Politics and Spirituality

The Kiser family vacation was awesome. If you missed the story on vacation, see the previous post below.

This weekend in our house church gatherings we’re starting a new series of conversations centered on the intersection of politics and spirituality. The topic is particularly appropriate given the election year and the inevitable changes that are coming as a result.

This conversation on politics is a growth point for me. For years I have not cared much about politics. I’m turned off by partisan bickering. I’ve always been quite confused as to what part I should play given that my primary citizenship is in the kingdom of God.

To tell you the truth, American politics has had very little to do with my personal spiritual formation. I didn’t grow up listening to many sermons on the matter. If anything, the underlying rhetoric at (some) churches and schools I attended was that if you were a Christian, you were also a Republican.

I’m no longer comfortable with such rhetoric.

The purpose of our conversations is to help us to think reflectively and critically about what it might look like for us to participate (or not) in the political process as followers of Jesus. I really have no idea where we’ll come out. I doubt that our conversation will end up in support of one particular party or another (because both miss the mark), but rather with a new orientation toward how Christians might relate to the system as a whole.

Part of my interest in this subject is fueled by the recent realization that politics is a religion of sorts for many of my non-Christian friends in Dallas.

At a recent World Affairs Council event, I talked with one guy who had worked with a senator in Washington, D.C. for several years and is currently working for a congressman in Arlington.

When I asked him why he got into politics he said, “Because I’m excited about the way politics can change the way things are.”

His answer is strikingly similar to the reason I got into ministry and church starting — I want to help change the world, too.

Here are a few of the books I’ll be reading throughout the course of our conversations in the next several weeks:

• Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises and a Revolution of Hope, Brian McLaren (2007)
• God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It, Jim Wallis (2005)
• Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals, Shane Claiborne [2008]
  
• The Politics of Jesus, John Howard Yoder (2d ed., 1994)

What books have you read that have been helpful to you on this subject? How have you learned to integrate faith and politics? Please chime in.

Vacation

Several months ago Julie and I mentioned to her parents that we wanted to vacation with them this summer.

A couple months ago, Charles, my father-in-law, notified us that he had made travel arrangements for our vacation — flight plans, housing accomodations, car rental, the whole thing.

“So where are we going?” We asked with curiosity.

“We’re not telling you,” the in-laws said.

So we waited until this very weekend to discover that we were going to spend a week in Lake Tahoe, California!

We’re still trying to pick our jaws up off the floor.

Lake Tahoe is the largest Alpine lake in the United States — 21 miles long and 12 miles wide. The deepest point is more than 1,600 feet. And the color of the water is a gorgeous blue. Get this: you can see seventy-five feet into the water at most points in the lake. Lake Tahoe water is cleaner than the water that comes from our tap at home.

Yes, I’ve been driving my family crazy with this kind of trivia.

Already we’ve rented a jet ski, taken a boat tour, played golf and hung out on the beach. We’re just getting started.

This blog entry is certainly as close to working this week as I’m going to get. I just wanted to share the joy of our family vacation with all of you. Sabbath is a wonderful thing!

Make sure to check Ryan Porche’s blog for an excellent post on communion experiences in our house church gatherings. (Click the link “Ryan Porche” under “Blogroll” in the right column.)

Raj’s Perspective on Lunch

Raj is a good friend of ours in Dallas. I’ve described him to others before as a “person of peace” for us — someone who has shown us hospitality and opened doors for us into new relationships and organizations since we’ve been here. He’s very well connected in Dallas — so much so that he’s running for City Council next year. He’s excited about what we’re doing and has been a big supporter.

I’ve also described Raj as one of the most philanthropic / spiritual of non-religious people I know. Many of us religious people, in fact, would do well to take note of the way Raj lives his life. I think it is, in many ways, close to the heart of God.

Raj sent us some reflections about his experience at the Neighbors Lunch that I want to share with his permission. Thanks, Raj, for these profound and affirming thoughts.

As a relative outsider, well not really…Meeting Charles has been a great experience for me as I have a new friend, but more importantly a friend that comes from a very different viewpoint in my life then is traditional for me.

I have truly enjoyed meeting all of you this past week. Charles, Julie, and Ryan with the COOL last name… The lunch event on Saturday was a really neat experience. Meeting folks that are homeless and truly have a different perspective in life always teaches me something. Regardless of where, and or what path you have taken or have arrived from we are truly blessed. While I have struggled with my personal faith, I have always found that helping others in any capacity is a function of serving in God’s eyes, in God’s name, and in God’s true expectations of us as humans. To that end, meeting those less fortunate is more than writing a check. Its more then giving a hand-out, its sharing hope. In many ways, its what we all do in our day to day lives. Share hope, passion, compassion, and kindness with other humans. Doing that service for others, while not enabling them, only drives them to help themselves is my opinion.

As I travel back from CA on another business trip, complaining about this or that, I am reminded reading the Storyline blog … that I am blessed. Blessed to have friends, blessed to have an education, blessed to know right from wrong, and blessed to be able to do something about improving the quality of live for others. I am grateful that God has given me so many blessings and tools to help me with my life, but I find more valuable the tools he seems to give me to help others. To that end, I believe your lunch this past Saturday is a small but significant example of what your group and church truly brings to the table in God’s name. The ability to help others, show others, lead others, and encourage others who may have no vision or understanding of how to improve their quality of life.

So… I do believe that improving the quality of life for others is part of your mission. I am glad to have shared it with you, and I hope to help you all again in the near future. It has been my pleasure to learn from you all…

Neighbors Lunch Update

Our Neighbors Lunch on Saturday was a tremendous success. Thanks to all of you who sponsored and prayed for our experience. We enjoyed a spaghetti lunch at Spaghetti Warehouse in Downtown and cultivated relationships with our new friends: Wesley, Darrel, Cindy, Lowell, Chad and Marjorie.

After lunch we helped Lowell and Cindy move some of their stuff into storage space near Downtown, and we also assisted Darrel in getting a monthly DART pass for July so that he could get around—he sells papers Downtown. I’m delighted the way our service to them emerged naturally out of mutual friendship.

Chad Matthews said it well in an email to me:

Looking up and down the table this afternoon, I keep thinking how RIGHT everything about the situation felt. “Bingo!” I kept saying to myself…. I believe with all my heart that our meal this afternoon was as close to “church” as I’ve been in a long, long time.

Chad and Marjorie have just left for an 8 month tour of major U.S. cities as a way of exploring what’s being done on behalf of the homeless in our country. I’d encourage you to check out their website: www.ILoveEvelyn.org.

This is just the beginning. We’re continuing to dream of ways we can go deeper into building relationships with our new friends and neighbors. I’d like to see us host a similar event on a much larger scale and partner with other organizations in the area to do it.

–

We’ve hired Scott Ellis, current President of the Dallas Junior Chamber of Commerce, to do some web design for us. He is responsible for the new DJCC website and we’re excited about working with him. He’ll build the site on a publishing platform called WordPress so that we can maintain it ourselves without having to outsource to someone who knows HTML and all that stuff. (That last sentence may have been more than many of you wanted to know.) Civic organizations are good for networking on many levels.

We should have a site up at www.storylinecommunity.com later this month. We’ll keep you posted.

Meet Your Neighbors

We’ve wrestled for a while to find ways the Storyline Community could take initial steps into the ministry of justice in Dallas. Thanks to the epiphany of a sharp teammate, we found the perfect starting point.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, we’ve learned of the importance of cultivating relationships with our poor and downtrodden neighbors—not treating them as charity cases or objects of evangelism but as friends with dignity and respect. These friendships serve in turn as the foundation of our ability to serve our neighbors in a meaningful way.

After all, how can we know the needs of the poor and needy unless we know the poor and needy?

So we’ve decided to get to know our neighbors. In partnership with Chad and Marjorie Matthews of I Love Evelyn (pictured in the top left and bottom right on the left), we’re hosting a meal at a restaurant in the West End of Downtown. Chad and Marjorie will bring their friends (many of whom are currently on the streets); we’ll bring our Storyline friends. And we’ll all share a meal together and simply get to know each other.

The dynamics of sharing a meal will be significantly different than serving our neighbors a meal—not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’m only hoping this meal levels the playing field a bit and helps us to see each other as peers and equals.

Imagine the possibilities of a movement in which people begin to show interest simply in getting to know their poor neighbors.

I’m excited about this event and think it has the potential to keep us moving in the right direction when it comes to justice issues. We’re praying that God will open our eyes to injustice in the midst of conversations with our neighbors.

Non-Church Spaces

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about connecting to people in our broader community for the sake of God’s mission.

In my reflections, one thing has hit home again and again: the importance of entering into and living within “non-church” spaces.

A common instinct for ministers and churches when seeking to connect to the community is to host some sort of community event and invite community people to it—a marriage seminar; a financial management class; a kids’ camp. Most of the time such events are hosted at church facilities. Sometimes they’re hosted at neutral locations in the community.

The location is less important than who is hosting the event—the church. The event becomes inherently “church space” because the church is hosting it.

What’s the problem with that? There’s no inherent problem with the church hosting events that connect to the community. But there is a potential problem given that more and more non-Christian people distrust, or are at least ambivalent toward, the institution of church such that they’d be more likely to participate in a marriage seminar or financial management class elsewhere.

All this resurfaces the importance of cultivating personal relationships with non-Christian people and building trust with them (so they can see we’re not wacko). And how do you go about doing that?

Enter into relationships with people in “non-church” spaces.

Non-church spaces are places where the church doesn’t set the agenda, plan the party or control the atmosphere. There’s no bible study. No prayer before the meal. No announcement about upcoming worship gatherings.

A significant reason Christianity has struggled in North America is because it has neglected to engage these kinds of non-church spaces. Churches have neglected non-church spaces for the same reason non-Christian people have avoided coming to church spaces: fear.

It’s a scary thing to venture off into territory where we have little control over things, where we’re different and might be the minority. So who should be required to take the initiative, churches or non-Christian people? It’s almost a rhetorical question.

If the church is to connect to its community it must first be part of that community. It must venture out into non-church spaces.

Here are a few non-church spaces in which the Storyline Community has either spent time intends to spend time (many of these are determined by our context and might be different somewhere else; some of these are based on our own passions):

• Civic organization events
• Community service organizations
• Sports leagues (joining other people’s teams)
  
• Concerts and plays
• Fitness clubs
• Workplaces
• Apartment communities where we live
• Restaurants, bars and coffee shops
  

Our major victories these days are simply 1) having the courage to enter such non-church spaces and 2) the relationships that emerge from them. The hope is that the shape the church takes will consist of and be informed by community relationships such that Storyline becomes a church that grows out of its surrounding culture.

We’re seeing this hope become reality in small ways already…more about that later.

Learn and Share

This week Mission Alive, our church planting resource organization, is hosting a Strategy Lab for church planters. The lab is the last of three in a process of Mission Alive training modules: the first is the Discovery Lab, for the purpose of assessment; the second is the Theology Lab, for developing theological frameworks for the task of church planting.

The Strategy Lab functions to help planters think through their ministry plan for church planting—cultural analysis, ministry structures, processes of spiritual formation, connecting with non-Christians, etc. At the end of the Lab the planter couple presents their strategy for how the new church will take shape. This strategy becomes the foundation for what will actually happen when the planters hit the ground.

Julie and I first participated in the Strategy Lab in the fall of 2006. We received great training and developed a close bond with our fellow Lab participants (many of whom are now also starting new churches).

The most valuable tools we developed in the Lab were a process of spiritual formation (i.e., steps for facilitating spiritual growth from non-Christian to leader) and a leadership development track. We spent the majority of our apprenticeship period at Christ Journey and Sunrise fleshing out these two tools.

And now I’m headed back to the Strategy Lab to share with other planters what we’ve learned as we’ve applied some of the ideas of the Lab to our church planting context.

I hardly feel qualified for such a role given that we’re still learning so much. At the same time, I love this baton-passing element of Mission Alive. We’re always learning, and the best use of our learning is to share what we’re learning with others.

It reminds me of the Apostle Paul’s philosophy of ministry: “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:2).

This rhythm of learning and sharing applies to all of us whether we’re church planters, parents, engineers or accountants. Indeed, the heart of discipleship is learning what it means to follow the way of Jesus and sharing what we’ve learned with others who are seeking to learn.

What are you learning that you can share? Please share it with me!

Confessions of a Struggling Church Starter

Have I mentioned that this whole church starting thing is hard work?

The part I’m finding most difficult right now is making initial connections with people—the cold-turkey, how’s it going, who are you, what do you do kinds of conversations.

Sure, I’m a pretty gregarious person, but it takes a little while before that crazy guy can come out of his shell. I was that way in junior high; high school; college; grad school; and what do you know, I’m still that way.

I’m not sure exactly why it’s so hard for me. It’s probably partly because I’m such a people pleaser. I want people to like me. I want to say the right things. I want to be cool. I don’t want people to think I’m a religious salesman.

Perhaps it’s hard because I don’t just want to have conversations with people; I want to have spiritual conversations with people. Spirituality/religion is a particularly private thing in our culture. It’s one of two things you don’t talk about (politics the other) unless you’re prepared to get in a fight.

I’m finding, however, that these kinds of conversations are much less daunting when there’s a more natural reason to have them, outside of the obvious reason of connecting with people along the wavelength of spirituality.

Conversations take place more naturally when I’m on a flag football team with people, or at a civic organization meeting, or at dinner, rather than after someone opens the door when I’ve randomly knocked on it.

Yet it’s still hard in more natural contexts. I’ve found myself sitting on the couch before going to engagements where I would meet new people trying to think of excuses for not going. [I’m laughing at myself as I type this.]

That’s right, I’m a church starter. I’m supposed to have a knack for this kind of thing. Yeah…I feel under-qualified for the job sometimes.

At the end of the day, it’s worth all the inner turmoil. It’s worth the challenge. I get the privilege, after all, to engage people concerning the most important kinds of things in the whole world.

Perhaps you’re like me…why do we have such a hard time with this?

House Church Gatherings

Our house church gatherings are at the heart of who we are as a church. Church to us is less of an institution than it is a web of relationships formed around a common purpose. Church isn’t a place we go to; it’s a community to which we belong. The way of Jesus is a way of life that is learned, modeled and lived out relationally.

This conviction about the nature of church is why we’re starting with house church ministry and not with a super-sized worship gathering. It’s why the worship gathering, even after it’s started, will be second (or fifth) place in importance. In fact, it will probably not take place weekly, especially in the early stages.

House church gatherings of 10-20 people are and will always be the central venue for life in the Storyline Community. They most fully embody the chief values of our community—dependence on God, mission, life change and genuine relationships.

To be honest, we use the term “house church” for lack of better words. Some call it organic church; others call it simple church; others call it cell church (as in a smaller part of something larger).

One thing I do like about the phrase is that “church” is part of it. House churches are not an appendage ministry for us among other ministries; house churches are the essence of who we are as a church—so much so that I would rather describe Storyline Christian Community as a network of house churches rather than just a church (though the latter is certainly still true).

Our hope and plan is that our ministry is reproductive: as followers of Jesus help to create other followers of Jesus, house churches will start other house churches, and Storyline will start other churches.

So what do our house church gatherings look like?

We gather for meals and share life. We share communion in the context of our meals. We joke around. We tell stories. We sing together. We confess our struggles to each other.

We have conversations about Scripture, current events, music, God, food, spirituality—things that really matter to us. We share our resources to help the poor and connect to those who are far from God.

We throw good parties. We welcome new people of all kinds into our midst. We participate in justice projects in the community. We pray for each other, our friends and our city.

It’s a little reminiscent of the early church (Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-35)—not only in the forms and activities, but also in its potential to turn the world upside down.

It’s Official: Storyline Christian Community

Well, many of you know we’ve been laboring away at a name for a couple months—and what a long, arduous process it has been.

We started with a couple weeks of brainstorming, through which a couple potential names emerged (image and epic, if you wanted to know). We took them to our Dallas friends and asked them what they thought and received consistently negative feedback.

So we decided to go back to the drawing board.

Our struggles motivated us to enlist the help of an ad/marketing agency called Isphere. Chris Gaines, Isphere’s President, is a member of the Richland Hills Church and a creative mastermind. Take a look at some of his company’s work with Richland Hills at www.dangerousmessage.com. We knew after a lunch meeting with Chris that he would provide invaluable help and input to our process.

As of this morning, with encouragement from Chris and other friends, we’ve landed on Storyline Christian Community.

Why Storyline?

I’m hoping others will ask that same question. I know it’s weird and different, and that’s part of the intrigue. That’s partly why I love it. Because when you ask, I can tell you:

Storyline is a word for plot. It refers to the way a story moves, the direction it’s headed. All of our lives move along a storyline. Our storylines intersect with other people’s storylines.

What if there was one storyline that overarched every human’s personal storyline? What if there was one grand narrative that all of us were part of?

That’s exactly what we believe is going on in the world: God is weaving a storyline together out of all of our stories. And it’s up to us to choose whether or not our personal storylines intersect and merge with God’s.

What exactly is God’s storyline? Simply, that:

• God created the world and humanity for the sake of genuine relationship with what he made;
• humanity decided to go it’s own way and brokenness ensued in humanity and the world;
• God takes on human form in Jesus of Nazareth and through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection God provides a way for humanity and the world the be healed;
• one day God will bring about the total restoration of the world and humanity that began when God raised Jesus from the dead;
• and in the meantime, the community of people that find healing in Jesus comprise the Church and they exist to invite others into the same kind of healing and partner with God for the sake of the world’s restoration.

What a story! This is the story that gets me out of bed in the morning.

Why Christian Community (and not Church)?

Like the early church, we chose functional words to describe who we are. The word “church” (Greek: ekklesia) was actually a word the early Christians borrowed from their Greco-Roman cultural warehouse. This word for church frequently referred to a government legislative assembly.

So in the same spirit, we are a Christian Community. We are Christian because we live by the spirituality of Jesus, the Christ/Messiah; and we are a Community because we are a network of relationships, not an institution.

At the same time, we’re not averse to the word church. It’s a well-known word in our culture (though packed with lots of baggage). We are a church. We are church starters. And we are, by God’s grace, a part of the universal Church. We are in no way ashamed of that.

[Side note for Greek nerds: Dr. Allen Black at Harding Grad School cautions against pulling theological meanings out of the etymology of ekklesia—as in the church as a “called out” people (ek = out; klesia = called). Making that kind of meaning would be equivalent to saying that a butterfly is a fly whose wings are greased with butter. Ridiculous. The etymology totally misses the actual import and reference of the word. Sorry—I’ve been holding on to that little gem for a long time.]

What’s funny is that my first official presentation for this new church at a Mission Alive Strategy Lab was arbitrarily called “Story Church.” We’ve come full circle in many ways.

Tonight the Kisers and the Porches are going out on the town to celebrate the victory of arriving at a name. We will think of you as we enjoy our crème brulee.

We’ll keep you posted as we develop a website at www.storylinecommunity.com (and .org, and .net—we purchased them all!)

Next week I’ll share what a typical house church gathering has looked like thus far.

Thanks for your prayers.