanding this movement is here:
http://tonyj.net/books/
By the way, while not being specifically emergent, I’ve seen Shane Clairbourne show up as a main speaker at enough emergent conferences that you can probably consider him part of the deal, albeit someone who brings a very unique dimension and flavor to that movement:
http://www.amazon.com/Irresistible-Revolution-Living-Ordinary-Radical/dp/0310266300
