Lessons From An AA Meeting

This morning a friend of mine who works daily with friends without homes in Indianapolis invited me to join him at an AA meeting in order to help me better understand the program as I look to get more involved with connecting with those entering recovery programs.  Sitting in a room full of addicts in recovery is always humbling.  It's humbling because the people in that room always seem to understand life better than most of us who live in the "got it all together" world of suburbia.  They realize they're always one bad decision, one drink, from going right back into the same chaotic life that drew them to AA in the first place.  They also know they need each other to keep fighting the battle to stay away from the things that have destroyed their lives in the past.  Many understand that trying to solve their challenges with self-effort will get them nowhere because they realize the challenge is beyond them.

It's long been my conviction that every gathering of the Church needs to be more like an AA meeting than the professional productions we often rely on.  We need teaching.  We need corporate worship.  Still, we also need to be able to communicate as a community of peers sharing our stories and our challenges without fear and without pretense.  Even if alcohol addiction is not the demon that vexes our life, the reality is we're all one bad decision, one sin, away from making a total mess of life.  Some of us may be at the beginning stages of realizing what a mess we had become.  Some of us may have been on the "spiritual sobriety" road for a long time.  Still, we all share these two things in common: we're one bad decision away from chaos and we need each other to stay on the right path.

Today, I was drawn to the "Twelve Traditions Of AA" that were displayed in various forms throughout the room.  These traditions guide how every AA group should operate and how the organization as a whole should function.  As I read them, it seemed to me they were traditions that many of us who lead various faith communities and ministries would benefit from adapting into our own context.  As I read them and as I sat there and listened, I found myself praying "God help me and help Diakonos always live in this way."

Being The Nuts and Bolts of Christianity: An Experiential Witness

In the opening scenes of Ragamuffin: The True Story of Rich Mullins the character of Rich Mullins is placed in the role of narrator of the film through a radio interview that interjects narration throughout the movie. This interview opens with a question about how he came to faith. Mullins responds, "I am a Christian, not because someone explained the nuts and bolts of Christianity, but because there were people willing to be nuts and bolts.” (originally from his book, The World As Best I Remember It) This quote epitomizes what the witness of a missional community should be. It's what I hope our Diakonos Community is becoming.

Too often we see witness or evangelism as presenting an airtight explanation of what Christians believe that will convince the hearer that this is the best way to believe. The Bible seems to present a different picture of witness in the early days of the church, though. There were times when the Gospel was publicly proclaimed. Still, there are many places where early Christian leaders (and Jesus himself) emphasised that the witness we live out will be as important as anything we say. Consider the following:

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:14 - 16 

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34, 35 

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:2-6 

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. 1 Peter 2:12 

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1 John 4:11, 12

A community of people that are living the self-sacrificial life that Jesus modeled will speak the Gospel to people burnt out on the self-centered culture of our contemporary age. Together we live out the nuts and bolts of Christianity. Together we let the light of Christ shine in the midst of the darkness of this world. When the actions of a Christian community match it's words, this is the witness the world needs to see.

A Call To Integrated Lives and Churches: Reflections On Reading Slow Church

One of our families early encounters with missional church was being a part of Bluer (now Renewal Vineyard) in Minneapolis.  I often remember Pastor John Musick's expression for sin: "disintegrated lives."  It really caught the essence of all the ways our culture tries to pull us away from the holistic, integrated lives God desires for us to live.  Sadly, it's often hard to see how contemporary Evangelical church offers anything different from the compartmentalized lives corporate America sells us on a daily basis.

In light of this, it's refreshing when a book like Slow Church by Chris Smith and John Patterson comes along.  This book paints a picture of church that is counter-cultural to the fast-paced, compartmentalized lives many of us live.  Borrowing from the language of the Slow Food Movement, it challenges the reader to think about how to make life and church more integrated without resorting to the "church-bashing" that can sometimes find it's way into missional church literature.

Chris and John are not professional clergy trying to sell you on their program for building a church.  They are self-professed amateurs in the truest sense of the word: lovers of church-life that seek to see it integrate into every other part of their lives.  They live in two different communities and have found their way into congregations that encourage their ability to live these principles out.  Drawing from their own experiences, both healthy and unhealthy, they provide an appealing vision of what church could be.

The book is laid out in a very accessible format that anyone can pick up and enjoy.  Chris and John begin by presenting a theological basis for the type of church they desire to see.  They follow-up with nine characteristics of slow church broken down into three "courses:" ethics, ecology, and economy.  Throughout the book they revisit several of the challenges that contemporary culture pose to living out these characteristics and ask whether the cost of acquiescing to the status quo is worth what we appear to gain by following the cultural norms of a society living at supersonic speed.  Slow Church is not simply a manual on how to "do church."  It is a call to live a more integrated life that will naturally include a different approach to how church integrates with that life.

During a time of great stress in his life, King David wrote a hymn that invited others to "taste and see that the LORD is good." (Psalm 34:8)  Slow Church invites readers who are worn down by our fast-paced culture to take the same taste and discover the goodness that can be found in living and worshipping at the pace God desires for us.  For those of us who are professional clergy, it is a challenge to create the type of faith communities that allow the weary to enter in and slowing taste the goodness of God at a pace that is healthy for their soul.  For those of us who consider ourselves "amateurs," true lovers of church-life, it is a call to examine our own pace of life and find ways to make it more "tasty" to those around us.  For both groups of readers Slow Church is a meal worth tasting and digesting.

Finding the Right Fit

"Then Saul gave David his own armor—a bronze helmet and a coat of mail. David put it on, strapped the sword over it, and took a step or two to see what it was like, for he had never worn such things before.
'I can’t go in these,' he protested to Saul. 'I’m not used to them.' So David took them off again. He picked up five smooth stones from a stream and put them into his shepherd’s bag. Then, armed only with his shepherd’s staff and sling, he started across the valley to fight the Philistine." - 1 Samuel 17:38 - 40 (NLT)

I've been meditating on this passage the past couple of weeks and how it applies to my own quest for a missional form of church and the quest of other missional practitioners like me.

The context of this scene is the Old Testament story when a giant from an enemy nation threatens Israel and challenges them to send their best man out for a fight. No one is willing to take on this challenge until the younger brother of a few of the soldiers shows up. He has no military training or equipment, so King Saul gives young David his own armor to use. After trying it on, David figures out it doesn't work for him and goes back to the simple weapons he is used to. The problem wasn't that Saul's armor was bad. It just wasn't the right fit for David.

Many of us pursuing a call to missional ministry have likely had times when we felt like young David in this story. The methods others try to give us feel a lot like the armor Saul was trying to give David. In over ten years of trying to pursue this call, I've had to shed many pieces of other people's methods because they didn't fit what God was calling me to. Sometimes I've even picked up similar methods again, hoping that somehow things would be different, only to realize they still didn't fit as much as I wished they would.

In the shedding of poorly fitting methods many emotions in both the one offering assistance and the one who is shedding it can ruin the relationship if the parties are not careful. The problem lies in seeing the decision as being a statement of good or bad instead of simply being an issue of finding the right fit. Fans of the traditional methods may feel personal rejection because these methods have worked so well for them and they can't understand why it wouldn't work for everyone the same way. Those of us trying to pursue a missional call can easily give in to a feeling of smugness about how superior our methods are to the "out of date methods of the past." The healthier response is to not interpret these events as judgments of good and bad, but merely an issue of finding the right fit.

As Diakonos, the missional community I now lead, begins to take on more form I find myself going through another season of shedding things that don't fit what God wants to do in this community. In the midst of these seasons, it's a constant battle to remind myself and those around me that it's not an issue of those things being bad. They simply don't fit what God is doing here. This is a path that needs to be traveled with great care, but hopefully the end of the journey is worth the trip.

The Consistent Nature Of A Missional Vision

I was recently sitting down with a friend discussing different aspects of the ministries we lead.  As we neared the end of the conversation he mentioned that Village Soul (the ministry I officially launched just over four years ago) had changed.  This struck me as a little odd because, from my perspective, my vision and mission has not changed that much since even before I launched Village Soul.  Some of the concrete outlets by which we may carry out the vision may have changed, but the vision itself is consistent.

This lead me to think a bit about the nature of a missional vision.  Most people who are committed to a missional vision of church will tell you it's about reproducing followers of Jesus in the context where people gather.  As opposed to people coming to us to hear about Jesus, the missional believer and church bring Jesus to others on their turf in very practical ways.  This essentially has been my vision for life for more years than I care to admit.

Since many of us, myself included, grew up with an idea of church as an institution with meetings and programs that you invite people to for them to learn about Jesus, it can sometimes be challenging to wrap that thinking around the liquid nature of missional church.  It's much like water will take on the form of the container (or context) it finds itself in.  It falls from the sky as rain or snow; depending on the season and where you live.  It runs off into a drain, stream, or river.  Eventually, it makes its way to a lake, reservoir or ocean.  Some ends up flowing through aqueducts and pipes to houses where it comes out of a  tap into a glass, bowl, or pitcher.  From the outside it may look like the water has changed, but it's core nature is the same no matter what container it finds itself in.  In the same way, a missional vision will be consistent even as it remains flexible to the context in which it finds itself.

This difference in perspective does not mean one interpretation or the other is right or wrong.  It simply is a difference of perspective.  For the missional practitioner, the challenge is to be aware of the context in which we present our vision and adapt the language of the vision to that context.  It is also a challenge to be comfortable with others seeing change where we see a consistency.  It's simply the nature of the work we do.

Trusting The Only One Who Can Help In Times Like These

Winter has arrived in central Indiana on a level people here haven't experienced in twenty years.  The family and I enjoyed playing in the snow that kept falling through the day yesterday (nearly 12" total).  Today we will hunker down in the house while the temperatures plummet to levels we haven't seen since we left Minnesota (possibly -21 F by tomorrow morning).  As we experience the luxuries of a warm home on a frigid day, I can't help but think of the friends for whom days like this are a matter of life and death.

Saturday I spent part of the afternoon with a friend visiting those living in the allies and in tent cities around downtown Indianapolis.  We brought extra blankets with us to give them something more to bundle up in during the coldest of days.  We talked with people and encouraged them to find shelter in one of the emergency shelters the city had set up.  In the end, though, we knew we would eventually return to our homes with no idea what would happen to them during these days.

Occasions like this are times when phrases like "all we can do is pray" hit home for me.  As much as I want to serve and help others, there are limits to what I am capable of doing.  This is when I have to place my friends in the hands of God and trust that He will watch over them.  Our resources are finite, but God's resources are infinite.  So, as I go about my routine today, I will be in a constant mode of prayer for those who are in God's hands today and hope for happy reunions and stories of survival when we are reunited on the other side of this weather event.

"What If"s" for 2014

As I look ahead to what God has in store for 2014, I'm asking myself a lot of "What if?" questions about the future of our Diakonos Community (the missional community we are leading).  The answers give me a glimpse of what God can do through through our little, but growing community.

1. What if we created a faith community where those who serve people on the margins of society could gather with those being served to worship together and learn from each other?
2. What if we created a faith community where people in need were not simply seen as projects, but embraced as friends?
3. What if we created a faith community where people can wrestle fully with the implications of following Jesus without fear of being judge or having others offer them quick fixes that shortcut the work of the Holy Spirit?
4. What if we created a faith community where people didn't feel the need to impress one another with their spirituality, but could learn to live in an environment of God's grace and love as we spur one another on toward love and good deeds?

These are the goals I'm pursuing for 2014.