J.R. Briggs
Attempting to behold the miracle long enough without falling asleep
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Archive of "Ministry" Category
“It is impossible to survive in this life and not have a good story”
Last month I was on an airplane and read the ever-present and intriguing in-flight magazine. I always read those in-flight magazines from cover to cover. Some of my most creative ministry ideas and thoughts come from those in-flight magazines Pastors and leaders: on all your future flights, stop reading that book, wake up from your nap and read that in-flight magazine! There's ministry gold in there if you look for it. (But skip the SkyMall magazine: its the best collection of the most creative – and expensive – insignificant gifts you'll ever find…as Chris Seay says, if you need a Lord of the Rings ring for $399 then you really do need to get a life).
The issue I was reading featured an interview with the very private Jewish actor Liev Schreiber. One quote jumped out at me. He said:
"I firmly believe that everyone's got a great story, whether or not they acknowledge it or a journalist acknowledges it. It's impossible to survive in this life and not have a good story."This raises all sorts of questions and implications about the gospel.
What sort of Story do you believe that we find ourselves in?
Am I asking people to tell me their story?
Is the gospel story a good story – truly, 'the good news'?
If not, do I undertand it well enough?
Am I seeking out opportunities for storytelling?
Am I sharing my story?
Am I sharing the Story of God with my life? Is it compelling?
Do I believe the Story of God is hope-filled, compelling enough to help us not just survive, but thrive?Names and Ministry
Last week I received an interesting marketing piece in the mail from a church in our region. It was from a well-known church that I respect highly and which is doing some great things in our area.
But this marketing piece was somewhat ironic.
It was printed on glossy card stock with a high res image – clearly done by a skilled professional designer.
Here's a picture I took with my phone.It's an intriguing concept…the only problem is it said, "James."
Yup, James is my legal name, but nobody calls me James.
I've been called J.R. since the womb.
The only ones who call me James are the government, the doctor's office and my mother when I was in big trouble growing up.It makes me wonder how many other people got this piece in their mailbox with a name on the coffee cup that was wrong or a formal name they don't go by either.
The marketing piece is very creative, taking an electronic list of names they purchased and generating the first name across the front of the coffee cup. But ironically it is conveying the opposite message of its intent: while we're on a first name basis at our church we don't really know yours.
What's even more ironic is the fact that I know a few pastors on staff there…
I am not intending to point fingers at other churches (this was a well done piece, for sure).
In fact, the piece is one that I will keep because it offers me a great challenge as a pastor, reminding me that nothing can replace real, genuine, authentic, face-to-face relationships with people.
Nothing.It has been said that you can impress people from afar, but you can only impact them up close.
This idea of naming is particularly striking for me, as I just read the geneaology listed in Matthew 1.Knowing people's names – and knowing people's stories – is inefficient, messy and takes a ton of time to develop.
But its effective.There is absolutely no substitute for building relationships in ministry.
Indicators of Entrenchment in the Christian Subculture
Growing up I remember reading a quote that has stuck with me. Satan’s most powerful tool is not an active sinner, but in an inactive Christian.
But maybe that’s not entirely true. Maybe one of Satan’s greatest tools is not an inactive Christian, but an over-active Christian…or an active Christian involved solely in things that are in the Christian subculture. I call this Christian entrenchment.
It seems that the longer one is a follower of Jesus the more entrenched (maybe other ways to say it could be insulated or lulled to sleep) one is prone to be. The Christian Bubble can be very hard to identify in our own lives and even more difficult to burst. Christian entrenchment is not often talked about, but it does need to be addressed.
I realize I am stirring the pot of the age-old question of what it means to be in the world, but not of it. Though I am not wanting to get into that question directly right now, I figure its important enough for each of us (me included) to think about how we can assess ourselves as objectively as possible (as hard as that may be) regarding the level of our own entrenchment.
There are at least five indicators of Christian entrenchment – a spiritual/cultural litmus test of sorts – that might give us some things to chew on – me included.
(1) Our language: oftentimes conversations that are saturated with Christian cliches are a good indicator of Christian entrenchment. There are lots of good Christian cliches out there that may sound good to the faithful, but can create an "us/them" mentality. It also risks coming across distracting, inarticulate, confusing, narrow-minded or even arrogant to those who do not have a relationship with Jesus. (It is amazing how often we use the phrase "accepting Jesus into our hearts" and yet that language is never used in our Bibles).
[Q]: If a person who had no context of God or faith or church followed me around for a week would there be anything I say that they would not understand or would find distracting?
(2) Our social circles: Speaking of someone following us around for a week… Our oikos (a Greek word meaning "family," or household or even circle of influence) is extremely significant, but we don’t often think intentionally about it. Think about the people you spend a lot of time with. Christian fellowship and community is important, but in healthy balance.
[Q]: Are those in my social network (work excluded) mostly/all followers of Jesus?
[Q]: How do I spend my weekends/free evenings – and with whom?
[Q]: Who are we inviting over to dinner? When was the last time I had someone in my home who did not talk like, look like, act like or believe what I do?(3) Our mindset: our worldview is important. But we have to consider how we think about culture.
[Q]: Do I have a mindset that we are to retreat from the evil of the world or impact the world for the better?
[Q]: Do I see culture as good, evil or both? Is it neutral?(4) Our schedules: sometimes we can become so busy with our schedules that we have no time to even hang out with those outside of the Christian bubble (see story of the Good Samaritan). Nobody is intentionally shunning our neighbors or co-workers…no, we think our neighbors and co-workers are fine people. Its just that we’re so dang busy with church on Sunday mornings and Sunday evenings and Wednesday nights and Awana and the three bible studies and two small groups that we’re involved in (whew!) that we’re just so busy…and tired.
(5) How we spend our money (Entertainment): Oftentimes we can realize our entrenchment by looking at our credit card statements and our checkbooks.
[Q]: How much have I spent on Christian books, CDs, concerts or T-shirts in the past month? six months? year?
[Q]: How much of that is spent with people who consider themselves followers of Jesus?
[Q]: How much money is spent in an intentional effort to spend time with those who are not yet followers of Jesus?After we’re done with this test, we could take our answers and compare them with the life rhythms of Jesus that we read about in the gospels.
Then we need to ask "Do my language, social circles, mindset, schedule and how I spend my money reflect the ways of Jesus?"After reflecting on this I realize that I have a long way to go to be freed from this entrenchment in my own life…
Brian’s Rock-dropping ceremony
In response to my conversation with Brian a few weeks ago he and I decided to plan a rock-dropping ceremony for him. I had never planned one of these things before and wasn’t quite sure what to do, but thought that it didn’t need to be intricate or long or overly planned – just meaningful and personal and full of gratitude.
I’ve been guest teaching at a church in Bethlehem on Sunday nights. This past Sunday I invited Brian to come along with me. He said he’d join me, but he also suggested that we go up a bit early and find a place in Bethlehem for his ceremony.
We headed up early and found a spot along the Lehigh River. It was a sunny and crisp late fall afternoon – just beautiful. We walked across some train trusses on a bridge and Brian stopped, looked over the edge of the bridge and held out his arm. After a few moments of silence, he dropped it, as we watched it fall and then…plop - the sound of forgiveness!
Brian then prayed and thanked God that He had forgiven him of his sins and given him so much hope and peace. He asked for strength to be able to do all he could to follow Jesus accurately with his life. It took everything in me to keep from crying like a baby!I then prayed for Brian and thanked God for his friendship and that God would use him to bring his friends to know Jesus, just like he had and that Bria could lead and facilitate some rock-dropping-esque ceremonies in the future with those friends.
After we prayed we walked over to the banks of the river and I read Brian a passage that I had been praying for him since hearing his news of becoming a follower of Jesus.
"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus…
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God." - Philippians 1:3-6, 9-11
Then we took communion together on the banks of the river – the heel of a slice of white bread and grape juice, which we drank out of one of Carter’s kiddy cups! – and talked about Jesus being our living water and what it meant to be a follower of Jesus.I can’t think of a better way to spend a fall afternoon than dropping rocks and taking communion with a new believer.
Here’s a picture of Brian shortly after he dropped his rock!
Missional Listening: Learning from our context
To be a missionary in one’s context one must lead with their ears, not their mouth. Missionaries that go to any culture to present the gospel seek to learn from their context. They live by the mantra that "the locals always know more than I do."
For the next several weeks our launch team is spending time taking surveys of those in the region, especially in Lansdale. Surveys aren’t something that I have done a lot of in the past, so I got a lot of feedback from people (a survey about the survey, I guess…) and got some positive feedback. Even David Kinnaman, director of the Barna Research Group and co-author of the book unChristian took a look at it and said that while it wasn’t "scientific" it certainly could get a good cross-section of people’s thoughts of our region.
Here are the questions – far from exhaustive, but a good smattering of questions to help us learn more.
If you live in/around Lansdale how might you answer these questions?
If you don’t live in the area, how might you answer these questions for your context?(1) What are the two or three things that make Lansdale and the North Penn region unique/distinct?
(2) What are the three best things about our region?
(3) What are some of the largest areas of need/improvement in the North Penn region?
(4) Who are the people, business, non-profit organizations, faith communities and/or groups that are serving and impacting the community the most?
(5) Are you involved in any clubs, civic groups or community organizations in the region? If yes, which ones?
(6) Do you have any religious background or are you involved in any sort of faith community? If so, where? If not, why not?
(7) If you answered no to the question above, what would have to happen for you to consider being involved in a faith community?
(8) When you think of the word “Jesus” what comes to your mind?
(9) When you think of the word “church” what comes to your mind?
(10) If you heard that a new faith community was starting – and it had as one of its top priorities to serve the North Penn region – how would that make you feel? Excited? Disappointed? Indifferent?
Introducing you to some friends…
I want to encourage you to read regularly the thoughts of some missional church planting pastor friends of mine. They challenge me and encourage me in the journey.
I love the way Brent Underwood (Richmond, VA) writes, but he is an even better listener and shepherd.
I am challenged by the words of John Chandler, (Austin, TX) but his humor cracks me up.
I am intrigued by the words of JR Woodward (Hollywood, CA) and I love sharing in his unique first name.
I read the words Todd Hiestand (Feasterville, PA) shares on his blog, but I totally enjoy seeing him live those words out on a regular basis in the rhythms of his life. It makes his words credible when he backs them up by doing them.Enjoy…
Mission: Accomplished
If you were at resonate last week you heard it announced that you rose to the challenge: We reached our goal of raising $3,000 to help disabled individuals and their families go to camp through the Philadelphia region of Joni and Friends.
Sticking with the agreement, Jerry Borton and I will be getting our heads shaved probably in the next couple of weeks. Several have suggested that we should do it right after resonate is over one night.A big thanks to all who participated in this incredible ministry.
I apologize in advance for how silly I will look with my chrome dome.PBU this week
I’m speaking at Philadelphia Biblical University this week for the school’s Spiritual Emphasis Week.
The topic is solitude.Some of the questions we’ll deal with are:
- What is solitude? (And what is it not?)
- Why is it so hard to enter into solitude in our culture?
- What were the rhythms of Jesus regarding solitude?
- How can we integrate solitude into our everyday lives as college students?
I’d appreciate your prayers as we unpack this oft-forgotten, yet extremely significant discipline in the life of a follower of Jesus.
Fighting Poverty around the world
There are many organizations that are working hard to fight poverty around the world.
Here are just a few of those organizations worth noting:Bread for the World
Oxfam
Poverty Fighters
Peace Gospel Ministries
World Vision
Compassion International
Opportunity InternationalThe angels are having a fiesta today
This fall we’ve been in a series at resonate on the book of Ecclesiastes. It’s been a messy, blunt, in-your-face series series, but a very beneficial and thought-provoking one. At times, it’s been depressing, due to its content, but it seems as though people are really tuned in and learning a great deal, including myself.
On Sunday night, we looked at the depressing second half of chapter 3.
The Professor, Qoholeth, seems to be wrestling with an absence of meaning and purpose while trying to operate with a limited worldview and perspective that remains under the sun. Last night I taught briefly (as we have throughout the series) on the concept of a worldview that includes God, one that is lived above the sun.
When we live above the sun there is hope beyond the grave.Immediately after the benediction was over, Chris, a college student in his early twenties, along with his girlfriend, approached me and asked if he could talk to me about something significant.
His first sentence was: "I’m Christian, but I want to be born again. How do I do that?"
I asked him to clarify for me what he meant by "Christian" and what he meant by "born again."
He told me that, as an Italian, he had been raised Catholic under the trappings of rules and rote rituals and hoops to jump through when it came to church. He said his girlfriend had brought him to church a few times recently and he saw a place full of people who didn’t just go through the motions; they actually wanted to be there.Last night was Chris’ first time to resonate. He said that during the teaching and the words we were singing in worship he was really challenged. He said something clicked; that he could actually have a friendship with God.
He asked: "How can I have that friendship with God – that relationship that you talked about tonight?"
I loved his next line: "I want that. I’m thirsty."
In a sense, Chris wanted to live above the sun.After talking further with Chris about his desire to live life by a different rhythm, I invited him to stop and talk to God and tell him what he had just told me.
So with his girlfriend joining us, Chris and I prayed.
Chris talked with God and last night he crossed the line of faith.
After amen, I gave him a huge hug, a hug that wasn’t too weird even for a manly Italian guy like him.
I told him how excited I was for him in his new life in Christ.
In the words of a friend of Megan and me, the angels are having a fiesta in heaven today.Pray for Chris this week as he begins to discover his new life in Christ.
Pray that there were be opportunities for him to grow and be discipled as a follower of Jesus.
And pray that by God’s Spirit, resonate would see more people like Chris come to faith in the future!
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