ALL WE NEED IS LOVE

ALL WE NEED IS LOVE by Keith Giles

I've never been a big Beatles fan, but I think they were on to something when they suggested that "All We Need Is Love". According to Jesus, this is our main calling, to love one another. We are to be a people who are known for our extravagant love. We are commanded to go so far as to love even our Enemies.

As you may imagine, love is not an easy thing to do. I've discovered that love is only easy until you start trying to put it into practice and then you suddenly realize that it costs more than you're willing to pay, it asks more than you're willing to give, and it hurts more than you thought possible.

Love is not for the faint of heart.

In 1 Corinthians 12 and 13, the Apostle Paul reveals to us that love is actually the greatest of all spiritual gifts. Without it, we are empty and our efforts are useless. Love, the sort of love we are called as followers of Jesus to share with others, is a supernatural force that we must be filled up with by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Human love is conditional. It is based on the principal of mutual exchange. I will love you if you will love me. But the love of God, the love that Jesus commands us to share, is unconditional love. It is sacrificial love. It is love that is given regardless of attitude or position or what can be gained.

This is the sort of love that is kicking my butt right now.

At the beginning of this year I shared with our House Church a vision for us to walk through "Concentric Circles of Love" where we would begin with our own families, and then radiate outward to our church family, and then our neighbors, our co-workers, and then to the community around us.

I still believe this is God's heart for us, but now I think I realize that, without a sincere miracle from God, none of us will ever get beyond the first circle. I know that I'm quickly realizing my capacity for love is not as deep as I first imagined.

I'm encouraged, however, that Paul's assertion regarding love is that we cannot do it on our own. We are not expected to have within us a love that is equal to God's love. But, if we will humble ourselves and seek His face, and ask God to fill us with His kind of love, He will.

God's desire for us is to be known as people who love like He loves. He has commanded us to live this way. He knows we can't accomplish this by ourselves, so He is faithful to fill us with His perfect love when we admit that we don't have it.

I'm learning now that, every day, I need to ask God for His Holy Spirit to fill me with His Love for others. It's part of the daily surrender, the daily dieing to self, the daily conversion to Christ, that all of us must seek if we are ever to be the people He is calling us to be.

Conversatio Morem!

Peace,
Keith
http://www.MissionHouseChurch.com

MY FIRST BOOK

Yesterday I spent some time formatting my first book project, “The Gospel: For Here Or To Go?” for publishing.

 

It’s shaping up great!

 

Today I got confirmation from a good friend, who just happens to be a published author himself, that he will write an introduction to my book and even help me proof it.

 

It helps to have friends, doesn’t it?

 

I’ll probably self-publish the book and offer for sale as a link off of this main website.

 

Details soon.

 

Keith

 

 

 

 

 

PURPOSE?

Sometimes I wonder about my role in the Universe. What is my purpose in the grand scheme of things?

 

Last night during our Mission House Church meeting, we prayed for a friend of mine who works at a very major animation studio (which shall remain nameless). He has received a very specific calling from God about his place in the company and several of his concepts are being pursued for development.

 

As we prayed for my friend, I began to reflect on what my overall “Kingdom Footprint” looked like. Maybe I assume it must be something epic and world-changing because of my inflated ego?  Probably.

 

Is my major calling to write and publish a book? I’m working to self-publish my first book project sometime this year with another one already finished for next year. Is that it? Or is my calling to pastor people like my friend who are stepping into the National spotlight with a chance to communicate the values of the Kingdom to the adolescent mind? Maybe my calling is just to be a good husband and father who learns humility and finds the Grace to love people the way Jesus did?

 

I think this speaks to my previous [Subversive Underground] article about my concept of “Greatness” and God’s definition, which are wildly opposite it seems.

 

I do have aspirations of publishing my books and helping others to really grasp the Gospel of The Kingdom and walk it out in their everyday life. I am blessed that I get to write my little e-newsletter each week and have 150 or so people read it and (hopefully) get blessed by it. I am blessed that webzines like TheOoze.com and Ginkworld.net and SeedStories.com regularly publish my articles.

 

I do have a calling to continually pastor our House Church. I am blessed that God has poured out His Grace and Favor on our Mission House Church this last year. I am blessed to see people really beginning to see the Kingdom and walk in it every day.

 

I do have a calling to be a Godly husband and father. I am blessed that my wife and I are cradled in the loving arms of God our Abba every single day. I am blessed that my sons know and love God and that they have such a simple and sincere faith in Jesus. I am blessed that God has continually taught me how to walk daily in the Spirit and that He still has patience with me as I stumble through my walk of faith.

 

God has been showing me lately that there are Kingdom concepts that I understand but have yet learned how to actually implement effectively. Such as “Loving One Another” and “Blessing Those Who Persecute You”. 

 

Loving others is really kicking my butt right now.

 

Loving my friends who are caught in adultery has brought a rift in our relationship. Loving my brothers in Christ has meant risk and truth and accountability. I am learning that life outside my comfort zone, although essential for Kingdom Life, is hard and very…uhmm…”Uncomfortable”.

 

Still, we follow on and seek His face.

 

“…where else can we go? You have the words of life.”

 

Kg

 

 

 

 

 

TOP 10 THINGS EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD KNOW (But Probably Doesn't)

TOP 10 THINGS EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD KNOW (But Probably Doesn’t)

By Keith Giles

*The articles published so far on my [Subversive Underground] E-Newsletter and also online as part of a monthly

series over at www.GinkWorld.net

 

10- The Christian Sub-Culture is not healthy for you

9- The Kingdom of God is NOT the American Dream

8- Obedience to Jesus is NOT Optional

7- Work is not a bad word

6 – We ARE the Church!

 

*So..have I missed anything so far? Anything you think belongs on this list?

 

I've already established the entire Top 10 in advance, but I'm curious if any of you have an idea for this series that

I might have missed...or that might end up in "Another 10 Things Every Christian Should Know" series to follow?

 

Let me know...

Keith

EMAIL ME AT: "elysiansky" (at) "hotmail" (dot) "com"

 

PROVERB

He who knows not and knows not he knows not; He is a fool. Shun him.
He who knows not and knows he knows not; He is simple. Teach him.
He who knows and knows not he knows; He is asleep. Wake him.
He who knows and knows he knows; He is wise. Follow him.
- Anonymous

STOP CHRISTIAN CONSUMERISM

I just LOVE this!

http://stopconsuming.org/STOPresolution.html

Join the cause!

I'd love to network with this guy for the upcoming
Non-Con '08 in March.

Check it out and support this, please..

http://stopconsuming.org/STOPresolution.html

kg

FROM THE VAULTS

FROM THE VAULTS

*NOTE: This article is available on my blog at the link below. It originally appeared a few years ago in GQ Magazine and was written by Walter Kirn, who willingly spent several days immersed in the Christian Bubble (or Sub-Culture) which he calls "The Ark". Great insights. Cutting commentary.
Enjoy!
kg
**

"What Would Jesus Do?" by Walter Kirn
(Originally Published in GQ Magazine)
http://subversive1.blogspot.com/2005/01/what-would-jesus-do-by-walter-kirn.html

WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?BUT MORE, IMPORTANT, WHAT WERE JESUS' FITNESS SECRETS? IF YOU WERE ONE OF THE GROWING MILLIONS OF AMERICANS LIVING IN THE MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR CHRISTIAN ALTERNACULTURE
—IN WHICH EVERYTHING IN MAINSTREAM CULTURE GETS CLONED AND THEN
BLEACHED OF "SINFUL" CONTENT—YOU'D KNOW. WALTER KIRN SPENDS
SEVEN STRANGE DAYS WALKING IN THE SHOES OF THE FAITHFUL.

DAY ONE: RESOLUTlONS
Today I will pray for Jewel, the singer-songwriter, "that Jewel's artistry in music and poetry will draw her audience into an encounter with truth." Tomorrow I'11 pray for Paul Allen, the
Microsoft billionaire, "that Allen and others working on the leading edge of interactive media will pursue their objectives with integrity." And later this week, in the manner and order prescribed by Praying for the Worlds 365 Most Influential People: 5 Minutes a Day to Change Your World, I will pray for Michael Crichton, the author/producer; for Jesse Helms, the North Carolina senator; and for Bill Nye, who hosts TV's Bill Nye the Science
Guy.

Today I will start reading Desecration, the ninth installment of the Left Behind series, a best-selling fictional treatment of the Apocalypse that pits the heroic Rayford Steele ("original member of the Tribulation Force3 against the cloven-hoofed Nicolae Carpathia ("self-appointed Global Community potentate3. Today I will dine on foods from What Would Jesus Eat? by Don Colbert, M.D., heeding Dr. Colbert's solemn warning that "eating a diet
high in salt, low in fiber, very high in fat and sugar, and virtually void of nutrients is not the way Jesus ate. Today I will ask my daughter, Maisie, 3, to pick out a video from the Bibleman
series, a live-action superhero saga for kids directed by and featuring Willie Aames of Eight Is Enough and Charles in Charge fame.

Today I will plug in my TVGuardian, a handy electronic chaperone whose "patent pending, award winning technology" filters out "95% to 100% of foul language from TV shows" and replaces objectionable phrases like She's such a #%&#h! and Oh &#!t! with She's such a
nag! and Oh crud!

Today I will leave behind the fallen world of secular American pop culture and enter the self-contained parallel universe of American Christian pop culture, within which I've vowed to dwell, exclusively, for seven days and nights, watching PAX instead of NBC and letting Pat Robertson be my Tom Brokaw. But first, before I do any of these things, I will read from my new prayer book and ask God "to bless Jewel with safety, meaningful relationships" and, of course, "success."

DAY TWO: ADJUSTMENT
I wake aboard the Ark....

MORE IN THE LINK:
http://subversive1.blogspot.com/2005/01/what-would-jesus-do-by-walter-kirn.html

GOOD TO ME

GOOD TO ME

I just wrote a new worship song this Thursday called "Good To Me" that's based on Zephaniah 3 where it says that "God delights in you. He sings over you. He will quiet you with His love"...which always blesses me.

Anyway, for some reason my [Subversive Underground] is being delayed by the fine folks at Feedblitz, I think. This week's article was written and posted on May 2nd and as of today, May 5th at 9:44pm PST it has still not been sent out to our 150 faithful subscribers....sorry.

I've done a few little tricks of my own to jump-start the feed. Hopefully those work and tomorrow morning the latest [SU] will send. If not, people will assume I've flaked off a week, which I most certainly have NOT!

(ahem)

Anyway, for those of you who have been praying for me (and you know who you are)...I've FINALLY got a full-time job!!

YIPEE!!

Today I accepted a full-time sales position at a company in Fullerton that designs, manufactures and distributes high-pressure cleaning systems for professional-grade industries and carpet cleaners.

Yes...very, very sexy isn't it?

So, if I do well in this new job (and I pray that I will) the potential is that I could make some very serious money. (Oh please, oh, please, oh please!!)

Don't stop praying!

I've got about 4 different [Subversive Underground] articles brewing at the moment...wanna hear what they are?

OK!

One is on "Lopsided Community" and how the modern/traditional church in America has misunderstood what true community should look like and the dangers of doing so.

Another is on my personal struggle with Constantinian Models of Church and balancing this with grace and love towards my brothers and sisters in the Traditional church model. *This is a tough one to write about since I admittedly struggle with my feelings and opinions on this very issue.

Another is on "Real Forgiveness" as Jesus teaches it and let me warn you in advance, the teachings of Jesus on forgiveness would make your Sunday School teacher explode into tiny pieces. No...seriously.

And the other one is Part 6 in my ongoing series "Top 10 Things Every Christian Should Know (But Probably Doesn't)" over at Ginkworld.net right now. Parts 10 through 7 are online now...at least I was told that part 7 posts this weekend.

I'll probably be posting a lot more over at TheOoze.com in the coming months. They seem to like my writing and I get a LOT more response from readers over there too. I like feedback. It's really one of the main reasons I started this blog and the [SU] newsletter...and the [SU] Forum (which only Martin G. and two other guys in Africa ever post at...but that's another story.

So...this post is also a test to see if the new blogger feature of email posting actually works or not. My first test from my hotmail account came out wonky so I'm trying another web-based email account for this one.

Cross your fingers.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Peas,
Keith

RECOMMENDED READING LIST FOR NON-CON '08

I've just posted a list of articles and books for our reading list as we await the Non-Con '08 with Jackie Pullinger and David Ruis over at the website:
http://www.non-con.com

Take a look!

kg

To Believe

Sometimes I've been so focused on discovering what it means to die to myself, and to take up my cross, and to endure suffering as a means to humility, that I forget that God is good and that He loves me and that He takes delight in me.

Somehow both things are true. I need to endure suffering. I need to humble myself. I need to discover the power of Christ in the depths of my own weakness. Yet at the same time, God's love for me is legendary. It is beyond imagination and expression.

Because I can become numb to God's amazing love for me, I sometimes also forget that He loves to bless His children. He loves to give them good gifts. He loves to make them smile.

I've been out of full-time work for about ten months now. Because I've been so fixated on dying to myself, I've started to assume that God really doesn't want to bless me with a great job. When people pray for me and ask God to bring me a job beyond my imagination, or better than my wildest dreams, I unconsciously smirk inside. I seriously doubt those words. I appreciate the sentiment. I am grateful for their kindness. But I doubt the truth of the words in the prayers about God's intentions toward me.

I suspect that God will give me a job that just barely covers rent and bills. Something mundane and possibly even painful and uncomfortable. I mean, the whole reason my family and I have been enduring all of this pain and difficulty and challenge for these 10 months now is all to teach me how to carry my cross and humble myself, isn't it? So, why would my job, whatever it is, whenever it comes, be any different?

I don't know. But, this morning, around 4am I couldn't sleep and I got out of bed. I walked to our den and knelt down in front of the sofa. I prayed and asked my Abba, my Daddy, to please provide a good job for me, soon. I prayed and I asked Him for a job I would really enjoy. I prayed for a place where I could use my gifts and talents and still provide for my family here in Orange County.

As I prayed I began to take courage. I began to feel hope rise up within me again. I recalled a verse from James that says, "You have not because you ask not" and so I started to ask God, from my heart, for what I really hoped for; A new job, a good job, and soon.

I wish I could say I am now totally convinced that all will work out for the best. Right now I think I do. I have a small hope. But, still, something inside me isn't so sure that my season of enduring pain is really about to be over so soon...

Excuse me, I think I need to go back and pray a little more.

peace,
keith

A LETTER FROM JACKIE PULLINGER

A Letter From Jackie Pullinger

I got this email today from my hero, Jackie Pullinger. She's our main keynote speaker for next year's NON-CON '08 (http://www.non-con.com) and the author of "Chasing the Dragon" from Regal Books. She's a missionary to street children and drug addicts and prostitutes in Hong Kong.

***
Dear Keith,

Thank you for your email. Yes, I am still planning to join you next year. I will be in San Jose 14th - 17th September and Fesno 21st and 22nd September.

Here is some of our news.

I have a frequent dream. I mean it is really a dream. At least twice a month I dream of the Walled City. It is never quite like the Walled City was but similar, as the whole place looked like a parody of a film set. I always seem to be walking down yet more dark lanes and I'm always doing the same thing - looking for rooms or little apartments to rent. This is either for me to live in or for poor people to live in or some of our teams to live in to reach the poor or a place for people to meet in. My latest one was last night when I was in a very dark place and for the first time I was rather afraid it might be filled with cockroaches, but it was so dark, I wouldn't be able to see.

My fortieth anniversary and the musical dance production of Chasing the Dragon have stirred up many of these Walled City memories, so I did a count. Since I've been in Hong Kong I have personally lived in 29 different places and the last one is nearly 10 years so you can see how often I moved. We then did a count up of how many my friends and I have rented to help addicts get off drugs or rehabilitated families or send teams out in this country alone, we've counted up 159 and we may have forgotten a few.

The latest one is we need to move our factory. As you know we have up to 65 teenagers with us at any one time called 'GoGetters'. They are called non-engaged youth in Hong Kong. That means they have fallen out of the school system and no school will take them. They are considered delinquent, but have actually been neglected and certainly disparaged. They come to live with us and after a few days will all believe in Jesus and then they want to stay for a long time. When they have settled down, and have started to feel safe enough, we send them back to our own school programme, as the Hong Kong system has not helped them. Right now our lease is up and we cannot continue to rent that place, so we are looking for a new place, factory or warehouse. Pray that we'll find the one.

Tenders for the construction of the next phase of Shing Mun Springs should be going out in the next month or two. You know Government wheels move extremely slowly, but we desperately need more places for these teenagers to live in. We've got Probation Officers and Social Workers queuing up and as yet have not been able to take many girls.

Our India team set off last Thursday for Mumbai, where they'll start by learning Hindi and getting to know people and seeing what Jesus develops. Eventually we hope to have teams placed in the countries that go along the Opium Trail to China. On the China front we can't report any official news still, but unofficially there are some wonderful openings and stuff going on and lives being changed. So maybe we'll never be officially within the system but we are still hoping and praying.


This comes with much love

Jackie
***

MUSTARD IN ORANGE

If you live in Orange County, California you're invited to join me and a few of the men from The Mission (our house church in Orange) tonight at 7pm for our first Men's Gathering. We're meeting at The Mustard Cafe in Orange, just south of the Orange Circle on Glassell. The plan is to meet every-other Tuesday together to encourage and pray for one another.

If you're curious about visiting our house church, this will be the place to come and get to know some of our leaders.

So far our Thursday night meetings have been consistently great and our Sunday morning services together have really started to grow quickly too. Soon we'll have to seriously discuss a second group...hmmm...

Can't wait to see what God does next!

Peas,
Keith

WHERE DO OUR TAX DOLLARS GO?

WHERE DO OUR TAX DOLLARS GO?
By Matt Fiedler

With the income-tax return filing deadline quickly approaching, taxes are near the top of many Americans’ minds. Since the government collects taxes in order to finance public services, tax season is a good time to examine where the tax dollars go.

All told, the federal government spent a bit less than $2.7 trillion dollars in fiscal year 2006, representing about one-fifth of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or slightly less than the historical average for the last three decades. [1] As shown in Figure 1, about three-fifths of federal expenditures went to three areas, each of which comprised about one-fifth of the budget:

Defense and security: In 2006, some 21 percent of the budget, or $557 billion, went to pay for defense, homeland security, and security-related international activities. While more than $100 billion went to support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the bulk of spending in this category reflects the underlying costs of the Department of Defense and other security-related services.

Social Security: Another 21 percent of the budget, or $549 billion, went to Social Security, which provided retirement benefits averaging $964 per month to 34 million retired workers (and dependents of retirees) in the last month of fiscal year 2006. Social Security also provided survivors’ benefits to 6.6 million surviving children and spouses of deceased workers and disability benefits to 8.5 million disabled workers

(MORE IN THE LINK BELOW)
http://www.cbpp.org/4-10-07tax2.htm

CHRISTIANITYVERSION 0.0

CHRISTIANITY VERSION O.O
By Keith Giles

A friend recently brought an article in the September 2002 issue of GQ magazine to my attention. (Also posted here on this blog, btw). The author, Walter Kirn, an unbeliever himself, wrote a blistering yet painfully honest article called “What Would Jesus Do?” that explored the little Christian ghetto that many of us live in. His morbid curiosity compelled him to explore this world that was almost exactly like the one he lived in, but without any substance. He described how he discovered product after product that essentially cloned the mainstream culture and leached it of sinfulness, and, as a byproduct, all relevance and meaning.

He noted, “What makes the stuff so half-assed, so thin, so weak and cumulatively so demoralizing … has nothing to do with faith. The problem is lack of faith. [The Christian subculture] is a bad Xerox of the mainstream, not a truly distinctive or separate achievement. Without the courage to lead, it numbly follows, picking up the major media’s scraps and gluing them back together with a cross on top.”

What would happen if, instead of trying to create our own sanitized version of the world, we simply set ourselves apart from it? I can’t help thinking that the most radical thing that a modern Christian could ever do is simply to act out the things that Jesus told us to do—things like loving our enemies, giving freely to anyone who asks us, forgiving everyone no matter what and being gracious with everyone around us would have a much more powerful impact on the culture than Christian breath mints ever could.

Isn’t it more important to be set apart from the culture and to be known by how we are “unlike” the world? I feel like its time for Christianity Version 0.0 to be launched. It’s time to make a difference by being different.

Ever wonder why Christianity isn’t taken very seriously in today’s society? Why “Christian” has become synonymous with “cheesy”? Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims seem to command much more respect from the average person than do Christians. Maybe it’s because Buddhists and Hindus don’t create their own little versions of the world we live in for their own benefit and consumption.

Our attempts to copy the culture, albeit in a sanitized version, have failed to impress the world. We have everything from Christian radio and television to Christian coffee and candy. We have the Dove Awards, the Christian version of The Grammy Awards. We have Christian music, a subculture that creates the same music, but with a “message.” We’ve become a faith that emulates rather than impacts.

We’ve tried so hard to show the world around us that “Christians can rock too” and that “Christians can be just as funny and cool” as they are … just a little more “holy.” The end result seems to be that the world sees no intrinsic difference between them and us, except maybe for the packaging and the lack of quality.

Where did we get this idea from? Certainly not from Jesus. Jesus was relevant to His culture. He spoke their language. He told stories that they could relate to in order to illustrate truth. He didn’t create a sanitized version of the popular culture. He didn’t instruct us to do so, either. If anything, Jesus created a movement that was intended to be counter to the culture, not a sanitized version of the same. He was more interested in creating a people that were known for all the ways they were different, not the ways they were the same as the world … only better.

Ask yourself something. Can you name the top five most effective, culturally relevant ministries to come out of the body of Christ in the last 10 years? You know, the one’s that have had a profound, lasting impact on the culture by modelling the character of Jesus?

No? For the life of me, I can’t either.

Time to create a version of Christianity that isn’t a version of anything at all. It’s time for Christianity version zero point zero.

Someone hit the reset button …
***
[Keith Giles is one of the world's greatest enigmas. Ruggedly handsome, and yet surprisingly gentle and compassionate with small animals, Keith actually has a very weak grasp of reality and often talks to himself in the bathroom mirror. He's currently writing two books about spiritual formation and missional life. He and his wife and two boys are on an adventure leading a house church called "The Mission" in Southern California.
***
NOTE: this article was written about two years ago, but I think it's worth repeating. BTW, I spoke to Walter Kirn soon after writing this and it turns out he does profess faith in Christ, but he wrote this when he was the fiction editor at GQ in order to provoke the Body of Christ to change its tune. I had always intended to interview Mr. Kirn, and he consented to one, but I never got around to doing so. Maybe one day..?


Love to hear your thoughts...
kg

of iron [poem]

"of iron"

of iron in my
blood on the ground
to the floor
and the smell
of death and the taste
of tears in my mouth
a screaming prayer
hope a glimmer
of light
beneath a door
locked with a chain
or iron in my heart
on my wrist
burning scars
of shame
deeper than I
ever
believed

by keith giles
*written for "Freedom Day '07"

CLOSE TO HOME

CLOSE TO HOME by Keith Giles

I've recently become aware of a growing number of under-age prostitutes here on the streets of central Orange County. What alarmed me most was that I could find no Christian ministry that was currently addressing this need. No Church, no para-church organization, not even a secular non-profit, was trying to help these girls get off the streets.

I called one prominent Christian ministry and they told me they could only help a girl if she had a valid I.D., a social security card and was over 18 years of age. What if I find a girl on the streets who is sixteen and wants to get off the streets? Do I send her away? What if she is from China or Mexico or Thailand and she’s been brought here against her will? What then? There was no answer.

Another friend who works closely with the homeless here in Orange County told me that if I wanted to raise funds to care for these girls I couldn’t call them prostitutes. "Emphasize their homelessness, or call them single moms, or categorize your ministry as being to under-age addicts, but you'll find that Churches here will not give money to help prostitutes". That burned me.

At first I was greatly disturbed, even angry, that not a single Christian church or ministry would take the time to reach out to these girls and help them, or at least extend the compassion and love of Jesus to them. Isn't this exactly where Jesus, our Lord, would be if He were walking the streets of Orange County today? Then I realized that I did know about this problem and I was also unwilling to drop everything and make this my ministry. I am still left wondering what to do about this. Is it my personal calling to act on behalf of these girls? Am I only to raise awareness and challenge others here in Orange County to get involved? I still don't know.

I've often said that I am an activist. (Most recently in this week's [Subversive Underground] article "Immune" for instance).

For me, it's impossible to call yourself a follower of Jesus and become passive about injustice.

But I am only one person. I have a family I can barely provide for each month. I am pastoring a small house church and trying to love and serve the families on our street as an incarnational missionary. I have been serving a local motel where families live in poverty for over four years now. There are several individuals and families that I am committed to serving and helping and loving into the Kingdom of God already. How could I possibly add a ministry to prostitutes to my schedule? This is not a part-time, weekend ministry. This would consume my life and monopolize every hour of the day.

What I do know is that a significant part of my personal calling is to write about what I see and experience and learn. There's no doubt in my mind about that. At the same time, I constantly feel a tension between being a writer who spurs others on to action and being a practitioner of compassion and justice myself. I never want to be someone who writes about issues but never gets involved.

Maybe that's why this issue concerns me so much. I feel a strong compulsion to speak out and raise awareness on the issue of teenage prostitution on Harbor blvd, but I know that I personally can't do very much to go out and minister to them myself on a daily basis.

I took a small team out to the streets of Santa Ana twice last year to try to get to know these girls and share the love of Jesus with them. It was a drop in the bucket and required a large level of committment from all of us.

For now I continue to pray and ask the Lord to show me what He is calling me to do about this.

How do I reconcile my calling to love others with my calling to pastor this house church and be a good father to my children?

This is my challenge. I cannot let this go.

More later...
kg

What counts for eternity?

"What counts for eternity?
Only that good which is done for the love of doing it.
Only those plans in which the welfare of others is the master thought.
Only those labors in which the sacrifice is greater than the reward.
Only those gifts in which the giver forgets himself"
-Henry Van Dyke

FREEDOM DAY- POSTSCRIPT

FREEDOM DAY- Postscript

1250 people in attendance. Two local news crews. One massive community art wall. One amazing event.

My buddy Greg Russinger hit this one out of the park. I wish more churches had been there, especially those who have a stated concern for issues of justice locally here in the OC. There were several churches conspicuously absent. Otherwise, there was a lot of great information, a lot of people who went home knowing they cannot look away.

I've begun to pray about writing for the local newspaper, or the OCWeekly (a free weekly newspaper with an insane distribution count and a history of reporting on issues the local newspapers ignore). I'm sort of tired of trying to wake of the church on issues of justice (or injustice) and now I'm feeling God's call to call attention to things that grieve His heart. I need to write these stories for whoever will listen. I need to provoke the people of God to move, or to wallow in their own apathy while the pagans take steps to "do justice, and love mercy".

More on this over on the [Subversive Underground] later this week...I promise.

peas,
kg

ONE VOICE TO END SLAVERY- MARCH 25TH

Here's a great FREE event coming up next Sunday afternoon that I want to invite you to.

I'll be there along with event host Greg Russinger (my friend), and several hundred others who are concerned about human trafficking, children-at-risk and slavery.

FREEDOM DAY Event website: www.onevoicetoendslavery.com

On Sunday, March 25th, a human trafficking conference will take placeat Vanguard University. Called Freedom Day, it's being planned byyoung adult volunteers from various organizations including WorldVision International, STOP the Traffik, and several universities.It's also being supported by the Rescue & Restore Unity Coalition ofSo.Calif, of which the OC Human Trafficking Task Force, LA HumanTrafficking Coalition, and BSCC.

This conference is geared toward university students, young adults,and the public from Southern California. It's FREE, and will be heldfrom 2pm-7pm on Sun, March 25th at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa.

The idea behind Freedom Day is to mark the 200th anniversary of whentransatlantic slavery was abolished in Europe, and to remind the worldthat slavery--human trafficking--still exists. March 25th is a callto awareness and action in our own backyard, and in our world.

REGISTRATION IS FREE!Just click on the website www.onevoicetoendslavery.com to register,and see more info.

Also feel free to forward this to your colleagues or anyone who may beinterested in attending.

Thanks everyone!

Hope to see you there.
-kg

JACKIE PULLINGER: NON-CON 07?

Some of you know I've been planning a "Non Conference" for a few months now.

Others of you know that I've even set up a basic website here:
http://www.non-con.com

The rest of you may have read about where the idea came from and what makes the Non-Con so different...(It's basically a conference for people who never want to go to another conference again...like me).

Anyway, from the beginning, I knew that I wanted to include Jackie Pullinger in our Non-Con if it was at all possible. She's one of my heroes and having her at our gathering, leading our conversations about compassion, the heart of Jesus for the poor, etc. would just be amazing.

Of course, she's very busy with her work in Hong Kong, she rarely travels to the States anymore, and...uh, did I mention she lives in Hong Kong?

Yeah...

So, today I received a reply from Yvonne, Jackie's assistant, that she would be getting back to me regarding her availability.

As far as I'm concerned we'll schedule the Non-Con depending on when Jackie can join us. The rest of the details can either fall into line behind this schedule or they can wait until the next one.

More details soon at
http://www.non-con.com

THE PARADOX OF PAIN

Paradox of Pain by Keith Giles

I'm most aware of God's Mercy when I'm in touch with my pain.

His Grace is most amazing when I am aware of my sinfulness.

When I am suffering, do I seek God's face? Or do I only seek my own comfort and escape from pain?

There are times when God reminds us of our mortality, and we often take offense at this.

"How could He let this happen?"

We forget that our life is only a vapor, that our lives are like the grass of the field.

But when we come to Him for mercy, we are quick to remind Him that we are made of dust.

-kg

PART 2 - Scott Bartchy Interview

NOTE: This is the second part of the 2-part interview with UCLA Professor Scott Bartchy conducted by Keith Giles

PART 2-

Scott Bartchy is a scholar, professor, writer and historian. He has spent a lot of time studying the early Christian Church. His studies have resulted in a personal paradigm shift that has impacted the way he personally looks at Jesus, the Church, and the practice of the Christian faith.


Having spent several years on the conference speaking circuit, Bartchy soon abandoned the business of faith for the more practical, and appealing, practice of the faith.

PERSONAL JOURNEY
Bartchy’s personal spiritual revolution came when he was attending a church-related liberal arts college in eastern Tennessee. “I had some great teachers that one year and I was preaching at a church full of farmers, mostly, in the early sixties when the Cold War had really set in. People were holding Christ Against Communism Crusades and things like this. So, the elders in my church asked me if I would preach a sermon against communism. I was still idealistic enough that I thought I’d rather preach for something rather than against something so I literally stumbled over Matthew 25. I had never paid much attention to it before. I had never heard a sermon on it. I had gone to church-related undergraduate schools and had never heard of this passage before. So, I decided to preach on that text and the elders and the rest of the people came to me and said they had no idea that was in the Bible. I never did preach that sermon against communism,” he says.

In his classes at UCLA, Bartchy will often take the Religion section of the Los Angeles Times and hold it up for the class to look at. As he reads aloud the advertisements for slicker worship services, dynamic youth ministries, and other goods and services offered, he points out that the early church would never have participated in anything like this. They were too busy caring for the poor and loving their neighbors and living out the Gospel to put energy and money into attracting newcomers. Most students are stunned. Some of them wonder silently about how we got so far away from what Jesus originally intended.

WHAT WENT WRONG?
Bartchy contends that Constantine’s apparent conversion to Christianity in the fourth century, and his subsequent liberation of the Church from persecution was less a blessing and more a curse in disguise. Bartchy contends that Constantine’s brand of faith became polluted by his misunderstanding of who God really was. “How much more can you begin to add in before your idea of God has become imprinted on the historical Jesus? Did things get distorted with Origen? I don’t know yet, exactly what that tipping point was,” he says, “But what I do know is that the title of this book I might write one day is ‘The Betrayal Of Jesus At Nicea’ because I think the irony is that, at the point where Jesus is said to be ‘God of God and Light of Light’, at least from the point of view of Constantine himself, the God they were talking about was no longer the God that Jesus had been talking about.”

According to Bartchy, the major shift in the Christian faith of today and that of the early church took place under the rule of the newly converted dictator, Constantine. “We’re still trying to get out from under the cloud that he put over the Church,” he says. “Basically, Constantine decides in the fourth century that he’s going to become the sugar daddy of the Christian faith because there have been four waves of attempts to get rid of the Christians up to his reign, which involved fierce persecutions. So, if you and I were alive at that time we would have all known somebody who had been under persecution by the Empire. Constantine shows up and says he’s going to stop all of this and, of course, we have to wonder how else he could have done this without God’s Spirit being at work on his heart? Be careful, though. I would caution you not to believe him until he puts his sword away. Personally, I don’t think Constantine ever got it,” says Bartchy. “I don’t think he ever really understood Jesus.”

To Bartchy, one of the most fundamental ironies in the history of culture occurred at the Council of Nicea. “This was the first time the leaders of the Christian movement are called together for this big ecumenical meeting. They’ve been doing fine for hundreds of years without having any such meeting, but Constantine wants to know who wears the white hats and who wears the black hats.

So, Constantine calls all of these people together and he makes the first speech, stating namely that Jesus is the very same essence and substance of the Father. Nobody had ever talked that way before, but he wants an ideology, he wants unity, he wants to tie the Empire together, which has been divided. He makes sure that Christians are the glue that hold it all together and he wants what they think about God to be united.”

One of the things that’s largely not known is that Constantine himself was already a Monotheist previous to his conversion to Christianity. “He’s not leaving Polytheism to become a Monotheist when he decides to become favorable to the Christians. Before that he worshipped one God whom he was willing to call, along with the other traditional names of the high God, either Zeus among the Greeks, or Jupiter among the Romans. But Zeus and Jupiter are both kick-ass gods. In any case, that’s who he worships and so when Constantine stands up and says that Jesus is God he’s saying that Jesus is the son of Zeus, a kick-ass god. We still haven’t recovered from this. That’s why we still have people thinking it’s appropriate to kill people in the name of God,” says Bartchy.


HOW DO WE GET BACK?
If Bartchy is right, and the original essence of the Gospel that Jesus came and died to proclaim has been diluted, how can we ever hope to recover the essential power and truth of the Gospel for today? “I’ve asked myself numerous times what it would take to bring a restoration of this original concept of the Gospel to the modern church, about five thousand times,” he says. “I think what I am sure of is that a model is worth a thousand or more words and that our preaching is about a hundred years ahead of our action. So, I think we have to model it out. We’re not going to get young guys who’ve been corrupted into thinking that in order to be important or successful they’ve got to build a church building. I don’t think we’re going to be able to persuade those people not to do that. But what I think we can do is to do more of what I think Jesus did, which was grass-roots work.” This sort of grass-roots work, in Bartchy’s mind, begins in the home, not ironically, where the early church itself began and flourished. “I think there needs to be more networking between the house church movement. Some people respond to that and say it’s pretty fragile and you know, they’re right. It is pretty fragile. Not to go back on what I said earlier, that it can’t be stopped, but it can die out and then flare up again later. It has to be based on the quality of the interpersonal relationships between the people of God and we have to have ways of life that maximize the possibility and the necessity of these quality, interpersonal relationships that the Holy Spirit has been trying to get us into.”

THE POWER OF DEFINITION
In the American Church, there are two words that are used over and over again that are not very well-defined and therefore people can pour into them whatever meaning they need.

Those two words are ‘God’ on the one hand and ‘Salvation’ on the other. Bartchy believes that we need to return to a fundamental agreement about the definitions of these words. “So, do we mean by ‘God’ what Jesus meant? Do we mean by ‘Salvation’ what Jesus meant? Is ‘Salvation’ saving your spiritual butt, or is it salvation from meaninglessness, despair, from being a part of the people who opress others? I think salvation is a daily matter. I think what Heaven means, at least to me, is that some of the struggle that I’m involved in against so many people in powerful places, who live by a completely different set of values, is going to be over, and I’m going to have a chance to relax and play more music and talk with more friends and read all those books I’ve never had time to read and not spending all my time fighting against the principalities and powers.”

In the second chapter of the book of Acts, verse forty-two, its says that “The Lord was adding daily those who were being saved”, who were in the process. There’s two different ways, in the Greek, two different tenses, of putting things in the past. One is just like saying it happened and it’s over, and the other is about things that are ongoing, which is the imperfect tense. It’s imperfect because it hasn’t finished yet, so it’s an ongoing thing, in the Greek. That’s the tense you have in this passage which underscores the concept that salvation is a process," he says.

CHALLENGING THE MODERN CHURCH
Bartchy wants to challenge the modern church to look itself in the face and ask itself what it’s actually communicating with respect to the words ‘God’ and ‘Salvation’. "What I mean is, to do something that was hard for me to do initially. Something that happened to me when I was in Grad School, as I was seeing people who were coming to Jesus and at first they were really hot, and after a year they were pretty tame," he says. "What happened was they looked around and found out that the words didn’t have the same meanings within the church that they first thought. Just like little kids, they watch what the grown-ups do when they use certain words and they figure out what things really mean."

It was a course in the Sociology of Religion that helped Bartchy to re-think some of the cultural aspects of the Christian Faith in a critical way. "This course didn’t just rearrange the furniture in my head, it put me on a different boat. Finally I was forced to say, in order to be an honest human being, is that for any religious institution, what really counts is what actually comes out at the end of the pipe. I had to ask myself, ‘Is this good for people or not, is this fantasy land?’, and I have to have the courage to look at the answer and not look away from it. Can Christianity be used in such a way to make you sick? Absolutely. Can it be used to turn you into an enemy of God? Yes. But people don’t want to admit that. They have a very magical idea of the words that if you just say the right words then of course everything is going to come out alright in the end, even though it’s not coming out alright now, you just continue to act like it is."

This University course challenged Bartchy to either sacrifice his intellect on the altar of faith or to admit the truth about his faith. "I didn’t think faith meant trusting blindly, it means believing that Jesus is right about God and not anybody else," he says.

As a professor in a secular university, Bartchy has students in his office all the time who ask “Do you believe in God", and his answers always stun them. "I say, with a smile on my face, that I have no idea what they’re talking about. What I can tell you is that about 80% of what passes in the American media and in public life with the name of God in it, I don’t believe. I’ll be glad to hear who you affirm God to be and then I’ll tell you if I believe in that or not. But at the highest level, the big question is, “Does the Church believe about God what Jesus does and if so then why aren’t we spending our money differently, why aren’t we treating people better, why are we not known as lovers instead of as judges?” and these are questions that have dogged me all my life," he says.

**

Must. Watch. This.

 I always show this short clip from the end of the film "The Big Kahuna" as an intro to my workshop called "The Gospel: For Here Or To Go?" (and there was a six-part series of articles that sprung out of those workshops too..but I digress).

The set-up: Young kid is a Chrisitan on a business trip with Danny DeVito and Kevin Spacey. They all work for the same company. The kid had a chance to save their company (and all their jobs) by closing a sale with a huge distributor. Instead he took the opportunity to share Jesus with that same Company President and lost the sale, and their jobs.

What follows is the scene in this clip where (at the very end), Danny DeVito delivers one of the MOST powerful monologues aimed directly at the modern American Christian...and he hits the target square.

Watch this and then show it to your friends.

Powerful stuff.
kg

NON-CON 2008 ...slowly forming

I've started an intriguing conversation online with a fellow in the UK who is interested in possibly helping me to host the "Non-Conference" I've been slowly putting together in the back of my mind.

He's helped me to think through a few of the elements which, had he not contacted me to ask me the questions, I might not have taken the time to type out. That's worth whatever comes of this.

For those of you who are new to this concept, it grew out of my recent realization that I am personally not a conference-goer...and yet my job for the last three years has been to convince others that they need to part with their cash and spend a couple of days at a conference.

Ironic, no?

So, I began to ponder upon what sort of a conference I would actually like to attend. What would that look like?

Out of these musings there came the idea to create a "Non-Conference" of sorts. We'd advertise it as something "For someone who never wants to attend another conference in their life", and with that as our starting point we'd begin to "deconstruct" the usual conference experience into something worth spending time and money on.

FRANCHISE?
One recent idea came to me when the guy from the UK showed interest and that was, "What if I put together a basic template for how to do this so that anyone, anywhere in the world, could sign up and host their own 'Non-Con'?"

Yes...indeed...why not?

KEEP IT SMALL:
By definition I want our "Non-Con" to be small. One friend confided in me that she often feels lonely at a large conference. I agree. We'll keep things small and interactive to increase the dynamic of conversation and community.

I think, at this point, I will charge for the event but it will be limited to just exactly 100 people. No more than that. I want to keep it small on purpose and even 100 is pushing things a little, maybe 50...but it means our "large gatherings" are still manageable and our smaller discussion groups can be more diverse.

I also need to charge something to cover at least one keynote speaker for the weekend, and for our shared meals together.

PROMOTION:
The promotion will be mostly grass-roots. I've gotten fairly good at using the internet and pulling favors from various friends around the 'Net to get a lot of promotional mileage out of a little bit of marketing moolah.

THE DREAM TEAM:
My "dream team" would include Jackie Pullinger, who lives in China, and Dr. Scott Bartchy who teaches at UCLA which is just up the road. Both of them have the fire-power I'd want for a conference like this...and by that I mean they have the ability to speak the hard-core truth in ways that often offend people but usually they hit a nerve because they are on target..and that's exactly what I want for the "Non-Con". I want people to be challenged and to go home from this changed and affected...and ready to change their world in the same way.

Right now I'm optimistic that I could get David Ruis (I've already done 2 local conferences with him in the last 2 years and he's awesome). I also think I might could get Greg Russinger from The Bridge in Ventura to help me out.

WORSHIP LEADERS:
Worship leaders are still a toss-up. I'd love to have Matt Redman (who wouldn't?) or Tim Hughes (again, yes..but..?), and if I could get either of them to agree to something this intentionally small, (which would be the easy part), I'd have to fork over the cash to get them here from the UK (which would be the hard part).

Locally, of course, the options are better. Chris Lizotte is local, and a friend. David Ruis, already mentioned, is also a great worship leader. I also know guys locally who are not "famous" but who are especially gifted and more than capable of leading us into a great time of corporate worship...guys like Brandon Ezell and John Thomas.

WHAT WOULD IT LOOK LIKE?
Day one of the "Non-Con" would involve everyone driving up to the location, signing in and receiving their temporary tattoo (instead of a hand-stamp or wrist-band). Then they'd take a grab-bag of goodies and a folding chair from off the rack by the front door and head into the open room.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE OF THE WEEKEND:
FIRST SESSION- DAY 1, 9AM
In the center of the room would be a single chair, a microphone and a music stand...probably an acoustic guitar and a small table too.

People would place their chair in a make-shift circle around the center chair and (hopefully) people would begin to talk to each other as they waited for things to begin...(and we might have to dream up some creative discussion starters...like "What tattoo did you get?" or something...).

Eventually our worship leader would come to the center and lead us in a short opening prayer. Others would be invited to pray too as we get ready to worship and to discover what God has for us this day.

SESSION 1- KEYNOTE SPEAKER 1, 9:30AM
After a few songs of worship we'd invite our keynote speaker up. Let's pretend it's Jackie Pullinger (hey..it's my dream ok?)..and after about 20 minutes of blowing our hair back on issues of justice and compassion for the poor in our own city and street, we'd open things up for reaction and questions from the floor. Jackie would respond and our dialog would continue for about another half hour.

WORKSHOPS 1- 10:30AM
After this we'd take a break and people would be able to choose from one of several different workshops lead by practitioners on issues of social justice/compassion, missional life, spiritual disciplines, the arts and the poor, Poverty in the O.C., or spiritual formation as a way of life...(I've already got several great people in mind to lead these discussion workshops as well. Most are friends of mine who are already living out these values in extraordinary ways...more on this aspect later).

LUNCH BREAK- 11:30AM TO 2:00PM (Shared meal together with everyone)

"WORSHIP SERVICE" - 2:00PM TO 4:00PM
After lunch everyone would show up to one of four different "Worship Service" projects around the city. These would be opportunities to let our "Worship" become our "Service" to others. (I've done this at 2 different conferences in the past and these were always the best parts of the weekend for everyone involved).

DINNER BREAK - 4:00PM TO 6:00PM
(Free time. Eat on your own or with a friend)

DAY 1- EVENING CELEBRATION SESSION - 6:00PM
Our evening session will be opened again by a short prayer where everyone is free to pray out loud and bless our evening celebration.

TESTIMONY TIME - 6:15PM
We'd kick things off by allowing people to share a little about what happened during the "Worship Service" segment of our first day. This would be allowed to go for about an hour or so...we'll play it by ear.

SESSION 2 - 7:00PM
Let's pretend that Dr. Scott Bartchy is our keynote now. He'll blow our doors off with a snapshot of what "normative Christianity" was like in the first three centuries of the early Church for about 30 minutes and then we'd all ask questions and give response. This will rock.

EVENING ARTS INTERACTIVE - 8:00PM
I always love to have a time for people to respond to what they've seen and heard artistically. It doesn't matter if you're not an artist. We just want everyone to take the time to share their "notes" on the things they've learned and experienced throughout the day in some form or another. We'll have a large room set up with paper, paint, brushes, even video cameras and live online blogs for people to post their thoughts for the rest of the world to see and share in.

END OF DAY ONE- APPROXIMATELY 10PM
"THE BURNING"- One aspect of the "Non-Con" I'm personally excited about is the "Burn our Christian Crap" segment. This is where people can come and bring a symbol of their participation in the great Christian Materialsm Machine (i.e.- A Carman Cd, a "Lord's Gymn" tee shirt, a piece of "Jesus Junk" plastic, etc.). Together we'll burn our Christian Crap and make a statement about our intent to separate ourselves from the "Safe" version of Christianity where we try to create a Christian Version of the actual world around us. Maybe we'll all sing "Stairway to Heaven" during this part? Maybe not...

HARD-CORE MOTEL:
One friend suggested to me that we could offer some "hard-core" attendees the option to sleep the night in a nearby park along with the homeless. They could bring their own pillow and sleeping bag and together some of us (even the leaders who were up to it), would make our way after dinner to the local park and hang out with the homeless to sleep the night with them. For the rest of us there would be a hotel option, of course.

SECOND DAY OF "NON-CON 2008"
DAY 2- SESSION 1- 9:30AM
WORSHIP/PRAYER- (20 MINUTES)
KEYNOTE/INTERACTIVE- DAVID RUIS (30 MINUTES TALKING & 30 MINUTES INTERACTIVE)

WORKSHOP SESSION - 11AM TO 12PM
*Again, a series of interactive workshops taught by actual practitioners on topics of interest

LUNCH BREAK - 12PM TO 2PM (Shared meal time together with everyone)

"WORSHIP SERVICE" - 2PM TO 4PM
*This one will be different since it will involve all of us, all together, doing one single act of service as a group of people. Detail as we move closer..

DINNER BREAK - 4PM TO 6PM (Free time. Eat on your own or with a friend)

EVENING SESSION - 6PM
PRAYER/WORSHIP (About 20 minutes)
KEYNOTE ADDRESS - Greg Russinger (30 minutes talking, 30 minutes responsive)

ARTS INTERACTIVE - 7:30PM TO 10PM

LATE NIGHT PANEL "MASSIVE DISCUSSION" - 9PM TO 10PM
*I dream that this will be one massive discussion with Dr. Bartchy, Jackie Pullinger, David Ruis, Greg Russinger and also some of our practitioner/workshop leaders like Jarred Rowland, Crissy Brooks, Becky Zaragoza, Mike Burns, Lo Loughner, Scott Laumann, Heather Wright, etc.

**These are the basics of the sort of conference I would want to actually attend. These are people who have challenged my life and my faith. These are people who continue to live out the Gospel in meaningful, effective ways.

Slowly...slowly the elements allign for the first ever "Non-Con" here in Orange County.

How cool would it be if we could eventually create a "template" for this and then anyone who wanted to could host and launch their own version of the "Non-Con" in their own city?

I can't wait to see what develops on this as things move forward...

Peas,
Keith Giles
**

New Bible Removes Words Of Jesus On Money & Poverty

**Thanks to David Ruis for bringing this to my attention.


Controversial new Bible cuts out difficult gospel passages

A new Bible translation is causing controversy after it cut out difficult parts surrounding economic justice, possessions and money.

The new bible version, released by the Western Bible Foundation in the Netherlands, has created a storm by trying to make the Christian gospel more palatable.

According to Chairman Mr. De Rijke the foundation has reacted to a growing wish of many churches to be market-oriented and more attractive. "Jesus was very inspiring for our inner health, but we don't need to take his naïve remarks about money seriously. He didn't study economics, obviously."

According to De Rijke no serious Christian takes these texts literally. "What if all Christians stopped being anxious, for example, and started expecting everything from God? Or gave their possessions to the poor, for that matter. Our economy would be lost. The truth is quite the contrary: a strong economy and a healthy work ethic is a gift from God."

The foundation wanted to "boldly go where no one else has gone before" by cutting out the confusing texts.

“We don't use them anyway! There's no single Christian selling his possessions and giving them to the poor."

***
The cool thing is, this is all being done to bring attention to the fact that we don't really obey Jesus' teachings on caring for the poor or submitting our finances to God.

I love this sort of thing!

-kg

Interview: Scott Bartchy- Part 1

*NOTE: I happened to re-listen to an excellent cd of a talk that Mr. Bartchy gave at the MOMENTUM '05 conference the other day. It re-invigorated me on several levels. Then, just today, Mr. Bartchy emailed me to ask me if this interview we did ever got published. Here is part one.
-kg
**

SCOTT BARTCHY- THE “NOISE” INTERVIEW (Part One)
by Keith Giles

Scott Bartchy is a radical. He believes in a subversive system that embraces those on the fringes of our society and seeks to establish a new way of life that goes against the status quo.

Kind of like Jesus.

Bartchy, currently the Director of the Center for the Study of Religions at UCLA, notes a great gap between the original, early form of church in the first three hundred years of Christianity, and the modern concept of doing church today. “The biggest difference I see would be that those who became the followers of Jesus (in the early church) were convinced that Jesus was right about God,” says Bartchy. “They weren’t debating whether or not he was God, but simply said that if you’ve seen Jesus, you have seen God. As Jesus said to Phillip, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” (John 14:6-11)

A SINGLE QUESTION
For Bartchy, the difference between the modern church and the original church is summed up in a single question; “Was Jesus right about who God is?” Bartchy notes, “The earliest followers of Jesus believed that he had the authority to change the rules and to define how the God of Israel is to be thought of.”

So, what is it that Phillip and the other disciples had seen Jesus doing that would inform their ideas of who God is? “First of all they’ve seen Jesus at a wedding, turning water into wine. They’ve seen Jesus at the temple healing a man born blind, and addressing the question of whether or not sin is the cause of someone being born blind, or being sick. Jesus says that it’s not anyone’s fault, but it’s so that God might be glorified,” says Bartchy. “Phillip has seen Jesus comforting Mary and Martha, who are his personal friends, and raising their brother Lazarus from the dead, and of course he’s seen Jesus take the form of a servant and wash the feet of his disciples. Jesus says, if you’ve seen that, you’ve seen the Father.”

Bartchy is quick to make a distinction between the assertion that Jesus is God and the more radical concept that God is like Jesus. “Now, the profound irony of this is that Jesus is named after “Y’Shua”, or “Joshua”, Israel’s dominant warrior who fought the battle of Jericho and lead the children of Israel on numerous conquests. He (Jesus) is saying that the God of Israel isn’t acting that way anymore. Jesus is saying that the God of Israel loves his enemies and he’s not going to kill anybody.”

While much of what the media portrays concerning the “Religious Right” in America deals with the overtly political, Republican, Pro-War version of the Christian Church, Bartchy sees things a little differently. “I really do think that people are so eager for Christ to return today because they don’t like what he did the first time. They still want a kick ass God. They want a divine legitimation for what was done to us at 9-11,” he says. “That’s the only way I can understand how so many people in the Church are in favor of attacking Iraq, or killing people, or whatever. They certainly don’t believe that Jesus is right about God.”

But, the early followers of Jesus, Bartchy contends, did believe that he was right about God. “And for that reason they blew off Temple religion and the whole idea of priests and programs, and the like. They rejected the idea that what God really wants is to be served inside a church building rather than on the street. If Jesus is right about God then it means there are no more Holy Places, and for the first three hundred years Christians didn’t have any Holy Place other than their own homes where the churches met. So, they focused primarily in their relationships with each other because that’s where the Holy Spirit was manifested, in the very people who followed Jesus.”

“SAVE YOUR BUTT RELIGION”
The disconnect, so to speak, for Bartchy comes in the methodology of the modern church which has become so fixated with amassing large numbers of people, establishing political alliances and building larger facilities rather than simply acting out the compassionate example of the founder of the movement itself. “I think the big difference I see is that, today, the church isn’t really believing the same things about God that Jesus himself did and acted out,” he says. “That’s why the success of the Church today is seen not so much in doing the kind of things that we’re told that we’re going to be judged by when Jesus does return to judge us, as seen in Mathew 25, concerning whether or not we’ve clothed the naked or fed the hungry or visited those in prison, etc., and apparently doing so simply because this is the kind of people we have become.”

In Matthew 25 Bartchy notes a profound undermining of the modern apocalyptic rapture scenario depicted in most, if not all, Christian literature. “Yes,” says Bartchy, “The son of man is going to come on the clouds to separate the sheep from the goats. But one of the most fascinating things to me about those sheep is that Jesus identifies them as such because they have been visiting those in prison and they’ve been feeding the hungry, and Jesus says, ‘If you’ve done it unto the least of these, you’ve done it unto me’ and the sheep say, ‘Hey, we didn’t have any idea we were doing it to you’, which is to say, they are doing it because of their new nature, they are doing it because of what they have become as followers of Jesus,” he says.

“The second bunch in this scenario are into what I like to call the ‘Save Your Butt’ religion. These people say, “Hey, if we’d have known it was you buddy we’d have done it” but only in order to save their own butt, not because of who they actually were.”

For Bartchy, what’s missing, sadly, is an emphasis on being a people who are transformed by the Gospel and who embody the example of their Lord. “We have preachers who come onto the campus today at UCLA down by what we call Bruin Walk and those guys all preach a version of the ‘Save Your Butt’ religion. They ask, “If you would die tonight where would you be?” So, it’s still a matter of appealing to the narcissism of the American public. It’s not an invitation to become a part of God’s new people,” says Bartchy.

HERE AND NOW
Even though Bartchy spends most of his time instructing college students in the historical events of a fledgling movement several thousand years ago, he holds a very immediate passion that burns in him to this very day. “Now, what I’m saying then, is not only is Jesus right about who God is and what God is trying to get done, it’s that it’s supposed to be done here and it’s supposed to be done now. Jesus did not teach his disciples to pray, “Take me to heaven when I die”, what he says is, “Your will be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven”, in the here and now. What we’re supposed to be praying for is for Heaven to come here, rather than for us to go to Heaven. Now, I do believe that Heaven is the bonus at the end of the road,” says Bartchy, “But there I’d be on the same page with the apostle John, or with Paul who held that Eternity was a quality of life, not a quantity of life. It was a quality of life that begins here.”

Rather than focus on the typical questions of faith that surround the discussion about who God is, or whether or not He exists, Bartchy feels that the fundamental question begins with whether or not we believe that Jesus is right about who God is. “I find people saying that what I need to say is that Jesus IS God, but the reason I’m reluctant to put it those terms is that people give themselves permission to define God as they please. So, God is whoever they say he is, in the Freudian sense that he fulfills the projection of your desires. So, people define God they way they want and then they make Jesus fit into that,” says Bartchy.

“People tell me that they believe that Jesus is God, and yet they’ve never read the Gospel of Mark from beginning to end, or even the Gospel of John. They may have a formal understanding of the book, but they don’t know what’s in it. In any case, the Jesus that you read about in the Gospel of Mark has a program, Pardon me, Mel Gibson, but there’s only one and a half chapters that deal with his execution, and then there are a few verses that have to do with his resurrection,” he says. “But there are twelve to thirteen chapters that have to do with his program. His program is everything I’ve been talking about so far, it’s the Kingdom of God. It’s everything that Jesus anticipates should be done here and now on this planet by his people. I know the literature of the early church up until the time of Constantine backwards and forwards and I don’t see any evidence there that the appeal being made to people was about ‘If you died tonight would you be in Heaven’. The appeal was to come and be a people of God.”

GOOD QUESTIONS
The questions on the minds of the earliest followers of Jesus reflected more practical concerns of a faith for the here and now. ”Instead of asking people the sort of salvation question we always hear, the early church asked people to consider things like, how would spend your money, how would you treat people, how would you respond to that person who just called you an asshole yesterday, and how would you deal with the real world stuff?”

“Because the church today hasn’t asked this question,” says Bartchy, “ It ends up thinking materialistically and since we’re so fragmented from each other we can’t imagine that we might help each other when we get older, the world plays on our fears. It seems to me that if a church was a real church they’d have their own social security program. Indeed in the early church that was how they got their reputation, it was that they cared for so many people.”

As Bartchy speaks, the chasm between the faith of the early church and that of the modern church begins to grow wider and wider. “None of the current signs of success in the modern church can be found in the New Testament. When the people laid their offerings at the disciples feet it wasn’t so that they could build a bigger building or give the disciples a salary increase.”


UNSTOPPABLE
“One of the things that Jesus does, in contrast to all of the other teachers, including John the Baptist, was to say that we don’t have to wait for God to kill anybody. We don’t have to wait for Tiberius to be knocked off his throne, or for Pilate to go home, we can start living according to the rule of God right now and all they can do to us is to kill us, but they can’t stop it,” says Bartchy.

“Out of the conviction of Jesus being alive after his crucifixion, what we call resurrection experiences, they know that they can’t be stopped and I don’t think that it can be stopped. As a secular historian on the outside and as a follower of Jesus on the inside, I would say it cannot be stopped,”he affirms. “Now, sometimes the gears grind really slowly, but it can’t be stopped. We can be blocked by sin or by oppression or by dictatorship or by injustice and the like, but all I can say is in the midst of that there is still hope.”

END OF PART ONE-

READ PART 2 OF THIS INTERVIEW HERE>

It's time for the church to listen first...talk later

CONVERSATIONAL EVANGELISM CONFERENCE - MARCH 9TH & 10TH, 2007
*LEE STROBEL *TODD HUNTER * BRENTON BROWN *GARY POOLE *MANY MORE!

more info:
http://www.conversationalevangelism.net/cec/

At RockHarbor Church in Costa Mesa

For the Missional-minded...
kg

The [Subversive Underground] Forum

As sort of an experiment I've opened a new online forum to have more open dialog about the issues covered on my weekly e-newsletter called [subversive underground].

We'll talk about Social Justice, Missional Life, Organic Church, House Church, Spiritual Formation, and even the Arts, Media and Culture...actually whatever you want to talk about.

You are welcome to join in the discussions on
the [subversive underground] message boards.

To join our discussions, simply go to
http://forums.delphiforums.com/subversive1/start

The [Subversive Underground] Forum is part of Delphi Forums. If you've never used Delphi Forums before, you'll need to go through a quick registration (so you can post messages). It only takes a minute and it's FREE!

Hope to see you there,

Peas,
Keith Giles

SIMPLE TEST?

Test your Bible knowledge
Mark answers below “True” or “False”

1- Because Eve was tempted by Satan and ate the apple, sin entered the world.
2- According to Scripture, Samson was a super strong, physically muscular man that God used to judge the enemies of Israel.
3- Jonah the prophet was swallowed by a whale because he refused to go and preach to the people of Nineveh.
4- The city of Sodom was judged by God because of the sin of homosexuality.

*The answer to every question is "False".

Want to know why?

1) Eve did not eat an apple. Well, ok, the truth is she probably ate hundreds of apples in the Garden, but none of them brought sin into her heart, or this world. If you read the Bible, you'll see that she ate of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil...not an apple tree...those were ok to eat from.

2) This is one of my favorite ones. Samson is never described in the Bible as being a physically large or muscular man. Ever. Go look it up. It's not there. What you WILL see is that the Phillistines were very, very puzzled as to how Samson could perform such amazing feats of strength. You WILL see that they were so confounded by his strength that they began to search for the secret of his strength...because it was not obvious to them by his appearence. If he looked like a muscle-bound body builder do you think they would have been scratching their heads and wondering what the secret of his strength was? No. They would have assumed it was because he was a muscle-bound hulk.

3)Jonah was not swallowed by a whale. If we read the Scriptures we'll see that "God prepared a great fish" to swallow Jonah. So, a whale is not a fish. The main implication is that God created a special fish specifically to swallow and hold Jonah alive inside for three days without being digested. Either way, it was not a whale.

4)Another misconception I love to destroy is the concept that the sin of Sodom was about sexual practice. We might make an inference from what we see in the account of its destruction, but the clearly stated "Sin of Sodom" is found in Ezekiel 16:49-50 where God tells us "Now this was 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."

So, according to God the "Sin of Sodom" was arrogance, pride, gluttony and a lack of concern for the poor...and oh yeah, right at the end he does add "did detestable things" which could also contain those sexual sins, but the specific sin mentioned involves pride and a lack of concern for those in need in need around them.

My point for listing this quiz is that, first I wanted to demonstrate that many of us believe things about the Word of God without actually knowing what it really says. Secondly, I posted this list as part of last week's [SUBVERSIVE UNDERGROUND] and I promised my subscribers that I would provide them with the specific answers to why each of the statements in the quiz was "False".

So...be careful what you accept at truth or fact. Go to the source. Study the Word of God yourself to be sure of what it says.

My work here is done...

kg

Technorati Profile

www.wewantyoursoul.com

I love this.

I thought we agreed it wasn't going to be advertised?

THE ANTI-CONFERENCE

Due to recent events, I've started scheming about putting together an "Anti-Conference" sometime soon.

I started thinking about putting together the sort of conference that I might actually want to go to myself (since I personally hate conferences and yet promoting conferences has been my job description for the last 3 years).

So, at my "Non-Conference" or "Anti-Conference" for example, we'd meet in a large, empty warehouse or an aircraft hanger or a gymnasium and there would be a giant rack of folding chairs at the front door where everyone would grab one on the way in and sit in a giant circle.

We'd have keynotes like Jackie Pullinger (oh, yes), and Scott Bartchy, and others who aren't "safe" for most church conferences)....and we'd have a big name musical guest like Matt Redman but it would just be him in the center on a chair with an acoustic guitar leading us in worship, no big band, no hype, just simple worship...and none of our keynotes would be allowed to speak beyond 15 or 20 minutes without turning over the microphone to anyone in the audience who had a question or a comment. It would be the most interactive thing ever.

The more I think about this the more jazzed I get about it.

I think the theme would be along the lines of living in the Kingdom and what daily taking up your cross really looks like.

After visiting a local conference the other day (there's a bit of that in the article below -"Future Faith", btw.), I just got sick of keynote messages that don't challenge us or inspire us or give us any practical steps to live out the Gospel.

(whew)

Sorry....I've got one of those "wild hairs" now and I'm certain it will eventually find it's way out of my head and into the real world.

Lord help us..

kg

FUTURE FAITH?

I just met with John O'Keefe of www.ginkworld.net tonight at the "FAITH FORWARD" Conference, which is about six blocks from my house at the Crystal Cathederal.

Honestly, I think something is wrong with me. I am just so DONE with the talking head, listen to someone pontificate for 45 minutes in a large group, concept of teaching or learning.

I can't sit still for it.

A pretty famous "Emerging Leader" gave an address to the crowd and it was just, (forgive me), a gigantic waste of life.

My guess is that no one at that conference will go home after hearing that talk and do ANYTHING signficant in their life or the world they live in.

Am I the only one who has moved on?

Yet, I am currently working to help promote a 2-day conference which will have pretty much non-stop talking-head keynote addresses and workshops stacked on top of workshops for hours on end.

Is this irony? Is this God's sense of humor? Or is this insanity?

There are better ways of communicating. There are better ways of encouraging change. There are more effective ways of motivating people to action.

Attending a conference, or listening to another sermon, is NOT one of those ways.

At some level, I'm not interested in discussing the future of the Church in America. I have already found my revolution. I have already left the building. I have discovered what works for me. I have already found a way to scratch that itch that could never be scratched by the traditional form of church.

Barna says that the future is the house church. I hope he is right, but I suspect he's not. I think that most smart pastors will start to ask why people are leaving their traditional form of church and begin to develop solutions to keep them from leaving.

I call these future forms of church "Hybrid Churches". They will be somewhere between the community-based, peer-led forms of church that the simple, organic, and house church people have discovered and halfway near the emerging, artsy, social justice form of traditional church where the beautiful college crowd likes to hang.

Still, maybe we're all wrong about what the future of the Church looks like. The truth is that there is still a very large majority of that old, modern, traditional form of church that so many of us find boring, out-dated and sometimes even offensive.

This form of church is still the largest segment of our Christian society (or sub-culture). They control the media. They own the large television stations, they own the "safe" radio stations around the nation, they own the publishing houses and they record the songs that make us sing every Sunday morning.

I don't think that the fringe movement, call it emerging or revolutionary or first-century, whatever...I'm not so sure that our momentum will carry us through to permeate the entire cloth of American Christianity.

I wish that was our future. I hope that eventually all of the old guard will die off and be replaced by the new, forward-thinking, outward focused, Kingdom-living, follower of Jesus. But, there is still a very great chance that, twenty years from now, the Church in America will STILL look exactly as it does now, but with more diversity, and perhaps greater division and polarization of extremes.

What the world needs now is not another sermon. Or another conference. It does not need a better Christian televison station or a more progressive form of church.

What the world needs now is for the Kingdom of God to break through our collective consciousness and transform us all into eager disciples of Jesus.

We need to re-discover the Gospel that Jesus came to proclaim, not the one we've turned into a bumper sticker or a sound bite.

We need a fresh injection of pure, hard-core Jesus.

This will sting a little....

kg

www.children-at-risk.com

Featuring over 30 speakers from 12 nations, with 28 workshops and break-out sessions and representatives from the United Nations, International Justice Mission, World Vision, and many, many more!

Keynote Speakers:
*OS GUINNESS
*TRI ROBINSON
*BERT WAGGONER
*OLARA OTUNNU
*DR. PHYLLIS KILBOURN
*JOHAN LUKASSE
*BRYANT MYERS

Worship Leaders:
*DAVID RUIS (Vineyard Music Group; Basilea)
*RICK MUCHOW (Saddleback Church)
*JOHN THOMAS (Soul Survivor USA)

MORE AT:
http://www.children-at-risk.com

TRUST AND OBEY

Happy New Year!

I can't believe what a year this has been. Only now, here at the end have I started to understand what God might be trying to accomplish in my life.

Since the end of June I've been out of regular, full-time work. Mostly we've survived by the graciousness and giving hearts of our friends and family, Wendy's teaching job, and my ongoing work as a temporary employee at various assignments around town.

When it first became apparent that I wasn't going to get a new job right away, Wendy and I both wondered what God could be up to. We both thought, "We've already been through a time of testing like this once before. Haven't we already learned this lesson? Why would God need to put us through this again?"

Now I realize that this reaction itself revealed my spiritual pride. As if I had nothing to learn about humility from God.

Lately I've been working at a real estate investment firm and sitting for hours on end doing monotonous data entry and repetitious address clean-up. It's become a real struggle for me to sit at my desk, hour after hour, and do my best while my flesh is desperate for even the mildest stimulation or break in the monotony. This has been my cross. Literally, God has been using this assignment, and the others before it, to lay me down upon the cross and nail my flesh into submission.

Recently I came across a great quote from one of my favorite spiritual writers. Here's what it said:

"It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply." — A. W. Tozer; "Glorify his name! Root of the Righteous" Chapter 39.

So far our family has survived on the manna of heaven. Just like the Israelites, we've grumbled about having to eat manna. Just like the Israelites, we've had to learn that eating from the hand of God is really a good thing.

I know that God has something for me and that in His time He will reveal it and provide this new job. Until then, my calling is to learn to submit to Him in humility and obedience.

"Trust and Obey, for there's no other way, to be happy in Jesus...but to Trust and Obey" -Hymn

I pray that in this New Year I can learn to really die to myself and humbly submit to His loving care. I need to learn humility. I need to die to myself.

"Conversatio Morem!"

-kg