J.R. Briggs
Attempting to behold the miracle long enough without falling asleep
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Reflections from the Epic Fail Roundtable: Colorado
“You’re blessed if you’re at the end of your rope; with less of you, there’s more of God and his rule.” -The beginning of the Beatitudes, The Message.
I’m just getting back from a whirlwind few days in Colorado, where I helped facilitate the Epic Fail Roundtable (a truncated expression of the Epic Fail Pastors Conference) in partnership with Frontline Church Planting Center. It was an incredible privilege to co-host the event with my younger brother Alan, who has a heart for ministry and is bearing good fruit in Colorado as the director of Frontline.
Admittedly, it is a lot of effort to create a space like Epic Fail – and right now I am physically spent – but I am so encouraged by the sacred time together. I was reminded once again just how vitally important it is in the lives of pastors and leaders to talk openly and courageously about our guilt, our shame, our failures and where the gospel intersects in our lives. It was gut-honest and hope-filled.
Storytellers included a failed mega-church pastor, a (former) pastor whose marriage failed, a leader who has experienced financial ruin and bankruptcy, a cancer (and church plant closure) survivor, a recovering addict, a 64-year old counselor who works with pastors who experience burnout and a pastor’s wife who cried her way through a presentation with her husband.There were tears, raw stories (really raw), conversations, applause, confession of sin, time for processing, deeply forming discussions over meals, memorable silence, a TED conference video and desperate prayer for God to heal the walking wounded. One middle-aged failed church planter opened up his presentation by saying, “What I am about to tell you is something I have never shared before…” It felt like a 12-step program cleverly disguised as a ministry conference.
Truthfully, the Epic Fail Pastors Conference concept is not actually about failure. And its not really about success either. It’s about faithfulness. More accurately, it’s a counter-intuitive way to enter through the backdoor of grace with people who think they understand the gospel, but in reality seldom do. As pastors, we preach about grace and the gospel and its in our heads, but it needs to get into our bloodstreams.
We talked about a theology of failure, prayers from the wilderness, the beneficial death of ministry self-reliance and the difference between guilt and shame. One insight shared by a presenter has found its way into my soul and is remaining there: “Everyone gets to know you when you are on the ascent, but you get to know yourself on the descent.”
Hopeful. Raw. Healing. And very gospel-y.
If you’re interested, there is still room to join us for the Epic Fail Pastors’ Conference at the end of this month in Mansfield, OH. We’d love to have you.
How to know if you are living a small story: a diagram
A few weeks ago I saw this simple diagram that someone posted. I can’t remember who posted it – or who drew it – but it has stayed with me. I thought I would re-draw it here.
This is how we know we are living a small story:
Steeping in the Spirit: the longer/stronger principle
A few years ago, I heard my friend Ben Sternke say that as Christians we are called to “steep in the Spirit.” As an (almost daily) loose-leaf tea drinker, I think about this often as I stand over my tea pot as my tea is steeping. It’s the “longer/stronger principle.” The longer I let it steep, the stronger the tea.
The well known “seek first the kingdom” passage in the Message is translated this way: “Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met” (Mt 6:33). The longer my life is steeped in Christ, the stronger that relationship will be. We all are steeped in something – and the longer it steeps the stronger we create a connection to what we’re soaking in. The longer/strong principle applies to your tea and your soul.
What are you steeped in right now – and is it the right water?
Looking forward to a month of failure
This month marks opportunities for great failure – and I am really quite excited about it.
[1] This Friday and Saturday I will be co-leading the Epic Fail Roundtable with my brother in Colorado Springs. This one and a half day event will include about 60 pastors and Christian leaders (and former pastors and former leaders) to process our failures together in a hope-filled posture.
[2] Then March 22-24, 2012 we will have our second annual Epic Fail Pastors Conference in Mansfield, OH. Read here for a little background on the event. The speaker line-up has been set, the details are being finalized and we’re expecting good fruit to come out of our time together.
I’m anticipating both events to be deeply formative times. If you’d like to join us, there is still room for both.
Come fail with us.
2 startling observations about the Gospel of Mark
We’re spending the next several months at Renew exploring Jesus as he is depicted in the book of Mark. Two things that taken me back about the stories in Mark’s gospel.
[1] The only people who fully understand Jesus’ true identity in the book of Mark is not the disciples or the religious elite – or even those far from God – but the demons. Notice it. It’ll amaze you. What does that tell us?
[2] In the beginning of Mark’s book (where one of the major themes is discipleship), he builds an upward trajectory in a theology of life in the first eight chapters. Right in the middle of the book he places Peter’s famous confession of Christ as a hinge by the which the whole door swings. Then, the rest of the book he develops a downward trajectory that is a theology of death to the cross in the last eight chapters. Life, life, life, life – confession of Christ – death, death, death.
Anybody else startled by these two themes or am I the only one?
Ashtrays as the litmus test of churches
When we train our house church shepherds at Renew, we usually give them an ashtray – as both a gift and a challenge.
When a new house church recently started, I tossed a plastic ashtray in the middle of the room and said, “What’s the first thing that comes to your mind?” After several honest (and diverse) responses, I asked: “Now, why would I bring an ashtray to this newly formed house church?”
They usually get it: it may have to be used if we’re inviting all sorts of people into the kingdom (and not just the ‘nice’ people). And then I read a quote from Neil Cole: “If you want to reach people for Christ, you going to have to be willing to sit in the smoking section.” With the motto of our church being “no perfect people allowed,” we better come to expect that at some point these ashtrays are going to be used at house churches. We have to stop being afraid of people who are different than us and love people that Jesus would love.
Imagine if you measured the amount of ashtrays used as the litmus test of our churches?
Exploring the relationship between culture and leadership
Today I’m heading to the cornfields of rural Indiana to spend the week at Taylor University to work on an ongoing discipleship/spiritual formation and vision project for them. I’ve also been asked to speak at the National Student Leadership Conference at Taylor where the topic is culture and leadership and the relationship between the two.
I’m privileged to share the platform with Andy Crouch, author of the book Culturemaking. I’m eager to speak on the topic of culture and leadership, but even more eager to learn from other presenters and student-leaders.
I’m curious to hear: do you think it’s possible to “create culture” or is that too presumptuous or complex to assume that’s what leaders do?
The 5 Expressions of Wisdom
The book of Proverbs is synonymous with wisdom. As I’ve studied the book, I’ve noticed that there are five main categories of how wisdom is expressed in our lives.
- our tongue
- our time
- our money
- our relationships
- our sexuality
Certainly, there are others, but you’ll notice the majority focus on these five areas.
Are there other major categories that emerge in Proverbs?
A Significant Shift in Blogging
It’s hard to believe I’ve been blogging consistently for almost a decade.
What started out as a little experiment/online journal for a few friends to read has developed into a great way to connect with many people from around the globe. As my life and ministry have changed in the past few months, I’ve had to make some significant changes to my time, energy and rhythm. I love blogging, but how I blog, when I blog and how much I blog need to change.
I am still going to be blogging, but it will be different. The world is shifting and so is online communication. People are often looking to scan things than read them in depth. I’ve also realized that it takes a good amount of my time, energy and creativity to blog. Writing long, fully-developed posts on a regular basis can be difficult for me. Creativity takes work.
There will be two noticeable shifts moving forward:
[1] Moving forward, most of my posts will be shorter in nature – a paragraph or two at most.
Marketing guru Seth Godin does this very effectively on his blog, as does life coach Bob Logan. There are other writers, leaders and practitioners who write lengthy posts – and whose blog I will continue to read regularly. There is a place for that, for sure, and I benefit from their thoughts. But I need to make this change as I am making other changes. (Ironically, this post may be one of the longer posts you see in a while.) There will be occasional exceptions, but for the most part, I’ll be sharing ideas that will be shorter than longer. Being shorter will also force me to be clear and get to the point faster. This will take discipline, but it will be good for my growth in communicating.
[2] In addition, I want to ask you to interact and participate with me further.
I’d like to pose a question or two at the end of many of my posts in the future. I’ve done that in the past – and some have responded, but not as many as I like. I’m assuming people think that these questions are almost entirely rhetorical (they are not). I’d love to have blog readers comment more and respond to the questions and/or ideas posed.
I look forward to continuing to interact with you in the future, but in a slightly different format.
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