Refomation Day - That They May All Be One

Tomorrow is Reformation Sunday. This is the Sunday where Protestants remember the birth of the Protestant Reformation.

On October 31, 1517 Matin Luther is purported to have nailed his 95 thesis to the door of the church in Wittenberg, where he was a teacher. These were serious concerns about a system within the Catholic churches where many dangerous abuses had crept in. His concerns were translated, and gave voice to many of the concerns of people throughout Germany. People took hold of Luther and soon he was at the center of a movement.


What followed was a tide that swept the world.
Luther was eventually excommunicated and many other reformers took up the torch of change.
As protestantism spread the church splintered into hundreds and eventually thousands of different communions.

This is an event that as a member of a Reformation church I take very seriously.

I take Reformation Sunday as a day of repentance.... and I think all Christians should.

Here is my prayer:


"that they may all be one."

Please pray it with me this weekend over and over again.


ALSO



If you want to watch a fun movie that talks about Luther, check out the Luther Movie below.

What ARE Lay Leaders?

In the 1960s the Catholic Church released the document “Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity”. In it the Catholic Church strove to add new life to the laity by giving firm theological affirmations about what it means to be a Christian lay man or women. In it they declared that God’s plan for the world is for human beings to “renew and perfect” the temporal order. In other words human being have been created in a special role in the world, and the laity are called to lead the charge. I think the “Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity” is a essential document, in it’s emphasis on the importance on the laity in the world and in the church.

If you are not from a mainline, Catholic, or Orthodox background the term “lay leader” or laity might be somewhat foreign. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines the laity as those people who are “distinct from the clergy.” I think that this definition underscores a problem that is endemic to the conversation of about laity. Often laity are defined by what they are not rather than what they are. For example we think of laity as unpaid, or not ordained, or, as the definition states, not clergy. Laity are however more than a collection of those defined by apophatic negation; clergy are people with particular roles and calls. In order to understand the importance of the ministry of the laity in the work of God in the world, an understanding of what positive affirmations can be said about their role is essential.

Recently I had the great pleasure of interviewing some men who are in lay leadership in the church. Although they come from diverse backgrounds and roles in the church, they had a great deal of wisdom that highlights some of the ways that all people are called into service in the church and the world.

 

What Lay Leaders Actually Are

 

1. As Christians Laity Are Ordained

The late Alexander Schmemann points out in his article, “Clergy and Laity In The Orthodox Church”,  that within the sacramental life of the church all Christians are, in a sense, ordained with the positive power and grace to be Christians. All Christians are ministers. Although the men I talked to are not paid for what they do to serve the church they affirmed that there is a certain call on their life just because they are Christians. When I asked one man why he started doing ministry his response was, “um... because I was there?” He said that It just doesn't make sense to him to, “work 8-5 then relax all evening and play all weekend, taking an hour off for God on Sunday morning, and call that discipleship.” To be a member of the Church of Christ is to have a calling. The Job that pays the bills is a part of that calling, but the vocation of minister doesn’t have a punch card.

2. Laity are an expression of the overall vocation of service

I find it interesting that one of the titles of the Pope is “the servant of the servants of God.” In a very real sense the expression of leadership in the church can most clearly be seen in the expression of service. One man I interviewed told me that leadership in the church “looks a lot like a combination of janitorial work, nursing, errands, valet service, and tutoring somebody else's sons for their exams.” They told me that they prefer lay ministry over ordination because there isn’t the distraction of power and prestige. He told me ordination sometimes “leads to misplaced respect and an unwarranted assumption of wisdom - and [can be] mistaken for humility.” He feels that the more formal power he has the more damage he would do if he were to mess up. All Christians are called to the ministry of service and the more prestigious the call the greater the danger to ones soul, and potential there is for distraction from the foundational call to service.

3. Lay leaders are gifted by God

When asked why they serve, one man responded, “I felt a call to Youth ministry from God and wanted to fulfill that calling, and I have skills relating to teens.” Another responded, “ I want to serve the Lord.  I have gifts and training.  I see unmet needs and try to meet them.” There is one theme that pervade the motivation for service among almost everyone I have ever talked to about why they serve; they are gifted. Although gifting can be both natural propensities, and learned skills, the lay leaders I talked to all recognized that the gifts they had were given by God for a purpose and that that purpose was what they hoped to achieve in their service in the church. An important lesson I have learned in my years of “professional ministry”, is that God has given the clergy every gift they need to minister to the people, but more often than not that gift is found in the members of the congregation, not in themselves.

4. Lay leaders are more than their ministries

After all this talk about everything that lay leaders are it is important to remember that lay leaders are also more than their ministries. If we affirm only what a person can do and forget about who they are their can be a lot of dangers. One of the men I talked to mentioned that he wished he had known that becoming a liturgist would not be able to sustain his spiritual health. He said, “if you don't have a prayer life outside of the services, you won't have a prayer life. Going to church once or twice a day sounds pious, but if you're leading the service then you’re always looking at the next prayer, the next reading or hymn, and every time you pray, you're flipping pages to the next thing.” If the laity is seen as only people that fill roles of service in the church and not people deeply in need of God’s grace and mercy there can easily be cases of spiritual abuse.  

Living in the kingdom of God
To be a Christian is to be one who is at one time both greatly in need to receive God’s grace and greatly called to demonstrate God’s grace. All Christians are ordained into the ministry of reconciliation that Christ has done, is doing, and promises to do. The life is never easy. The men I talked to had many struggles personally and within their vocations, but I was encouraged by their faithfulness to the call of Christ in their life. In the midst of trials they persevere. They continue to serve the Church in all her brokenness because they believe the promise of Christ, that the church dwells with God in all God’s fullness. May we all live as servants of the servants of God, for that is the heart of greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Occupy Your Vocation

The Lord’s Day Ceremony: Prayer before the meal

I.  The Lighting of the Candle: 

Leader #2 [the designated assistant] leads the following meditation.

Leader #2

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  Heavenly Father, in honor of your Son, true light of the world and Author of Life, I am about to kindle the light for the Lord’s Day.  On this day You raised up Your Son Jesus from the dead and began the new creation.  May our celebration of His resurrection this day be filled with your peace and heavenly blessing.  Be gracious to us and cause your Holy Spirit to dwell more within us.

Father of mercy, continue your living kindness toward us.  Make us worthy to walk in the way of your Son, loyal to your teaching and unwavering in love and service.  Keep far from us all anxiety, darkness, and gloom; and grant that peace, light, and joy ever abide in our home.

All:  For in you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.  Amen.

Leader#2 lights the candle, then with hands raised over the candle, prays:

Blessed are You, Lord our God, who created light on the first day and raised up you Son, the light of the world to begin the new creation.  Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has taught us to kindle the light for the Lord’s Day.

Opening Song and Praise

II. The Reading of the Word

The reading of the Word should be taken from the proper readings for that Sunday.  If the leader chooses to comment on the reading, or if he/she desires to share some reflections at this time, it would be appropriate.

III. The Blessing of the Meal:  

Leader #1 leads the following blessing:

Leader: This is the Lord’s Day.

All: Let us welcome it in joy and peace.

Leader: Today we set aside the concerns of the week in order to honor the Lord 

and to celebrate His resurrection.  Today we cease from work in order to 

worship God and to acknowledge the eternal life to which He calls us.

All:  The Lord Himself is with us to refresh us and to strengthen us.

Leader:  Let us welcome the Lord among us and give Him glory.

All:  Let us love one another in the Lord.

Leader:  May the Holy Spirit be with us, to deepen our devotion to the Lord and 

increase our zeal for the particular way of life He has called us to embrace.

The Leader pours the wine into a cup, raises it, and recites the following prayer:

Leader:  Let us praise God with this symbol of joy and thank Him for the past week

-for health, strength, and wisdom; for home, love and friendships; for the

discipline of our trials and temptations; and for the happiness that has come to us out of our work.  Let us thank Him especially for the great blessing he has bestowed on us in Christ.

All: From His fullness we have all received grace upon grace.

Leader: We who were dead through sin have been brought to life in Christ.

All: And we will be raised up with Him on the last day. 

Leader: Lord our God, you have brought us into the peace and rest of Christ.  Now

we live with Him through the Holy Spirit, and look for the day when we will dwell with Him in your everlasting Kingdom.  Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who has created the fruit of the vine.

The Leader drinks from the cup and then passes it to the other members of the family.  After the cup is passed, he/she blesses the break saying:

Leader: Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the Universe who brings forth the bread      from the earth.

(Dinner follows)

IV. Blessing and Prayers After the Meal

When the meal is over, the father/leader leads the following prayers and blessing:

Leader: Let us bless the Lord.

All: Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forever.

Leader:  Let us bless our God, of whose goodness we have shared.

All: Blessed be our God, of whose goodness we have shared and through whose 

goodness we live.

Leader: Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who feeds the whole world with your goodness, with grace, with steadfast love and mercy.  Through your great goodness, food has never failed us.

All: May it not fail us forever and ever, for your great name’s sake.

Leader: Blessed are you, O Lord our God, who gives food to all.

All: Amen

Leader: Blessed are you, O Lord our God, for by your great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

All: And you have called us as your sons and daughters to share in your life 

forever.

Leader: Blessed are you, all merciful God, for giving us new life in Jesus your Son.

All: Amen.

Leader: Blessed are you, O Lord of our God, for the rest we enjoy this day.  We welcome this day with gladness.  We thank you that we can celebrate Your resurrection by giving this day to you in joy and thanksgiving.

All: Look graciously upon Your servants.  Show us Your glory.

Leader: Blessed are You, Lord our God, who gives rest to His people.

All: Amen

(Prayer for your community or church)

Leader: Lord our God, we lift up our brothers and sisters serving in our parish to you.  Watch over them.  Protect them from the snares of the evil one.  Strengthen and confirm them in your grace.  Guide and protect us through our shepherds.

All: Bring us all together into the fullness of Your Kingdom where you live 

forever and ever. Amen.

(It would be appropriate at this time to intercede for specific needs of your community or church) and for specific individuals who are in need of prayer.)

(Here the leader blesses those gathered according to the Aaroinic blessing from Numbers 6:24-26.)

With hands extended:

Leader: The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace.

All: Amen.

Closing Song of Thanks and Praise

What makes a Christian Leader?

A mentor of mine once said, “you’ll know you’re a leader when you turn around and there is a group of people following you.” That very practical definition has stuck with me it get around who is “in leadership” and who is not and cuts to the core of what an actually is. A leader is anyone that leads people from one place to another. They might lead somewhere good, they might lead somewhere bad. A leader might do a great Job of caring for those they lead, and they might not. Equipping someone to be a leader is as easy as giving them a megaphone and a location to go to. Equipping ministers in the task of discipleship is not so easy.

Jesus commanded his followers that as they went out to new locations they should make disciples by baptizing them into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; teaching them to obey all he had commanded. This passage points to the location towards with all pastoral and lay ministers should be leading, the community of the Trinity. It also shows that one of the primary goals of christian leadership is to create new Christian leaders.

Not only is the Trinity the destination of Christian leadership it is also the vehicle. A good minister in the church leads by the power of the Holy Spirit, with the gifts of the Father, through the authority of Christ. The first mission of a leader in the church is to help define this reality in light of the culture they find themselves in. These three aspects need to be fleshed out a little bit.

1. By the power of the Holy Spirit - Being a leader in the church means you are joining a movement that has been underway long before they got there, and will be there long after they leave. Christian leadership must be in cooperation with the Holy Spirit’s work not the other way around.
2. With the gifts of the Father - To lead well it is essential to recognise that all good things come from God. This includes the gifts, the people, the resources, and the history of the community you hope to lead. Recognizing and affirming what God has given is essential to effective church leadership.
3. Through the authority of Christ - Christ has given authority to the church to do great works. Believing in Christ means believing in those he has chosen. This means that those in pastoral leadership need to believe that God is at work in the members, and places trust in the lay leaders. It also means recognizing that there is a particular call in the office of the ministry in which Christ moves in unique ways through the word and sacrament. In all roles it is essential to recognize that Jesus authority is rooted in His humility (Phil 2). To be a christian leader in any capacity requires being a servant of all.

How would you define worship?

Worship in Greek can mean to kiss toward

If I asked 15 people to give me a definition of worship I would probably get 15 responses. It’s hard to define. It’s something that people do, and angels do. It’s something that creation calls forth and the saints around the throne join in with. People have worshiped with the blood of goats, with golden bowls, with candlesticks, and with incense. People worship with pledges of their lives, with ancient liturgies, and with their dying breath as they give their lives in worship as martyrs and saints.

Worship is something that is hard to define as a theology of a practice because almost any definition seems to fall short of the majesty of it all and leave room for someone to say, “I have done it” rather then “I am doing it” worship of God is not so much an act to complete by a posture to maintain. In fact the word for worship in the scriptures, προσκυνέω, describes a bearing of deference much more then a description of action. 

I like thinking of worship as a posture of the heart rather then an action to complete because it gives worship more room and more dignity. If worship is an action it seems almost trite to call a song we sing “worship” when placed next to the action of a martyr for the faith, but when it is seen as a posture any action can become a kind of worship. The goal of a worship leader is not to teach people what to do as much as how to go about doing everything. The practice of worship is just that; it’s practice. It takes time to learn how and it’s an action that is never done.  True worship is not an action that we do but a response to the action that God has done, is doing, and promises to do. The response of worship is to take all our lives and all our giftings and point them in love toward God. This is what προσκυνέω is all about. In fact it can be literally translated “to kiss toward”.

This is why at the heart of Christian worship there is Word and Sacrament. It is in these places that God has promised to act. By surrounding ourselves with the action of God we are always called to respond in true worship.

My take on the Six Covenant Affirmations

There is a great deal of freedom within the Covenant Affirmations (my denomination's statement of faith). Each one is so broad pastors and churches with a wide variety of perspectives on each issue can all agree to the affirmations themselves. I think the greatest concern with being a pastor in light of the affirmations is learning how the culture of your own church interacts with each of the affirmations. That being said I personally do have a theology of ministry related to each of the affirmations.

• We affirm the centrality of the word of God.
• The word of God is a multi-faceted designation. It is generally understood to be the holy scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments. It is the central record of what God has done given to us by the church. It provides the story that frames all ministry and points to the authority through which a pastor has been given their office. A ministry apart from the world of God ceases to be the church, because it ceases to have the formative declaration of Christ that brings it into being. Because of this the Bible must always remain as a core piece of any christian ministry. That being said the Scriptures must never be the central object of worship. God must remain central to worship, the scriptures must always be found in the core of the worshipers.
• We affirm the necessity of the new birth.
• New Birth is a bit of a loaded term. I am sure there are many in the Evangelical Covenant Church who disagree on exactly what this is or what this looks like. To be a pastor in the covenant requires the minister to have a deep and rich theology of what “new birth” is and also what it can mean to others. At the heart of this affirmation is a recognition that Christianity is not an ethnic boundary marker or a cultural designation. It an identity that comes from God and God alone. For many in the church that means they want you to be able to demonstrate tangible signs that you have been claimed by Christ; this is dangerous. Nowhere in scripture is their a objective litmus test of who is (or who is not) “born again.” As a pastor, creating a culture where the places where God promises to be (baptism, Eucharist, worship) are emphasised more then the experiences and feelings are essential to keeping this important affirmation in the right focus.
• We affirm a commitment to the whole mission of the church.
• This affirmation strikes at the heart of a dichotomy that emerged within the protestant church in the 20th century. For reasons too complicated to innumerate here many churches began to focus EITHER on Social Justice OR winning souls for Jesus. This bifurcation of the mission of the church often resulted in a demonization of all those who were in the other camp. Social Justice churches seemed to have an allergic reaction to talk about the “sharing the Gospel” while soul winners looked at social justice initiatives as unimportant (or even wrong). Living this affirmation out means that if someone visits your church they will have a really hard time figuring out which “camp” you fit into, because both are strongly present. Point to what Christ has done. Live in what Christ is doing. Stand on what Christ has promised to do.
• We affirm the church as a fellowship of believers.
• There is a common belief held by many people today that they are spiritual not religious or perhaps that following Jesus is a relationship rather then a religion. This de-emphasis on religion is endemic of a culture of individualism. God is someone who you  can meet on your own. This is simply not what the scriptures tell us. The church itself is an institution created by God to be the means by which people come to know God. This affirmation reminds us that it is when we are in community with one another, when all of God’s people are interacting with one another in worship and service, that God’s will is most clearly revealed and discerned. Without the church there is no promise that what is experienced is from God. There is no word (for it was given by the church), no sacrament (for itis administered by the church), no assurance of grace (for it is found within the church), no bond that unites us in Christ (for the church extends to all people). The church is foundational to being Christian.
• We affirm a conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit.
• The Covenant church affirms over and over again in it’s history that without the Holy Spirit they would have died a long time ago. The Spirit is the one that empowers and enlightens the church and gives life to all within it. The spirit inspired the scriptures and continues to illuminate them. The spirit meets us in the waters of baptism, where we are claimed by Christ. Without the spirit the Cristian life has no power. The Holy Spirit should be affirmed in all we say and be relied on in all we do.
• We affirm the reality of freedom in Christ.
• There are many who are within the Church, but disagree on some very important issues. It is important not to view homogeneity as holy or to consecrate conformity. As Christians we serve a God which is much larger then any system of doctrine. Theologians throughout history knew it was dangerous to try to define God cataphaticly. This affirmation states that church is a place where people who challenge our assumptions about God should always be present, and that God’s grace is much bigger then any theology about it.

The Story we find ourselves in

I recently gave a talk for the Word of God Community's Fall retreat. Here is a recording of the morning session.

Classic Rich Mullins teaching

Here is a video I have always loved

15 books that will MAKE you belive in GOD?

Fellow theology nerd and UberBlogger David Withun has created a list of 15 books that he claims that is you read them all (and process all the ideas) you will no longer be able to remain an Atheist.

I have read 1, 3, 6, 7, 13, and 15 ALL of which are fantastic... I can't say how great (or not so great) any of the others are, but I thought this was an interesting list.

What do you all think about this list. 

• What would you add?
• What would you subtract?

Check out David's Blog : http://www.piousfabrications.com/

1. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
2. Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies - David Bentley Hart
3. The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels - Thomas Cahill
4. Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe - Thomas Cahill
5. The Jews: Their Role in Civilization - Louis Finkelstein
6. Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu
7. Christ the Eternal Tao - Hieromonk Damascene
8. The Story of Christianity: An Illustrated History of 2000 Years of the Christian Faith - David Bentley Hart
9. Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus - Thomas Cahill
10. The Mountain of Silence: A Search for Orthodox Spirituality - Kyriacos C. Markides
11. The Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ: or How to Philosophize with a Hammer - Friedrich Nietzsche
12. The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church - Vladimir Lossky
13. The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
14. God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World--and Why Their Differences Matter - Stephen Prothero
15. The Orthodox Study Bible: Ancient Christianity Speaks to Today's World