wonders and reflections in God's presence

Shae’s comments on Brian’s A Generous Orthodoxy about orthodoxy and orthopraxy reminded me of what I read in Marcus Borg’s The Heart of Christianity about the meaning of faith.  If I can put it simply … he said that christianity is as much (or more so) about the way of Christ as it is about intellectually affirming certain beliefs about Christ.  It is more about practice than belief.  It is more about where we place our heart than about what we think in our mind (though, hear me and Borg clearly … our mind matters, our thoughts and understanding matters … we just need to be careful that our thoughts are not separate from our heart and our actions.)

Too many people are too concerned with what we believe … do we believe homosexuality is a sin, for instance … than in how we live and act and have our being.  My faith is not about affirming one set of doctrines over another, but in trying my best to conform my life and my ways to the way and life of Christ.  And by understanding the truth of all of the many strands of Christianity, we get the benefit of all of those perspectives on the one Christ.

Shae, I’m in the final chapters of A Generous Orthodoxy … and I have to say that it’s great to hear all the different nuances of faith that have a real impact on how we live ours. 

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More Ready Than You Realize: Evangelism as Dance in the Postmodern Matrix
Brian McLaren
Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 2002

How many of us have come to believe the old adage that it’s not polite to talk about religion or politics? By contrast, Brian McLaren writes in the introduction to his book, More Ready Than You Realize, “…most people want to talk about things that really matter – their sense of God, their experiences of meaning or transcendence, their attempts to cope with their own mortality, their struggles with guilt and goodness, their dreams and hopes and deepest longings. They want to talk about these things because without them, all that is left in life is reruns and shopping, copulation and digestion, earning and spending and saving, culminating in estate sales and probate.”

Evangelism has gotten a bad name over the years because it has been done so non-Christ-like. We can all tell stories of people who tried to “evangelize” us at one time or another – when we were under-valued, judged, manipulated, argued with, and seen as nothing more than a possible convert. Of course, this deserves a bad name – it’s not at all the way Jesus influenced people. Jesus was about relationship building and serving others. McLaren says, “Good evangelism is the process of being friendly without discrimination and influencing all of one’s friends toward better living, through good deeds and good conversation.” He says this type of evangelism in the style of Jesus “flows like a dance.” In this book we get to experience one of those dances.

More Ready Than You Realize is the record of Brian’s conversations with one young woman called Alice. She was the harpist hired by the bookstore for one of his book signings. Because he offered her help in lifting her harp into her vehicle after the event, they began a series of conversations both in person and by email. This book looks at how that friendship developed as they dealt with deep spiritual issues, questions, etc. by using the actual emails gleaned from the conversation. Not only do we get to witness a young woman come to faith, but McLaren effectively analyzes the conversation in light of postmodern culture and understanding.

“If you have grown up with the Bible, you have no idea how difficult the book can be fore the uninitiated – until you enter a spiritual friendship with someone like Alice.” One of the greatest benefits of entering into an evangelism dance with someone is not in watching them come to Christ, but in the additional insight they can bring to your faith. Time and time again, Alice would ask questions which would scare us off, if we thought our role was to get the right answer. But as long as we are intentionally involved in a growing relationship with Christ ourselves, the best answer is our most honest answer. God will use our vulnerability and our searching to bring us both closer to Christ.

This book is easy to read. Brian writes with a very honest, refreshing style, that is easy to understand. Being a witness to his spiritual dance with Alice can empower you to enter into a spiritual conversation of your own with someone God has placed in your life. This book is good not only for personal reading, but it can be used by small groups and Sunday school classes as well.

And, as an added gift, Brian offers a 7 session Bible study on Matthew 28:16-20 – those verses we’ve come to know as the Great Commission – in appendix 1. The Bible Study alone is worth the price of the book.

I was elated, after reading this book a few years ago, to actually meet “Alice” at the Emergent Convention in Nashville last month and to hear her striking and inspiring music. Brian McLaren was also very excited to share with us that she is now attending seminary. It’s nice to know that “Alice” is not a composite or fantasy, that their conversation and friendship is real, and that God is continuing to call them both closer to him and deeper into ministry.

Originally published in Connections, a publication of the Presbytery of New Covenant, Summer 2005

Occasionally I read a book which excites me – inspires me – and compels me to drive others crazy talking about it.  Last year is was Hilary Clinton’s autobiography.  My family affectionately advised me that if I told them one more story about the Clintons, they’d disown me.  This year it’s Dee Hock’s account of the birth of VISA International called Birth of the Chaordic Age.

Perhaps you’ve noticed; these days I cannot enter into a conversation about the church and its future without at least mentioning the book once.  More likely, I end up buying you copy.  Why this fascination with VISA and its founder, Hock?  Because, I believe the church can relate to the challenges Hock faced as he successfully transformed the banking industry, and, more importantly, we can learn from his techniques, theories, failures and successes.

When asked by the National Bank of Commerce to head up the launch of its BankAmericard franchise, Hock had no idea of the depth of innovation he would soon be required to summon up in himself and in the people working with him.  Innovation comes only after you have a good handle on the general principles which will guide you into the future.  For Hock, it was his belief that VISA ought not to be about making money, but about the transfer of value between people and peoples of differing cultures, nations, ethnicities, etc.  Hock had a vision of the card being more than a credit card, but a transaction card.  Today VISA international is owned by 22,000 member banks, and it transfers $1.25 trillion a year across hundreds of national borders and across currencies.  In order to help move the traditional banking industry into a new world, Hock had to envision an organization which was not hierarchical, tyrannical, or highly controlled, but one he calls chaordic.  That is, a self-organizing structure in which each part is guided by the internal DNA of the whole.

Those same principles are important for leading the Church through the transformation God is calling us toward as we face a new multi-cultural, post-modern world.  For starters, we need to be absolutely clear about the principles which guide us.  You may call them your core values, or bedrock beliefs, or mission statement, or vision.  Stan Ott calls them the defining vision and defining practices of the church.  What is the ultimate goal, the reason for being church?  Find your answer to that question, live by it, and the programs and “doings” of the church will more readily birth themselves.

Hock’s book is filled with many other ideas and stories that will shed lots of light on the transformation of congregations.  Throughout the chapters he highlights “MiniMaxims” – short pithy sayings which tell challenge us to think about leadership in a new era.  Let me end with two which I think have real meaning for transformational ministry:

Only fools worship their tools. (p.44) 

Life is a gift, bearing a gift, which is the art of giving. (p.45) 

Hock, Dee. Birth of the Chaordic Age.  Berret-Koehler: San Fransisco.  1999.

Printed in the April 2005 issue of Connections, a publication of the Presbytery of New Covenant.