Conversations with God: When was the last time you spoke with him?

“Alternative Worship Movement, of which I am generally deeply appreciative, one of the tasks of the church in a postmodern context is to make ‘sacred spaces’, places filled with rich and fresh symbolism expressed new forms of media, where people can reconnect with God in new ways. And this all sounds right. But when this impulse is divorced, as it often is, from the overarching task of mission (and that of missional contextualization) then it simply becomes another way in which we separate the sacred from the secular.”

Alan Hirsch – Click Here for the Full Article

Have you ever noticed how easliy the prophet’s in the Old Trestament seem to speak and conect with God in dialogue? No matter where they may be or even how emotional or unrestricted and uncensored their language is, people like Moses, Samuel, Jerimiah, and Elijah just speak openly and freely with God as if he was standing there right there beside them and engaging right along with them. Why then do we today insist that prayer is rationalized down to a specific methodology? As though it can only be done if I assume the correct positioning, follow the correct formula, pick the right times be it in the morning, before bed, and before meals, and of course “seal the deal” by saying the correct closing words of “in Jesus name I pray”. Why do we restrict ourselves from acknowledging God’s presence outside of the religous activities of what we consider church practice? Shouldn’t  we be able to freely engage in conversation with God wherever we are without restraint?

Last night my wife Bonnie and I watched a movie called ‘Conversations with God’. It is a biographical picture of a man named Neil Walsch who after going through a horrific car crash, began to hear and engage with the voice of God. At least in his understanding. Yes, I know, Neil Walsch is a known leader of New Age thought and a great distance from any Christian circles but, I couldn’t help but identify with the message in the film that deep down we all desire for a close, intimate, and personal conversation with God.

In the gospel of John Jesus says in one of his final prayers before going to the cross, “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3) I remmember Lynn Anderson in his book ‘They Smell Like Sheep’ telling the story of how shepherds didn’t have to place fences around their sheep in order to keep them from getting mixed up with other heards. The sheep were simply so familure with their shepherds voice that when he would call for them they would recognize him and instantly search him out.

Likewise, the more we openly engage in a intimate, personal, and unrestricted conversation with God, the more we familurize ourselves with his voice and can grow closer with him in relationship. We can know God more by sharing everything from our thoughts on the last sports game we watched, to our reflections on the person we met on the city transit the other day, and our specific concerns or joys that we experienced towards our friends or family.

Conversations of course also go both ways. We can be attentive to listening to God as he responds to the things we are talking to him about. This can be a tricky and dangerous thing of course. How do we know that it is God who is responding to us and not simply a self delusion or worse, a demonic elerment? I’m no expert in this area but here are some things to which I always reflect on before discerning wether or not it is God speaking to me or not.

• Does this response seem to be reflected in the scriptures of the Bible?
• Does it match up with the character of Jesus in the New Testament?
• Can I sense it as being outside of my own interests and objectives?
• Do I feel the need to transform my actions or thoughts within that moment to better reflect what God may have been saying to me?

These are by no means the reflections of an expert and I am sure later I will probably think of a few other questions I ask myself when reflecting on whether or not it was God who was speaking to me.

The film ‘Conversations with God’ brought up one other really interesting point that I am not even sure they meant to articulate. Neil Walsch didn’t really begin to hear the voice of God until he was at his perhaps, lowest point. Sometimes I think we are perhaps so distracted by the busyness of our lives or our own personal sufferings and struggles that no mater how loud we scream for God’s response, we simply cannot hear his response to us. In my own case, it wasn’t until I was willing to stop and let go of everything that I was doing before I could finally hear God speaking to me. It is perhaps in the lowest of our low moments that we can truly hear a whisper and begin a new conversation with God.

“Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

1 Kings 19:11-13

June 30, 2007 | Categories: Christianity, Church, Faith | Leave A Comment »

Allelon Conference: Alan Hirsch’s 6 Values to Missional Church

I spent the last week in Vancouver where I had the opportunity to listen to some of the brightest minds in Missional Church thinking including Alan Roxburgh and Alan Hirsch. It was all apart of a conference being held at the University of British Columbia called the Allelon Conference. Dispite the physical challenges I faced while being there it was a great time to make new friends and connections as well as engage in a dialogue about what it means to be a missional church and a Christ follower.

There was so many things that were discussed over the three days that it is difficult to know what to write about now. However, a great deal of my time was spent listening to the values and points Alan Hirsch brought to the table. For that reason I thought I would share six of his values behind the Missional Movement; a design which consists of six points around a centralized identity.

Centralized Identity and Core Value: “Jesus is Lord!”

At the core and center of any Christian lifestyle and value must be its realization within the persona of Jesus. Alan spends a great deal of time rediscribing the simpleness of Jesus’ followers testifying that “Jesus is my Lord and Savior and I cling to him.” A value that in stating seems so simple and without theological baggage and “deep wosdom” to the traditonal catechism yet its perscribers are willing to die for it.

Igniting someones faith and leading them to a discipleship of Christ needs to be easily transfored. It is easy to put this value into words however, we always seem to bring our own judgments into any real relationship rather then the grace which Jesus would bring. Effectively though, if we put our own judgments to the criteria of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus we are in esseance removing Jesus from our core value and replacing him with the image of ourselves.  That would be idolatry at the worst.

In all contexts, situations, and conditions Jesus must always be central to anything we do, say, or bear witness too.

Disciple Making

It was discussed that the church as a whole needs to raise the bar on discipleship and lower it on churched activities. Discipleship taking shape in both a pre-conversion and post-conversion.

Most interestingly, Alan sees discipleship as being our walking along side others while attempting to help them make there own God given dreams and visions come to be a reality. These dreams and visions are of course apart of all of us whether we recognize Christ’s calling in our life or not.

What I question is how we can develop each others visions to see outside of our own objectives. It seems risky to develop our own or even others dreams and visions when they are based on self interested goals or benifits. How can we encourage others (especially those who do not acknowledge Jesus as there Lord and Savior) to see those dreams and visions outside of their own objective goals and benefits?

Incarnational Missional Impulse

The church is Missional in that it sees itself as a sending of people. Being a sent people seems to take two shapes in my view. First, we are sent in the sense that we need to move out into our communities and be seen as part of the social environment which is not restricted to the centralization of a church building. Secondly, we are sent in the sense that we acknowledge the cultural and social environment we find ourselves in, to be the society in which God has called us too.

Alan utilizes his missional values through the exercising of communitas and luminality within a community. In short translation; when a small group is placed in a challenging, externalized, social environment and given a mandate of being a coopertive missional and transformational element within it (luminality), it then can forge and develop its own cultural and social identity which develops greater communal ties between each other and Christ (Communitas). This same idea of communitas and luminality reminded me of Erwin McManus’ Velocity principle in his book ‘The Unstoppable Force’.

Ultimately, it is hoped that the gospel would not be brought to a specific culture but, that a specific culture would shape the gospel. When we think of the image of Christ given in Phil. 2:1-11 it seems that Jesus would rather do the same as he took on the image of humanity in order to bring salvation.

Apostolic Environment

APEST is an acronym which Alan uses to describe the spiritual gifts which seem prevalent in any movement. It stands for Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherding, and Teacher. It is not meant to be gifts which are solely found in one member but gifts seen amoung many members of a movement. At the same time, all these gifts must be present if a movement is going to be successful.

Organic Systems

This is a view of simplifying the church. Discipleship as well as the equiping or empoering of Christian followers takes on the image of a multiplicational value. As Alan Hirsch states it, “It must act like a virus.” So that as one follower empowers two-three others it grows like a wild fire within its community.

Small Group or Communal Life Style Covenants is a way in which this organic value can be expressed through the communities culture. Alan gave two examples:

T – Together we Follow

E – Encountering the Bible

M – Mission

P – Passion for Jesus

T – Transformation to Discipleship

The other example was from Micheal Frost’s book ‘Exiles’:

B – Bless X3

E – Eat X3

L – Listening (1 Hour/Week)

L – Learn

S – Sent

Covenants can be simply designed however it seems difficult to convince others to agree to sign in agreance with them. I’m not sure why that is. Perhaps, because of the influence of North Americans value towards independence and the “right to do what I want to do.”

Communitas/Luminality

As it was described earlier, the value of Communitas and Luminality becomes a driving force behind a churches missional movement. In greater detail, as each smaller group develops a sense of communitas they begin to articulate their own stories and narritives which can then be shared with others in the community reminding them of their own walk of faith.

This sense of personal narritive seems to give me a new impression of what it means to share your testimony. Traditionally, testimonies were about how you came to be in relationship with Jesus. As though after telling it you had completed a methodological practice. This new sense of sharing a communal narritive though makes testimony a sharing of life experiences; one which has yet to be completed in the bigger picture.

Communitas also seems to really narrow the focus of the church to pursue geniune community transformation. It gives each member of the church body a greater sense of purpose and belonging as well as a feeling of fulfillment in both who God is and who they are themselves.

Culminates into Apostolic Genius

This was one area where we did not have time to really articulate. I would be interested in just what Alan Hirsch means by this principle and I am hoping to find more about it as I read his book ‘The Shaping of Things to Come’.

The Allelon Conference was a lot to take in over the past week and given me many ideas to which I would like to share with my group in September. Of course, time and space do not permit me the ability to write about all of it here in this article. To close I will leave a few links bellow to which I have just become aware of.

Allelon

The Forgotten Ways

Shapevine

Fresh Expressions

June 25, 2007 | Categories: Christianity, Church, Faith | 2 Comments »

Fathers Day Tribute

A couple years ago my dad wrote a article for his church’s newsletter. After reading it again recently I tried convincing him to start his own blog. It was a no go. I suppose you can’t teach an old dog new tricks after all! Ha ha, Just kidding Dad!

 Anyways, this Father’s Day I thought I would post his article for all of you readers out there. Happy Fathers Day Dadio!!!

Fathers Day

 Further to last month’s article, I continue with the promise of men committing themselves to building strong families.

Twenty or so years ago I was under the impression that “Fathers’ Day” was a day for my children to put me on a pedestal, shower me with gifts and praise, and a day where I could do as I please. As I’ve matured (no, I’ll never admit to having grown up!) my view on the “day” has changed considerably. God has blessed me with children and with that blessing comes incredible responsibility and obligations that are very clearly set out in the bible.(Eph 6:4, check your concordance for others). Though I will always take the presents (told you I haven’t grown up), I now view that day as a time to do a self-performance appraisal on how good a father I’ve been over the past year. The standards set are high.

I want to talk to you men about one of the most important aspects of our relationships with our children; that would be your role as an encourager. Are you more pessimistic than optimistic; more discouraging than encouraging; more focused on correcting behavior than supporting proper behavior? The impact of your actions as a role model and character shaper can be immense in this area.

Encouragement is vital for life and relationships. It revives and refreshes, renews and gives strength. It’s been compared to high-grade fuel; it takes the “knock” out of life. It brings hope, strength and growth in people’s lives. Heb 3:13 states “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” (also see Heb 10:24-25) Those closest to us crave our unconditional approval and encouragement. Dr. Barry Braselton (children’s’ hospital in Boston) says, “that the bond between father and child is one of the most powerful and complex. We may look to our mothers for unconditional love, however, we often seek to validate our existence through our fathers.”

We discourage others in at least 4 main ways; curses, gossip, hurtful criticism and slander.

We utter curses through name calling (stupid, idiot, loser, …), negative nicknames, saying he/she is lazy, untrustworthy and comparative comments like ‘Why aren’t you like __”. Consistently used, the receiver will believe what is being said and he/she will live out what they are being told. Webster’s defines a curse as “a calling on God to send evil or injury down on some person or thing.” We need to release the person from the curse by immediately asking the person for forgiveness and seeking forgiveness from God by confessing it.

Gossip is generally designed to hurt/injure the reputation of the person being spoken about. It is sin and what most people don’t realize is that it damages the gossiper’s reputation as well. In Christian circles we can see gossip passed through ways such as, “Would you join me in prayer for __”

Hurtful destructive criticism tears down a person; it does not build them up. Potshots from the sidelines create unrest and unhappiness in those around you. Constructive criticism is delivered directly, in love and designed to build up and encourage. If you are a critical negative person life will treat you in kind. On the other hand, if you have the joy of the Lord, the joy you share with others will be returned to you.

We slander others through complaining about them; carrying stories that make others look bad, judging their motives, and speak against them by tearing them down rather than building them up. `James (probably my favorite book) 4:11 says “Brothers do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it……. There is only one lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you – who are you to judge your neighbor?”

Our cursing, gossip, criticism and slander will bring untold misery to the lives of those we want to malign and speaking against others will come home to roost. Look up what Mathew 7 has to say about what happens to those who judge others.

To this point I’ve not referenced my principle bible reference: James 3. I’ll just give you parts of it but please read it and pray it. “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” Paraphrasing; ‘we can tame all the animals but not the tongue’ and ‘we praise God and curse man with the same tongue.’

When we say mean hurtful things about others we are saying them about the Lord. Mathew 25:40 “….. whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” is usually referred to in the context of doing good, however, the negative also applies. Next time you find yourself about ready to curse, criticize or slander someone, picture Jesus.

Learn to discipline your tongue and never speak when angry. Pastor “R” gave you some biblical references for this so I’ll give you a couple of secular comments; “Never break the silence unless you can improve on it.” And “Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.”

Back to Father’s Day. No one knows your tongue better than those closest to you. Do you talk too much? Do you pass along choice things about others? Do you have a sharp critical tongue? Are people, your wife, your children, built up and healed or hurt and crushed by your words? Are you teaching your sons (mothers – your daughters) to respect women (men) in the way you talk and treat your wife (husband)? Are you setting them straight if they show disrespect for their mothers? What example are you setting? Are you teaching your children to; hurt or heal, slander or serve, break down or build up, or curse or bless?

My daughter, Meaghan, was born with crossed eyes. She required corrective surgery and still wears very heavy corrective lens. When she was young we would spend hours outside looking at the stars and talking about traveling to the planets and galaxies. She dreamed for several years of being an astronaut. In grade 7 Meaghan’s class was studying astronomy and she shared her desire to be an astronaut and visit the stars. The teacher laughed at her and told her astronauts required perfect vision and with her eyes her desire was hopeless. After that day, Meaghan lost all desire to be an astronaut or to spend time watching the stars. I was never able to undo the damage done by those words issued by that teacher.

Other references to pray about; Prov 18:21, Mathew 18, Mathew 7, and 1Peter3:8-12

The Promise Keepers Conference is the two days before Father’s Day. It is a conference sponsored by PK but run by God. You will come back a better Christian, a better husband and a better father. Tell God why you can’t go. Mathew 26:40-41.

Jim Freiburger

June 13, 2007 | Categories: Christianity, Church, Faith | Leave A Comment »