These pictures are from our meeting last night. The ideas were inspired by the work of Caitlin Beidler (www.caitlinbeidler.com/) We took her idea and applied it to our exploration of The Sacred Way.
Peace,
Nate
Posts Tagged ‘Spirituality’
Redemption Art
What is spirituality and how do you practice it?
I am so glad you asked! We spent Wednesday night exploring those two questions. We began by watching a section of the Rob Bell video Everything is Spiritual. If you get a chance watch the whole talk but for time constraints we watched a small clip. In it Rob speaks of how human beings are the only thing in creation that is 100% physical and 100% spiritual and that the Jewish people had no concept of the modern idea of a spiritual life because to label one thing in life as spiritual is to label another thing in life not-spiritual. For the Hebrew people just being human makes you spiritual. Rob points out that the question is not if you are a spiritual person but if your eyes are open to it.
Colossians 3:17 “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
“I’m not religious, but I’m a very spiritual person. This, of course, is a somewhat misleading statement, for religion is simply human beings’ attempts to sort out the ways in which we seek after God.” The Sacred Way Pg 26
There are several definitions of spirituality (all of these come from the book The Sacred Way)
“Christian spirituality concerns the quest for a fulfilled and authentic Christian existence, involving the bringing together of the fundamental ideas of Christianity and the whole experience of living on the basis of and within the scope of the Christian faith.” Alister Mcgrath
“The spiritual life is simply increasing vitality and sway of God’s Spirit in us.” Marjorie Thompson
“The practice of the presence of God.” Brother Lawrence
“The goal of Christian spirituality is to be enlivened by God’s Spirit.” Tony Jones
The meaning behind the Hebrew (ruach), Greek (pneuma), & Latin (Spiritus) include “spirit/breath/wind” Jesus says in John 3, ““The wind (pneuma) blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.”
The point is that God at the beginning breathed the Divine spirit in all of us. It is not for us to manipulate or decide where it goes but the Divine spark in all of us is a gift. All people have a longing for the Divine because God created us with his Spirit. Those who in their longing give their life to Jesus receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is only possible to dwell in our hearts when we acknowledge Jesus as Lord but God is never far from those who have yet decided to acknowledge Jesus as Lord.
Why practice the presence of God? As a group we looked up a number of scriptures to try to answer this question.
Deuteronomy 6:4-6
1 Chronicles 22:18-19
Psalm 95:6
Matthew 6:5-15
Matthew 14:23
Mark 1:35
Luke 5:15-16
John 3:30
Acts 2:42-47
Romans 12:2
Hebrews 10:19-25
1 Peter 4:8-11
Take some time and explore each of these to see some reasons for why we desire to practice the presence of God.
“You can listen to innumerable sermons and read countless books, but the true transformation happens only when you practice the disciplines that lie at the heart of faith. As the disciplines are practiced, your life becomes more attuned to God’s life, and you become more “at one” with the rhythms of creation.” The Sacred Way Pg 31
There is just something unique and powerful when we allow God to speak directly to us.
“In the spiritual life, the word “discipline” means “the effort to create some space in which God can act.” Discipline means to prevent everything in your life from being filled up. Discipline means that somewhere you’re not occupied, and certainly not preoccupied. In the spiritual life, discipline means to create that space in which something can happen that you hadn’t planned or counted on.” Henri Nouwen
Matthew 7:7-11
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; those who seek find; and to those who knock, the door will be opened. “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
As we begin next week practicing these disciplines there are these three questions to ponder.
What are you seeking?
What things do you hope to receive?
What doors do you hope are opened?
As we seek, ask, & knock along our journey on this sacred way my prayer is we will find our Creator, we will receive the power of His presence, and the hope of doors opened by the love of the Father.
Peace,
Nate
Messy Spirituality
A few years ago the church I was the youth minister at asked me to be the speaker at our churches family camp. The theme for that weekend was Messy Spirituality. I wrote 4 sermons based off the book Messy Spirituality by Mike Yaconelli. I copied and pasted those sermons together at www.wordle.net and this was the image I got back. Just thought I would share…
Peace,
Nate
“The Quest for God”
Last night we started our look at The Sacred Way by Tony Jones. The first chapter is titled “The Quest for God.” Tony begins the chapter by telling a story about sitting in a coffee shop and a thunderstorm began. He was looking around the parking lot and noticed a nice BMW parked far away from all the other cars to keep it in mint condition. He then looked around and saw a shopping cart being pushed by the wind towards the BMW. He sat and watched as it inched closer and closer to making its mark on that brand new BMW. Tony says our God is a lot like that shopping cart. “No matter how far away we park, and no matter how much we try to avoid bumping into the Divine Creator of the Universe, God finds us and leaves a mark.”
This is the whole reason we embark on this quest for God. God crafted us in His image so we all have an awareness of this mark even though we might try to ignore it. When we wake up to this mark we look for ways to connect to our Creator. As we begin this quest we may ask what God am I on a quest for? There are soooooooo many religions which one leads me to God. Dan Kimball’s book “They like Jesus but Not the Church,” has a great chapter titled “Do Christians arrogantly think all other religions are wrong?” In it Dan explains that emerging generations are not becoming less spiritual but actually are embracing all spirituality. In the book he has a conversation with a man named Duggan. Duggan grew up in loving home outside of a religious blanket. He said when he was teenager he began having questions about God. He talked to his Dad and his Dad gave Duggan a King James Bible, a Koran, some Buddhist and Confucian writings and Duggan read and formed his faith from all these traditions. So when Duggan talks to Christians about religion he can’t understand why they are so hostile towards him. Like I mentioned before he didn’t grow up with Jesus being the only way, the only truth, the only path to God. Duggan mentions that it is not what Christians believe that bothers him but rather the way they go about telling others and never listening to others who don’t believe what they do. He said most of his encounters with Christians come from them quoting scripture to him but never being able to explain why they believe what they do. Dan thankfully didn’t treat Duggan like another notch on his salvation belt and they formed a friendship. Eventually after listening to Duggan stories Dan got to share with him.
Tony asks this question in his book, Why the Christian quest? Madonna once said “All paths lead to God.” I will tell you when I am exploring theology I don’t look to Madonna for answers but she has a point. There are similarties in every religion such as the Golden Rule. 
Above you can see a poster that you can purchase here http://www.scarboromissions.ca/Golden_rule/poster_order.php On the poster you will find many religions who all have a golden rule in their sacred teachings. Dan acknowledges this in his book and in his conversation with Duggan. Dan goes on to explain though there are similarities in many religions that when you really dive deep into them you will start to see that they don’t all lead to the same God.
In fact they lead to totally different Gods. Hinduism leads to many gods, Islam leads to One god but Jesus is only a prophet, Christianity leads to One triune God and the only way to that God is through Jesus. Similarities, check but they don’t lead to the same place. The reason why we embark on this quest to find God through Christianity is Jesus. As Tony puts it, “For only in Christianity is there the belief that the one, true God came to earth as a human being, and that, to this day, we can know him in as personal a way as the disciples who shared lunch with him 2,000 years ago. That is, Christians engage in these spiritual practices not out of duty or obligation but because there is a promise attached: God will personally meet us in the midst of these disciplines.”
Our quest for an intimate relationship with God begins with Jesus and I hope you will join us to find him.
Peace,
Nate
Speak of the devil
On Sunday mornings our community spent a couple of weeks talking about evil and satan. I guess ABC caught wind of what we were doing and they decided to talk about it too. ABC Nightline has a segment called Face-Off. Tonight will air the Face-Off called “Does Satan exist?” An interesting panel has been assembled, here is the lineup.
“…philosopher Deepak Chopra and Bishop Carlton Pearson will face-off against Pastor Mark Driscoll of the Mars Hill Church and Annie Lobert, founder of the Christian ministry “Hookers for Jesus” about the existence of the Devil.”
You can watch it online here http://abcnews.go.com/nightline/faceoff
I don’t know if ABC will show anything different than what is online but If you have ABC I would encourage you to watch. I love conversation but sometimes I wish the conversation was with people who actually study the devil. I understand this is ABC and they are looking for good TV more than anything. I can’t sit here and say I have “studied” the devil. I tend to focus on Jesus and following him but after watching this and talking with my group on Sunday mornings I need to spend some more time reading about satan.
I found a couple of books to look at…
http://www.amazon.com/Evil-Justice-God-N-Wright/dp/0830833986/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_7
What other articles/books could help?
Peace,
Nate
Where we are headed
Wednesday night we will be starting a new study. I should say experience. We will be exploring/discussing/experiencing The Sacred Way by Tony Jones.
You can look at the schedule here http://tyac.wordpress.com/the-sacred-way/
Along with discussing the book on Wednesday nights we will experience and practice things in Tony’s book. We will experience some more modern spiritual practices as well.
Next week we will be heading to Otter Creek Church for their Vesper service.
Details here http://tyac.wordpress.com/news/
Peace,
Nate
“Feelings are notoriously bad guides to what is true…”
Dr. Ben Witherington III is Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University in Scotland. He has a great blog and just recently put one up called “The Nature of True Love.” I highly recommend you read it and visit his blog often. To read the blog go to http://benwitherington.blogspot.com
Lead Now 2008 Day 1 continued
After the main sessions I went to a breakout session with Todd Phillips. (http://www.bluefishtv.com/Bio/1057/Todd_Phillips) His session was on the practice of Sabbath keeping. The question for a long time has been how do we as Christians keep the Sabbath. Is it a Saturday/no work/strict observance or is it setting time aside to seek God’s presence and has nothing really to do with day. One of the things that Todd pointed out was Jesus wants to set us free from bondage on the Sabbath. Jesus did teach a lot about setting people free on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:1-14, Mark 2:23-27, Luke 13:9-17 are just a few places you read that.) There are two reasons in the Law in how to keep the Sabbath. One (Exodus 20) is to remember God rested, “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Two (Deuteronomy 5) is to remember God freeing Israel from Egypt. In order for the Sabbath to be kept we need to learn that there are two distinct ways of Sabbath keeping. One, is to rest. Not just lay around and get some sleep but rest in the presence of God. To let go of all we have that binds us and find rest in God. Second, is to seek justice. God teaches the people in the commandments that to keep the Sabbath we must remember the justice of God. Todd spoke about how we just need to let go of the “ought’s” in our lives. We get so overwhelmed by life and our to do lists that we forget the time we are commanded to be resting and seeking/doing justice.
Along with the breakout session, Todd spoke at the Main Session. Here are a few nuggets (I have to say here that nugget is not my term but one of a friend of mine and I just want her to know that I appreciate her use of language:) Todd spoke on the need for us as leaders to build the inner life (I believe this was based on thoughts by Alan Nelson.) Ways to build the inner life included thoughts on aloneness. The idea that getting alone with God allows us to build relationship. This involves the intentional practice of solitude and contemplation. Another idea was Communal/Mutual Ministry. Instead (as leaders have the tendency to do) of being a leader who does it all and equips none is to spend time building ministry with others. To really learn to be a good leader we have to learn to give our vision away to others and watch it become their vision too.
Peace,
Nate
Free Market Jesus Part 2
A thought provoking Bible study DVD on culture and how it has shaped the message of Christianity.
December 10 we will be watching part 2 of Free Market Jesus
Come join us
Wednesday Night 7PM
http://www.bluefishtv.com/Store/Adult_Small_Groups/2211/_Free_Market_Jesus_with_Don_Miller
Lead Now 2008
Day 1
November 12-15 I went to Dallas, TX for Lead Now/Fusion 2008. Lead Now is organized by Right Now (You should check them out at www.rightnow.org) anyways…Lead Now is an event for leaders of 20’s & 30’s to come together hear ideas/share ideas/and get some much needed guidance on Young Adult ministry. There were lots of Main/Breakout Sessions with speakers like Erwin McManus/Francis Chan/Margret Feinberg/Todd Phillips/Matt Chandler/& Donald Miller to name a few. I took some notes so I thought I would just share those with you and I would love to hear your comments.
The first speaker was Todd Wagner. He is the Senior Pastor at Watermark Community Church in Dallas, TX. Here are a few things that stuck out to me.
-A commitment to be misunderstood.
My understanding being as leaders we should not be afraid to tell people what we believe even if we know it might not be what someone wants to hear.
-The ability to speak the Truth in Love
As leaders the Truth (I think he would say Biblical Truth) should be spoken no matter what because that is the Loving thing to do. He told a few stories as an example of this. Both of them involved encounters with homosexuals. One at church, one at an Ice Cream store (or whatever you call a place you get Ice Cream.) In his “Truth in Love” he kindly explained his personal/congregations Biblical view on homosexuality. He threw in his conversations that homosexuality was no worse than heterosexual perversion (a nice touch). I guess you see what his view of the matter is.
He also made a comment which I don’t have time to really get into but He said that no where in the Bible does it speak against the death penalty (Here is an article by Dr. Pete Gathje my ethics professor in Seminary just thought it might add to the conversation http://www.kcadp.org/Resources/Death_Penalt_as_God’s_Justice.htm.) He didn’t explain how he came to that conclusion but none the less he did say it. In my book not a strong start to this weekend but it was certainly honest and we all could learn something from someone who at least was being honest.
The next speaker (and a surprise speaker) was Marcus Buckingham (http://www.marcusbuckingham.com/home.php.) I had no earthly idea who he was but I am glad I do now.
He talked to us about all the research he had been doing and pouring into his book/DVD The Truth About You. What he explained is human beings focus on strengthen our weaknesses over improving our strengths and that we should be trying to improve our strengths which in turn improve/overshadow our weaknesses.
Weakness- Anything that drains you
Strength- Something that you do that makes you strong
He told us to take a normal week of our lives and write down on a piece of paper everything we do. Put them in two sections… Loved It or Loathed It (I like experiments:)
In doing this you will see the SIGN of strengths
Success (Things that you are effective at)
Instinct (Things you look forward too)
Growth (Things that keep your focus)
Needs (Things that fulfill you)
And you will see the STOP of weaknesses
Stop (Doing what weakens you) and if you can’t stop doing it then…
Team Up (To help in strengthen your weaknesses)
Offer Up (steer towards becoming a strength)
Perceive (See it from a different perspective)
He made points that seem so obvious but were things that I had never considered. I, like most people would see my strengths and go yeah that’s great but what about those weaknesses…doesn’t it just make better sense to spend more energy doing things that invigorate us and less time doing things that don’t. It does but we sure do spend a lot of time on trying to fix shortcomings and weaknesses. It reminds of this scripture “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. – 2 Corinthians 12:9 How does that fit? It would be cool to hear your thoughts…I guess I see it as God has given me those things that fill me, drive me, inspire me (my strengths) and I should feel free to use those in service to Him. Those weaknesses only serve me when I understand that the less of me and the more of God (the creator of my strengths and my strength for that matter) that shines in me well then as Paul says Christ’s “power is made perfect in my weakness.” All this to say…go check out Marcus Buckingham
There is more for Day One but I will save that for another day…
Peace,
Nathan
