J.R. Briggs
Attempting to behold the miracle long enough without falling asleep
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Archive for February, 2009
Thoughts on the feature article on Renew in today’s paper
The local paper published a feature article on The Renew Community in today’s paper. Several people said they thought it was a great article and asked me for my thoughts on the article.
Overall, I, too, think it was a great article. I was very pleased, honored and thankful for the story. I’m very grateful for writer Brian Bingaman and photographer Geoff Patton, who came to one of our launch team meetings and a house church meeting in order to get a feel as to what we are doing. They were thorough, asked great questions and, for the most part, told our story and communicated an accurate picture of the ethos of The Renew Community.
In addition, we were pleasantly surprised that it was a feature article. We knew it would be in the paper some time soon, but we didn’t expect it to be a feature with several color pictures. Many thanks to Brian and Geoff for their hard work.
A few people asked me if I would change anything in the story. There are a few minor details that could have been a bit more accurate (such as our website being listed as www.renewcommunity.org and not www.renew-community.org and the fact that we haven’t had a ‘launch’ yet even though one of the picture captions seemed to imply that we have).
But there are two things I would have liked to have had communicated a bit differently from a broader perspective.
1. While house churches make up an important part of what we are doing, they are not the only strategic element of Renew’s vision. We are planning on having a large public communal gathering regularly, starting this spring. We have felt it is most strategic to start these smaller Jesus communities first and then our public gatherings later.
The article in the (Doylestown) Intelligencer a few months ago communicated Renew’s house church concept, but left out that we do in fact plan on having a regular gathering of all house churches coming together for a regular gathering. I wished this morning’s article in the Reporter had mentioned that we believe that house churches and regular communal gatherings are what we call a “dual expression of church” – house churches and our regular communal gatherings. We strongly believe that one without the other is incomplete. Again, it’s not the end of the world, but I would have loved to have seen some mention of our plans for our future public gatherings.
2. I also wished the headline was different. The headline in the print edition said, “The Anti-Church Church.” While we desire to connect with those intrigued by Jesus, but turned off by organized religion, we certainly don’t want to be seen as being “anti.”
As I was quoted in the article, “the church is known more for what it’s against than what it’s about” and that is Renew’s desire: to change the perception. To do something different in order to change that mindset. It certainly wasn’t a reactionary decision to step out and start Renew. Instead of being “anti-church” we desire to be “pro-fresh expressions and fresh-extension of what church could look like.” We see it not as a reactionary approach, but as a way of saying “What are the possibilities of how we engage with our community and our culture in a way that is good news to these people?” Our vision is hope-filled and exciting, not condescending or combative.
We also don’t want anyone to believe that ‘church’ is bad nor do we want to imply that all other churches have missed it and we are the only ones to ‘get it.” Certainly not. As I was quoted, there are a lot of good churches in the area. In fact, I connect with pastors and other church leaders in our area every week and the more I connect and pray with and for them, the more excited I get about creating partnerships, linking arms and working together. One church in Lansdale/ the North Penn region cannot see long-lasting engagement and transformation happen. It must be a strategic and inclusive effort of many churches coming together to serve the region humbly and strategically in the name of Jesus.
Maybe nobody took it that way, but we certainly want to be sensitive to how things are understood. We want to communicate that this is a faith community for those who are de-churched and unchurched, a place for people who want to experience healing from their brokenness and to feel the feedom to drop the religiosity at the door in order to experience real life with God and others in the context of community. In other words, to be renewed so that we can join God in helping to renew his world.
We’re certainly not defending ourselves or trying to correct inaccuracies. But if I had to answer the question what would you want to change? those two things would be it. We are grateful for the tone of the article and the opportunity to have our story told as we try to communicate and live out the story of the gospel in the region, among people we love and desire to be transformed by the gospel message.
Thanks again to Brian, Geoff and the rest of the staff at The Reporter for telling our story.
“…we don’t know how to be ourselves.”
Recently, I was listening to a church planter’s training session featuring an Acts29 pastor from St Louis named Darrin Patrick.
He started the session by asking three strikingly simple questions:
- Do you love non-Christians?
- Do you have good friends who are non-Christians?
- Is your heart broken consistently for lost people?
Then he said this: “It’s not that we don’t have enough information about evangelism, it’s that we don’t know how to be ourselves.”
That’s worth pondering for a while…
doubt :: night summary
“Be merciful to those who doubt…” (Jude 22)
Last night we had a great time at doubt :: night. We wanted to provide some intention to the evening – but little structure (we were more interested in creating space for conversation rather than host a program) and the evening seemed to flow well. It was so energizing. I love being around courageous questioners…
Last night, almost 40 people showed up at the bar that we had rented for an intentional, but laid-back conversation regarding our doubts and questions about life, faith, Jesus, church, God and the Bible. It was a great group of people – and a comfortable size group, too. Lots of good, healthy discussion. There were about ten people who showed up that I did not know and/or who were not professing followers of Christ.
My friend Brian, who I met several months ago at a Starbucks and who has a New Age worldview showed up. He emailed me today and told me that he loved it, he wants to come back and to “keep up the good work.”
It was a healthy mix of people – men and women, 40-somethings and college students. Believers. Doubters. Christian Universalists. New Agers. Agnostics.
We got several great questions. Some raised their hands and shared, others wished to remain anonymous and write them out on index cards and turn them in. We didn’t get through all the questions (we didn’t expect to) but we had some good ones:
- Who determines where truth resides when comparing the Bible to the Koran?
- Why do bad things happen to good people?
- What about the non-Christians I know who live better moral lives than other Christians? Why should Christians go to heaven if others are more kind, compassionate and loving?
- How could a good God send people to hell?
- How do we know that there is a heaven and a hell?
- Today’s research seems to prove certain events in the Bible didn’t happen as described. Is that a problem for the belief in the credibility of the Bible?
- Where is God?
- Are our choices predetermined ahead of time?
- Who determines who goes to heaven?
- What about homosexuals?
- Can I consider myself a Christian if I question most things about it?
- How do we get to the point of having faith in the first place?
- Why are church leaders of all denominations choosing parts of the Bible to take literally and not others (example: women preaching, homosexuals, etc)?
Great, great questions that are worth the time and thought and energy to wrestle with.
At the end of the evening I asked people if this was worth doing again and if so, how often. Once a year? Once a quarter? Once every other month? Once a month? I was surprised by the amount of people who strongly desired to see doubt :: night occur once a month. So, it looks like we’ll be hosting another event some time in March. Stay tuned.
Before we started I met a guy named Dominick – a self described Italian ex-Catholic nihilist. I invited him to the event, telling him it would start in about twenty minutes in the side room if he wanted to join us. He told us that we wouldn’t want someone like him because he doubts that God exists. I told him that doubt :: night was hosted for people like him. He said that I didn’t understand him: he actually tries to convince people to doubt God and the Bible. And I said, all the more reason for him to join us for the event!
He didn’t join us, but he caught me afterward and asked how it went and what questions were asked. He told me he was intoxicated. For the next 45 minutes he talked my ear off about philosophy, religion and nihilism – the belief that there really isn’t anything to live for. You just die and that’s it. “Kinda like television,” he said. “When you turn it off, its done.” He told me he had read the Bible from cover to cover, as well as the Satanic Bible – and he highly recommended that I read the Satanic Bible because it had some interesting insights in it! He told me this is the first time that he had talked to a Christian about his nihilistic worldview without being judged and was interested in talking some more. We swapped numbers and will be hanging out some time in the near future.
Being around skeptics and questioners, doubters and cynics is something that excites me. It was refreshing to have a roomful of people admit their doubts and want to wrestle with them like Jacob did with God on the banks of the Jabbock River in Genesis. The entire evening I was reminded of a few characters in Scripture who doubted God. Job, who was obedient but doubted often. David, who wrote many of the Psalms. Some praising God for his goodness…and oftentimes the next psalm wondering where God is and if He even cares. (This being a man that God said was after His own heart!) The father in the book of Mark who had a sick son who asked Jesus to heal him and said to Jesus: “I believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
I hope and pray that we learn to be more courageous with our questions and we continue to build relationships with the doubters and the skeptics and the cynics who are intrigued by Jesus, but turned off by what they have seen in other Christians and churches.
doubt :: night tonight
Don’t forget: tonight Renew is hosting doubt :: night at 7:30 pm at Third and Walnut Bar & Grill. Want more information? Click here.
Feel free to come and hang out with us.
Giving and Forgiving: Two guiding questions for each day
A little while I ago I re-read Miroslav Volf's book Free of Charge.
It's a fantastic book, but not his best (Exclusion and Embrace is more academic, but it will flip your lid.)
His basic premise is that the Christian life is about two things: giving and forgiving.As I re-read it I was struck with the thought that if those are the two central themes of the gospel and we're called to be about the Jesus ways of the gospel in our everyday lives then maybe I need to start each day as my feet hit the floor by asking myself two questions:
(1) Who do I need to extend forgiveness to today?
(2) Who should I give to and how should I bless them?I bet our lives would be shaped by the gospel more if we were looking to answer those two questions each and every day.
Ecclesia Network :: Church Planter’s Training & Assessment Week
Are you thinking about planting a missional church or have you ever thought about being a part of a missional church plant at some point in the future?
As many of you know, The Renew Community is proud to be a part of a growing missional church planting network called The Ecclesia Network. Ecclesia hosts a missional church planters' training week and assessment time in Richmond, VA each May. It's held at a Richmond Hill, a monastery/retreat center overlooking the city of Richmond. You enter into the rhythms of prayer and communal meals with the community throughout the week of training. It's a fantastic experience.
I attended last year's training and found it to be the most fruitful environment – both theologically and practically – to be equipped for starting and cultivating Renew. It was a fantastic investment of my time and money.
Even if you are in the early stages of processing and pondering the possibility of being a part of a missional church plant I highly recommend this training week as well. We will be sending at least one person from Renew to this event (hopefully more!) and I
may be going down for a few days as well.
We would love for you to be
there also!If you're interested see the PDF attachment below.
Download 2009 ecclesia church planters brochure general
Also, if you can't make the Ecclesia Church Planters' Training but you're interested in being involved in the missional church conversation, you should make plans to attend the Ecclesia National Gathering next month in Washington, DC. Eddie Gibbs, Mike Breen, Darrell Guder and Jon Tyson will be speaking. The gathering is open to any and all who are interested (click here for more information). A few of us from the area will be driving down and we'd love for you to attend as well.
The Kingdom of God is like…The Rainbow Fish
A few nights ago I was putting Carter to bed. The bedtime routine includes brushing his teeth, putting on his jammies, doing our top-secret handshake and reading him a few books. This includes a few Curious George books, his Children's Bible, Goodnight Moon, Dr. Seuss' 'There's a Wocket in My Pocket' – and a few others. That night I read him the book The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister.
As I read I thought, If Jesus were here today and surrounded by a bunch of children and wanted to share values of God's kingdom he might tell them this story.
Here's the story (though the pictures are just as beautiful). If you have children I recommend you get this book. If you don't have children it's saturated with kingdom principles and worth taking a moment to read below:
The Rainbow Fish was the most beautiful fish in the sea.
But he never played with the other fish.
I'm too beautiful, he thought.Once, a little blue fish asked for one of his shining scales, but the Rainbow Fish just laughed.
"Never!" he said.
After that, the other fish swam away from him.
The Rainbow Fish was all alone.He went to the starfish for help.
"Why doesn't anybody like me?" he asked.
"God ask the octopus," said the starfish.
"She is very wise."The octopus said, "Give away your shining scales.
You won't be as beautiful, but you will have friends."
"I can't do that!" cried the Rainbow Fish.Suddenly the little blue fish was back.
"Please," he said.
"Could I have just one scale?"
Well, the Rainbow Fish thought.
Maybe just one tiny little scale.
The little blue fish was so pleased, it made the Rainbow Fish feel happy.Soon all the fish came, and the Rainbow Fish gave away his scales, one by one.
Finally he had only one shining scale left.
But now, as he swam off to play with his friends, he was the happiest fish in the sea."The values of the Kingdom are best expressed and we experience the richness of life best when we give ourselves away to others.
Books I’d love to read
Anybody own any of these books? If you live in the area, can I borrow them when you are done?
Re:Jesus (Hirsch and Frost)
Missional Renaissance (McNeal)
Conspiracy of Kindness (Sjogren)
Jesus for President (Claiborne)
Culture Making (Crouch)
Transforming Mission (Bosch)
The Prodigal God (Keller)
Resident Aliens (Hauerwas)
The Politics of Jesus (Yoder)
Worship video model: another thing to add to my resume…
The strangest thing happened to me.
Unbeknownst to me, I ended up in a Michael W. Smith worship video.
A friend of mine contacted me on facebook telling me he saw a MWS video that has a picture of me in it. He sent me the link. I had heard rumors of this a few years ago from friends and thought, “Yeah, right. It’s just somebody that looks like me…” but I saw the video and yup, sure enough, there I am.
I’m not mad about it but I find it rather bizarre…
What’s even more bizarre is that I didn’t give permission to anyone to have my image used in the video – or any video. And I can’t, for the life of me, remember when anybody would have taken my picture to use this stock photo! I know its me, that’s for sure (and I still have that brown T-shirt I’m wearing in the video, too).
I have mixed feelings about it.
I’m not upset that I’m in a public video. (I was once on the reality TV show: TLC’s “A Wedding Story” with a viewership of five million people women per episode. It was the first wedding I ever officiated. Now that’s a lot of pressure for your first one).
And I’m not upset that I’m in a video with the CCM king of music, Michael W. Smith, himself (Megan and I met and mingled with Smitty at a friends’ house in the area a few years ago) although friends have already cracked on me for it. I just have mixed feelings that I’m in one and I didn’t know I would be in it and that nobody asked my permission.
At least my face didn’t pop up when Michael was singing about “unfaithful” or “uncaring.” That would have been awkward…
For the record, no, I am not going to sue that company and yes, several have already (hopefully jokingly) told me I should.
Well, we all have fifteen minutes of fame. It just looks like mine is inextricably linked to Michael W. Smith.
You can watch it here. I show up at the 03:15 mark.
- Do you love non-Christians?
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