It was only 13 months earlier – in December 1955, that Rosa Parks was arrested in Alabama for refusing to give up her seat at the front of the bus for a white man.  A boycott was organized, and King was anointed the leader of it, despite his initial lukewarm interest in being involved.  African Americans were urged to boycott the segregated city buses, and the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) was formed. The boycott lasted over a year, until the bus company capitulated. Segregated seating was discontinued, and some African Americans were employed as bus drivers. When the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that the bus segregation laws of Montgomery were unconstitutional, the boycott ended in triumph for black dignity. Martin Luther King had become a national hero and an acknowledged leader in the civil rights struggle.

But the victory had not come without cost. With increased visibility came increased hostility. Now, on this night in January of 1956, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was exhausted. His wife Coretta had already fallen asleep, and King looked forward to shortly joining her.  He checked on his two-month old daughter Coretta, whom they affectionately nicknamed “Yoki,” and she too was peacefully asleep.

Suddenly the phone rang.  King grimaced, suspecting that he knew what awaited him if he chose to answer.  For most people a middle of the night phone call would be unusual, but for the King family it was becoming too common. Threatening phone calls had become a daily routine in the weeks of the recent protests, and King had tried to brush them off at first.  In recent days, however, the phone calls had started to take a toll, increasing in number to thirty or forty a day and growing in their menacing intent  He feared this would be just another mean spirited threat.

Afraid that the ringing would wake his family, King reluctantly answered.  The voice on the other end was as hateful as he feared.  One hateful insult was thrown at him after another, as the anonymous caller clearly wanted to tear apart Dr. King’s confidence.  Once the long list of insults was finished, the caller ended the threat with a nasty finale.  King was told that if he and his family didn’t leave Montgomery immediately, they wouldn’t live to see the end of the week.

Dr. King hung up without comment, as he had begun to do when receiving one of these disturbing calls.  He had been able to ignore these calls for the most part, but something about this one cut all the way to the bone.  Maybe it was the hatred that oozed from the words of this particular threat.  Maybe it was exhaustion.  Maybe it was the sheer number of threats he was receiving.

He tried to calm himself down and got into bed.  But as he lay there under the sheets, anxiety began to take hold of him.  He began to think of his precious daughter and her “little gentle smile.”  He began to think of his beautiful wife who had sacrificed her music career so that he could take up leadership in the south.  He began to wonder if the risk level was getting too high, and feared that he might be putting his precious family in harm’s way.  What if they were taken away from him?  Or more likely, what if he was taken from them?

The anxiety became overwhelming, and Dr. King realized he was not going to be able to fall asleep.  He went out and made a pot of coffee and sat at the kitchen table, hoping to calm himself down.  But he couldn’t take control of the rushing tide of fear taking over him.

As the fear intensified that night, Dr. King began to entertain thoughts of resigning his post and stepping back from this important but dangerous mission.  He began to develop an exit strategy, in hopes that he could figure out “a way to move out of the picture without appearing a coward.” Sitting at the kitchen table sipping the coffee, King’s thoughts were interrupted by a sudden notion that at once intensified his desperation and clarified his options.

“Something said to me, ‘You can’t call on Daddy now, you can’t call on Mama.  You’ve got to call on that something in that person that your daddy used to tell you about, that power that can make a way out of no way.’”

Prayer was not unfamiliar to Dr. King. He had, after all, grown up the son of a preacher. But there are different kinds of prayers. There is the pedestrian type, where we pray sweet little prayers like, “Now I lay my head to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.” And then there are PRAYERS – the type of prayers where we remember we are mere mortals who control almost nothing, and we NEED the power of God to show up in might ways.  This is the type of prayer Dr. King was about to engage in.  He prayed:

“Lord, I’m down here trying to do what’s right.  I still think I’m right.  I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right.  But Lord, I must confess that I’m weak now, I’m faltering.  I’m losing my courage.  Now, I am afraid.  And I can’t let the people see me like this because if they see me weak and losing my courage, they will begin to get weak.  The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter.  I am at the end of my powers.  I have nothing left.  I’ve come to the point where I can’t face it alone.”

King just sat there, alone in his thoughts.  He had told God everything that was on his mind.  Now it was time to listen.  This is what he heard God tell him:

 “Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness.  Stand up for justice.  Stand up for the truth.  And lo, I will be with you.  Even until the end of the world.”

I have reflected on this journal entry from Dr. King many times.  It is short and sweet, yet filled with power and meaning. My guess is that most of us would hear something like this if we really heard the voice of God. As Dr. King reflected on this, he wrote this reflection in his journal:

“I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on.  He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone.  No never alone.  No never alone.  He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone… I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced Him before… Almost at once my fears began to go… My uncertainty disappeared.  I was ready to face anything.”

I am infinitely glad that Dr. King met Jesus that night. How much further behind would we be without his life and legacy?

But as much as I admire and honor Dr. King – and i think its important we do – it reminds me that we should not stop there.

The writer of Hebrews is the most prolific author in the Bible on faith, and Hebrews 11 &12 is a tapestry of men and women of faith through the annals of history that comprise the “cloud of witnesses” that now cheer us on to do the same. Just in case we were tempted to get too busy admiring these heroes of faith instead of emulating them, the writer of Hebrews gives us this admonition:

“Remember your leaders… Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13.7-8)

This verse is profound to me.  First, we remember that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That verse is cited often, but the context brings additional meaning to it. The Jesus who came near to Dr. King on January 27, 1956 is the same Jesus that came near to the Apostle Paul and walked with the 12 disciples. Its the same Jesus that each of the pillars of faith from Hebrews 11 were united to God through. And its the same Jesus that is near to you and I.

Jesus is doing the same thing now that he has always been doing. He is working for righteousness and justice, truth and peace. Jesus is touching and healing; renewing and restoring.

When we see someone like Dr. King that met Jesus and changed the world because of it – we should admire and honor their legacy. But we should stop there – to do so ultimately dishonors them. We are not just meant to celebrate or admire – we are to “imitate their faith.”

For after all Jesus – the same Jesus that Dr. King knew – is the same yesterday, today, and forever

We are in a series on transformation, a topic that most people care about yet also remain perpetually confused about.  At the end of the day, most of us don’t know how to change. We want to be different, and if we knew exactly what to do to become the person we were created to be, most of us would do it.

But internal transformation doesn’t work as simply as physical change. Getting trim and muscular follows a fairly predictable pattern: you need to eat better and exercise more. Its not quite as simple in the spiritual realm. Committing 30 minutes a day to studying or praying can be really helpful, but its not a sure fire formula for transformation.

So, how then does a person change?

The Apostle Paul wrote extensively on spiritual transformation, and has one significant section on the topic in nearly every letter he wrote. Some of the famous ones are Galatians 5 (think “fruit of the spirit”) and 1 Corinthians 13 (think “faith, hope and love”). One of the less famous but very important passages is Ephesians 4, where Paul urges believers to “put off the old self” and “put on the new self.”  It’s a complex and multi-layered passage, and we are studying it phrase by phrase in our current series at River City.  Today we covered Ephesians 4.20-21:

“That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.” 

There are two really important phrases in this verse that help shape the way we think about spiritual transformation:

Phrase 1: The “way of life”

This word “way” was used to describe early Christians (Acts 19).  Nobody knew what to call this new religion, so the adherents were described as people who followed in the “way of Jesus.”

The word was originally used by Jesus to describe himself: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  (John 14.6)

This verse is at times thought of in negative terms because it seems exclusive, but that completely misses the point.  If you go backwards through that verse, it is all about life.  Jesus has come to bring life, and to bring life in all of its fullness (John 10.10).  Jesus wants to see you live as a person who is fully alive – someone that lives at the epitome of your potential and who breathes life to the most hurting places in society. How does a person get that life?  They encounter truth, which is discovered through the “way” of Jesus.

Contrasting a “way” vs. a “point,” or a “path” vs. a “door” helps lance an all too common about human transformation. Many of us carry this fantasy that there is a certain moment where it all comes together.  Character is refined, motives are pure, courage comes naturally, and your compass points true north at all times.  Have you hit that moment yet?

Similar: we think of Christianity as this door that we walk through, and we are suddenly transformed into the new being – fears gone, bad habits erased.  Is that what happened to you?

Thinking of transformation as a “way” we “learn” (more on that in a moment) lets the air out of that fantasy.  There is no magic bullet, microwave solution, or single moment that is going to completely transform you.  It’s not what the Bible ever suggests.  Instead, there is a “way of life” we are meant to experience and learn.

Phrase 2: “The way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.”

The phrase used by Paul that you can “learn Christ” has been explored and debated by scholars.  This word for ‘learn’ was used to learn a language or a skill or a new job or an art form.  But you don’t ‘learn’ a person. That’s now how that word was used in ancient circles, and its not how we use it now.

But it sounds an awful lot like how Jesus describes discipleship:

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28.19-20)

What is a disciple?  The Greek word for disciple literally translates as ‘pupil,’ ‘apprentice,’ or ‘learner.’  A disciple is someone that has given their life to Jesus, identified themselves through baptism, and has now embarked upon a way of life ‘learning’ Jesus.

It builds upon the former idea – Instead of thinking of being a disciple as the finish line, becoming a follower of Jesus is the starting line and that leads to a lifelong development of connecting to the life in Jesus, growing our character, and engaging our activism in the world.

So how does a motivated person “learn the way of life in Jesus?”

I do think its important to have some type of a system to help give you some structure as you try to learn the way of Jesus.  I’ve spent most of my adult life studying the different way of doing it and experimenting with them in my own life.

I’ve always struggled with a couple of tensions, which I think are valuable to mention:

Tension 1: legalism vs. laziness – this is where spiritual growth and physical growth ARE different.  If you gut through a 30-minute run you’ll always be the better for it.  Is that true with prayer?  Debatable.  But does that mean you don’t do it?  Of course not.  Need something that has freedom but also responsibility

Tension 2: balance of inner and outer life – many of the contemplative traditions failed to carry the message of Jesus to the world; many of the activists failed to be connected deeply to God.

Those two tensions would each be worthy of their own post. I mention them because the first book I ever read that helped me ease both of them was “Finding Our Way Again,” by Brian McLaren. I know he is controversial to some, but he is a good guy and loves Jesus. In this book he studied the practices of the different traditions and fused them together into a hybrid form of Christian practices that was incredibly helpful for me.  He uses this graphic to describe the integrated nature of Christianity, and I love it!

Below is a very quick description of each, with a summary of some of the recommended practices that a motivated disciple can engage in with the hopes of “learning” the “way of life” in Jesus:

Contemplative Practices

Contemplative tradition claims that we human beings can also experience and encounter the living God in this life in ways that range from gentle and subtle to dramatic, ravishing, and electrifying.

Solitude / Sabbath / Silence / Reading and Study / Spiritual Direction\Friendship / Practicing God’s Presence / Fixed-Hour Prayer / Prayer Journaling / Contemplative Prayer / Secrecy and Generosity / Simplicity and Slowness / Fasting and Self-Denial / Feasting and Celebration / Holy Days and Seasons / Submission / Gratitude / Meditation and Memorization

A couple of my favorite quotes from this section:

“In classic contemplative literature, these experiences of God are often described as ‘favors’ or ‘visitations’ of God.  They are consistently received as gifts from God, never tricks conjurable by magic incantations or esoteric arts.  They are mysteries that can never be reduced to equations or formulas or techniques.”

“And this distinction – between gifts, mysteries, favors, or visitations on the one side and tricks, magic, equations, formulas, and techniques on the other – makes all the difference in the ancient way of spiritual practice.  The latter cluster of words suggests a way that humans can overpower God; the former, a way that God’s goodness can overpower the ignorance, resistance, obliviousness, and meanness of human beings.  The latter words evoke an economic setting, where we earn payments from God, manipulating God into a position where God must comply to our wishes.  In contrast, the former words suggest an intimate and relational setting, where our efforts – meaning spiritual practices that we engage in – are real, but never understood as a form of earning or buying.  A man may bring flowers and chocolates and songs to express his love for his beloved, and we smile.  But if he brings cash to buy sex from her, we shake our heads.  The distinction may be hard to quantify, but it means the difference between romance and prostitution.”

Communal Practices

If the contemplative is about the inner journey, and the missional is about the outer journey, then the communal practices focus less on “me” and more about “we.”

Inconvenience / Self-preparation / Hospitality / Stillness / Invocation / Singing (Praise & Worship)  / Attentiveness / Interpretation and Discernment / Confession and Assurance of Pardon

A couple of my favorite quotes from this section:

“Showing up is inherently inconvenient.  It means going to a place I didn’t choose at a time I didn’t choose for a purpose I do choose.  My commitment to the purpose – in this case, learning and living a way of life – motivates me to show up.  In this way, going to church when you don’t feel like it becomes the most important kind of going to church there is.” (Brian McLaren, great for church and CG’s)

Hospitality – “Paul’s call to ‘greet one another with a holy kiss’ (repeated four times in his epistles) was more significant than it appears.  Class-conscious Roman society required that people only exchange the kiss with peers, but the early churches brought together Jew and Gentile, men and women, slave and free, rich and poor…”

Missional Practices

Hebrews 10: “Do not neglect the assembling of the saints… so that we may provoke one another to love and good deeds…”

Forgiving those who wrong us / Showing hospitality to strangers – or “the other” / Praying for the sick / Not judging but showing mercy and compassion / Confronting evil, seeking to overcome it with good / Serving / Listening / Speaking truth in love / Practicing neighborliness (including towards enemies) / A bias towards the materially poor rather than showing favoritism to the materially rich / Speaking and working for justice / Proclaiming the good news in word and deed / Throwing parties for those who are forgotten / Walking to the other side of the street to serve those in need / Showing empathy

One of my favorite quotes from this section:

“The pastors and liturgists and worship leaders who serve the community by planning the ‘workout of the people’ are, in this way, like aerobics instructors or sports trainers whose goal is not simply getting people to show up at the gym to work out their kinks and work up a sweat, but rather to use their time at the gym to help them live healthy, strong, productive, and athletic lives.  And this is where our three types of spiritual practice come together.  You could think of it like this: The practices of the contemplative way exist to prepare and equip us for community and mission (what we called the activist way earlier).  The communal practices exist to prepare us and equip us for contemplation and mission.  The missional practices flow from our individual contemplative practices and our shared communal practices, and without expression in mission, our contemplative and communal practices would be incomplete and sub-Christian…”

When God decided to enter into human history, God had an abundance of choices as how to do that.  God could choreograph his entrance to produce whatever response was desired.  If what God ultimately wanted was dutiful obedience or fear-based submission that would have been simple.  Just a small glimpse of God’s glory was enough to terrify men and women throughout the Bible.  What if God would have ripped the sky into two upon his entrance?  That would have done the trick to get full compliance.

But that was not God’s motivation.  God was motivated by love.  John 3.16 – arguably the most well known verse in the Bible – gives exact clarity to God’s motivation.  “For God so loved the world that he sent his only Son…”

So if you are God, what do you do?  How do you stay true to the nature and character of God, yet not have the end result be fear, insecurity, and shrinking away?  How do you maintain a duality of glory/holiness yet simultaneously communicate love and intimacy?

When God chose to enter the world as a baby, it was the most brilliant maneuver for communicating the incredible combination of holiness and love. There is nothing less frightening and more accessible than a baby.  Everyone feels safe around a baby.  A baby is approachable.  A baby projects warmth and innocence and joy.

When God made the choice to enter humanity in such a disarming way, God took a tremendous risk.  Have you ever thought about that?  When God chose to incarnate into humanity as an infant, there was the inherent risk that God would be overlooked.  How often do you notice babies that are not your own?  But even more than that, God chose to risk being minimized and discredited.

The nature of this risk became apparent to me in the midst of a conversation with a friend one December.  We were talking about the meaning of Christmas, and he asked me a question that was partly playful but partly honest.

“You really believe that the God of the Universe came to earth as a baby?”

I told him I did.

“So you are saying that if Mary and Joseph didn’t take care of baby Jesus, that God could have died?  You are telling me that you believe God needed his diaper changed?  You are telling me that God used to eat baby food and play with toys?  This is the God you believe in?”

The more he mischievously dug in with his questions, the more sheepish I became about answering them.  Though I fully trust in the reality of the incarnation of Christ, I had to admit that it did sound a bit absurd when you say it out loud to someone that doesn’t share those beliefs.

Our dinner ended, but I was still thinking about the conversation hours later.  As I replayed the dialogue in my head, I found myself praying something like this.

“God, sometimes I wish you would have made it a little bit easier to believe in you.  My friend is right.  It requires a pretty significant stretch to put your faith in the story of God entering humanity as an infant.  Couldn’t you have added a little bit of flair to the story?  Then people like my friend would have a better chance of believing in you.” I laughed at myself for even saying such a thing in prayer.  That must be sacrilegious.

But as I sat there thinking about it, something began to dawn on me.  God was not unaware of the risk that He took to enter humanity as a baby.  God knew how easy it would be for us to miss the significance of what that represented.  God knew that the humility and vulnerability represented by the Incarnation would easily turn into fodder for those that wanted to convince themselves that Jesus wasn’t for them.

But God did it anyway.  Why?

God found the perfect way to communicate both glory and grace; royalty yet accessibility; cosmically majestic yet tangible present.

The risk of coming as a baby was that we could miss or minimize the nature and character of God.  The upside was greater though.  Through the safety of a baby we would see just how accessible and near God’s presence was.

This is how the angel of the Lord said it: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). (Matthew 1.22-23)

This is the center of the Christmas message, and therefore I would suggest, at the center of Christianity: “God with us.” God has come near to you, and now God longs for you to come near to Him.  God does not want you to be driven by fear or duty or impersonal obedience. God wants to be intimately connected to you, and wants you to be intimately connected to God. All else in the Christian life flows from that living, breathing reality of spiritual intimacy with God.

So when you see the baby Jesus this Christmas, remember the Christmas story. Remember than no one person who saw that baby, saw just a baby.  Not one.  The shepherds, the wise men, Mary, Joseph, Simeon, Anna, they all knew what was happening.

Luke’s account ends with the response of the shepherds in v20. May it be ours as well: “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen…”

What is at the center of Christianity?

The Christmas story in Luke says that whatever is at the center should be good news, bring great joy, and be for all people. So what is it?

In v12 Luke says there are clues, signs that point to the center.  It’s like puzzle pieces to put together.

“This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

The signs are not ones we would normally expect. If we didn’t already know the Christmas story so well they could be seen as downright confusing: a baby, some cloths, and a manger.

What is the significance of those as symbols?

If you read the Christmas account of Luke you notice that there is a significant emphasis on the response of everyone that gets even a glimpse of the glory of God.  It starts with Zechariah and Mary in chapter 1, and continues with the shepherds in chapter 2:

Luke 2.9: “An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.”

They were terrified! That was the response of every person throughout the Bible when they got even a small glimpse of God.

That the Bible is so open about fear being the response to the glory of God is not meant to portray God in any type of negative way.  It is meant simply as a reality check.  If God is who the Bible God says is – the Creator of the entire Universe, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent – and if we are fragile, finite human beings, then this is to be expected.  How can we see a being that powerful and not be afraid?

When you read Matthew’s account you see the same point being made, with a slightly different emphasis. Matthew emphasizes the facet of Jesus being the King.

Matthew 2 opens up with the Magi searching for Jesus.  They ask, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?”  This question terrifies Herod, and he goes on a kililng spree hoping to wipe out the future competition. The account ends with the Magi finding Jesus and treating him like the King that he is.  They bowed down and worshipped him.  They then took all the treasure they had and presented it to this baby King.

In our modern context we have somewhat of a reference for the image of a King, but probably not to the degree that 1st century readers did. A King summoned up both images of royalty and fear. Most people looked up to their King with tremendous respect and awe, yet people lived in terror of a King as well. In almost every ancient context you had to treat a King with the upmost respect. To enter into his presence incorrectly or to say something that was perceived as disrespectful could lead to your immediate death.

If this is the case, how must people have responded to the prophecies that Jesus would not only be a King, but the King of Kings? It would have summoned the same combination of hope and fear; splendor and terror.

This leads to a critical Christmas question.

How does God enter into the world God created, without scaring everyone to death? Or maybe said a different way, How does the King of all kings enter into his kingdom with more than just frightened subjects?

“The center of Christianity is ______________.”

One of my underlying beliefs is that Christianity has a lot of dimension and depth to it, so asking this question is not an attempt to oversimplify.  It is intended for just the opposite.  Because of the rich dimension and depth of Christianity, it is helpful to know what lies at the center.  What is it that all the other dimensions flow from?

At its heart, this is a Christmas question. Many things will be celebrated over the next week, but what is the center of the Christmas message?

The Christmas story gives some valuable criteria for how to answer this question.  Luke 2.10: “But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” (V10)

Whatever the answer is, it should be good news, it should bring great joy, and it should be for all people.

I have asked a lot of people this question, and there is a lot of variety in the answers.  Here are the four most common answers I hear proposed as to what is at the center of Christianity:

1.) Behavior – There are different ways to say it – be a good person, follow the rules, keep the commandments, do your best, live a good life, etc.  The bottom line is the assumption that the center of Christianity is living in accordance with the Christian rules – keeping the right behaviors, adhering to the Christian code, and applying the ethics of Christian morality to everyday life.  Is behavior important?  Of course – you can’t follow Jesus authentically without your behaviors changing.  But is it good news that brings great joy for all people?  No.  It’s not the center.

2.) Belief – There are different ways to say this as well – correct doctrine, sound theology, or orthodox truths of Scripture.  The bottom line is the assumption that the center of Christianity is having the right beliefs about God, the Bible, salvation, eternal life, etc.  Is right belief important?  Absolutely.  Even a slightly distorted view of God can have tremendously negative consequences on life.  But as critical as right belief is, it’s still not the center.  It’s not that which everything else hinges.  It’s not that which is ultimately the good news that brings great joy to all people.

3.) Salvation – Many would say that the center of Christianity is the good news that Jesus offered himself as an atonement for sins, and that by faith through Jesus we can be forgiven of our sins.  This is getting closer, and proponents of this could even point to the Christmas story.  Luke 2 11: “A Savior has been born to you.”  I could never express how grateful I am for this reality.  A sample size of any given week of my life reminds me just how desperately I need to be saved.  I am eternally thankful that salvation is not based on my record, but instead on the record of Jesus.  But as critical as salvation is to the Christian message, I would still say it’s not quite the center. I don’t think you get to the center without salvation, but I think there’s something even more core to the good news of Christianity.

4.) Liberation – In Luke 4 Jesus says that the Spirit of the Lord has anointed him to preach good news to the poor, and then goes on to list some signs of this good news.  Among them is freedom for prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, and liberation for the oppressed.  The Christmas story resounds a similar theme.  In Mary’s Magnificat, she says,: “He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.  He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” Passages like this lead many to say that the liberation and freedom that comes from Jesus is the center of Christianity.  Like salvation, I believe this is a critical component to the Christian message, and should be a mark of anyone that has come in contact with Jesus.  But I would say liberation is still more of a result of the center than the center itself.

Each of those is a critical component of Christianity, but I think the Bible points to something at the very center of faith that holds all of them together.  What is at the center of Christianity?

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1902 to 1932, is one of the most widely cited US Supreme Court justices in history.  Here is one of his most famous quotes:

“Man’s mind, stretched by a new idea, never goes back to its original dimensions.”

I came across this quote this morning (I prefer substituting the male default there with “A person’s mind…”) and it got me thinking (pardon the pun).  I believe he was onto something profound with this quote – once your mind has been expanded to see a broader view of the world, of humanity, and of God – it doesn’t ever return to its original dimensions.

This has been very true in my whole life.  Though I could describe the transformation that I have experienced over the course of my adult life in a variety of ways, this would probably serve as one of the clearest ways to contrast the before and after.  My mind has been stretched and stretched and stretched, and each time it has led to both a different way of viewing the world as well as a different way of living within it.

I am not sure if Oliver Wendell Holmes was a Christian, but certainly his ideology reflected the core message of Jesus Christ.  “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is near,” was the most common way Jesus described the importance of his message.

The etymology of ‘repent’ points to a change in thinking – we get the English word ‘pensive’ from the same root.  Though repentance certainly includes forgiveness from sin and a change in behavior, it is interesting that it also finds its roots in a change of thinking.  To know Jesus you must repent, and to repent means you are now going to enter into a process of transformation with Jesus that causes you to re-think.  Once you begin to re-think, you are going to experience just what Holmes described.  Jesus will stretch your mind with new ideas about the Kingdom of God, and if you see what he wants you to see, your mind will never return to its original dimensions.

That is a blessing and a gift, but it comes with a stewardship responsibility.  To see differently means we must act differently.  Once we see money, power, gender, race, culture, education, economics differently – just to name a few – we then have a more significant responsibility to respond.

And I think that’s just what Jesus intended when he called on us to repent.

I did a series of posts last week on my favorite moments at CCDA. As I was going back over my notes I thought I would write a post on one other thought that stuck with me from the conference.

The Friday morning session of CCDA was a panel on education reform, and it began with a video from Michelle Rhee’s interviewat the Global Leadership Summit. Michelle Rhee is an animated, engaging, and at times controversial national figure on education.

I didn’t see the interview during the Summit, but enjoyed the clip I saw at CCDA. She said something in her interview that has stuck with me ever since.

She was talking about her time working in the public school system in Washington DC, and the struggle they faced around how to best evaluate students and teachers.

They were struggling to find an equitable balance. On one hand, they understood that they couldn’t evaluate teachers on the same set of universal criteria – each teacher was in a unique context, and each student was coming in to that teacher’s classroom with a different set of challenges. On the other hand, they knew it was important to evaluate teachers somehow. Otherwise there was no way to be certain that a student was growing under the tutelage of that teacher.

So they began to use the phrase “Value Added.” This was the language they used to describe the value a teacher added to the educational experience of the child.  They would measure where the student was at in their educational development at the beginning of the school year, and then again at the end.  They believed that this allowed for the individuality of each student while also holding teachers accountable to help that student progress over the course of that year.

The reason that stuck with me had little to do with education ultimately. That makes sense to me, but I don’t feel I’m in a position to comment intelligently on the veracity of that particular method.

Instead, what stood out to me was how important that same idea is for Christian teachers, leaders, and preachers. What if we used the idea of “Value Added” as a way to measure the effectiveness of our call to disciple and nurture people? What if we looked at where someone was at when they first started coming to our church, and then again a year later?

There is certainly something to be said for the importance of each person taking responsibility for their own spiritual growth. If a person is unwilling to learn and lacks the desire to grow, then there is not much that we can do as Christian leaders.

But the reverse is true too. If a person does want to grow, and they spend a season under our spiritual leadership, then that is an incredibly important stewardship issue. Are we preaching and teaching in a way that helps people know God better? Are we cultivating an atmosphere that both brings people to the heart of God and then sends people out into the world on mission? Are we both modeling and training people how to live in authentic, Biblical community with their brothers and sisters of faith?

That evaluation method has really been sticking with me. How much “Value Added” am I bringing to the spiritual formation of those who are with me at River City? How different are they now than they were a year ago?

Until recently Nicole has worked with Teach for America, an organization doing a lot of good work around educational reform. Her primary role has been working with the faith community to inform and ignite them to be involved in educational reform as well.

She has recently branched off from Teach for America to start her own organization called The Expectations Project. You can find out more about them at theexpectationsproject.org

There was a lot that she shared that resonated with me, and I’ll email you my notes if you want them.

But there was one concept that she talked about that moved me deeply. It was the singular moment of the conference where I found myself coming to tears. It was the most profound moment of the week for me.

She used the phrase “Prevailing ideology” to describe an all too common problem in our country. It is the belief in the back of many people’s minds that children in low-income environments can’t do well in school.

She sees it on both sides of the privilege line. She acknowledges that most people who have had opportunity and wealth would never dare utter the words out loud. It would be politically incorrect to ever say anything that could be interpreted as harsh and uncaring. But when you read between the lines you can see that many people have this belief.

What really got me was when she told a first person story of experiencing this with some of her own students.

Before taking the role with Teach for America she taught in a low income school in Compton, L.A. She had a slogan that she would often use with her students in hopes of inspiring them. She would repeatedly tell them that they were the “future geniuses” of the United States, and affirm her belief in their potential.

One day a 10-year old student came up to her, and pushed on this. He said something to this effect: “Why are you at our school? You are educated, smart, and successful. You could work anywhere you want. Why are you here?”

She replied with her familiar refrain: “You are the future geniuses of America. This is where I want to be.”

His response brought her to tears.

“Yeah right. Future geniuses of America? Nobody else thinks that. Look around. Our school has no toilet paper. It is dirty and unkept. The paint is peeling off the walls. We have old books and no computers. Nobody thinks we are geniuses.  They would never put us in a place like this if they did.”

She choked up as she shared this story, and so did I. The lament of this 10-year old felt so real, and so near, that I felt like it was me sitting across from him.

The reason that she shared this story was to make the point that the “Prevailing ideology” is not just felt from the outside of these types of environments. The children know that this is what adults think. They pick up on cues from early on. This child was only 10, yet he had clearly and accurately identified the ideology of the adults that were making decisions that would affect his future.

I know that this heart breaking reality is true. I know it is true in many adults, and I know it is felt by many children.

Even as I write this tears well up in my eyes. I never experienced anything to that degree growing up, but I have many memories that trigger similar emotions. I remember many moments where I internally wondered if anyone saw anything special in me, or if I too was part of that prevailing ideology.

As Nicole Baker Fulgham shared this story, I felt the presence of God stir deep within me. My heart breaks for every child that suffers from this prevailing ideology, and I wish I could do more to change that reality.

But I will not sit idly by when something like this is so real and present. After sitting in the sorrow for a few minutes, I began to pray.

I began to thank God that there were loving adults who came around me and encouraged me to be all that had God made me to be.

I began to confess for the times in which I have been guilty of either communicating this prevailing ideology or from not stepping in to stop it.

I reaffirmed my resolve to not lot this happen on my watch. Not in my neighborhood. Not to the children with the reach of our faith community.

I asked God to give us supernatural strength to touch and enfold as many children as possible.

I prayed that, if it would be God’s will, that there would not be a single child within our reach that ever wondered if they were loved, cherished, believed in, supported, and encouraged.

Richard is a gifted thinker and speaker that is of the Lakota Sioux group. He is the author of the book, “One Church, Many Tribes.” He said that the goal of his talk was to bring to light some of the realities of the Native Americans of the US that are now largely invisible.  I have never experienced someone that could make you laugh so hard in one moment and absolutely cringe in pain in the next.

For instance, he played a song to start the session on an Indian drum. Implicitly acknowledging the many circles within Christianity that have marginalized the importance of culture and customs, he assured us that this was indeed a “good” drum. In fact, it was even a “Christian” drum. He was sure of this because it said Yamaha on it. And he engraved John 3.16 on it just to be sure.

People were still laughing from this when he showed a cartoon with two different images. The first was a crowd of people gathered around a poster of Osama Bin Laden. The group was shouting “terrorist,” and “kill him.” The next image showed the same crowd around a poster of Christopher Columbus.  In this instance the crowd was celebrating him and his legacy.

Then Richard began to share some shocking statistics. In 1491, when Columbus reached the shores of America, there were somewhere between 75-100 million Native people in the Americas, 25 million of which were in the U.S. By 1892 there were less than 300,000 left.  He asked, “If that doesn’t qualify as genocide, then what does?”

This left the room with an uneasy feeling. Everyone had just been part of the national celebration of Columbus Day that week. How had we learned as a country to speak out of both sides of our mouth? How do we condemn one a terrorist yet celebrate another as a national hero?

To further shine a spotlight on our inconsistencies as a nation when it comes to our value system, he drew a connection between the Native American experience and the modern debate on immigration. He chuckled at the rhetoric we use when talking about “those” immigrants. Aren’t most of us the children of immigrants? Certainly this doesn’t apply to those whose roots came from being involuntarily brought as slaves from Africa. But the nasty rhetoric most often comes from people whose family trees are traced from immigrants who came to the U.S. looking for greater opportunity.

This led to one of Richard Twiss’ funnies lines.  He paused when talking about immigration, then without missing a beat uttered, “WE should have had a stronger immigration policy.” The room erupted in laughter.

I walked away with a couple of convictions from his talk.

First, it reminded me about the importance of language. When he drew the connection between the Native American experience and the immigration conversation of modern times, I realized how language and posture are important beginning points. How was it that otherwise good, moral Christians were able to turn a blind eye to the genocide of Native Americans in the 15th and 16th century? I suppose that is a complicated answer, but part of it is language. We called Native Americans “savages,” and dehumanizing them like that certainly helped detach our conscience from such despicable deeds. It made me wonder if there isn’t something important at stake when we choose to use phrases like “undocumented” vs. “illegals.” Does one humanize, and one dehumanize?

The second thing that I took away from this session was a conviction to more deeply understand and incorporate the historical reality of the Native American experience into my theology and practice around reconciliation. One of the quotes that has most deeply impacted me is Dr. Martin Luther King’s observation that “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

I haven’t thought about the historical injustice towards Native Americans as much as I should have, largely because there are not any that I know in the neighborhood that I serve. But that doesn’t and shouldn’t change the fact that we are all tied together in this garment of destiny, and that whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. I vow to be more conscious and aware moving forward.

When I started River City Community Church in early 2003 I had a sense that God had led me to start this church, but the details of the picture still felt very unclear. CCDA – and the many wonderful men and women that I have met there – have played an instrumental role in bringing increasing clarity to that picture.

The best part each year is catching up with dear friends and co-laborers that I admire.  This year was no different. It was fantastic to grab time with Crissy Brooks, Rev. Pedro Windsor, Michelle Warren, Louie Carlo, Peter Ahn, and Lisa Sharon Harper, amongst others.

The conference is also filled with wonderful teaching, sharing, and inspiration from a variety of practitioners and theologians. I always learn a lot in these, but this year I tried to look for something in particular, something I referred to in my journal as “moments.” These were the points of the conference that went beyond just interesting knowledge. I was looking for moments where I would have an experience with God, almost as if God were using the words of that particular speaker to say something very specific to me. There were three of those moments at the conference.

Favorite Moment #3: Dr. John Perkins

Anyone who knows me knows that Dr. Perkins is one of the real heroes of faith that I truly admire. His theology and practice have had a deep impact on me. Dr. Perkins opens each morning with a Bible study, and I never miss these. By now I have heard him give most of these lessons multiple times, but that doesn’t diminish the joy of listening to it time and again.

In addition to the Bible studies a group of DMin students also sat in an early morning session with him as part of our doctoral studies. It was a very early morning, and we were all crammed into a small classroom. But it was well worth it. Even that early in the morning Dr. Perkins is filled with passion and spiritual vitality. He preached to us with the same vigor and energy that he would have had in a packed stadium. It was the first profound moment of the conference for me. Here were a few of his sound bytes.

On the importance of Christian character:

“Character is when you look like Jesus.  When your life looks how it would look if Jesus lived inside of you, that is character.”

“Character is an invisible but seeable product.”

“In Antioch the disciples were living and acting like Jesus and looked a lot like him because they had been disciples.  That is when the people started calling them Christians.”

“Dr. King dreamed of a day when his children were not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. Character is important.”

On the connection between Christian character and impact in society:

“We celebrate churches that pull together a mass of people, but a mass of people doesn’t necessarily translate into impact.  In fact, it usually doesn’t.  You need a small, critical mass of people who are authentic disciples of Jesus and are trying to carry out his mission in the society and in their neighborhood.”

“To make an impact in society we need to have a critical mass of people.  That’s what the church is.  We need a critical mass of people in each zip code to be God’s people carrying out God’s intention for society.”

On the connection between character and reconciliation:

Someone in the class was trying to understand how he was connecting discipleship, character, and reconciliation, and asked Dr. Perkins to expand.  This is how he responded:

“I discovered that reconciliation was the intention of the Gospel.  We have made it something else.  “God was in Christ” – that is the incarnation of Christ – “reconciling himself to the world – and he has called us to be ambassadors of reconciliation.”

“You can use a butter knife as a screwdriver, but that was not it was designed for.  That is what we do with the Gospel.”  We use the Gospel to colonize people instead of using the Gospel to set us free.”

“Reconciliation is a truth, but we have allowed error to come in.  Everyone has been created in the image of God and has dignity.  If we taught that we wouldn’t have to focus on reconciliation.  But we are greedy and want power and therefore reconciliation becomes critical.

“I only have a third grade education.  But I don’t think of myself as ignorant.  I am created in the image of God and the Spirit of God resides in me.  I have power.  Becoming a person of character helps you to think like that and live like that.”

“We have a Mickey Mouse Gospel in the world. A complete truth preached would minimize the need for reconciliation.”

On how to figure out what programs to begin in your neighborhood:

“Go slow and get to know the people. I don’t like when people think they know the solution to something too quickly.  We look for symptomatic responses instead of root causes.”

“Programs come from pain.  You don’t know what God has called the community to do until you have entered the pain with the people.”

“One of the most important functions of leadership is to work with the people to determine what the problem is that you want to solve.”

And finally, I don’t know what category to put this quote in, but I liked it:

“We need to figure out how to create spaces where the Holy Spirit can be moving.  The old revivalists understood this.  When the Holy Spirit is moving you don’t dare move.  We need more conviction in our lives.”

Amen!