Reflections Before a Storm

As I sit her today in Mozart's Coffee House, a storm rolling in across the lake, the majority of the day behind me, I find myself listening, again, to the voices inside my head; to the Voice beyond those voices. I see with more and more clarity that my job as a leader of a small community of pilgrim Christians is to remind them and show them that the heart of our beliefs, the heart of what Jesus taught, is simply to love. I think about the arguments and the difficulties that we all face and how easy it is to just write off the people we don't want to deal with, how quickly we just decide to move past those people that are difficult for us to love, how ultimately selfish our attitudes are. Of course we will have differences and likes and dislikes that are as unique and disparate as we ourselves are. That doesn't mean I get to pick who I love or who is worth saving, it just means that I am as unique, and your are as unique, as you are supposed to be. I should love those differences and laugh at the foibles and help you stand up straighter, not condemn you or make you feel small. This is where the church as a whole has missed the boat. We try to make everything about proving something and about being right rather than just loving people. There are so many people around us every day who feel used and abused and broken, some of it is even their own fault, but my life as a disciple of Christ is to love them anyway and point the way to a love that is greater than any that I will ever be capable of. They are all around you today, folks who have suffered setbacks, injustices, consequences; call them up, love them, listen to them, support their dreams. This is the call of Christ.

The light here is fading as the thunder becomes the predominant feature of the day. Gray and silver outline dark trees blown in a strong, rending wind, the rain comes soon. In many lives, that's exactly the way things are, the rain comes on the wings of wind, heralded by the roll of destruction through the sky, are you shelter or are you merely more weather? Love someone.

Vision

I am the worst blogger ever! I really want to do this every day and consistently get caught up with other things. Sheeesh.

I had one of those epiphanies today that leaves you thinking about how stupid you were to have not 'thought of that before.' It involves vision. I need to give a quick history lesson, here.

Around my thirtieth birthday my brother Stephen and I were having a rather heated argument about some subject that turned out to be so important that all I remember about it was the argument! He informed me that I constantly talked about having consistent, bible-based ethics and philosophies but that my life and real belief system didn't always match up with that. He was right. I began a phase of my spiritual journey, that continues to this day, albeit less frenetically. I wrote down as many of the things that I believed as I could think of and then methodically, over the next few years, verified or countered them. Since then, my aim has been to keep a certain integrity in my belief system; a wholeness and consistency. Today I had one of those inconsistencies come to light.

I believe that what you do doesn't matter unless it is tied to who you are. That is, that any ethical or morale good that you do is false if it doesn't come from a heart that is focused on the right reasons. In other words, on a heart level, it is more important who you are than what you do. Now stop, I am not a dualist. I believe wholeheartedly that who you are affects what you do and that if there is an inconsistency within your behavior and beliefs that there is a problem. So, that being said, I will come to my point.

Vision. If a churches vision, or a personal vision, is based on doing before being it ceases to be a vision and becomes a to-do list or a manual of methodology. I was looking over the vision documents I have produced for The Well and found that there was way too much methodology in them. The vision four our little community has to be based on who and what we are and are becoming, not what we do. If we believe and are sold out to that vision, it will be evident in our actions. Methods can change, ideas lose merit, circumstances dictate so much of what we can do. But our identity, that should be steady and solid. Who are we called to be in Christ? That's what counts.

Many, many churches are selling out to a methodologies and models and not spending enough time learning who God would have them be; not spending enough time securing the hearts of their communities and acting out on who they are created to be. Vision, if it's real, involves a set of concepts that outline the basic identity of a church, not how we are going to achieve our goals, or even our mission statement, but who we are hoping to become. That's a vision. I should have seen it years ago.

Answers

Okay, I haven't blogged in a few days. Sorry, computer was down. What'd I miss?

Thanks to Burton for the great response to my last post, it helped a great deal. Through dreams and then interpretation, (received via Batman), the Spirit came in loud and strong in several areas. Karin and I will be moving as soon as we find the right place. Our criteria include school choices, price and commute distance as Karin has not been released by God to leave her current position.

The other things I was struggling with had to do with vision and direction for our little community. What I was told over a course of several days in several ways, (for details, ask), was this:

1. Die. Seriously, the Spirit revealed that I had to continue to die to every thing in my life but the vision. My God given priorities, like my family, are of course still in place. But personal feelings and emotions, my ideas, my friendships, my decisions, all must run through the filter of the vision for The Well. Easy to write, hard to live.

2. Defense. Just like basketball, there will be no offense at The Well without defense. That means prayer. We have been under the gun from starting line to this very day and we must pray for God's hand on our lives and for each other.

The next thing that happened was that the building we have desired to have as our home base is now available...................for $750,000! We need capital. Now, even if this isn't the building, we need capital. There are so many things in our plan that require dedicated space. Not to be the church in, we are not a facility based ministry, but to house some of our other ideas involving music, arts, community, kids, etc....... We are working on a plan, something radical and unlike the normal method of doing things. Pay attention to the website for details.

Take a look at the My Utmost link. I want you to see what is written there for the last two days, that would be July 6 and 7. Oswald Chambers has been my boon companion on my journey since February, I'd love for you to read him! I had tried several times to use this particular devo guide but not until this year was it the right time.

Blessings, Prayers, Much Love