Calling

I recently did a study on Calling that resulted in a seminar for a high school retreat last week. I am also hoping to develop it further into a teaching series to be used on Sundays and retreats.

We all wrestle with the question of God's calling, and are always trying to discern what God is calling us to do with our lives. Yet as I dive into Scripture and read other works on this subject I believe that a big part of this struggle might be that we're trying to discern the wrong thing.

Our calling isn't so much a matter of what we are supposed to do, rather it is much more about what we are supposed to be. At the end of the first creation story in Genesis God speaks, "Let us create human beings in our image." When Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is he affirms the Jewish Shema and quotes a command in Leviticus saying, "Love God and love others." Essentially I believe that our calling is to bear God's image to a broken world and to love God and others. This is what i would refer to as our general calling. We all share it and it is lifelong. Another way to refer to this is as our vocation, which is from the Latin word "vocare" meaning "voice." So we discover our general calling by listening to a voice, the voice of God speaking our calling as image-bearers upon us.

Yet we also have a specific calling. As I studied calling stories in Scripture this became clear. Noah was to build an ark, Moses was to lead God's people out of Egypt, Jeremiah was to be a prophet to the nations, and Jonah was to preach to Ninevah. Our specific calling is simply how we live out our general calling in a specific context. Our specific calling can change, and each individual has a different one. I refer to this as our station in life. This is a concept I borrow from a sermon I recently heard on vocation. Discovering our specific call takes discernment and the discernment process is different for everyone.

We live in a culture that defines our calling more by our station than by our vocation. In other words our identity is wrapped up in what we do, and not by who are. This is why when we lose our job or change careers it effects us so greatly. I find freedom and liberation in knowing that if I am living out my vocation and am bearing God's image to a broken world, then I can find joy and fulfillment in any station. So as I find myself in a season of waiting, trying to discern my next station I can rest in the fact that God spoke a calling into my life at the very beginning of the human project. Fredrick Buechner once said, "Vocation is where our deep gladness meets the world's deep need." Now that is something worth living into!

I have more thoughts on this. If you're interested invite me to your church!

Lent 2010

Tomorrow Christians around the world will observe Ash Wednesday or the "Day of Ashes." This is the first day of Lent, the 40-day season leading up to Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It is a season of reflection, fasting, and repentance. It is a season of both dying and renewal, crucifixion and resurrection.

I did not grow up participating in Lent but have done so for the last decade. Early on my participation in Lent was nothing more than a weekly visit to St. Lawrence's Catholic Church for their community fish fry on Fridays, but soon my commitment to the Lenten journey became more substantial. Each year I join Jesus-followers everywhere in putting something to death for a season. My fasting experiences have included: caffeine, TV, sports radio, video games, reading, and last year I gave up the Internet. These have been my attempts in identifying in the sufferings of Christ, by giving up something that will sting a little. However a second Lenten practice that is often overlooked is the taking on of something new for Lent, whether it be a new habit, practice, or perspective. In the past I have taken on exercise, increased scripture reading, and eating healthier.

So for Lent 2010 I have decided to give up staying up late and am taking on reading through the New Testament. I am a night owl and this often results in tiresome mornings, meaning that I am not fully present to my family, my work, and to God. For this season I am imposing an 11PM bedtime for myself. My hope is that this might even result in getting up earlier. Several years back I visited a Benedictine monastery and woke up for prayer with the monks at 4:30am. There was something meaningful and beautiful about being awake to commune with God in the small hours of the morning. Admittedly I don't anticipate a 4:30am wake-up time these next 40 days, but I do hope to make more of my mornings.

Tomorrow I will join the community of faith in having my forehead marked with the ashes of last year palm fronds as I begin another Lenten journey. Tonight, however, I will carry on in my Mardi Gras celebration as I start a movie and stay up late for the last time until the tomb is empty! (Side note: I will probably look for a good Lenten fish fry in my community as well).

"Why We Should be Involved in Church Planting" from Ed Stetzer at Radacalis Conference

Thanks to Twitter I've discovered a free online live stream of two different conferences in the past week. The Verge Conference http://verge2010.org and The Radicalis Conference www.radicalis.com. This is a sweet technological innovation and it's very generous of these organizations to offer their main sessions free of charge.

Today I was pleased to learn that Ed Stetzer would be the speaker for one of the main sessions at Radicalis. Stetzer is one of the leading researchers, authors, and speakers in the church planting world, so naturally I was interested in what he had to say. What I'm posting here isn't so much my reflections, rather they're simply notes from his challenge to get involved in church planting. Enjoy!

- 28% of churches in America have been involved in church planting, but only 3% have actually sponsored a church plant.

Here are five reasons for churches/individuals to be involved in church planting:

1. The church matters: the church isn't the center of God's plan, Jesus is. However the church is the carrier of Jesus' message, and is on mission with him.

2. The "lost" matter: Consider Jesus' parables regarding the lost in Luke 15. In new churches the ratio for members and baptism is 100:14. For every 100 members there are 14 baptisms! This dramatically decreases the older and more established a church is. Stetzer challenges us to not be hesitant because we're afraid we won't be Saddleback or Willow Creek. "If we wait until we can send out thousands, then we will miss dozens."

3. Multiplication matters. We need to plant churches that plant churches that plant churches that plant churches..."If the natural order of things is reproduction then the church must be on some powerful birth control."

4. Transformation matters. Changed churches change the world. In order for society to be changed we need to plant change-agent churches.

5. The nations matter. This is in reference not to nation states, but to ethnic people groups. We need to be missional: joining God on his mission. Every church should be serving locally, planting nationally, and adopting ministries and initiatives globally.

"Don't let your church be a cul-de-sac on the Great Commission highway. Get involved in planting churches."

Some thoughts on preaching

I've been doing a fair amount of preaching lately and have a few speaking engagements coming up as well. As I've been studying for these messages I've been thinking a lot about the art of crafting a sermon (otherwise known as "preaching.") I like phrasing it that way because I truly do think the sermon is an art form. I remember in college sharing with a girl that I wished I was artistic and she challenged me to think of the act of preaching as being art. I think she was right, and that is cool because I've secretly always wanted to be kind of artsy and so I guess I kind of am.

When it comes to this art there are several different approaches (some gross over-generalizations):

Topical: Focus on a specific topic and use several different prooftexts to help support your claim regarding that topic. (Note: it is possible to be topical and use one central text as well)

Inspirational: Many moving and inspirational stories and little depth and exegesis of Scripture.

Expository: Pretty self-explanatory. A central text that is dissected and exposed. Low on inspirational stories, high on depth and exegesis of Scripture.

Narrative: The preacher is a storyteller. Not so much in the sense that she is telling inspirational stories, rather that she communicates Scripture as a great story, a scene in a larger meta-narrative.

My purpose in this post isn't to assert one approach over the others (although I tend to have my preferences). I think there are values and dangers in each approach. There are two approaches I observe today of which i want to point out some dangers.

On one end of the spectrum there is the topical preaching that runs rampant in many evangelical churches today. I like to call it "self-help baptized with a little Jesus." These sermons are often very polished, very organized, and demonstrate the using of Scripture to support one's claims. This kind of preaching really took off with the whole "seeker" movement as a way of making biblical truths more accessible to the common unchurched person. My concern with this style of preaching is that it results in good and moral Christians with little understanding of the Bible and its claim on the life of a Christian.

Yet on the other end of the spectrum there is something happening with younger postmodern preachers and that is a return to expository and narrative preaching. I like to call this "let me drop my seminary knowledge on you." These sermons are often very deep theologically, take into account the context, and sound more like the presenting of an exegesis paper. Some can effectively communicate this in such a way that anyone can understand, but many cannot. While I believe in the importance of exegesis and context my one little concern is, "does anyone know the preacher is saying?"

I don't think that preaching at its best is one of these approaches or the other, or even a balance of the two. Rather effective preaching is when the artist/preacher can take deep theological, scriptural, and exegetical truths and convey them in such a way that the hearers can understand. I think this is why Jesus spoke in parables. Instead of saying, "Let me explain to you the three methods of evangelism and church growth," he said, "it's like a farmer who goes out to sow some seed..." Jesus conveyed a deep truth in a way that his hearers could understand. The artist created something on a canvas that when the beholder saw it he said, "I get it," and his soul was stirred.

This is more rambling than anything and not well developed, but I think it highlights some of what's going on in the preaching art-form today. What is the preacher trying to accomplish with the sermon? What is your approach? What are the values/dangers attached to it?

Super Bowl Pick: Colts 34 Saints 31 (but I hope I'm wrong. Go Saints!)