Ant Bridges

The end of Shark Week on the Discovery Channel this summer saddened me.  I love sharks, more than the casual Shark Week fan, so when it ended on a Saturday I was terribly saddened.  However, sitting in a hotel room outside St. Louis the Sunday after, I found myself once again watching the Discovery Channel.  It was some show about ants and normally I would have flipped right through it but for some reason I stayed on it.  These ant researchers had developed a special camera for going inside anthills in the jungle and it seemed pretty neat.  The camera was so small you could hear the ants marching.  I was amazed at the complexity of the hill.  All of the ants were protecting their queen.  All of the ants had a specific duty to carry out.  All of the ants had purpose and functioned as one giant unified thing.  It was beautiful.

As I continued watching, the narrator was talking about how some ants are actually built differently even though they are of the same species.  He said that some ants were equipped with graspers for killing prey, others for tearing apart food, and others for carrying the food back to the hill; in this case they had killed a spider and a scorpion.  As the ants marched out of the hill they came upon a separation between the branch they were walking upon and a rock.  The gap was probably about two inches wide.  Instead of climbing down and walking around the rock, certain ants crawled to the bottom of the gap while other ants got on top of them.  The ants were building a bridge - a bridge of ants. The ants on the attack would literally walk on top of the other ants to safely arrive on the rock. I saw one ant stretch his entire body out, his front leg on one side and his far back leg on another side, as multiple ants crawled over him.  It looked like a kid pulling legs off of an ant the way he was so stretched out.  It was beautiful.

I always assume that there is a lesson to be learned in just about everything, especially the animal kingdom.  Sometimes I think God made animals to remind us that we are above them, smarter and wittier, yet they show us things that baffle us beyond explanation and confuse us with things science cannot explain.  I felt this way about the ants: No one is in the hill barking out orders.  No ants get out of line and do their own thing.  They just create this beautiful existence in unity as if it were the natural thing to do.  Community is a natural part of life.

I couldn’t help but relate the community of ants to the Church.  The Church, as in God’s people working together as one just as Jesus prayed we would, the Church that exists only in millions of churches worldwide.  I loved that the ants, although they were the same species and even the same family, were made differently from one another with a specific task to perform.  Looking around, no one is the same, we all have different gifts and capabilities and yet we are all the same.

Ants stretch themselves out, bend over backwards almost, just to help another cross a gap.  Some ants go out and kill the scorpion, others tear it apart, and others gather and bring in the food for the rest of them.  This painting of the Church that God intended was becoming more and more clear as the show went on.  It was beautiful. I think we have much to learn from these ants.  I think God is showing us through the tiniest of animals that community exists.  Animals who cannot speak live in community.

As the ants returned to the hill with the food some had been injured from the battles and journey.  There were ants whose specific job was to mend and to take care of the other injured ants. And the food that was brought back was shared with everyone who was hungry.  Not just the ones who had killed it, but to the nurses, to the hunters, the gatherers, the builders, the watchmen, the security guards, and most importantly the queen.

I don’t have to go into much detail about what we have to learn here.  But to bring it all home, community is taking care of each other. It’s doing what you are good at to improve the community. It’s using the gifts and talents God gave us, whether that is to go out and kick butt or to stay at the hill and guard the nest or for anything in between. God made you different and yet the same for a reason.  Community exists in the smallest of animals, why can it not exist in the Church?

So go out, lay down your body and be a bridge.  Hunt.  Mend the wounds of your neighbors and friends.  Do something, but always remember to do it for the queen…I mean King.

I’m buying an ant farm.

-Mitchell Richards

Dying Protestantism?

This is a bit of a followup post to the”Is your church producing false converts?” idea.

I thought I’d swing on over to John Piper’s blog and get his thoughts.  They are fantastic as usual:

What happened (why are we dealing with Protestantism’s death)?

“The churches’ desperate hunger to mean more in politics and economics had the perverse effect of making them less effective opponents of the political and economic pressures on the nation. They mattered more when they wanted to matter less.”

I pray that the younger evangelicals who are pondering where to put their energies will learn from history that doctrinal accommodation brings larger audiences in the short run but death and irrelevance in the long run.

And God forbid that any should say with Hezekiah: Who cares if the death comes in 80 years as long as I have crowds and influence in my day (2 Kings 20:19).

Wow, I love that quote out of 2 Kings.  If we care about crowds and political influence more than individual souls and accurate Biblical teachings, we are actually hurting the crowds who need to hear about Christ.

-Rex Barrett
image via kodama (home) 

Is your church producing false converts?

This is a heavy duty question but one that needs to be asked. Is your church producing false converts? Seeker sensitive megachurches are commissioning large scale studies to gauge their effectiveness. The answers are coming back and some church leaders are freaking out a bit. Instead of fully devoted followers of Christ, some of the reports are coming back looking more like this:

47% of those attending Granger DO NOT believe in salvation by grace.

57% of those attending Granger DO NOT believe in the authority of the Bible.

56% of those attending Granger DO NOT believe Jesus is the only way to eternal life.

You can also see the Willow Creek study in which Hybles said:

We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.

The executive pastor of Granger Church in response to the study is really honest in a recent blog post.

For example, the survey revealed that 57% of those attending Granger do not believe in the authority of the Bible. Ouch. I mentioned here that the results were jarring to us. And they were.

The knee jerk reaction is to say that Granger is a waste of space in the Christian world. It would be easy to say they are doing more harm than good by raising up disciples who believe that Jesus isn’t the way of salvation.  Tim’s blog post is very well thought out though.  He explains their philosophy of the Sunday service being geared for “the crowd” not the church. It is a great counterargument to add to the discussion.

It’s an interesting thought, but is it Biblical to bring people into a church and not function as the church?  Here is Tim’s response:

When anyone asks me, “How many are in your church?”, I typically answer this way: “That’s a good question, but there are around 5,000 who attend each weekend.” We’ve believed and taught for years that a crowd is not a church. At Granger, we build a weekend experience to draw the biggest crowd possible, because we believe that if more people hear the gospel, more people will respond. But we don’t for a minute believe that a crowd is a church. But we are leaning on Jesus AND working our butts off to turn the crowd into committed congregation of believers who are serving, giving, growing, and inviting their friends to join them on the journey.

I will cringe if the day ever comes when only the church gathers on the weekend…or when the supposed mature Christians stop inviting their friends to hear the good news…or when we have a church filled with people who ace their theology exam but flunk their practice-ology test.

Interested in your thoughts on this one for sure!

-Rex Barrett
image via thespeak 

Kamps Missional Community

I hope this Summer has been a season to step back, slow down and simplify. Christianity and the accompanying church life has become increasingly complicated. Jesus said that the essence of Christianity could be summed up in two inseparable commandments: Love God and Love Your Neighbor. Simple yet more powerful than we know. This summer we have committed to learning and living out the wonders of loving God and others simply and powerfully. Summer has been a time to rest from work and now the summer season is coming to a close and we enter into a new rhythm - a time to work from a place of rest. 

We will be getting together at KAMPs to further explore what a mid-sized Missional Community looks like on Sunday, September 7th & 14th at 5:30pm. This will be a focused dialogue on the future expression of the Mars Hill KAMPs Gathering and our growing partnership with Skyline (www.SkylineOKC.com). I encourage all those who have invested, loved and shared in this journey to attend.

The Gods Aren’t Angry (www.TheGodsArentAngry.com) by Rob Bell screening at KAMPs this Sunday, August 24th at 5:30pm.Please bring a dessert to share with the group.  Where did the first caveman or cavewoman get the idea that somebody, somewhere existed who needed to be worshipped, appeased, and followed? And how did the idea evolve that if you didn’t say, do, or offer the right things, this being would be upset, agitated, or even angry with you? Where did religion come from?

I look forward to connecting and celebrating with you on Sunday!

Thankful for each of you!

Take Care.
-Ben Nockels

Charlie Hall: The Bright Sadness

Charlie Hall released his latest album this week, “The Bright Sadness”.  Charlie has been a longtime family friend.  He and my brother Nathan began leading worship and making music together in the early 1990’s and continue to collaborate by sharing in the Passion movement (www.268Generation.com).  I hope that you will soak up the words from his website (www.CharlieHall.com) and jump on over to itunes and make the purchase.

During the season of Lent we ran across this phrase, “The Bright Sadness.” Immediately our ears perked up, as we dove into all the different meanings of these beautiful words stuck together so oddly, so oppositely. The phrase made me think and feel. It also slowly began to encompass something I had been starting to experience in my heart about my own life. Sadness, trial and the aching of this earth are not detached from the bright, resurrecting hope of God. These two ideas actually hold hands very easily and should walk together intertwined always, shamelessly. There are many awe-striking moments on this broken, beautiful planet, but there are also moments that make us feel out of control and weak.  These “out of control” moments do not detach us from God. In a deeper sense, they may even knit us to his heart and life. Christ is the brightness in every ounce of life.  He is the greatest power in this universe and will fill us to walk through every moment.

I love the church, the wife of God, the way God uses to touch the earth.  As I grew up I looked at the church as the group of people who were perfect and had it together.  I’m older now and have attempted and failed for long enough to fit into this image.  We are ordinary, broken, beautiful people who have the common ground of clinging to God daily for sustenance.  We believe in new beginnings, redemption, renovation and overcoming for ourselves, as well as those around us, because of the bright savior and teacher, Jesus and we want to offer this hope life to the world around us.

So this collection of songs is some of the spiritual journaling of my last few years.  It comes from me understanding my ordinary human condition and my deep love for Jesus and the life he brings along in Him.   I do not love and believe these things because of citizenship, my role or title in the church or because I am supposed to. I believe this because I have felt my own humanity and my need to be in touch again with my creator.  The Bright Sadness is the accepting of the brokenness in myself and in the world around me but always intertwining the overarching thought of Christ’s closeness, his free fellowship, his redemption and compassion, His Brightness.

-Ben Nockels

God’s college curriculum is odd

From a very young age I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I “grew up”.  I literally told people what I’d become whether they asked or not, I have pictures to prove it.  In one I’m laying across my teacher’s lap with a birthday crown on my head getting my birthday spankings.  On the large sheet of paper beside us my goals and dreams are written out in black fat tipped permanent marker.  “Rex wants to be a pastor and a professional baseball player”.

Well, one of the dreams came true, I’ll let you guess which one.  The path to the place of the pastorate hasn’t looked anything like it should have.  It included stops in Sulphur, Oklahoma for a less than stellar example of Christ through high school.  Next was Bible college in Dallas, Texas for once again a less than stellar example of Christ to the odd kind of Christians who even attend a charismatic Bible school.  I honestly don’t know how I ended up there. The next educational step was my Master’s Commission training in Del City, Oklahoma where I made as many friends as I did enemies in that two semester stretch.

If my life were up to me I could have masterplanned that sucker and ended up only doing things I felt were relevant to the future church in which I’d be serving.  Instead my life looked like this: Times as an ER sign language translator, a telemarketer, a mover for Best Way, a 700 Club phone counselor, janitor, middle school teacher, high school teacher, youth pastor, and college ministry director (there are several more I’m forgetting, I’m sure).  I’m 32 years old now and haven’t been the lead pastor of any congregation yet, but that is okay!  The church plant we’re a part of is in the infant phases and I couldn’t be happier with the steps God’s had me take.

I say all of that to say, the path I ended up on sure doesn’t look like the quickest route from Point A to Point B.  The path took me into places I never would have masterplanned into my life if I had designed it myself.  Instead I got an education in life that is helping me more than my Bible college degree as we are planting this church.

My friend Ben Nockels beautifully said it like this:

That’s why I believe we cannot and do not masterplan life, church, etc. We don’t ask the question, ”where are we going” but rather ”what are we hoping for”. The ”where” question is all about a specific point of destination with a precise model to take us there. The ”what” question is about moving toward a horizon in the distance. It’s not about ABC steps or philosophies but about living fully and responding obediently.

-Rex Barrett
image via Fort Photo

The End of the Age, Part 2

After the disciples heard the incredible news that Jesus told them, they wanted some signs leading up to the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem. Jesus proceeded to tell them about wars, earthquakes, famines and troubles that were going to take place (6). When modern readers look at these warning signs, they immediately apply them to themselves as “signs of the times.” They overlook the fact that Jesus was answering the disciples regarding a specific question about a specific event in history that, historically, has already occurred. After all, the destruction of the temple and the invasion of Jerusalem in 70 AD did occur within a generation (40 years) as was prophesied.

Jesus tells his disciples that they will go through tribulation, they will be put to death, they will be hated, but that those who endure will be saved (7). The rest of the New Testament attests to the persecution of the early church. So, it makes sense that Jesus would address His disciples and not some future generation thousands of years later.

Next, Jesus tells his followers how they can avoid this tribulation. He told them that when they see these terrible things happen… to flee! (8) For historical reference, walled cities were the best place to be during war time as they were the most secure. For that reason Jerusalem was busting at the seams with Jews who assumed it was safer there during the Roman invasion. So, what Jesus tells his disciples is counter intuitive. However, it saved their lives! Unfortunately for those who didn’t heed Jesus’ words, 1.1 million Jews were killed in the invasion of Jerusalem. Jesus was protecting the all-important early church by telling them to flee the false security of the city.

Now this is where it gets crazy…

Next, Jesus tells the disciples about cosmic disturbances that will take place. The sun, moon and stars are to be shaken and the Son of Man is to be seen coming in clouds. (9) Up to this point, Jesus’ prophecy was looking good! Jesus was dead on with the destruction of the temple and invasion of Jerusalem. But now he’s talking about cosmic things happening and the Son of Man coming in clouds. He was doing so well!

Fear not! This is where we get to dig into the Word!

To interpret scripture properly, we should not rely on the latest commentator or pastor or series of end times books. And we certainly should not give up. We should rely on scripture. And scripture always interprets scripture!

So, what is Jesus saying when he prophesies that the sun will be darkened and the moon will become blood and the stars will not give their light? What does the sign of the Son of Man coming on clouds mean? The key is to look up other moon/blood/stars references or Son of Man/clouds references anywhere else in Scripture. If we find other occurrences of the same idea in another portion of Scripture, that passage may shed light on this passage. And when we do that we see that these cosmic references are rooted in Old Testament prophecy. Of course Jesus, the ultimate prophet, would use prophecy in the same style of the prophets that preceded Him.

This was eye-opening to me. Here are some great examples…

Isaiah received a prophecy from God regarding the destruction of Babylon. Immediately a parallel can be drawn because both Jesus’ prophecy and Isaiah’s is about the destruction of a city. Now, the destruction of Babylon was a real, historic event about which was prophesied in Isaiah 13. “The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.” “Wail, for the day of the Lord is near.” “Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger.” “For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.” “Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place.” (10)

Already, we see some similarities in style and content between the destruction of Babylon as given by Isaiah and the destruction of Jerusalem as given by Jesus.

Here’s another prophetic judgment from Joel which says “For the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as destruction from the almighty.” “A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over mountains.” “The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble; the sun and moon grow dark, and the stars diminish their brightness.” (11)

Again, similar patterns.

Finally, Ezekiel prophesies destruction in Egypt when he says, “For the day is near, even the day of the Lord is near, it will be a day of clouds…” (12) And in one of the most explicit uses of the word “coming” in reference to judgment, the Lord comes in clouds in Isaiah 19:1 to Egypt: “Behold, the Lord rides on a swift cloud, and will come into Egypt.”

Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel and many other prophets used this same fantastic literary style in reference to real world judgments that already took place. So, if this type of imagery is used in events that already took place and nobody noticed the sun ACTUALLY turn dark or the moon ACTUALLY turn to blood, then what happened? We are to understand that stylistically, this is the way prophetic judgments were given in all their wonderful, sometimes scary, power poetry!

Why use that type of language in the first place? All these awesome elements are poetic expressions and earthy anthropomorphisms of God’s beautiful power. This type of literary style is one that is not very well understood in our culture of hard facts, rigid scientism and a general lack of creativity.

While we may not use quite a varied literary style nowadays, we do have some examples of exaggeration that are still used in common parlance. “Everyone is getting in trouble today!” “Whew, its raining cats and dogs!” I’m sure you can think of others. As far as the sun, moon and stars darkening, even today we may say today something like, “The quarterback is out for the season, DARK DAYS are ahead for the team!”

So, you see, these types of literary hyperbole become much more understandable 1) in light of Scripture and 2) in light of the fact that we use the same types of hyperbole in OUR everyday speech. We would be wise to allow Jesus and the prophets preceding Him the same courtesy.

Now, back to Jesus. When the ULTIMATE prophet is prophesying the judgment and destruction of Jerusalem, He would OF COURSE use language that his readers would be familiar with and OF COURSE follow the established pattern of previous prophets. That means we need to be intimately familiar with the Old Testament. Unfortunately, modern day readers aren’t nearly as familiar with the style of the Old Testament literature as Jesus’ hearers were.

So, what does this mean for us today? Our viewpoint on the end directly affects our presuppositions regarding the Kingdom of God.

Tune in for the third and final piece of the puzzle soon.

-Luke Barrett
image via code poet

6. Matthew 24:6-7
7. Matthew 24:9-13
8. Matthew 24:15
9. Matthew 24:29-30
10. Isaiah 13:1,6,9,10, 13
11. Joel 2:1,2,10
12. Ezekiel 30:3-4

Serving a community is a lifestyle

Social justice issues are all the rage right now.  All the cool kids are doing it.  I’m pray we are not dealing with a fad!  With more and more people feeling the call to social justice, here is a warning:

Serving a community isn’t an event it is a lifestyle.

Sometimes the lifestyle isn’t pretty and sometimes you will go to sleep with tear stained cheeks because of the pain you will see, but your help is NECESSARY.  Get involved today.

-Rex Barrett

I read quite a bit…

I read quite a bit.

You?

My reading adventures really began in 2002 after reading Tim Sanders (www.TimSanders.com) book, “Love Is The Killer App:  How To Win Business and Influence Friends“.  Tim’s advice is to become a “lovecat”.  It starts with amassing as much usable knowledge as possible.  It follows with an emphasis on networking to the extreme.  And he concludes by advocating a true mindset of compassion.

We have three things to offer the world:  Knowledge, Network & Compassion.

I made a very purposed decision at the age of 23 to be a person who dispenses and shares my compassion, my network of relationship and my knowledge.  The beauty is that each of these three elements can grow and increase.  We can share and give them away in expanding proportions.  As I think back on that decision this morning as a write, I am realizing just how much I have been shaped by and have actually lived out this practice.  These three things sum up much of my existence in life in ministry and otherwise.  I’m a lover of people.  I’m a connector of people.  I’m a dispenser of information.

So, here begins a series of information dispensing posts beginning with the BIG ideas contained in Doug Pagitt’s latest book, “A Christianity Worth Believing:  Hope-Filled, Open-Armed, Alive-And-Well Faith For The Left Out, Left Behind, and Let Down In Us All.”

Chapter One - Confessions of and Adopted Son

-  “I grew up in a family of intentional non-churchgoers.  There was a church on nearly every corner that we didn’t go to on purpose.”

-  “Christianity doesn’t make a very good religion. Christianity is not a faith of conservation and preservation.  It is a faith of creation, participation, movement, and change.  For conservation to happen, something needs to be stopped.  Something needs to be limited.  Something needs to be ignored.  And too often that something is the unstoppable, unlimited, impossible-to-ignore activity of God at work in the world.”

-  “I believe that living in the way of Jesus is the way humanity will embrace peace, justice, mercy, compassion and love.”

-  “I believe in a Christianity where nothing is left out and no one is left behind, where humanity participates with God in the redemption of the world; where sin is more than a legal problem to be judged but a relational problem that can be healed; where we pursue harmony, centered on Jesus the Messiah, the Jew, whose life, death, and resurrection allow us to live well with God; where the Bible draws us into a story of life and healing; where we find hope for this life and life ever after; where love is alive, where love drives out fear, where love propels us toward lives lived for the betterment of all the world.”

-Ben Nockels

The transforming church, Part 2

In part one of the series we discussed a transformation happening in the American Church. “It isn’t about listening to a guy speak; it’s about a life of action. Living the life God created you to live using the talents he blessed you with and the skills that come easier to you than to most.”

Today, we’ll focus on personal responsibility in this transformation.

Max Lucado shares this thought on “living in the sweet spot.”

Golfers understand the term. So do tennis players. Ever swung a baseball bat or paddled a Ping-Pong ball. You know that great feeling when you make contact with just the right part of the paddle or bat. You can really feel it, compared to hitting a baseball and missing the sweet spot; it will ding your hands and feels horrible.

God has a great plan for your life and wants you to live your life in the sweet spot too! So many times we make choices to live outside this great zone. You realize what engineers give sports equipment, God gave you. It’s a zone, a region, a life precinct in which you were made to dwell.

1 Corinthians 12:7
Each person is given something to do that shows who God is. (MSG)

A couple of years ago I went on a missions trip to Nicaragua with several college students, we were building an orphanage. We had to knock down walls, build walls up, mix cement, do the plumbing and build the basketball court and play area.  We didn’t know all of each others talents. We just knew we wanted to help these children living in complete poverty and loss. As we began to work on this project we asked each other these questions, “What do you do well?” and “What do you enjoy doing?” When we arrived to the location some people became the heavy lifters, some became project managers, one girl became the bodega boss because of her ability to organize, another of the guys did plumbing and so of course he ran that project.

Do you realize that God is building his kingdom? His spiritual house, his place for all of His sons and daughters. Just as all of us had our key tasks during this project, He entrusted all of us in the Kingdom of God with key tasks that are important to the building of His Kingdom!

1 Peter 4:11
If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.

When God gives you an assignment, he also gives you the skill. We need to study our skills then to reveal our assignments.

What does all this come together to mean? I think it changes the very look of what “going to church” is. This is a good thing.

I recently read an article linked from Catalyst, here are my thoughts on some of the points:

1. The church will have to be redefined

Church will no longer be the place to go to find out what you should be doing, you’ll come together to express what we all ARE doing. We’re not there to fulfill the dreams of the pastor, but there to pitch in our skills to reveal our assignments.

Church won’t be a place we go, it will be the people we are connected to. The primary thing, which is the worship service, will become secondary to ministry during the week. Church buildings will have to be repurposed into community centers and outreach hubs.

2. Church operations will be restructured

Because of rising costs and a widening of the poverty gap churches will be smaller, own less and spend less money on things that aren’t the necessities. Huge amounts of money are going to have to go to direct relief for feeding, shelters, clothing, job training, etc… The pastoral staff will have to be more community focused as all of this takes time and less church program focused because the new programs are simple, help people!

3. Repackaging of sermons and Christian education
Fewer people are going to be willing to do the “drive to church” thing on a Sunday. We’ll have to be creative in connecting with each other through calls, internet and REAL community that gets deep and talks issues.  We’re going to have to be willing to study scripture and get with others doing the same thing.

What are your thoughts on the future of The Church? How about the future of your church?

-Rex Barrett

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