Out of the Clay

Ok, first of all, yes, I have read all of the information posted on the internet about Gene, The Gathering, and The Lord’s Child.  I have been contacted by the church staff and by others inquiring whether or not it is me.  For the record, it is not me.  However, with all of the anonymous posting and finger pointing both towards the church and from the members of the church I feel led to address the situation.

Let me start by outlining a history of my relationship with the church…  I began attending The Gathering in August of 2003 and became a member.  I went on staff part time in January of 2004 and then full-tim in 2006.  As most of you know I was asked to resign my staff position in February of 2008 due to moral failure (btw, If you would like more information on that then I will be happy to discuss it with you one on one over a cup of coffee at starbucks(my treat).  Just leave a comment and maybe we can sit down and fellowship some time.)  However, while on staff at The Gathering I was privy to information trusted only to a select few and I will not violate that trust. I would like to add that after my resignation I continued to support the vision of the church through giving of my time, talents and treasures.  Even when my emotions ran hot and I was mad as hell at Gene, I fully trusted him and continued to support the church through giving and serving and I encouraged others to do the same.  I have attended The Gathering a couple of times since Easter of this year (2009) but only to say hello to friends and once to pay respects to a brother who has gone on to be with The Lord.  I count Easter of 2009 (the first day in the new building) as my official last day as a member of the church. 

Now, let me get into this, I know that many of you are reading this and wondering why I am even saying anything about it. Here’s why.  It’s because I love you.  Each and every one you.  The ones that I know and the ones that I don’t know.  Gene, the staff, the members, and even anonymous bloggers and comment makers … If I were to meet you on the street or in a supermarket or in a starbucks (wow - second starbucks reference) then I would find no greater pleasure than sharing a moment of true fellowship with you. 

Ok — so you’re probably waiting (and wanting) for me to confirm or deny some of the allegations.  That is not my place.  What I can give you, though, is my opinion - so, here goes:

Some of the remarks by the bloggers are very harsh and unnecessary.  On the other hand, some of them are a plee for prayer and truth.  If you read them with an open mind that is what you will see.  Personally, I don’t agree with a tactic that includes personal attacks and the manner in which the information was distributed was not done in love.  However, just because I don’t agree with the delivery doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t personally process the information.   But, for the church to respond in a way that doesn’t directly address the issue makes them appear to be sidestepping the heart of the claim.  It is erroneous to say ‘person A has no character, person A said ‘xyz’, ‘xyz’ therefore cannot be true’ which is what I am hearing and reading from the church.  I think (notice that I said ‘Think’  )  that the church tried to keep things positive in the blog post here, but they really didn’t address the heart of the issue.  Instead, through the comments on the blogsites, some have resorted to the same personal attacks used by the originator of the content! 

So, here’s the deal — When I was on staff, Gene always would say ‘What is done in private will always be made public’.  It is a prophetic word that bore fruit in my life.  I read from Oswald Chambers the other day that ‘Conviction is a gift from God of shame and repentence….’  When I read it, the words struck me to the core because I remembered the day that I faced up to my own shame and became repentent — not for being caught in my sin but for all of those that I had hurt in the process.  With that in mind, I am not saying whether or not any of the claims made against the church are true.  But, I will say that if there is something that you are trying to cover up, whether it is your identity (to the anonymous bloggers) or something else, better yet, if there is something that you are doing for which you would be ashamed if everybody knew it, then you can bet your britches it is precisely that thing that needs to be addressed publicly in order for you to go to another level spiritually.  We ALL need to go to another level.  None of us have arrived.  So, to everybody involved, I give you this Word:

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.

For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience,

and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.

But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, {and} abusive speech from your mouth.

Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its {evil} practices,

and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him–

{a renewal} in which there is no {distinction between} Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.

So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;

bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.

Beyond all these things {put on} love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms {and} hymns {and} spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Whatever you do in word or deed, {do} all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

 (Col 3:1-17)
I’ll sum my opinion up with this:  Bloggers - stop being malicious and unloving.  Watch your words and seek The Lord before you do anything else.  Gathering - you need to watch how you respond, remember, the world is watching.  Also — You need more financial accountability.  I believe that ALL churches and non-profits should provide full financial disclosure.  It is the only way that all of your bases are covered.

Ok … so that’s my opinion.  That is what I think.  I am sorry if you disagree but just remember, I love you all and look forward to the next time that I can hug your neck and share a moment of true fellowship in The Spirit with you.  Peace.

So many times in my life as a believer I have heard the term ‘Godly’. Most of times that I have heard (or read) the term is is in the context of relationships. For example - …Godly men, Godly women, Godly families, etc. Further, I must admit that most of the situations that I have heard (or read) have inspired me to want to be ‘better’. But, in order for me or my relationships or my characteristics to be ‘better’ then that means that there is something inherently wrong with me and/or family and that the antidote to my situation is to try and become ‘Godly’ or ‘like God’.

So the question is: is trying to be Godly a good thing or a bad thing? Is trying to be a Godly man or have a Godly family really the answer or the goal in this thing called life? The short answer is no. Let me explain …

I believe that most of man’s problems (and I mean man in the creation form - not gender specific) have their root in the ‘Tree of knowledge of good and evil’. Most of you know, from your early Sunday School classes, that the tree of knowledge of good and evil was the one forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden. Let’s think about the name of the tree - Knowledge of good and evil. Or put another way, knowing the difference between right and wrong. See, once a ‘right’ and a ‘wrong’ has been established then there lays the foundation for legalism. The enemy knew that this was the only way that he could disrupt our fellowship with God. Just read Genesis 3:5:

“For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

‘Be like God’ is the phrase that the enemy used. I believe that you could put that another way - Godly. See - our perception of God, most of the time, is based on projection. We come up with what we think the most perfect being on earth could be like and then multiply it’s perfection times 1,000 and then project it onto God. Following that assumption we then spend the rest of our lives miserably trying to measure up to a perfect standard because, after all, we KNOW the difference between good and evil. Right?

Sadly, most believers live out their entire life trying to measure up. Most even gauge how well the leadership at their church is doing by a combination of their level of perfection combined with their ability to inspire you to try and attain their level. This is legalism. This is eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is trying to live the christian life in our own effort. This is trying to be good, trying to do the right things, trying to spend a specific amount of time each day praying, reading our Bible, serving, etc … Better yet, this is trying to give our way into God’s favor. This, my friend, is not God’s plan.

If you remember from your Sunday School class - there is another tree. This tree is called ‘The Tree of Life’. This tree is Christ. Remember, we have been grafted into this new tree (Romans 11:17, John 15). We are now partakers of His Life (John 14:6) and His yoke is easy and His burden light (Matt 11:30). Once we have accepted Christ then the curse from Eve’s deceptions and Adam’s choice has been lifted! Amen! We have been transferred from the headship of Adam to the headship of Christ. We no longer have to try to be good or Godly but simply to rest in the finished work of The Cross!

The reason that I have written this post is to reveal a piece of the mystery of God’s grace to you. All believers have experienced the first half of The Good News - Christ’s death for us. But only a few have experienced the second half - our death with Christ. In order to make our death with Christ an experiential reality in our lives we must first KNOW that it is Truth. After knowing, we must make it true in our lives by FAITH. When we simply rest in the completeness of The Gospel there is no more trying to be Godly because He who has come to fulfill the law now takes up a living residence inside of the new believer. He has become for us wisdom from God, both rightousness and sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor 1:30).

With Christ as our wisdom we see the difference between the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the blessed Tree of Life. When we surrender and identify with who we REALLY are in Christ then we cease trying to live ‘like God’ and begin to live KNOWING that it is God who is living for us.

Let me introduce you to The People formerly known as The Congregation. There are millions of us.

We are people - flesh and blood - image bearers of the Creator - eikons, if you will. We are not numbers.

We are the eikons who once sat in the uncomfortable pews or plush theatre seating of your preaching venues. We sat passively while you proof-texted your way through 3, 4, 5 or no point sermons - attempting to tell us how you and your reading of The Bible had a plan for our lives. Perhaps God does have a plan for us - it just doesn’t seem to jive with yours.

Money was a great concern. And, for a moment, we believed you when you told us God would reward us for our tithes - or curse us if we didn’t. The Law is just so much easier to preach than Grace. My goodness, if you told us that the 1st century church held everything in common - you might be accused of being a socialist - and of course, capitalism is a direct gift from God. Please further note: Malachi 3 is speaking to the priests of Israel. They weren’t the cheerful givers God speaks of loving.

We grew weary from your Edifice Complex pathologies - building projects more important than the people in your neighbourhood…or in your pews. It wasn’t God telling you to “enlarge the place of your tent” - it was your ego. And, by the way, a multi-million dollar, state of the art building is hardly a tent.

We no longer buy your call to be “fastest growing” church in wherever. That is your need. You want a bigger audience. We won’t be part of one.

Our ears are still ringing from the volume, but…Jesus is not our boyfriend - and we will no longer sing your silly love songs that suggest He is. Happy clappy tunes bear no witness to the reality of the world we live in, the powers and principalities we confront, or are worthy of the one we proclaim King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

You offered us a myriad of programs to join - volunteer positions to assuage our desire to be connected. We could be greeters, parking lot attendants, coffee baristas, book store helpers, children’s ministry workers, media ministry drones - whatever you needed to fulfill your dreams of corporate glory. Perhaps you’ve noticed, we aren’t there anymore.

We are The People formerly known as The Congregation. We have not stopped loving the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Nor do we avoid “the assembling of the saints.” We just don’t assemble under your supposed leadership. We meet in coffee shops, around dinner tables, in the parks and on the streets. We connect virtually across space and time - engaged in generative conversations - teaching and being taught.

We live amongst our neighbours, in their homes and they in ours. We laugh and cry and really live - without the need to have you teach us how - by reading your ridiculous books or listening to your supercilious CDs or podcasts.

We don’t deny Paul’s description of APEPT leadership - apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher. We just see it in the light of Jesus’ teaching in Mark 10 and Matthew 20 - servant leadership. We truly long for the release of servant leading men and women into our gifts as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. We believe in Peter’s words that describe us all as priests. Not just some, not just one gender.

We are The People formerly known as The Congregation. We do not hate you. Though some of us bear the wounds you have inflicted. Many of you are our brothers and our sisters, misguided by the systems you inhabit, intoxicated by the power - yet still members of our family. (Though some are truly wolves in sheep’s clothing.)

And, as The People formerly known as The Congregation, we invite you to join us on this great adventure. To boldly go where the Spirit leads us. To marvel at what the Father is doing in the communities where He has placed us. To live the love that Jesus shows us.

(quote from Bill Kinnon - blog)

Being brought up in ”Christian” Germany with churches everywhere, I have always felt that there must be something exciting about the Church which Jesus started and about which I read in the New Testament - but somehow I have yet to discover what it is. I dreamed - together with many friends and colleagues, of a church, that is as simple as One-Two-Three, yet is dynamic; an explosive thing, able to turn the world and a neighborhood upside down. The church as a supernatural invention; endowed with God’s gift of immortality; the way to disciple each other, and to transfer the life of Jesus to each other. An experience of grace and grapes, love and laughter, joy and jellybeans, forgiveness and fun, power and - yes, why not, paper. A church, which does not need much finances, rhetoric, control and manipulation, which can do without powerful and charismatic heroes, which is non-religious at heart, which can thrill people to the core, make them loose their head for joy, and simply teach us The Way to live. The church which not only has a message, but is the message; which spreads like an unstoppable virus, infects whatever it touches, and ultimately covers the Earth with the glory and knowledge of God. It’s power stems from it’s inventor, who has equipped it with the most genius spiritual genetical code - a sort of heavenly DNA, which allows it to transfer and reproduce Kingdom values from Heaven to Earth, and transform not only water into wine, but atheists into fascinated apostles, policewomen into prophetesses, terrorists into teachers, plumbers into pastors, and dignified village elders into beaming evangelists in the process. It is like a spiritual family - organic, not organized, relational, not formal; it has a persecution-proof structure, matures under tears, multiplies under pressure, grows under the carpet, flourishes in the desert, sees in the dark, and thrives on chaos. A church that can multiply like two fish and five breads in the Hands of Jesus, were the fathers turn their hearts to the sons and the sons their hearts to the fathers, were it’s people are it’s resources, and which has only one name to brag about, the Lamb of God.

I posted this for one reason.  To get you to think.  How many times do we see or hear of a vision that is dominated by the outward appearance of an organization?  I come across it everyday of my life.  In this fallen world so many are driven by the thought of what others are thinking about them.

 One of the subtleties of the flesh is it’s ability to slowly turn our focus from inward to the outward.   When we take our eyes of of Christ, who is the author and finisher of our faith (yeah, think about that one for a while), then we have placed our eyes on something else.  Jesus is the only way and any way that is not Jesus is not the way.  Everytime I read that vision or mission statement quoted above from Wolfgang Simsons book ‘Houses that Change the World’ I am reminded of Jesus words:

 “…upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hades will not overpower it.”

As a church leader:

If we do not disciple and empower others, as Jesus has done, we end up exploiting others, using them for our ends, even if we clothe this in very spiritual terms.

If traditional congregational type churches do not have discipling at their core, they will not be able to develop a structure that disciples and empowers people, let alone disciple nations.  Quality defines the structure which in turn determines quantity.  As a result, people will remain systematically undiscipled and left powerless.  If the traditional structure does not empower and disciple, what does it do?

(Quote and Chart from Wolfgang Simpson’s ‘Houses that change the world’)

If you consider yourself to be a leader in the Body of Christ, then is your life one that is about discipling?  Maybe you’re a pastor, what is the core of your organization?  Quality or Quantity?  Are you empowering people or exploiting them?  Post your thoughts to the comments …