SpiritFarmer

When the term ‘pluralism’ gets used within the context of a church, it’s usually in a negative sort of way. People get fired up about the whole deal of “all roads lead to heaven” and they get easily bent out of shape. Pluralism is seen by some as one of the evils of postmodernism. While I’m no big proponent for postmodernity (even though I’ll take it over the alternative), I’m inclined to view pluralism in more neutral terms. I think there’s some good stuff to be mined out of a pluralistic mindset. Once we’ve released ourselves from the binding structures of the past, we can embrace new forms and blend them with the things we’ve found helpful about where we’ve come from.

One of the outworkings of this in my little circle of experience has to do with a weekly gathering of pastors in my area for prayer. I’ve blogged about this group before. All of the pastors in the group belong to what some would call institutional churches – pretty typical kinds of worship formats, structures, interpretations of what the church is and/or should be. We’re from a wide variety of of backgrounds – Baptists, Assemblies of God, Foursquare, non-denominational, full-blown Pentecostals. Despite my critical mindset toward the way churches tend to work, I see these guys working toward a genuine move of God in their own lives, as well as in the churches they pastor – even if that takes them into a radically different stream of thought than they have come from.

In one case, a pastor is being led to significantly change the leadership structure in his church. Another pastor is only a few years into a new church plant and is assembling a leadership structure for the very first time. Another pastor is being moved from a Baptist theological understanding to a more charismatic approach. And then there’s me, a guy who is wrestling with God’s leading into church planting and what form that may take. Even though we’re all in traditional modern contexts of church, we’re being more fluid with what God is doing within us, and I see a willingness to embrace things outside of our normal trains of thought. When we gather to pray and share with one another it isn’t to compare notes and be competetive, it’s to love one another, learn from one another, and support one another. We celebrate the things in others’ churches that would never take place within our own congregations.

The funny thing for me is that I don’t think I would want to be a member of any of their churches (including my own). I love these guys and how God is at work in them, but I guess they just aren’t my cup of tea in terms of church. I’m trying to understand why, but at some level I don’t really care why.

I embrace this outworking of pluralism. I can participate in community with my “peers” even though I think in very different ways than they do, and will work out my calling in very different ways. I think that those of us who fancy ourselves as progressives too easily look down our noses at “moderns” and smugly blow them off as unenlightened. But I’m guessing that there are a lot more of them that are beginning to catch on than we realize. These people – the ones who are open to change – need a lot of help, because they will still process change within their pre-structured modes of thought, but there is definitely hope for them. Let’s cut them some slack and extend our hand to them. We’ll learn from them and more importantly show our real love for them as brothers and sisters in the kingdom family.

Today I’m embracing an increased level of challenge and testing in my current ministry position. It’s going to get really busy around here. It may mean less blogging for me. Sadly it will probably also mean less reading of other blogs. I’ll try to stay up with everyone, but I’m not gonna make any promises. Prayers are gratefully welcomed at this time.

I will not attempt to provide any context to this . . . my apologies. I just wanted to take a moment to say that Jason Evans is one of my heroes.

Sometimes one has to do the sucky maintenance of real ministry in order to kick back and enjoy the more fun times of body life.

Huh?

Had a pretty interesting prayer experience in the weekly gathering of pastors I’m a part of. A couple of the pastors spoke prophetic words over me that are definitely in keeping with the direction God has been leading me. Neither of these guys know anything about my direction toward church planting or moving toward a distinctly different than I am now in. They spoke words of affirmation that I am ready to be used by God in a more primary role . . . i.e. a lead pastor type role.

I had lunch today with a couple of new friends – Matt and Melissa. Matt is a church planter in Chula Vista, CA in the early days of Crossroads Church. Sounds like they’ve got some good stuff going on there, and they’ve just gotten started.

I made contact with Matt a couple of months back after having seen Crossroads on the Acts 29 Network website. In my wrestlings in the direction of church planting over the past many months, I learned some things about Acts 29 that have resonated with me. It is a missional church planting network that helps new church plants with a mind toward constant reproduction . . . planting church planting churches (if that makes any sense at all). Michelle and I made the decision to go to the A29 bootcamp in January 2003. We may or may not end up planting a church through Acts 29, but we believe this will be a good training ground for us.

I’m really looking forward to the bootcamp because I believe that I’ll get some good training and theological challenge. I’m also looking forward to seeing how this sort of thinking meshes with some of my leanings toward organic church models. I am definitely excited about it. It represents a major commitment and move of faith for Michelle and I. It may spell the end of my days in my current ministry location and along with it the end of my days of a steady paycheck, but it’s worth following after.

I’m struggling today, but in what I think is a healthy sort of way. I’ve been making some really crappy choices lately, and today I’m actually trying to process them. I’ve been pretty lame at managing stress lately. I’m not an angry sort of dude, so it’s not like I have outbursts of rage or anything, but I’ve actively chosen some poor attitudes and outlooks on life and ministry. The fact that life has gotten intense all around me is no excuse – I know better than to live like this. I’ve even taken up some old habits of using food as a stress-reduction drug – oh I forgot, that doesn’t really work.

It isn’t like nothin’ good’s going on, either. There’s a lot that I could (should?) be hopeful and excited about. That’s why I have to own the fact that I’m choosing my attitudes. I’ll blog more after my lunch appointment today. It represents one of the things I can be very very hopeful and excited about.

Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

Philippians 4:8

Just had a lovely lunch with one of my newer favorite people, Mr. Jason Evans. I was about to say I had lunch with “my valentine”, but that woulda sounded a little odd, wouldn’t it? Anyway, it was good to hear how things are going over at Matthew’s House. As we talked and shared life together, a gentleman sat down next to us, and listened in to our conversation while eating his burger. After listening to us for several minutes, it was like he couldn’t take it any longer and started talking to us about his own faith experience. We had an opportunity to listen to him talk about his relationship with Jesus, and his experience of life. He told us about how he’s been feeling down lately because of a recurring problem of sin in his life. We prayed and shared Christ’s love with one another.

Jason told me about Jeremiah Smith over in New England, and how he’s in a similar place in ministry as I am. So I checked things out, and it’s true . . . he’s farther along in the process, and a better writer than I am. I’ll e-mail him soon. I have a feeling that he’ll become an important voice of hope to me in the days ahead.

Today is my beautiful wife’s birthday (I won’t say which birthday). She is so special to me. Generous in every way. An incredible gift of grace to me. I’m gonna cut out of the office early today and hang out with her, then go home and cook up her favorite food in the world . . . my famous quiche. I’m looking forward to celebrating who she is. The world’s a much better place with Michelle around!