Monday, January 23, 2006
STATUS REPORT: "THE MISSION"
Last Thursday evening Wendy and I hosted our first "Interest Meeting" for the new house church called "The Mission".
We had around 14 people RSVP'd for the evening, and there were 2 others who surprised us (in a good way) when they showed up too.
The evening was very sweet. Wendy and I took turns sharing how we arrived at the House Chuch model, explained our vision for the group and how our goal is to let the Holy Spirit be our leader and our most important member.
What was most surprising to us was how effortlessly we shifted from talking about how we wanted to operate into actually just spontaneously moving with the Spirit into sharing, caring, and praying together. Even as I was becoming aware of it I could only marvel at the phenomenon and smile.
There seemed to be an almost unconscious assumption among us that we were already the church and the formality of saying it out loud became unnecessary.
Still, as a pessimist at heart, I have to reserve my presumption that everyone who attended this meeting will return and become part of the regular weekly meetings of "The Mission". Only time will tell who is genuinely called to this way of being church.
We asked each person to take the entire next week to pray and ask for God's direction and guidance about whether they are called to this way of church or not. We recognize that this isn't for everyone and it's very important to us (Wendy and I) that only those whom God calls actually become one with us in this endeavor.
In just the last few days there have been several other people who have also expressed interest in coming to see what we're doing and to pray about whether they might also be called to this.
So, we're trusting God to build His Church, as He promised He would. We're committed to allowing The Holy Spirit to be the leader, founder and inspiration for this Church.
This is all in His capable hands.
Our first official meeting will be Feb.2nd, 2006.
I can't wait.
We had around 14 people RSVP'd for the evening, and there were 2 others who surprised us (in a good way) when they showed up too.
The evening was very sweet. Wendy and I took turns sharing how we arrived at the House Chuch model, explained our vision for the group and how our goal is to let the Holy Spirit be our leader and our most important member.
What was most surprising to us was how effortlessly we shifted from talking about how we wanted to operate into actually just spontaneously moving with the Spirit into sharing, caring, and praying together. Even as I was becoming aware of it I could only marvel at the phenomenon and smile.
There seemed to be an almost unconscious assumption among us that we were already the church and the formality of saying it out loud became unnecessary.
Still, as a pessimist at heart, I have to reserve my presumption that everyone who attended this meeting will return and become part of the regular weekly meetings of "The Mission". Only time will tell who is genuinely called to this way of being church.
We asked each person to take the entire next week to pray and ask for God's direction and guidance about whether they are called to this way of church or not. We recognize that this isn't for everyone and it's very important to us (Wendy and I) that only those whom God calls actually become one with us in this endeavor.
In just the last few days there have been several other people who have also expressed interest in coming to see what we're doing and to pray about whether they might also be called to this.
So, we're trusting God to build His Church, as He promised He would. We're committed to allowing The Holy Spirit to be the leader, founder and inspiration for this Church.
This is all in His capable hands.
Our first official meeting will be Feb.2nd, 2006.
I can't wait.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
GOING ABOVE GROUND
In order to be subversive, sometimes you have to go above ground with your message.
Here are two recent transmissions to the masses:
(you'll have to cut and paste these links, sorry I'm html challenged)
WHAT IF? by Keith Giles
(an article posted on the Ooze' 'SEED STORIES' website for emerging church planters)
http://www.seedstories.com/articles/article.cfm?id=18
I AM A CHRISTIAN ACTIVIST (the podcast version)
I've recently become an assistant pastor at Soul Survivor's congregation in Costa Mesa and they have podcasted my message from Sunday evening. You can download it here (if you have ITunes):
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=117593278&s
=143441
*MY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY is the title they gave my message. It's a testimonial of sorts about God's hand in my life and a statement at the end about who I am and my personal manifesto.
ENJOY!
Here are two recent transmissions to the masses:
(you'll have to cut and paste these links, sorry I'm html challenged)
WHAT IF? by Keith Giles
(an article posted on the Ooze' 'SEED STORIES' website for emerging church planters)
http://www.seedstories.com/articles/article.cfm?id=18
I AM A CHRISTIAN ACTIVIST (the podcast version)
I've recently become an assistant pastor at Soul Survivor's congregation in Costa Mesa and they have podcasted my message from Sunday evening. You can download it here (if you have ITunes):
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=117593278&s
=143441
*MY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY is the title they gave my message. It's a testimonial of sorts about God's hand in my life and a statement at the end about who I am and my personal manifesto.
ENJOY!
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
LIVING STONES
Just last night it occured to me that the early Christian Church (from Acts to the first 300 years of History) never used property or land for a building or a facility so that they could stop meeting in those house churches.
In fact, we do know from the book of Acts that the early church did receive property and land all the time. If they had wanted to use this land to build a large facility where people could meet, they certainly could have done so. At least we do know that they had the opportunity.
Instead, they consistently sold the property and gave all of it to the poor.
In 300 years of church history, beginning with the Biblical, New Testament Church itself, we never see the church using property, funds or resources for the building of their own empire.
They were interested in compassion, in the building of the Kingdom and in serving the least and the lost around them.
Just interesting to me....
In fact, we do know from the book of Acts that the early church did receive property and land all the time. If they had wanted to use this land to build a large facility where people could meet, they certainly could have done so. At least we do know that they had the opportunity.
Instead, they consistently sold the property and gave all of it to the poor.
In 300 years of church history, beginning with the Biblical, New Testament Church itself, we never see the church using property, funds or resources for the building of their own empire.
They were interested in compassion, in the building of the Kingdom and in serving the least and the lost around them.
Just interesting to me....
THE MISSION: DAY ZERO
Today is Tuesday, January 17th. In two more days we will host our first "Interest Meeting" for our new house church, The Mission.
Right now we have around 10 people who have RSVP'd and some are bringing friends along with them who are interested or curious about the house church model.
I'm trying to organize my thoughts, think of how best to describe just what a house church is, and in some ways, trying to think of ways to creatively talk people out of joining us.
Yes, that's right. I'm subconsciously trying to think of ways to convince people that this isn't really what they're looking for.
I think the reason why is that most people don't really know what they're getting into. I'll do my best to make it as clear as possible what this will be, and what it will not be, but I know that inevitably some will come along for all the wrong reasons.
Some are coming because they like us, they love our family, they want to support us, etc. This is awesome, and we're grateful, but for this house church to become what it must become, we really need people who are committed to the house church and who are going to be excited about doing church (or "being church") this way.
So, what this will not be is a home group. Although there will be at times elements of this group that resemble a home group such as worship time, fellowship, a short Bible study, etc., this is not a home group.
This is also not about taking what happens in a traditional church on Sunday morning and creating a micro version of it in our living room each week. We will not have an emphasis on a select few leaders and a larger group of followers. We are all followers, and we are all leaders.
See? I told you it's not something that we intuitively understand in today's culture.
I'll do my best on Thursday night to explain our vision for the church, to describe in detail the sorts of things we will be engaging in for the house church meetings, and hopefully inspire some good questions from the group about what the heck I'm talking about.
Last night I sat and read a chapter in "The Church Comes Home" about how to begin a house church. It talked about what to do and what not to do. It gave excellent examples of how the group should organically develop over time, how the first few meetings should differ from the later meetings, and then how the mature group should shift focus and begin really taking form.
Part of me is terrified. I've never done this. It is so far outside my comfort zone that I tend to want to grasp at those systems and patterns that I am so used to operating in, but if I do that then I short circuit what the house church is really meant to be.
I'm realizing that the most important member of our house church is the Holy Spirit. He needs to be at every meeting. He needs to have the complete freedom to speak, to encourage, to rebuke, to move and to, in fact, lead this group where it should go. I am the co-pilot, if that. He, the Holy Spirit, is the One who must build this Church, His Church, and lead it where it should grow.
Maybe my fears are centered here. I must be comfortable with being out of control. I must make it my practice, as the leader, to lead in a way that I have almost never observed anyone else leading before; with a "hands-off" approach and the courage to allow the Holy Spirit to have His way, no matter what.
So, I welcome your prayers for this endeavor. I know that the Enemy hates the Church, and I know that the opposition to something intended to be as pure and as Biblically-based as this will be great.
"Your mission, should you decide to accept it...."
BEEP
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
A BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE ON POVERTY
In my last [subversive underground] e-newsletter, I referenced a story I had read on MSN about how the poor in American aren't really poor because they have color tvs, microwaves, refrigerators, etc.
My reaction to this, in the article I sent out to everyone, was centered on how the article really had no intention of dealing with the very real problem of poverty in America, but was more about justifying our own apathy towards the poor who live among us because, "Hey, they're not as poor as those in Mexico or India, etc.".
I actually got several great responses from people on the list (which is the cool thing about the e-newsletter format...people can talk back!) and so I had to expand on my thoughts and really dig down on this issue of poverty in America and our Biblical mandate to respond.
Here's a little of what I sent out to those who responded:
I guess what I was saying about the article was that it really wasn't trying to actually deal with the very real problem of poverty in America. It was actually trying to make us feel better for not helping at all because "they're not REALLY poor".
Secondly, and mainly, I'm trying to say that there's a Biblical difference between the poor in another country and "our poor". The poor in India, Mexico, Ethiopa, etc. are seriously, desperately poor. No one argues that. This is why I'm on the board of Arms of Love (armsoflove.org), a ministry that builds orphanages in the poorest nations of the world to provide homes for street children who live in the city dumps and are forced into prostitution, etc. I'm not saying don't help the poor "out there".
But the poor in your city, in my city, down the street from me, they are "our poor". What we're called to do, Biblically, is to do something about it. Not to solve poverty. Not to cure it. Not to erase poverty forever, but to do what we can to help a few, in the name of Jesus and with the compassion of Jesus.
The quote from Jesus in Matthew about "the poor you will always have with you" was Jesus referencing Deuteronomy 15:7-11. You should seriously read this passage. The point is that God, the Father, is commanding the Jews to not have a hard heart or a closed fist towards the poor, the stranger, etc., but to give generously, freely to the poor among them. At the end of the passage, God say, "There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land."
That's what Jesus means when he says what he does in Matthew. He is not suggesting that, since we'll always have the poor with us, why bother?
Read Matthew 25. At the Judgement Seat of Christ the one criteria is whether or not those who call him "Lord" had any regard for the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless, the prisoner. The Sheep almost unconsciously care for these poor, not because they think it will get them into Heaven, but simply because they have genuinely been transformed into the people of God. The Goats, who also call Him "Lord", have the same unconscious attitude, but towards the existence of the poor or their needs.
The people of God, redeemed by the Blood, saved by Grace, seem to have an inability to walk past someone who is naked, poor, hungry, thirsty, lonely, etc. and do nothing. They cannot do that. It's not in their new nature.
We have a Biblical mandate (and it's alllll over the Scripture, both Old and New) to care for the poor..."our poor"...and that takes more than writing a check.
Again, this is my very biased conviction. I've been hammered by God on this issue and I cannot let it go because it won't let me go.
Do you know what the sin of Sodom is? Read Ezekiel 16: 49. It's not what you think.
"Now this is the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were proud and did detestable things before me. Therefore, I did away with them as you have seen."
Wow.
How about this one?
Galatians 2:10- "All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do."
(Paul's response after being sent out as the first missionary by Peter, James and John).
or...
{God is speaking of King Josiah:}
"He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?" (Jeremiah 22:16)
Wow.
"Is that not what it means to know me?"
What does it mean to "Know" God? This verse suggests that it means to care for the poor and the needy.
and of course we could also look at, Isaiah 58:6-7, Amos 5:21-24, 1 John 3:17-18, James 2:14-17, etc., etc.
I just wanted, in the article, to make the point that God has called us to care for the poor, not to justify their poverty or our lack of compassion by comparing them to the "actual poor" in Third World countries.
Still, I'm new to this whole thing. I'm still trying to work out my own calling in this area too.
Thanks for letting me rant.
Thursday, December 29, 2005
2005- the year in retrospect
This year was certainly one of the most challenging ones our family has had to face.
The sheer variety of tests and trials we endured were also significant.
We suffered through a miscarriage, loss of income, had shake-ups at church, went through a move and a house search, had to say goodbye to dear friends, and went through some times of poor health (without any health insurance).
Still, we've grown so much. We've learned more about what it means to walk by faith and not by sight.
Most of us go out of our way to avoid situations where we don't have control and don't know the outcome for certain. This is why God forces us into these sorts of tests so that we can walk by faith and not by sight.
God loves it when we keep our eyes focused on Him. He loves it when we put all of our trust in His providence and when we have nothing else but Him to lean on, or depend on, or place our hope in.
He really does love it.
As we look forward to 2006, we still hope and pray that it will involve much less adventure. We do not want to move again anytime soon, or change jobs, or have to receive money from anonymous donors to pay our bills, or suffer through sickness or a miscarriage, or say goodbye to any more of our friends.
But, this is life. Life is unpredictable. Things change. People die and move on. All things are temporal We ourselves are mortal. Everything is in flux. Nothing is certain.
We lift our heads and place our hands into the hands of God, one more time.
2006, here we come!
The sheer variety of tests and trials we endured were also significant.
We suffered through a miscarriage, loss of income, had shake-ups at church, went through a move and a house search, had to say goodbye to dear friends, and went through some times of poor health (without any health insurance).
Still, we've grown so much. We've learned more about what it means to walk by faith and not by sight.
Most of us go out of our way to avoid situations where we don't have control and don't know the outcome for certain. This is why God forces us into these sorts of tests so that we can walk by faith and not by sight.
God loves it when we keep our eyes focused on Him. He loves it when we put all of our trust in His providence and when we have nothing else but Him to lean on, or depend on, or place our hope in.
He really does love it.
As we look forward to 2006, we still hope and pray that it will involve much less adventure. We do not want to move again anytime soon, or change jobs, or have to receive money from anonymous donors to pay our bills, or suffer through sickness or a miscarriage, or say goodbye to any more of our friends.
But, this is life. Life is unpredictable. Things change. People die and move on. All things are temporal We ourselves are mortal. Everything is in flux. Nothing is certain.
We lift our heads and place our hands into the hands of God, one more time.
2006, here we come!
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Yuck.
I am sick.
My throat is killing me.
I've gargled with salt water, whiskey, and had more honey, lemon tea than is necessary to kill an elk.
I've taken massive doses of Vitamin C, eaten grapefruits, had hot coffee, taken garlic pills, and the last four days I've lived on alternating cups of Dayquil and Nyquil (the coughing, aching, stuffy head, oh my gosh how did I end up on the kitchen floor medicine).
I still hurt.
A few seconds ago I took two ibuprofen and one of my Mom's sleeping pills. If this trails off before the end you know what happened.
So far our trip to El Paso has been great. Seen old friends, ran into a few by surprise, ate some great food (Chico's Tacos!), and some not-so-great (Whataburger...better in the old days), and even found time to go shooting in the desert for a few hours with my Dad, my best-friend and his Dad.
Hopefully pictures will be posted here soon.
Wendy and I have a tough decision to make this week. Please pray for wisdom and that we'll hear God's voice and see His hand clearly on this issue.
At this point, I don't have a good reason to say no to either of my options, so I'm thinking of saying "yes" to both....unless God stops me, that is...
For now I fall into the comforting arms of catatonia......
...maybe I'll have a dream...?
....more....later...
..........................
My throat is killing me.
I've gargled with salt water, whiskey, and had more honey, lemon tea than is necessary to kill an elk.
I've taken massive doses of Vitamin C, eaten grapefruits, had hot coffee, taken garlic pills, and the last four days I've lived on alternating cups of Dayquil and Nyquil (the coughing, aching, stuffy head, oh my gosh how did I end up on the kitchen floor medicine).
I still hurt.
A few seconds ago I took two ibuprofen and one of my Mom's sleeping pills. If this trails off before the end you know what happened.
So far our trip to El Paso has been great. Seen old friends, ran into a few by surprise, ate some great food (Chico's Tacos!), and some not-so-great (Whataburger...better in the old days), and even found time to go shooting in the desert for a few hours with my Dad, my best-friend and his Dad.
Hopefully pictures will be posted here soon.
Wendy and I have a tough decision to make this week. Please pray for wisdom and that we'll hear God's voice and see His hand clearly on this issue.
At this point, I don't have a good reason to say no to either of my options, so I'm thinking of saying "yes" to both....unless God stops me, that is...
For now I fall into the comforting arms of catatonia......
...maybe I'll have a dream...?
....more....later...
..........................
Monday, December 19, 2005
[subversive underground] UPDATE
As part of this blog, I've started a little email newsletter thingy called the 'subversive underground'.
Part of me feels like it's insane to send out a regular e-newsletter a couple times a week on top of posting articles here two or three times a week, and still try to keep up with my personal journa writings, and the occassional sermon, etc.
But honestly, I love the accountability this newsletter affords. It means that I have to keep writing. I have to keep putting all these thoughts down somewhere, and I have to share them with others to find out if they're good thoughts or garbage.
That's the other part I love- the feedback. Several of you have taken time to respond back to me with encouragement or to further the dialog offered by the [subversive underground] broadcast.
I crave that.
So far I've got around 30 people signed up for this little experiment. I get a few new ones every other day.
For those of you who are not sure if this is for you or not, here's the first one I sent out about a month ago.
**
welcome to the first edition of the subversive underground.
this is will be an email newsletter/stream of consciousness/random thoughts signal sent out at various times each week. i will not bombard you, i promise.
so, let's start by a definition of what it means to be subversive:
What is “Subversive”?- It’s a systematic overthrow of one system or power by those working from within.
Jesus came to announce that His Kingdom was coming, and that, even now, is available to all who know Him. This was the Gospel message.
Now we, the followers of Christ, are compelled to make a difference in the old order by working from within, changing one person at a time, advancing this new kingdom with every tool, talent and resource available.
This is what I hope to inspire. This is what I personally aspire to.
Just last night, while watching the semi-dreadful "American Music Awards" I had this thought: "No one gives a crap what we believe. Show us your convictions in the way you live, not in the words you speak."
I think this is one of the main reasons that I love working for Soul Survivor, because they're mantra is 'actions speak louder' and they operate from this assertion.
We have to stop pontificating. We have to begin to simply love, not just with words, but in action and in truth.
We have to question. We have to ask why. We have to be willing to take a chance, to risk for the sake of the world that waits to see with their eyes if what they've heard with their ears is possible.
I hope that there's a growing number of people who are willing to make it possible.
I hope that together we can spur one another on to live a life of simple obedience to the words of Jesus.
Welcome to the underground.
END TRANSMISSION**
*TO SIGN UP TO RECEIVE THE [SUBVERSIVE UNDERGROUND]:
simply email me at keith at soul survivor . net (without all the spaces, and remember to use the @ sign, etc.) with the subject heading of UNDERGOUND and ask to be signed up.
I'll do the rest.
i will also not duplicate articles from the blog on this email. for the most part you will receive "fresh and new" thoughts, from my brain to yours.
Here's hoping everyone has a wonderful Christmas and that 2006 is the best ever.
Peace,
Keith
Part of me feels like it's insane to send out a regular e-newsletter a couple times a week on top of posting articles here two or three times a week, and still try to keep up with my personal journa writings, and the occassional sermon, etc.
But honestly, I love the accountability this newsletter affords. It means that I have to keep writing. I have to keep putting all these thoughts down somewhere, and I have to share them with others to find out if they're good thoughts or garbage.
That's the other part I love- the feedback. Several of you have taken time to respond back to me with encouragement or to further the dialog offered by the [subversive underground] broadcast.
I crave that.
So far I've got around 30 people signed up for this little experiment. I get a few new ones every other day.
For those of you who are not sure if this is for you or not, here's the first one I sent out about a month ago.
**
welcome to the first edition of the subversive underground.
this is will be an email newsletter/stream of consciousness/random thoughts signal sent out at various times each week. i will not bombard you, i promise.
so, let's start by a definition of what it means to be subversive:
What is “Subversive”?- It’s a systematic overthrow of one system or power by those working from within.
Jesus came to announce that His Kingdom was coming, and that, even now, is available to all who know Him. This was the Gospel message.
Now we, the followers of Christ, are compelled to make a difference in the old order by working from within, changing one person at a time, advancing this new kingdom with every tool, talent and resource available.
This is what I hope to inspire. This is what I personally aspire to.
Just last night, while watching the semi-dreadful "American Music Awards" I had this thought: "No one gives a crap what we believe. Show us your convictions in the way you live, not in the words you speak."
I think this is one of the main reasons that I love working for Soul Survivor, because they're mantra is 'actions speak louder' and they operate from this assertion.
We have to stop pontificating. We have to begin to simply love, not just with words, but in action and in truth.
We have to question. We have to ask why. We have to be willing to take a chance, to risk for the sake of the world that waits to see with their eyes if what they've heard with their ears is possible.
I hope that there's a growing number of people who are willing to make it possible.
I hope that together we can spur one another on to live a life of simple obedience to the words of Jesus.
Welcome to the underground.
END TRANSMISSION**
*TO SIGN UP TO RECEIVE THE [SUBVERSIVE UNDERGROUND]:
simply email me at keith at soul survivor . net (without all the spaces, and remember to use the @ sign, etc.) with the subject heading of UNDERGOUND and ask to be signed up.
I'll do the rest.
i will also not duplicate articles from the blog on this email. for the most part you will receive "fresh and new" thoughts, from my brain to yours.
Here's hoping everyone has a wonderful Christmas and that 2006 is the best ever.
Peace,
Keith
Friday, December 16, 2005
IN PRAISE OF THE LOCAL CHURCH by Keith Giles
IN PRAISE OF THE LOCAL CHURCH by Keith Giles
I've had to eat some crow the last few days.
So much of my attitude of late has revolved around feeling that, in general, the contemporary church has it all wrong. The solution, of course, is to go back to the beginning and to re-visit the values and the vision of the early church, before things got so corrupted.
I know that God still loves His Bride as it is today. I know that, by the Grace of God, people are still touched by Him, lives are still transformed and the Gospel is still preached, and often, even actually reflected in the lives of those who call themselves Christian.
But, I have felt frustrated, even angered and deeply disappointed by most of what is called "Christian" today. I do feel that Church has become an event that must be paid for, not a life that must be lived. I am saddened that our churches today focus more on putting butts in the seats than on actually helping people in need, discipling young Christians and putting feet to their faith.
Still, as I said at the top, I have had to eat crow.
What happened was, I was visiting one of the families in the motel this week where our Church has been ministering and I began to see the amazing fruit that has come in their lives. Granted, yes, this compassion ministry into this motel was something I had been working on for over a year, but the recent advances in their spiritual development I can mainly attribute to their involvement in the traditional church I've been part of for 3 years.
Because of the ministry through prayer that these guys received at a recent Sunday morning service, they experienced the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. They sat and told me about how they had never been to a church like ours before, where people didn't look down on them because of their poverty, where people actually cared for them and shared the love of Jesus in real ways.
"We love our church," they said. "We want to have our kids baptized and we want to come every week now, no more excuses."
I was forced to admit that our church, our contemporary, traditional church, had accomplished something truly amazing in the lives of my friends.
I have to admit that God is able to do whatever He wants with whatever system of worship is available to Him. Whether it's a system that takes its cues from the big business world, or the mega-church model, or the simple, early home church version, God is able to produce fruit and transform lives, no matter what.
Of course, on one level, I 'knew' this already. I haven't ever said or felt that the over-riding methods of "doing church" were evil or bankrupt, although I do feel that changes towards a more relational, community-focused sort of gathering are more likely to impact the culture than the system we've got.
This brings up another subject I want to address. Most of the house churches that I've looked into are characterized by their common hatred of the modern Church system, and most often directly defined by how much they are not like the church they all left to form their gathering in protest.
I really don't want our group to be defined this way. In fact, Wendy and I have promised each other that we will be vigilant to cut anyone off who starts spewing out negative monologs about why we're better or why that "other church" has it all wrong.
What I want is to focus on what we're called to do and to live out the convictions we have, without defining ourselves as an "anti" church.
So, in the future, whenever I write about the failures of the modern church, or critique the methodology of American Christianity, please keep in mind that God is still at work in all of the various forms His Bride might take and that He loves, and redeems, and is completely in love with us all.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
PHASE 2 CHRISTIANITY by Keith Giles
I always find myself chewing on the concept of what it means to follow Jesus. How do I deny myself? How do I take up my cross daily? How do I seek first the Kingdom of God in my actual, everyday life?
I teach about it, I talk about it, I write about it and yet I seem to always find myself "stuck" at square one.
It feels like I'm 39 years old and yet still at the very beginning of my Christian walk and experience.
Just today I had to pray and ask God to help me be a better pastor. I feel like I blow it so often with people. I second guess myself afterwards and wonder if I should've said this or done that.
Do I ever move on to Phase 2? Will I know it if I do? Is the character of Christ really being formed in me? Am I being transformed by the renewing of my mind?
Will this growth come about by reading more and more books, or deeper thinking or more doing of the works of compassion? Does any of that really matter? Will all of this ever result in the changing of my heart or character?
Maybe I don't sense any progress because I don't practice the spiritual disciplines? Do I need to pray more? Or meditate?
As I think on this more, I wonder if it isn't really the Grace of God that prevents me from being aware of any spiritual progress or success in this area of discipleship to Jesus. To have an awareness of growth might open the doors for pride, and God knows how I struggle with that.
Here's what I've discovered. There is no Phase 2. There is nothing after seeking first the Kingdom or dying to self. There is only the constant, daily surrender, the 'moment-by-moment' obedience to Christ.
Even Paul the Apostle admitted he had not yet attained the prize of the high calling of Jesus Christ. It is an ongoing race we run and the moment we "arrive" is the day we take our first glimpse of the Resurrected Jesus in the flesh with our own two eyes, our first day in the physical Kingdom of God itself.
The way is the cross and the cross is the way.
HALF OF WHAT PARENTS SPEND ON TOYS = UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION
This boggles my mind.
Read this carefully and then meditate on the implications of this.
Amazing stuff.
“Through the cross, God has created a body that has within it the economic resources to provide affordable housing, long-term community development, and primary health care to everyone who needs it. Universal primary education would cost $8 billion a year- roughly half what the world spends on arms every four days, or half of what parents in the US spend annually on toys for their children. This might mean that, as believers, we will have to break rank with consumerism, live more frugally, and do church more simply- but this will only help us to express the type of community we are committed to become, a community which lives sacrificially, gives away generously and resources those bereft of their basic human rights”
- Ray Mayhew, “Embezzlement: The Corporate Sin Of Contemporary Christianity?”
Read this carefully and then meditate on the implications of this.
Amazing stuff.
“Through the cross, God has created a body that has within it the economic resources to provide affordable housing, long-term community development, and primary health care to everyone who needs it. Universal primary education would cost $8 billion a year- roughly half what the world spends on arms every four days, or half of what parents in the US spend annually on toys for their children. This might mean that, as believers, we will have to break rank with consumerism, live more frugally, and do church more simply- but this will only help us to express the type of community we are committed to become, a community which lives sacrificially, gives away generously and resources those bereft of their basic human rights”
- Ray Mayhew, “Embezzlement: The Corporate Sin Of Contemporary Christianity?”
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
APPLES AND ORANGES by Keith Giles
APPLES AND ORANGES by Keith Giles
As my wife and I begin to move into this new phase of our calling to start a missional house church in a new neighborhood, we've been reading a lot and studying up on the early church and how they operated.
Our goal is not to copy the early church verbatim, but to glean from them a basic method of operation and to understand the core values they embodied.
In this process, I came across a quote that stirred me to think in a new way.
In discussing the way that the house churches exponentially grow outward via a process similar to organic cell division, one author noted that "The goal of an apple tree is not to produce apples."
This made me stop and re-think what I understood about nature and about church.
If the goal of an apple tree is NOT to produce apples, then what is the goal of an apple tree? And more importantly, what the heck does this have to do with planting a house church in the O.C. today?
Here's what I discovered. If an apple tree only produces apples all of it's life and dies, what has it accomplished? At first glance, a lot. It's provided the world with nutritious food and fulfilled one of the basic design elements inherent in its nature. But is that really all that an apple tree is really designed by the Creator to do?
That's when I realized the mistake we all make when thinking of organic structures, as compared to the living Body of Christ. If the apple tree dies without having produced another apple tree, it has failed miserably. Mainly because future generations will never taste of the fruit.
Unless an apple tree produces more apple trees, it is a total failure.
In a similar way, if the Church only makes converts, or even true disciples, and not more churches, then it has failed.
Look at the early church as an example. They quickly spread throughout the known world and "turned the world upside down" with the Gospel. How did they do this? Not by simply making converts or disciples, although this is an important part of the process, but by making more churches just like itself.
What made this process ingeniously easy and effective was the fact that the church was a family-based, household of faith. To plant a new church just like itself all it had to do was outgrow the largest room in the house it was currently meeting in and send out five or six to start meeting in another house in another part of town.
These churches then grew exponentially as each house church sent out more and more groups who then also sent out more and more groups, they quickly took over a region for Christ.
The beauty of this system is that it inspires community, allows the full use of the gifts for the building up of the body, and it costs nothing. In fact, these house churches not only cost nothing to maintain, they could only create funds through the gifts and offerings of the members who gave on a weekly basis to the poor among them, both inside and outside the community of faith.
The early church was known, even by its enemies, as a radically inclusive group that cared for the poor and even buried the dead of the pagans in their city whose families couldn't afford it.
Of course, the Church must produce disciples. It's our mandate from our Lord Himself, but if all we do is create more and more disciples and never plant new churches, we're not fulfilling our organic, natural, God-designed calling as the Body of Christ.
I could write another article all about how, for the apple tree to produce another apple tree, those apples have to leave the tree and then to die in order fulfill its mission. Much like the follower of Jesus is called to die to himself/herself and take up the cross daily to be a productive disciple.
In John 12:24 Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds."
Now, let's go plant some apple trees for the Kingdom.
**
Monday, December 05, 2005
IF YOU WANT TO...
There's an old song by a band called 'Daniel Amos' that always makes me cry. It's called "If You Want To" and it's written from God's perspective as if He's singing to us and inviting us to to take His hand and dream with Him.
Here are the lyrics:
If You Want To
I'll pick you up
I'll set you down
We'll fall in love
If you want to
I'll stay right here
Or I'll go away
We'll live forever
If you want to
I'll block the door
Or I'll step outside
We'll change the world
If you want to
I'll turn the key
I'll start the car
We'll drive off into the sunset
If you want to
If you want to
If you want to
If you want to...
from the album "Kalhöun"
Words and music by Terry Taylor
©1991 Twitchen Vibes/ Brainstorm Artists Int'l.. ASCAP/BMI
Here are the lyrics:
If You Want To
I'll pick you up
I'll set you down
We'll fall in love
If you want to
I'll stay right here
Or I'll go away
We'll live forever
If you want to
I'll block the door
Or I'll step outside
We'll change the world
If you want to
I'll turn the key
I'll start the car
We'll drive off into the sunset
If you want to
If you want to
If you want to
If you want to...
from the album "Kalhöun"
Words and music by Terry Taylor
©1991 Twitchen Vibes/ Brainstorm Artists Int'l.. ASCAP/BMI
Friday, December 02, 2005
WHAT IS THE VICTORIOUS CHRISTIAN LIFE? by Keith Giles
WHAT IS THE VICTORIOUS CHRISTIAN LIFE? by Keith Giles
The other day someone at church was praying out loud about how we need to live the victorious Christian life. Something about this bothered me for some reason. I started to wonder what this is all about.
Does the victorious Christian life mean I never experience frustration, suffering, temptation, or spiritual warfare? Does it mean I experience rest, comfort, and plenty because I’m a child of the King?
When I look at the life of the actual “Child of the King” Himself, I don’t see a life free from sorrow, opposition, temptation or pain. Far from it.
What about the cross? Didn’t Jesus say that it was impossible to follow Him without taking up my own cross daily?
Maybe I just have a knee-jerk reaction to statements like this because it smacks of the same old “easy believing, kick-ass” versions of Christianity I rebel against with all my being.
Maybe…
When I think of following Jesus I think of Paul’s statement that the power of Christ is revealed in our weakness, not in our success, or talent.
Where do we locate the victorious Christian life in our weakness? We forget that the soaring with eagles promise comes only after we’ve endured the long season of waiting upon the Lord, which everyone hates passionately.
I think what I am concerned about when I hear the success driven, prayer of Jabez stuff is that we are living within a culture where we attempt to shortcut true discipleship.
For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life
for my sake will find it. – Matthew 16:25
Maybe being a “loser” is the better life after all?
We want the joy, the peace, the fruit and the anointing without actually spending any time at the feet of Jesus, enduring suffering as He did, serving others without accolade, waiting for the answers, praying with bitter tears and holding on to Jesus like there’s no tomorrow.
I think our focus, too often, is on the good life that we think God owes us because we have prayed the prayer and paid our dues, instead of on the simple loving trust in God with our whole lives, no matter what.
David Ruis makes a great comment about how Jesus said He was sending us out like lambs among the wolves. But, we want to be the one’s who swagger in like the movers and the shakers, we want to snap our fingers and have God rain down fire from heaven. We want to pray in faith and receive the bounty of plenty, to the awe of our heathen neighbors.
That will show them.
We are enamored with the way of the wolf. Yet Jesus said he was calling us to be like sheep among the wolves; The weaker ones, not the ones with sharp teeth; The humble ones, not the ones with the cool factor; The vulnerable among those who snarl.
Does this mean we have to hang our heads and accept defeat? Not at all. But, if we are to actually learn to live a life of victory in Jesus, it will be found at His feet, in our weakness, shouldering a cross day in and day out, with our focus on the One we love, not on the victory party in the executive suite.
We must embrace the Truth. The Truth is that every life has moments of bliss, moments of joy, and every life has moments of pain, disappointment and sorrow.
So, rather than seeking after the elusive “Victorious Christian Life”, maybe I’ll settle instead for a walk beside my Master who said, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart for I have overcome the World.”
**
The other day someone at church was praying out loud about how we need to live the victorious Christian life. Something about this bothered me for some reason. I started to wonder what this is all about.
Does the victorious Christian life mean I never experience frustration, suffering, temptation, or spiritual warfare? Does it mean I experience rest, comfort, and plenty because I’m a child of the King?
When I look at the life of the actual “Child of the King” Himself, I don’t see a life free from sorrow, opposition, temptation or pain. Far from it.
What about the cross? Didn’t Jesus say that it was impossible to follow Him without taking up my own cross daily?
Maybe I just have a knee-jerk reaction to statements like this because it smacks of the same old “easy believing, kick-ass” versions of Christianity I rebel against with all my being.
Maybe…
When I think of following Jesus I think of Paul’s statement that the power of Christ is revealed in our weakness, not in our success, or talent.
Where do we locate the victorious Christian life in our weakness? We forget that the soaring with eagles promise comes only after we’ve endured the long season of waiting upon the Lord, which everyone hates passionately.
I think what I am concerned about when I hear the success driven, prayer of Jabez stuff is that we are living within a culture where we attempt to shortcut true discipleship.
For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life
for my sake will find it. – Matthew 16:25
Maybe being a “loser” is the better life after all?
We want the joy, the peace, the fruit and the anointing without actually spending any time at the feet of Jesus, enduring suffering as He did, serving others without accolade, waiting for the answers, praying with bitter tears and holding on to Jesus like there’s no tomorrow.
I think our focus, too often, is on the good life that we think God owes us because we have prayed the prayer and paid our dues, instead of on the simple loving trust in God with our whole lives, no matter what.
David Ruis makes a great comment about how Jesus said He was sending us out like lambs among the wolves. But, we want to be the one’s who swagger in like the movers and the shakers, we want to snap our fingers and have God rain down fire from heaven. We want to pray in faith and receive the bounty of plenty, to the awe of our heathen neighbors.
That will show them.
We are enamored with the way of the wolf. Yet Jesus said he was calling us to be like sheep among the wolves; The weaker ones, not the ones with sharp teeth; The humble ones, not the ones with the cool factor; The vulnerable among those who snarl.
Does this mean we have to hang our heads and accept defeat? Not at all. But, if we are to actually learn to live a life of victory in Jesus, it will be found at His feet, in our weakness, shouldering a cross day in and day out, with our focus on the One we love, not on the victory party in the executive suite.
We must embrace the Truth. The Truth is that every life has moments of bliss, moments of joy, and every life has moments of pain, disappointment and sorrow.
So, rather than seeking after the elusive “Victorious Christian Life”, maybe I’ll settle instead for a walk beside my Master who said, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart for I have overcome the World.”
**
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
THE HARD LIFE
Sorry it's been a while since my last post.
I've been busy at work, trying to get the new Soul Survivor Summer Camp website up and running. With the help of my brother Lito, it's finally (mostly) done:
http://www.soulsurvivorcamp.com
My son Dylan has Chicken Pox. We're not sure if we want David to get it or not..but if he does we'd like it to be quick so he can get it over with.
Last night my Dell laptop, which I use for work and for posting on this blog, just died. It's either a virus, or something in the hard-ware. Not sure which is worse.
For now I'm using a craptacular Toshiba laptop built in 1977 that takes about 30 minutes just to power up.
Wee.
But, I suppose I should be thankful that I have a back-up option or I'd be really screwed.
The third "issue" of the SUBVERSIVE UNDERGROUND (sign up info below) just went out the other day. So far I think it's going ok. I've received a few comments back from people and most are thought-provoking. No "unsubscribe" email notices...yet.
I'm trying to judge what sort of things should go on the UNDERGROUND email newsletter as opposed to the SUBVERSIVE1 blog.
For example, my last UNDERGROUND was a full-blown article which probably belonged here moreso than on the newsletter...and this little entry on my blog is probably something I should be sending out on the newsletter...or whatever.
I'll write more later. Don't want to ramble.
peas,
kg
I've been busy at work, trying to get the new Soul Survivor Summer Camp website up and running. With the help of my brother Lito, it's finally (mostly) done:
http://www.soulsurvivorcamp.com
My son Dylan has Chicken Pox. We're not sure if we want David to get it or not..but if he does we'd like it to be quick so he can get it over with.
Last night my Dell laptop, which I use for work and for posting on this blog, just died. It's either a virus, or something in the hard-ware. Not sure which is worse.
For now I'm using a craptacular Toshiba laptop built in 1977 that takes about 30 minutes just to power up.
Wee.
But, I suppose I should be thankful that I have a back-up option or I'd be really screwed.
The third "issue" of the SUBVERSIVE UNDERGROUND (sign up info below) just went out the other day. So far I think it's going ok. I've received a few comments back from people and most are thought-provoking. No "unsubscribe" email notices...yet.
I'm trying to judge what sort of things should go on the UNDERGROUND email newsletter as opposed to the SUBVERSIVE1 blog.
For example, my last UNDERGROUND was a full-blown article which probably belonged here moreso than on the newsletter...and this little entry on my blog is probably something I should be sending out on the newsletter...or whatever.
I'll write more later. Don't want to ramble.
peas,
kg
Monday, November 21, 2005
LESS IS MORE by Keith Giles
LESS IS MORE by Keith Giles
Moving is one of the most painful and emotionally draining experiences imaginable. I do not recommend it unless absolutely necessary.
Having recently endured the suffering of relocation, I have several observations to share.
The first one is the fact that I have entirely too much.
As we were moving recently, into our new house, I had the very painful experience of moving my stuff into storage for about two weeks and then moving it back out of storage again.
As I went through this process, I found myself repenting of my materialism every few seconds. Finally, those who had come along to help us move even asked me to stop apologizing for all the stuff I had. Maybe I was making them feel guilty about all the stuff they were hanging on to, I’m not sure.
Seriously, I think that if most of what I own were to go up in flames, I’d be a happier person.
Last week, as I was unpacking one of my many boxes, I re-discovered an article in Print Magazine that reviewed the book “On Brand” by Wally Olins. His book took a look at brand identity and our consumerist culture.
Here’s a bit of the article for review:
“Our personal identities are so entwined with brands that it has become difficult to distinguish our preferences from our beliefs. Olins (the author of the book) says that brands have “a kind of spiritual power…In a sense, brand affiliation seems, in our individualistic, materialistic, acquisitive, egocentric era, to have become a kind of replacement for or supplement to religious belief.’
“Olins cites the book ‘Lead Us Into Temptation’ which draws analogies between consumer behavior today and the behavior of individuals in a more conventionally religious era, (imposing) the shopping mall as cathedral, the designer label as crucifix, and so on.
“He asserts that brands have replaced religion…yet answering this question is essesntial. Why have we replaced our spiritual beliefs with products that provide social confidence? Why do more and more of us affiliate with consumerist clubs and with churches, temples, communities- or each other?” – (from the review of the book “On Brand” by Wally Olins; Print Magazine, May/June, 2004).
Why indeed?
It makes me sad to think that, as the Church has retreated from its God-given role in society, the vacuum has been filled by shopping malls, advertising and materialism.
It's like when I was a little kid I'd want that new toy so badly, and a few weeks after I got it I'd realize that it didn't really make me happy. Then I'd see another new toy and want that one, yet once again the disappointment would follow after the initial excitement of acquisition.
The toys never made me happy.
Our society has elevated the act of purchasing, owning and acquiring material wealth above the virtues of giving, sharing or being content with what we have.
Maybe I’m overreacting again? I know that many of my friends accuse me of taking things too seriously, and maybe that’s true.
But, I have learned to take the conviction of the Holy Spirit seriously these days, and as I look at the piles of boxes in my garage, I am cut to the heart. Some of these boxes are actually labeled “Junk”.
Maybe what I’m feeling is a combination of guilt over my materialism, and a genuine shame for having so much, when I have friends who have so little?
One of the little girls at the motel where we serve was in our Kids Rock class this last Sunday. Our lesson was about being thankful and not complaining, as the Israelites did when God continually provided manna for them to survive on.
This sweet little girl, who shares a single room with her parents and her little brother at a local motel, raised her hand and shared with us how she would not complain that way if it was her. “I would be happy that God gave me food to eat and a place to sleep,” she said.
I almost asked her to come up front and finish teaching the lesson while the rest of listened. If anyone understands what it means to be thankful and not to complain, it’s this little girl.
What do I know about feeling thankful? What do I know about being content with little when I have so much? Maybe even too much?
I’m reminded of a section in the book “Fight Club” where Tyler Durden says, “I’m breaking my attachment to physical power and possessions, because only through destroying myself can I discover the great power of my spirit. The liberator who destroys my property is fighting to save my spirit. The teacher who clears all possessions from my path will set me free.”
Earlier on in the same book, the main character is chided by the doorman of his building on the evils of materialism. He says, “A lot of young people try to impress the world and buy too many things…a lot of young people don’t know what they really want...if you don’t know what you want, you end up with a lot you don’t”.
I think maybe now I’m beginning to understand what it is that I want…what I really want…and even more, what I really need.
Maybe that’s why I secretly wish that I could just ditch all my ‘stuff’ and live a more simple life?
Didn’t Jesus warn us that it was possible to gain the whole world and yet lose our soul? Didn’t Jesus say that the man who finds his life will lose it, and the person who looses his life for His sake will find it?
Yeah…I think it was Jesus.
So, should I take a vow of poverty? Should I start donating all my most valuable things to the local Thrift Store? Should I drag my junk out onto the driveway and post a giant sign that says, “Free Stuff”?
Wait a minute…I’m still thinking about this one.
My wife and I have vowed to spend at least one night each week going through at least one box with the intention of getting rid of junk we don’t need and donating things that are superfluous to us but might be of use to others.
It’s not as dramatic as lighting the match, or renting the dumpster, but it’s a start.
“Everybody has one, and one is enough for anybody” – Willy Wonka
**
Moving is one of the most painful and emotionally draining experiences imaginable. I do not recommend it unless absolutely necessary.
Having recently endured the suffering of relocation, I have several observations to share.
The first one is the fact that I have entirely too much.
As we were moving recently, into our new house, I had the very painful experience of moving my stuff into storage for about two weeks and then moving it back out of storage again.
As I went through this process, I found myself repenting of my materialism every few seconds. Finally, those who had come along to help us move even asked me to stop apologizing for all the stuff I had. Maybe I was making them feel guilty about all the stuff they were hanging on to, I’m not sure.
Seriously, I think that if most of what I own were to go up in flames, I’d be a happier person.
Last week, as I was unpacking one of my many boxes, I re-discovered an article in Print Magazine that reviewed the book “On Brand” by Wally Olins. His book took a look at brand identity and our consumerist culture.
Here’s a bit of the article for review:
“Our personal identities are so entwined with brands that it has become difficult to distinguish our preferences from our beliefs. Olins (the author of the book) says that brands have “a kind of spiritual power…In a sense, brand affiliation seems, in our individualistic, materialistic, acquisitive, egocentric era, to have become a kind of replacement for or supplement to religious belief.’
“Olins cites the book ‘Lead Us Into Temptation’ which draws analogies between consumer behavior today and the behavior of individuals in a more conventionally religious era, (imposing) the shopping mall as cathedral, the designer label as crucifix, and so on.
“He asserts that brands have replaced religion…yet answering this question is essesntial. Why have we replaced our spiritual beliefs with products that provide social confidence? Why do more and more of us affiliate with consumerist clubs and with churches, temples, communities- or each other?” – (from the review of the book “On Brand” by Wally Olins; Print Magazine, May/June, 2004).
Why indeed?
It makes me sad to think that, as the Church has retreated from its God-given role in society, the vacuum has been filled by shopping malls, advertising and materialism.
It's like when I was a little kid I'd want that new toy so badly, and a few weeks after I got it I'd realize that it didn't really make me happy. Then I'd see another new toy and want that one, yet once again the disappointment would follow after the initial excitement of acquisition.
The toys never made me happy.
Our society has elevated the act of purchasing, owning and acquiring material wealth above the virtues of giving, sharing or being content with what we have.
Maybe I’m overreacting again? I know that many of my friends accuse me of taking things too seriously, and maybe that’s true.
But, I have learned to take the conviction of the Holy Spirit seriously these days, and as I look at the piles of boxes in my garage, I am cut to the heart. Some of these boxes are actually labeled “Junk”.
Maybe what I’m feeling is a combination of guilt over my materialism, and a genuine shame for having so much, when I have friends who have so little?
One of the little girls at the motel where we serve was in our Kids Rock class this last Sunday. Our lesson was about being thankful and not complaining, as the Israelites did when God continually provided manna for them to survive on.
This sweet little girl, who shares a single room with her parents and her little brother at a local motel, raised her hand and shared with us how she would not complain that way if it was her. “I would be happy that God gave me food to eat and a place to sleep,” she said.
I almost asked her to come up front and finish teaching the lesson while the rest of listened. If anyone understands what it means to be thankful and not to complain, it’s this little girl.
What do I know about feeling thankful? What do I know about being content with little when I have so much? Maybe even too much?
I’m reminded of a section in the book “Fight Club” where Tyler Durden says, “I’m breaking my attachment to physical power and possessions, because only through destroying myself can I discover the great power of my spirit. The liberator who destroys my property is fighting to save my spirit. The teacher who clears all possessions from my path will set me free.”
Earlier on in the same book, the main character is chided by the doorman of his building on the evils of materialism. He says, “A lot of young people try to impress the world and buy too many things…a lot of young people don’t know what they really want...if you don’t know what you want, you end up with a lot you don’t”.
I think maybe now I’m beginning to understand what it is that I want…what I really want…and even more, what I really need.
Maybe that’s why I secretly wish that I could just ditch all my ‘stuff’ and live a more simple life?
Didn’t Jesus warn us that it was possible to gain the whole world and yet lose our soul? Didn’t Jesus say that the man who finds his life will lose it, and the person who looses his life for His sake will find it?
Yeah…I think it was Jesus.
So, should I take a vow of poverty? Should I start donating all my most valuable things to the local Thrift Store? Should I drag my junk out onto the driveway and post a giant sign that says, “Free Stuff”?
Wait a minute…I’m still thinking about this one.
My wife and I have vowed to spend at least one night each week going through at least one box with the intention of getting rid of junk we don’t need and donating things that are superfluous to us but might be of use to others.
It’s not as dramatic as lighting the match, or renting the dumpster, but it’s a start.
“Everybody has one, and one is enough for anybody” – Willy Wonka
**
Friday, November 18, 2005
THE EXTRA MILE by Keith Giles
Jesus talked about going the extra mile. He suggested that, if asked to walk with someone for one mile, that we go two miles without being asked.
This is not about a formula we’re to follow, however. We’re not supposed to make the words of Jesus into another set of laws, but instead, we’re to filter everything through the attitude of love.
So, if the most loving thing to do is to walk that extra mile with someone, then we should do it, not because we’re “supposed to” but because we’re compelled to love others the way Jesus loves them.
Recently I was visiting a church where the pastor’s sermon was about going the extra mile. His attempt was to get us to go above and beyond the everyday, ordinary sort of Christianity in favor of a faith that is more than the mundane.
He was suggesting that we do things like pray for our lost friends, or love our next door neighbors who weren’t yet believers, or read the Word of God every day, taking time to be alone with God in prayer and meditation. That’s when I realized something. This sort of “Extra Mile” Christianity that the pastor was talking about was actually what Jesus had in mind in the first place.
In other words, what we’ve come to think of as the “extra mile” is really the bare minimum that a follower of Jesus should be about anyway.
So, it made me wonder, if Christians aren’t doing all these “extra” things as they go about their everyday life, then just what ARE we doing?
Do we need someone to tell us that we need to love our neighbor, or spend time with God, or pray for our friends? If so, then I think we’ve really got a very low bar when it comes to our faith.
Maybe it’s the fruit of an easy grace, where all we’re required to do is to raise our hand if we don’t want to go to hell and repeat a prayer and maybe sign a card, in order to be considered a “Christian”?
I think we’ve lost the concept of surrendering our life to Christ.
When you think about your own faith walk, what comes to your mind when you think about going the extra mile?
Is it something like praying for an hour each day? Or maybe reading your Bible every night before you go to bed? Maybe it’s closer to helping people around you who are in need, even if it costs you something? Or perhaps you’d equate sharing your faith with total strangers with the extra mile?
Whatever comes to your mind when you think of going that extra mile, I’ll bet that it’s really only what Jesus would’ve expected you to do simply because you’ve surrendered your life to Him.
But what good do these insights do us?
Seriously, what’s the point? Is it so we can feel badly about how little we actually do for Jesus each day? Is it to make some of us feel superior because, in our estimation, we actually do embody this high standard of Christian behavior?
No. The point is that all of us have fallen short of the Glory of God.
All of us.
What is it that prevents us from living that ‘extra mile’ brand of life that Jesus models for us in the scriptures? I think it’s pure and simple; obedience.
There are moments when we respond to God’s Spirit in obedience, taking the opportunity to be Jesus in someone’s life, whether we feel like it or not, and then there are moments when we fail to listen to God’s voice and we do our own thing.
When we obey God, we create the possibility. Maybe that’s why Jesus taught us to pray, ‘Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven’, so that we might cooperate with what God is doing in the moment. When we allow God’s will to be done, and it’s only done when we are obedient to Him, then His Kingdom can break into the here and now and we can experience life ‘as it is in Heaven’.
Jesus said, ‘Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only He who does the will of my Father in Heaven’…and ‘If you love me, keep my commandments’.
Jesus didn’t ever expect that those who would become his disciples would ever do anything less than exactly everything that he taught, commanded, and modeled for them to do. Obedience isn’t an option for those who have surrendered their lives in favor of the Jesus kind of life. Obedience IS the Jesus kind of life.
Of course, when I talk this way people say that I’m being legalistic.
What about Grace, they ask me.
Yes, Grace is awesome. We’re definitely saved by Grace and not by our works, as Paul says in Ephesians.
But, in that very same verse, in the same breath if you will, Paul says that we’re “…saved by Grace to do good works, prepared in advance for us to do.”
So, Grace is for salvation, and it’s for us to have strength to do those good works too, and obedience to Jesus is what the faith walk is all about.
Believing in Jesus is more than having a strong opinion that he exists. It means “putting your whole trust in” Jesus. That’s what Jesus meant when he said, “For whosoever believes in (me) will not perish but have Eternal life” –John 3:16.
The word ‘Believe’ is translated as the Greek for “the kind of knowledge that conceives”, or a relationship that allows an intimate knowledge and complete trust in someone…sort of like the ultimate intimacy that permeates the physical, emotional, and spiritual reality.
Belief, then, becomes about much more than ‘hope’ or ‘agreement’ when we understand this. Belief is actually about complete trust…and surrender…and obedience.
We can’t afford to perpetuate the concept that being a Christian involves having God as our ‘Co-Pilot’.
He’s either the pilot, or you’re flying solo.
**
This is not about a formula we’re to follow, however. We’re not supposed to make the words of Jesus into another set of laws, but instead, we’re to filter everything through the attitude of love.
So, if the most loving thing to do is to walk that extra mile with someone, then we should do it, not because we’re “supposed to” but because we’re compelled to love others the way Jesus loves them.
Recently I was visiting a church where the pastor’s sermon was about going the extra mile. His attempt was to get us to go above and beyond the everyday, ordinary sort of Christianity in favor of a faith that is more than the mundane.
He was suggesting that we do things like pray for our lost friends, or love our next door neighbors who weren’t yet believers, or read the Word of God every day, taking time to be alone with God in prayer and meditation. That’s when I realized something. This sort of “Extra Mile” Christianity that the pastor was talking about was actually what Jesus had in mind in the first place.
In other words, what we’ve come to think of as the “extra mile” is really the bare minimum that a follower of Jesus should be about anyway.
So, it made me wonder, if Christians aren’t doing all these “extra” things as they go about their everyday life, then just what ARE we doing?
Do we need someone to tell us that we need to love our neighbor, or spend time with God, or pray for our friends? If so, then I think we’ve really got a very low bar when it comes to our faith.
Maybe it’s the fruit of an easy grace, where all we’re required to do is to raise our hand if we don’t want to go to hell and repeat a prayer and maybe sign a card, in order to be considered a “Christian”?
I think we’ve lost the concept of surrendering our life to Christ.
When you think about your own faith walk, what comes to your mind when you think about going the extra mile?
Is it something like praying for an hour each day? Or maybe reading your Bible every night before you go to bed? Maybe it’s closer to helping people around you who are in need, even if it costs you something? Or perhaps you’d equate sharing your faith with total strangers with the extra mile?
Whatever comes to your mind when you think of going that extra mile, I’ll bet that it’s really only what Jesus would’ve expected you to do simply because you’ve surrendered your life to Him.
But what good do these insights do us?
Seriously, what’s the point? Is it so we can feel badly about how little we actually do for Jesus each day? Is it to make some of us feel superior because, in our estimation, we actually do embody this high standard of Christian behavior?
No. The point is that all of us have fallen short of the Glory of God.
All of us.
What is it that prevents us from living that ‘extra mile’ brand of life that Jesus models for us in the scriptures? I think it’s pure and simple; obedience.
There are moments when we respond to God’s Spirit in obedience, taking the opportunity to be Jesus in someone’s life, whether we feel like it or not, and then there are moments when we fail to listen to God’s voice and we do our own thing.
When we obey God, we create the possibility. Maybe that’s why Jesus taught us to pray, ‘Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven’, so that we might cooperate with what God is doing in the moment. When we allow God’s will to be done, and it’s only done when we are obedient to Him, then His Kingdom can break into the here and now and we can experience life ‘as it is in Heaven’.
Jesus said, ‘Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only He who does the will of my Father in Heaven’…and ‘If you love me, keep my commandments’.
Jesus didn’t ever expect that those who would become his disciples would ever do anything less than exactly everything that he taught, commanded, and modeled for them to do. Obedience isn’t an option for those who have surrendered their lives in favor of the Jesus kind of life. Obedience IS the Jesus kind of life.
Of course, when I talk this way people say that I’m being legalistic.
What about Grace, they ask me.
Yes, Grace is awesome. We’re definitely saved by Grace and not by our works, as Paul says in Ephesians.
But, in that very same verse, in the same breath if you will, Paul says that we’re “…saved by Grace to do good works, prepared in advance for us to do.”
So, Grace is for salvation, and it’s for us to have strength to do those good works too, and obedience to Jesus is what the faith walk is all about.
Believing in Jesus is more than having a strong opinion that he exists. It means “putting your whole trust in” Jesus. That’s what Jesus meant when he said, “For whosoever believes in (me) will not perish but have Eternal life” –John 3:16.
The word ‘Believe’ is translated as the Greek for “the kind of knowledge that conceives”, or a relationship that allows an intimate knowledge and complete trust in someone…sort of like the ultimate intimacy that permeates the physical, emotional, and spiritual reality.
Belief, then, becomes about much more than ‘hope’ or ‘agreement’ when we understand this. Belief is actually about complete trust…and surrender…and obedience.
We can’t afford to perpetuate the concept that being a Christian involves having God as our ‘Co-Pilot’.
He’s either the pilot, or you’re flying solo.
**
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
JOIN THE SUBVERSIVE UNDERGROUND
Ok, I'm kind of playing with an idea here, but it's only going to be successful if you guys sign up for it.
Basically, I'd like to sign people up for an email journal that I'd send out once a week or so, (I promise not to overload your email box with too much fluff), with thoughts, articles, ideas, and maybe even questions for you guys to respond to.
It would be the same type of stuff I talk about here, but in a more interactive format and only for those who want a little more 'subversive' stuff in their in box.
So...if you think you're interested in being part of this underground list/journal/thang...shoot me an email at the address below. (You can always opt out if it's too boring...or too much email for you).
Send an email to me with the title "underground" to this address to sign up:
keith @ soulsurvivor. net (take the spaces out of course)
The articles I post here will not be emailed to you. Only new articles and columns that aren't online at this blog will be sent out a few times each week.
Welcome to the underground.
kg
Basically, I'd like to sign people up for an email journal that I'd send out once a week or so, (I promise not to overload your email box with too much fluff), with thoughts, articles, ideas, and maybe even questions for you guys to respond to.
It would be the same type of stuff I talk about here, but in a more interactive format and only for those who want a little more 'subversive' stuff in their in box.
So...if you think you're interested in being part of this underground list/journal/thang...shoot me an email at the address below. (You can always opt out if it's too boring...or too much email for you).
Send an email to me with the title "underground" to this address to sign up:
keith @ soulsurvivor. net (take the spaces out of course)
The articles I post here will not be emailed to you. Only new articles and columns that aren't online at this blog will be sent out a few times each week.
Welcome to the underground.
kg
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
DOWN RIVER by Keith Giles
DOWN RIVER by Keith Giles
Here I sit in my new house in Orange, far away from the familiar life I once knew in Tustin.
Just today I was reading in “Practitioners” about how Jesus took the blind man who was brought to him outside the village, alone.
The point being made was about how Jesus often takes us to the unfamiliar places before he works a miracle in our lives because he wants us to depend totally on him and not on what we know or have experienced.
I am in unfamiliar territory.
Just the other day, before I read this chapter on the unfamiliar, I caught myself driving around the city of Tustin where I know the trails and the landmarks by heart.
It’s easier to live in the places where we’re at home. It’s more difficult to venture outside our comfort zones, or our home territory, to explore a new village, or discover a fresh idea.
When I first began to explore this idea of leading a House Church, I heard pastors ask me what the model is for what I’m doing. My peers scratch their heads when I talk about House Churches and ask me to provide evidence that this is a viable method of evangelism or missions.
You know what I realized? It’s impossible to blaze a new trail and then ask for the roadmap first.
If you’re called to pioneer something, it will mean that there will not be a trail for you to follow as you move along.
Since those first few days of exploration into the House Church movement, I have discovered that I am not so alone. There are people all over Orange County, and the Nation, who have been doing this sort of thing for a very long time now. It’s just been under the radar of most of contemporary Christian society.
Even in this I feel the tension. Do I blaze a trail all alone, leaning only on God and His divine guidance? Or do I glean from the wisdom of those who have taken this path before me and save myself the grief of repeating the mistakes that they made long ago?
When it comes to the neighborhood we find ourselves in now, I wonder how best to approach the launch of our mission here.
Do I invite my neighbors to a friendly cookout first? Get to know them as friends and as people before I ask them if they’d like to come over on Sunday mornings to pray and study the Bible with us?
Or, do I start an ALPHA class series during the week first? Have a meal, watch a DVD segment each Thursday night and host the resulting discussion groups in hopes of winning some of them to Christ before we launch the Sunday service?
I am wrestling with several different combinations of these scenarios.
So, now I find myself in a great, new house, here in Orange. In unfamiliar territory. Unsure of exactly how to be a missionary to these people. Waiting for a sign.
Last year, back in March, my friend had a dream about me. He said he saw me dressed in a bright yellow suit looking full of life and light. Then he said the color changed to orange and he heard God say, “He will astound and confound” before he woke up.
What I find interesting is that my decision to leave my pastor’s position has left many of my friends, including this friend, very confounded. It’s also interesting that I’ve moved to the city of Orange to start a House Church.
Then, last week, Wendy and I were invited to have dinner with an older couple at our church. She shared with me a vision that God showed her during the Sunday service back on September 25th of this year.
She showed me her journal and the only thing on the page was a drawing of a large house with three upper floors (a total of four floors) and each floor had 3 windows in it. The lower floor had only 2 windows and the door in the middle.
She said God spoke to her through this vision (as I was sitting in front of her during the worship set) and told her that the house was symbolic of the new house church we would be starting. (No one knew we were leaving to start a House Church at this time, btw).
The windows, she told me, were symbolic of all the new windows of opportunity that God was going to open for us. There were eleven total, plus the door itself on the ground floor.
God has been sending people to us lately to encourage us and to spur us on towards this new endeavor and it’s nothing short of amazing.
Even though I honestly prefer, in some ways, the familiar sights, smells and sounds of our old life, I am constantly challenged and compelled towards this new phase of our ministry.
More on this later…
Peace,
Keith
Here I sit in my new house in Orange, far away from the familiar life I once knew in Tustin.
Just today I was reading in “Practitioners” about how Jesus took the blind man who was brought to him outside the village, alone.
The point being made was about how Jesus often takes us to the unfamiliar places before he works a miracle in our lives because he wants us to depend totally on him and not on what we know or have experienced.
I am in unfamiliar territory.
Just the other day, before I read this chapter on the unfamiliar, I caught myself driving around the city of Tustin where I know the trails and the landmarks by heart.
It’s easier to live in the places where we’re at home. It’s more difficult to venture outside our comfort zones, or our home territory, to explore a new village, or discover a fresh idea.
When I first began to explore this idea of leading a House Church, I heard pastors ask me what the model is for what I’m doing. My peers scratch their heads when I talk about House Churches and ask me to provide evidence that this is a viable method of evangelism or missions.
You know what I realized? It’s impossible to blaze a new trail and then ask for the roadmap first.
If you’re called to pioneer something, it will mean that there will not be a trail for you to follow as you move along.
Since those first few days of exploration into the House Church movement, I have discovered that I am not so alone. There are people all over Orange County, and the Nation, who have been doing this sort of thing for a very long time now. It’s just been under the radar of most of contemporary Christian society.
Even in this I feel the tension. Do I blaze a trail all alone, leaning only on God and His divine guidance? Or do I glean from the wisdom of those who have taken this path before me and save myself the grief of repeating the mistakes that they made long ago?
When it comes to the neighborhood we find ourselves in now, I wonder how best to approach the launch of our mission here.
Do I invite my neighbors to a friendly cookout first? Get to know them as friends and as people before I ask them if they’d like to come over on Sunday mornings to pray and study the Bible with us?
Or, do I start an ALPHA class series during the week first? Have a meal, watch a DVD segment each Thursday night and host the resulting discussion groups in hopes of winning some of them to Christ before we launch the Sunday service?
I am wrestling with several different combinations of these scenarios.
So, now I find myself in a great, new house, here in Orange. In unfamiliar territory. Unsure of exactly how to be a missionary to these people. Waiting for a sign.
Last year, back in March, my friend had a dream about me. He said he saw me dressed in a bright yellow suit looking full of life and light. Then he said the color changed to orange and he heard God say, “He will astound and confound” before he woke up.
What I find interesting is that my decision to leave my pastor’s position has left many of my friends, including this friend, very confounded. It’s also interesting that I’ve moved to the city of Orange to start a House Church.
Then, last week, Wendy and I were invited to have dinner with an older couple at our church. She shared with me a vision that God showed her during the Sunday service back on September 25th of this year.
She showed me her journal and the only thing on the page was a drawing of a large house with three upper floors (a total of four floors) and each floor had 3 windows in it. The lower floor had only 2 windows and the door in the middle.
She said God spoke to her through this vision (as I was sitting in front of her during the worship set) and told her that the house was symbolic of the new house church we would be starting. (No one knew we were leaving to start a House Church at this time, btw).
The windows, she told me, were symbolic of all the new windows of opportunity that God was going to open for us. There were eleven total, plus the door itself on the ground floor.
God has been sending people to us lately to encourage us and to spur us on towards this new endeavor and it’s nothing short of amazing.
Even though I honestly prefer, in some ways, the familiar sights, smells and sounds of our old life, I am constantly challenged and compelled towards this new phase of our ministry.
Peace,
Keith
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