Church Planting Central

Good News, part three

New Disciplines:  Many of us who lead in faith communities have discovered that the most life-giving and transformative conversations start with exploring local encounters with Good News. Those conversations usually happen when we commit ourselves to the spiritual disciplines we might call “an archeology of hope.” When we commit ourselves to that archeology, we notice and name and celebrate evidences of God’s Presence among us, both yesterday and today. We do that primarily through stories, especially the stories we draw out or “listen out” into the open. When we listen deeply to these stories, we are uncovering evidences of God at work, often in very personal stories. We are brushing aside distractions and problem stories to begin noticing the stories of hope that have been with us all along. We are uncovering evidences of “God with us!” in the here and now, as well as over there in the past.

While that sounds easy, it does take a little practice and some discipline. Believe me, these story listening practices are worth learning because nothing brings new life to a family or a faith community like paying attention to these stories on a regular basis. The faith stories become spiritual food – like the Manna that nourished God’s people out in the wilderness. Listening for them and drawing them out is the starting place for discovering new life and hope for your faith community.

This practice also serves up the very “Good News” for which the rest of the world is hungering. Every day, all around you, in every neighborhood, people spend desperate lives anxiously searching for some assurance that there is a God who cares – that there is a God who can be known – a God worth living with! The stories of “God with Us!” are the stories that much of the world longs to hear.

One more point . . . before we can go much farther in the missio:Engage! process, we need Strength for the Journey we have ahead of us. We need these stories, as well. Clergy all across the Episcopal Church are hungry for fresh stories of encounters with God, as well! These stories are lifeblood to our faith practices. And believe it or not, all the strength and wisdom you need is right there in your church. It’s a matter of learning how to listen each other into a certain kind of community – a special community that many of us have longed for, most of our lives. Let me describe it as a “lending and borrowing community.”

In fact, that’s how I describe my own faith community. On some days I lend faith to my friends and on other days, I borrow faith from them. We lend and borrow faith to/from each other so that we can say “Yes!” to God, together. The Apostle Paul tells us that faith comes from hearing – from listening and paying attention to -- God’s story, especially as it shows up in our own.

Good News, Part 2

The Practice:  Unfortunately, many of us who care deeply about the Church can be distracted away from the simplicity of Jesus’ message. We often make Jesus’ claims more complicated than they need to be. We pretend that God needs us to defend the “right” message and preserve it the way we received it. We might even go so far as to hold out a kind of religious emptiness that eventually starves the soul. We talk about the Divine in big words and complicated terms that often cover up the life and joy of Jesus’ story. That expression of God language is usually lifeless and dry. It is nothing like the powerful stories that Jesus told while drawing in the dirt or sitting on grassy hillsides. We forget that, originally, Churches were “good news communities” and we live distracted lives.

 A wise leader once claimed that sharing the Good News of God’s Presence in street language is sort of like what happens when one homeless person tells another homeless person where they just found a delicious meal a few minutes before.[1] I experience that as a powerful description of what it means to share the Good News of God as we know it in Jesus. You might say that one person who was hungry is now full. That person shares really good news with the hungry person in front of them. What is the good news? That there is great food waiting for them, right now and within their reach.

 Bear with me for a moment as we explore what the Good News is not. It is not one homeless person lecturing another homeless person about preferred silverware, good eating practices or personal hygiene. It is not explaining the ethics of sustainable farming or the history of food preparation. In that moment, the hungry person needs food, not a lesson in folding napkins. (Personal/community hygiene and the art of setting tables can come later, especially if the grateful homeless person decides to help out with future meals.)

Consider this for a moment! The Good News of God as we know about it through Jesus is a lot like the Manna that the Children of Israel received while they were wandering around in the Wilderness of Zin.[2] Through the Manna (the name means “What is it?”), God provided for the Israelites when their supplies from Egypt ran out. The Manna they received from God’s provisions was just enough for that day (except on Saturdays when they received enough for the whole weekend). They could not stockpile it or ship it elsewhere. It was just for them, in that moment and space. The whole community was sustained by it and no one person had more access than another. What a miracle! With that Exodus story in mind, several of us have decided not to ask, “What is the Good News?” any more. Instead, we ask, “How have you recently experienced the Good News?” Can you feel the difference between the two questions?

The first question - “What is the Good News?” - attracts intellectual debate about theological fine points. The question invites us to compare definitions of the Gospel, in the hopes of finding one better than the rest. The second question invites you to check in with your heart, as well as your brain. It is asking for a story, not a definition.

 The second question invites you to share something really life-changing for you. It opens up the space for the sharing of gifts – for the sharing of your best offerings, doesn’t it?

 In my own experience, when I have asked people the question, “What is the Good News?” they assume I think I already have the “correct” answer. It is as though I’m testing the listener to see if they know the “correct” Good News, like I do. If I ask the listener, “Have you experienced the Good News?” I am still asking for a “Yes” or “No” answer. That conversation is probably not going very far.

 However, if I ask “How have you recently experienced the Good News?” I am inviting my conversation partner to remember a recent experience that has convinced them that God cares; that God is present to him or her; that God has surprised them with abundant life! Or, it may be that asking such a question clarifies that he or she is still hoping for some Good News but hasn’t yet experienced it.

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[1] “Christianity is one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread.” Daniel T. Niles, New York Times, May 11, 1986

[2] You can read more of this story in Exodus 16.

Good News, part one

(Recently, I was asked to write about the practice of sharing the Good News of God as we know it in Jesus of Nazareth. I offer this three part response as an invitation for you to look over my shoulder. Please keep in mind that there are four guidelines I am following.

1. Keep it simple.
2. Stay conversational.
3. Resist the urge to represent the entire Christian movement.
4. No complicated theological terms allowed.

 I invite your responses – please bear in mind that this is not as simple as it seems. Try it; you’ll see.)

 Introduction:  2000 some years ago, Jesus of Nazareth spent his life convincing us that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob loves all of the people of this world as well as all of creation. He was a Palestinian Jew and a homeless synagogue teacher. He often spent his time with really poor people and those we usually stay away from. He insisted on teasing religious leaders who took themselves too seriously. He repeatedly explained that his life and teachings were offered as evidence of a God that cares – One who is present to the hard realities of our life as human beings. He lived in our flesh and blood. He ate our food and he breathed our air. The Gospel of John says that in Jesus, God put up His tent in the middle of our tents and lived as one of us. We know that Jesus felt lonely and discouraged and abandoned just as we often do. He felt the anger and impatience and joy and contentment that we feel on any average day.

 So what was the point of this Divine visitation? It seems that Jesus came among us to convince us that the God who is always with us knows us very well and loves us passionately, just the way we are. Jesus’ life and teachings tell us that there is nothing we can do to make God love us more and that there is nothing we can do to make God love us less. That’s really it – God’s love will never be distracted by our humanity.

 This realization – that God’s love is unconditional – is the most powerful truth in all the world to me. It is more powerful than fear and anger can ever be. It has light’s power to drive away the shadows in my soul. Living in the light of this truth transforms my heart both slowly and quickly. Sometimes, I feel God’s love for me through a friend or a compassionate human being. I am changed in that moment – nothing can ever be the same. I move away from my fear of death and darkness and I have the courage to live in God’s light. I am being transformed!

 One of those slower changes is that my heart starts expanding with new space for God’s presence in my life – in my thoughts as well as in my actions. When I am tempted to be suspicious and fearful, God surprises me in the skin and bones of a compassionate friend or in an unexpected encounter in community. Every time that happens, my heart expands a little more. Over time, I realize that once my heart expands like this, it cannot shrink back to its original size. God opens me up to live and love daringly as one loved by God. God even gives me the courage to live in a community of expanding hearts with miraculous expectations!

 Somewhere along the Way, I start realizing that my soul is uniquely shaped to make room for and respond to God’s love. I realize that what I am experiencing could be called Good News. I realize that what I am experiencing is what I’ve been made for, all along. I also realize that stories of my encounters with God’s powerful love are exactly what many people are longing to hear and privately “try on.” They want to “test drive” my experiences to see if the heart of my stories might also prove true for them.