The Line

What does and doesn’t belong ‘in church’? And who gets to decide? Those are important questions which are sometimes fought over. And perhaps we kind find some help with an unexpected phrase: King Philip Came Over For Good Spaghetti.

You may think I accidentally capitalized all of that, but I didn’t. It’s a phrase every high school biology student needs in order to make it through their final exam. Why? Because it’s an acrostic to help remember how ‘naming’ works in biology: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species. King Philip Came Over For Good Spaghetti. Now maybe you’ll be able to remember it decades later like I just did.

As human beings, we have a ‘thing’ about drawing lines. It helps us break down our world into bite-sized chunks we can manage more easily. That’s what we’re doing with ‘kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species’. We draw 7 lines around every organism on our planet to keep track of the differences between it and everything else. What ‘kingdom’ is it – plant or animal – and then we draw the line. Inside that kingdom, what phyla is it – and then we draw that line. I’m sure you get the point.

The problem with all of this is that it’s not always easy to draw these lines even when it comes to material realities. Nobody really knows what to do with gracilarioid Algae, for example, because it seems to cross lines in a few places. How much more difficult is all of this when it comes to non-material realities (like where we draw the line around what does and doesn’t belong in church or where ‘they journey’ may begin for any particular person)?

I say all of this on my way to this acknowledgement: I know there is a difference between the thoughts we think about scripture and the thoughts we think because of scripture (and how it has changed us). There is a difference between talking about Christ and talking as a person that’s found Him. As an example a filmmaker could choose to make a film about Christ (as Mel Gibson did with The Passion of the Christ) or you could choose to make a film about life and you just happen to be a Christian. Perhaps both of these endeavors have great value – and perhaps both of them have their place in what we discuss as a community of Christ followers.

I’ve always been a fan of ‘church for the life you’re already living’ and ‘church for the stuff you’re already facing’. I love being a part of diverse communities where we share a broad range of attention, reflecting on the fact that we’re all at a different place in the journey.

All of this makes me want to challenge people about the person of Christ while I also challenge them about the kind of life He makes possible. It’s building towards the same decision from two different directions. There are conclusions which proceed from a decision about Christ and there are conclusions which draw us to the person of Christ. One starts with scripture, the other starts with life. I think taking about all of it will draw more people into the conversation. Perhaps both of them are on ‘this’ side of the line when it comes to what does and doesn’t belong in church.

Let’s build communities of Jesus-followers that are talking about the conclusions that proceed from a decision about Him as well as the conclusions that lead to Him. Think about it.

Westside’s launch Sunday is coming up on September 7th. It’s something you won’t want to miss.

I hope you can join us on Sunday or tune into the podcast through the week, and I hope you have a great weekend.

Chris

Legendary

I stepped into church as a teenager just as a ‘legendary’ youth leader was stepping out of it. Yes - I got there just in time to hear about the ‘golden years’: epic stories of really interesting people, legendary pranks on retreat weekends and conversations that lasted all the way through the night. It was neat to hear the stories – but ‘neat’ on a relatively low level because what is hearing a story as opposed to actually living it?

It’s often difficult for us to believe that our most important moment is the one we’re standing in. Sometimes right now just feels too ordinary (right now my ‘right now’ feels too ordinary to become a great Sunday message – so it’s a good thing I don’t yield to that thought).

All of this is as true of good times as it is bad because they trade places on a fairly regular basis. In good times, it’s hard for us to believe that things can ever be that good again. But we need to keep leaning into the next moment because our most important moment is the one were standing in. So we can’t be afraid to let go – really let go and take our next step. In not so good times, it can be hard for us to see our way out of it. But we need to keep leaning into the next moment because we can’t ever really know what the next one may be. It’s true. We can’t. We really can’t.

With all of this in mind as I stepped into that church (just as a legendary youth leader was stepping out of it), I decided to do more than just hear great stories. Then I found an ally willing to make that same decision, and together we found a few more willing people, and we decided to boldly live the story we were in – the best kind of story that we could make from the moments we were in… And within a year, were making our own ‘golden years’ in real time.

The best part of your story is always the part that you’re in right now because it’s where you can make the most meaning.

This Sunday, I’d like to build on all of this with a question: what have you been given?

I hope to see you there or connect through the podcast, and I hope you have a great weekend.

Chris

A Very Small Bit of “No”

John Carver is famous for describing a way to run organizations that has turned everything upside down. Normally, leaders have to ask for permission to do anything new. Then the idea is filtered painfully through one or more layers of leadership where it is in almost everyone’s interest to say ‘no’. Why? Because change represents a risk – and people don’t like taking those.

Under Carver’s model, however, leaders are given a short list of things they can’t do right from the start and everything else is left to them. It’s like saying to a leader, “Outside this short list of things you must avoid, you can do absolutely anything else that fits with the vision and values of this organization.” It’s a very refined, elegant way of saying, “Go nuts.”

Interestingly, it’s also how God set up His garden in Genesis chapters 1 through 3. He put our ancestors in the center of it and said, “Outside of these two trees which you must not touch, you can have absolutely anything and everything else in sight.” Which is also a more refined and elegant (but slightly qualified) way of saying, “Go nuts.”

Approaches like these are designed to tap our greatest creative potential because you’re not stuck always having to ask permission. Boundaries are set, permission is given and you are left to your possibilities.

It’s also something stunningly true of your whole life. You’ve been given a short list of things to avoid: things like bitterness, selfishness and a lack of self control, but apart from that, you have 7 continents, 6 billion people, 360 degrees and 70 years. And if you train your ears, then you can also pick up a still small voice in the background which is whispering, ‘Go nuts.’

All of this is something I’d like to pursue further on Sunday August 24th with the question, “What have you been given?” Join us for coffee before either of our Sunday celebrations or tune into the podcast through the week.

Chris

Fully Physically Present

I’m on a quest. I want to find a way to enjoy a moment for it’s own sake as often as I can. You could call it being ‘fully physically present’: fully occupying the moment you’re standing in undistracted, undivided, and undiminished (giving it your full attention).




All of this comes from the realization that my mind has been about a decade away from my body at any given moment over the past many years. It’s been ten years deeper into the life I wished I was living and ten years further away from all the things I fear or regret. That’s one of our tricks: our mind has the ability to stretch far into the past and far into the future and then distract us with what we see. It helps us forecast and plan ahead and it can also become an escape.

Stimulation can be a problem, too. It’s natural for us to want all our moments to be intense in a satisfying way (something great to look at, talk about, participate in or in some way ‘enjoy’). But not all our life’s moments will be intense (nor should they be) and ‘intensity’ is only one kind of life-state (of many). So perhaps the mad scramble to keep the intensity up is a way of ‘self doping’. Perhaps it keeps us from ever fully occupying the moment we’re standing in undistracted, undivided, and undiminished.

I’m on a quest to be fully physically present.

Paul writes about a secret in Philippians 4:11. He says, “for I have learned the secret of how to get along happily whether I have much or little.” It’s something I’ve often been challenged to try to understand and I think it has something (perhaps a lot) to do with being able to accept a moment for it’s own sake… Undistracted, undivided, undiminished.

Are you developing the ability to enter into any of the many kinds of life-moments? Can you enjoy them for their own sake?

Have a great weekend,

Chris