Category Archives: discipleship

BCBC Improving your Serve – Abide to Thrive: Exploring the Church’s Identity in Christ & its Outward Function in the World

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I recently had a chance to speak at the British Columbia Baptist Conference’s annual equipping session entitled Improving Your Serve. The theme this year was Abide to Thrive. In the seminar and subsequent reflection and discussion sessions, we reflected on how understanding our church identity informs community actions. We also considered how the good news, kingdom values, serving others, and truthtelling shape our identity. Then we explored where churches may need to realign their focus to be more present in today’s cultural conversations. All in all, we examined how abiding in Christ can lead to a more fruitful and impactful presence in the world.

If you missed the seminar, a video version of my talk can be found here, and a livestream here, but for those who are interested in getting the text of what I said here it is in its complete form.

Personal Story

When I was a kid, joining the church wasn’t just a formality – it was a process with theological requirements. Part of that process involved sharing my testimony. First, I had to present it to the church board. Once they approved, I had to stand before the entire congregation. Both groups had to vote before I could officially become a member. 

I remember envying those who had dramatic testimonies – stories – of being saved from lives of obvious, even salacious sin. My story wasn’t like that. It felt ordinary. I hadn’t strayed far or hit rock bottom. I didn’t have a before-and-after moment that felt remarkable. 

For a long time, I wrestled with the idea that my testimony wasn’t enough – that it didn’t measure up. But more recently, I’ve been struck by Connie Duarte’s words: ‘We are not called to be believers but disciples.’

That statement has challenged and reshaped how I see my journey of faith. It’s not merely about believing the right things or about meeting theological checklists. Nor is it about the level of initial transformation from darkness to light. Rather, it’s about abiding in Christ every day – submitting to Him, walking with Him, and letting His life flow through mine – journeying with him on a lifetime of being transformed. Being a disciple isn’t about how dramatic my testimony is; it’s about how deeply I abide. 

This shift in understanding has led me to see the gospel – and my place in it – in a whole new way. The gospel isn’t just something to believe; it’s something to live out daily. And abiding in Christ, particularly in His proclamation is at the heart of that.

The Vine Metaphor: A Living Metaphor

The title of our seminar is Improving Your Serve: Abiding to Thrive. When discussing the concept of abiding, there’s no better passage for us to examine than John 15. Here Jesus talks about us being the branches and he’s the vine. There’s lots and lots of rich imagery in this metaphor that we will spend some time looking at today. But if we want to get down to brass tacks, the basic message of this story is that whether we like it or not our lives are organically bound up in God’s and in each other’s – I like the fact that Jesus’ use of an organic example here shows that abiding is dynamic, not static. Adding to that, a vine is communal rather than singular: Fruit comes in clusters, and not in isolation; Pruning is necessary for the entire plant to both grow and produce fruit.

It’s this organic story of connection, care, growth, and production that’s a fabulous story of our identity. But we often stop here and say, “Okay, I can live my life now in satisfaction because I’m connected, and I’m identified with who I am.” Once we identify ourselves, we remain satisfied with that identity.

Identity is important. Let’s look at the church, for example – especially since that’s why we have gathered today. In the church we have a series of things that identify us for who we are.

Debie Thomas, in her Into the Mess and Other Jesus Stories: Reflections on the Life of Christ, says, “If God is the vine grower, Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches, what should we do? We have only one task: to abide. To tarry, to stay, to cling, to remain, to depend, to rely, to persevere, to commit. To hang in there for the long haul. To make ourselves at home.”  

Our seminar is entitled Improving Your Serve. And each of these three words in the title are significant for today’s conversation. That’s why, when speaking of identity, we will begin with the centre word: “Your.” So, let’s get into the nitty gritty of John 15!

ABIDING AS IDENTITY

The story starts with Jesus declaring “I AM.” This is God’s identity word – the name he uses when he introduces himself. Jesus’ ultimate identity, and we see this throughout the book of John, is his constant referral back to who he really is. He uses the technical term “I AM” to indicate that he is declaring that he is the same as the God who saved Israel from Egypt.

What’s interesting to note in John 15 is that Jesus does not simply say, “I AM.” Much like God’s declaration of who he was to Moses at the burning bush was not simply saying, “This is who I AM, period.” Jesus identifies himself as “I AM the vine.” I AM is connected to his creation – which is really how God initially identified himself in Exodus isn’t it? God made himself known to Moses at the burning bush, in response to hearing cries for help from his people!

YHWH exists for more to happen than mere existence – he exists also to save humans! We, too, are called to make this same movement from one thing to the next. And this progression starts with identity – Who are we? Who is God? – but then moves into ideas of purpose. It moves from merely being a vine and branches towards bearing fruit.

1. Worship as Identity

For example, we all engage in worship of some kind or another.  Every now and then we decide, “Hey, let’s worship without singing,” Matt Redman-style, but in all reality, singing forms the core of how we see worship. There’s all of this kind of stuff that we do that helps us identify who we are and the kind of church we are – and all of those things are music-related: Are we going to sing praise and worship songs? Are we going to sing from the hymn book? Are we going to use instruments? Are we not going to use instruments? Is there going to be a worship team in a band on the front or is it just going to be a guy in a toque playing a guitar with a candle burning? Years ago, at Missions Fest one church advertised “a massive wall of sound.”

All of that to say that sometimes rather than identifying ourselves as those who worship, we instead identify ourselves as those who worship this way.  

2. Word as Identity

We also identify ourselves through how we approach the Word of God. The Word of God – is it a significant part of our time when we gather, isn’t it?

Sermons, children’s songs such as “read your bible pray every day, and you’ll grow, grow, grow,” bible verses hanging on the church wall, arguments over bible translations, etc.

One of the churches I serve in the Philippines thought long and hard and eventually came up with the name, Metro Manila Bible Community – because for us as Bible believing Christians, the Bible is our sole source for faith and conduct. So much so that it becomes our identity.

But word is more than these things.

But then again, we often attach identity to the length of sermon – or bible translation used, or the place where the sermon is preached from, or whether or not we read through the bible in a year or not – rather than the fact there is a bible.

3. Sacrament as Identity

We have a third identifying mark. I have used the word “sacrament” here but some of you may be squirming in your seats because we generally avoid using that word. We say, “No, no, no, we’re Baptists. We don’t have sacraments; we have ordinances!”

In the long run, it doesn’t really matter what word we use. Rather what’s important is that we do have these things that are a significant part of how we identify ourselves. It’s right in there in our name: We are the BC Baptist Conference. Other groups don’t centralize baptism as much as we do, but rather they centralize the Lord supper. As members of BCBC, both of these are fairly intense processes for us.

I already told you my baptism story. There was a similar process when I wanted to participate in the Lord’s Supper. Mind you I didn’t have to convince the board. Rather, before I could take Lord’s Supper, I had to convince my dad that I understood what was happening so that I wouldn’t “partake in an unworthy manner.”

It’s different in the Philippines. Here children go through First Communion where they’re formally introduced into the rite. Why all the process? Because we have these things that we identify as being important, so much so they identify us with who we are.

4. System as Identity

A fourth identifying feature is system. I actually struggled with what word to use here. We could use governance. We could use discipline. We could use polity. But regardless, it’s the way we make sure that everything is orderly in our worship and our organization. How do we organize ourselves? We all have some kind of organizing system – whether we’re organized to attend church at a specific time, whether we’re organized into having a corporate worship and then a small discipleship or small group or Bible study, whether we have a Sunday school, whether we have a board of trustees or board of elders or board of directors, whether we have a pastoral team or not whether we agree that pastors are only male or can they also be female – all of this stuff is part of our discipline. It’s our way of addressing what’s in 1 Corinthians 12 to having an orderly experience and that’s also how we identify ourselves.

And of course we joke about this, right? Whenever you have two Baptists, you have three opinions!  Maybe we have an organizing system but maybe it’s not always that great.

ABIDING AS THRIVING

Now that we’ve looked at identity, let’s come back to abiding. Sometimes when we think about abiding, we think about abiding as identity – I’m connected to the Father, I’m connected to the vine – who is Jesus – because I’m one of the branches connected to this vine and I’m happy with that. But if we take the vine motif to its very end as Jesus does in his passage, we realize that this vine motif is more than merely identity and there’s this transition that happens as we transition from “being” to “doing.”

If we return to our title – Improving Your Serve – we’ve moved beyond Your to the Serve portion of the conversation.

When I was younger, we tried to avoid talking about doing largely because of Bible verses that say things like “We are saved by faith not by works.” We internalised this so much that when we came to other verses that seemed to value good works – such as James’ “faith without works is dead” – we struggled.

Another struggle with is avoidance of doing checklists as followers of Jesus Christ. And we have lots of checklists don’t we. When I was a kid, it was “Don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t chew, or go with them that do.” Another checklist might be

  1. go to church every Sunday – & invite your friends,
  2. read your Bible and pray every day,
  3. share the gospel with whoever comes across your path,
  4. be involved in the church through other things, such as teaching a Sunday school class or singing in the choir.

We even found biblical support for this. We looked at the story of Mary and Martha, and we interpreted Jesus words to imply that we should simply be sitting at the feet of Jesus and not be so busy doing the things that need to be done.

There’s a pushback against checklists in part because we don’t want to turn our relationship with Jesus into some kind of a cosmic game of Good Manners and Right Conduct. We’re looking for something more authentic than that. We’re looking for something more organic than that.

What we realize is that these checklists are in fact ways for us to engage in discipleship. We are confronted by two questions: How can we be disciples of Jesus Christ? Is it possible to be disciples of Jesus Christ without doing the things Jesus Christ wanted us to do?

This adds a different nuance to the checklist. Instead of checking off things on the list we evaluate each situation we came to in life. You may have heard of this phrase that has actually appeared over the past hundred years of the church at least – It was illustrated by an acronym WWJD? meaning What would Jesus do? It was a question we asked ourselves when confronted with a situation we needed to evaluate. An area perhaps that wasn’t directly spoken about in scripture but was an area where we needed a make a decision. With no to pull out of scripture to serve as our guideline, we rather tried to understand the mind of Christ and applied that our situations.

The story of the vine and the branches has some troubling features to It. It talks about a gardener. It talks of being proved. And it talks about bearing fruit. These things are troubling to us because it seems to imply there are actions associated with our abiding. There’s an expectation of care, discipline, & fruitfulness.

Which is why Jesus spoke about this as a gardener-vine-branches-fruit process. It helps us understand this as something that’s natural and organic rather than something that’s forced and required.

Debie Thomas again:

“But ‘abide’ is a tricky word. Passive on the one hand, and active on the other. To abide is to stay rooted in place. But it is also to grow and change. It’s a vulnerable-making verb: if we abide, we’ll get pruned. It’s a risky verb: if we abide, we’ll bear fruit that others will see and taste. It’s a humbling verb: if we abide, we’ll have to accept nourishment that is not of our own making. It’s a communal verb; if we abide, we will have to coexist with our fellow branches.”

Gardening is all about growing a garden that produces delicious fruits. There are so many different kinds of fruits, and they come from all sorts of plants. Right now, I can see a bunch of fruits hanging from the trees outside my window. Some of them are picked for their leaves and used in soups, while others are eaten right off the tree, like coconuts, mangoes, avocados, and papayas. And let’s not forget the beautiful gardens themselves! We love looking at them, which is why there’s a magazine called Better Homes and Gardens. It shows off all these amazing gardens and tells us what makes them so special.

The parable of the talents tells of one of the servants who hid his money in the ground because he fundamentally misunderstood his master’s desires. The purpose of investment is the same as the purpose for a garden – to bear fruit. Do you know you do if you have money? Invest it. Do you know what you do if you have a garden? You prune and cultivate it, so it bears fruit. Do you know what you do if you have a family? You want the outcome of your kids’ lives to be better than your own.

So, what about the church? Do we know what we do if we have a church? We have seen what the church is. Now let’s look at what the church is all about. This means moving beyond checklists and identity and transitioning into thriving and fruitfulness. What does thriving and fruitfulness look like as the church abides in the vine? This is an important question because without asking this, we tend to focus on checklists and end up making statements such as, “Oh you’re not a part of us because you don’t keep the right lists you haven’t done everything haven’t checked everything off enough.” It leads to us creating lists that we argue about – lists to determine whether someone is in or out or not. But what Jesus really wants us to do in the church is to bear fruit. This is because fruit bearing is a natural outpouring, the organic result of what we do. As Jesus followers we bear fruit.  

How do we get to that thriving point because mere identity is not thriving unless there’s fruit that is borne. It means while we keep our identifying features – while worship God in spirit and in truth, while we focus on the word as the sole standard of faith and conduct, while we continue to see the significance of the sacraments in our lives, and while we continue to maintain orderly worship – we also go beyond that and ask ourselves, “How does all of this help me bear fruit?”

A. From Worship towards Promulgating Kingdom Values to Those Outside the Church’s Four Walls.

The first level of this interconnectedness is with the vine himself. Verse 1 says, “I am the vine, my Father is the vinedresser,” and a few verses later, “remain in me, as I remain in you.” There’s a mutuality to our connection with God and with the other parts of the vine. None of these branches grow in isolation from either the vine or the other branches; together they bear fruit.

The values of the kingdom are so important that we should share them with others. We want to worship God and live according to these values, but we also realize that they’re not just personal; they’re values we incorporate into our lives and should share with the world. We enjoy being one with God, imitating Christ, and being Jesus-followers. But how do we connect with others? Understanding kingdom values, bearing fruit, and being part of the vine requires a shift from individual to communal understanding. True worship creates genuine community through mutual transformation in Christ’s presence. Christ’s work in us produces fruit, which isn’t just food but a seed that sprouts and bears new vines and plants, spreading around the world.

The most explicit description of these values is found in the fruit of the Spirit and includes love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The fact that they are fruit means they are obvious in the lives of Jesus’ followers.

We can work at revealing the joys of the kingdom of God to people outside of our faith community through active participation with like-minded faith communities, active cooperation with like-minded groups, and active accountability in both the religious and secular world. All this is typified with the Christian attitude of unity in matters essential, liberty in matters non-essential, and charity in all other matters.

B. From Word towards Proclaiming Jesus Christ’s Role as Shepherd-Lord to Those Outside the Church’s Four Walls.

One could be forgiven for assuming when reading v7 – “If you remain in me and my words remain in you” – that this means that all we need to do is remain connected to Christ. He’s with us and we are with him. But the story doesn’t stop there because in the very next verse, we read “you will bear much fruit.”

There is good news – we are connected to Christ – but that good news extends beyond the salvation moment, and into our lives as followers of Jesus Christ.

The Good News of Jesus Christ is that Jesus Christ is not only our Savior. He is also the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus connects him with humanity, Christ connects him with being God’s plan for the salvation of all peoples, and Lord connects him with being the one in charge of the universe – the One ultimately responsible for ensuring we have peace and order, economic sufficiency, public justice, and national righteousness. We know he was responsible for this because of the way he introduced himself to the world laid out his terms of engagement with humanity. And what are these terms of engagement? We see them in Luke 4:18-19:

“The Spirit of the Lord is with me. He has anointed me to tell the Good News to the poor. He has sent me to announce forgiveness to the prisoners of sin and the restoring of sight to the blind, to forgive those who have been shattered by sin, to announce the year of the Lord’s favor.”

To see the gospel being limited to merely the salvation moment is to do it a disservice. While the salvation moment holds significance, it is not confined to that single event. Traditionally, the gospel has been understood as a one-way transaction, flowing from those who possess knowledge to those who lack it. However, the gospel transcends this notion and becomes a shared journey among all who seek the fulfillment of this message. Our journey through salvation extends beyond that, encompassing discipleship and a deeper commitment to following Jesus. We are not merely labeled as “Jesus people,” but as “Jesus followers,” embodying the essence of our faith.

If Jesus terms of engagement includes these things – if his presentation of what the good news is is described in this way – then we too must engage in more than merely the salvation moment but rather join into the salvation journey with our neighbors.

We see that in the book of Acts. In the city of Antioch the followers of Jesus were first called Christians. Now I don’t want to talk about Greek, but I’m going to talk about Greek. The word Christian is a grammatical construction in Greek; it’s a diminutive form of the word Christ. That means when people saw those who proclaimed Jesus walking around them, they identified them as being “little Christs.” There was something about these people that move beyond merely Jesus people, but people who followed Jesus and imitated him so much so that they became little Christs themselves.

I am reminded of Oscar Romero’s 1978 sermon where he says,

A community is a family that believes; it is a group where each member accepts God and feels strengthened by the others. In their moments of weakness, they help one another and love one another; they shed the light of their faith as an example for others. When that happens, the preachers no longer need to preach because there are Christians whose very lives have become a form of preaching.

Even though we have this authentic identity as Bible followers, this authentic identity leads us to proclaim the truths that we find in the bible. This is because, to abide is to remain connected for the purpose of bearing fruit. The thriving is bearing fruit through being connected to the vine.

Practically, this could look like declaring the Good News of Jesus Christ to all people. We declare Jesus as Lord and Saviour of our community and we recognise His central role in transforming the world through intentional evangelism, communicated effectively in a culturally relevant way by people who have themselves experienced the transforming power of God.

C. From Sacrament towards Serving God and Serving Those Outside the Church’s Four Walls.

If the sacrament is a way to be reminded of grace in our lives, how can we be grace to our community through this natural outflowing from sacrament to serving God, neighbor, and others?

In verses 4 and 5, the importance of connection is highlighted, saying that “no branch can bear fruit by itself” and “bears much fruit.” This shows how our relationship with the vine and the natural flow of that union into producing fruit are connected.

This connection starts fruit bearing, but it also means we can’t stop bearing fruit when we’re with the vine. This is because being with the vine naturally leads to the showing of fruit.

If we follow the vine and bear fruit, it changes us. Other people who follow the same path and bear fruit also have rituals that set them apart. Our rituals help us reflect, mourn, confess, and be restored. This reality, shown in our organization and how we’re run, can sometimes make us feel like we’re not in the world. But we need to move beyond these rituals and live a real life where we actively serve, love God, and love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Sometimes, this emphasis on the daily details can be reduced to a checklist, focusing only on feeding, distributing, and doing enough. But the real meaning is being a real presence in our world.

Our connection to Christ is the foundation of this journey. By copying His example, we don’t necessarily mean sacrificing ourselves like Jesus did on the cross. Instead, we try to keep His life and teachings. Jesus was really interested in the everyday things of life, which is why He used parables, healed the sick, fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and comforted the grieving.

Practically, this could look like showing the love of God to people both inside and outside of our faith community though acts of mercy, relief rehab and development. We will be engaging in educational ministry services such as establishing schools of all levels. We will be delivering free medical-dental clinics. We will be conducting livelihood programs for the poor of our communities.

D. From Systems towards Testifying to Our Experience with the Truth to Those Outside the Church’s Four Walls.

The story starts with the Father’s role as a gardener, but it goes beyond that. We see that the whole purpose of the gardener is for us to show ourselves to be his disciples. This is evident from the beginning, where we read, “He cuts off… he prunes” all the way to the end, where we read, “showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

We’ve been so caught up in defining ourselves and setting rules that we’ve forgotten why we’re doing it. We need to go beyond just having clear terms and start living out our faith. Our goal is to become disciples of Jesus Christ, not just to have a well-defined identity.

The church has a problem: we’ve pulled away from engaging with the world. And guess what? That’s actually changed the world and made it more secular. We’ve been so caught up in the rules and systems of our churches that we’ve forgotten about the world around us. But Jesus’ story of the vine and branches is a wake-up call for us. It’s a reminder that we’re meant to be part of the world, not separate from it. We’re Christ’s body, and the gardener is taking care of us. We’re connected to the vine, so we can re-engage with the world from a place of authenticity. And when we do, our witness and our call to truth come from a genuine connection to Christ. That means we can connect with others on a deeper level and share our faith in a meaningful way.

Practically, this could look like being prophetic voice by engaging society with biblical truth through participation in public advocacy, social justice, value transformation, promotion of freedom, engagement in the public square, involvement in marketplaces, and the transformation of public perception through education, evangelism, church planting, intercessory prayer, and discipleship.

Momentary Conclusions.

The brilliance of the vine metaphor lies in its ability to portray fruit bearing as organic and natural, rather than programmatic. Identity isn’t merely a state of being; it’s not just about being connected to the vine, which would imply that our identity is solely determined by that connection. The very purpose of a vine, as well as all plants, animals, and organic processes in the world, is to bear fruit – and their identities are tied in with the fruit they bear. Therefore, our identity cannot be reduced to a mere connection with “being” – there must also be a “doing.”

However, it’s crucial to emphasize that this “doing” is not merely a means to an end; it’s organic and natural. It’s an inherent expression of our connection to the vine. Bearing fruit is an essential aspect of the nature of a vine. Without this bearing of fruit, there’s a sense of incompleteness, as our being is intrinsically linked to our actions. This is the essence of the Thrive aspect of our topic for today.

Where are we headed with all this? What does it mean for us in the BCBC as we strive to Improve our Serve, and Abide and Thrive? We must not only assert our identity but also become present wherever we are. We are integral to what we engage with, as Jesus became one with the world when he descended from heaven in Philippians 2. By this, he declared his intertwined future with the world’s. Similarly, our future is connected to the world’s. How can we unite our futures to connect with God? It’s a call to re-enter cultural spaces and engage authentically with the world as we strive to abide but thrive.

Debie Thomas, again:

“If only we would consent to see reality as it truly is. ‘I am the vine,’ Jesus tells his disciples. ‘You are the branches.’ It’s a done deal. Whether we like it or not, our lives are bound up in God’s and in each other’s. The only true life we will live in this world is the life we consent to live in relationship, messy and entangled though it might be. The only fruit worth sharing with the world is the fruit we’ll produce together.”

So, we’ve covered two of the three words in the name of our seminar improving your serve. We talked about Your which is our identity, we’ve talk about Serve, which means the responsibility we have to wear fruit, and now we get to the Improving part.

We’ve prepared a series of questions that you can discuss and there’s a panel discussion as well after this to help us as we think about how we can move onto the next step and Improve our serve.

So, from Quezon City, Philippines, this is Michael Fast greeting you a Magandang Araw! God bless you.

Debie Thomas, Into the Mess and Other Jesus Stories: Reflections on the Life of Christ (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2022), 144-146. 
Óscar Romero, “The Church: A Communion of Life, Love, and Truth for the World’s Salvation,” homily, October 29, 1978.

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In order to make a difference in the world today, we need to expand our understanding of evil beyond being merely personal

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We often think of sin in simple personal terms, don’t we? We tend to believe that when we recognize the sin within our hearts, the solution lies in accepting Jesus Christ as our Saviour, leading to the forgiveness of our sins. Indeed, the Bible teaches us about the presence of sins in our hearts and the need to seek forgiveness for reconciliation.

However, what we often fail to grasp is that sin can extend beyond the scope of individual transgressions we carry. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus includes the phrase “deliver us from evils,” signifying a deeper complexity of evil that affects us in the world today. Naturally, we’ve discussed the personal and individual sins we commit, acknowledging our inherent human susceptibility to sin. Nevertheless, sinfulness operates on a deeper level.

Sometimes, as we observe the society around us, we perceive sin embedded within it. Injustice, unfairness, corruption, and persecution unfold before us, all stemming from an imperfect, sinful societal fabric we inhabit. While my individual sins may impact the society around me, there are deeper-seated sins embedded within society that also exert influence over me, regardless of my personal state of sinfulness.

Moreover, we can expand our perspective further by considering the natural world. Occasionally, we confront afflictions—much like the pandemic/COVID-19—or experience natural catastrophes such as floods, famines, typhoons, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. All these phenomena bear witness to an inherent evil connected to the physical realm. We see this is Genesis 3, where God’s curse is placed upon the Earth leading Adam to toil for sustenance. Unlike the natural order before, where fruit grew effortlessly, now work is necessary due to the curse upon the Earth. Hence, as we grapple with contemporary challenges, it’s imperative to acknowledge that while we might be personally sound, other forces in the surrounding world might still affect us.

What does this mean on a practical level?

What this means of course is that we need to change our approach when it comes to what is commonly referred to evangelism or discipleship. Rather than simply focusing on praying the “sinner’s prayer” we also need to learn how to incorporate addressing evils in society and creation into our discipleship.

Discipling Nations.

The Bible asks, “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.’” This tells us that nations are actually opposed to God’s rule over the earth. Thus, the command to “make disciples of all nations” is one of helping nations transition from their own kingships towards God being LORD of all creation.

Does discipling nations include speaking up against injustice, making sure prisoners are not being abused? Perhaps it includes speaking out against issues such as patriarchy (also here) or overturning broken systems of church leadership that rely upon a solitary Pastor rather than a team of elders or others? Does it perhaps involve dealing with corruption at its root? Even commemorating and acting upon issues associated with the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Orange Shirt Day, and the Residential School System in Canada is a part of this. Promoting human rights and social justice are also key parts of discipling nations.

Discipling the Earth

God’s command for humans to “‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground’,” implies that humans have a role in discipling the Earth. What does this look like I wonder? Would discipling the earth include environmental care or creation care? Would it involve making sure we don’t throw garbage on the streets or dump chemicals in our water — to put trash into our pockets rather than tossing it on the path? Perhaps ensuring that people have safe drinking water, or by planting mangroves along coastlines to ensure tsunamis and storm surges don’t affect people living in those areas? Does it include promoting sustainable farming practices to help protect our lands from overuse? Does it involve finding alternative forms of energy to eliminate pollution and other issues that are affecting the weather around the world? Does it mean tossing aside politics and actually wearing a mask and getting vaccinated? All of these things are part of discipling the world.

What is the way forward?

If we have the Four Spiritual Laws to help us navigate personal evils, what would a Four Spiritual Laws look like for structural and natural types of evils? How could we then embed them into the Christian psyche?

What are your thoughts? Can you come up with other ways for us to disciple nations and disciple the Earth? Please leave them in the comments below.

Remember sharing is what friends do.

This is part of a series on Evil:

Image by vonvix on Unsplash.

“What if our world doesn’t have to be so scary?” How Guy’s speech in Free Guy is good news.

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The 2021 Shawn Levy film, Free Guy, starring Ryan Reynolds, is a great show even if you are not a video game person. Spoilers follow.

The story follows Guy, an NPC in a popular video game, who “discovers he is actually a background player in an open-world video game, and decides to become the hero of his own story. Now, in a world where there are no limits, he is determined to be the guy who saves his world his way before it’s too late.” An NPC, or non player character, is a character in a game that isn’t controlled by the player. They provide background colour that makes the game more realistic. Guy goes through much of the movie clueless that he is actually an NPC living inside a video game.

There’s a great scene at the turning point of the movie, where Guy lets his fellow NPCs know the truth.

GUY: Everyone! Gather around! Thank you for coming. Now, you know me, I’m Guy.
NPCS: Hi, Guy.
GUY: Hi. What I’m about to say may be hard to understand. Really hard to understand. But, are you sick of living in the background?
(NPCS AGREEING)
GUY: Aren’t you sick of being shot at?
NPCS: Enough.
GUY: Taken hostage?
NPCS: No more.
GUY: Run over?
NPCS: We done with that.
GUY: Robbed? Stabbed? Used as a human shield?
BUDDY: (EXCITEDLY) We are tired of being stabbed!
GUY: Buddy!
BUDDY: Sorry. What are you trying to say, Guy?
GUY: I’m tryin’ to say that things in this city don’t have to be this way. Things can be different.
HOSTAGE: Different how?
GUY: For starters, you can put your arms down.
HOSTAGE: Yeah. (GRUNTING)
GUY: There you go. You got it. Yeah. Keep pushing. There you go.
HOSTAGE: (CONTINUES GRUNTING)
GUY: Breathe through it. There you go.
BANK MANAGER: Do it. Do it. Do it.
HOSTAGE: No, not gonna happen. Nope. That feels unnatural. I mean, what about when someone runs in with a gun? Having my arms up is just a real time saver.
GUY: Except, what if the guy with the gun doesn’t come?
OFFICER JOHNNY: What?
OFFICER 2: What?
NPCS: There’s always a guy with a gun. So many guys with guns.
GUY: People, what if our world doesn’t have to be so scary? What if we can change it?

[Transcript courtesy of Scraps from the Loft.]

The scene is very much reminiscent of Jesus presenting the good news of the kingdom to the people of Galilee and Judea. Jesus’ intent was to open the door to a world run, not by sin and evil, but by God Himself. This kingdom that he spoke of was so unique that many people couldn’t grasp it at first. As Guy says, “What if the guy with the gun doesn’t come” and the other NPCs can’t even understand that.

It is a struggle to grasp, sometimes, just like the Hostage in the above scene found out when he tried to lower his arms. He had been so used to having his arms in the air that anything else seemed unnatural.

This is why the Gospel — or Good News — is more than simply “Jesus died to save you from your sins.” It extends beyond merely something that happens after we die to something that encompasses the entire universe. God’s reign makes everything better in the here and now just as much as it does in the hereafter!

Why do I say this?

Isaiah paints a picture of the impact of the good news on the world when he writes, “Every valley will be raised. Every mountain and hill will be lowered. Steep places will be made level. Rough places will be made smooth. Then the Lord’s glory will be revealed and all people will see it together. The Lord has spoken” (‭Isaiah‬ ‭40:4-5‬).

That’s why Jesus went around trying to get people to understand the Kingdom. By healing the sick he was saying, “What if our world doesn’t have to be so scary?” By making the blind see he was saying, “What if our world doesn’t have to be so scary?” By confronting the religious leaders of his community he was saying, “What if our world doesn’t have to be so scary?” By dying on the cross and being raised from the dead he was saying, “What if our world doesn’t have to be so scary?”

This certainly sounds like good news to me. “What if our world doesn’t have to be so scary?”

What are your thoughts? What makes the good news good for you?

I really would like to hear your voice. That’s why comments are enabled below.

Remember sharing is what friends do!

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Magpakalalake tayo! Let’s be men! Understanding how the power of manliness comes through joining God on his mission.

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Let’s be men!

Today there are lots of phrases designed to help men be men, ranging from the rather tame, “Man up!” to the more crass “Grow a pair!” In the Philippines we say, “Magpakalalake ka!“

Did you know that this term is used in the Bible? Try and guess where. You may be surprised. It isn’t used as a command for Jesus’ followers to emulate. It’s not used to stir God’s people to serve Him in a more faithful way. In fact it is used by a group of people who are so inspired that they defeat God’s people and capture their most important religious artifact. 

The story is told in 1 Samuel 4. The scene opens on a battle between Israel and the Philistines where Israel ends up losing. As a way to ensure that they win the next battle, they quickly run home to get the Ark of the Covenant. When the Ark arrives the men of Israel “shouted so loudly that the earth rang with echoes.” This causes the Philistines to be afraid and they say,

“A god has come into ⌞their⌟ camp.” They also said, “Oh no! Nothing like this has ever happened before. We’re in trouble now! Who can save us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every kind of plague in the desert. Be strong, Philistines, and act like men, or else you will serve the Hebrews as they served you. Act like men and fight.”

What was the result? “The Philistines fought and defeated Israel!” I don’t know about you but this is very surprising to me. This story seems to be saying that if men are men that they can do the following:

  • They can defeat ancient Israel, God’s chosen people. 
  • They can chase everyone back to their own home. 
  • They can kill 30,000 enemy soldiers.
  • They can kill the priests that God has annointed and cause the death of their father, the nation’s leader.
  • They can capture the Ark of the Covenant and take it home as the spoils of war. 
  • They can keep themselves from being slaves of their enemy.
  • They can defeat the God of Israel!

This raises a lot of questions, doesn’t it? One of the key aspects to interpreting the Bible is “if you have a question, keep on reading.” If we keep on reading we will find out more.

When we keep on reading, we find out that the battle was in fact a part of God’s judgement against the evil things that Israel had done over the years. Perhaps the best sum up that we have of how Israel was acting during that time is in Judges that reads, “In those days Israel didn’t have a king. Everyone did whatever he considered right” (God’s Word). Even their priests are described in 1 Samuel 2:12 as “good for nothing,” which is pretty bad, they are also said to have “no faith in the Lord.” God saw what they were doing and pledged to fix things. He gave a sign to Eli, the High Priest, that this would all happen. “What is going to happen to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, will be a sign to you: Both of them will die on the same day” (1 Samuel 2:34; see also 1 Samuel 3:13).

In 1 Samuel 5 we read that the Philistines placed the Ark in their own god, Dagon’s temple. This resulted in Dagon’s humiliation. In addition to that “The Lord dealt harshly with the people of Ashdod. He destroyed them by striking the people in the vicinity of Ashdod with tumors.” In an effort to appease the LORD, the people shuffled the Ark around from city to city. Finally they had enough and sent the Ark back to Israel. 1 Samuel 6 tells the story of the Ark’s return to Israel. So in the end, manning up didn’t really work out all that great for them.

There are other accounts in the Bible of how when people banded together, they were able to do the impossible. Genesis talks about the tower that people started building in what was to become Babylon (a name that eventually stands for humans grouping together against God). God, when he saw that they were going to be very successful, ensured that they wouldn’t be able to finish it. He said, “Now nothing they plan to do will be too difficult for them.” He confused their communication systems because he knew that his plans for them were much greater than their own. It wasn’t until Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit removed the language barriers, that God’s purposes are fully revealed. Rather than building a tower to reach the heavens (ie. their own kingdom), God wanted them to build his kingdom, which in the end is a much better kingdom. We know this because Babylon eventually stands for humans grouping together against God and we see it’s animal-like nature every day. I have written about that here and here.

So what does trusting God as men look like?

The enmity between Israel and Philistia continued for generations. One of the most famous encounters we know as the story of David and Goliath, where Israel emerges as the victor. What is interesting about the story of David and Goliath is that Goliath is the epitome of the man’s man — big, strong, famous, and arrogant. David, on the other hand, is just a kid. Even King Saul says in 2 Samuel 17:33, “You can’t fight this Philistine. You’re just a boy, but he’s been a warrior since he was your age.”

Paul’s claims to fame that reads almost like a manly bucket list of fame and adventure in 2 Corinthians 11:21-28:

  • Hebrew? Check.
  • Israelite? Check.
  • Abraham’s descendant? Check.
  • Christ’s servant? Check.
  • Worked hard. Check.
  • Been in prison because of Jesus? Check.
  • Been beaten? Check.
  • Faced death? Check. 
  • Beaten with 39 lashes. Check x 5.
  • Beaten with clubs. Check x 3.
  • Almost stoned to death. Check.
  • Shipwrecked. Check x 3.
  • Drifted on the sea for a night and a day. Check.
  • Faced dangers from raging rivers, from robbers, from my own people, and from other people. Check.
  • Faced dangers in the city, in the open country, on the sea, and from believers who turned out to be false friends. Check.
  • Gone without sleep, been hungry and thirsty. Check.
  • Gone without proper clothes during cold weather. Check.
  • Daily pressure of my anxiety about all the churches. Check.

What’s interesting is that Paul doesn’t give us this list to show us that he grew a pair or manned up. Rather he says something rather odd and seemingly unmanly. He says “If I must brag, I will brag about the things that show how weak I am.” Paul then goes on in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 to say, “Satan’s messenger, torments me to keep me from being conceited. I begged the Lord three times to take it away from me. But he told me: ‘My kindness  is all you need. My power is strongest when you are weak.’ So I will brag even more about my weaknesses in order that Christ’s power will live in me. Therefore, I accept weakness, mistreatment, hardship, persecution, and difficulties suffered for Christ. It’s clear that when I’m weak, I’m strong.”

Paul’s appeal for healing and Jesus answer can help us find answers on how best to be men. Jesus’ “No!” may seem unfair at first until we look closer. We need to remember how Jesus expresses his own masculinity. First of all, Paul’s appeal for healing and Jesus’ answer can help us find answers on how best to be men. Jesus’ “No!” may seem unfair at first until we look closer. We need to remember how Jesus expresses his own masculinity.

First of all, Jesus himself was a man who gained victory through his weakness. His cry of anguish in the garden of “take this cup ⌞of suffering⌟ away from me” is also answered by his “However, your will must be done, not mine.” He knew that he could achieve victory for himself in his own power but that the victory God wanted through him was achievable only through God’s power because it was so much bigger than just for him.

Secondly, Jesus’ answer to Paul is that he will provide the strength for Paul’s struggle, because Jesus’ dream for Paul is far bigger than Paul can accomplish.

So what should we do instead? It’s clear that the call to “be a man” is powerful enough to cause us to do impossible things. We can defeat the enemy. We can build a tower that reaches to the heavens. It’s also clear that the impossible things we can accomplish are not necessarily good in the end nor are they necessarily what God wants us to accomplish. To truly be men we need to join God on his mission and await his power so that we can help him accomplish it!

Feedback is always welcome.

Sharing is what friends do!

Image by Simone Pellegrini on Unsplash.

Shepherds, work, and the interruption of burning bushes.

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I have it on good authority that farmers work hard and I’m sure shepherds are no different, which is what makes Moses’ story all the more interesting. Some say bushes that spontaneously burn aren’t all that rare in the Sinai area, although that appears to be debunked here. Regardless, the fact that another bush was burning was perhaps more of a distraction than an attraction for Moses.

I have limited experience with sheep. The farm where Eva and I are currently living has three sheep and last week, while the family was away on vacation, we had to take care of said sheep. It isn’t all that hard — we had to take them out to the pasture in the morning, move them around during the day, and return them to their pen at night. It sounds simple but it was a little more involved than that. We had to make sure the sheep made it to their mobile pen in the pasture, a process that involves dragging them past much more appealing foliage to the foliage that we had chosen for them. It also sometimes involves chasing and catching said sheep to make sure they go where we wanted them to go. We also had to carry a 5 gallon bucket of water out to them and make sure that they stayed watered. When the grass in their moveable pen was consumed we needed to move them to a new location, sometimes ensuring that they had some shade. Daniel usually brought them in at night and his technique was running as fast as possible beside them so that they remained focussed on the destination rather than all the sweet grasses along the way.

I also recently watched Clarkson’s Farm on Amazon Prime. In the show, Jeremy Clarkson takes over his farm when his previous manager retired. The show follows him along as he learns the ropes on what it takes to run a farm in Britain. One aspect to Clarkson’s farm is sheep and there are several episodes devoted to what it means to farm sheep, including being up at all hours to birth them, making sure that the mothers and lambs are all caring for each other while in the pasture, and moving them to a new pasture without them getting into the neighbour’s fields.

It is a lot of work for those of us caring for just a few sheep. How much more a traditional shepherd with a full-size herd that she needs to keep track of? [Just as an aside, did you know that Rachel is one of the few named shepherds in the Bible? Check out her story in Genesis 29]

Which leads us to the question, “Why would a busy guy like Moses take the time to go see the burning bush?” What made him realise that it wasn’t merely a distraction and was something work making him take time out of his busy schedule? The Bible doesn’t say a lot about Moses’ thought process other than to say, “I must go over there and see this strange sight.” There was something strange that attracted his attention.

Moses’ situation reminds me to ask myself if I pay attention to “strange sights” in my day-to-day life that may be God’s attempts to get my attention. [Note that God will always eventually get my attention, as I have written about here.] In what ways does my busyness keep me from opportunities to encounter God? How do I distinguish distraction from a God-encounter? Are distractions in fact invitations from God?

I guess one type of distraction is internet use. But while some of the things that we encounter on the internet may be strange, this type of distraction can’t be labelled a “strange sight” in the way Moses labelled the burning bush. The burning bush got Moses’ attention while he was doing other things that he normally did. It pulled him away from the usual into the unusual. So sorry, we can’t use Moses as an excuse for always being on the internet.

Another type of distraction is escapist fiction. Who doesn’t love a great story that takes you away from your present life and allows you to live in a virtual world of adventure, excitement, and love? I am currently enjoying Burrough’s John Carter series. But yet again, this is a type of distraction that we bring upon ourselves and is not the type of distraction that God introduces into our loves for his purposes.

I suspect the kinds of distractions that God tries are things that distract us from our distractions. Some distractions are actually a call back to the real world. They interrupt our escapes and bring us back to reality. That’s what the burning bush did for Moses after all.

Once, many years ago, while I was talking to a friend, my daughter came up to me because she wanted to show me her new dress. Did I look at her new dress? No. I saw what she was doing as a distraction from what I was doing. If I had it to do over again I would say, Excuse me, to my friend and take a look at Emily’s new dress. Perhaps God was saying, “Pay attention to your family.”

What I my response when someone talks to me while I am watching a TV show? Do I see it as an interruption or a call to engage with someone in real life? What is my response when I and deeply thinking about the solution to a problem and my wife approaches me with a solution? Am I reminded that we are a team and can work things out together, or do I feel interrupted? What about when someone offers me constructive criticism? Do I see it as a change to improve or as a challenge to my abilities? I must confess that I often get these kinds of things wrong.

So what types of distractions have turned into God encounters for you?

Feedback is always welcome.

Sharing is what friends do.

Image Sandeep Kr Yadev on Unsplash.

What is the life lesson I taught my kids every day?

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As a Father, I wanted to teach my kids a valuable lesson that would help them later in life. A lesson that would help them through good times and hard times. A lesson that they would remember forever.

Of course, I taught them about Jesus and the Bible and tried to instil in them a love for God. But there was one phrase that I said to them as much as possible — so many times in fact that they remember it today. It’s actually a little bit of a family joke — as families often joke about their fathers. But every time they joke about it I am secretly pleased because I know that they have learned the lesson!

What was the lesson that I chose to repeat over and over again while they were growing up? “Life is rough.”

I wanted to contrast the popular fairy tale ending of “And they lived happily ever after,” because sometimes that isn’t true. Life isn’t always happy and orderly — it’s sometimes messy. Hence, “Life is rough.”

One question my family sometimes asks is, “Why is that the life lesson you wanted us to learn?” Let me begin by saying what the statement isn’t.

“Life is rough” isn’t “suck it up.” Suck it up means to suppress emotions while undergoing hardship. Something I have learned over the years (and after years of suppressing them) is that emotions are good. The only emotion that I allowed myself to express in the past was anger, and it took me a long time to get that under some semblance of control. Anger isn’t bad in and of itself but the way I expressed it was. I suspect that that kind of anger is what sucking it up eventually leads to. I don’t want that for my kids.

“Life is rough” isn’t “Life’s rough and then you die.” This was a popular phrase when I was growing up and it speaks directly to the hopelessness that we often feel in life. But it provides no motivation to change; no motivation to make things better. In fact one could argue that it expresses mere fatalism, as in, “Don’t bother doing anything more because you are only going to die in the end anyways.” That isn’t a value I wanted my kids to have.

“Life is rough” isn’t “Man up.” One of the most basic reasons why I didn’t choose this as my go to advice is simply because my eldest is a girl. But beyond that, the call to Man up implies that there is a standardised masculine norm that kids somehow have to figure out in order to succeed in life. This is in fact not true. Raewyn Connell’s groundbreaking book Masculinities teaches us that there are a variety of masculinities that each of us can choose from as we shape our own masculinities (and femininities I suppose). Quite often there is one masculinity that takes over — called hegemonic masculinity — but this one dominant form is my no means the only valid masculinity. While Man up is a call to act like a man, it also represents a hegemonic masculinity where men must fit into a specific mold. I don’t want my kids to fit into a mold.

So if Life is Rough isn’t one of these things then what is it?

Life is rough is a call to live a life that rolls with the punches. A life that sees hardship not as something unique and rare but something that helps a person grow into a someone stronger. It’s a call to a life lived solving problems creatively. It’s a call to struggle for something bigger and better than onesself. Life is Rough is an acknowledgment that even though things may not always go your way, you can learn to navigate through it and come out the other end. Life is Rough is a life lived with meaning. That’s the kind of life I want my kids to live. And finally life is rough is a realisation that life isn’t always rough so enjoy those times when they come too!

What life lessons have you taught your kids?

Feedback is always welcome.

Sharing is what friends do.

Of Governments and Hope: Where should I look for hope?

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The Bible doesn’t really have all that great a view of governments. Certainly we are to obey governments but that’s not what i mean. The bible’s best option for human governance is always presented as being God.

We see this throughout the story of Israel in the Old Testament. Israel is freed from Egypt because Egypt’s government had enslaved them. God then led them through the wilderness to the Promised Land.

We see this in the story of Israel’s first king — Saul — a move that God saw as being a rejection of his rule, and even the most cursory of reads of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles shows us the failure of this system.

We also see this in the choice of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to use the term “gospel” when identifying their story type; gospel or good news being the term Roman Emperors used to describe their own ascension to the throne. The four are in essence saying, “Jesus is a better emperor than Rome’s!”

That’s why government in the Bible is often referred to as an animal (most translations maintain the archaic expression “beast,” but as I’ve said here and here that that leads to strange interpretations). What this means is that we shouldn’t be surprised when the government tears us to pieces. The example in Canada at the moment is the whole Indian Residential School system (which I have written about here, here, and here) but I am sure we can come up with countless other ways governments around the world mess things up. Some organisations —such as Transparency International, Amnesty International, and Wikileaks — exist merely to evaluate the level of mess that governments make. Of course in the Biblical examples we also see some animals that have fatal wounds but don’t die, perhaps indicating domesticated governments who aren’t as powerfully bestial.

This is of course the danger of identifying any human political theory or system with God’s way. One recent Facebook conversation I had highlighted this. My friend pointed out the abuses that more leftist firms of government were guilty of, including the top echelons becoming rich while the rest remained poor. Of course the same could be said for rightist governments and their billionaires. Apart from this there are the similarities between parties on a vast range of issues — their differences are often highlighted but their end policies often end up being the same.

Regardless of the level of wildness in government, it is clear that something else is needed. So what’s the solution? I see at least two:

Lamb of God. The Bible describes Jesus as being more like a lamb than an animal. Certainly He is also the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, but in the context of the animal or beast language used in some parts of the Bible, Jesus as lamb is contrasted. No one in the created world — animals included — is found worthy to get God’s plan rolling: “” Eventually it is the lamb who was slain who is able to open the seals.

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will rule as king forever and ever.” It’s the phrase “has become” that I would like to focus on. How does this process happen? There are some that view eschatology as something God does at the end of time. Our only tole as humans is to be the cause of the end because of our unbridled wickedness.

But I wonder if that is indeed the way things are meant to happen? If our wickedness brings about the end, is it possible for us to work together with God in the transformation of the kingdom?

Certainly God has included humans in his plans. Jesus did after all commission his human disciples (including us) to make disciples of all nations. Whose disciples are these to be? Jesus’ disciples of course. What will these disciples do?

Disciples are filled with the spirit, whether that means being empowered to do the work of God, to a way to cope with the troubles of the world without using addictions.

Disciples reconcile people to God and to each other. Paul talks about the ministry of reconciliation that we have on earth. This reconcilition imitates what God through Jesus began. He then says that “has given us this ministry of restoring relationships” as well.

Disciples bear fruit. We often interpret this to mean make disciples but fruit in the Bible more often than not refers to a personal transformation. This is best exemplified in lists of comparisons, most famously enumerated in Galatians 5, but also found elsewhere.

Disciples continue Jesus’ Isaiah 61/Luke 4 tasks of proclaiming Good News, forgiving others, giving sight to the blind, and freeing the captives.

Unfortunately the church hasn’t always been successful at fulfilling these tasks. What’s also unfortunate is that I have not always been successful at fulfilling these tasks. We have a lot to work on, both corporately and as individuals, in the process of working together with God for the transformation of our societies.

I wonder what we should work on first?

Feedback is always appreciated.

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Image by Bill Fairs on Unsplash.

“Why are you kicking against the goads?”: How do I know when God is trying to get me to change?

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A few weeks ago we needed to vaccinate some calves against black leg. It was quite the process. First we had to round up the cows and calves in the pasture and gather them in a temporary corral. Then we had to move them through the farm yard and across the road into another corral — this one with three sections. We then had to separate the cows from the calves. The final step was to run the calves through a chute four at a time (a process that involved a lot of shoving). At the end of the chute they were locked into a smaller space so that they could be vaccinated. Eventually they were all released into another pasture to continue on with their lives.

None of this would have been possible without a goad.

I actually had to take a look at my Oxford Thesaurus of English to get an equivalent modern word for “goad.” Here are a few: Stimulus, incentive, encouragement, stimulant, stimulation, inducement, fillip, impetus, impulse, spur, prod, prompt; incitement; motive, motivation.

Basically, a goad is a tool used to get cows to move.

We had a variety of goads. Some were long thin whip-like instruments made of fibreglass. Others were old hockey sticks with the blades broken off. The most scary of the bunch, for the cows that is, was a plastic shaker that made noise when moved. All of these tools are used to make sure the cows go where you want them to go.

Jesus used the word “goad” in his encounter with Paul on the Damascus Road when he asked, “Why are you kicking against the goads?” (Acts 26:14). It was him saying, “I have been trying to get your attention for so long. Why are you not listening?” The way the question is asked implies that God had been trying to get Paul’s attention for quite some time.

What were the goads that Jesus used to convince Paul? While the list is not explicit in scripture, I could think of these possibilities:

  1. Paul knew the scriptures and the scriptures point to Christ — road to Emmaus. yet Paul didn’t see this yet. 
  2. Paul heard Stephen’s testimony about Jesus, but still approved of his death. 
  3. Paul knew the teachings of the Jesus followers, which is why he persecuted them. 
  4. Now Jesus takes matters into his own hands and personally appears to Paul in a very dramatic way!

We can be grateful that Paul finally yielded to the goads and chose to follow Jesus but the real question is, “What goads am I kicking against?” And perhaps, “How do I know when God is trying to convince me of something?”

[I thought about including a list here but then that might be goads you are kicking against and not ones that I am kicking against!]

Feedback is always welcome!

Image by Ekrulila on Pexels.

I Claim this place in the name of …

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New Chinese passport map of disputed area.

New Chinese passport. The dotted line in the lower right corner shows the disputed area that China is claiming.

Have you ever thought about the idea of laying claim. I remember as a child looking at pictures of early European explorers visiting “new” lands and, after planting a cross or a flag, claiming that place in the name of the king (or queen or whoever). Now before you get offended remember that I share both European and First Nations blood 🙂

Recently you may have read one of the following articles regarding China’s new passports. Apparently the show a map that includes disputed portions of the “South China Sea” as being a part of China. As you can guess, various countries, including Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, and the USA have made their opinions known. That’s because they also have claims in the area. It is a problem that has been brewing over many years but has recently come to a head. Time will tell how this will be resolved.

I began to think about the church and about missions. Do we lay claim to things that don’t belong to us? I wonder what people in the 10/40 Window think about all the maps of their countries that have been distributed over the years? I wonder what “Manila Ben” or whoever Saddleback named their target audience thinks when s/he sees the various effigies of who they are and how to “reach” them?

The concept of “claiming” implies concepts like good and bad, right and wrong, good and evil. Those doing the claiming always come out on the good side, while those who are claimed are always on the wrong side. But is this really the way missions works? Can any of us claim to be perfectly and totally connected to God? Aren’t we all on a journey?

Are we making unfair claims upon the people of the world? Do we have any other choice? Do those people then have the right to make a similar claim upon us?

What do you think?

Thoughts arising from Mike Breen’s “How do you make Missional Disciples?”

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I have been following with interest the current discussion led by Mike Breen regarding disciple making and the missional church. Since both missionality and disciple-making are personal interests of mine, I have enjoyed reading the blogs and reflecting on how they will reshape my understanding of church and mission.

Today, Roger Helland, posted on the BGC Alberta Facebook Page the following statement/question in response to Mike’s latest post:

As I reflect on Christian life and leadership, I am both convinced and convicted, that disciple-making is the goal, end result, and organizing practice to which I must commit. Disciple-making is the Jesus ordained mission of the church. But, it is built more in organic relationships and imitation. I need to take some time to explore Mike Breen’s questions, which are both convicting and compelling for me personally. If you want to read his blog, have a look, and offer your reflections about the need and nature of disciple-making. How would you see disciple-making flourish in your life and leadership, in your church, and in our district and denomination? Do you, does your church, have a plan for disciple-making? Is the plan working? What are the outcomes? How do you measure them beyond simply the number of baptisms?

Bums in pews is the traditional way that we have measured disciple making. If we have more attending church on Sunday morning then we are making disciples. Our goal: “Invite your friends to church.” Once you have done that, the discipling process goes through stages such as teaching them to tithe, getting them to teach Sunday School/lead a cell-group, getting them to join the choir or the board or the deaconesses, etc. By definition a church in this model means basically a Sunday-morning worship service. Thanks to Reg Bibby we realised that we were just circulating the saints and that more bums in my pews meant less bums in my brother’s pews. And of course we forgot the mission of the church and so we looked for another solution.

So then we thought, let’s look at baptisms as a guide. Our goal: “We are having a regularly scheduled baptism on _____. If you want to be baptised just let the pastor know and we will add you to the list.” This is considerably less “missional” than the previous “Invite your friends to church” (because it is primarily insiders who are asked to participate) but it does at least try to answer the “circulating saints” issue. But then, for example, I know of one specific church that has baptised literally hundreds of people. Unfortunately, you would be hard-pressed to find many of those baptised believers involved in a church today (much less involved in mission). And the church that was planted no longer exists.

So now we are looking at disciple-making as a guide. If disciples are being made then the mission is successful.

It seems to me that we have a problem of definition. For some, a disciple is someone who attends church on Sunday and gets involved in some part of that operation. I suspect that if you asked someone on the street to define disciple of Christ they would include regular Sunday-morning church attendance as one of the key factors. Baptism would be much farther down the list – I suspect that tithing would be higher in the minds of many 😉

So in answer to your question, Roger, “Does you church have a plan for disciple-making?” My answer would be, “Yes, all churches do.” Next question: “Is the plan working?” My answer would be “Yes, insofar as they each fit our own definition of what a disciple is.”

Obviously there are problems. But perhaps because we are both too specific AND not specific enough in our definition of disciple. Disciple means “bums in pews;” disciple means “baptisms. But disciple means far more than that. Mike Breen talks about “Dinners. Parties. Work days. Grocery store trips. Mission. Worship services. Birthdays. Anniversaries. Funerals.” This I think is really at the crux of the matter. For me it’s not so much what are we doing wrong as it is how can we enhance the disciple-making that our churches are already doing to be more holistic, inclusive, universalistic, biblical, accessible, understandable?

So the question is how can I get this going in my life so I can contribute to the disciple-ness of someone else, even as they contribute to mine?