Learning the Kingdom

As my work schedule is in transition, I've been able to do some extra reading which has been nice. I just finished Randy Frazee's Making Room for Life and will wait to make a few posts on my take-aways from that read. But now I'm into a book by Rick McKinley, This Beautiful Mess. Rick is the pastor of Imago Dei church out in Portland, OR where some great Kingdom variety things seem to be happening. Donald Miller is from that community which made the connection for me.

But the thing that jumps out at me from the first half of this little book is a corrective angle which Rick offers regarding how we talk about the Kingdom of God. Jesus began his ministry with two simple words...repent & Kingdom. He spoke of the Kingdom being a present reality. Obviously the original Jewish audience turned out to be a bit disappointed in Jesus' version of the Kingdom. But I think we sometimes arrogantly think that 2000 years later we've got it all figured out. I think we're still missing the Kingdom almost as badly as it was missed when Jesus first announced it.

Here's what I mean...how many times have I heard (or even said myself) that we're "building the Kingdom?" Or that we play some part in "advancing" the Kingdom of God? There's a subtle but dangerous theology hidden in this language...and it's one of pride and control. It's also connected to a brand of Christianity or spirituality which is based on achievement, doing, and 'leveling up' spiritually. In reality, the Kingdom is not something to be built (it's not a pile of wood and God's the big foreman in the sky saying 'come on, help me put this thing together.') The Kingdom is a whole new dimension into which we're transferred. It's a way of being, not something to be done.

And it's messy...it's an already, but not yet Kingdom...there's a lot of tension. And most Christians don't deal well with the tension. Too many churches present some polished and clean franchised faith which doesn't allow for someone to say "Why the hell is this happening? Where's God? Why doesn't He ______ ?" I believe that's why there's such a disconnect between our culture and church experience...because for the most part, the church is living in la-la land and not providing an environment where people can be authentic, messy, and "not yet."

Choral-phoria

Having sung in many different choirs, ensembles, etc, etc...I have a great love for vocal music of just about any sort.

Last week, my in-laws treated us to an evening out on the town in Cincinnati. It began with a great meal at Benihana's, a Japanese steakhouse which promotes "an experience at every table."

The evening continued with a performance from Chanticleer in the St. Peter in Chains Cathedral downtown Cincinnati. First of all, the cathedral was a beautiful place of worship and acoustical magic. Add to that the vocal perfection of an a capella wonder machine like Chanticleer and the result is a listening experience which borders on the surreal. It was incredible.

The group is based in San Francisco, but apparently has made Cincinnati one of its annual stops (perhaps because of the amazing venue which the cathedral provides).

Well, the point is...we had a wonderful evening with the in-laws and are so blessed to be in Cincinnati surrounded by family. Of course, that doesn't mean I want to continue living in their basement....but it's great to be beneficiaries of their benevolence and presence. Actually, we're hoping to be back out on our own and planted in the Milford area of Cincinnati within a month or so.

The search for what the calling, vocation, and livelihood might look like in the near future is certainly still underway. We continue to see our new church community as an exciting and potentially missional and Kingdom-oriented gathering of Christ followers.

The Big Idea

Just finished this little book which you could probably look at in two very different ways. On the one hand, it's another "hey, look at me and my church and the way we did it" text to toss on the pile of successful church strategies.

On the other hand (which I'm claiming), it's a pretty good collection of ideas which could help a church and it's leaders really focus on what's important. One of the best things he says is in the introduction about how anemic and useless the label of "Christian" is in our culture today (the United States specifically). According to Barna, 85% claim to be Christian...but there's little to no difference in the way decisions are made or life is lived. The way I see it, the church should own up to that disparity. Because our religious institutions have done much more to prop themselves up and preserve traditions than they've done to facilitate the kind of Kingdom life transformation and discipleship which would result in a tremendous movement of Christ-followers who wouldn't tolerate the luke-warm expression of Christianity which consumes culture without discernment or condemns culture without compassion or love.

Their 'bigidea' network of churches push for developing "3 C" Christ-followers who celebrate, connect, and contribute. I like that idea because the Sunday morning event of celebration and worship should not comprise any more than 1/3 of our spiritual experience and relationship with God. It's an important component, but it's on 33% (at the most!) of the deal. Connecting is about living our the resurrected life in genuine community with a few others. Contributing is about leveraging all your resources for the Kingdom (time, energy, etc).