I can’t tell you how deeply Joshua 1:1-9 has effected me. That passage of scripture just will not leave me alone. I keep thinking – God is gracious, he makes grand promises, he takes the initiative – yet there is no mistaking that He exhorts us ‘Be strong and courageous‘. What does that mean for me – a 55 year old pastor? What does it mean to you who might be reading this?

Over the course of last few weeks it seemed to me like Joshua 1:1-9 was all I could think about. Here was a man, several years older than me, preparing for the biggest deal of his entire life. He spent 40 years serving an apprenticeship which brought him to that moment. He was chosen as a 20 year old to be part of the group who first investigates the Promised Land. He then waits 40 years to finally arrive at the place where he could enter the land. 40 years to come to the place where he would embark on his life’s great purpose. I wonder…  how should I judge myself? Have I arrived at the place where I am fit to used to do something really significant? If Joshua took 40 years, who am I to think that my time of formation should be any less? I find myself thinking – I want to think about these things in ways that are realistic, true and biblical. All around me the world is frantic – a woman reaches her 40’s and if she happens to be an actress she is almost certainly near the end of her career. A person who loses their job in their 50’s finds it much harder to find a job, because he or she is thought to be ‘limited’ by their so-called ‘advancing’ years. Yet this is not the way God tells time. God’s economy can include really long periods of preparation.

I could have never thought or grasped these things when I was in my 30’s or even my 40’s. I am beginning to learn that some things just can’t be done without a long, slow development. I think that God has given me a vision of a Biblical counseling center. I can see a place that is multiracial, crossing socio-economic lines and reaching into some of the most broken places in our culture. Ah – but how to get there? I have my own experience, the training I received in graduate school, the things I have learned over the past 20+ years and the hundreds and hundreds of hours of counseling experience from which to draw. These things will help – but this is so much bigger than anything I can do by myself. But like the young lad Jesus called upon when he fed the 5000 (Luke 9:10-17) – I have my two fishes and five loaves and I am prepared offer them.

One of the things which I am delighted to find at 55 is this – I don’t really care about being ‘credited’ or gaining recognition. I no longer feel as though I have something I need to prove. I think God had to work on me for a long time to liberate me from the hunger for this kind of approval. I’m not entirely free from it, but it exercises less and less influence as the years pass. I can work comfortably ‘behind’ the scenes.  I feel okay about being a ‘facilitator’ rather than the one out front. I hope that God is freer to mold and shape me to his contours. I wish that I heard God’s voice more clearly.

I want to understand as best as I possibly can what it means to be ’strong and courageous’ as it relates to leading Lamb of God. I see things – not mystically, but in my mind’s eye and in my heart. I see possibilities that feel very much like things that we as a body can accomplish if we will pull together. We can build an alliance with other congregations in this area. These years of praying have helped to lay a foundation for ministry and unity. Jesus prayed his most passionate prayers about these very things (John 17). There is a great opportunity with the Good Will Rescue Mission. It is very much like what God said to Joshua: ‘Wherever you set foot, you will be on land I have given you’. I really believe that the relationship God has given us with Jim Benton (Executive Director of GWRM) and the fact that Kevin Houk is the program director are significant sign posts to us that God has given us the land, so to speak. But like Joshua, and the people we must be strong and very courageous. I recognize that a certain amount of this may fall on me – but I believe that we will not succeed unless this reflects something we embrace as a body. Recognize that it means different things to different people in the church. For all of us it means we pray for the mission. Also, for all of us we go out of our way to welcome the men who come from the mission to Lamb of God. For some of us it means we give money. For some of us it will mean that we will donate time to finding ways to become involved with the GWRM.  What I think it means for us as a church is that we decide to embrace that God has opened the door to ministry in and with the GWRM and we are going to be faithful to whatever that means.

We have a great beginning in our partnership with the Padley’s and the work in Brazil. This is now 6 years old. The work in the Amazon is entering its 3rd. year. But this is something that will go on for decades. I ask myself – ‘what does it mean to ‘be strong and courageous’ regarding this work? For me it means that I must continue to go to Brazil. I need to put my feet on that soil, I need to reconnect regularly with brothers and sisters in the work down there. It also means that I need to encourage others to go and touch and see how God has given us an open door. I also need to carry the torch for raising continued support financially for the work. But we must continue to embrace it as a work of Lamb of God. That means that we pray regularly for Brazil. It also means that we give as generously as we can. I think it also means that we get into the habit of investing personally in knowing who and what is going on down there. That is something that email, and cheap phone service makes possible for all of us who want to connect more personally. It could also mean that we go for short term mission visits. Be aware that it is my intention to take a group down to the Amazon next summer. Pray about coming along!

We have the opportunity to be a part of helping to send our first missionaries out of this church. Troy and Noelle have done wonderful work already among our children as youth leaders. They have opened their hearts, they have opened their home (and now the Polyniak home) to minister to and encourage our kids. They have given so much of themselves to form Christ in our young people. Now they sense a calling to go and to work alongside a very worthwhile ministry in Belfast, Ireland. We have a chance to partner with them and to extend our church’s influence to yet another place in the world.  This will require strength and courage on the part of the Rhodes and it requires that we as a body pray and work together to try and bring this about. Is it not a reasonable thing to sacrifice for the sake of our dear brother and sister?

Finally, at least for this post, I believe we have a task to accomplish as a body regarding securing a place to meet and to do the things we want to do as a congregation. We have always been a sojourning church. God has always provided for us. We have been many different places and have placed very little emphasis on ‘owning’ a space. I’m not necessarily saying that we should now change this and look for something permanent. What I am saying is that we as a congregation need to take on this issue together and see what God has for us. As I mentioned on Sunday This past Sunday we began a 60 day period of prayer and fasting to seek God’s will regarding our future space. Will you commit yourself to this season of prayer?

Also, we are pleased to debut Ben’s 30 minute film on the project this Saturday Evening at the Community Dinner.

I have had a harder time learning this regarding church life (I guess because with just me and the mrs. I can figure this thing out more quickly than when you have to think about a whole group of people). The truth is, church life requires a very similar willingness to evaluate and renew commitment. I will admit that this is a struggle I don’t always do so well at working through. I assume that people are on the same page, and that commitments made in the past are still working and still relevant. But my time in the book of Revelation as well as some current difficulties are teaching me that I need to think once again about these matters.

Jesus, standing in the midst of His churches

When John saw the vision of Jesus standing amidst the lamp stands I wonder was he astonished by the interest that Jesus had in evaluating the seven churches in Asia Minor? There is no specific reaction of John to this – only the seven times repeated phrase – ‘To the angel of the church of (fill in the name) write…’ Considering how much trouble was going on in the Roman Empire and in Jerusalem I find it quite amazing that Jesus is so completely focused on the life inside these 7 congregations. While there is some reference to outside troubles, like what He says to Smyrna ‘the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation.’ Most of the words are directed at life inside the congregations. Jesus, the Lord of Lords and King of Kings concerns himself with whether His people have passion for Him, or whether they are tolerating false teaching, or false prophets in their midst. Wow – with all that was going on around these churches, I’m blown away by the range of Jesus’ evaluative eye – He cares deeply about the quality of life among his people.

After these letters were read what do you think happened next?

Okay, so its Sunday in the church of Ephesus – news spreads throughout the congregation that there is a letter from John that is to be read in the public gathering. The same thing in 6 other congregations in Asia Minor no doubt took place over whatever period of time it took to get this thing circulated. But try to imagine what it might have been like to hear this – ‘But I have this against you‘ (Rev. 2:4) or this; ‘But I have a few things against you‘ (Rev. 2:14). Do you think things became spooky silent in those churches? Do you think that the next time each of those churches met for worship they noticed there were a few less than the week before?

As I understand this process through which Jesus brought each of these seven churches I am convinced that this sort of thing is meant to be a normal part of the life of every local church. Okay, so maybe we won’t receive a letter specifically addressed – ‘to the church of West Orange called Lamb of God.’ But what Jesus does here with each one of these churches is evaluate, redraw the lines and say – listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church. He speaks and he clarifies what He thinks is important, how he defines commitment, and what faithfulness looks like on the part of the people in each one of these congregations.

Six months of study and reflection have led me to the conclusion that this is a time at Lamb of God Fellowship for evaluation and renewal of commitment to take place. In a way that is similar to marriage – the relationships which make up a church community need reassurance – ‘I’m here, and I still want to do this.’ Leaders need reaffirmation from the people – ‘we believe in you, and we still want to follow your lead.’ Leaders need to be able to say to the people – ‘we still count it a privilege to serve you.’ I believe that God has shown me clearly that He is taking us through a process of refinement and pruning. I won’t say at the moment all the things that convince me of that, but suffice it to say that as much as one can know anything I believe Jesus is refining this congregation (myself included).

Would you like to know what I believe?

I have come to believe that some of us have already decided we are no longer committed to Lamb and in various ways have withdrawn our support. This pains me, but I believe it to be true. Others of us need to repent because we haven’t been faithful to what that commitment means and have allowed other things to get in the way. I also know that there are many of you who are faithful and prepared to give yourself as fully as you are able to the things that God has for us. You are the ones who give generously of time and money, who pray for the church, who are willing to sacrifice and faithfully persevere. Maybe you do know, or maybe you don’t – but I am deeply thankful for each one of you. What I pray is this – ‘please Jesus I hope most still have a optimistic view of the future and want to continue building our little piece of God’s Kingdom.’

I want to say that loving this work, Lamb of God is not the same as loving Jesus (although I do believe that loving a local church somewhere is crucial to healthy Christianity). I think LOG has demonstrated over and over again – we love the whole church and pray for God to bless every church He has given us opportunity to know and be involved with in this area. I don’t for a moment believe we are the only church, or the best church. We are what we are – partly wonderful and partly difficult. However, – if you are unhappy, and find yourself filled with criticism and unrelenting dissatisfaction with Lamb – please either work it out or leave. Don’t allow your dissatisfaction to harm this little body of brothers and sisters. Please understand I don’t want anyone who really wants to be here to leave. I want everyone to find a way to work out conflicts, resolve disappointments and to grow together. I know this pleases Jesus. But lingering when you really can’t support this work is a receipt for harming others. Words matter. Criticism, picking away at those who lead and finding fault with one another is most surely a sign that things aren’t working for you.

When I was a young pastor having people leave would devastate me. I would re-criminate myself and feel like I had failed. Sometimes it was my failure. Other times it was something else. Other times it was never clear why someone had left. But age has given me a more philosophical view of things – ‘you don’t necessarily finish this race with the one’s you started with.’ I still feel the loss when people leave – but I recover more quickly.

What I know is this – I still have a passion for pastoring. I still feel energized by being with God’s people. I still want to look ahead and discover with my brothers and sisters new moves of the Spirit, new lessons of God’s goodness and love and new opportunities to welcome people into this motley fellowship of the friends of Jesus. Perhaps this is a time for you to re-affirm the same.

Nero, Mao and Britney – birds of a feather….

These three make a handsome trio, don’t you think? I had fun pasting them together in Photoshop. Britney looks particularly fierce, even scarier than Chairman Mao and Nero.

I have a serious post to make, so enough with the funny stuff.

During the mid-60’s A.D. Nero began to turn his maniacal rage toward an obscure group of people who called themselves ‘Christians’. He had experienced a plot to assassinate him (which failed) as well as a significant amount of intrigue aimed against him. Someone started a fire in Rome (many think it was Nero) and that fire ravaged Rome, destroying several sections of the city, and damaging many more. Nero used that fire to divert attention away from himself and he used Christians as his scapegoat. The Roman historians Tacitus and Seutonious both say Nero killed multitudes of Christians. He often did it in quite horrible ways. Roll the clock ahead 1800 years…

A brutal ideologue seizes control of China. Mao Zedong was the first chairman of the Chinese Communist Party. He might also be the most villainous enemy of Christianity that the world has ever seen. It isn’t really possible to know how many leaders have been killed, how many people have been beaten, tortured, imprisoned, and had their property stolen. But estimates are that Mao had nearly 50 million people killed during his tyrannical reign in China. How many of them were Christians isn’t really known. But antidotal reporting suggests that Mao made war against the church, killing millions.

What A.D. 64 and 1948 have in common…

There two eras, A.D. 64 through A.D. 310 and 1948 to the present have a number of things in common which are important to try and get your mind around. One feature they share is amazing exponential growth of the Christianity. Between A.D. 70 and A.D. 310 (Just before the Edict of Milan, the law that made Christianity a ‘tolerated’ religion), Christianity grew from about 100,000 to 20,000,000. However the exponential growth in the Chinese church is even more remarkable. In 1948 there were thought to be about 2,000,000 Christians in China. When the so-called Bamboo Curtain was lifted in 1979-1980 there were thought to be 60,000,000 Christians in China. The growth of the church in China occurred under even more severe suffering than the church in the early centuries experienced under the various Caesars.

Why? How is it possible with every prop kicked out from under the church these ‘Jesus’ movements swept like wild fire through out there respective lands. Can I let you in on a little secret – I am obsessed with the answer to this question.

You are either ‘all in’ or you’re not….

One thing is for sure – nominalism wasn’t really a safe bet. Persecution makes it pretty unlikely that you are going to be half-hearted about Jesus. Persecution draws a line in the sand and says – Nero or Jesus? Mao or Jesus? No ‘a little Nero’ and ‘a little Jesus.’ You are either all in or your not. There is something purifying about the fire of affliction and hardship for the sake of Christ. It makes the church lean, reduces its distractions, and turns it to the essentials. No Christians want this, but when it comes it ignites something like spiritual brush fire. Its like the Lord says ‘persecute My Church and I will grow it and in the end I will smash the ones who persecute’ – just ask the Soviet Union where it gets you when you try and destroy the people of God. And, let me add China will not be far behind. Give it another few years, maybe a decade – but the persecution will end, and then look out world when the Chinese Church has a chance to pollinate the world with its firebrand version of Christianity – wow, it will be a glorious day for the Church around the world. I pray that God allows me to see it.

But it is important to remember that Nero and Mao made a singular demand – My throne matters more than any other. Either embrace it or I will take your freedom and your life. For Christians under either regime the statement ‘Jesus is Lord‘ constituted treason and directly provoked these rivals to Jesus. The Christians refined under this kind of treatment got the basic stuff in vivid technicolor :

1. Jesus is Lord

2. Love one another

3. Demonstrate the goodness of God in ordinary ways (care for the sick, the poor, the widow and the orphan).

4. Share the good news about Jesus Christ (Actually preach the gospel, yes the whole thing)

This is simple devotion to Jesus. When the battle line is clear, and when choices really have to be made – the result is powerful. Choose Nero’s throne or Jesus’ throne. Which one really matters? Which one really rules?

Meditate on these thoughts – I mean really think…

When the churches in Asia minor were pressed by Nero from one side, and the impending war against Jerusalem on the other side they were left shaking. Peter and Paul were both likely victims of Nero’s butchery. Imagine being a congregant in one of those seven churches – news that the great leaders of this new movement were being fed to the lions, or crucified must have hung over them like the proverbial black cloud. Yet what was it that John shared with them? What was it that he pointed their eyes toward in the midst of their troubles? It was the throne room of God (Rev. 4), and the exalted Jesus (Rev. 1 and 5). It was God’s glory cloud, the four living creatures, the thousands of angels and hymns of majestic singing to the Lamb. This was the picture he wanted planted firmly in their mind as they considered their perilous circumstances. There is only One Throne that matters! (You might want to try saying that out loud, like a cheer, or a shout. Trust me it feels good, and it is so right on!)

February 2009 – Long Live Britney

(Freely substitute Oprah if it helps you get the point)

Roll the clock ahead to Feb. 2009. There is no Nero sitting on his throne challenging us to ‘put up or shut up.’ There is no Mao (in spite of what some might think about Obama, he ain’t no Mao). Who then sits on this rival throne? Well, if you haven’t figured it out I think it is Britney Spears, queen of self-indulgence and the absolute right to do whatever you want to make yourself happy. I’m sort of kidding about Britney, but I’m sort of not kidding. She personifies the chief rival to Jesus. The quintessential embodiment of individualism taken to its most extreme – ‘I have a right to be happy, and nothing can stop me from pursuing it.’ I can make my boobs bigger if I need to, I can change my face, I can have kids, I can ignore them, I can get married, I can get divorced, I can drink and take drugs, I can do whatever I need to do to find my ‘happy space.’ Anyone who suggests I’m wrong is a homophobe, anti-women, anti-choice, anti-fill-in-the-blank.

What is the offering that this ‘god’ requires? Materialism. See, most of the things that Britney says we absolutely need cost money. The right hair, the right car, the right house, the right clothing, the right gadget, the right body, the right face and so on. Look around – every cultural ‘ikon’ is young, rich, thin and beautiful. All of advertising serves this same end, even suggesting that having these things gives life meaning, purpose and fulfills you. There was a Levi ad that ran in New Zealand some time ago – in this ad a beautiful woman is baptized in her underwear and when she comes up out of the water she has on Levi’s. They get it – it really is an alternative religion.

What is the power this idol holds over people? It is the power to exclude, to make the person feel that they absolutely must have the accoutrements to be anything. It is a certain kind of death – the power to make people feel worthless. In inner cities its the bling, but that is no different than the suburban version of bling sold at every trendy boutique, or gadget store. The rich, famous and beautiful have it and we want it.

Nero held the power to kill those who opposed him. Mao held the same power. This is how these rival gods tried to maintain their power. It didn’t work, it never works. Nero killed himself in A.D. 68. Not so many years later the Roman Empire crumbled. Mao’s ‘purge’ didn’t work either – and now Communist China has 60 to 100 million Christians to try and ‘contain’. They have failed, and sooner than they think they will fall just like Rome.

But at the moment it seems like Britney’s Empire is doing what neither Nero or Mao could do. Christianity in Western Countries is becoming more and more irrelevant. Read carefully – 7 out of 10 churches are either stagnate or in decline. That is in the U.S.; go to England, or Ireland, or Scotland or virtually any other European country and its even worse. Why is that? Because lots and lots of Christians want what Britney has to sell. We want ‘a little Britney’ and ‘a little Jesus.’ And like frogs in a pot by the time we realize the cost, its already to late. What is the cost of ‘a little Britney’ and ‘a little Jesus?’ Think about it for a moment….

The cost is our children. At a rate that is alarming – they are turning away from Christ and becoming secular people. I won’t bore you with the statistics. But suffice it to say – raise children in homes with Christians parents who themselves are trying to live for many of the same things that those who don’t know Christ live for and the results will be children who grow up and dump the whole thing. Authentic Christian living is profoundly counter-cultural. Try and make it fit and it becomes powerless to actually produce anything which resembles what you find in the Early Church, or the church under Communist Chinese tyranny.

Its like the devil said ‘ I’ll let them have abortion and homosexuality as there defining issues’ but I will subvert their whole game by just seducing them with stuff. Jesus made it clear there really is a choice – No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Luke 16:13) The world says you can serve them both. And to a large degree, far more than I think we can admit – we want what the world is offering. Christianity has lost its edge, lost its counter cultural power because we have largely said ‘yes’ to Britney. We may not consciously acknowledge it – but the abysmal rate at which Christians give either time or money doesn’t lie. You really can follow the money (and time) and find at the end of it is a style of life with little in the way of sacrificial obedience and little in the way of persevering endurance.

Think of what it cost the ordinary Chinese believer to follow Christ. Routinely people have been taken from their homes, beaten, thrown in prison and some even killed. This is not unusual. I have a friend in Hungary, a pastor whose father was killed by the Hungarian Secret Police. I can barely imagine it. What does the average Christian in the U.S. ’sacrifice’ to be a follower of Christ? Is it any surprise that the fruit of this is so powerless? These past six months of my sabbatical I have done a lot of thinking and a lot of study and a lot of praying. Some things are clearer to me than ever before and some things are cloudy. But one thing I can say is like fire in my bones – it takes passion for Christ, sacrificial obedience and the resolution to persevere to live an authentic Christian witness in this day .  ‘Christendom’ is over. We are completely out of favor, we are not welcome at the table and we are as marginalized as we can be short of being declared ‘illegal.’ Gays hate us. Women don’t like us. The media doesn’t like us. We are out, uncool, and decidedly not hip.

Okay Black Dwarf, lighten up… There is a solution. It is the same one which the Christians embraced under the persecution of Nero and Mao: ‘There is only One Throne that matters.’ We must embrace the reality that Jesus really is the Lord. There is no Jesus and… its just Him. The implications are staggering if you really follow them out. It means willingly choosing a modest life style. It means living below your means, instead of above them. It means saying no to things you could have, but you choose not to so that you can be more generous with your resources. It means building your life around others – and I don’t just mean your immediate family. To demonstrate the reality that ‘there is only one throne that matters’ requires passion for this King, the willingness to sacrifice and perseverance.

Okay. I’m not insane, but I am frustrated. I want to reach lost people. People who really don’t know Jesus. I’m tired of striving for the same 12% of the population that every other church is trying to lure in to their franchise. I want to be a fisher of men. But every time I think of it I wonder – Can we become a people who are really ready to do what it will actually take to reach people who don’t know Jesus?

At 54 I wonder – maybe its me?

Yet, it took nearly 50 years for what God had determined to do to actually be accomplished. Cyrus did allow a great number to return to Jerusalem, and the building began in earnest, but later bogged down, and even experienced set back. The Lord raised up other prophets (Haggai and Zechariah) as well as Ezra and Nehemiah to see the work through to completion. Prophecy and human cooperation are meant to work together. God declares, but he calls upon us to partner with Him to bring it to pass.

I believe that God gave Lamb of God Fellowship a mandate – raise up a movement of prayer in Essex County. This past Wednesday evening (Feb. 11) we experienced another door open for the Cry for Awakening. Bishop Everett and his church ‘Deliverance Jesus is coming’ welcomed the Cry for Awakening into Irvington. This was our first time in our neighboring community for this prayer meeting. Representatives from at least 10 different churches were present. It was a wonderful time – and I believe something happened that transcends what could be seen with the eyes. A door was opened into a community, and the tent stakes of the movement of prayer which God has called us to lead were extended out a little farther. This is how the house of prayer gets built. One brick at a time.

I believe more than ever that there is a greater glory to be experienced by the church in Essex County, NJ. I believe God is preparing a way for himself, one that will result in a great out pouring of His Spirit. But it may come through great hardship. We are currently experiencing a economic downturn. How bad is it? How long will it last? Will it get much worse? History should tell you that these questions can’t really be answered in any certain way. Is this downturn part of what God is doing to prepare the way for a great harvest of souls? Is it part of what He is doing to purge the church of her incessant love of comfort, security and pleasure? Only time will tell for sure. But there is a way to know…

When John wrote the book of Revelation there were great upheavals taking place in both the Roman empire and in Jerusalem. Trouble was all around, and fearful things were pressing on these 7 churches to whom the book is addressed. John sees the Risen and Glorified Christ standing in the midst of these churches. He is awesome, and the sight of him causes John to faint. Even though things were very difficult – notice in Revelation 2 and 3 Jesus’ entire focus is on the spiritual condition of these churches. In these two chapters Jesus says nothing about Rome or Jerusalem – his focus is directly on the life of these congregations: Ephesus, you have lost your first love; Pergamum, you are tolerating false teaching in your midst; Thyatira, you’ve let a false prophetess in your church; Sardis, you haven’t completed the work I gave you and you think your alive, but your really dead; and Laodicea you have become lukewarm and compromised. Jesus concerns were all about what His people were doing in a time of crisis.

The same is still true. What are we doing in a time of crisis relative to the purposes of God in this generation? There is a work which must be completed – it is the work of prayer which God desires in preparation to pouring out His Holy Spirit. The work is not only prayer, but it is not less than prayer. We have other matters that are of great importance as well. We need to see a great missionary work into our communities, one which will take the gospel to those who need to hear it, but don’t see the traditional church as a place which can offer them much of anything. This will require cooperation, and new wineskins. It will stretch and challenge many leaders to try new things, and to adapt in ways that feel very foreign. But I believe that building a movement of prayer, a house of prayer, if you will is foundational to these other works which God desires to accomplish through his people.

Come and lay the brick to build this house of prayer.

Brazil and the lights go on….

Please note that at the end of this article you can listen to and watch the video version of this piece. If you would prefer that just skip to the end.

Several years ago all of the elders at LOG made a trip down to Brazil to observe and participate in the work started by Tom & Kathy Padley. Others had visited Brazil in prior years, but something very special happened to all of us on those visits (which occurred over a period of two successive summers).

I was personally profoundly touched by the 3 weeks I spent in Nova Lima, and the surrounding communities. I observed a level of passion, intensity and devotion to Jesus that I had not ever seen in my 40 years of being a Christian. I saw poor believers gathering in small clusters, in homes, on front porches as well as believers in large gatherings. What touched me was the emotion and brokeness I witnessed every where I went. People were being changed, won to Christ, healed, and delivered from all manner of struggle. I was awestruck at the power of God, humbled by His presence and suddenly lights began to go on inside me mind.

What if we had church and God didn’t show up?

I had lived nearly my entire life in a spiritual climate where very little of this passion had been my experience. There were glorious exceptions: the tail-end of the Jesus movement, elements of the Catholic-charismatic awakening, renewal movements like our own (ARC), the Vineyard, and the wonderful teaching ministry of Jack Miller (Sonship). But still, steadily it seemed that Christianity in the U.S. was declining in influence and impact. I had for several years before going to Brazil been studying this decline. The numbers are dreary. 70+% of churches in the U.S. in decline or in stagnation. A huge percentage of our young people go off to college and depart from the faith. Significant numbers of pastors addicted to pornography, not to mention high numbers of men in congregations across the U.S. Our single young people engaging in pre-marital sexual relations at a rate very similar to their un-churched counterparts. Christians caught up in materialism with only 1-2 out of 10 giving anything close to a tithe. I was aware of all this when I went to Brazil for the first time. However, it was in Brazil that I began to understand what it was the God wanted to do and I also began to understand what it was God wanted me to do.

The only thing that can save us – God!

I came back with the realization that the church in the U.S. was deeply in need of revival. It wasn’t just weak preaching, or weak churches, or compromised conduct running rampant among American Christians – it was something deeper. We had become dry and empty of the only thing that makes us as a people unique – the manifest presence of God. Let me clarify – God is present among his people, because He has promised to be with us. But our experience of that presence is related to our engagement of God in prayer, worship, study, fellowship, and service. Principal among those things, in my view, is prayer and devotion to the Word of God. It seemed to me that God had ‘drawn’ back, like He had hidden himself from us because we had so compromised, and allowed ourselves to be co-opted by the popular culture. It was my experience in Brazil which awakened me to my own dryness and thirst for God. I saw that what I had settled for was ‘dry-bones’ Christianity. I also knew I was not alone in this ‘dry-bones’ state.

It was out of this awareness that I began to seek the Lord. The elders shared this desire to ‘go after the Lord.’ Todd in particular has been very helpful in calling LOG to prayer. Out of this stirring came an awareness in my heart that it wasn’t just LOG, but many other churches in this area that needed awakening. I began to study revival movements of the past and it became clear to me – we must begin to seek the Lord and we must pursue Him with passion. It was a matter of history that consistently movements of prayer preceded awakenings. When God gets ready to move in revival, He stirs His people to pray.

Solomon, a dream and the promise of revival….

The context for what is arguably the most famous passage on revival in the bible, 2 Chronicles 7:14 is very illuminating. Solomon had just finished presiding over an extraordinary manifestation of God’s presence at the dedication of the completed temple. The presence of the Lord is so overwhelming that the priests are unable to enter. Just a short time after this Solomon has a dream – in that dream the Lord appears to him and tells him that if hard times comes, if the economic systems fails (they are an agricultural society), if things fall apart then here is what you do – Seek me, humble yourselves, turn from your sins and I will come and heal your land.

God spoke to Solomon in the context of a time of spiritual vitality, and great prosperity and success in the nation of Israel. But 200 years later Hezikiah did something very like the words in 2 Chronicles 7:14 and helped to restore Israel, and the worship of the temple. Only 46 years later a boy king only 8 years old, Josiah led a renewal that saw a purging of idolatry and the restoration of temple worship once again. This pattern has been repeated again and again over thousands of years. There is a sense in which the history of the church is in part about revivals which keep the kingdom moving toward that great day when history will culminate with everything being summed up into Jesus Christ.

Dr. A.T. Pierson once said, ‘There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer.’ I am fully convinced that this is the truth. I have extensively studied revival history and again and again this pattern is plain. I believe that what God said to Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7:14 can be applied (and it certainly has been) to other times and other circumstances. In many ways it has been that promised that has continuously refreshed my motivation and commitment to keep pursuing the Lord.

I believe Lamb of God has a mandate….

This is where you have to trust me. Not unquestioning trust, but at least a modicum of trust that I have heard from the Lord on the issue of prayer, and particularly on the issue of the Cry for Awakening. I believe God has given us, Lamb of God a mandate to be a leading church in the movement of prayer in this region. Again and again I have seen how the other churches, and their leaders have looked to Lamb as a catalyst church in the prayer movement. It was our friendship with David Bryant that brought him here to call us on, and to challenge us with the issue of the supremacy of Christ. We have consistently encouraged our fellow churches to persevere in prayer.

I am sad to say, ‘I think we are failing…’

However, I am sad to say I believe we are failing in that leadership. We have seen a steady decline in participation in the Cry for Awakening, and that is in all the churches, but especially in Lamb of God. This grieves me greatly. I feel ashamed and that somehow I have failed to make clear and plain the huge responsibility that God has entrusted to us regarding prayer, and the broader movement of prayer in this county. I sincerely believe that a very important part of why we exist as a church is to be a people whom God uses to call other local churches to believing, persevering prayer.

Let me say something about prayer. Guilt only brings you out to about 2 prayer meetings, and then it wears off and the status quo creeps back in. I repudiate manipulation, arm twisting, or any other kind of coercion particularly in regards to prayer. Prayer is like romance. You can’t really fake it. You either want to pray or you think something else is more important. Maybe its that you think that God doesn’t need your prayers to accomplish His purposes. But delay is connected to God purifying the intentions of those who are asking him (sometime its also no to the request). But in the case of revival I believe the answer is always yes, but it might be yes, but I will delay until I find a people who will really ready their hearts to receive the outpouring of My Spirit that I want to send. I want more than anything to be part of those people who want to be the ones God uses to bring revival.

Lamb of God, why are we here as a church? What is our purpose? What is our unique calling and destiny as a church? I am your pastor. I am also the person God used to plant Lamb of God. I feel with all my heart that a very large and important part of that destiny is to be a house of prayer for Essex County, a people of prayer who call their brothers and sisters from all over this county to pray and believe the promises of God for revival. I believe that a better day for the church lies ahead of us. I believe that salvation, healing, the return of prodigals and blessing for our community beyond anything we can imagine lie ahead. I intend to see them while I am still in the land of the living. Listen to my heart on these matters, trust my exhortation and find a way to be a part of this glorious opportunity that God has placed in our laps.

Watch Pastor Scott on Prayer, perseverance and the promises of God in Faith Videos  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

(At the end of this article are 4 videos 7-10 minutes each which are based on this article, and expand slightly on the written version)

I would like to use an analogy to speak to something which I have felt God stirring in my heart. One of the things about this recent presidential election that came through to me clearly was the difference in the vision which each candidate presented to the nation. Regardless of how you voted I think that President-elect Obama and his campaign team were very successful in presenting a vision of change that many, many voters found very compelling. As I reflected upon the enthusiasm, and intense passion which many people seemed to genuinely experience regarding President-elect Obama’s campaign I begin to think about the church, and whether we have a compelling vision capable of motivating the kind of sacrifice and faithfulness necessary to fulfill all that God has for us.

What happens without vision – nothing…

Proverbs 29:18 – Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint… Where there is an absence of compelling vision people go in every direction. Eugene Peterson has an interesting interpretation of this verse: If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves… Compelling vision is necessary to motivate our hearts to rise above self-interest, and from being overly invested in too highly individualized a game plan for life. We are not individuals who happen to be in a particular religious organization. We are a family of brothers and sisters called together to serve the Lord, and to advance his purposes. God has a purpose for every church, and He calls people together to serve his purposes in a particular region (Read the letters to the 7 churches in Revelation if you doubt this). Jesus knew these churches, he had particular evaluations of each one, he referred to the degree they had been faithful or not faithful to His purposes. That is particularity. Jesus knows Lamb of God Fellowship, and he knows everyone who is a part of this body. He has something for each one to do, and something for each one to contribute. If this were not true what sense could you every make out of a passage like this: (4) For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, (5) so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. (6) Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; (7) if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. (Romans 12)

A sense of something larger than myself….

Yet still, we as human beings, need to be able to believe that this local church commitment is tied to something larger than just the ups and downs of a local church. We need to see how the glorious, majestic, resurrected, ascended mighty Son of God who came to earth and triumphed over sin, death and the devil and now sits enthroned above the heavens relates his awesome victory to me, my family, my work and my local church family. I need to see how the work of Christ enables me to do things that apart from that gospel work I could never hope to even want to do. I need to see how God, by saving me, has invited me into a lifelong apprenticeship to His Son, to actually learn to love and act as Jesus did while living his life here on earth. I need a compelling vision of all that God is to me in Christ, all that God has done for me in the work of Christ on the cross and all that God has called me to in my lifelong apprenticeship to Jesus. I need a vision of these things that drives my affections, that motivates my will, that captures my imagination, that fascinates my mind and keeps me burning for the all that God has called me to accomplish in this generation. It was this kind of compelling vision which motivated Jonathan Edwards(1st Great Awakening), George Whitfield (1st. Great Awakening), John Wesley, Charles Finney (2nd Great Awakening), Evan Roberts, Jeremy Lamphier (Fulton Street Revival), Daddy Seymour (Azusa), Susanna Wesley, Amy Carmichael, Jackie Pullinger, Elizabeth Elliot, and Joni Eareckson. In many of these examples we are talking about people who did not appear to be extraordinary: Amy Carmichael was a sickly child, who ended up being a missionary is some of the most difficult places of India (She was a huge influence on Jim & Elizabeth Elliot). Evan Roberts was an uneducated Welsh coal miner who ended up leading one of the greatest revivals of the 20th century. William J. Seymour (called ‘Daddy Seymour), was the son of former slaves and yet God used him to lead the Pentecostal revival of 1906 often referred to as the Azusa Street Revival. Jackie Pullinger, as a 20 something launched out into ministry in Hong Kong’s opium ghetto. She had no experience and yet God used her to reach 100’s of addicts and bring healing, salvation and deliverance to many drug addicts, prostitutes and marginalized people.

How vision turns ordinary people up-side down

All of these people share a common understanding of the greatness of Jesus, the glory of his gospel and the necessity of fully engaging our apprenticeship to Jesus. I believe that it is the lack of a compelling vision of these things that had co-opted so many of our churches into sub-biblical Christianity. Paul clearly understood and taught this: Ephesians 1: (17) I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. (18) I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, (19) and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, (20) which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, (21) far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. (22) And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, (23) which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. What Paul prays for here is revelatory understanding of the hope to which we have been called, the greatness of our inheritance, the greatness of the power to which God has given us access and the majesty of the one through whom all of this is made possible – Jesus Christ. Paul understood this so profoundly – very likely because he himself had undergone such a radical re-orientation of his life. It was quite literally a vision of the Risen Jesus that turned his world upside down. While we may not see Jesus in precisely the same way that Paul did, we can experience Jesus in the manner Paul prays here in Ephesians. In fact I would say we must!

Our holy obsession….

I am persuaded like never before that three things must become our holy obsession: The greatness of Jesus Christ (what David Bryant calls ‘A Crisis in Supremacy – a shortfall in how we see, seek, savor, serve, share and speak about God’s Son for ALL that He is. Next, the glory of the gospel (understanding the work of Christ and how the grace of God works in our lives) and the necessity of intentional daily involvement in following Jesus (What Dallas Willard calls ‘The Renovation of the Heart). I believe that these three streams must become our food, our daily bread, our constant rallying point, our inexhaustible fountain of inspiration and motivation. The church needs a new day of sacrifice and perseverance (one that mirrors the Early Church, and the church renewed in every generation). However – without a passionate purpose how can that sacrifice and perseverance be sustained?

Jesus stated a very simply principal about how outward conduct is related to the inner person with these words: The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:45) In other words – you have to have something good in your heart to get it out when you need to act. If my heart is captured by a ‘big’ Jesus, a great gospel and my need to really respond to God then I will bring that out of my heart in my day to day life. If I don’t have that in my heart, then no matter what the opportunities I will likely do little, say little and have little impact. Christians seem to be filled with everything but these three things (consider these numbers, sent to me last week by David Bryant: 96% of Christians discovered to be “biblically illiterate” cf. Barna Research; 80% of US congregations are stagnant or dying in terms of membership; Millions sitting in our pews on Sunday remain unconverted – 50% by one major survey). If these numbers are true, even if they were off by 10 or 20% would still be staggering. What do we do?

What do we do?

The first step is to face the reality of what really drives my life. I can’t hope to change what I do not actually acknowledge needs fixing. We humans have an extraordinary ability to sustain slow and steady spiritual decline for years without being bothered by it. We have no problem sitting in church (assuming we have even made that much of a commitment), going through ‘religious’ motions and remaining virtually unchanged for years. Dry, religious performance can easily become a substitute for passionate apprenticeship to Jesus. The numbers quoted from David Bryant should suggest at the very least that this is the reality of much of the church. Step One then is this: Do I have a compelling vision of the Christian life? Is my life organized a ‘Big’ view of Jesus Christ, dependency on the gospel’s resources and intentional apprenticeship to Jesus? How can I know what is really going on in my heart? : Enthusiasm for worship, hunger for the Word of God, intentionality regarding growing in my faith, (study, devotions, regular prayer, accountability, generosity with my resources, time and gifts.), increased love for God and my brothers and sisters. Where are you at when you hear this list of things in your head?

Second: After diagnosis comes treatment. What must be done to re-order my life so that it reflects a life that is driven by a vision of who Christ is, what He has done and what it means to actively live that reality out in my day to day life. Some of us need prayer partners, some of us need to become more intentional about study and the knowledge of the Word of God. Some of us need help in our marriages, and in our relationships with others. Some of us need deliverance from habits that are working havoc in our lives. Some of us are in financial bondage and we need help to learn to budget and order our financial house well. I could go on and name many areas – but the point is this: If I know I am in need of change – recognize that only specificity married to intention will ever take us anywhere. I have spent the last 12 months trying to get myself back into physical shape (after years of neglect). I can’t tell you the joy and delight that has come from simply facing my lazinesses, my excuses, my self-pity and deciding that I was going to take a step of faith, embrace my partnership with God and follow through with with effort. God has blessed me, I feel better, more focused, more energetic and more able to serve the Lord with my whole life (including my body). I can tell you two things happened – I faced my sinfulness and poor stewardship of my body; and I implemented a plan that actually made sense for me. The result is change, glorious God honoring change.

Third: You can not do this without partnership with others. Stop fooling yourself. You will not change without help and constant accountability along the way. Once you face the truth, once you consider a remedy you will still need encouragement, reminders, and occasional rebukes to keep moving. I believe in revival. I am expecting God to bring one. But the church needs not only revival but reformation. We need that precept on precept, day by day constancy that brings beautiful transformation to individuals, families, churches and communities. Let me make clear what I mean: It takes thoughtful biblical understanding to bring real change to our culture. We need unified, committed believers that will work and walk together in sustained effort to bring about lasting gospel influence. Of course we can’t do this without the Holy Spirit working mightily. But remember mighty works of the Spirit happen all the time in step by step blessing, and pushing back the darkness. Yes, I love and want ’signs and wonders’ – but God does so much work, in fact most of His work through our faith expressing itself in love.

This ‘vision’ thing is really getting all up in my business, if you know what I mean. I am thinking about it day and night. I hope I am becoming more like Paul who said – I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ (9) and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— (10) that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, (11) that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead

Video Blog – The following are ‘videos’ based on the above writing. They are in 7 to 10 minute parts and expand slightly on the thought above.

One of the most theologically solid educational institutions in the U.S. is a school called Covenant College and Seminary in Georgia (Lookout Mountain). Recently the president of the Seminary told this story: Covenant Seminary gives an entrance examine in order to place its incoming students in the track of study which takes into consideration what they already know. 20 years ago (1988) 2/3rds of the students passed the Bible knowledge placement examine and 1/3rd failed. Today (2008) that number is reversed. 2/3 failed and only 1/3 passed.

I don’t know whether that registers with you or not. I find it astounding. The PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) in many ways represents, at least in terms of it commitment to the Bible and Bible knowledge the cream of the crop among Evangelicals. Ostensibly, one could reasonably conclude that the young people who apply for seminary at Covenant would represent the best of the PCA’s next generation. That might also suggest that they could be some of the best among all Evangelical young people, at least in terms of basic Bible knowledge. I think we can reasonably project that this suggests that even among the most motivated in terms of ministry, teaching and service in the church the level of Biblical ‘dumbing’ down has increased significantly in only 20 years. Hosea 4:6 makes this sobering remark – My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge... What do you suppose the Prophet had in mind when he said ‘my people are destroyed?’

But it isn’t just knowledge of the Scriptures, it is also application of the Word to the whole of life. If what the story above suggests can be extrapolated out to draw some conclusions about Western Christianity then we should suspect that most, I reiterate most Christians can not articulate a holistic view of the Christian life, i.e. they simply don’t know how the Bible relates to the full range of world and life matters; Marriage, family life, the marketplace, politics, social action, money, relationships and so on. I suspect that they derive their worldview from a mixture of pop culture, Bible-lite, and what feels right in their heads.

Add to this the inability to sustain a workable pattern of spiritual formation. So you have Christians who from the view point of ideology have little understanding about how to think ‘Christianly’ about most things, nor do they have the understand the tools necessary to form the kind of character that sustains revolutionary godliness.

Wow, is that depressing. But at the same time, in many places Christians are beginning to awaken to the desperateness of our circumstances. I could name off literature that indicates God is stirring: The Faith by Charles Colson and Harold Fickett; Christless Christianity by Michael Horton; The Courage to be Protestant by David Wells; The Reason for God by Tim Keller are just a few examples of the stirring which I believe is taking place in the midst of a time of Spiritual Captivity in the US (by captivity I really mean spiritual co-opting by pop culture, materialism and the love of comfort). There is growth coming directly from the work of Richard Foster, and Dallas Willard and others committed to restoring Christian Spiritual Formation to the life of the church. There is also a growing movement of prayer breaking out all around the U.S. Whether we are talking about specialized prayer ministry like International House of Prayer, or the Call, or Proclaim Hope, or Concerts of Prayer, or the many, many other smaller movements of prayer accross the U.S. there is no doubt something is arising. In addition to this there is the emergence of Sovereign Grace, the first reformed & charismatic movement of churches in the U.S. You have as well increasingly courageous American Episcopal Congregations and even whole diocese standing up for Scripture and breaking away from the declining, increasingly apostate American Episcopal Church. I could add Mark Driscoll’s Ministry (Mars Hill Church in Seattle) and the Acts 29 Network. I am only aware of just a bit of what is happening all across the U.S., and I believe we are only on the very edge of what God is going to do in the coming years. Why do I say this? Because God is always faithful to respond to the cries of His people, He will answer the many prayers being prayed and He will pour out a new anointing of His Spirit.

So we have two things – we have a malaise over many, many churches and individual believers and we also have signs of life, even portents of revival. Revival is not controllable by human wrangling. We can’t plead our way into one, or somehow manipulate God until he gives in and brings one. Rather, it is a mysterious co-operation between God and His people. We pray and we believe God’s promises and in His own time He answers. I am learning that there are many things which He does while we wait on Him. He shakes us, He refines our hearts, He exposes our unbelief and He calls us into deeper fellowship with him. It is as if He hides Himself and beckons us to come and find him. Jeremiah 29:23 – You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. God knows precisely what he means by ‘all your heart’, and I believe that he gives grace upon grace to do as he asks.

But in the meantime we don’t sit on our hands, or shrug our shoulders, slap our heads and say ‘duh!’ We engage the Lord fully right where we are at. There is a reason why we have taken on the monthly project of study together – we are trying to do as Peter exhorts in 2 Peter 1 – ‘make every effort to supplement your faith.‘ I recognize that it helps to have colleagues walking this through together. I recognize that not everyone is able to make that commitment (even though it isn’t exactly arduous). Let’s assume that 20% of the congregation has unavoidable schedule conflicts with a once a month meeting. Perhaps that number is higher. Let’s say its 30%. 3 out of 10 adults at LOG have unavoidable schedule conflicts that prevent them from being part of a once a month study group. Okay I’ll accept that. Perhaps even that is inaccurate. But I suspect that most people don’t make that commitment simply because they don’t think it matters enough (though I certainly hope I am wrong).

This is unfortunate, if true. But it shouldn’t actually surprise us to find out that in this respect LOG is no different than most churches in the US, large or small. We live in a time of diminished Christianity, with many Christians living lives that are not remarkably different than those who are not Christians. At the core of the Christian Faith is a call to come and follow Jesus, or as Paul puts it in Phillipians 1:29 – For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake..

We don’t live in a country where we face any real danger in being a Christian (as these early believers did). Instead ours is a sublime co-opting of our counter-cultural impact by allowing the ‘world, the flesh and the devil to lure us to simply ‘fit in’ and be at ‘ease in Zion.’ (Amos 6:1) The sacrifice into which we are called, as followers of Jesus is one which radically realigns our time & our resources so that they reflect a genuine Christian world and life view. One of the great problems we as LOG face (along with everyone else) is that its difficult to even get people to make the sacrifice to find out what a ‘genuine’ Christian world and life view is.

But I am not a pessimist, no matter how gloomy this might sound. I see so many signs in the world that Christ is ‘ruling’ from the throne room, and that He is subduing his enemies and that the Father will give ‘him (Messiah) the nations for his inheritance, and the ends of the earth for his possession.’ (Psalm 2) I want to encourage everyone to consider how important it is to make room for study in your life and to increase your capacity to ‘in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.’

Spiritual Formation is not optional – we are being formed, whether we acknowledge it or don’t. The question is will it be into the character of Jesus or something else?

Early on in the Renovation of the Heart, Dallas Willard writes: A carefully cultivated heart will, assisted by the grace of God, foresee, forestall, or transform most of the painful situations before which others stand like helpless children saying ‘why?’

Later at near the end of the chapter entitled ‘The Heart in the System of Human Life’ Willard writes: ‘We therefore live in “hot pursuit” of Jesus Christ. “My soul followeth hard after thee”, the psalmist called out (Ps. 63:8). And Paul’s panting cry was ‘That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death‘ in order to participate in the life of His resurrection. (Phil. 3:10-11). What are we to say of anyone who thinks they have something more important to do than that?

That is a very challenging statement. Recently, there was a study done on the level of spiritual growth one finds among regular church attending Christians. It is now necessary to differentiate those individuals who call themselves Christians, but do not attend church from those who do attend. In this study the people involved in designing it wanted to try and take a measure of whether people claiming to be Christians, and attending church were actually experiencing ’spiritual growth’. They used criteria like, regular bible reading, regular prayer, service to others etc (there were something like seven categories).

One series of responses is quite telling. Over 50 percent claimed that they had grown spiritually in the previous year, but when measured against conduct, or modest evidence of this only a little more than 3% actually could demonstrate that in any measurable manner. Now that indicates two things – apparently most Christians think they are growing, but have nothing tangible to point to which might indicate that growth.

I don’t know how you feel about this but I feel very frustrated when I think of that tiny a number of Christians being able to point to anything substantive in their lives to indicate growth in Christian maturity. It seems easy then to conjecture from that the seemingly profound impotence of Christianity must be directly related. If its really true that only 3 out of 100 Christians can point to measurable change in the past year, we are really in trouble. This is a significant part of the reason why I am so passionate about the book ‘The Renovation of the Heart.’ I really believe must raise the level of expectation we have of ourselves relative to growing as disciples of Jesus. It begins as Dallas Willard suggests with a vision of the kind of life that God desires for us. Jesus said that those who give themselves to him will receive ‘living water’, and that they will not be driven and ruled by unsatisfied desires. Paul writes that we can know the love of Christ in such a way that we will be filled with the fullness of God. Peter writes that those who love and trust Jesus ‘rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy. Can it really be that only 3 out of 100 Christians have anything approaching that kind of experience of following Jesus?

We simply cannot let this be the case for Lamb of God Fellowship (we don’t want it to be true about any believing congregation), but we begin with ourselves and our own backyard. I say all of this in the hopes that somehow God, by the workings of His Holy Spirit would stir up a tremendous urgency in every single one of us to undertake a serious effort to understand how we grow as followers of Christ. My experience is that most people are unreflective concerning their lives. Only tragedy, loss, or serious illness slows most people down long enough to ask – where am I going with God, am I making progress in getting there, is there any real change going on in me?

What we are trying to do about all this?

Saturday, October 18th a group of men and women gathered together for in an effort to try and make some progress in gaining an understanding of how one ‘watches over their heart.’ I want to use the rest of this post to try and summarize as best as I can the essential things that came out of that effort. My heartfelt prayer is that we would see a stronger core of brothers and sisters who are clear headed about how one ‘puts on the character of Christ’ as well as growing in the ability to help others who want to learn how to do it for themselves.

The Basic Principal – The Heart Directs the Life.

This is the core of what the Bible teaches about growing as a disciple of Jesus is this – we live out of our hearts. “The human heart, will or spirit is the executive center of a human life. The heart is where the decisions and choices are made for the whole person.” (pg. 30) Jesus taught this very clearly – ‘Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.’ (Matt. 12:34) In another place Jesus broadens this – Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.’

Spiritual formation has everything to do with the process which leads us to the place where we do the will of God out of our hearts. It has a lofty, but a concretely Biblical goal – ‘to love God will all the heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbor as ourselves.’ This is what God desires, this is the end to which He is directing everything and it is what will make eternity an endless delight. But the real, and necessary process of spiritual formation says this ideal is not just for the sweet-by-and-by. God intends for his sons and daughters to ‘be prepared for and capable of responding to the situations of life in ways that are good and right’ (pg. 29).

Basic Elements of Human Life:

Willard suggests that we can think about human nature as six basic aspects. (1) Thought (2) Feeling (3) Choice (4) Body (5) Social context (6) Soul. He summarizes in the following way: ‘every human being thinks (has a thought life), feels, chooses, interacts with his or her body and its social context, and more or less integrates all of the foregoing as parts of a life.’ Later in this section Willard suggests that this isn’t mysterious (in other words, we can all understand it). Human nature has parts, these parts have properties, which in turn make possible relationships between the parts to form larger wholes and so on. We can learn how our thoughts, our feelings, our will, and so on work and how they can be formed in cooperation with the Holy Spirit working though the Word, and the various means of grace which God makes available to all Christians. In my judgment we are required by the Word of God to gain this understanding. This is certainly what is implied by a scripture like II Peter 1:15 – For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith…

One of the most helpful understandings which Dr. Willard advances is a concept he calls ‘relenting.’ “Our actions always arise out of the interplay of the universal factors of human life: spirit, mind, body, social context, and soul. Actions never come from the movement of will alone” (pg. 39). Relenting describes how these various elements(thoughts, emotions, body, social context) place pressure on our will so that our choices are principally a relenting to these pressures.

This means that good intentions are not enough, and that there is a ‘rigorous consistency in the human self and its actions.” This single sentence may be worth the price of the book: “Actions are not impositions on who we are, but are expressions of who we are. The come out of our heart and the inner realities it supervises and interacts with” (pg. 39).

Trying to make this personal

Let me make that very personal, and I will use myself as the example. From about the 8th grade in school until I graduated college I was a fairly well disciplined athlete. Not a gym rat by any means, but pretty faithful to staying in shape. After college I began to slowly allow myself to ‘coast’ on past effort. It takes a fair amount of time to undo years of weight training and conditioning, but I am living proof that it can be undone. Over time I became a lazy person in so far as it relates to taking good care of myself, health wise. About 7 years ago I was diagnosed as a diabetic and this caused me to make some changes in my life including a fairly radical change to diet and to begin exercising once again. After about a year of conditioning and weight loss I began to see improvement. As most everyone who knows me knows five years ago I fell and suffered a serious break in my leg, one which resulted in surgery and the insertion of a 14 inch steel rod into my leg. Unfortunately, I used this excuse to drift back into inactivity and began to slump back into poor physical condition. In January of 2007 I promised myself and the Lord that this would change, and praise God I have been able to sustain nearly 11 straight months of consistent conditioning.

But I would like to make several observations about myself. I wasn’t someone who had ’slipped’ into a lifestyle of physical inactivity, I was in fact a lazy person who occasionally sustained physical activity. My use of the physical injury as a rational for inactivity wasn’t a slip, it was a pattern. Until I faced up to the condition of my heart – one which treated physical conditioning as unimportant, or as an optional matter of good stewardship I could never change. I wasn’t an occasional ’slug’, I was in fact a committed slob. Only the words of my family physician working in concert with my pastor Ray and the prompting of the Holy Spirit could get through my rationalizations for further inactivity. I had to face a truth which Dr. Willard makes plain – ‘whatever my action is comes out of my whole person’ (pg. 40). I now consider myself in recovery. Sustaining change, with all its concomitant elements (thoughts, emotions, body, etc) takes time and it would be a prideful mistake to think I have licked the problem.

However, the Lord taught me a good deal about change in the past 11 months. But I can do no better in describing that learning that to refer to Dr. Willard’s description of the nature of spiritual change in chapter five of the Renovation of the Heart. First, this past 11 months has reminded me that change is possible. I am 54, and like many folks my age I am set in my ways. But developing a lifestyle of physical conditioning has taught me again that you can teach an old dog a new trick. And although physical exercise is not the same as spiritual formation it is in many ways parallel. Listen to Dr. Willard: “Without the gentle though rigorous process of inner transformation by the graceful presence of God in our world and in our soul, the change of personality and life clearly announced and spelled out in the Bible, and explained and illustrated throughout Christian history, is impossible. We not only admit it, but also insist upon it” (pg. 79)

Lamb of God brothers and sisters get this! “Without the rigorous process of inner transformation… the change of personality and life… is impossible.” As Willard observes – “the result of the effort to change our behavior without inner transformation is precisely what we see in the current shallowness of Western Christianity.” Even revival alone will not change this. I am praying for, and believing God will bring revival, however, we cannot bypass this truth so eloquently stated by Dr. Willard.

V.I.M. – A Pattern of Change

The acronym which Dr. Willard develops for this pattern of change is simple: V.I.M., Vision, Intention, and Means. If we are to be spiritually formed in Christ, we must have and must implement the appropriate vision, intention and means (pg. 85) Dr. Willard wisely points out if we are concerned about our spiritual formation then we must have a vision of life under God, in His kingdom that is compelling. This requires me to know deeply what it is that God is making available to me in Christ and for me to embrace it with my whole heart. But as Willard says it is a vision that has to be given to us, one which we don’t naturally see on our own. But, thanks be to God, that vision is given to us in the Word of God. It is a vision of a new kind of life, life lived in the range of God’s effective will being done. It is a vision of life which can be discovered, meditated upon, and in cooperation with the Holy Spirit worked into our lives until it becomes an overwhelmingly compelling desire of our hearts.

In concert with the vision of life in the Kingdom of God is the necessity of our actual intention to do it. This is an extraordinary quality of being a human. We can decide. I can choose to make this vision of life in the kingdom a reality that I actually pursue. That means, even if my resolve is weak, I can decide that no excuse will any longer be accepted (even if I struggle and fail to always follow through). Intention moves us beyond our rationalizations, our denial, our blame-shifting to a place where we accept that the decision to do what ever is necessary to grow as a disciple of Jesus belongs to me. I must decide, and that intention is mine to follow through on. God will not magically make me do this. If I am to change, it is my decision to pursue the things that bring change. One of the observations which Dr. Willard makes which really stings is this: “Perhaps the hardest thing for sincere Christians to come to grips with is the level or real unbelief in their own life: the unformulated skepticism about Jesus that permeates all dimensions of their being and undermines what efforts they do make toward Christlikeness” (Pg. 88) Intention means I can no longer accommodate this unbelief as acceptable.

Finally, vision and intention must be combined with means: how will we go about replacing the inner character of ‘lostness’ with the inner character of Jesus? Thankfully we are not left to make this up on our own. But let me use Willard’s own summary: “We must start by discovering, by identifying, the thoughts, feelings, habits of will, social relations and bodily inclinations that prevent us from growing in the character of Christ. God has given us many ‘means’ of grace to enable this process to actually get somewhere. Richard Foster’s classic ‘The Celebration of Discipline’ is an excellent resource. Dallas Willard’s own ‘The Spirit and the Disciplines’ is also incredibly helpful. The is no lack of carefully explained material to help each one of us to become fully engaged apprentices of Jesus. The problem is not lack of information.

As Dr. Willard says: “The problem of spiritual transformation among those who identify themselves as Christians today is not that it is impossible or that effectual means are not available. The problem is that it is not intended. People do not see it and its value and decide to carry through with it. They do not decide to do the things Jesus did and said” (pg. 91)

This truth of this must be faced: I must not allow my harried life, or my state in life, or any other vicissitude to stand in the way of the blessed life of being apprenticed to Jesus. He paid an extraordinary price to open a doorway to make it possible. He gives amazing resources to sustain any who seek it and it is not idealistic to hold forth the expectation that what Jesus calls us to is in fact possible.