learnings so far...

My observations so far are pretty basic. Churches at their best reflect the culture that they exist in. I guess that is pretty obvious. The church is a group of people from a certain area and when those people gather it makes sense that they look like where they are from. BH is full of, but not limited to, smart, outdoor loving, white, middle class people. Madison is full of those people. Portland, ditto. Therefore since we look like the areas we come from then it would not really make much sense to want to be like a Portland church when we are not in Portland. I do love how organic the language is here. I do love how green, easy-going, thoughtful the Christian community here is. Also there seems to be something in the water that makes everyone love to take broken things and make them beautiful. I think that has inspired 90% of the art here. Here it is not a Christian thing, it is a Portland thing.

In Madison, how can we be more thoughtful, more organic, greener and take what is broken around us and through the power of the Holy Spirit reveal beauty? That is something I want to be part of. But I don’t want to just be part of a Madison thing. I want to be part of a God thing. What is there that is counter-cultural to Madison but fully cultural to the kingdom of God? What aligns? I guess it doesn't matter whether or not it is already part of the culture. The point is not to defy nor submit to worldly culture but instead live out the kingdom wherever we are and in doing so we will not conform to the world. This gets annoyingly simple and infinitely difficult at the same moment. Do we love others like we love ourselves? Do we give to those in need? Do we open our homes, our lives to those around us? Do we heal the sick, feed the hungry, cloth the naked, adopt the orphan, ask for help from others, worship the King?

I guess the benefit of seeing others in action is not to replicate but to spark imagination.

Longing for clarity: Switch part 3

I long to be part of something significant. I want to be led. I want to be given the direction I need to go. I want clarity. I don’t believe that I am alone. While I long for this sort of clear calling, I struggle to know what it could look like or if is even biblical. Jesus seemed to be anything but clear or specific in his teachings. Okay maybe that is too strong. But as a follower of Jesus, what is a clear and compelling calling for my life? To be like Christ does not seem to qualify. To become a fully devoted follower of Jesus is compelling but not clear. There are a million ways I can go about that. What is a clear calling my church community can be a part of that does not oversimplify the kingdom of God? I want help picturing a preferred future. What would it look like to be part of a group of growing disciples? How would our city change? What tangle difference could be made?

There are some Christian communities that sell out to specific issues. Is that what I long for? I know that a lack of clarity is frustrating because you never really know if you are successful by any measure. Even if you measure success by whether or not the fruit of the Spirit is evident you still need to have sense that you full of peace, patience, self-control, etc. How do you know? Most people, maybe all, tend to over estimate their good qualities and justify away their bad ones. It is ill-advised to say ‘be like Jesus’, point in a general direction and then depend on self awareness to result in a mature disciple; more clarity is needed. It just that I am unclear on what the clarity could be.

A better question: Switch continued

How often do I look for what is good and ask how can we do more of that? As a ministry leader I spend a lot of my time evaluating all kinds of things. But how often to I focus on what is good and strong versus getting caught up in what is broken? If I were generous I would guess I spend 70% of my time focusing on the negative. Is that being negative?

What if I were to always be on the lookout for the good that is happening, celebrating those stories and doing all I can to spread that success? What if Christian communities were like that? Instead of being shame based, what if we regularly held up ‘success’ stories and celebrated? That sort of community strikes me as one that would be exciting and encouraging to be a part of.

making change

Today I read the first chapter of Switch by Chip and Dan Heath. I don’t usually enjoy business oriented books but this one seems promising. The authors suggest that change can be made easier, not easy, by giving clear logical motivation, compelling emotional inspiration and simple, clear ways to respond. I wonder how this works as a Christ follower and a vocational pastor. Is life change the result of human persuasion or the power of the Holy Spirit? Scripture seems to suggest that the answer is ‘yes’.

Drinking low fat milk verses whole milk is an example of giving a clear action step versus telling people to ‘be healthier’. I wonder if we don’t do this within the church when we call people to holy living and leave it with that and maybe a sense that reading the bible, praying and hanging out as a group on Sundays will make that happen. There are a million ways to be healthier and the same goes for being holier.

Calling people to be holier is wrought is difficulty but changed and changing lives are at the core of the Christian faith. I look forward to exploring more about what Jesus followers are called to and how we can help each other change.

multi-site musings

The Multi-Site Church Roadtrip

My wife passed the first chapter of this book on to me. I believe this book is making a case for why multi-site churches are a good thing and how God is working in a variety of ways through a variety of structures. This does not go to the rightness of their argument but I found myself caught up by their language. They suggest that one of the strengths of multi-site is that they simultaneously offer the best of big and small church. But is that the point of church? And who is offering what? Isn’t the church all the people that make it up? Do they mean that the paid staff can offer the best of both worlds? If that is the case then it seems the way they frame their argument has been taken captive by the language of our consumer culture. Maybe later in the book they do this but at least in the first chapter they do not define what a successful church is or does and therefore seem to define success by number of sites, total people coming, diversity of sites and people coming to church services.

I really should read more of this book but the examples they use for churches that have multi-sites all seem to have in common that they started with one church building and that building was located in the suburbs and then subsequent sites moved both to the urban and rural areas. I am not really sure what that implies but it seems worth noting. What cultural reality exists in the suburbs that are distinct from both rural and urban America? How might this movement, if reality, impact the American church in years to come?

I think of Honduras as a good example of this reality. My experience of the evangelical church in Honduras is that has been directly impacted by the brand of politically conservative Christianity exported from the U.S.

I really do believe that multi-sites are neither good nor evil. They just are but how we talk about them and what these communities are trying to do is important.

Sabbatical journal

Today marks the start of my second week on sabbatical. My goals for this time are threefold:

1. Rest and rejuvenation physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually
2. Learn about how other ministries engage students with social justice
3. How do difference churches do multi-site with students
a. Why to certain communities decide to do multi-site while others do not. What are the intended and unintended consequences caused by the increase of this model?

I realize that point three is sort of cheating by throwing in as much as I can into one question but hey it is my sabbatical and I find it interesting. To help facilitate my goals becoming reality I am planning to do the following:

- Sleep in without an alarm
- Work out at least five hours a week
- Read at least one book a week along with the bible
- Go on prayer walks one time a week
- Journal at least twice a week
- Take long walks in silence or with a favorite podcast at least twice a week
- Watch lots of March Madness


The first book in my reading queue was The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman which reveals one of my guilty pleasures. I love how a story well told has the power infuse new meaning and feeling into subject matter and in doing so defies stereotypes. Gaiman’s book reads like a Tim Burton movie and skillfully weaves together death, ghosts and murder with love, parenting and self discovery. Besides merely enjoying the story as a fun kid’s book, I wonder what in this book reveals deeper human truth, if anything. Regardless…good stuff.


Book 2: Into the Mud by Christine Jeske


I have a deep envy for the few people I know that get free preview books from publishers and/or authors so it was great excitement that I unwrapped my first ever from the publisher copy of this book. The author is a friend of mine from college and it has been enjoyable to see both her and her husband grow as writers over the years. I expected to enjoy Chrissy’s book on the level of proximity to the author and I was not disappointed. However I did not expect the stories to challenge how I view ministry. I love to think big picture. I love dreaming about what could be. I love to consider what is and then jump 1-5 years into the future. Chrissy’s writes stories about every day people and how God can be seen in the mess. I have been challenged to not just think in futuristic terms but to see the world through specific stories in the here and now.

This may appear to be a bit of a rabbit trail but a group of friends of mine have been exploring how we might take the first steps towards starting a free/low cost medical clinic and I have been wondering how something like this ever starts. My initial observation is that these sorts of things start with a relationship. Micro-finance starts with knowing someone who needs a small loan, medical clinics start when a medical professional meets someone without insurance and does something about it and so on. Into the Mud has challenged me to look at what God might be doing in the relationships around me and then in turn dreaming about what could be.

I want to learn to dream in light of what God is doing instead of dreaming in a void and missing out on what is going on right in front of me.