the postmodern pop pastor

Advent begins this weekend. My family and I have always enjoyed the season and have benefited greatly from the traditions that continually call us to remember Christ Jesus who was born in the manger, God incarnate, Savior of the world.

Here is are a few links my friend Pete has recommended and a few I've added.

Preparing for the Coming of Christ: A Family Guide for Using the Advent Wreath (Mark Roberts)
Ken Collins’ website on Advent & Christmas
Readings for the Advent Wreath
Advent Wreath Prayers and Scripture Readings: Lighting of the Advent Wreath
Wikipedia on Advent
Christian Resource Institute
A Bach Christmas Calendar, Music for each day of Advent from BBC
Adbusters buy nothing Christmas
Geez buy nothing Christmas

I've got a pdf of a little booklet that we've used many times in the past if I can figure how to post it.

There has been a fascinating discussion going on at several sites about the effects of sermons prepared for publication. That is, what is lost when a preacher is preaching to the "listening audience" instead of the real human congregation sitting there with him?

I think something radical is lost and it's called the sermon. The old timers would have said that the "Word of God" is lost because they understood the word preached to be the living word.

Sermons can and should be recorded, but listening to a sermon is not a sermon because a sermon is a live communcal experience shared by God, preacher and people. A sermon prepared for mass publication is a tract, not a sermon.

My friend Pete Williamson, pride of Acts 29, pointed it out.

You'll find the whole article at David Bayly's site.

I have been away with family celebrating US Thanksgiving. It was good and beautiful time in Durango, CO. I'll post some photos on flickr.

While away I read a very good book. Im afraid that I enjoyed it so much because it very closely agrees with my own thinking already. But I would like to recommend it to you by reflecting on it for a few days.

It Takes a Church to Raise A Christian. First of all, good title and play on the old African proverb which Hillary Clinton used for her own book, which I also liked. Well, I liked her assessment, but found her governmental replacement of the family to be wanting as a solution.

Bolsinger begins with God who is a Trinity as the foundation of the Christian community and builds a simple church process on the triadic paradigm of Worship, Word and Witness. For him, the plan of the Triune God to create and restore community forms an essential Christian foundation. He writes,

In a culture that tells us to march on with ever greater self-reliance and self-expression, the Bible tells us that the story of our life is not our own. God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and his people come along with us (or, to put it a little more accurately, we go along with them). And along that journey, a God who is inherently community changes our human community into his image.

and

Christian community is not a shared experience. Its not a people who sit together in pews or a movie theater or a football stadium. Its not polite conversation at a potluck or a great weekend together at a Christian camp. Christian community is an ontologically irreducible organism. It is a living reality that is imbued with the Spirit of God. And most dramatically, it is the very life of the Triune God drawing people into a covenantal relationship with God and with one another. It is God's own being on earth lived in and through believers for the single end result of seeing each person become like Jesus Christ. Thus, the community together is a witness for Christ.

He goes on and so will I. The weight that is placed on our communal participation in the economy of God by beginning our ecclesiology with the Trinity is profound and heavy. Let the heaviness land on your shoulders, feel the burden of it and then remember that you do not bear it alone but are yoked together with others and each one to Jesus.

This morning I was a highly paid office boy. I spent some time collating and stapling a package of information together for a presentation I am giving this morning at a local gathering of service organizations.

The presentation is not about me or even our church. It is about The Settlement House (see below) and their Christmas related food and toy distribution. I am working, preparing and speaking for others who will do the good work of caring for people in Jesus' name. Maria, Sally and the others at The Settlement House are my heroes.

As I was stapling, I thought about how most of ministry is like this. Professional pastoral ministry is practicing the art of spiritual indirection, ministering indirectly by serving those who are doing the work of ministry in the real world. I like this phrase better than "delegation." Delegation is getting things done through other people - my agenda, their effort. Spiritual indirection is serving, caring and supporting those who do the good work that God has called them to. It is my effort toward their agenda.

While I complain about the busyness of the professional ministry at times, it is an unimaginable honor to be part of these lives and this great mission.

I know some people who are constantly drunk on books, as other men are drunk on whiskey.

The Hunger Site is one way to do good while you do nothing.


In our town, The Settlement House has been caring for those in need for 95 years. Praise God for those who are faithful at receiving others in Jesus' name.

The EFCA is "refreshing" its doctrinal statement after 50 good years. You can dig into how its going here.

One addition to the statement is a point addressing social action as a gospel necessity. Here is the second draft of point 8.

8. God’s gospel compels us to Christ-like living and witness to the world—
We believe that God’s justifying grace in the gospel must not be separated from its sanctifying power and purpose. God commands us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves, acting with compassion toward the poor and needy, seeking justice for the oppressed. In fellowship with one another, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil, especially with the Word of God and prayer. In all that we do, we are to bear witness to the gospel in word and deed, making disciples among all people.

This statement has no parallel in our current statement, though it expands what is said at the conclusion of #4. We wanted to affirm that the gospel has power to change lives, and something of the nature of that transformed life should be included in our Statement of Faith. Paul, in his outline of the gospel in his letter to the Romans, reflects this same concern. Evangelicals, with their emphasis on justification by faith, have often been accused of neglecting this doctrine of sanctification and the responsibility to the world that it demands.

God commands us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves—
This is simply a restatement of the Great Commandment and its companion (Mk. 12:29-31). Just as Jesus "went around doing good" (Acts 10:38), so should we (Jn. 20:21), loving not just our friends (Gal. 6:9-10), but our enemies as well (Matt. 5:43-48).

acting with compassion toward the poor and needy, seeking justice for the oppressed—
These are strong biblical themes (cf., e.g., Deut. 15:11; Ps. 82:3,4; Prov. 14:31; 29:7; Isa. 1:17; Mic. 6:8; Lk. 16:19-31; Js. 1:22) that have too often received little emphasis in evangelical circles. This does not supplant or replace the gospel, but rather is an outworking of the true biblical gospel. This statement implies no particular political agenda. How we are to fulfill this biblical mandate must be worked out in fellowship with one another.

In fellowship with one another—
Our engagement in the world has a corporate as well as an individual dimension. The church is to act as well as the members in it. Our fellowship with one another in the body of Christ is one of our essential resources in the spiritual battle in which we are engaged.

we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil, especially with the Word of God and prayer—
The reality of the Christian's battle against forces of evil, both within and without, is acknowledged here. This statement captures the struggle of the Christian life, as well as the powerful resources at our disposal.

In all that we do, we are to bear witness to the gospel in word and deed, making disciples among all people—
Here we affirm the missionary mandate as a priority and an integral part of the gospel. God's gospel is for the world, and we have been given a commission to take it to everyone (Mt. 28:19). This statement makes explicit the proper concern of all Christians to seek to reach "all people". Our witness to the gospel is to be verbal and non-verbal, for who we are and what we do is to reflect the message we bring. This missionary mandate includes the process of discipleship as well as evangelism.

Changes from draft 1 to draft 2

From the Friday Photos group. The frost covered the ground that morning in Oak Harbor. Amazing artistry. God's, not mine.

Ben Witherington made these comments in relation to the swan dive of a Christian leader who had way too much power.

If the Body of Christ wants its ministers to be whole, then they need to help them to nurture normal friendships with both brothers and sisters in Christ. We are supposed to be a family, not simply support physical nuclear family units. Indeed, according to Jesus the primary family unit is the family of faith-- go back and read what Jesus says in Mk. 3.31-35, or what Paul suggests in 1 Cor. 7 at various places. We must learn to be healed and whole persons together, not privately and separately, since we must together work out our salvation with fear and trembling. This is a deeply personal matter, no doubt, but it is not a private one-- at all.

In a context of normal Christian relationships and friendships, then a minister has a ring of protection around him or her, that will help them to be real in all their relationships and accountable.
http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/

He has hit one of the nails on the head with these words. The self-leading, self-feeding pastor may smile in the task, but he really is on death row. Its only a matter of time because its a violent disruption of biblical leadership.

Just finished listening to the pirated version of McKnight's lecture at Westminster on the Emerging Church. I had to read the last section becuase the recording cuts off.

I found it not only well done (for reading a manuscript:)) but very thought provoking.

Take a listen and or read.
Read What is the Emerging Church? by Scot McKnight

Listen What is the Emerging Church? by Scot McKnight

Here is my map of spiritual leadership...in process. What do you think?

Here are my summary sentences based on each branch of the map.

Spiritual leadership happens when Trinitarian leaders serve the congregation with formative practices according to guiding values.
Spiritual leadership happens when leaders who related as God relates, function according to the misseo dei with proper authority and proper servanthood.
Spiritual leadership happens when Trinitarian leaders serve the family of God through caring, ministering, submission and administration.
Spiritual leadership happens when Trinitarian leaders serve the community according to guiding values through the practices of equipping for ministry, baptism, membership, communion, and governance.
Spiritual leadership happens when Trinitarian leaders serve the congregation according to guiding values of shepherding that takes place within a community on the mission of God. They maintain the necessary structure in simplicity to ensure efficiency.

Caleb in same pile. They played with their new friends Christian, Noah and Naomi for hours. Meg said it was the best day of her life.

Labels: photos

Been on vacation in PNW and B.C. Canada. This is meg playing in the leaves.

Labels: photos