With or without me

I'm someone who has never really failed at anything. I failed only one class in my whole life. It was high school Calculus, and I failed because I took a nap every day during class. I actually had a passing average going into the final exam, but USA network was showing a Magnum PI marathon the day before the final and I watched that all day instead of studying. Other than that one class, I've never really failed at anything. So when I look around The River and see fewer folks than I would like, I get nervous (even though I have no clue how many people it would take for me to not be nervous). That nervousness can be a good thing because it motivates me. It can be a bad thing because it can make me forget who is really doing the work of transforming lives. This week, I got a powerful reminder that God is actually doing that work. Even more, I saw that God is going to do it with or without me.

What happened is simple: I learned that one of the Clusters that is part of The River became a 'Cluster' before they'd ever heard of The River. They became a cluster before we'd ever met. They became a Cluster before they even knew what a Cluster was. They became a Cluster by following along where they thought God was leading them, and in so doing they discovered for themselves this powerful new way of being God's people. In fact, I've learned more about Clusters from them than they have from me.

God is doing something new in the world. God is showing people a different way of being community, a new way of being church. God is at work, and that work is bigger than me. It's bigger than The River. Instead of being the one to make it happen, I'm merely blessed to be part of it. It's not about whether or not I fail. All I have to do is stay awake, not watch Magnum PI all day, and get on board with what God is doing. Because God is doing it, not me, and God is going to do it with or without me. I'm just blessed to be one small drop in the gigantic river that is God 's work in the world.

Christ and Christianity

I was talking about witnessing with a buddy who shared that he didn't think the person to whom I was witnessing was "looking for Christianity." I found that phrase interesting, because that's not what I was trying to do at all. I was not sharing Christianity. I was trying to share Christ. While to some the two may seem redundant, that got me thinking about Christ and Christianity and how that distinction informs what it means to be The River.

Being down on Christianity as an institution is becoming quite popular these days. Folks everywhere are coming to terms with the decline of the church as a center of community life. Some choose to fight for it to return there. Others look for a different way. I include myself in the second category. As I have tried to rediscover what it means to be church in this new culture, I have been very hard on the institutional church. My belief for awhile was that the whole concept of institutional church was bad, and it needed to be thrown out entirely.
If you're paying close attention, you may have even noticed that it's just The River. Not "The River Church" or "The River Lutheran Church" even though I am a Lutheran, we are part of a Lutheran denomination, and our theology is Lutheran. That was an intentional choice to show that we are seeking to be something different, something unlike other Christian communities around town.

My friend Mike has since helped me see the value in institutional churches. You can read his article here. It's very good stuff, and helped me rethink a lot of my views. Meanwhile, as we have continued to get the word out, I have found that taking the word church out has created some confusion. Folks don't know what we are. Church comes with baggage, that's for sure. But not using that word has baggage too. And that's just one word! What to do?

I'm thinking it goes back to that conversation about sharing Christ. We are not sharing Christianity, with it's rules and property and billboards and whatnot. We share Christ. My efforts in witnessing and reaching out are focused solely in that direction, and those of others as well. Moreover, I think Christ is what people are looking for. I think Christ is what people need. They don't need to be members or an impressive building or any of that stuff. They need Christ, and that is what we are sharing.

As I look down the road, though, I now think we will probably build an institution of some type. In some ways, it will be different from the institutional church of today. In some ways, it will probably be maddeningly similar. But the goal is not to build the institution. The goal is to share Christ. That is the goal. The institution is a way to do that, a way to share Christ with each other and experience Christ together. It is a means to an end. It is not to be shared itself, because it is not the point. The institution is the boat on which we journey down the river that is God.

So maybe we add "Church" after "The River," or that we build a nice building with a sign out front. Who knows. I don't. But I do think that if we can keep Christ as the focus rather than Christianity, we'll be all right because we are keeping first things first. The institution isn't bad any more than river rafts are bad. It has a purpose, and instead of throwing it out we'll just be careful to use it how it's meant to be used: a way to share Christ. Because that really is what it's all about.

Opus & Lola discuss heaven

This cartoon was in the paper a few weeks ago. It got me thinking in lots of ways, and fortunately none were about the yoga bit.

It got me thinking about God and grace. About how we like to pick and choose who gets in and who gets left out. About how offensive it can be when someone we deem 'unworthy' gets in. And it got me thinking about whether the bit about Jerry Falwell would be true. Can you even be annoyed in heaven? Doesn't that defeat the point?

I've been thinking about it for a few weeks, so here you go. Love it, hate it, decide for yourself. Click the pic for a larger version.