Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Chad M. Farrand


Become the change you wish to see

The Other Entry

I recently wrote a brief devotional on this topic, but want to expand the study a bit. So bear with me. 

Tomorrow is "Palm Sunday" 2012. Quite often we have a special service where our little children come into the sanctuary carry palm branches and re-enacting the "Triumphal Entry" of Jesus into Jerusalem prior to his arrest, persecution, death and ultimately resurrection. 

What we often miss, however, is the SECOND entry into Jerusalem that Jesus made. Mark 11 gives a good idea of what happened: 

"Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve." (Mark 11:11 NIV)

We get a a picture from Mark that after Jesus rides in on a donkey (s), and there's this huge moment of pomp and circumstance, Jesus simply walks around town and takes in the situation. Specifically, we see here in vs 11 that he headed right over to the temple gates. If you aren't aware, these gates where the place in the temple that was supposed to be set aside for anyone other than the Jews to come and worship God. By this time, these courts were filled with people selling animals to be sacrificed INSIDE the temple - thus, they were blocking out the people who were supposed to be welcomed here in order to serve those who had access to the inner courts. This doesn't sit well with Jesus. As Mark writes, Jesus "looked around" and seems to quietly exit the city. 

Something stirred in Jesus at this point. It's not too far of a stretch to imagine him pondering this courtyard scene in him mind over and over again while he was out at Bethany. You want to get Jesus upset? Block people from God's presence. 

The next morning, we come to the often forgotten SECOND entry into Jerusalem. This time, there aren't any grand gestures for the new King of Israel. No more palm branches. No more singing "hosanna in the highest!" No, Mark tells us that Jesus woke up hungry and on the way into Jerusalem he sees the famous fig tree that bore no fruit so he curses the tree. Now, I'm no expert in fig tree production nor am I one in curses, but it seems reasonable to assume that Jesus was in no good mood here. Have you ever been witness to something that didn't sit right with you? Did you go home a "mull it over" at night? I have, I was up all night and became obsessed with time which seemed to crawl slower and slower through the night. 

Jesus heads back into Jerusalem after cursing this fig tree. Mark says that He heads right to the temple courts, the scene of the crime.   "15 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17 And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’[c]? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” (Mark 11:15-17 NIV) 

I like how John tells the scene too. "14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables." (John 2:14-15 NIV emphasis mine) Did you catch that phrase? How long do you think it took Jesus to fashion himself a whip? It wasn't in a few seconds. After stewing on how money changers were taking up the temple courts that were specifically for the rest of the world to come worship God, He gets right to business. I can just see him. He gets up, rebukes the fig tree, heads straight to the temple that has gotten him riled up...and then grabs some cords....maybe he sat down and watched the scene in front of him play out just as it did the day before. This isn't baseless anger here, it's righteous anger. His whip is done, time to clear out the court. 

What a lot of people who love violence do with this passage is to just focus on how Jesus isn't a "wimp." When I retell this story, I talk about the love of God. Jesus so loved the WORLD that he would leave no barriers in between the whole world and God. This is a foretaste of the violence of the cross. Just as Jesus clears out the place which was intended to be open for all, he then sacrifices his own  life for the same purpose. No more need for a curtain to separate God's presence from the world. Now, we all have access to God through Christ. 

If only I had the eyes and passion of Jesus to spot all the things I, and my church family do that prevents the world from worshipping God freely, without obstruction. If only I had the courage to pull down invisible barriers and stopped living like that curtain is still there. God give me your eyes to see and ears to hear. 

love

Another thought on love. Since we affirm that God is love as John writes: "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." (I John 4:8 ESV), we must also conclude that as 100% God, Jesus is also Love's full expression. This love was demonstrated through his ultimate full sacrifice on the cross. This idea got me thinking, as John was originally writing to early century Greek's who favored thought, reason and mind (Logos=word), and we are not ancient Greeks...and further, just as John used a metaphor to help him make a point then it is Biblically allowable to change up a new word image for post-modern Americans. As James K.A. Smith writes in his book, "Desiring the Kingdom" we are not just what we think as Rene Descarte would have us believe, we are created as lovers, and ultimately lovers of God. I find it interesting to simply change the idea of "word" to "Love" in John 1.

1 In the beginning was Love, and Love was with God, and Love was God. 2It was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through love, and without it was not any thing made that was made. 4 In love was life,[a] and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

 6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10Love was in the world, and the world was made through Love, yet the world did not know it. 11Love came to his own,[b] and love's own people[c] did not receive it. 12But to all who did receive love, who believed in love's name, it gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

 14And Love became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen its glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-13)

So often, I feel as if we are stuck in the mindset that people are generally informational vessels rather than vessels of love. The truth is that we are passionate, visceral creatures that crave to love and to be loved. The good news of God is also that God is love, and as Love came here in love and brought us back into relations with Himself. Love came to town and dwelt among us, we see the sprinklings of love left from his glory.

People don't tend to win awards for being the worst at loving others.
People don't want to read books that teach us to love our families less.
I never tell my spouse I love her a little less than yesterday.
Love doesn't just win, it grows.

Stop plantings churches. A plan for moving into the future

I was watching the worldwide developers conference in 1997 featuring steve jobs. One basic principle he kept going back to were: get everyone in apple working together with a singular vision...and, identifying the many "holes" in the industry and going after them first and better than anyone else.

Obviously, this vision has succeed.

While I am not a huge fan of using too many business models to apply to the church, I have no problem copying obi-wan, I mean steve jobs. Before I explain how I think we could learn and apply these visions and best practices, I have to get this out. I don't believe we should continue to plant churches as our key practice moving forward. I believe that the church is the bride of christ, and God's main change agent for pour world. So what's my problem. The idea BEHIND church planting is kind of like giving cows huge doses of growth hormones. (hang on, you'll see the connection). You see, in the beef industry, it makes sense to grow your cattle as fast as possible and we've really gotten amazing at it. They feed them, shoot em up with hormones, keep them stationary. This has dramatically decreased the time it takes to get a cow to the size they need to butcher. As you might guess, there are a few drawbacks. Because the cows grow faster than normal, and stay standing still for so long, the meat is much less quality than the beef we grew up with several decades ago. Not only is it bad, fatty beef...it has high levels of growth hormone in them that cause little kids to go into premature development. They are also studying the connection between this new fast/cheap beef and the rise in development problems and ADHD. So, a few years ago know, many church leaders adopted business plans of growth and success and applied them onto how we do, and run church today. Bigger, faster, better.

Much of our current church planting leaders, training and materials are still in this same mind set. Get a church from birth to fat ASAP,so we can make it into lower quality meat and reproduce the processes over and over...all the while conning everyone by telling them the "meat" is just as good as the slow-fed, grass fed cows we grew up with. Amazingly, Jesus never commanded us to plant churches. Ever. Not one time. If you don't believe me, go look it up. Jesus commanded his people to go out and make people into disciples of Jesus. In fact, the only thing Jesus mentioned about His church is that it would exist in the spaces of the world where paganism once reigned and that HE would build it.

So, I am convinced...we must focus on the things Jesus told us to focus on. Make disciples. his church will keep growing, and yes, we might play a part of that. But, a church must be allowed to grow without quick start fertilizer in the soil. It must simmer for taste. It must lean on and listen to the Spirit. It must be a beacon where the love for one another will draw those in darkness to God's light. Stop planting, that is Jesus' job. Worry about watering, weeding, and nurturing. As your "plant" gets too big for your pot, get a bigger pot (or a lot of little ones) and re-pot your church. Watch out for viruses, bugs that chew on your plant, or the bullies who come through and ride their bikes over your plant. Believe in Jesus enough to let HIM grow his church.


Sent from my iPad

Selfish faith

If you follow my site, you have no doubt felt my growing discomfort with the state of American Christendom. Particularly with how the  American value of self-centeredness has reshaped our theology, ecclesiology and especially our missiology.

Here is what I mean by all that. we now tend to see our faith through the rubric of how it serves us, rather than how we serve faith. We over emphasize our "personal salvation," our "personal devotion," our "personal experience " in common practices and rites like worship, baptism, communion...

Even when we do "mission trips" or "evangelism," the basis we use to rate it's value is through what WE got out of it.

Christendom is a faith designed around the practice of self-less-ness and not self-ish-ness. In our Bible,  we are called to die to ourselves, forgive our enemies, seek to serve others as Christ did. Frankly, I just don't see these core values taught nor practiced in Am ericanized Christendom.

To make matters worse, the way many churches respond to this shift in selfish faith is to adapt their operations to feed the self-focused faith. So we have create d generations of Christians who deeply believe that their personal relationship with Christ is of higher importance than serving others, caring for others, etc...

narcissistic faith

Yesterday, I sat down for a cup of amazing tea from Sparrows with a new friend of mine. As we were sharing stories, we began talking about different forms of church and worship. In this conversation, I actually took a second to recount something that God is teaching me: Worship isn't about me. 

That's probably obvious to most people, and it's something that I have been arguing for awhile now. But as I recounted my own ministry life and how my perceptions of how church should or should not "be," I realized that I had fallen into the same trap that I rallied against, that the worship of my congregation should somehow be catered to me. It's absurd really, but it has become (I believe) the quintessential idea behind American Evangelical - consumer based - faith. The whole idea that we call the process of finding a new church "shopping" should raise red flags. For when we "shop," we are looking for something we like, are comfortable with, able to invest in, and meets our expectations. Then, if one of these platitudes stops matching our expectations, we leave the shop and find a new label to acquire. 

Honestly, this isn't true for everyone, nor have I truly "shopped" around...but, to be honest, I have been guilty of criticizing the worship of some congregations, because it wasn't pleasing to me. If worship should be pleasing, it should please God...and I don't think he's that  overly impressed with how we worship, but rather with the manner that we serve Him and love others. The WHOLE reason we people of Christian faith come together to express our worship is God centered, not "me" centered. I can imagine God sitting in the back row asking, "Hey, it's great you all are having a great time but when are you going to talk with me?"  

I can hear some people already responding with, "but can't worship be pleasing to me?" Of course it can, there are many emotional responses I have with deep worship, but the fact is, that isn't that important. When I sit and critique a sermon, of the use of a song after 100 sunday's in row, I am only deepening the problem of consumer-based worship. I am not saying that we shouldn't have new music, new liturgies nor am I saying we shouldn't present a professional experience for our corporate gatherings, in fact, we should be doing a lot better. We should be making such an amazing, creative and artistic expression of our Creator that the world will try to mimic us and not the other way around. What I AM saying is that if we step back and evaluate WHY we are doing what we do, is it to please God or to please the tastes of the people? Yes, our artistic expression in worship is going to look and sound different in different places, as it should...but the motivation behind how we worship should not be to please ourselves, and above all, not me. 
​