Pulling Weeds

Hey guys,

This morning I was meeting with some men (5:40 am) and as we looked at Scripture, I was struck by the statement that God took King David “from the sheep pens” (Ps 78:70). God used David’s past life to prepare him for his future ministry. Whatever we have gone through (or are going through), God wants to use it (2 Cor. 1:3-4).

One of the men reminded me of an example of that very truth when we were in Nepal. I had asked him to speak to a group of Tibetan Buddhists. He said he didn’t feel worthy to do stuff like this because he had spent a number of years exploring world religions and eventually ended up an atheist before coming to Christ. We realized that God was getting ready to “redeem” his story by using it to identify with his audience. You see, in his religious pilgrimage he had delved into identifying himself as a Buddhist. So he could speak to them from a place of familiarity, starting where they were but ending up with Jesus.

I think (and know) God is using my life that way. As many of you know, these last several years have been dry spiritually. There has been no big sin, nor have I doubted. Just a dryness that accentuated my hunger (which is actually a form of worship — wanting to be close to someone in a deeper relationship with them is itself a form of love).

Recently, I’ve been realizing some truths that are facilitating a growing love for Christ. For example, I’ve realized that I’ve been spending a lot of energy trying to get something to grow. You can’t wish or will a plant to grow. But you can water it, fertilize it, pull weeds. Even pulling weeds can be fruitless and frustrating (a picture of trying to get rid of sin). If a field is full of weeds like Johnson grass, pulling it up doesn’t get rid of it.

One way of dealing with weeds is to plant a cover crop like soybeans that shadows the weeds out. In effect, you’re better off planting and cultivating good stuff than you are pulling weeds. Don’t get me wrong, I still pull weeds. For example, I’ve quit watching TV shows that cause “weeds” to grow in my mind and life. Recently I’ve begun to pray more. And pray more specifically.

So how can I “cultivate”? Here’s one way: I pray that I would incline my heart to His Word (Ps. 119:36), that He would “open my eyes that I might behold wonderful things from His Word” (Ps. 119:18). I pray that he would “give me an undivided heart” (Ps. 86:11b). Ever try to read Scripture or pray with a “divided heart”? And then I pray that He would “satisfy [me] in the morning with His unfailing love that [I] may sing for joy and be fed all [my] days” (Ps. 90:14). I got this from John Piper’s book When I Don’t Desire God. Then as I go to Scripture, I go differently and God feeds me. I am learning to love it (and Him) more.

It’s not the whole Journey, but it’s a step.

Thanks, Lord.

Tension

Hey Guys,

Today I was meeting with a couple of co-workers who know me well, and I asked them to tell me something they liked about me and something they would change about me.

When they came to the second question, they agreed that one thing I do not do (well) is to give direct feedback. As I processed this, I was aware of several reasons for it (“chicken” being one), but somewhere near the heart of it was a philosophical/theological observation.

It goes like this: it seems almost everything exists in a tension. Anyone who has wrestled with theological concepts has run into this. Biblical Christianity abounds with such “paradoxes”—how can humans make meaningful choices (human responsibility) if God is in total control (divine sovereignty); “we are saved by faith alone, but faith without works is dead”; “the last shall be first”; “work out your salvation by fear and trembling for it is God who works in you”; “God’s Kingdom has come but is not yet”; a gospel which proclaims, “I am so flawed that Christ had to die for me yet I am so loved that Jesus was glad to die for me” (Tim Keller). To be uncomfortable with paradox usually means tilting in one direction or the other, often resulting in imbalance or error. Most heresies come as a result of emphasizing one aspect of the truth over its paradoxical opposite.

Seemingly opposite truths seem to be taught in the Bible, and I feel to promote one at the expense of the other is to do violence to the other. So, I choose to live with the tension. As Andrew Greeley said, “If one wishes to eliminate uncertainty, tension, confusion and disorder from one’s life, there is no point in getting mixed up either with Yahweh or with Jesus of Nazareth.”

Another way of articulating this is to use architectural terms like “form” vs. “function.” For years, I’ve advocated everyone being in small groups. The problem was that they just didn’t work for everybody. People seemed to fall along a bell curve with some really flourishing and some doing okay, but for some people, small groups didn’t work at all.

Recently I have come to the conclusion that I was trying to fit everyone into a “form” when what I really wanted was a “function”—every member being in a significant relationship with at least one other person, with the purpose and result that everyone involved was moving closer to God. In this case, the tension was between form/function. The function did not deny the need for a form (small groups would be one expression).

This concept (that much of life and reality exists in a tension) has relieved me of the pressure that everything has to fit my categories. We (as humans) have this need/desire which probably traces its roots back to the Garden of Eden. There we human beings were seduced by our need to control the creation in a way that usurped God’s prerogatives (e.g., our desire to have the final say on what is good and what is evil).

It has relieved me of the requirement that there be a “right” and “wrong” conclusion for every question or issue. As Andy Stanley says, some things don’t lend themselves to a right or wrong answer but they present a “tension to be managed.”

Like anything, this can be a curse and a blessing. Perhaps I retreat too readily into it, but if I don’t have or know the answer I can just say, “I don’t know.”

That doesn’t relieve the questioner of the desire and need for an answer, nor does it relieve me of the responsibility to help him or her choose a practical next step which will make God more real to them. So, for the time being I just say, “Let’s pray” and ask God for His principle(s) and the next step He has for us. I really think that’s all He promises us and that’s enough.

As British Pastor Charles Simeon said, “The truth is not in the middle, and not in one extreme; but in both extremes.” I think I agree.

Woody

Playing Your Part

Hey Guys,

I just returned from Nepal a couple of weeks ago. Shortly before that, I was in Ethiopia. The purpose of the trips was to determine if and how God wanted BRCC to be involved.

I have always known that God wanted us to be involved in taking the Gospel to “the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). For a number of years early in our ministry, that was the main focus. But, over time, I realized that we were neglecting “Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria” (our own hometowns, neighbors, and families). So, as a church, God moved our focus to bring it back into balance. He carried us on a Journey which brought personal evangelism to its current state at Blue Ridge. There are now dozens of people being baptized several times a year. (This past weekend, we baptized nearly 50 people—the majority being new believers.) Yea God!

So it’s not surprising that God has begun to bring other parts of the world to our attention—places that never hear the Good News if somebody (why not us?) doesn’t go.

We are getting to be part of sending people into the red light district of Managua, Tibetan orphans back into their villages, and native evangelists into a rural and receptive Ethiopia as well as into many rural villages in India—all for the purpose of telling lost people about Jesus Christ. And we’re not just sending money. Yes, we are helping resource these folks, but many of us will be going personally.

God is moving BRCC into a new era. What part does He want you to play in it?

- Woody

The New Paradigm

Hey Guys,

I write this as I’m getting ready to go to one of the Engage meetings. I say “one” because there are now two meetings on Monday nights and one on Saturday morning. Engage started a couple of years ago with three guys meeting for breakfast and a need for an environment where all these new believers could be cared for. How it developed has become a model for how new ministries get started at BRCC.

We recently had a married couple ask about starting a ministry for couples. When we met, I told them that we didn’t use a normal model (we have used one in the past, but it didn’t really work). Instead, we asked them to go and pray about it (you will recognize steps described in previous blogs in this process). As you pray, be aware of “convergence” (e.g., other people sensing or being prompted to do the same or a similar thing). Don’t pray for a particular program, but for the “thing behind the thing.” For example, we don’t start ministries to create small groups or married couple groups, etc. Those are forms. We’re after functions. Functions would be things like: is there a “so that” (evangelism) at the heart of it? Is it about people getting closer to Jesus? In the case of a ministry for married couples, we believe the best thing for a married couple is for them to be drawing closer to Christ and, hence, taking on His attributes—His love, patience, self-control, etc. (If these sound familiar, it’s because they are the fruits of the Holy Spirit.)

Another indicator is that the ministry generates energy and excitement. If the ministry is God-generated, you won’t have to keep breathing life into it, but it will breathe life into its participants. We’ve almost arrived at the conclusion that if we have to consistently add energy to something, God probably isn’t in it. In other words, the need doesn’t constitute the call to start a ministry. That’s often our idea rather than God’s. As God Himself says, “My thoughts are different from your thoughts.” It may be a need, but if God doesn’t raise up leaders (servants) and it constantly requires energy rather than producing energy, it probably isn’t what God is up to at this time!

Operating like this has certainly required a new paradigm—a new way of thinking and acting. But it has allowed us to focus on ministries that draw people rather than exhaust or discourage them. It lets us join God in what He is doing rather than trying to get Him to join us in what we’re doing. I don’t think we’re going back.

Woody

Wisdom Literature

Hey Guys,

It’s been so long since I blogged that I don’t remember what I’ve said and haven’t said. However, I’ve been reminded of a reality that is largely responsible (on a human level) for who we are as a church and why we have been spared some of the grief that commonly afflicts churches. It’s free for the asking, but as James 4:2 says, “You do not have, because you do not ask God.” What I’m referring to is something James talks about in 1:5—what the Bible calls “wisdom.” The book of James is the New Testament expression of what is called “wisdom literature.” It’s formally found in the Old Testament books of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Psalms, and Song of Solomon.

It is reflection on life and subsequently drawing principles from that reflection that are generally true. It helps us live skillfully. In fact, the word “wisdom” means skill (originally in practical matters like carpentry, building, sculpture, etc.), which was extended to the relational and spiritual realms.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” It comes from God on a supernatural level, and practically from receiving—even seeking—instruction, reproof, and discipline. A person gets it if he/she desires, asks for, and seeks wisdom. It comes ultimately from God, but is mediated through people, Scripture, reading, observing/reflection, etc. The prerequisite attribute is humility.

When sought this way, God gives it and it causes us to live life skillfully and well.

In fact, wisdom literature gives us certain categories based on these certain criteria. There is the wise person: you can tell him/her by how they respond to correction and instruction. They seek it and learn from it and live by it. You give such people resources and more instruction.

There is the fool. You can tell him/her by the refusal to take instruction and correction. They always know best. You can only give them limits and consequences. (They “learn the hard way.”)

There is another category—the cynic. You can’t tell them anything and there is little need to even try.

As I have asked for wisdom over the years, God has given it. Oh, I’m still foolish in too many ways, but God has been (as always) as good as His Word. BRCC is the church that God used wisdom to build. (See Proverbs 8.)

Woody