living in the story

What is true?

2009-07-20T17:11:00.000-07:00

About a month or so ago, I read a quote that really got me thinking a lot as I have been transitioning and thinking about life, mission, ecclesiology, etc. I just today began to process this deeply again, and felt like I could benefit from creating some space for discussion on this idea...the quote that brought about this process was a statement from Imago Dei’s website:

“In the church today we are guilty of pragmatism: asking the question 'what works?' before we ask the question 'what is true?'. The result is doing ministry for ministry's sake as opposed to doing ministry for the glory of God. [Rather], when we start with God (our theology), we realize that definitions of success are very different than when we start with pragmatism. From a clear understanding of the gospel we should adopt Biblical values into our lives that become the driving force behind how we do ministry (philosophy of ministry). With a Biblical understanding of how ministry is to be done, we gain a vision that is God honoring and Gospel centered. This [then] and only then results in the creation of a proper structure (function). Each piece is crucial to the next as one piece of the function of the church is built upon another. The Western church is in decline today because we have misunderstood the Gospel and we have not integrated its truth into our lives.” (emphasis added)

I take away from this quote deep implications on everything from the way I have seen myself and others 'do' church...I see big implications on the way I want to live out and be the church in my future...I see big implications on the way I want to interact with and lead my wife in our marriage together...I see big implications on the way I process, think, and live.

In so much of my life, I have been rewarded with figuring out "what works"...not necessarily "what is true?" I am rewarded by the result I get or acheive, not particularly how I got there.

There are so many quotes about 'the journey' instead of 'the destination', but there is a real reason as to why we feel these quotes are "cliche"...and I think that's because we like the idea of that, but few people really follow that axiom. I think we all really want to value the journey, and to really live out the things that are TRUE...but isn't is so much easier, and unfortunately often rewarded, to simply live out WHAT WORKS?

I don't disagree that sometimes we get to the same solution with either question, but I think that often, will have different solutions or answers, because we are asking a very different question!

And I think the reason we live by asking the questions "what works", is because that is the question we are taught to ask when we approach situations...I'm not really sure how I came to feel that this is the first question that enters my mind when I approach a situation or relationship or conflict, but it is. When I think about engaging a friend who is struggling, a conflict with my wife, creating a strategy to get something done, be it in church or in school or in work, or even in my smaller day to day decisions, often the first questions that enter my mind are..."so how will I accomplish this task? what can I do that will effectively work?"

These are great questions, and these questions come out of the sincere and honest effort to please and serve those around me and most importantly to please my God. They even come from the very good and true motivation on putting others before myself. I think they come out of my strong desire to really live out the love of Christ and his teaching in my life.

However, despite this great motivation, I don't think those are the questions to ask if I really want to please God, and I don't think doing what 'works' is what God needs...I don't think these questions are always what my wife or friendships or church need either. Asking myself "what does Ian think will work?" as the way I operate in my marriage, in my church, in my life, I think pretty obviously falls short of what God wants. It might ‘work’ for a little while, but I am always left feeling unfulfilled...my wife isn't being led anywhere, my friendships don't grow and flourish, my leading at church lacks purpose...the lives of those I am surrounded with are moved by pragmatic decisions, rathering than by truth...and pragmatic decisions may result in good...and they may result in bad...but truth always results in liberating and life-giving change.

And this has led me to decide that asking "what works?" is really a very dangerous dangerous question. Isn't that the quesiton that the world asks? Is this not the question that Satan wants us to ask? Does this not result in prioritizing my process over God's process? Does this not end up resulting in dishonesty? a lack of authenticity and realness? in misunderstanding and miscommunication? in function versus truth? Something I've been realizing the last several months, is that as great (and often NOT great) as my 'decision-process' may be, as great as I may have been raised to uphold good values, as much as I think and process or really process through how I can make something 'work'...when left to my own devices...no one ever really wins.

Really...in any situation, relationship, task, event that is in front of me...shouldn't I first and foremost aske the question "what is true?" or perhaps..."how will I honor what is right and true in this situation primarily, and allow that truth to guide me to the solution for this situation/relationship/task ?" I think the biggest change that happens, is that my definitions of success change...they change from what I think is success, versus what God thinks is success...and though I'd like to think these are often the same thing, most of the time, they are different...often VERY different. :)

So in application to my surrounding community, to my church, to my marriage, to my friendships...how can I begin to ask the question "what is true?" of myself and of others and we walk through life together.

1) When I choose a song to play at church, can I choose the song that most truthfully proclaims the beauty of God, rather than the song that I think is the most 'fun' or perhaps even 'fits' best? 2) In my marriage, can I ask 'how can I spend this evening with my wife in a way that will help us grow in intimacy and in love?' rather than, "what movie will we enjoy the most tonight?"
3) As I think about how to interact with my friendships, can I ask the question "how can I really LOVE this friend with the love of Jesus today?" rather than asking the question, "what do we always have the most fun doing?"
4) When confronted with a difficult decision, will I first ask "how might 'truth' prevail?" versus "how I might appease or escape conflict here?"

Perhaps others don't really wrestle with this. Perhaps it is my people-pleasing nature and my adherence to 'tact' (to a fault) that causes me to ask "what works?" instead of "what is true?"...but I feel that I can't be completely alone in this.

And I do want to finish by saying that even when we ask "what is true?" before (or instead of ) asking "what works?", perhaps we will come to the same conclusions! Perhaps the song which proclaims the truth in a most beautiful way is also the most 'fun' song, or the one with the 'best fit'. Perhaps the best way for my wife and I to grow together in a particular evening IS by going to a movie. Perhaps the way I can best love my friend is by not asking him big questions, but by simply playing a game of disc and having a beer.

But regardless of what the decision is, I think taking the time to ask the right question is worth it.

I want to really start asking that question in everything I do...

What is true?

living in the story,

ian

the gravity of love

2009-07-01T14:54:00.000-07:00

I heard someone say the other day, that "culture is what we make of creation". Interesting. I often forget that culture originates with the mediums that have been given us by God. Therefore, culture has the power to be this really beautiful piece of art that we've made with the tools God has given us...we have the chance to follow the Creator's model and be 'creators' ourselves.

How am I creating? How are you creating?

Sure, I'm writing songs right now, but how is that process birthing anything? Am I tossing around worship cliches and musical notes, or am I actually bringing something of Truth into light...using my story to illuminate God' story.

And that's also something that I forget quite often, that I'm part of God's story...God's narrative. I'm not the main character, God is. I'm always asking God how he can move and influence my story, as if it exists outside of God or something. Really, God is authoring my story and my life that I might influence others in THE story.

It makes me remember one of my favorite quotes, by Don Miller. It goes something like this:

"If you forsake telling the story of your life...if you keep it to yourself...if you don't share your stories of death and struggle and pain...and if you don't share your stories of life and birth and resurrection...something about the character of God goes unsaid".

Wow...now this doesn't mean that something 'becomes' true about God...it already was true, but as far as we are concerned, as human beings who live life through the lens of our own experience, some Truth about who God is becomes illuminated as others tell their stories, becomes 'alive' to us, in a way that our souls might resonate with it. It's as if truth was there all along, but suddenly we collide with it...we don't 'brush up against it' we truly collide with Truth, and we can't helped but changed by it.

I think maybe that's why I love singing about and to God so much...when I'm in that zone, somehow this confluence of music, poetry, lyric, and community comes together, and Truth is on this direct collision course with my soul, and my soul feels it and realizes it and resonates with it and responds to it. And it's usually such a big collision that I can't leave from that space unchanged. And as I leave that space and go on to try it out, to live it out, to dicuss it, process it, live it out, fail at it, wrestle with it, succeed with it, fail at it again, pray about it, and simply try to DO the Truth of God, I find myself continually coming back full circle to the space of communal worship. Something happens in communal worship that connects my soul to truth in such a way that I can better understand it and live it out...and then after I've gone and done that, I can come back and sing about it all the more.

It kind of reminds me of another quote, one that our professor Irv Brendlinger used to say in our preaching class, in response to us being 'young kids' and not wanting to be hypocritical...trying to figure out how we as human being could declare God's Truth authoritatively and confidently, while continually realizing our humanity and our failings at living out what we wanted to so faithful preach. Irv shared us this quote, that was basically "preach Truth until you live Truth, and once you're living Truth, you will preach Truth all the more". Basically, we are always on this circular process of understanding, living, and then understanding more of Truth...I won't ever achieve being Jesus, but I can sure preach it and sing it and try to be it, and maybe after I do it enough, I'll actually live it out as well...I can't really wait until we've got it all figured out...I never will.

I guess for me, that practically acts itself out in how and why I sing...I sing because I'm responding to what I know and have experienced of God in history, in the Word, and in the story of my life thus far, and I sing because I know what I'm singing is true and because I want it to be true in the way I live. I sing so that I might one day be there. I sing because I am there in some ways and because I hope to be in others. So for me, singing helps me do God's story because it's true right now, and do God's story until I and my community reflect that.

There's a song that I have been listening to a lot...intially, I was hooked to it because of this beautiful, repetitive, groovy guitar hook, and I was then captured by the beauty of the lyrics and how much I resonated with them. I think this song is powerful because of the music and the melody, but especially because the lyric I think can resonate with anyone who really "gets" the idea of responding to their souls collision with the love of Jesus.

Open my eyes and see
The wonderful mystery of love
Forming into you
I am drawn to the gravity of love, love, love

We're standing still
In a moment of eternity
When worlds collide
And I feel the breath of heaven over me

My soul sings
My soul sings
My soul sings
How I love you

Open the page and see
The wonderful history of love
I start and end with you
I am pulled to the gravity of love, love, love

So to come back full circle. We started talking about creation and creativity...it is through someone else's creativity (specifically in this case, the band Delirious) that I connected and continue to connect to the beauty and truth of God's story of love. It isn't Delirious' love, it's God's love, they just created some space, through the vehicle of song and poetry for me to resonate with love...created space for me to remember the story, to live presently in the love and grace and mercy of the Messiah, and to anticipate the hope of things to come...all that I might be 'pulled by the gravity of love'.

What space are we creating, for ourselves and for others to get in proximity with the story of Love...so close that we might really be pulled in?

I want to be so in the gravitational field of this love...that is pulls me closer and closer in, that I am on a direct collision course with love. Lets live and create and tell our stories, that more of God would be known and understood and realized by those around us, and lets all together be pulled to the gravity of love.

living in the story,

ian

an introduction

2009-07-01T14:22:00.000-07:00

living in the story (part I)

So I'm not really sure what this will be yet. My immediate thought is for me to publicly journal and blog about all things related to living in God's story as they intersect my life and my thoughts process...and to create space for individual thought, or open discussion on said topics.

The "default" if there is one, will be blogging on worship & community...aka, how we live in God's story as an individual and as a community, and how we respond to the way God is working out his purposes in our own lives and the lives of our friends & family & our larger community, and how all of those threads intersect to weave this beautiful things we call life.

Looking forward to journeying with you and living in the story together,

ian