By April Terry

On the drive home Friday night, I was listening to Joe Wright, English filmmaker, of “The Soloist” as he was being interviewed on NPR regarding his experience with the homeless during the filming of his movie. It is widely known that he used real homeless persons as extras in the movie. What struck me about the interview was when he commented about the way that the homeless take care of each other. He said that he learned a lot of things while he spent time with them and he described the community of homeless as a close-knit community that takes care of one another. Significantly, he remarked that it was nothing like that in Beverly Hills.

What is it about the increasing availability to funds and money that somehow sets us apart from our community? I think that our sense of community is a direct result of our need for relationship. Perhaps we mistakenly think that if we have enough food, money, access to material wealth, and responsibility, we no longer need each other in the big scheme of things. Perhaps we have mistaken independence for isolation. Perhaps we have a tendency to throw money at the issues, rather than our time.

There seems to be a connection between needing others and needing God as well. Jesus did say, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Immediately after He said that folks were shocked by His statement and exclaimed that it was impossible, but Jesus’ response was that “with God, all things are possible for those who believe.” Perhaps if we perceive the Kingdom of heaven as a state of love, rather than a specific place, it is easier for us to think about our connection to God and to others. Over and over, Jesus seemed to contrast wealth from spirituality.
Read the rest of this entry »

by Elizabeth Chapin

I’ve been thinking about Christian conversion and how we often view our own stories in a linear fashion and want to mark some point in time on a straight line from birth to death that marks our transition from not-a-Christian to Christian.

I have had discussions over the years with Christians on topics like, “Once saved, always saved,” and, “Can someone lose their salvation?” Interestingly, there are verses in the Bible that seem to leave these questions open.

All of this talk presumes a view of conversion as an “in-out” proposition. Let’s take a look at this in-out question…

Imagine Jesus invites Jill in. Jill accepts the invitation and lives in Christ for a number of years. Then one day, she decides she wants out. Can she get out? According to “once saved always saved” Jill can never get out. She may choose to act like she’s out, but she’s really still in and living in denial.

Then we have Andy, he wants in, but he’s not really sure he can live up to the standards of being in. He tries for a while, but royally screws up one day and is kicked out. Most of the time Andy still acts like he’s in, but he’s afraid if he tries to get back in, he’ll just screw up. According to “you can lose your salvation” thinking, Andy is out and will only be let back in if he behaves properly.

In either case, the in-out questions is answered in regards to a point in time. Is this the question we should be asking and trying to answer from our point of view?

In the Gospels Jesus uses many different metaphors or expressions when talking to people about faith:

you must be born again to see the kingdom of God (John 3:3),

he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him (John 6:56),

I am the light of the world, he who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life (John 8:12),

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish: and no one shall snatch them out of My hand (John 10:27-28),

I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes n Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die (John 11:25-26),

I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me (John 14:6),

…and many more.

In just these few passages of Scripture we find complexity in what it means to be a Christian. Receiving, partaking, responding, relating, believing, choosing – all are part of the process of being converted, of choosing to follow Christ.

We are fooling ourselves if we think we can boil this mystery of being born again down into a brief moment in time when a person prays a prayer or walks an aisle to the altar. Even in physical human birth, the seed takes nine months to grow to the point of being birthed into this world.

Some have found it helpful to talk about different models of conversion, using:

set theory where in-out thinking is called bounded-set thinking, focused on the boundaries and whether a person is in or out; or

centered-set thinking focuses more on the process and the direction of the individual – are they moving toward the center – which in this case would be Jesus – or are they moving away.

Both of these models of conversion are still very linear and don’t leave much room for the complexities of life as we experience it.

Perhaps the study of complex systems and chaos theory could provide us with a workable model for conversion and help to change our thinking about evangelism and discipleship.

The term chaos when used in relation to chaos theory is at odds with the common usage of the term. We commonly think of chaos as complete disorder, but chaotic systems have the appearance of disorder but are actually governed by a set of deterministic laws. In applying this to a person’s experience of conversion, chaos theory would allow for seemingly random behavior within God’s system of grace, or as I like to say, unpredictability governed by grace.

We would do well to accept the variability and unpredictability of the activity of God in the world and leave the questions of who is in and who is out, who is moving towards or who is moving away, to God who governs it all with grace.

When we place conversion as the goal of our evangelism we run the risk of becoming judge and jury of a shallow faith that doesn’t resemble the kind of Kingdom living Jesus came to usher in.

Elizabeth’s original post can be found HERE.

You’ve probably seen the commercial for Staples where there is this easy button and suddenly everything just works out once you push it. I have a coworker who revels in the opportunity to let people know that there is no easy button for the software package that we are training people to use. Technical problems sunk our senior ministry this Sunday in the third service, and it threw me into a tailspin of confusion. I forgot words to songs that I’d been singing for years and things just went worse from there. For that reason, it seemed like we struggled through that last service. Add to that the fact that we were suffering in 90 degree temperatures out here in Southern Calif. and you have the recipe for a difficult afternoon. Yet, I was still greeted afterward with a grateful bundle of smiles this afternoon from our seniors; Although my own personal ability to minister was derailed to a certain extent. Oftentimes, this ministry is just plain hard work.

My son started coming along with us to do this from the beginning and he was about four or five years old. Now, at the age of eleven and entering into the hardest years of his life, he actually gets community service credit for his work in our minstry, but it doesn’t put any blinders on the fact that it takes a lot of commitment to keep doing it. Today, he missed several fun opportunities because of our ministry and when he was upset over it, we had to explain that that is often the cost of commitment.

Read the rest of this entry »