Monday, February 28, 2011

Inside-Out Leadership

Recently, I watched my five-year-old son attempt to put on a long sleeve shirt.  The shirt itself was rightside out but the sleevers were inside out.  He easily slid the shirt over his head and down his torso, but he nearly tumbled to the ground countless times trying to force his arms into the inside out sleeves.  What a fitting image for many of our leadership efforts.  Leadership is a balance between preparation and progress.  Without proper preparation our progress becomes an off-balanced lurching and thrusting that exerts a great deal of energy but produces more pain and discomfort than results.  Conversely, extended periods of preparation with limited or no progress produce...well nothing really (these periods of preparation can produce the illusion of progress through conversation and surface level changes).  Leadership is about getting the shirt and the sleeves of our organization rightside out and then putting the shirt on; it is not about cramming our organization into inside out sleeves or getting the sleeves rightside out and never putting on the shirt.  

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Is the Church a Temple?

Of late, I have realized that the present day attractional church in America has more in common with the Temple prior to the death and resurrection of Jesus than to the movement which followed.  The Temple in Jerusalem was the center of Israel's world.  It was the sun at the center of Israel's religious solar system.  Yes the razing of the Temple and the Babylonian Captivity reshaped 1st Century Judaism, but the fact remained that the Temple whether literally or metaphorically was the heart of Israel's faith.  It was believed that God dwelled in the Temple, that his very presence was enthroned over the Ark of the Covenant, the Mercy Seat, and the two cherubim (indeed there are numerous Psalms and Scriptures passages that acknowledge the transcendence and omnipresence of God cf. 1Kings 8:27ff; Psalm 139, but the presence of God among humans was directly associated with the Temple as it had been the Tabernacle).  It was "professional" priests from the line of Aaron along with their assistants from the tribe of Levi who performed and executed the rituals of the faith.  This "professional" priesthood or clergy class received their sustenance and compensation from the people to whom they served.  Sound familiar.  For most denominational and non-denominational churches a building is the center of their activity.  Whether explicitly or implicitly, the message is conveyed that the presence of God among humans dwells in the Sanctuary or Worship Center or Educational Wing.  These are "sacred" spaces due honor, reverence, and respect.  The people come to the sacred building where they witness, experierence, and share in rituals delivered by "professional" clergy or priests.  It is the pastor/priest who has been uniquely set apart by God to lead the people into the presence of God.  Such a distinct and sacred calling necessitates that the people being served provide the sustenance and compensation for the pastor/priest.

The church as Temple is the antithesis of the 1st century church.  Fundamentally, the incarnation itself demonstrated that the presence of God had come to tabernacle or dwell among humanity.  The Word became flesh.  Emmanual, God with us, was the Temple (cf. John 2:18ff; Matthew 27:40ff) and it was his death that sheared the curtain that concealed the Holy of Holies in half from top to bottom (the top to bottom tear symbolizes God coming to humanity to remove all barriers to his presence).  Moreover, followers of the resurrected Jesus have become not only his body on earth, they have become a dwelling place for God.  Ephesians 2:21 states, "In him [Jesus] the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord..."  The presence of God now lives within the individual hearts and the community that confesses Jesus as Lord.  Living out this confession is not incumbant upon a centralized sacred structure or a professional priesthood.  Living out this confession is incumbant upon investing in a community committed to sacrifice, generosity, mutuality, worship, study, and prayer.  The edifice that dictates our faith does not bear an address; it bears scars.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Was Jesus Seeker Sensitive? - Part 2

In Mark 2:15-17 Jesus is having dinner with a social outcast identified as Levi the tax collector.  Some of the religious elite notice Jesus kicking it with Levi and his many tax-collector/sinner friends and they want to know why.  Jesus responds, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners."  Jesus is not seeker sensitive he is sinner sensitive.

The new reality - the Kingdom of God - that Jesus has ushered into existence through his life, death, and resurrection is a gift offered to all of humanity and not just those who are "seeking" God.  Romans 5 tells us that God proves his love for us in that while we were not seeking him he was seeking us.  God has acted on behalf of you and me before we even knew we needed someone to act on our behalf.  The penetrating reality of the Kingdom of God is not dependent upon my searching or seeking after it.  The Kingdom of God expressed through Jesus is a reality actively seeking those who aren't seeking it.

There once existed a reality that now looks like a dream.  It was a reality in which love, honor, mutuality, wholeness, and peace defined God's relationship with humanity, humanity's relationship with itself, and humanity's relationship with all of creation.  That dream has once again become a reality through Jesus and it is offered for the entire world...as we Christians like to say, "For God so love the WORLD that he..." 

God is not sensitive only to seekers he is sensitive to sinners like me.  14 years ago God didn't meet me in a church coffee shop, he met me in a bar.  He didn't meet me through a Christian radio station, he met me through the mysticism of Bob Marley.  He didn't meet me through an annual revival, he met me through a hospital emergency room.  He didn't meet me in a Worship Center, he met me in a county jail.  God didn't meet me because I was seeking him, he met me because he was seeking me.

The Good News is that there is a God who doesn't wait for us to seek him before he seeks us. The Good News is that a dream has become a reality, and I don't know about you, but I'm tired of dreaming.