Communionity via Service

Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. That's his rationale for why he ate dinners with sinners. Zacchaeus found salvation after sharing a meal with Jesus. Jesus eats and drinks with us while we are lost in order that we may eat and drink with him when we are found. And often it is while we are eating and drinking together that we find salvation.

Being with Jesus is what changes everything.

What if communion became that place where sinners could be with Jesus? Those that are seeking Jesus, who want to be with Jesus, what if they were welcome at the table? It's an act of service to welcome sinners to the table, to host them and love them and care for them. It's an act of service from Jesus to the world to seek us out and save us. And it's an act of service for the Body of Christ to welcome at the table all who are searching, all who are wandering, all who are lost and want to be found.

The story of Zacchaeus reveals a sinner's heart searching for Jesus. While yet a sinner, Zacchaeus offers hospitality to Jesus. But it is then Jesus who serves salvation to Zacchaeus? The response? Zacchaeus responds to the generous salvation by giving half of his possessions to the poor and then paying back four times the amount to anyone he cheated. Communion with Christ produces service to the community - which connects them with Christ who desires communion with them.

Communionity comes by the service that Jesus and his followers offer up to one another and the community where they live. For those that eat the bread and drink from the cup in remembrance of Jesus, we follow up that remembrance with acts of service to those that Jesus is seeking to save. Acts of service are both the fuel and the fruit of communionity. It connects us with a Christ who is for the community.

The Spirit of Christ is still at work today in our community, seeking to save the lost and commune with them. Communionity comes about when Christians serve their community out of their connection with Christ, resulting in their community connecting with Christ.

We are shaped by the Spirit-prompted acts of service - we are changed by them, just as Jesus uses them to shape and change the community.

What does spiritual formation through service look like for you in your community?

• Reflecting the helping, caring, sharing love of God in the world
• Offering resources, time, treasure, influence and expertise for the care, protections, justice and nurture of others
• Walk the talk
• Collaborate with organizations in your community as a way to care for the widow, orphan and oppressed
• Mentoring
• Helping out your neighbor when a need arises
• Use your skills, interests, experiences, passions to better your church and community
• Inventory ways you are already serving. Surrender it to the Lordship of Christ
• Discover and utilize your spiritual gifts
• Partner with at least one organization through which you can help others based on your passions
• Adopt the attitude of Jesus Christ: he came to serve, not be served

Do you desire to be with Jesus? Let him serve you. And let him serve through you. In communionity with Him and your community. 

We are discovering, not a life of service, but life through service [Reggie McNeal].

Communionity via Simplicity

What are ways that the community where we live can benefit from the communion we have with Christ?

Communion with Jesus has tended to be a one way event - up and down spirituality between me and my savior. But when Jesus ate and drank, it was often with sinners. And in sharing a meal with them, they and their friends found salvation.

What would happen if Jesus-followers broadened their understanding of communion. What if every time a Christian broke bread and drank from a cup became a time of communion - with Jesus as Lord and whoever was there to share it with them, sinner or saint? As radical as this idea may be, it may better then the routine mass consumption of bread and grape juice that is received during some meditative music and prayers for forgiveness.

When Jesus shared communion with his disciples in the Upper Room, it evoked all the dinners he had shared in the years prior. Especially one of the more recent ones with Zacchaeus. In that encounter, by sharing a meal together, salvation comes to Zacchaeus. Jesus declares that this life-change is why he came - to seek and to save the lost. And sharing meals together was a powerful conduit.

And what is communion if it is not sharing in a meal together in the name of Jesus, to remember Jesus. But it's not enough to just remember Jesus - but to obey him and do what he asked us to do - which is to seek and save the lost. One of the ways we do that is by sharing communion with them. Communion can become a way that the lost become found.

Communionity is when communion connects us to our community through Christ. In the Zacchaeus story, we see that this communionity led to salvation for him and joy to his community. Communionity prompted Zacchaeus to give half of his possessions away and to repay four times the amount he cheated anybody. This act of repentance introduced the power of simplicity into his life.

Being freed of his sin, shame and guilt, being free of his past, he began to be free of his possessions, his money, his prestige, his reputation, his greed, his apathy to the poor. Communionity connects you with others in the community through Christ such that you find you need less stuff.

Communionity opens up your heart to the generosity of Christ who is willing to eat with you while you are yet a sinner. The generosity of Jesus, if received, requires us to shove out the windows and doors of our heart all the junk we've accumulated to make room for the love and peace of Christ - for others through us.

Alot of the stuff we've accumulated in our hearts is reflected by what we've accumulated in our homes. As we make more room in our hearts for Christ, we can make more room in our homes for our community - which means clearing out stuff we don't want or need and giving it away to those that might have use of it.

This simplifying of life is a way to become more free to respond to the communion we have with Christ and through him with the community.

Here are some examples of what spiritual formation through simplicity looks like:

• To uncomplicate and untangle my life so I can focus on what really matters
• Cultivate the art of “letting go” to bring freedom and generosity
• Set priorities that flow from loving God above all else
• Downsize on your possessions, give away to those in need
• Eat simple foods, enjoy simple pleasures
• Assess things or activities that keep life complicated or confusing – work to simplify
• Create more space in your schedule for serving others
• Declutter your house
• Limit your time with: TV/Facebook/Games, etc.
• Walk and listen
• Stop giving excuses
• Ask God to help you let go of _________

Consider which of these acts of simplicity the Spirit is prompting you to do as part of your growing participation in communionity - communion with Christ who is in the community. Simplicity flows from your Spirit-charged heart, and it overflows into the people in your life. You become more available to them, more free to be with them and for them.

“Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ be ‘No.’” - Jesus

Communionity via Unity

When we practice typical communion on a Sunday morning, it's more rooted in ritualistic tradition and simplistic reflection on the Last Supper. But what if communion could be more central to our worship of Christ and love of neighbor? This is what communionity is seeking to get at. Reshaping our understanding and practice of communion on a Sunday morning so that our hearts and hands are oriented to offering hospitality and building unity as we go about our life in the world with Jesus. Communionity.

For the church today, we need to pay attention to the "communion" stories of Jesus where he is eating and drinking with whoever will invite him, and with whomever he will feed. Communion is about a common union with Christ shared through a meal, through hospitality. A meal is not just a meal to Jesus. For Levi it was a public show of unity with Jesus. And it sparked grumbling from the religious folks. "What's a holy man doing uniting himself to a dirty rotten scoundrel like Levi?"

A meal was an opportunity to forge unity through hospitality. Sincere and gracious hospitality made possible a lasting and rich unity. Jesus's name means "savior"; his other name at birth was Immanuel, "God with us". The incarnation implies that God has come as one of us to save us from our sins. He is willing to enter into our hearts and homes - to be the receiver of our hospitality and build unity with us. Jesus lived up to his name when he partied with Levi's friends.

But in a much more profound sense, this is Jesus' world - and he is coming to us offering his hospitality, his welcome, his gracious offer of unity with him. He is inviting us into his world, his home, his heart. He's throwing a party, are we willing to be united with him, sharing a meal with him, with the the Body of Christ? Jesus invites us to eat and drink with other Christians - will we do it? Will we let ourselves be united with other disciples, like what Jesus prayed for? Like what Jesus did? It's how Levi became a disciple. And wrote a Gospel. And united his friends to the Savior.

Why not look for ways for the Body of Christ and the community share meals together? Just as God has come to us to build unity, why doesn't the church go into the community to extend that unity? The church and the community already have meals scheduled to eat. There will be drinking. In homes? In a park. While serving in a local school? While working together?

What holds us back from building unity whereever and whenever possible? Christians who can share meals with other Christians different from them is a powerful example of unity. Jesus prayed that the church would be one, just as he and the Father are one. If hospitality and unity can break out within the church, it will fuel a rich hospitality and unity with the community.

The two ought to go together - the church united in it's hospitality to the community. There are going to be meals - why not infuse them with hospitality, wanting to build unity with people not like you - in another church or from a different "tribe"? This is communionity.

There are actions that form us to be more like Jesus. Hospitality and unity are spiritual practices that form our heart and spirit, our body and mind to love our neighbor as God loves us. The practice of hospitality and unity building, while it may start off quietly and under the radar - if it is a work of Jesus, it will be his instrument through which he shapes your heart to beat like his and by which he connects you to those in the community he has already been ministering to.

Here's some thoughts on the spiritual practices of hospitality and unity for you to consider. Which one of these practices is Jesus prompting you to try out this week?

Spiritual Formation thru Unity
* Working with believers from various traditions to achieve kingdom purposes
* Sharing worship with other Christian denominations in your community
* Finding points on which you agree, not simply points on which you disagree.
* Having fewer divisions between and more love among Christians in a community
* Growing in appreciation for the diversity of the Body of Christ
* Being part of the answer to Jesus’ prayer for unity in the church in John 17

“In essentials unity. In nonessentials liberty. In all things charity.”

What have you learned about building unity with people different then you?

What practices of unity and hospitality could you pass on to others?

Communionity via Hospitality

Communionity. It's a new word we're exploring, a verb that describes what we're doing and becoming as a church. Every church is marked by it's practices of communion. What if the church reshaped it's practice of communion so that it forged a unity with the community where it gathers for worship in the name of Christ? What if communion was a practice that welcomed sinners and bound Christians together - instead of it being a practice that traditionally excludes sinners and divides Christians?

The story of Jesus eating and drinking with Levi and this sinful tax collector friends deeply shapes the Gospel understanding of communion. Whereas we often only look back to the Passover meal Jesus shared with twelve of his male disciples as a starting point for communion, we ought to consider the whole life of Jesus and his reputation of being a glutton and a drunk.

Apparently Jesus ate and drank so often with sinners that he "ruined" his reputation with people of high social standing and a righteous reputation. But Jesus was on a mission to heal the sick, to preach forgiveness of sins and call the unrighteous to repentance. He came to change lives for good and for God. Communion - common union through meals - was one of those ways he instigated holy transformation in the social fabric of the community and the hearts of men and women on the margins of society.


Hospitality for the church becomes a key task of our mission to forge unity in our community with sinners who are not part of the Body of Christ. The church is a gathering of sinners who have experienced the "metanoia" or change or repentance of their sins. This forgiveness of sins, this fresh start with God and others, this is good news! We want to invite others into this new way of life with Christ - so we welcome and forge unity like He did.

By opening up our homes and hearts to others in our community - and by joining our neighbors for dinner in their home - this kind of hospitality and unity is following in the way of Jesus. Communionity.

There are actions that form us to be more like Jesus. Hospitality and unity are spiritual practices that form our heart and spirit, our body and mind to love our neighbor as God loves us. Imagine the impact your hospitality in your school cafeteria, your breakroom at work, your dinner table in the neighborhood could have?

You might think it small or insignificant. But the practice of hospitality and unity building, while it may start off quietly and under the radar - if it is a work of Jesus, it will be his instrument through which he shapes your heart to beat like his and by which he connects you to those in the community he has already been ministering to.

Levi was ready for Jesus when the invitation came to "Follow me!" Jesus was ready for the hospitality that Levi gushed forth following his conversion. Jesus had been at work in Levi's life long before he made the invite. And Jesus had been a ready for a long time to party with other tax collectors and sinners prior to Levi's invite.

Jesus is at work in the community preparing neighbors to hear his call to "Follow me!" Will there be a congregation in the community willing to welcome their neighbor with warm and gracious hospitality? Will there be the willingness to forge a union with a stranger and help them become a friend? When the spiritual practices of hospitality are put to work in everyday life, they create a forward momentum for their homes and their church that makes them more ready to celebrate with all the Levi's Jesus in calling to "Follow me." Communionity.

Here's some thoughts on the spiritual practices of hospitality for you to consider. Which one of these practices is Jesus prompting you to try out this week?

Spiritual Formation thru Hospitality
* Sharing your home, food, resources, car and all that you call your own so that another might experience the reality of God’s welcoming heart
* Reaching out to and receiving the stranger or the enemy with the hope that they might be transformed into a friend.
* Loving, not entertaining, the guest
* Welcoming others into your clique, group, club, life
* Spontaneously inviting people for meals
* Providing safe places for people in an unsafe world
* Loving people rather than impressing them
* Developing conversational skills that put others at ease
* Opening your home to others

What have you learned about fostering rich hospitality from your home and heart?

What practices of hospitality could you pass on to others?

A Movement Towards Communionity

Anchor is part of a movement to connect with a Christ who is connected with our community. It's a movement towards communionity. We believe that the Jesus we worship and serve is fully present in our neighborhood. With or without us.

Anchor wants to join Jesus in what he is doing in our community. If Christ comes as good news, then that's what we want to be as well. But this requires that Anchor continues to learn how to commune with a Christ such that it builds a movement of unity with our community. Communionity.

Too often Christians focus on "Jesus and me" at the expense of "Jesus and my neighbor too." Communion on Sunday mornings too often reinforces a narrow view of being a Christian, "Thank you for forgiving me of my sins." What if how we did communion focused us less on our past sins, and more on Jesus and his current work to save our community from sin?

That's what we'll learn and begin to put into practice this Autumn at Anchor. Communionity is our new word to describe our learning to commune with Christ who is connected to our community. Unity with Christ will include unity with our community where Christ is currently at work. Can our participation in communion increase our connections in the community with people not like us, with the poor and imprisoned, with the wounded and wandering?

We'll have to learn some new ways of partaking of Communion, of participating in the Lord's Supper, of celebrating the Eucharist, of anticipating that Great Banquet. It'll take some practice, some creativity, some openness to the promptings of the Spirit of Jesus. And that's what it takes to start a movement of communionity.

Jesus came to start a movement where by ever more diverse people would experience the healing, freeing, transforming power of God and then in joy invite their community: "Come follow Jesus with us!"

Come join us in our movement towards communionity!

The Church Just Wants Your Money! (part two)

Churches too often ask for money from a position of neediness. Which ties guilt to the request. This also gives the aura that maybe there was a little mismanagement or lack of foresight or wisdom. All of which will discourage people from giving generously (though maybe still out of guilt).

When a church asks for more money, there needs to be a clear articulation of how the generosity will help the congregation love it's neighbor better. 

If the giving is to be for facility upgrades, one would want to know how the facility is used to serve the community. If increased giving is for staff, one would want to know how the neighbors are going to be better served. If the giving is for programming, one would want to know how this will help make the neighborhood a better place to live.

Are we asking for more money as a way to spread the good news, or is it getting in the way? There is nothing wrong with asking for more money, unless how and why you are doing it undermines your ability to live out the Gospel.

Is Jesus being honored with the stewardship of the money that has already been given? Is the community being served well? Is the congregation growing in generosity, love, grace and truth? How will more people be blessed in the congregation and the community if more money is given to the church?

The Bible teaches us not to be stingy with our money, but to be generous. If you love money, you will be stingy with it. "Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income." [Ecclesiastes 5v10] But if you love God, you will be generous with it. The church ought to ask for more money, but more for spiritual formation reasons then money woes. By helping the congregation grow in generosity, they grow in their trust with God, they grow in their help to their neighbor, and they become less worried about having enough money.

The Apostle Paul writes to his friends in Corinth:

"Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." [2Corinthians 9v6-8]

If we learn anything about Jesus, love and money, it's to be generous with it. Sow generously to the people in your life. Be generous to people in need. Sow generosity as you love your neighbor. Be generous to the Lord's work.

Since your local church is part of the Lord's work, and it has people in need, and it includes people in your life, and it's part of the neighborhood, be generous to your local church!

But even more important, sow generously as the Spirit of the Lord directs you.

The Church Just Wants Your Money!

It's out there. Enough churches have earned the reputation for being money-grubbers, that it's tainted everyone else.

For a church to talk, let alone teach about money, has become a very awkward situation. Church leaders are afraid to ask about money, members get uncomfortable if there is too much talk about money, and visitors get concerned if their first Sunday happens to be when there is a request for more money.

But: churches have got to figure out how to talk about money more often in a more normal fashion. Money is the stuff of life, it is "the answer for everything." To quote Ecclesiastes 10v19.

So if churches don't mature in the way they talk and teach about money, they'll make it almost impossible for members to mature in the way they manage and spend their money. Money is a really important issue for people. And churches.

The more wisdom we can accumulate about managing and investing our wealth, we increase our opportunities to bless and help our neighbors. "Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: Wisdom preserves those who have money." [Ecclesiastes 7v12]

Anchor is in the process of asking it's congregation to give more money. It's been a difficult task, since we've not talked about money very much and thus we aren't comfortable doing so. But Jesus says that in order to receive, you have to ask. So we've made the ask. And people are responding.

They're thankful for the difference Anchor has made in their life and of many others in the congregation. They're also excited about the involvement of Anchor in the neighborhood, and they want to see that increase. Our pastoral staff makes a point of investing in the people of the congregation and the community. We ended the year 2012 with one full time pastor serving the congregation and the community. We'd like to end the year 2013 with two full time pastors serving more people. The need is there. More money will make it more possible for Anchor to better serve more people in our community and congregation.

We want to help make more disciples of Jesus who will help make our neighborhood a better place to live. An anchor for the community. Because Jesus is an anchor for us.

Discipling is a difficult task. Discipling such that the community is transformed by the love of Christ is even more daunting. But if our love for God is connected to our love of neighbor, and if we are to be transformed by God's love, shouldn't our neighborhood be transformed by our love for God?

That's what I think Jesus has in mind for a church to be and proclaim the good news of salvation and shalom.

And it's what Anchor is committed to doing everyday.

The Church is Like A...

What is the church like? 

Or: what could the church become like? 

In an age where more churches are closing then being started, when attendance is declining and unbelief is rising, we ought to reconsider who we are becoming and what we are doing. 

Using the analogy of place, what could the church be like? In desiring Jesus's work of redemption and renewal of all things to burst forth in local churches, what kind of places should we be?

I've listed out seven metaphors of place that help me grasp the multi-faceted reality of a church as a place where people gather in the name of Jesus. These metaphors come from my readings from the New Testament about Jesus and from important places in our society, as well as realities of the church over the ages.

The Church is like a Business: the church is a place where people get organized with their time, their money, their interests and skills in order to better serve one another and their community. Jesus wants us to use our wealth as a blessing; organized generosity is better then chaotic help.

The Church is like a Community Center: the church is a place where helpful collaboration can occur that blesses the neighborhood. Jesus instructed his disciples to love their neighbor, their enemy, and one another.

The Church is like a Dining Table: the church is a place where people gather around a table to break bread and eat together. Jesus earned the reputation for being a glutton and a drunkard because of all the time he spent with sinners at a table.

The Church is like a Hospital: the church is a place where spiritually sick and physically ailing and existentially broken people gather together looking for hope and healing. Jesus said he came to heal the sick, and so a church ought to continue in that work.

The Church is like a Mission Post: the church is a place from where people are sent out into their local and global world as messengers of the Good News. Jesus commanded his disciples to go into the world where they live.

The Church is like a Sanctuary: the church is to be a place of prayer with other believers. Jesus wants to be an anchor for our soul, the one upon whom we cast all our cares.

The Church is like a School: the church is a place where you learn to love like Christ.  Jesus is the way, the truth and the life - he is the teacher and we are always his students.


Churches run into problems when they focus on only one of these metaphors, or make one more important then the others, or forget about how they are all interdependent.

Imagine what the church could be like if all seven of these metaphors were at work in our congregation?

What do these different metaphors mean for leadership in the church?
What kind of participation does it require from people who choose to be part of a church?
What challenges do churches face in light of these metaphors of place?
What opportunities can we see through these metaphors?

First Thoughts on Toxic Charity

When I was a senior in high school, I went to visit my mom and her classroom full of twenty-five first-grade students. It was in the middle of winter and the day was just coming to an end. The students were gathering their belongings and preparing for the vicious sub-zero temperatures for the journey out to the buses.  

All of her students were putting on hats, gloves, snow boots, and thick winter coats. One student in particular decided he was going to put on his mittens then zip up his coat.  He soon realized that without the help of his individual fingers, it was nearly impossible to zip up his own coat.  He approached my mom and asked, “Mrs. Uhey, can you zip my coat for me?” and my mom kindly responded, “No, I will not zip your coat. When you’re getting ready to leave, zip up your coat then put your mittens on. You can do it.”  

With that, he took off his mittens, zipped his coat, then put his mittens back on. Initially, when I first saw this interaction I thought, “come on, mom! You could have just zipped his coat! How could you not help him!” Little did I know is that my mom’s response to this student in her class was the best, most helpful response she could have given. 

I know this story seems random and almost insignificant, but what my mom demonstrated in front of her student and myself was something incredibly profound when it comes to working with people, especially those in need. 

My mom recognized that her student had the capacity to do what he asked of her.  She could have helped him, but instead, she seized the moment as a time to teach him what he could do if he applied himself.  In this small interaction, she taught her student as well as empowered him, building him up to become independent.

Toxic Charity, written by Bob Lupton, discusses in more depth the benefits of empowering those who are struggling.  

In most charity cases, we see people who are willing to give, and give a lot and there is nothing wrong with having a giving, compassionate heart! However, if you take a close look at the receiving end of giving, it can have some unintended, harmful effects.  

Lupton gives the example of a well-off family dropping off gifts at Christmas. The giving family is happy to give, stopping by the house on Christmas and enjoying a little fellowship. What is strange is that the father of the receiving family is nowhere to be seen, for it is embarrassing for this father to be reminded in front of a random family that he cannot provide for his own family. 

Looking closely at this, we should not be so quick to think that our giving is actually helpful.  

The point is to figure out why this father cannot provide for his family and work with him in a way that will set him up to be able to provide for his family for the next Christmas. Handing out gifts may make the giver feel good and boost their “God complex” but can create a social separation between the two parties, hurting the essence of community.

When we set out to do some kind of charity work, our hope is to improve the quality of life for those we are serving.  The kind of charity that improves the quality of life of those being served requires careful consideration and lots of time. It takes a lot of heart and a lot of drive.  

Community and Disillusionment

A community that cannot bear and cannot survive... disillusionment, clinging instead to it's idealized image, when that should be done away with, loses at the same time the promise of durable Christian community. Sooner or later it is bound to collapse.

Every human idealized image that is brought into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine Christian community and must be broken up so that genuine community can survive.

Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial.

God hates this wishful dreaming because it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious.

Those who dream of this idealized community demand that it be fulfilled by God, by others, and by themselves. They enter the community of Christians with their demands, set up their own law, and judge one another and even God accordingly.

They stand adamant, a living reproach to all others in the Christian community, as if their visionary ideal binds the people together. Whatever does not go their way, they call a failure.

When their idealized image is shattered, they see the community breaking into pieces. So they first become accusers of other Christians in the community, then accusers of God, and finally the desperate accusers of themselves.
~ from Life Together, 35-36 // taken from A Year w/ Dietrich Bonhoeffer May 22

Every Christian at some point somehow develops a vision of what kind of congregation, what kind of people, what kind of Christians they would like to be around and in community with at a church. Almost everyone creates some kind of vision for how small groups ought to go, how Sunday school ought to go, how worship ought to go, how fellowship events or Bible studies or accountability relationships ought to go. We all tend to form our preferences for Christian community. I'm very guilty of it.

When I first read these words of Bonhoeffer in 2007, they hit me like a hammer on the head. I've reread this text many many times, prayerfully asking for forgiveness from God and help from Christ to not fuel an idealized image.

As the Gospel continues to embrace the lost and broken, the poor and marginalized, the humbled and struggling, the community that Christ creates will not be ideal. But it will be real, it will be with Christ, and it will be in honesty as sinners who are learning and stumbling forward to be reconciled to God.

Grace, love, truth, peace, and righteousness are hallmarks of Christian community; but they are thus because we the people are originally ungraceful, unloving, untruthful, unpeaceful, and unrighteous. We may bring forms of good with us to church, but only Christ can put in us and draw out of us His grace, love, truth, peace and righteousness. And we only grow in it by meeting sin in the other, and responding like Christ.

In our consumerist society, it is too easy to justify finding a Christian community that comes closest to meeting your "ideal" needs. It is really difficult for a Christian to let himself/herself be guided into Christian community by the Spirit of Christ - for it requires blocking your ears to the Sirens of Consumerism. To participate or depart a Christian community should not be based on disillusionment, but rather as part of Christ's mission in the world.

But if you are disappointed or disillusioned in a church, aside from outright sin and corruption by evil, you have to ask: how much of the frustration is fueled by my consumerist-spiritual cravings, and how much is part of God's ongoing work to transform me by placing me in a real Christian community where sin and mistakes and bungling is present and we are all learning how to be reconciled to one another just as God reconciled himself to us.

How To Pray & Read the Scriptures

The motivation for this topic centers on the work of spiritual formation. Spiritual formation is the word we give to cooperative work of being shaped, formed by the Spirit of God to participate in the new possibilities of our life now. The work of spiritual formation includes praying, reading the Scriptures, and praying the Scriptures.

If we believe that the Scriptures are a gift from God, just as the Spirit is, then we ought to be shaped by the Scriptures, through the Spirit. And for those of us that have entered into the work of prayer (yes, it is work), we realize that prayer comes form deep within our own spirit.

Jesus summarized his teachings and that of the Hebrew Scriptures with this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. Spiritual formation is the interior work of learning to love God and your neighbor by letting the Spirit of God work on your heart, soul, mind and strength.

We can let God influence us, our heart, soul, mind and strength when we pray and read the Scriptures, and especially when we pray the Scriptures.

As Christians, we believe that the Same Spirit of Jesus makes it's home in us. When we choose to believe that God has grace-fully forgiven us of our sins, we open ourselves up to God himself, His Spirit, the Same Spirit that empowered Jesus. That Same Spirit of Jesus, when it is at work in us and through us, makes all sorts of possibilities come to life - for healing, for hope, for renewal, for a future, for truth, for beauty, for freedom, for love.

So how do we pray? How do we read the Scriptures? How do we pray the Scriptures so that we are shaped by the Same Spirit of Jesus?

One lesson isn't enough to fully answer those questions. But I'll provide an overview here. In posts to come I'll lay out more details on how to pray, how to read the Scriptures and how to pray the Scriptures.

For reference, here are links to other lessons I have done on How to Pray and How to Read the Scriptures.

Here I want to introduce how to pray the Scriptures, since that gets us right into the heart of spiritual formation, while also teaching us some more about how to pray and how to read the Scriptures.


To start, we'll use a Psalm. Ancient Israel's hymnbook for worship was the book of Psalms. They would regularly chant their way through the Psalms, their way of singing worship to God. But for them, singing and praying the Psalms was the same work. We can read the Psalms, but we can also pray the Psalms (and sing them if you really want to!).

For example, let's start with Psalm 32 (I'll include the first few verses here, you can see the whole Psalm by clicking on the link):

1 Blessed is the one
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.

2 Blessed is the one
whose sin the Lord does not count against them
and in whose spirit is no deceit.

3 When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

4 For day and night your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.

5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you
and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.”
And you forgave the guilt of my sin.

Read through it slowly. Then pray through it by personalizing it - bring to mind a sin you feel guilty about, that you desire forgiveness. Imagine Jesus standing before you, pray as if he is there listening to you. Or, select a phrase that resonates with you, and then repeat that phrase as a prayer throughout the day.

As you read through the Psalm, ask God to bring a word or idea to your heart. Enter into a conversation with God about what you are reading and praying.

Question God about it, ask for insight, probe what God might be wanting you to consider, be convicted about, by inspired by.

And especially: what do you need to do in order to help answer your prayer? Again -  let God's spirit guide your steps forward as you act based on your praying the Scripture.


To pray through this Psalm is both easier then imagined and harder. It's easy to say the words, to repeat them, to imagine Jesus listening to your prayer, to ask God questions.

It's hard to focus, to trust that God hears and speaks, to enter into the prayer authentically. It's hard to memorize the prayer, to repeat the phrase throughout the day. It's hard to center yourself, to ignore disturbances, to shut out the noise in your head.

But when you don't know what to say, especially when you feel guilt, when you feel shame, when you feel burdened by your past sins and mistakes, use Scripture to put words in your mouth and heart.

These Scriptures have been used for prayer for thousands of years - there is something rich, enduring, and earthy about them. There may be a sense of formality to them, but that can be refreshing compared to the hesitant muttering we may offer up as a prayer.

For other Psalms, try Psalm 1, or Psalm 22 and Psalm 23. Maybe even Psalm 116, 117 or even Psalm 118. Psalm 139 is a classic.

Sexperiment

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.  Ephesians 4:32

                Many months ago, Pastor Tim approached me about writing a blog for the church website.  I told him that this sounded great, while balking at the idea on the inside.  Not only was I experiencing some pretty harsh difficulties at the time, but I hadn’t even kept a journal since high school and I had no idea what I would even talk about.  Tim gave me a few ideas of books and parts of the Bible he thought I would find “blogable.”  When my life settled down some, I began reading some of his suggestions, but I was getting no inspiration from anything.

                Fast forward to two Thursdays ago, my husband asked me to go to the Christian bookstore to look for a couples’ devotional for us.  I think he’s come to regret that request, because I left the store with almost $150 in various devotionals, and even a Veggie Tales video.  Just a hint, don’t ever ask me to go shopping at a bookstore for just one item!

                As I was browsing the devotional section, my eyes fell on a book I thought was somewhat unusual to be found in a Christian bookstore.  The book is titled Sexperiment: 7 Days to Lasting Intimacy with Your Spouse and was written by Pastor Ed and Lisa Young.  I decided to take it home simply because it sounded fun to me.  As it turns out, this book was almost written for me and the challenges Paul and I have been attempting to overcome.

                You may be tempted to ask, “What exactly does sex have to do with the church or even God and Christianity?”  I wondered the same thing.  As it turns out, there’s quite a lot in common.  Let me preface my review by saying that this book is not just for married couples.  The Youngs also included sections in each chapter for engaged couples and single people, so it’s a good read for everyone.

                Have you ever noticed that your relationship with your spouse has started to take a turn for the worse?  Maybe the communication has lessened, maybe there’s the feeling of a huge gap between you and your spouse, maybe one or both of you are thinking of wandering in different directions, with someone else, or even talking about divorce.  Maybe a busy schedule, work, or kids (this is an acronym for Keeping Intimacy at a Distance Successfully) seem to be eating up more and more of your time.  If there’s a mutual feeling of being lost and separated, first I would suggest either going to your pastor or finding a good Christian counselor for marriage therapy.  Second I would recommend picking up this book and putting it into practice!

                Pastor Young contends that the church, in general, does not talk about sex enough and I agree.  In fact, in most churches the subject of sex is almost taboo.  In fact, Pastor Young says that God truly wants humans to enjoy intercourse.  God has made men and women diametrically opposite so that in marriage we may come together as one.  Without a healthy sex life, many marriages falter and end in divorce.  Sex is more than just procreation; it is a married couple communicating love and unity through intimacy.  He even goes as far as to say this is a perfect representation of the male and female sides of God.

                Lack of communication from the church leads Christians to feel that sex is a dirty little negligee that you hide in your closet.  You only bring it out on special occasions when you want to be bad and you never talk about it.  Pastor Young proclaims that sex is actually one of the most beautiful forms of worshipping God that Christians can perform.  References to sex can be found throughout the Bible.  However, the most explicit accounts are found in the book Song of Solomon (Song of Songs), where King Solomon (son of King David and Bathsheba) and his Shulamite wife write candid love poems to each other.  This book is full of allusions and word visuals that would make a sailor blush:

How beautiful you are, my darling!  Oh, how beautiful!  Your eyes are doves.  How handsome you are, my beloved!  Oh, how charming!  And our bed is verdant.     Song of Solomon 1:15-16.

                Sex is what binds the marriage together, and I have never quite understood why society and the church have twisted it into one of the darkest and most embarrassing acts we as humans could perform.  Spouses cannot hide secrets or hold animosity towards one another and have good marital intimacy.  Pastor Young stresses that we must bring all of our baggage to the table and unload it, in a loving manner, in front of our spouse.  It is all about giving the gift of forgiveness towards your spouse as Christ gave the gift of forgiveness to us through His crucifixion.

                This book is not a how-to guide on sex.  Rather it is a guide on loving your spouse, your life, and worshipping God through that love.  Pastor Young insists that we first go to our spouse with our issues, so that there is nothing in the way of enjoyment.  Afterwards, the “sexperiment” is to carve out time to have sex with your spouse every day for an entire week.  Obviously a week’s worth will not solve our family problems, but it points us in the right direction to complete openness with our spouses and starts us on the road towards healing and a strong bond with each other and God.

A good sex life also extends out into our daily lives.  It creates a loving intimacy through touch and tenderness between husband and wife that shows children what a good marriage should be and what they should be looking for in a future spouse.

http://thesexperiment.com/

Making More Mature Disciples

Maturity: a significant priority of Anchor Community Church shall be helping followers of Jesus become more mature disciples as they grow in their understanding of the Scriptures and fully participate in the body of Jesus.

It's with much joy that we look around Anchor and see more and more people from the community joining us for worship on Sundays, or small groups during the week, or benefiting from our Community Connections ministry. And it's a real joy to hear the Because of Jesus stories, of how people are experiencing the life-changing power of Jesus in their life.

But there is still a big question mark that hangs over all of this joy: what is it that helps people become more mature disciples of Jesus? We love to have more people join us for worship, to have more people baptized, to have more people share a Because of Jesus story. However, we remember the old adage: God loves us just the way we are, but he loves us too much to leave us that way.

What does maturity look like? How do you track the trajectory of maturity? 

What does the journey look like from immaturity in all things to maturity in all things? Is there a standard pace? Is it always in a straight line? How do you differentiate personality and culture from true Christian maturity? And how does a congregation measure maturity? How do we talk about becoming more mature? Who has the permission to decide what is immature or mature?

I ask all these questions to make a point: for all of you who are confident about what maturity is and is not (for example, you yourself are the example of maturity...), and for all of you who have lots of "reasons" for why you are not more mature in your faith ("I'm just so busy...) - there is a tension between what we want to see in others and what we are willing to seen in ourselves. We know maturity when we see it, but it is hard to define - especially in others. 

There are two key ways we define maturity (and immaturity) at Anchor: through your growing understanding of the Scriptures and your participation in the body of Jesus. 

An immature version of this would read: be busy always reading your Bible and showing up at the church whenever the doors open.

A mature version of this would read: what action have you taken in response to a prompting from God because you were reading Scripture?


In what ways is your local congregation or other Christians you are connected with better off because of what you have been reading in Scripture and applying to your own life? Do these two understandings make sense?


Some examples of how this would work with Anchor: 
* to say that we are a follower of Jesus means we are becoming familiar with the teachings of Jesus and can give examples how how we are implementing it in our life. 

If you aren't meditating on the Sermon on the Mount, it's going to be difficult for you to know the key teachings of Jesus, and thus almost impossible for you to follow the way of Jesus. Jesus' understanding of love, forgiveness, prayer, giving money to the poor, adultery and lust, murder and anger, honesty, etc.


* to say that we are a disciple means that we are student of Jesus, which means we set time and energy to read, discuss, and apply what we learn. 

There is thus a schedule in our life by which we listen to the voice of Jesus through Scriptures, prayer, life experience, and the wisdom of other Christians.

But as a student, we don't go merely as a passive sponge - for we know that the most important learning that comes in life is from doing, from our own experiences and attempts.

So as a student, we schedule into our life time to work and give in the name of Jesus. Whether it is a ministry opportunity with your local church or through your local church (like with Habitat or NeighborLink), or it is a task you do on your own or with other Christians you know that aren't apart of Anchor - your intentionality reveals your maturity.

Passivity and maturity don't often go hand in hand.


* a more mature disciple takes initiative to respond to a need that they see. 

They've been shaped by the Scriptures, they've got a history with a local church, and they've both witnessed and been part of work to help others in need. Thus, based on their understanding of Scriptures and their participation in they body of Jesus they've been trained and empowered to be Jesus to the people in their life.

The willingness and skill to do this is a sign of ongoing maturity.

What Anchor Wants

What guides Anchor's ministry? When we put into words what we sense the Spirit of Jesus doing in us and through us, what would we write? What explains the decisions we make, the values we hold, the priorities we emphasize? 

Below is a simple guide to what shapes our ministry as Anchor, some potent sentences that serve like seeds for what we do in response to the work God has started in us, work that God will continue through us.

Anchor Community Church wants hundreds of their friends and family to become fully devoted followers of Jesus who are a helpful blessing to our city through our loving God and neighbor. 

You already are connected to many people who are strangers to Jesus, or estranged. With the people God has already placed in your life, we want ministry to result in helping connect people with Jesus.

This connecting, well we want it to feel like a blessing - to our homes, our community, to our city. And what's the best way to connect as a blessing? Love. Jesus showed us what love looks like - love to God and neighbor, he taught about it, and then commanded us to imitate him. And so we go. And look to find ways to include many more with us in our loving, our blessing, our following Jesus.

When it comes to living out this mission as the hands and feet of Jesus, there are four ways we go about this, four priorities that guide us forward:

Community: our highest priority as Anchor Community Church shall be connecting with people we know and those in our city who need to be welcomed into the body of Jesus.

Maturity: a significant priority of Anchor Community Church shall be helping followers of Jesus become more mature disciples as they grow in their understanding of the Scriptures and fully participate in the body of Jesus.

Ministry: another significant priority of Anchor shall be developing and sending each disciple for a significant ministry through their God-given skills, resources, and experiences to be used in their home, local community, church, and world.

Kingdom Focus: the other significant priority of Anchor shall be collaborating with like-minded churches, local ministries, community and business organizations and selected government agencies to further the influence of the Gospel in our city. 

What's the Spirit of Jesus doing in you? How can Anchor help you in fully devoting your life to Jesus? If and when there is an opportunity for Anchor to be a blessing to you, to help you, to give you a love which you pass on to others - well we will celebrate that experience. Those are the kinds of stories we love to share.

Here are a few stories worth sharing:

* when we baptized ten Christians in June, most of them brought friends and family to witness the event. Some of those who came are not part of a church, are not Christians. All who walked away from that event felt the Spirit of Jesus at work. We celebrate that experience!

* through our small groups this Spring, Christians who were resistant to following Jesus became more involved in Anchor. Some made the decision to start worshipping with us on Sundays every week. Others chose to lead a small group - a big step of trust which God honored. One group started a ministry that continues once a month - singing and fellowshipping with the elderly members of Coventry Meadows! 

* one of our members shared how, as a cashier at a small grocery store, she intentionally ministers to every customer. She sees her place of employment as a place to minister. More than just being a polite employee, she is motivated to serve and greet and work to the glory of God and as a blessing, an instrument of the love of Jesus. 

*  In July we will worship with Grace Presbyterian Church on their front yard - a witness to our community of our oneness in Christ and our unity in loving our neighbor. In September we will worship in Hamilton Park with about eight neighborhood congregations, along with Rescue Mission and Charis House. Last year we partnered with Associated Churches for this worship event. 

This is what is guiding Anchor, helping generate story after story of Jesus at work in us and through us. If you have a story, please share it. And if you want to help generate more stories - well, then welcome!

A Poem for Anchor

A is for our amazing grace,
N is for never alone,
Cis for caring people,
H is for our second home.
O is for our Savior that we worship together each week,
R is for the respect we have for our pastor we love to hear speak.

If you are feeling lost or all alone,
if you have a problem you just can' seem to fix,
they understand at Anchor, so come jump on our ship.

We have a worship team who sings like angels,
worshipping the Lord,
a laid back place to give thanks to Christ,
through every note and chord.

Our pastor is a big fan of Starbucks,
so if not here you may find him there;
he's even brought back to Anchor
their tables and their chairs!

He has helped so many people
in so many different ways,
well to thank him,
I just don't know what to say.

Tim and his family are an inspiration to us all,
here at Anchor we love you
and will always be here
to catch you if you fall.

So thank you all for everything,
I just thought I would try to express my thanks with this little rhyme;
I fell I owe you all so much,
so when in need, just ask me anytime!

~ Tracy Fink, Sunday June 10th, 2012

Recipe for Success

Recently my Mum made 34 dozen monster cookies for the staff at Coventry Meadows Nursing Home where my dad had lived the past few months before he died. Then she made another 34 dozen monster cookies for us! And Eli got to help. And he got to use a lot of measuring spoons and cups. I wouldn't be surprised if he memorized the recipe! The monster cookies were a hit, of course.

It got me thinking about what are the ingredients required for a great church? What's a recipe for success? What is even success for a church? It could be an endless debate.

Friend of Missional is a great place to learn about how churches are learning to think like missionaries in their own culture. It's been influential on me for years. It's been helping me rethink what are the ingredients needed for a great church these days, especially in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Below is a list of observations about a successful church. As you scan through them, which ones do you think apply easily to Anchor? Which ones don't? Your response in the comment section would be helpful!

1. Not simply how many people come to our church services, but how many people our church serves.

2. Not simply how many people attend our ministry, but how many people have we equipped for ministry.

3. Not simply how many people minister inside the church, but how many minister outside the church.

4. Not simply helping people become more whole themselves, but helping people bring more wholeness to their world. (i.e. justice, healing, relief)

5. Not simply how many ministries we start, but how many ministries we help.

6. Not simply how many unbelievers we bring into the community of faith, but how many ‘believers' we help experience healthy community.

7. Not simply working through our past hurts, but working alongside the Spirit toward wholeness.

8. Not simply counting the resources that God gives us to steward, but counting how many good stewards are we developing for the sake of the world.

9. Not simply how we are connecting with our culture but how we are engaging our culture.

10. Not simply how much peace we bring to individuals, but how much peace we bring to our world.

11. Not simply how effective we are with our mission, but how faithful we are to our God.

12. Not simply how unified our local church is, but how unified is "the church" in our neighborhood, city and world?

13. Not simply how much we immerse ourselves in the text, but how faithfully we live in the story of God.

14. Not simply being concerned about how our country is doing, but being concern for the welfare of other countries.

15. Not simply how many people we bring into the kingdom, but how much of the kingdom we bring to the earth.