Category Archives: Body Design

Body Design

Paradigm Shift

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From Point “B” to Point “P”. I read an interesting article the other day and it had a very descriptive image for my own journey.

A “paradigm shift” of historic and biblical proportions is under way as the shaking of the old gives way to the rise of the new. There is both good news and “bad” news in this new paradigm shift that God is now bringing about. The good news is that God is moving, raising up new paradigms to accomplish His Kingdom purposes, and He invites us to move with Him. The “bad” news is that not everyone who “should” move will move.

I feel Julie and I just beginning to climb out to the Point +1 stage right now but are very excited about what God has in front of us. Notice though… it IS a climb!

The Five Steps of Apostolic Migration

When The Church Was Young

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I’m adding some link categories for stuff I come across that seems to be on the path where God is taking me. I’m not 100% sure where it will end up, but I am 100% sure those comfortable in their weekly rituals of religion will be uncomfortable with where it appears God is taking me. Today I was reading a blog about myths of church as we seem to know it. A book by Ernest Loosley was referenced (which I’ve ordered to read… it was written in 1935! WOW!) . Here’s a quote from the beginning of the book:

“When the church was very young, it had no buildings. Let us begin with that striking fact. That the church had no buildings is the most noticeable of the points of difference between the church of the early days and the church of today. In the minds of most people today, “church” means first a building, probably something else second; but seldom does “the church” stand for anything other than a building. Yet here is the fact with which we start: the early church possessed no buildings and carried on its work for a great many years without erecting any.”

—Ernest Loosley, When The Church Was Young

It would be an interesting blog series to do a myths about “the church” we adhere to that just are not there! Hmm… I’ll have to consider that one.

Being Church 24/7

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One of the feeds I get weekly contained five articles. This was part of the first and wow!

Everywhere I go I see people seeking to get the form of church right (even house church) rather than really seeking to re-capture the lifestyle of being the church. I trust that the latter will be the movement we are ultimately part of:

  • Daily adventure of listening to and following Jesus
  • Becoming the expression of Christ everyday, everywhere
  • Filling the earth with His glory

Here’s a link to the whole article in PDF. Being Church 24/7

It’s all about the ___________.

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During his ministry, Jesus taught a great deal about the Kingdom of God.

From there he went all over Galilee. He used synagogues for meeting places and taught people the truth of God. God’s kingdom was his theme — that beginning right now they were under God’s government, a good government! — Matthew 4:23

He often told stories to help people understand what the Kingdom was like.

The disciples came up and asked, “Why do you tell stories?” He replied, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to the. Whenever someone has a heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories: to create rediness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it.” — Matthew 13:10-13

When Jesus sent out the twelve:

Jesus sent his twelve harvest hands out with this charge:

“Don’t begin by traveling to some far-off place to convert unbelievers. And don’t try to be dramatic by tackling some public enemy. Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighborhood. Tell them that the kingdom is here. ” — Matthew 10:5-7

If you read through the four gospel accounts of Jesus’ ministry, it quickly becomes clear Jesus’ teaching was centered in the Kingdom. He told stories about the Kingdom to spark interest in people’s minds which would draw them into a readiness to live a Kingdom-focused life. Questions he was asked would focus on the kingdom(s) of this world. Jesus’ answers would bring back into focus his Father’s Kingdom.

I just finished reading the teaching plan for a Bible study. It was a typical teaching plan. But I was struck by it’s focus. Where Jesus told the twelve to tell people the kingdom is here, I’m realizing so much of today’s teaching is church-focused. As if the church has become the kingdom in the eyes of today’s supposed believers.

Here’s a list of questions the teaching plan suggests the leader ask:
1. What does this passage tell us about the needs and concerns of those who drift away from the church?
2. Why do Christians sometimes stop attending church?
3. What should other believers do in connection with those who drop out of church?

It is subtle but notice we don’t ask about the needs of someone who has lost a focus on the Kingdom in their daily life. We don’t ask why a person avoids hanging out with fellow Christ Followers. We don’t ask what responsibility we have as Christ Followers to find out why our brother or sister is detaching him/her self from family.

Today, we ask people if they go to church anywhere rather than if they know about the Savior. We invite people to church instead of telling them the Kingdom has come. We give sacrificially to build the church. We serve to keep the church going. We have simply equated church=Kingdom. We are plagued with such tunnel vision about our mere piece of the body that we have lost touch with the sense of the Kingdom that Jesus taught. The success of our business enterprise demands that we gain more market share than the other God-business down the street so today’s business leaders channel the focus of the people into brand awareness and loyalty.

Step outside your typical mindset for a week. Accept the challenge to be Kingdom-focused for a week. Scrutinize all the talk and teaching and boil it down to what it’s all about. Don’t merely equate church as Kingdom like we’ve come to do. At the end of the week reflect back on where it all aimed… Kingdom or just that little piece? Voice it out loud… say “It’s all about the ____________” filling in the blank with whatever you discover.

“Oops!” — Bill Hybels of Willow Creek

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So in a recent blog post (Willow Creek Repents?) it seems some folks are waking up to the fact that their millions of dollars spent to develop Christ Followers is actually not working:

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.

Also Greg Hawkins, executive pastor at Willow Creek, in the same article expresses a fundamental change:

Our dream is that we fundamentally change the way we do church. That we take out a clean sheet of paper and we rethink all of our old assumptions. Replace it with new insights. Insights that are informed by research and rooted in Scripture. Our dream is really to discover what God is doing and how he’s asking us to transform this planet.

The multi-billion dollar question is can their “ministries” survive the probable hit when climbing the mountain means some of the lack-luster committed followers don’t make the climb. When the kingdoms begin to crumble is there enough resolve to stay the course and continue to build on a new foundation. I’m watching intently!

The Cornerstone

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This morning I was reading in 1 Peter 2 about Jesus as the cornerstone rejected by men. It’s interesting how after you take the filters off you begin to consider applications outside of the ones you’ve always been taught and to which you’ve held on for decades. We typically gravitate toward embracing less than what God wants for us.

I read about Jesus being the cornerstone. A cornerstone that God has set as the foundation. A cornerstone “the builders” have rejected.

“Look! I’m setting a stone in Zion,
a cornerstone  in the place of honor.
Whoever trusts in this stone as a foundation
will never have cause to regret it…
The stone the workmen threw out
is now the chief foundation stone.
For the untrusting it’s
a stone to trip over,
a boulder blocking the way.”

Wow! As I remember back to Jesus affirming Peter’s profession that He was the Christ (Messiah), the son of the living God, I am reminded that Jesus explained to His closest followers that it was upon this realization and profession, which He notes is not revealed by flesh and blood but can only come from God, that His church would be founded.

As I reflect on two millennia’s worth of a centralized focus on “building our churches” I’m reminded of the outcry from “God’s chosen people” for an earthly king to lead them when God had already revealed Himself time after time as their sovereign and one true God. A God like no other was not enough. We had to have a king like everyone else around us.

Our God took on the form of man so He could reveal to us His true nature and teach us about Himself.  In those days the rulers were kings and the domain over which they ruled were their kingdoms. Jesus explained the truth about God in terms the people could understand. Thus, an ultimate Kingdom with one true King made much more sense to those who lived in a world of kings and kingdoms. John Revell, a friend of mine who is writing a book helped me to think about this in regard to the fact that those of us living in America or similar countries who don’t have kings and kingdoms struggle to understand some of the fullness of kingship. Hence, some of the extremely rich understanding we could glean from thinking about God as the ultimate king whose kingdom is unmatched is lost in our lack of familiarity with kings and kingdoms.

It always intrigues me how often new gatherings of Christ Followers shortly after they first gather long to have a building where they can gather; a building they can call their own. In the Old Testament we see a people who, though they already had “a king”, were crying out for one like the nations surrounding them had. Likewise, this morning I find myself intrigued that Christ Followers almost always seem anxious to set a cornerstone for an earthly building so they can have their structure like, and be like the other religions that surround them, when they already have a cornerstone unlike any other. Why do we keep exchanging the things not of this world given to us by God for the things of this world? Could it be that this exchange began as early as the first generation of Christ Followers? Could it be that two millenia of established “church” practices are also diluted from the things not of this world given to us by Jesus?

A friend calls it being amphibious…

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Paul said (emphasis mine):

19 Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: 20 religious, nonreligious, 21 meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, 22 the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. 23 I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!

1 Corinthians 9:19-23 The Message