the drum|rob fairbanks

Thankful

Today as I sit in my house in Portland, sipping coffee, and listening to the sweet sound of rain fall on the ground outside, I am thrust into waves of peace. I am reflecting on a month of learning, laughter, increased friendship, sorrow, and deep joy. The past three weeks I got to spend listening to amazing classmates (who I now consider friends) discuss and grow in what it means to be the church. I again learned that there is no perfect church, mostly because there is no perfect person. And in my most vulnerable moments, I have to remind myself that the church is people. Beautiful, broken, alive, and challenging people. 

We read the Gospel and understand maybe a tenth of what Jesus was trying to teach and model to us. Reading through Mark 10 and 11 a few minutes ago, I am in awe of how little I seek the Kingdom of God and instead seek the opinion of the world. How often do I stop and listen? How little do I remind myself that joy is a gift and a choice? How terrible am I at thinking of myself as a little child, hopeful that God redeems and saves? How often do I care more for my possessions than I do for my present relationship with God? 

All of these questions I examined this past term and found that there is no greater answer than the person of Christ. And for me, that begins by being thankful and being disciplined enough to listen wholeheartedly to God. So today, I don’t have any huge theological answers to how the church should function better, serve God more, or be wholly united. But I am able to live into the posture of being thankful. Thankful for a class who tested me, encouraged me, and put up with me. Thankful for a Creator who is infinitely more able and loving than I. 

Thankful.

Katherine

The Primary Role of the Church

    Karl Barth’s theological address, God In Action, speaks of the church, “…the constitution and preservation of the Church rests in this, that man hears God. This is what makes it truly great and truly little.” Is this news to you? Perhaps not at first, however it is bizarre when we really think about it. Essentially, Barth is saying that two random people on the other side of the globe could be the church! Two un-ordained people congregated with listening ears and obedient hearts living out God’s mission.

    As I grew up, countless times I failed to listen to my parents, just like everyone else. I found myself joining a selfish mission. This struggle may be the same for the Church today—sheep following voices other than their Good Shepherd’s. After all, there are many voices to hear. Where do we begin?

    "Gather together and hear, O sons of Jacob; And listen to Israel your father.”  (Gen. 49:2 NASB) Gather together and hear. That’s our command. The Bible is covered with God’s longing for his people to listen, and communication with him is what the we should ultimately want—the Church, the Ship of Salvation, avoiding shipwrecks because the captain is heard. Like a quiet course before a golfer swings, (both the Church and individually) we ought to focus in silence to truly hear our Father speak; the rest will follow.

    Gathering together to hear God is that crucial, sometimes, we as the Church, completely skip over it. Man listening to God is a wacky ordeal. Isn’t it? Truly hearing God can be scary for you just as it is for can for your church. Yet given its mystery and challenge, there is no mission as glorious as our Father’s—our God moving and working in us and in spite of us.

Phil

I Don't Want to Hate the Church

      I venture to say, based on observations as far as I am able to see, more people are calling themselves Christians while more Christians are denying the title for all its negative connotations. Have you heard anyone claim their faith as “believer” or “follower of Christ” or “Jesus lover”? That’s dandy, and true. But the term “Christian” has been taken away from us, much as the symbol of the rainbow has. As a young person learning that I am in the midst of much needed revelation and change for “the church,” I fear the negativity toward the church. I fear for non-believers because it will keep them away, and for believers because of unforgiveness and bitterness toward those who have been getting it wrong. I fear the anger I’ve seen. I fear more splitting, more division dangerously close at hand within the whole Christian body. I pray it doesn’t happen that leaders who are making right changes due to convictions about how the church has been failing begin to find new titles. I don’t want to see a new movement rise up again only to lose itself in its mission once more. I want to see the church be taken back; for the term Christian to be taken back.  To bring them back to mean the body of Christ and Christ-like. The only way to know those meanings is through Christ himself and we find him in the Word, our Bibles, and in prayer. I think this means we must look at the broken church with a heart of forgiveness. Jesus saw the broken and flawed and he forgave them, then said, “now sin no more.” Forgiveness and correction. Jesus was, is, for the church, his bride, so I want to be, too. Jesus’ heart probably breaks for her, I want mine to, too. Let us lift the church back up to what it should be, not break it down.

   “And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had… they worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity- all while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.” Acts 2.44, 46-47

-Ashley

"We Need to Kill the Church"

    
“We need to kill the Church.”  As a lingering skeleton of good intentions, the Church has become ineffective at relaying the only knowledge that truly matters in this world—telling all who Jesus truly is.  When I say, “We need to kill the church,” I am speaking about the institutionalized Church of our current day which caters to societal trends, fashions, and the myriad of other “things” that draw people in to church each week.  However, something is lost when we glitz and glam up our churches to fit the marketplace.  That same “something” is also lost when we stand, stiffly and uncomfortably, waiting for praise and worship to end, so we can finally sit down and mindlessly listen (or daydream) while the pastor, priest, or whoever stands on stage for forty minutes talking about how Jesus died for our sins.  The same “something” is even lost in services where enthusiastic worshippers get that “tingly feeling” during a “really good song” or those chills when the pastor brings a sermon home.  These “somethings” are self-edifying, but sadly, they stay within the walls of the church building never to see the light of day.   What is lost?  Jesus.  This man who was born as the lowest of low, who knew ultimate joy, and suffered an unimaginably brutal death is lost.  There is no raw, real Jesus in our institutionalized church today; we have fashioned Him to be either a condoning sweetheart (so we can feel good about ourselves and our actions) or a hardnosed, fire and brimstone bringer of wrath and judgment (so we can look down our noses at homosexuals, druggies, and all the “true” sinners of the world).  So, let us, as the Body and Bride of Christ, choose to shut this “Church” down.  This “Church” that is more a business seeking consumers than a delightful extension of our missional God. 

    This is not to say there are no churches doing it right; that would be absurd!  Of course there are churches, many, who seek after Jesus with everything in their being.  Unfortunately, our society (even Christians) send these churches into exile and deem them crazy radicals. Salvation and eternal life are radical concepts; shouldn’t we believe so passionately to the point of fearlessly seeking God’s holistic view, and not just pieces of it?  We understand the world does not know us because our identity is in Heaven, so let’s not become offended when people disagree with us for making waves.  As long as our actions are biblical and in accordance with God’s character and will, we are surely a force to be reckoned with!  Through community, sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, and the ability to imagine in radical ways, we can collectively step into our role as the true Body of Christ, how the Church was intended to be. Arise, Church, as the hands and the feet and the ears and the eyes of Christ to kill this institutional “Church” and bring Jesus to the center where He belongs.  In this way, we, as the body of Christ, and the whole world will be forever changed.

Jamie

Joyfully Removed

    The Western church is no longer center stage in modern culture, and as we are shunted aside it seems reasonable to think that becoming more like the world will entice more people into our buildings. Then I come upon Jesus’ words, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Hold up, what?! Blessed are who? It might be a small stretch to equate marginalization and persecution, but I am beginning to think that being pushed out of mainstream culture could be the best thing that has happened to the body of Christ today.

    In his book The Forgotten Ways, Alan Hirsch points to the church in two different times and geographic areas, the early Christian body and the underground church in China. Both of these groups of believers became vibrant and large communities during harsh and unrelenting periods of persecution. Hirsch sees that “Persecution drove both the early Christian movement and the Chinese church to discover their truest nature as an apostolic people” and it “acted as a means to keep these movements true to their faith and reliant on God.”

    But how did these communities turn persecution to power to promote the Kingdom of God? James calls out from the Word, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.” Think about that for a minute. This isn’t telling us to tolerate trouble or to “grin and bear it”, but instead be joyful in it—have a deep, indescribable emotion welling up in us whenever we face trials because of faith in the Lord Jesus. What if, instead of pushing back as we are pushed aside or fearing persecution for our faith, the Western church opened ourselves to the possibility of being collectively JOYFUL? How much more would we be able to point the way to the Kingdom of God if our joy in all situations shone through? Something attracted millions of converts in the early and Chinese churches. Maybe this joy in persecution promised to us by our living Savior can be the way we truly live into our calling as a missional and sent church. Maybe this strange joy from hardship can revitalize us and help us be the instrument and foretaste of the Kingdom we were meant to be for the world.

Kate

Discipleship as Discernment - Part 1

Spirituality is incomplete except within a broader setting in which disciples of Jesus try to live their discipleship in committed, honest and coherent ways. And discernment is at the heart of discipleship, because when we walk a disciple's path we are constantly faced with changing situations in which we have to discover how to be faithful to the gospel and the leading of the Spirit, and true to ourselves. - David Lonsdale, "Discernment of Spirits"

What is discipleship? What are the foundational ideas you hold concerning discipleship?  How do people become more like Jesus in real time.  I certainly affirm (and cling to) the cosmic side of the equation…that God is going to do a miraculous work in each person who is a follower of Christ.  In fact it solemnly promises in Philippians 1:6 that, “…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”  Ahhhh!  It is like a refreshing rain after days of summer heat.  I love that smell and I love that promise. 

But back to my question, regarding the part that we play in the process, what is your foundational core belief about how it happens?

A month or so ago, I had the privilege of attending a retreat at a Benedictine monastery in Nebraska.  The retreat’s theme was looking closely at the spirituality of Henri Nouwen, particularly keying off of his book, The Return of the Prodigal.  During one of the discussions it was stated that, “Discipleship is a journey to discernment.”  I am a reasonably quick thinker and I have a hypersensitive crap detector.  That said, you should know that I immediately recoiled (inside, not on the out – outside I was keep’in it cool) with the idea, with scrutiny, wondering is that true?  Could it be that this axiom might really be at the center of discipleship?

See, I have read, studied, experimented for most of my adult life with what it means to apprentice someone in the way of Jesus.  I have done courses, led Bible-studies, initiated “come and follow” types of ministries, engaged in one on one relationships, led groups of 3 on 3’s, 12’s, 50’s, even hundreds, all seemingly good gestures that I believe helped those participating in them.  However, for much of the church, discipleship is some form of behavioralism.  It is to develop skill sets on how to pray better, give more, read the Bible more, stop doing a particular sin and start doing some really godly activity…really, behave yourself. It is training people to behave a certain "Christian-ly" way.  Mostly, it shows up under the rubric of “doing” rather than “being.”

So, the fundamental question has to be what is the goal?  I think it would be reasonable to arrive at something like a person being conformed to Christ.  Paul even uses that as an ultimate target in Romans when he says we are all predestined to be, “…conformed to the image of his Son…”

See, for me the definitive end game is transformation, not lock-step behaviorism.  A changed life, yes, but that change is not only acting more like Jesus, but also “being” more like Him.  In other words, transformation is both inside and out.

Now, back to my axiom: “Discipleship is a journey to discernment.”   In I John 3:1-3, the beloved apostle wrote, 

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.”

Though this section Scripture certainly contains an eschatological aspect to it, the transformative anchor is deeply connected to the idea of encounter or seeing Jesus.  The literal definition of discernment carries with it the idea of perception or seeing something rightly.  In other words, if we can get people into a place where they encounter Jesus or see Him in some substantial way, then actual transformation is possible.  This is not to minimize the need for skill set development in disciple-making (all of us need to learn how to do stuff), but real substantive transformation will not happen without an real and existential encounter with Christ.

Here are a couple of questions:

1. What has been your experience with discipleship?  Has it been more cognitive and skill-set driven or more existential, experiential driven?
2. And, how do we lead people into this more experiential model of discipleship? 

I’d like to get some of you thoughts…and then after that, I will (humbly) provide at least the germ of how I believe it happens.

Ok, go!

r

Leadership, the Self-Life and the Kingdom

The Franciscan, Richard Rohr in his book on Simplicity wrote:

“Three things that in my opinion we have to let go of are the following: First there is the compulsion to be successful.  Second is the compulsion to be right – even, and especially, to be theologically right…Finally there is the compulsion to be powerful, to have everything under control.” (Simplicity – the art of living  - p. 44)

I am aware that these three tenets might not be that important or convicting to some of you.  They might even seem insipid, but for me they strike at the very core of my “self-life.”  It seems as if I have been on a perpetual undulating cycle of victory over these aspects and re-enshrining them my whole adult life.  Success, being right, and attempting to control everything! 

The thing that makes it even more difficult for those of us in ministry as vocation is there is a baptized version that we need to learn and embrace from business and leadership types that look like they are related to a way that is right, but exacerbates the twitching nerve in us to win, to be aggrandized, to be powerful, to succeed. To be evenhanded, there are those, like Greenleaf, who espouse something more akin to Kingdom approaches, but at least from my vantage point, wisdom from the world jumbled with my own inner-weirdness often creates a striving that must be “put down” if I am to represent Jesus in anyway close to the real Kingdom rendering that is unmistakably found in the Gospels.

Peace,

r

The Rancor of Dying to Self

Why is it so difficult to admit my brokenness…my neediness? 

I suppose it is because all of who I am is built around competency and sufficiency.  I have been reared to be both of those things, but upon entering the Kingdom I must put each down.  I am beckoned to a distinctively unusual way. I know that, but to say that I have reached the end of my competencies and am not completely sufficient is like getting something stuck in my throat…like communion bread without enough wine. 

I presume the trouble comes from the fact that, in some way, it is a part of dying.  This idea really is found easily within the pages of the Gospels.  Take up your cross… Deny… Daily…  The reality is, everything in us resists dying.  One of the miracles of our bodies is that it resists both external and internal elements in a unrelenting quest for survival. Yet, in the Kingdom life, we are called to submit to the dying.  Stop resisting…it is the only pathway to life.  It is the grand reversal ethic of the Kingdom.

Such a difficult and confounding journey for those of us who have prepared most of, if not all of our lives to be competent and sufficient.

r