the postmodern pop pastor

The work of Spener suggests that spiritual formation can happen more significantly in smaller groups. Nevertheless, anykind of small groups for spiritual community[1] needs to exist clearly as a sub-set of the local church. Geography plays a significant role in my present ministry context. Many members of Corona Evangelical Free Church (my church family) travel twenty minutes or more to attend worship on Sunday. Midweek traffic sometimes doubles that commute. By narrowing the boundaries of a small group to a neighborhood (limiting size by geography), at least this one great suburban boundary to community is addressed. This also encourages real daily life together when we run into each other at school or in the supermarket.

Leadership plays a vital role in the spiritual practice of community. We North American Evangelicals tend to value democracy over godly leadership. We usually attribute this to our Pietisitic heritage. However, that heritage as found in Spener lines up with Scriptures in insisting upon a strong leadership within the spiritual community. At CEFC, group leaders are chosen for their proven character and known giftedness. As a result of this reflection, I've begun to develop a more detailed training that will cover three areas: continued personal spiritual formation, theological and biblical instruction, and the art of spiritual direction which includes skills relevant to facilitating discussion.

Spiritual community gathers people around the transformational work of the Spirit of God. The implication of both Scriptural and historical examples is that the Spirit works this transformation through His inspired Word. The Word being read and heard within in communal setting provides a common creed for spiritual community. The Word itself takes center stage in the community. The community together practices sound exegesis by discussing both the authorial meaning of the text and consequence of the text upon their hearts. Reading and discussion allows one to hear the Word from the mouths of Spirit indwelt brothers and sisters. This unites, confronts and provides the context in which true prayer response can take place and confession of sins to one another is freely given.

Finally all examples show that groups need a common mission for identity. Mission includes both a common purpose and a common enemy. Common purpose in small groups at CEFC can be found on several levels. First, overarching mission of each ConnectGroup (this is what we call our neighborhood based small groups) is the mission of the larger congregation, to present all men complete in Christ, Colossians 1:28. Second, there is a mission that each participant be formed spiritually in the learning, loving and living. That is, in what they know, who they are and what they do. Finally, this intentional, Christ-like people turn as group to the service of their neighbors on behalf of Christ. Neighborhood based groups are outposts of the ministry of the larger community on the same mission. Enemies in Evangelicalism usually come from outside the movement. Taking cues from Spener’s Pietism, our groups would do well to find a sense of purpose against the common enemy found within. Each together looking to battle the sin and darkness in their own hearts.

[1] Joseph Myers, The Search to Belong, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003), 51.
[2] See Randy Frazee, The Connecting Church, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001).

The flower is not the manure in which it grew.

Don’t Waste Your Cancer
February 15, 2006

I write this on the eve of prostate surgery. I believe in God’s power to heal—by miracle and by medicine. I believe it is right and good to pray for both kinds of healing. Cancer is not wasted when it is healed by God. He gets the glory and that is why cancer exists. So not to pray for healing may waste your cancer. But healing is not God’s plan for everyone. And there are many other ways to waste your cancer. I am praying for myself and for you that we will not waste this pain.

1. You will waste your cancer if you do not believe it is designed for you by God.
It will not do to say that God only uses our cancer but does not design it. What God permits, he permits for a reason. And that reason is his design. If God foresees molecular developments becoming cancer, he can stop it or not. If he does not, he has a purpose. Since he is infinitely wise, it is right to call this purpose a design. Satan is real and causes many pleasures and pains. But he is not ultimate. So when he strikes Job with boils (Job 2:7), Job attributes it ultimately to God (2:10) and the inspired writer agrees: “They . . . comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him” (Job 42:11). If you don’t believe your cancer is designed for you by God, you will waste it.

2. You will waste your cancer if you believe it is a curse and not a gift.
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1)...

Read the article
http://www.desiringgod.org/library/fresh_words/2006/021506.html

Group leadership in the collegia pietatis originally belonged to the Pastor because he was educated and trained for the task. As need arose leadership of the collegia belonged to gifted individuals who were then trained as spiritual directors under the guidance of the local pastor. The training included deliberate theological education and particular skills for biblical instruction and group leading. Education was of such importance that participants later Piestistic groups under Francke were instructed to walk out if an untrained lay person offered biblical instruction.[1] Spener considered it presumption for the uneducated person to take up deep questions and difficult passages of Scripture.[2]


[1] James O. Duke, “Pietism versus Establishment: The Halle Phase,” Covenant Quarterly, 36 (November 1978), 6-8, as quoted in Mitchell, Small Groups, 87.
[2] Spener, “Spiritual Priesthood,” 63.

Next, we'll start reflecting on the present implications of these scriptural and historical examples of spiritual community.

While meeting, the Collegia Pietatis opened the Word of God and responded in corporate prayer and mutual confession of believer priests to one another.

Spener saw the need for the Word to be heard in community and through members of the community. In Pia Desideria he writes:

Private reading of the Bible or reading in the household, where nobody is present who may from time to time help point out the meaning and purpose of each verse, cannot provide the reader with a sufficient explanation of all that he would like to know. What is lacking in both of these instances (in public preaching and private reading) would be supplied by the proposed exercises. [1]

The text of Sunday’s sermon would be read by the leader of the group, read again with short expositional commentary and then discussed by the group together. Spener saw this discussion as invaluable.

When godly hearts come together and read in the Scriptures with one another, each one should modestly and in love tell for the edification of the others what God has enables him to understand in the Scriptures, and what he things will be serviceable for the edification of others.[2]

[1] Spener Pia Desideria, 90.
[2] Spener, “Spiritual Priesthood,” 61.

They think I am controling and force them into phrases of my own creation.

They think I am self-centered and make them tell stories that stroke my own ego.

You see, I want a lot,
Maybe I want it all:
the darkness of each enless fall,
the shimmering light of each ascent.

So many are alive who don't seem to care.
Casual, easy, they move in the world
as thought untouched.

But you take pleasure in the faces
of those who know they thirst.
You cherish those
who grip you for survival.

You are not dead yet,
it's not too lateto open your depths by plunging into them
and drink in the life
that reveals itself quietly there.

Today, I'm letting the words think about me.

The Collegia depended upon a Pietistic understanding of the priesthood of all believers. For Martin Luther, the priesthood primarily referred to the immediate and personal access of each and every child of God the his heavenly Father through the mediating work of Christ alone. In Pietism another emphasis came to the front regarding priesthood. “Spener expounded it [the doctrine of priesthood of all believers] primarily in the realm of a believers relationship to his neighbor.”[1] The Spiritual Priesthood is:

The right which our Savoir Jesus Christ purchased for all men, and for which he anoints his believers by his Holy Spirit, in the power of which they may bring sacrifices acceptable to God, pray for themselves and others, and edify themselves and their neighbors.[2]

Carrying out this priesthood on behalf of one’s neighbor is the spiritual duty of all true believers. The collegia pietatis provided the perfect context in which the Spirit could exercise the work of His Word among and through the priesthood.

These groups primarily met in homes, though at times, when size and accusation of separatism dictated, they would move into the church building.[3] Limitation of size was always essential to provide the opportunity for each to act according to his or her gifting, to allow the experience of Christian community in a way not possible in the larger public worship setting,[4] and, again, to prevent the appearance of separation.[5] Spener’s earliest groups meet Sunday and Wednesday in his own home.[6]

[1] Mark Stewart Mitchell, The Use of Small Groups in Early Pietism, (MA Thesis, Denver Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary, 1988),81.
[2] Philip Jacob Spener, “The Spiritual Priesthood,” Pietists: Selected Writings, Peter C. Erb, ed. (New York, NY: Paulist Press, 1983), 50.
[3] Mitchel, 79; Spener Pia Desideria, 89.
[4] Christina Bucher, “‘People of the Covenant’ Small-Group Bible Study: A Twentieth Century Revival of the Collegia Pietatis,” Brethren Thought and Life, 43 Sum-Fall 1998, 49.
[5] Spener, “Spiritual Priesthood,” 63.
[6] Spener, Pia Desideria, 14.

Spener's small groups of gathered believers sought to renew the church through the personal growth of church members. Pietist are typically blamed for the individualistic, "me and Jesus" approach of modern Evangelicalism. The motivation for personal piety was anything but individualistic. They saw that personal growth took place within a context of and for the benefit of the community. Here's Spener:

We should be on urged by our love of the church and the glory of God to make improvements, fulfill the longings of godly people, and open wide to the erring the gates to a knowledge of the truth.[1]

As a churchman, Spener diligently worked to ensure that his spiritual practices grew out of his protestant Evangelical theological roots. This can be clearly seen in the collegia pietatis where the Word of God grew among the priesthood of all believers. It is in and through the Word that the Spirit primarily works among the people. In fact, the Spirit cannot be separated from the Word. If, hypothetically, it could be, the Scripture would no longer work.[2] Since this power rests with the Spirit and is exercises through the Word rather being dependant upon man, this work is available to all. “Pietism was predicated upon the notion that the biblical text should be studied in the vernacular of the people.”[3] So a significant feature of Spener’s efforts was to ensure that all people knew all of the Word entirely.[4] Finally, Spener saw that the good fruit desired in both person and church comes only through the divine Word.[5]

[1] Spener, Pia Desideria, 75.
[2] Philip Jacob Spener, “The Necessary and Useful Reading of the Holy Scriptures,” Pietists: Selected Writings, Peter C. Erb, ed. (New York, NY: Paulist Press, 1983), 72.
[3] Wallace B. Landes Jr., “A More Christ-like Community: An Outline for Radical Pietism Reinterpreted,” Brethren Life and Thought, 43 Sum-Fall 1998, 99.
[4] Spener, Pia Desideria, 89.
[5] Spener, Pia Desideria, 87.

Historically, the Evangelical Pietistic tradition used spiritual community for the purposes of personal formation and the renewal of the church. This is similar to our small groups. Pietism got started in Europe, primarily Germany about 100 years after the reformation, immediately following the Thirty Years War. It began within the Lutheran movement and reacted to the Scholasticism of official Christianity at the time. The strong emphasis on the knowledge gained from Scripture resulted in a largely unregenerate clergy. Philip Jacob Spener, often called the “father of Pietism”[1] wrote:

I have no doubt that we would soon have an altogether different church if most of us ministers where of such a sort that we could unblushing say to our congregations with Paul, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1).[2]

This lack in the clergy played itself out in the congregation. Spener makes a clear connection between the spiritual state of the two.[3]

Renewal must begin with a reformation of the clergy, which Spener saw as a necessary prerequisite to the revival of the people. Renewing the clergy would do a great part to renew the people. The remaining work is done by and among the people in what became known and coventicles or collegia pietatis.

[1] Justo L. Gonzales, The Story of Christianity, Vol. 2, (San Francisco, CA: Harper Collins, 1985), 205.
[2] Philip Jacob Spener, Theodore G. Tappert, ed., Pia Desideria, (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1964), 47.
[3] Ibid, 57.

Two examples of New Testament spiritual community demonstrate similar group dynamics and similar formative practices. These are the small groups of the Savior and his disciples and the home based communities formed in Jerusalem following that first Christian Pentecost.

Jesus initiated His personal community during His earthly time with an invitation to a seemingly random group of men, “Follow me.” Divine call, once again, founds the spiritual community (Matt. 4:19). This particular gathering is a people of the Word. The Old Testament founded their existence and established their identity. It was not simply knowledge of that inspired writing or obedience to it (though this was certainly the case) but the prophetically fulfilled, historically typified and poetically adored incarnation of the divine Word (John 1:1f). Jesus, as the Word made flesh, played the integral role in His own small group community. Leadership in this community goes without question, theoretically. God incarnate is the obvious leader. In reality, however, the disciples still argued among themselves who was the greatest (Luke 22:24f). Jesus’ small community began as a missional community (Matt. 4:19 “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”), He reminded them when they got distracted (Luke 10:20 do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.), and He insisted that they continue on that mission even after He was gone (Matt. 28:18f). Jesus’ community kept the spiritually formative practices of divine calling as initiatory rite, truly qualified leadership, and an entirely universal purpose.

The post-Pentecost church formed small home-based groups that met in various places at various times in response to the Spirit of God creating a community of believers far too large to gather in one location for worship and spiritual practice. These gathered around learning the Word of God as delivered through divinely established leadership, the Apostles. Hearing God speak in Scripture texts and through authoritative, inspired leaders drew corporate prayers from the people to their God. This context of learning and prayer fostered new and living relationships described as “fellowship” and having “all things in common.” Their shared life together included corporate worship at the temple, breaking bread or the Lord’s supper, home based meetings and financial sacrifices for the good of the others. All of these characteristics of community produced the fruit of missional evangelism and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.[1]

The community of Acts chapter 2 encouraged one another in the spiritual practice of community through covenanting together toward the mission of Christ, centering their meeting around the Word of God, prayer and worship under strong and godly leadership.

[1]Acts 2:47, English Standard Version.

While it may not be commonly seen as such, David lived in community with a group of men as he fled from rock to rock in the desert. These men came to David as a group of social outcasts. The writer of 1 Samuel describes them this way:

And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became captain over them. And there were with him about four hundred men.[1]

This sad beginning highlights the beautiful reality of the divinely inspired final commentary on these me as “mighty men,” faithful to God. This “small group” community of men were transformed by their time together.

These men functioned under the leadership essentially of one man, David, who would be king. David, as authority over this group of God’s people, exercises this role out of a sense of calling (1 Sam. 16:12-13). He led by moral example (1 Sam. 24 where he spares Saul’s life) for the sake of God’s honor. He also led in acts of both personal and corporate worship as seen repeatedly in his Psalms of praise, adoration and lament. David’s leadership did more than protect his people and direct them in battle. They were better people for having been with him. Another community building characteristic found in this example is opposition that brings identity. Enemies define the community as certainly as does purpose and mission. “We are not them,” becomes a boundary marker. David’s mighty men were NOT Saul’s men. This is very important. David’s men pursued God with David and became like David, a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam. 13:14). One hopes that Saul’s men did not become like Saul. Finally, David and his community consistently act in line with God’s word through priest, prophet and Scripture. The Davidic community practiced the spiritually formative practices of divinely appointed leadership who modeled the community’s ideals, unity of purpose based on a common enemy, and hearing or speaking the word in community.

[1] 1 Sam. 22:2, English Standard Version.

For a few days, I'm going to think about and comment on examples of spiritually formative communities in the Scripture. The spiritual practice of community begins prior to the study of the Scripture. It begins with God, who God is and what God does in creation. Who God is in relation to Himself in eternity is the same as who He is in relation to His creation.[1] Relationality has always been understood as intrinsically part of God’s ontology. This ontological relationality has been built into us as divine image bearers and serves as the paradigmatic imagery for my understanding of spiritual formation. We cannot but relate to ourselves, to others and to God – that is our identity. To relate in all of these contexts as God relates is to be formed spiritually and is that goal of spiritual community.

The Scriptures know nothing of an individual outside of community. From the outset, it was God’s own assessment that it is, “not good for man to be alone” (Gen. 2:18). This is true because mankind was created as community and for community. The Triune God made the community of mankind in His own communitarian image. Genesis 1:26-27 records, “Let Us make man in Our image…male and female He created them.”

The spiritual practice of community in the Old Testament can be seen in communal relationships of the Covenant people as a whole and in particular in the example of David living and growing with his “mighty men.”

The community of Israel, the people of God, dwelt together as a spiritual community. In that they functioned under a governmental theocracy, even their social and political practices were based in their spiritual identity. The community began with the gracious call of God to one unworthy man and his descendants (Gen. 12:1-3). That this calling was gracious is significant and oft repeated in the sacred writings of the community (Deut. 4:37; 10:15). The calling came with words from God and words from God define the people entirely. God’s words, through the prophet, were written down (Deut. 17:18; 31:34) and these writings established the boundaries of the community as they are lived and believed. The community’s leaders were chosen either by God or by God’s chosen men and function in very unique roles. There has been one Moses in history of mankind. While he longed for the Spirit of God to be on all people (Num. 11:29), the elders of the people were not equal to Moses in authority. Finally, the community was called, given the word of God and strong leadership to be a light to the nations. In today’s theological terms, they were a missional community. Mission serves common identity by offering a unified purpose. The Mosaic community practiced the formative practices of calling as initiation, hearing the Word in community, divinely appointed leadership and missional purpose.

[1]Miroslav Volf, “The Trinity is our Social Program: The Doctrine of the Trinity and the Shape of Social Engagement,” Modern Theology, 14:3 (July 1998), 407.

This little notebook has become a means of grace in my life. It consistently reminds me to stop and reflect on the Word of God and the work of God.

http://www.moleskine.com/eng/_interni/catalogo/Cat_int/catalogo_notebooks.htm

Amos 4:1 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on the mountain of Samaria, Who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, Who say to your husbands, “Bring now, that we may drink!”

The prophet is a bit upset with these large and lazy women, partially because their fat was built on food that was taken from the mouths of the poor. They were taking advantage of the poor for their own comfort.

Do we do the same? Do we live comfortably off the backs of 3rd world workers and justify it because they are already poor? Is it ok to pay a Chinese worker $.17 hour because it’s good pay for where they live?

Here are some stats from the king of exploitation that shocked me.

Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott, Jr. 2004 hrly pay
(based on $17,543,739 per year, 40 hours per week) $8,434.49

Average Full-time U.S. Wal-Mart Employee $9.68

Select Wal-Mart subcontractors:
Bangladesh $0.17
China $0.17
Indonesia $0.46
Nicaragua $0.23
Swaziland $0.53

http://www.laborrights.org/projects/corporate/walmart/Wal-mart_pay_gap041505.pdf

My friend Pete this great piece on credit and stewardship...

Maybe it's just me, but... - arcanum

The present evangelical church lacks in the spiritual practice of community. The lack of community sacrifices a significant means of grace and spiritual formation.

The loss of spiritual community corresponds well to the loss of a community in general North American (NA) culture. The extent of individualism can be seen in the breadth of self-help material that is published each year. Self-Help books was one of the largest growing categories of book sales in 2004.[1]

Unfortunately, the Church has not escaped the influence of this cultural reality. “Religious” books are categorized alongside of the self-help books mentioned above. This certainly has to do with the judgment of the publishing industry on religion, but one cannot rule out the reality that the content of most religious, even Evangelical, books fit better in this category than any other.

The present movement in Evangelicalism known as “satellite” or “franchise” model also speaks volumes on the present view of community. In a satellite model, a congregation will host multiple sites for worship services in which music and style vary while the video transmitted sermon remains consistent throughout. The movement is arising due to the difficulty of some churches to find adequate meeting space but primarily because, “people like the options and quality of megachurches, yet crave the intimacy of smaller churches.”[2] The multiplicity of service flavors attracts larger numbers of people, segregates them into more and more narrow groupings and continues to call itself the body of Christ. Today’s Evangelical Church is in desperate need of recovering the spiritual practice of community.

[1] “Book Publishing Industry Net Sales Totaled $23.7 Billion In 2004,” Associations of American Publishers, [WWW]: http://www.publishers.org/industry/index.cfm; accessed November 20, 2005.
[2] Bob Smietana, “High-Tech Circuit Riders: Satellite churches are discover a new way to grow the body of Christ,” Christianity Today, September 2005, 61.

M. Robert Mulholland Jr. is professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary.

The introduction to his book Shaped by the Word begins in a very emergent way.

"I do not claim to be an expert in spiritual formation."

"It is my prayer that this book might be whatever God wants it to be in your spiritual journey."

"If you find this happening [that you are disturbed by what he says], I would suggest that perhaps those are the points where God is seeking entrance into your life at a deeper level."

I was confused by my response to these words. Typically, I might have put the book down at this point. That last quote misses an important possability, perhaps I am disturbed by what you say because its wrong, heretical or just stupid.

I am familiar with Mulholland and respect him. Perhaps that is why I took these opening statements as a sign of humility. He has demonstrated his competence, both to handle the Word and to speak to the soul.

On the other hand. Doug Pagitt begins his Reimagining Spiritual Formation in a very similar way.

"The intent of this book is not to tell you how you can have an effective church in the 21st century."

"I wont even try to convince you that you'd be better off having a church with the practices, intentions and values of Solomon's porch."

I did not respond well to Pagitt's opening. So, I asked myself why? (For honesty sake, I enjoyed Pagitt's book, it very much "resonated" with me, but at the end I didnt think he had anything to say.)

Here is my conclusion so far:

You have to demonstrate competence before you can break form. I am a poet. If I write poetry that breaks form, your first estimation ought to be that I am a bad poet. However, if we picked up a piece from John Donne or Gerard Manly Hopkins or Robert Browning and found them breaking form, we would consider them geniuses because they had already demonstrated competence. That's why Picasso is a legend and I would be a fool if I painted the very same picture.

Mulholland had years of competence before he made those statements. Pagitt did not.

Humility requires competence. To feign uncertainty without competence is ignorance and arrogance, not humility.

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.

Edmund Burke

I have been teaching on the Trinity. Particularly, how the social relationships of the Trinitarian persons provide the relational model for our relationships to God, to ourselves and to others. In exploring our relationships to others, I have slowed down to think about how we reflect the Trinity in relation to the poor. "The poor," is such a big and overwhelming title. It is faceless and dispairing. I started to look at the stats and was crushed with my smallness.

U.S. poverty level for family of 4 is $18,850.
1 of 8 in U.S. falls below that line.
that was 13.1 million children in 2002
14% of California
14.2% of Riverside County
6% of families in Corona, where I live
24.2% of single mother families with kids under 5

That last number works out to 245 families. In my town of about 150,000 there are 245 single mothers with young kids who fall below the poverty line.

Now that is a number that a pastor can start working with. I am going to start praying for those families and today I will make some calls to find out who and where they are. We can do something about their very real suffering.

Edmund Burke is right. This pastor doesnt want to make that mistake.