Mission Possible VI: "Just Go Now!"

One of my favorite books that I read to my children when they were young, was the Dr. Seuss book; Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now! The essence of the book is simply telling Marvin K. Mooney to "go", repeatedly. It never says where to go, or why to go, but just to go. Marvin can go by foot or by cow; he can go by skates, skis, or flying hat. He can even go by a crunk car (an imaginative and creative vehicle!). Just go Marvin!
But Marvin is a stubborn fella, and needs lots of prodding.

In the previous blog posts I've written, hopefully, I've made a case regarding Jesus and The Father acting in mission. The Bible clearly is a book on mission. From beginning to end, God reaches outward. He is always on the move, revealing Himself. I've already shared many passages and examples that God is a seeking and saving Father, and such was the mission of Jesus. And further, that we are His ambassadors, apostles (sent ones), and disciples left on earth to further His mission. All of us are called to be His witness, His fragrance, His light and salt. It's not a calling for some elite few, like the Marines' slogan: "the few, the proud", but for every one of us who call ourselves followers of Christ. Just like Marvin K. Mooney, we are exhorted to "go" and please "go now" by the Spirit of God. It doesn't matter the ways or means by which we go, (that is left up to us to creatively explore). Just go!


So what keeps most of us from going? Fear, laziness, procrastination, selfish absorption, busyness, past failures, bad theology, time management, all can bog us down into doing nothing. We console ourselves in our complacency thinking we're living by grace and not by works. In many circles these days, obedience is on par with legalism, and sacrifice passe'.
Please don't misunderstand me saying we need to start "working" for God, or living a lifestyle of frantic and fleshly works. I don't advocate that at all. Grace is a daily importation given to us to experience anything of God. I live by His dispensed and empowered Grace daily. But the fact remains, we are called to act on what we believe, and show our faith and love by our actions.
I challenge you to spend some time reading in the book of John, chapter 14, and see how much Jesus himself (in addressing the disciples with important "last minute" emphases) mentions the words of love, obedience, work, do, evidence, command.

The truth is, we show our love by obedience. Obedience is an action, not a thought process. An action presupposes we are doing something that communicates our love for God!

In the last blog post, I shared some ways of thinking and acting missionally in the daily contexts and aspects of our normal lives. Using the abilities, skills, talents, knowledge, gifts and proximity to people in our neighborhoods, jobs, and daily activities to enter into the lives of the people around us. To create relationships and bridges that allow us to be an influence and agents of love, grace, forgiveness and hope.

If fear seems to overwhelm your desire to go, start with small things that have little risk and see God take your small step into greater leaps. Fear only has the power you allow it to have over you. Jump in and see your fear turn into fun!

Have you failed with some attempts in the past? Great! We learn best by our mistakes. Take what you've gained from it and try again with a new and improved version. Jesus doesn't hold our mistakes against us as we are growing, as many of our human relationships do. He urges us forward, giving us grace to grow and space to learn. He is excited when we try, regardless if it isn't perfectly excecuted. We grow in humility when we fail, and our character is formed to be even more honoring of Jesus. We should love our failures for what they achieve in Kingdom terms, and not let our pride keep us stuck in immaturity.

Procrastinator? Accountability is your best friend. We are not islands. All of us are created to need one another. Find someone in your life who will encourage and hold you to your word and the true desire of your heart to reach out in mission. Procrastination can easily be overcome by involving others who will go with you, and gives momentum to an action prompted by faith.

So time is your issue? Let's face the truth, we have time. We have the time for the things which we choose to have time for. Yes, we live busy lives, getting more and more complicated each year it seems. But we are in charge of how we "book" our time slots, and I think the issue is more of priorities than time. What do you really value? That is how you will allot your time.

I know people (and I'm one of them) who can spend hours on the computer each week (Facebook anyone?), or watching movies, favorite television shows or reading books, blogs and articles. I can diddle away a whole afternoon and have nothing much to show for it, and its easy to do. However, I do make time for working out, getting dinner together, spending time blogging, being with my family, visiting with friends, building connections and relationships, living simple church, and more because its important to me. I spend time in the things I value and prioritize with my actions. We all do this, consciously or not.

Often times, combining things together helps in using our time in more of a missional and intentional way. For instance, I will ask a neighbor to join me in grocery shopping and doing it together we build relationship while doing a task that takes time. Or, we'll invite someone to join us in our family "play" events like camping, game playing, BBQ's, where not only are we having great family time, but we are also giving our children a chance to see living missionally is natural and easy.

You don't always have to "make a new slot" of time to live missionally, you just need to start thinking incarnationally. Inviting people into your lives and the unique way it unfolds each day, week, month and year.

Reframing life; from slots of time that you have available, into a life that is available. Available and obedient to allow Jesus to live through you in His mission to seek and save, to heal and restore, to free and grant hope and life eternal.

Marvin K. Mooney, will you please GO NOW!

Mission Possible: Part V "Big Bellies!"

Let's get candid here. I'm going to tell you the truth.
Do you know you have a big belly?

More than just a 'bit of a pot', but a really large girth, and your ready to burst!

As a follower and a disciple of Jesus Christ, your belly is made to be big. God designed us to be holding tanks and reservoirs of Him. Full to overflowing. Ready to burst and to be spilled out.

John 7:38; "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."

I have been talking about living a missional life in these last few blogs. Living in such a way that the people around you, who don't know Jesus, can come to know Him because they know you! They can have a taste of the living water, and begin to see what they are missing!

Too many Christians I know have few, if any, friends that are not believers. They surround themselves with people who believe and look exactly like them. They are content to keep the living water flowing back and forth within their select group. I'm not saying this is wrong, but I am saying that we are missing the whole purpose of Christ, if all we do is keep the water to ourselves.

This is not what Jesus did. It is not how the Apostle Paul made an impact in every region he journeyed in.

Jesus was known for "being a friend of sinners"; prostitutes, tax collectors, corrupt businessmen, Samaritans, and people discarded from the religious circles of the day like the lame, the lepers, the demonized.

Jesus could of kept his time on earth limited to hanging out the the disciples. Enjoying his teaching time with them every day for three years; teaching, talking, praying, training. But he didn't do that! Instead, He sought people out and entered into their lives.

It's just too easy, safe, and frankly selfish, for us to water ourselves and each other and let those who don't know the Living Water, remain thirsty. That is NOT why we are filled to overflowing! The very idea of "overflow" illustrates water that cannot be contained. It fills us up yes, and then it spills out, and it spreads to those around us.

Look, we've spent enough time on ourselves haven't we? Aren't you full enough yet?

For years, and in many contexts of both traditional and simple church circles, I have heard the phrase; "We aren't ready yet!"

WHAT?

We have been reading book after book, blog after blog, going to conferences year after year, getting prayer, ministry, words of "whatever" for years! Isn't it time for us to stop spending "our riches" on ourselves and spend it upon those who ARE really empty?

Jesus said, to the disciples gathered around him who were amazed that He had been speaking with a Samaritan woman; "Lift up your eyes and LOOK on the fields, that they are white (ready) for harvest." John 4:35. He was demonstrating how to look beyond their little group, and to see "what the Father was doing" in reaching the unreached. Jesus stayed in the village of Samaritans for two days and the bible says that "many more believed". This was a new concept to the disciples, who were content with a message for and the fellowship with, those they were familiar with.

It's time to step out folks. Into the great adventure of missional living.

God has the plan. He knows where He is leading us in touching the lives of people not familiar to us.
God takes what He has placed within us, and empowers it. He takes what is in the natural and makes it super natural. He waits on us to make the first move in faith, and then He adds the impact. The power, the affect.

For example; my husband can really hit a baseball. In fact, at one time he was on the Minnesota Twins farm team being coached to the big leagues. Hitting a baseball over a fence was fairly natural to him, but it was all in his own strength and ability. However, if there was a "rear wind" as he got to the plate, he hit a home run every single time!

That is how it is for us. We step up to the plate, bat in hand, and swing at the pitch, knowing that the Spirit of God is our back wind, empowering our natural ability to supernatural home runs! The good news is that we ALL make the team. No one is benched, unless you bench yourself!

Okay, let's talk practicality. Make the discussion more than just my ramblings. How can you live missionally in the practicality of your daily life with those who don't know Jesus yet?

What ya got?

Are you good with budgets and managing money? Help someone you know who needs to learn and manage their money better.

Are you good at construction, plumbing, electrical, etc.? Do you know how many men and some women, who would love a mentor/teacher to help them with a household project that they are intimated by because they don't know how to do it? You be the one willing to come alongside to teach them.
Cars? Can you fix and teach some basics? Motorcycle rider? Can you invite some neighbor you've seen on a motorcycle to a ride and lunch one day and get to know them?

Are you a good dad or mom? There are so many young men, women, and couples don't have true fathering/mothering and someone helping them be fathers/mother themselves.

Can you cook? How about teaching a young couple some great recipes and doing them together building a relationship? Have a neighborhood cooking party to share recipes.
Like kids? Know any young couples who can't afford a night out and a babysitter? Offer to be the babysitter sometime.
Are you an encourager? An optimistic person with coaching gifts? Find out the dreams and hopes of a neighbor or co-worker and make yourself their greatest encourager and supporter.

Like to BBQ, do campfires, and roast marshmallows? Make it a regular event and fun for all! Make your house the fun house on the block!

Are you good at parties? How about giving a birthday party for a neighbor or their kids. Go all out on the decorations and make them feel special and celebrated! Or a wedding, baby or housewarming shower?

Do you like eating out? How about taking some folks out that can't afford it or even buy them a couple gift certificates as encouragement for their marriage, birthday, life, new job, etc.?

Do you like shopping? How about taking a elderly person or someone without transportation around shopping? You'd be surprised how many older folks live around you and don't have much money for food. Their cupboards are often quite empty.
Do you listen well and like to hear stories? Older folks have great stories, are often isolated in their homes and are quite open to a new relationship.

Do you have a car to drive people without transportation to doctor appointments, job interviews, errands etc.?

Been down to a state job search site recently? It's a place loaded with people to help write resumes, practice job interviews, drive to interviews, and encourage.

Do you like cross cultural venues? Lot's of refugees live in every area of the country. Plenty of folks who are living isolated and lonely lives. Legals and not, does it really matter? Help them learn English, understand papers that come in the mail. Be an advocate for them in a new culture and help them navigate it. Help them set up their households.

Like to vacation? Ever think of taking someone who can't afford it or isn't in your Christian club?

Love Christmas? How about going out and buying the "whole celebration" of a tree, ornaments, food, decorations and gifts for a family you know is struggling this year financially, and you could bring Jesus to them this Christmas?

Look around you. Use what skills, gifts and knowledge you have. Listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Serve. Build relationships. Love authentically. Be there and be accessible.

The people around us are not a project, but are instead are an offer of a relationship. In our culture, we're not so good at relationships. We want the quick, the uncommitted, the 'no strings' and 'no cost' kind of outreach into people's lives. But we can change.

We can touch people in every context of our lives if we choose to do so. We can be to those around us the fragrance of Christ and a light in dark place. In closing, I'll tell you a story from my own life that illustrates this.

I had built a friendship with an Iranian family that came as refugees. They spoke no English, and knew only a few distant relatives living here. I helped them learn English, set up a home, get enrolled in schools and find jobs. We spent time together, eating, shopping, doing a lot of pantomime (which works as a great language bridge) and building a friendship. I had a number of opportunities to pray for them, and share about my faith and the differences with their own (Baha'i). One day, I was invited to a party in the Iranian community and my friends took me around and made introductions. They were speaking Farsi, and I eventually asked them after about the fifth introduction; "How are you introducing me? It sounds different than a regular introduction of my name?" (by this time I was learning basic Farsi). My friend replied that she was introducing me as; "the one who shines like the moon in a dark place".

Mission Possible: Part IV " A Servant First"

Many years ago, I had a dream one night that changed my life in a dramatic way.

In the dream I was on the banks of a river that was flowing fast and deep. I stepped into the river and walked upstream wanting to find its source. After a time, I reached a fork in the river. On the left side of this fork, it was clear that this was the side with the main source of the water. The right side, in contrast, had barely enough water flowing in it to cover my feet. Of course I wanted the deep water, and to follow it to the source!

As I walked upstream in the river on the deep side, I saw in the distance what appeared to be a huge city on a mountain from which the river flowed. The city was all white and illuminated, and yet full of color. It was magnificant and breathtaking and I innately knew the Lord dwelled there, and THAT was where I wanted to be!

As I excitedly made my way up to that city, I hit an invisible barrier that stopped me short. Two men suddenly appeared and stood on each side of me, blocking my way. I was irritated with them, and told them I wanted to be let through so I could go on up to the mountain, to that city to be with the Lord. Why would they stop me from that?

They shook their heads no, and pointed to the other river, the shallow one that I had quickly passed by as I chose the deeper side, and they said; "No, you must learn to be a servant first".

I looked over to that sad trickle of water and saw that it lead to and through a run down and neglected town. The water slowly moved through the center of it, and in some places even appeared to dry up altogether. The people looked horrible! They were poor, shabby, beaten down and seemed to wander aimlessly throughout the broken town.

I died inside.

Go THERE? I gazed back up to the beautiful mountain and couldn't believe it! I could be on the mountain, in the presence of the Lord! I could be in the deepest of all water, filled and satisfied, but instead I had to go where there was barely any water? And to make it worse, with people who looked like they didn't care one way or another about it!

Then I saw the word "RUTH" written over the town. I was sunk, and I knew it.

The meaning of the name Ruth means friend and companion.

I understood what was wanted of me. I was to go and be a friend and companion to those destitute people, living with them in their sad little town.

I would serve them.

I would serve the One who wanted me there.

Jesus comes to us, to serve us in our own little destitute worlds, so we can know Him and the Father.

In Matthew 20:28, Jesus says of Himself; "just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

He sends us to serve in His likeness.

In Philippians 2:5 - 8 it says; "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus; Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on the cross!"

It's easy to serve ourselves and seek the deeper water of fellowship with the Lord. That comes pretty natural to our self centered nature. It's even fairly easy to serve the Body of Christ and those who appreciate and understand the core of what motivates us.

It is not easy to serve those who don't know Him and walk blindly in the dark. To be light, salt and the fragrance of Christ is much more challenging and draining with those who live for the world. The warfare involved adds even more difficulties to overcome.

But it is our calling.

Jesus said in Matthew 4:12-13; "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means; I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners".

We are all called to be missionaries to the world around us. To befriend those in it, as Jesus did, and come alongside them as companions. To live the message of Christ before them and with a credibility that comes as we serve and love them, entering into their lives through relationship.

"How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written; "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" Romans 10: 14-15

Consider yourself sent........

Mission Possible: Part III "Yes We Can!"

When Barak Obama used the phrase "Yes, we can!" in his campaign for President, it touched something within people, and I'm not talking about politics here. We all want to feel we have purpose and a unique contribution to make in life. We are created to be ignited, set apart and set lose for the purposes that God holds in His Heart for us.

It's not for the few, the chosen or the special. It's not for the paid, ordained, and trained.

It is for each and every one of us!

The choice of knowing Him, and these purposes to their fulfillment however, is our choice. And we make these choices on a daily basis.

In the previous blog posting I mentioned how Jesus lived a missional life, and how He is our example.

First, and over all, He lived in continual intimacy and fellowship with the Father. As the result of this fellowship, it is clear that His mission was to bring that same intimacy and restored relationship with God to mankind through salvation. Each day God, the Father, gave Jesus opportunities to reveal this personally to people in a variety of ways and contexts. Jesus received His daily "memos" of what was on the agenda for that day from the Father. The fruit of this is evident. It is incredible how much Jesus accomplished in the short three years of living this missional lifestyle of "only doing that which The Father showed him to do".

What kind of impact could we each see in our own lives if we believed and acted in such a way!

Jesus said in John 14:12; "I tell you the truth, that anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father".

Do you believe Jesus meant these words, or was he being overly enthusiastic about the potential of those who believed in him and acted on it?

Could we see the lives around us transformed like that of Zaccheus, the demoniac, Matthew, Mary, Paul, the Centurion, the Samaritan woman and so many others?

Yes, we can!

In 1 Cor 1:5 - 7 Paul addresses the carnal, immature and weak church of Corinth with these words; " in everything you have been enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you. So that you are not lacking in any gift. "

Just how do you interpret the words; in everything, enriched, in all, not lacking in any?

I'd say that's pretty unambiguous.

Now, do you really live and act like you believe it?

The Apostle Paul says in 2 Cor.13:5; "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test?"

If we have Christ in us we have all that we need! We are rich! We are loaded with supernatural everything!

If we are lacking, it is only in our belief to know this is true.

Just what do you believe if you don't believe this? And if you do believe it, are you acting like it? Remember also the scriptures exhort us to not just be hearers but doers of the Word so it takes root in us and becomes a reality in our lives.

In Luke 24: 45 it says Jesus "opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures" and charged them to go out and preach what they were given. In 24:48; "You are my witnesses of these things".

You have gifts, talents, skills, abilities, and more that God wants to use to touch others that don't know Him. And these are meant to be empowered by His Grace, directed by the Spirit. To be His witnesses. His ambassadors. His message.

Go out and be missional in His power, promise and strength!

Yes, we can!

Mission Possible: Part II "Yes to Mission!"

There is a controversy brewing and I just don't get it.

It's all about the word missional. "To be or not to be", borrowing from William Shakespeare.

I've been hearing and reading discussions in the Body of Christ, and in particular the Organic, Simple and Missional movement, about the value, worth and sequence of being missional.

Debates and conversations over things like; "does Christology proceed Missiology" or vise versa ? "Worship, not mission, is the ultimate goal for the church." "Missional is really a covering for the works of our flesh." "There is too much emphasis on being missional, and we need first to have more fellowship with Jesus and with each other in community".

I'm personally frustrated with these conversations.

How can you have intimacy with the Lord and NOT live in a "mission". A mission that others would know Him! Intimacy results in an alignment with the desires and heart of God. His heart is missional! He wants His creation to Know Him!

Worship is the ultimate goal over mission?

Mission is worship. Mission is obedience. Obedience is worship.

Jesus honored the Father by obeying Him in all things, the first being His being willing to come to earth and live among us for awhile and then dying for our sins. His prayers were heard because he was submitted to the Father. My mission is to worship Him with my life and with all that I have been given. Far more than the songs I sing or the money I give. Remember the parable of the talents? I want to multiply it all to honor and worship Him.

We honor the Father, as Jesus did, when He walked in their shared mission to provide redemption and relationship to humanity. Jesus did only that which the Father told Him to do, every day. He had the overall mission, and then the day to day missions. If you study the daily life of Jesus, you see that He was the epitome of living missional. He could of sat on top of the mountain every day, basking in the intimate presence of God, but He didn't. How blessed we are that he instead revealed the mission of the Father each day to people in a multiple of ways.

God Himself is mission and the source of all mission.

Mission is not initiated by the flesh of men, but by the Spirit of God.

He gave His only son, SO THAT others may know and experience the incredible relationship of knowing Him. That's His mission and desire (that all would come to the knowledge of Him.) Without mission, no one would know His great love!

I know Him, and this incredible gift He "missioned" to give me 25 years ago. I want others around me to know and experience what I have! It's too awesome and incredible to keep to myself! It is the Spirit of God within me that initiates and motivates this, not my flesh. It's not our flesh that pursues mission, it is the Holy Spirit working out the desires of the Father and Son.

Jesus told the disciples to wait until they received the Holy Spirit and then they would "go out" and tell others and make more disciples who would be filled with this same Spirit. When they did receive Him at Pentecost, it motivated them into the greatest missional movement the world has experienced.

Jesus is my example in all things. Jesus is the ultimate model of living a missional life that was full of intimacy with the Father, fruitfulness and perfect obedience. He said, if you see Me, you see the Father, and as He sent Me, so I send you.....

That's enough for me.........

Mission Possible: Part I

I love watching movies like the Jason Bourne trilogies and Mission Impossible. These guys are extra-ordinary in every way.

Smart, strong, multi talented (is there anything they don't know how to do?). They have almost super human abilities to accomplish seemingly impossible tasks. They have incredible drive and purpose persevering through difficult and injurious events, improvising great feats with whatever is available to them at the time. They make an impact everywhere they go.

They accomplish their mission, every time.

I'd like to be a Jason Bourne; strong, capable, invincible, multi-talented and really smart. He is just good and successful at everything he attempts!

In reality, I'm probably more like Gideon (Judges 6). He was wasn't like Jason Bourne at all! In fact, on the surface he was about as far from Bourne as you could get. He was kind of wimpy and weak, pretty average, fearful, not all that smart and hardly a leader in the community. Not someone you'd think would make any kind of impact and complete any mission of value.

But hey! My (and yours too) lucky day! We don't live in the world of Jason Bourne.

Instead, we live in the Kingdom of oxymoron's; the Kingdom of God. Where our weakness's are not a liability. Instead, they are an asset! A Kingdom where we do have missions to accomplish and lives to impact.

Scripture says; " There are not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. " (1 Co 1:26.). The Apostle Paul says of himself; " I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling", ( 1 Co 2:3.) He goes on to say that his weakness resulted in a "demonstration of the Spirit and of the power of God" vs. 4. As good as Bourne is, he can't even come close to someone walking in the power of God! Talk about invincible!

Gideon with trumpets and pitchers, defeated an enemy.

A stone in the hand of a young David brought down a giant.

A widow in Zarephath said; "I have no bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl, and a little oil in the jar", (1 Ki 17:12) Yet, it multiplied for many "days" to feed the three in her household. Scripture is loaded with examples like these.

God does not cease in doing impossible missions through weak people. Rather, we falter in our belief that He will do it through us! We are looking at ourselves, instead of an awesome God!

In John 6, Jesus asked Phillip how to feed the multitude of people gathered on the mountain who had gathered to listen to Jesus. Phillip comments that with what they have in their purse, it was not sufficient to buy food for the multitude.

Andrew however, saw the potential of "the small" in the hand of Jesus. He didn't know how the insignificant contribution of 2 fish and 5 barely loaves would help, but he offered it anyway, trusting Jesus would do SOMETHING with it. And Jesus did! Something powerful!

Today, most of us only have a couple fish and maybe, a few loaves. Our trumpets are rusty and dust filled. Maybe our jars and purses are empty. We're feeling pretty wimpy and weak.

We're seeing what we DO NOT HAVE, instead of what we DO HAVE!

Are we thinking like Phillip or Andrew?

We are called to be obedient with what He gives us.

To use it!

That is so simple really.

Whatever you have in gifts, abilities, relationships, venues, and material goods, are opportunities to see the Kingdom of oxymoron's manifest. Watch Him take it, use and multiply it into fruitfulness and acts of His power that you never knew was possible. He will!

Can you imagine your life powerful and impacting?

God wants it to be.

In fact, He waits on you to see Him prove it.

Your weakness's are your assets but only if you see it as so. They are not limitations to Him. Our God is waiting and willing to show you! We have the most powerful Source that ever existed in and through us, wanting to reveal Himself to and through us so that the world may Know Him!

We don't have to be the Jason Bournes of our times to accomplish the mission. We just need to step into the missions available to us every day. Trusting God and the Kingdom of oxymoron's to manifest itself as we step into our 'mission possibles'.

In the words from the old Mission Impossible series of the 1960's and 1970's: "Your mission, should you decide to accept it....."

Live Changes and Become the Model

Most of us would probably view ourselves as teachable and trainable; that we have not become set in our ways, practices, and ideas of interpreting and expressing our faith. That we remain open to the mid course correction opportunities that come our way.

In reality however, making a change is difficult. Remaining teachable throughout life is a challenge. It takes a lot of humility and courage. As we mature, we're supposed to know more right? Or at least have people thinking that about us.

Not everyone wants to take the leap into a mid course change that often feels like free fall from the cliff of status quo.

The simple, organic, and missional Christian walk is filled with opportunities for mid course corrections, and the free fall is real. It can be pretty unnerving and unsettling.

The good news is that God provides not only the parachute but knows exactly where to place our landing. On His target, if we trust Him to do so.

When I teach a motorcycle riding class, I do a "demo" before each lesson. We model for our students what we would like them to learn and then practice it for a while on the riding range. Many people come to our classes with previous riding experience and they have developed some techniques that at best are okay, but hinder them from riding more skillfully and effectively. At worst they are harmful and even dangerous for them. The value of having a demo for these riders is more than just instructional, as it is for the new riding students. For the more experienced riders it means they have to make a conscious, and often dramatic change in how they think, ride and maneuver the motorcycle. For some, they can't make the change and continue on doing as they have always done. For the new students however, no mid course corrections are needed. They have an advantage. They don't have to change, they just learn.

I don't see much of a difference in the paradigm shifting going on within the Body of Christ at this juncture. Doing things "as we have always done them" is being challenged, and the rules for what church is or isn't, are being explored. New "demos" are displayed before us, and we are all in a learning curve of change. Some can make the mid course corrections, and others cannot.

We are in a teachable moment in history. A time where change is in the wind.

The Kingdom is being discussed outside of seminary by folks without theology degrees and they are doing these discussions in their homes, work places, coffee shops, bars and all sorts of unorthodox settings. People are actually reading their own bibles for instruction rather than just listening to an hour of teaching once a week. Those who have not been "full time paid ministers" are finding out they too are called to serve the King in full time, 24/7 obedience and availability, and they are challenging the notion that there is sacred work and then there is secular work. The whole Army is being called into action, rather than the few, and the momentum forward is evident.

Not too unlike when Jesus Himself walked the earth. The ultimate teaching moment! Another time where change was in the wind.

He was after all; "just Joseph's son". Those He called to join Him in this radical change were fishermen, tax collectors, women and nobodies! He had church on mountains, in boats, at wells and in homes. He did such unorthodox things like spit in dirt and smear it in blind eyes, forgive a woman caught in adultery, share the Kingdom with prostitutes and tax collectors, healing on the Sabbath and breaking the sacred rules on a regular basis. It was like He carried a big banner that proclaimed; "I came to bring change and bring it more abundantly"!

Those who watched and learned from the "demos" of Jesus and made the midcourse corrections, prospered in Kingdom terms. Those who didn't, remained stagnant in their institution. White washed tombs, blind leading the blind.

Ivan Illich, was an Austrian philosopher critical of contemporary institutions like education, medicine and economic development. He spoke about something called counterproductivity; which is the concept that describes a phenomenon that when an institution reaches a critical point and forms a monopoly, without knowing it, they begin to impede their own performance.

This is what happened to Israel. They started out with the very Words of God, handwritten on stone tablets with His own Hand. And there was more! A great book written of the love and commitment of a God who desired relationship with those He created.

Remember the Tabernacle? The very Presence of God hanging out with His people! Wow, the first God in a Box! But that was His box of making...not the one we put Him into. There is a big difference. Jesus came to us again in a box of human form.

Pretty quickly in time, the words of love and fatherly instruction became institutionalized rules, formats, and all about performance. Systems, professionalism and elitism replaced intimacy, simplicity, dependency and the value of each life in Kingdom realities. Jesus saw Israel as sheep without a shepherd, harassed and downtrodden.

We have our own form of institutionalized counterproductivity today.

In the book of Matthew, 18:3-4, Jesus says; "Truly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven".

Children are teachable. They accept their dependency. They make the corrections needed when confronted with the instruction.

My motorcycle students that are new to riding, have the openness and humility to take the instruction and learn. Some of my more experienced riders also humble themselves and make the corrections in how they ride and maneuver the motorcycle.

What about us? Are we teachable, trainable and humble enough to make any mid course corrections that the Holy Spirit is leading us into? Can we become and stay as little children and experience all of the Kingdom as we live out this simple, organic and missional life? Can we jump into the unknown, trusting our free fall to the One who knows where to land us?

One of my favorite quotes from Ivan Illich is where he says; "We can only live changes; we cannot think our way to humanity. Every one of us, every group, must become the model of that which we desire to create."

"O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty; Nor do I involve myself in great matters, Or in things too difficult for me. Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forever." Ps 131