Know The Song!

I recently heard a worship song leader introduce the song "Glorious Day" like this; she said something like, "Even though it's cloudy outside and it looks like it might rain, we are trusting God to move away the clouds so that we can have a great church picnic this afternoon. Let's sing together, trusting that it will be a 'Glorious Day'!"
After I picked my jaw up off the floor and got over my rage that such a great song would be misused like this, I engaged with the truth of the lyrics being sung:
"Living, He loved me
Dying, He saved me
Buried, He carried my sins far away
Rising, He justified freely forever
One day He's coming, oh glorious day!"

Nothing about sunshine, rain, clouds, or church picnics in there at all. I wonder if the song leader was simply trying to make an announcement along with the song intro, or if she really thinks that the song is about God making every day a 'glorious day'. Regardless, she led me as part of the congregation she has the role and responsibility to lead into worship, rather into confusion.
A worship song leader should know the song he or she is having the congregation sing! Many songs are quite popular but have bad theology (a few come to mind, but I won't list them for the sake of brevity). Others are simply confusing. But if a song leader is asking the congregation to sing it in a worship setting, she should at least try to unpack some of what the song is singing. Take the song "Hosanna" by Brooke Fraser for example. Is this a praise song? A song of surrender? Of prophecy? A song declaring eschatological beliefs? An encouragement or hope or prayer? Yes, all of the above. I think it's tricky leading this song. Where do you go with it? On the occasions I have led this song (which have been many) I try to emphasize a part of it - the prophecy part ("I see a generation..") or the eschatology part ("coming on the clouds with fire...") or the surrender part ("break my heart for what breaks yours...") or the praise part ("Hosanna in the highest"). I resist the urge to give a 15 minute explanation of how these themes fit together, but I do try to lead the congregation to understand a part of what the song is trying to say and, of course, how that fits into the themes of the particular service or gathering.
I remember the first time I was stirred by singing a worship song. The song was "Faithful One" by Brian Doerksen, and the song leader had us imagine ourselves on a boat crashing on the waves, and when somebody drops the anchor even though the storm still rages, the boat stays still. I sang out "Your love is the anchor" with tears streaming down my face because both Brian Doerksen and the song leader had made that truth come alive to me.
Song leaders, know the song you're leading! Do your homework. What themes does it explore? How will it fit into your gathering? How will it flow? How can you introduce it? Will you have to explain something? How will your music emphasize a particular phrase? Get accustomed to singing it yourself, and feel the emotions of the truth it conveys.
Otherwise, stop singing it. You're doing nobody any favours by performing a popular song "just because".

Mountain-Top

All roads lead to the top of the mountain, and it's arrogant to believe that one does and another doesn't.

That's what some authors and celebs endorsing 'New Spirituality' want us to think. Oprah, Deepak, Ekhart and others look down on me and other 'one way' Christians with distain because we believe in the words of Jesus, "I am the way" (John 14:6). To them, Jesus is a way up the mountain to get to God, heaven, nirvana, happiness, fulfillment, what have you. My belief is narrow and antiquated in our day of tolerance and agreement between religions. Their view is accepting and accommodating toward everyone, treating all people and religions with equal dignity.
But that's not true.

In attempt to become accommodating, what they're doing is throwing daggers at everybody. Christians, Jews and Muslims each have, wrapped up fundamentally in their beliefs, the doctrine that they're right and the others are wrong. For these 'new spiritualists' to say that everybody's right is to knock the legs right out from under these faiths. Since they can't say that Jews, Muslims and Christians are equally right, what they're saying is that we're equally wrong and that THEY'RE right. They're buying in to the same arrogance they accuse us of. At least, as a Christian, I am honest about my ideological exclusivity. These people promote 'unity' by condemning anyone who doesn't agree with them. They don't offer unity, but rather another method of separation.

'All roads lead to the top of the mountain'. Says who? How can we trust that what Oprah says is true? Has she had a message from an Objective Source? Is she claiming to be that Objective Source? What I'm asking is, has Oprah seen the mountain and the mountain top, or is she simply assuming that she knows better than other promoters of exclusive ideologies, her fellow sojourners? Admittedly, Oprah, Deepak and Ekhart are fellow sojourners, not gods but 'blind guides'.

Knowing the mountain, the mountain top, and where the various roads dead-end (or don't) requires an objective point of view - one that we humbly lack as humans. We are at the mercy of One Who can tell us and lead us to the mountain top, Who can help us avoid the pitfalls and traps, Who can give us direction to the top. As a Christian, I believe that One is Jesus Christ Who, as God, has the whole mountain view. He invites us, 'Do you want to be reconciled with the Father? Then come through me. No other path will bring you all the way in - I am the way'.
Now the Muslim and the Jew - they have their paths. Will those paths lead to God? No. They'll lead them to other gods, doomed to destruction. But the invitation is to the Muslim and Jew as well, to Oprah, Ekhart, Deepak and you - come to God and be reconciled to Him through Jesus. There's no other way to the mountain top, but thank God that there IS a way!

Missional : Kindness?

I was recently asked, "when you say 'missional', do you really mean 'servant evangelism'?"

Now, I'm no stranger to servant evangelism. Steve Sjogren, the grand poo-bah of that stuff is as familiar a name to me as any treasured Christian writer. I've been following his work for over a decade. I was introduced to "Conspiracy of Kindness" back in 1998, when Pat Bjurling, the youth pastor at Christian Life Assembly where I was the youth intern, took out our youth group under the influence of Sjogren (I always thought there was a connection in their names; Bjurling and Sjogren) to one of the communities near our church to hand out packets of seeds, and to tell our neighbours that we were simply "showing God's love (for them) in a practical way".

Textbook Servant Evangelism.

I loved it. For me, it took off. At my first official post as youth pastor in Winnipeg, I took kids out at Hallowe'en to give out lightbulbs, showing that Jesus is the Light of the World (but what we said is, "to show God's love in a practical way" - don't want to divert from excellence!). Later, when my ministry took us to North Delta, I started a festival called "Explosion", which was termed "an Explosion of Kindness" in the local paper. The whole premise was a week of worship and servant evangelism (or simply, 'worship and service in our community'). Explosion grew 100% in year two, bringing in 25 youth to take part, and it hasn't stopped in the six years since I left North Delta.

Yes, when I think of missionality, I do tend to think 'servant evangelism'. But yes, I know that there's more to being missional than handing out seeds and light bulbs, painting houses and picking litter.

'Missional', I think, is more of an attitude. It's an awareness that just like those sent to the Philippines or Samoa (or even somewhere less exotic), those of us who live 'normal' lives here in Canada can and (if we're Christian) SHOULD be intentional about our mission, which is Jesus' mission: to seek and save the lost.

Living missionally means intentionality in relationships. Yes, we need to be careful here that relationships aren't JUST about conversions. The way I see it, Jesus was intentional about His relationships - who He spent time with, and why. Yet not everyone He spent time with chose to follow Him. Neither will those He brings into our lives. Our job is to love them, to care for them, to show them God's love in practical, and intangible, ways.

Missional living ALSO means intentional action. This gets a lot of criticism, even from people I admire. They say that if missional living becomes a service event, then it ceases to be a lifestyle. Well, I guess you could say that the same threat exists for worship. Worship, like missionality, is meant to be a 24-7, everyday life attitude, yet most Christians say that worship is an event, what happens before the sermon on Sundays. Sad, yes. But I'm not sure many would argue that we need to stop 'worshiping' on Sundays so that a worship lifestyle could be cultivated (note: Soul Survivor kind of did this for a season and it seemed to work out for Matt Redman...). Social Kindness events can be a conduit through which missionality is practiced, exercised, and encouraged, but no it isn't the be-all and end-all of what missional living is. That is, however, an important distinction to make.

Yes, a week of servant evangelism/social kindness/whatever is coming up with Access Church. Please stay tuned for more information. If you're into missionality but not into a week of serving others, by all means stay home. But if you want to bless the community of Aldergrove by showing God's love in practical ways, then we invite you to be involved with us.

We've received so much, so freely; that's why we're giving it away freely.

Access Mission Week

Please take note of the absence of the plural 's' following the word 'Mission'. This is NOT a 'Missions Week' like the sort that have become run-of-the-mill in many missions-oriented churches (God bless them!). We will NOT be standing up missionaries to foreign lands, night after night, hearing over potluck cream pie and bad coffee stories of orphaned children, slim getaways, and miraculous healings (as cool as those stories sometimes are!).
MISSION Week instead is a week of mission. I've been thinking of this for a while, and struggling with it.
Access Church NEEDS TO BE a 'Missional' church. We can't exist unless we are one. But how do we establish that ethos, that core value, that DNA right from the get-go. The threat, or the really good reason NOT to do a "Mission Week" can be read about here. Basically, mission becomes an event rather than a lifestyle. I understand that threat, and I get those who would criticize Access Church as being another event-driven-quasi-missional-but-really-not-so-much church plant.
My argument, however, is that to BECOME a missional community, we need to invite people to MISSION, not to some worship service program. Whatever we invite people to, however we start out as a church plant, is what will continue to mark us for years to come. Whatever we invite people to WILL HAVE TO BE AN EVENT - otherwise, what could it be?
"Hey do you want to come get involved in my church with me?"
"Sure... how?"
"well, we're really missional, which means intentionally loving people the way Jesus does, so uh... yeah..."
"okay, so how could I get involved?"
"well, yeah.. you could start by um... praying for .... uh, the people you work with..."
"okay, so how is that getting involved with your church?"
"um, well you'll be doing the same things we're... um I mean I'M... doing, and that's sort of like being involved.... ya gotta understand we're MISSIONAL, not ATTRACTIONAL, so we don't really have anything we're calling people to..."

I gotta be honest with you... whether you're trying to reach Christians or non-Christians, that's a really difficult way to start a church.

So, it's important, no ESSENTIAL, to have something to invite people to. The question is, 'what?' Most churches start with a worship service, build a group of people, who they then plan to take on mission in their community (ok, some churches don't have a grasp of mission, but I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt). That's OK. In fact, that's what we've been trying to do. And in a way, we'll continue to do something like that.

But what if the MISSION exists before the worship service? What if we start by bringing together people who really want to impact the people of Aldergrove, start by practically serving our town, and from there build worship and discipleship times?

So, there's where I get the dream of Access Mission Week. We can call people in Aldergrove to a week of loving others, serving others, giving freely as we've received freely, showing God's love in practical ways. We'll organize projects, like free car washes, litter pickup around the town, lawn mowing, dog walking, babysitting, yard cleanup, business exterior scraping and repainting... We'll make the name Access Church first synonymous with caring for the community, then associate it with FAITH, MISSION, and COMMUNITY.

When? I don't know yet. Who? People in Aldergrove, and hopefully Mission Teams (again, no 's') from other places. Am I crazy? Probably. Stay tuned for more information.

Where Two Or More Are Gathered? Or more than that?

Over 8 years ago in springtime 2001 I joined 22 of my best friends on a two-week houseboat trip on Shuswap Lake.  It was a great time of young adults hanging out together, partying all night on the deck, sleeping away the hot days, watching movies piled up on top of each other on a single couch, playing card games, praying and worshiping, just doing life together for two weeks.  We decided on the last night to do communion together, so we got the bread and wine out, I said a few words about 'where two or more are gathered', together we are a church, and we partook.

Now, there's nothing wrong with that.  It's one of the greatest experiences of my life, and I'm so glad for the memories - both of the trip and of that communion experiences.  But was it 'church' that we were experiencing on that boat?

I've been reading a book that seems to agree with the 'where two or more are gathered' concept.  Like many other books in the genre, it alludes to 'doing church differently', explaining that after all, church is simply a getting-together of Christians.  It could be at a bar, on the beach, in a boat, at a warehouse, wherever.  As long as somebody says "Jesus" in a non-expletive way.  But is that true?  What is it that makes a church?  Is 'church' a gathering or a meeting at all?  These are, of course, questions that have been running through my head, things that I have to have solid answers for as I'm embarking on this church planting venture.

First, and most importantly, no I don't believe that church happens just 'where two or more are gathered'.  I DO believe that a special manifestation of the presence of Jesus is present where two Christians gather in His Name, but the context of the verse referred to, "where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them" (Matthew 18:20) is how to properly deal with a brother who sins against you.  Where two or three agree in Jesus about how to deal in love with a sinning brother, He gives His blessing.

Although this has implications FOR the church, it has nothing to do about DOING church.  I wish people would stop proof-texting what they WANT the Bible to say, and start doing according to what it DOES say.

So what does the Bible say about church?  First of all, Jesus established church as His own.  He told His disciples, "I will build my church" (Matthew 16:18) upon Peter's confession that Jesus is "the Christ, the Son of the Living God" (Matthew 16:16).  The church is Jesus'.  It belongs to Him.  It's not 'my church' that I'm planting, it's Jesus'.  He cares about it and for it more than I ever could.  It's His body on the earth (Colossians 1:24) and His bride into eternity (Revelation 19:7-9).  And the rock that it's built on is the confession of Peter, which was revealed to Him by God (Matthew 16:17).  God is building the foundation of the church in the lives of believers.

In a real sense, the church IS the people.  We don't GO to church, we ARE the church.  Whether we're gathered or scattered, we are Jesus' church as we keep the confession that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

But how can we BE the church, and specifically, do we NEED to BE the church gathered?  What is the benefit of that, and how should it happen?  To start, we read in Hebrews 10:25, "let us not give up meeting together".  The immediate context tells us why - so that we can encourage one another, spur one another on to love and good deeds, warn one another against sinning, remind one another of the great love of God and how we responded to it at first, and to remind one another of the Gospel.

Some people have told me that while they are still Christians, they have rejected the church.  The New Testament Church doesn't exist anymore, they argue.  What was the New Testament Church, I ask. They respond with Acts 2:42-47, which says that the earliest believers "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer... All the believers were together... they continued to meet together... the Lord added to their number".  It says nothing about 'true Christians' leaving the fellowship in search of something better.  So these frustrated Christians abandon the modern-day expression of church in order to engage in something that looks less like church than anything in Scripture - non-attendance.  Blogging.  Talking theology over a beer or a coke.  Leading somebody to a Christ without a bride.

Instead, we need to look at what the earliest Christians did and why, and how we can relate those principles into our own cultural situation.  They 'devoted themselves to the apostles teaching' - our churches must be places where Scripture is taught.  The Apostles' teaching is available to us by the miraculous preservation of their words in Scripture.  At some 'churches', Scripture is not preached.  It might be referred to, but not preached, not taught, not 'unpacked' or opened up.  At others, the pastor deems himself to have the wise and life-changing words and instead of Scripture, they exclusively preach their own special revelation, or tips for a happy marriage, or what their family was up to this week. Where and when church happens, Scripture and the Gospel is taught and preached.  Secondly, they devoted themselves to fellowship - devoted, like committed.  It is a group of people who are committed to one another, to gather together, to fellowship with one another.  Third, they devoted themselves to 'breaking of bread' as Jesus had demonstrated the night He was betrayed.  They shared communion together, and the church has not stopped since.  Church is where communion is experienced.  Finally, they devoted themselves to prayer.  Church is where people pray.  I had a conversation with friends about the responsibility for the church to be a place/gathering of corporate prayer.  It shows in what we call "worship time", in "family time", in "ministry of the Holy Spirit time".  It disarms me that so many 'mature Christians' are disengaged during times of prayer, and fully engaged during times of teaching.  But I digress.

We go on to read in Acts 2 how all the believers were together, they continued to meet together, and the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.  We read that 'wonders and signs were being done by the apostles' and that people were 'selling their possessions and goods, and they gave to anyone who had need'.  These are the outworkings of a church that preaches Scripture, experiences communion, and prays, committed to one another and to meeting together.  That's what I'm looking to start up in Aldergrove.

Nothing's wrong with blogging (I hope!).  Nothing's wrong with talking about theology over a beer (I know!).  The Church is very much INvisible, but the Church is also visible.  Somebody made the remark that while the visible Church (that which society sees) isn't made entirely of the true (invisible) Church, the invisible Church IS entirely part of the visible Church.  That means that if a person is a part of Jesus' Church, His body, His future bride, that person needs to identify with an expression of a church here and now.

There's so much more to say about this.  What about the church scattered - that is, outside of regular meetings?  What about small groups, care groups, home groups, accountability groups, evangelism, outreach, mid-sized communities, clusters, and a whole assortment of other ways of 'doing church'?  Maybe I'll write about those later.  But this I firmly believe - what I wrote here about proclaiming Scripture and Gospel, praying, and communion... those need to be foundational to what it means to be church.