iMissional.org http://imissional.org Initiatives Missional Tue, 15 May 2012 18:10:41 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Vol 3:18 Missional Living: Not “OverThinking” – Living in the Leading of the Spirit http://imissional.org/2012/05/15/vol-318-missional-living-not-overthinking-living-in-the-leading-of-the-spirit/ http://imissional.org/2012/05/15/vol-318-missional-living-not-overthinking-living-in-the-leading-of-the-spirit/#comments Tue, 15 May 2012 18:10:41 +0000 Roland http://imissional.org/?p=515 In a recent The Economist, I read about how we tend to “overthink” in critical situations. I do not have the issue with me so I am recollecting what I read and offer some comments that relate to our living missionally.

The article expressed that when we get into tough or critical situations, the difference between succeeding or failing has much to do with our overthinking what we should do. What often happens – also associated with “performance anxiety,” when we overthink is that we second guess what we might do that we end up falling short or failing.

I have found this to be true in numerous situations in life. In taking tests in school, for example – rather than going with my first choice in taking a question at face value, I may tend to overthink what is behind the question and make another choice – only to discover that overthinking led me to making an incorrect choice.

Athletes also are familiar with this as well – when in a tough spot, rather than relying on muscle memory and their training they may overthink what they should do and end up choking.

This happens with financial analysts as well. The Economist article cited how people interviewed on the street picked a better portfolio of stocks on average, than brokers who were paid to make investors money on their portfolios.

However, one important facet in all this is that thinking had taken place before one got into an overthinking situation. With the example of choosing stocks, the person on the street chose companies that they were familiar with, knew something about – they relied upon what they had come to know about these companies.

The article did not express that we should not be thinking, but rather in critical times we ought not to second-guess ourselves so often, diverting ourselves from the conclusions and directions our previous thinking has led us to. So, rather than relying on what we have come to know, we doubt our past conclusions and in the midst of a critical situation, fraught with performance anxiety we find ourselves overthinking and making an inopportune decision – often leading to some form of failure.

What does this have to do with missional living?

For me it has to do with trusting the leading of the Spirit in situations where we may not have been before, where we may find ourselves uncomfortable.

In being a people open to participating with God in what God is doing in the world, we will often find ourselves in situations what we have not encountered before – and we are apt to try to think (and perhaps “overthink”) how we ought to respond. It might be in that moment, rather than relying on the serendipities the Spirit has led us in, the circumstances the Spirit has opened up – and continuing to go with the “flow of the Spirit,” we seek to take control, to give shape to the experience in light of the “anxiety” we are experiencing in wondering what to do, that we begin to overthink and then act accordingly.

I have found in my own life, that when I have acted in this way – the opportunity ends up being a missed opportunity – especially as I reflect upon it later.

So, if we are not to “overthink” but to rely on the leading of the Spirit – and yield ourselves to that leading, even in the midst of a situation in which we feel we are not in control, how can we prepare ourselves not to overthink?

The clue from The Economist article is that we need to be thinking ahead of time – train and develop muscle memory, spiritual memory – so as not to overthink in a given situation, but to respond in who we are and what we have been doing in being the people of God – to go with the flow of our discipleship and not to second-guess our actions.

For me that entails, being immersed in God’s Story and Vision, being immersed in seeking to notice what and whom God notices, and being immersed in the community of the Spirit,.

It is in seeking to live our days engaging God’s Story and Vision in Scripture – becoming familiar with the rhythms of God throughout human history, God engaging humanity in our brokenness and our penchant for power and disenfranchising others, and seeing how God engages us, being with us in order to bring life out of death – to realize that this is a narrative that gives us life.

It is being in dialogue with God through prayer seeking to notice whom and what God is noticing and being touched by the heart of God to have the same kind of heart (compassion) that God has for every human being whom God deeply loves, becoming sensitive to where and how God is active in the world.

And it is engaging in spiritual conversation with the people of God in the community of God – that we are being formed, shaped and transformed by the Spirit – giving accounts of how God is presently active all around us, making all things new – not just in the future, but acting in this way in the present.

As we learn to live our life in and by the Spirit in the ordinary times of our days, practicing our Spirit-led living in the ordinary times, that in times when we come face to face with a new or crisis situation – rather than trying something new by overthinking – trust the Spirit to continue leading us in that situation. Live and do as we have been doing, being open, being led – and then be open to observe how our response in that critical moment is endowed with the leading of the Spirit, rather than it being usurped by our overthinking or second-guessing.

It is true we have a tendency to want to take control when we feel out of control, but in those moments, when we do not know what to do, rather than relying on ourselves, we need to trust our reliance on the Spirit who has been leading and shaping us. Paul’s statement to the church in Corinth (2 Corinthians 5:7) speaks to this, when he encourages us “to live by faith, not by sight.”

I used to wonder how Jesus, when confronted by religious leaders with an either/or situation always seemed to come up with a third way, a third option – Cf. Mark 12: 14-17 – Should we pay or not pay imperial taxes to Caesar? Jesus’ response: Bring me a coin; whose face is on it? Caesars was the response – to which Jesus proclaimed: “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” Jesus immersed in God’s Story and Vision, Jesus immersed in daily communication with God, Jesus immersed in conversation about the life of God with his community of disciples, enabled Jesus to respond in ways that expressed the way of God in such critical moments – he did not need to “overthink.”

The Spirit of God is trustworthy in forming us as a people who are a sign, foretaste, and instrument of God’s present and coming reign as we participate with God in God’s mission. And so our challenge is to learn to trust the Spirit even when we want to take-back the trust we have given, when we feel we are in a situation we cannot control.

Acting to take control reveals more about our brokenness than our abilities, but acting to act and live under the leading of the Spirit reveals that we are a people learning to move and flow with the Spirit of God, who is continually active in our lives transforming us in the image of Jesus Christ.

May we yield ourselves to the leading of the Spirit every day, so that when we find ourselves in a “non-everyday” moment, we discover that the Spirit is still with us to guide us in responding in the way of Jesus.

]]> http://imissional.org/2012/05/15/vol-318-missional-living-not-overthinking-living-in-the-leading-of-the-spirit/feed/ 2 Vol 3:17 Missional Living: Ministry as “Exhaling” the Spirit http://imissional.org/2012/05/09/vol-317-missional-living-ministry-as-exhaling-the-spirit/ http://imissional.org/2012/05/09/vol-317-missional-living-ministry-as-exhaling-the-spirit/#comments Wed, 09 May 2012 16:23:54 +0000 Roland http://imissional.org/?p=512 Last weekend I spoke at an Illinois Mennonite Conference sister congregation in central Illinois and a metaphor emerged as I was preaching that I want to explore deeper.

The text was John 20:19-23. I focused upon the re-creative act of Jesus in which Jesus breathed upon his disciples and said “Receive the Holy Spirit.” I call this act of Jesus’ re-creative, because just as John 1 parallels Genesis 1 (In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God . . . – John 1; In the beginning God . . . – Genesis 1), so John 20:22 parallels Genesis 2.

In Genesis 2 God breathes into the man that God formed, breathing into his nostrils the breath of life so that the man became a living being (cf. Genesis 2:7). In Jesus breathing the Spirit upon his disciples, this is an act of re-creation, the re-creation of a new humanity of becoming living beings who are not only filled with the breath of life, but also the breath of the Spirit. We participate in the life that is God’s by inhaling the Spirit that is breathed upon us by Jesus.

In extending this metaphor of “inhaling” the Spirit, I realized in the middle of my message while I was preaching that we can’t hold our breath forever, at some point we have to exhale if we are to remain alive. Just as breathing involves a rhythm of inhaling and exhaling, so perhaps also living in the Spirit involves such a rhythm.

Inhaling the Spirit: opening ourselves to God, to the Spirit’s leading, being guided by the Spirit, aware of the Spirit shaping us, transforming us, walking alongside with us, opening us to the ways of God and noticing what and whom God is noticing.

What then would entail “exhaling the Spirit?” I like to think of exhaling the Spirit in a similar fashion to Jesus breathing on his disciples – as we go about living our lives, in the ordinariness of our days (how I think the “Go” of Matthew 28:9 ought to be translated since it is a participle rather than an imperative), as we encounter people in many different situations, as we walk in and by the Spirit among those whom the Spirit has led us alongside, we exhale the living presence of the Spirit in their midst – i.e., the Spirit engages us with them in relational contact. And what is this relational contact as we participate with God in God’s mission but ministry – Exhaling the Spirit is a metaphor for me of ministry.

As we go about inhaling the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit, in our exhaling, we are involved in Spirit-led ministry among those to whom the Spirit has connected us and us to them. Ministry is not about what we do, but what the Spirit of God is accomplishing through us – through gifts, through the fruit of the Spirit – we are vessels through whom the Spirit is active in the world. As we live in the rhythm of inhaling and exhaling, we inhale the presence of God, and we exhale the ministering presence of the Spirit into the lives of others, so that in their inhaling they might be transformed, healed and brought into relationship with God and with others.

In realizing that ministry is not merely my exertion, but a sharing of the Spirit of God who is alive in me, I can be set free and empowered to minister freely as the Spirit leads – even in situations that are far beyond my capability.

So, I encourage you to inhale and exhale the Spirit in a breathing rhythm so that in our living we are making visible the living presence of God, of Christ Jesus, through the Spirit in the world.

]]> http://imissional.org/2012/05/09/vol-317-missional-living-ministry-as-exhaling-the-spirit/feed/ 3 Vol 3: 16 Missional Living: The Chaos of Following the Spirit http://imissional.org/2012/05/01/vol-3-16-missional-living-the-chaos-of-following-the-spirit/ http://imissional.org/2012/05/01/vol-3-16-missional-living-the-chaos-of-following-the-spirit/#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 18:34:00 +0000 Roland http://imissional.org/?p=510 Following the Spirit can only be described as chaotic when we sense we have lost or are losing control in knowing where we are being led.

We determine a situation is chaotic, when we cannot exert enough influence to ensure the outcomes we desire. Exercising effective leadership has much to do with bringing order out of chaos – but I suspect it has little to do with being open to the leading of the Spirit.

Margaret Wheatley, a number of years ago in writing, Leadership and the New Science, remarked that leadership is all about control.

“All this time, we have created trouble for ourselves in organizations by confusing control with order. This is no surprise, given that for most of its written history, leadership has been defined in terms of its control functions. Lenin spoke for many leaders when he said: ‘Freedom is good, but control is better.’ And our quest for control has been oftentimes as destructive as was his. If people are machines, seeking to control us makes sense. But if we live with the same forces intrinsic to all other life, then seeking to impose control through rigid structures is suicide. If we believe that there is no order to human activity except that imposed by the leader, that there is no self-regulation except that dictated by policies, if we believe that responsible leaders must have their hands into everything, controlling every decision, person, and moment, then we cannot hope for anything except what we already have a treadmill of frantic efforts that end up destroying our individual and collective vitality.” (pp. 24-25)

Control and order are two different characteristics. As leaders we often seek order shaped through our exercise of our control – but it is an order that is only orderly for us – for others all they experience is being controlled, a loss of freedom, a loss of their humanity, a being less than human.

Yet, when we are not in control, we determine that a situation is chaotic, but control has little to do with order – the Spirit brings order, often times an order with which we are unfamiliar – and due to that unfamiliarity and our discomfort with that unfamiliarity, we may tend to conclude that the way of the Spirit is chaotic.

But Paul expresses in his first letter to the church in Corinth – “For God is not a God of disorder, but of peace” (1 Cor. 14:33).

Missional living, I contend, is a way of living that learns to become comfortable with us not having control or being in control, but learning to be open to the guiding of the Spirit in our lives. When I am willing to surrender my having control in order to be open to the moving of the Holy Spirit, then I am open to see ministry that is not shaped by my agenda, but instead, as being ordered and shaped by the Spirit. I am learning, as someone described, to live with a non-anxious presence being open to the serendipities of the Spirit encountering and engaging others in order to witness and participate in the reconciling and re-creating of lives.

To relinquish control is to relinquish the fantasy that I know how to order the world, and to submit myself to the moving of the Spirit is to be set free to explore ways of being human with others that I never thought possible through me – it is amazing what the Spirit is set free to do through me when I do not erect barriers of “control” or “how things have to be.” To live missionally, to be open to the Spirit’s leading, may seem to be chaotic to my sense of order and direction, but I am discovering that to seek to insert my control into relationships and situations is to bring chaos to the way of peace in which the Spirit is at work in the world in making all things new.

O, Lord, help me each and every day be open to be shaped by the non-anxious presence of your Spirit to participate with you in reconciling and recreating human lives and in making all creation new.

]]> http://imissional.org/2012/05/01/vol-3-16-missional-living-the-chaos-of-following-the-spirit/feed/ 2 Vol 3:15 Missional Living: Forgetting to Make Room for the Spirit http://imissional.org/2012/04/24/vol-315-missional-living-forgetting-to-make-room-for-the-spirit/ http://imissional.org/2012/04/24/vol-315-missional-living-forgetting-to-make-room-for-the-spirit/#comments Tue, 24 Apr 2012 19:46:01 +0000 Roland http://imissional.org/?p=507 I had a great weekend at the Illinois Mennonite Conference Annual Assembly in which we focused upon being Co-laborers with God in God’s Service. There was great preaching, great conversation, great engagement in workshops, great food – it was a very good weekend.

And then I came home – and I began to be overwhelmed with the tasks and “duties” of ministry. I received emails and phone calls that presented life as it normally is – with struggles, issues, and problems. Monday was still great as I took a Sabbath day to rest, hike, and reflect on the weekend, but then Tuesday morning came and I felt overwhelmed entering into the day.

I received some email and phone communications that added to the weighty-ness of the day – and all I wanted to do was go home. I worked on my usual Tuesday agenda preparing for my next Sunday morning message, preparing for an evening meeting, and so forth – just wanting to get done so I could get out of the office for a few hours before the evening meeting. But then I remembered: there is still Missional Matters to write, putting my message from Annual Assembly on the internet so those who requested it could have access to it – this day is just getting heavier and heavier.

And then I looked at my bible sitting there on my desk and I realized I was taking charge of my day – failing miserably at it – and I was not making room for the Spirit in my life.

I set everything aside – stepped out of my office, and opened Scripture to read and to pray. I needed to be reminded that it is not about me, it is about what God is up to in the world. I needed to be reminded that I am not about my tasks, but about what God would have me notice, what God would have me say and do. I needed to be reminded that I am called to participate with God in what God is doing, whom God is embracing all around me – and that to be open to participate with God, I need to make room for the Spirit of God, for the Spirit to take hold of my life, my issues, my day, my tasks and re-rhythm them in light of the rhythm of the Spirit.

Days often get the better of us, but if I am to engage each day as a gift from God – including this Tuesday, then what better item can there be on my “to do” list than sit in the presence of the Spirit of God, being open to being in communion with Jesus, talking to Jesus about what is going on in my day, the people I am called to serve, walking with Jesus who invites me to find rest in him as I take his yoke upon me.

I am grateful that the Spirit got through to me today so that I might make space for the Spirit in my life.

May the Spirit of Christ fill you with the peace and presence of Jesus as you respond to the Spirit’s overtures in your life. Shalom.

]]> http://imissional.org/2012/04/24/vol-315-missional-living-forgetting-to-make-room-for-the-spirit/feed/ 2 Vol 3:14 Missional Living: Focusing on What (Whom) God Notices http://imissional.org/2012/04/17/vol-314-missional-living-focusing-on-what-whom-god-notices/ http://imissional.org/2012/04/17/vol-314-missional-living-focusing-on-what-whom-god-notices/#comments Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:10:52 +0000 Roland http://imissional.org/?p=504 What makes us missional?

Being missional I am realizing has less to do with focusing on the task of God’s mission as it does focusing on what God notices. Or perhaps, it is better stated, whom God notices.

This coming week I am speaking at the Illinois Mennonite Conference Annual Assembly. The theme for the assembly is 1 Corinthians 3:9 – Co-workers in God’s Service!

As I was reflecting on what God was putting on my heart and mind to share, I began to realize that in being a co-worker with God means that God is at work – God is at work in the world to make things new – God is in mission. Now that understanding is nothing new for those of us who exploring what it means to participate with God in God’s redemptive mission.

However, what was new for me came in asking the question of what the nature of God’s work, God’s mission is. I realize that God’s mission is not merely about what God is about doing – rather God’s work and mission has less to do with what God is doing and more to do with whom God notices.

What I mean by this is that people matter to God. John 3:16 (“for God so loved the world . . . ) is not about God’s abstract love for the world, but God’s deep and personal love for all who inhabit the world – God notices people, God notices our neighbors, God notices us, God even notices our enemies. But more so than merely noticing – God seeks to relate to each one of us personally – that is why God took on our humanity to walk with us, alongside of us, to be Immanuel – “God with us.”

God’s mission is not merely about performing redemptive tasks; God’s mission is about encountering people, engaging people, setting people free. I think I miss that at times. I get focused on trying to discern how I and the community I serve are to participate with God in what God is doing – God’s mission, that I get up in the task of ministry and lose sight of to whom Jesus came to minister.

I think for us to rediscover that God’s mission is about people, more so than the task of mission, we need to re-color our Bibles. Many Bibles have Jesus’ words in red – to point out their importance to us. However, as critically important Jesus’ words are (Note: so are his actions – they ought to be in red as well), I think Jesus would have us notice more so than his words or actions – the people he has come to touch and seeks to continue to touch through the Spirit of God who indwells us. If Jesus were to publish a Red Letter Bible, might he not highlight all those he came to set free in red?

This Easter season, as we focus on the resurrection work of Jesus Christ, may we have eyes to see whom God sees, who matters to the heart of God, whom Jesus came to set free. God’s mission is people!

May this insight be transforming of us and our ministries as we seek to participate with God in God’s mission – may our hearts be shaped by the people who matter to God.

]]> http://imissional.org/2012/04/17/vol-314-missional-living-focusing-on-what-whom-god-notices/feed/ 1 Vol 3:13 Missional Living: The Ultimate Reorientation of Resurrection http://imissional.org/2012/04/10/vol-313-missional-living-the-ultimate-reorientation-of-resurrection/ http://imissional.org/2012/04/10/vol-313-missional-living-the-ultimate-reorientation-of-resurrection/#comments Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:06:10 +0000 Roland http://imissional.org/?p=501 What makes us missional?

I contend that it is not having a missional attitude or perspective, nor reading missional books, nor holding to a missional theology, nor having a missional agenda, nor being a speaker on the missional circuit. Being missional is an act of the Spirit that comes through our being reoriented in all of our life through participating with Jesus Christ in his resurrection from the dead.

Being missional is not our activity, but the activity of the Spirit in us, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead (cf. Romans 8:11). When we seek to participate with God in what God is doing in the world, we are apt to participate in ways in which we set the agenda for how we are engaged – i.e., we seek to be missional in the ways we want to be missional. However, being missional has very little to do with our desires, and all to do with God’s redemptive purpose for humanity and the world. Just as we cannot crucify ourselves – crucifixion is an act that requires another, so too we cannot become missional by ourselves – it requires the action of the Spirit of God in our lives.

Being missional, becoming missional is what God does in us – as we participate in Christ’s life, crucifixion, death, and resurrection. We become participators in what God is doing in the world, participating with God in God’s mission as a community being sign, foretaste, and instrument of God’s present and coming reign, not by our own efforts, but through the action of the Spirit.

Being missional is a gift given to us by God as we are resurrected with Jesus Christ – so that it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives through us (cf. Galatians 2:20). It is the indwelling Spirit within our lives that leads, guides, directs us in living missionally, our lives and our actions being shaped by the purposes of God’s mission in the world, in noticing those whom God notices, in loving those Jesus came to set free (cf. Luke 4:18f). Being missional is something we receive in our lives as we yield to the work of the Spirit of God in our lives – and as we learn to walk in the ways of the Spirit – we will walk in ways that participate with God in God’s mission. This is the way Jesus lived – in the power of the Spirit, he did not carry out his own ministry agenda, but as the Gospel of John repeatedly expresses, Jesus did what he saw his Father doing, and speaking what he heard his Father speaking (cf. John 5:16-30; 7:16; 8:28; 10:17-18; 12:44-45, 49-50; 14:10, 24, 31; 15:10). Similarly, as we participate in the life of Christ Jesus in the presence and power of the Spirit, we participate in the ministry of Jesus (in Christopraxis – as Ray Anderson puts it), just as he participated in the mission of God.

Therefore, let us open our lives wide to the working of the Spirit in our lives – and in so doing, our living, our being, our doing will overflow in being the missional people of God.

]]> http://imissional.org/2012/04/10/vol-313-missional-living-the-ultimate-reorientation-of-resurrection/feed/ 0 Vol 3: 12 Missional Journey: Lent – The Reorientation of Sabbath Rest http://imissional.org/2012/03/20/vol-3-12-missional-journey-lent-the-reorientation-of-sabbath-rest/ http://imissional.org/2012/03/20/vol-3-12-missional-journey-lent-the-reorientation-of-sabbath-rest/#comments Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:28:46 +0000 Roland http://imissional.org/?p=497 As a Mennonite community, the community I pastor, we are on a journey throughout Lent in which we seek to focus on Psalms of Disorientation and Reorientation. Walter Brueggemann is the one who gives voice to this understanding of the Psalms (cf. Praying the Psalms, Spirituality of the Psalms) and expresses that the Psalms of Lament are meant to disorient us.

Last week was a hard week – in fact preaching through Lent on this theme of disorientation and reorientation has been difficult – it has taken much from me. I am deeply engaging what it means to be reoriented, but every week in preparing for Sunday has involved some disorienting event or experience – this is not only a series I am preaching on, it is something I am experiencing as well. In fact, last week one of the members of my community approached me and asked, “I bet you can’t wait for Easter to get here.”

Yes, Easter in focusing on Resurrection is the ultimate act of reorientation. As I reflected on the statement that was made, I am reminded of not just waiting for Easter for reorientation, but to receive the gift of rest, the gift of Sabbath, that the Spirit gives in the midst of our days – a gift that is deeply reorienting amid our being disoriented.

And just now, in the midst of writing this – the Spirit brought about such an experience of rest and reorientation. A young man just came through the door of our Mennonite Ministries office struggling with his life being turned upside-down. What was reorienting in this was realizing that this was a serendipity of the Spirit for both him and me. In our sharing together, he was being encouraged to stop crying out “why God,” and begin again to be open to walk with God who is already walking with him, to give thanks to God in the midst of his life and circumstances, to notice what God is doing and seeking to do in his life – and for me, this gift of being able to listen to someone lost on their way, to be used of the Spirit to help guide them along their journey, reminded me of what God is doing in me and desires to do through me. I was reminded by the Spirit that I need to slow down to be aware of the leading of the Spirit in my life. It is in such moments of being reoriented, given rest, that I am realigned to see that my life is not about me, but what God is about in the world in making all things new – renewing lives, reconciling people, healing brokenness, setting people free.

Lord, may I never lose sight of seeing who you see and how you see them.

]]> http://imissional.org/2012/03/20/vol-3-12-missional-journey-lent-the-reorientation-of-sabbath-rest/feed/ 0 Vol 3:11 Missional Journey: Lent – The Disorientation of Worshiping God http://imissional.org/2012/03/13/vol-310-missional-journey-lent-the-disorientation-of-worshiping-god/ http://imissional.org/2012/03/13/vol-310-missional-journey-lent-the-disorientation-of-worshiping-god/#comments Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:40:24 +0000 Roland http://imissional.org/?p=493 As a Mennonite community, the community I pastor, we are on a journey throughout Lent in which we seek to focus on Psalms of Disorientation and Reorientation. Walter Brueggemann is the one who gives voice to this understanding of the Psalms (cf. Praying the Psalms, Spirituality of the Psalms) and expresses that the Psalms of Lament are meant to disorient us.

This past week our community focused on Psalm 19 addressing how our relationship with God affects how we hear God. This has caused me to reflect further on how disorienting worshiping God can be in our lives.

Psalm 19, expresses three movements of our relationship with God. Verses 1-6 explore the handiwork of God’s creation in which God is addressed as El – more or less a generic name for God. Verses 7-10 address God more personally, as one who encounters us, using God’s name YHWH – meaning “I AM,” “I will be what I will be,” or “I am with you” – bearing strong similarity to the Hebrew verb for “Being.” And verses 11ff, express God in a term of endearment – YHWH, my Rock and my Redeemer in which not only is God personal, but we are personal to God.

The more personal God becomes to us – from one who creates, to one who encounters us, to one with whom we are in an endearing relationship – the more our ears and lives are open to hearing God – even when God speaks that are difficult for us to hear.

That got me to thinking how disorienting worshiping God can be. We already recognize that living our lives cognizant of God involves metanoia (repentance) as Jesus expresses regarding the present and coming reign of God at the outset of his ministry – “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” In living our lives in relation to God, we undergo a paradigm shift, a change of direction in our lives (what is what repentance means), where we no longer live for ourselves, but our lives are being shaped and directed for God’s purposes and participating with God in bringing about God’s purposes in all creation. When we are turned around to God in such a way, we cannot help but be worshipers of God, of YHWH, of YHWH who is our Rock and Redeemer.

As we worship God, our lives are never the same again – we are radically disoriented from the ways of being with which we have become comfortable in order to be reoriented to a new way of being human through Jesus Christ. And lest we become comfortable in taking charge of our new orientation – the Spirit of God always is about re-orienting us as we become more and more like Jesus Christ.

I remember when I first became a follower of Jesus in the days of the Jesus People movement of the 70s in Canada and I became associated with a charismatic community of new believers in Christ. I remember how disorienting worship was – how I was afraid to let myself express how much I deeply loved God. But as I came to realize how deeply I mattered to God, I was set free to express how deeply God mattered to me, to express my love for God in worship – and I was set free to worship God in ways that were very disorienting to the way I had worshiped growing up in a church. This reorientation to God was deeply disorienting, but it was a disorientation that was brought about by being re-oriented – which filled me with a deep sense of God’s presence, God’s grace, God’s mercy and love.

I have discovered that worship is able to be continually disorienting and reorienting. And this continual process of being re-oriented is foundationally disorienting.

Such disorientation can create havoc in our lives, unless we develop the practice of learning to “walk in the Spirit.” When we try to shape God’s reorienting work in our lives by somehow taking charge again of our own spiritual journey, we will always struggle with our being disoriented. However, in learning to “walk in the Spirit” we learn how to give space to the Spirit to be set free in us to do God’s creative work in us, enabling us to focus more on the reorienting activity of God going on in our lives – which, in my experience, is a very peace-creating, rather than anxiety-inducing place to be.

In being worshipers of God, we will always be disoriented when we try to make this journeying with God our own, yet, when we are open to the Spirit, who comes alongside us to walk with us, to direct our journey, we find ourselves walking with the Spirit, walking with the community of Christ Jesus, participating with what God is doing in the world, and we become more adept to living in the flow and the serendipities of the Spirit because the Spirit is taking hold of our lives to live in the ever re-orienting presence of God.

So, next time as we are in worship, let go of grasping our old orientations – be open to being disoriented by the re-orienting work of the Spirit, as we are set free to express our love for God who loves us.

]]> http://imissional.org/2012/03/13/vol-310-missional-journey-lent-the-disorientation-of-worshiping-god/feed/ 0 Vol 3:10 Missional Journey: Lent – The Disorientation of Walking with God http://imissional.org/2012/03/06/vol-310-missional-journey-lent-the-disorientation-of-walking-with-god/ http://imissional.org/2012/03/06/vol-310-missional-journey-lent-the-disorientation-of-walking-with-god/#comments Tue, 06 Mar 2012 22:48:11 +0000 Roland http://imissional.org/?p=487 As a Mennonite community, the community I pastor, we are on a journey throughout Lent in which we seek to focus on Psalms of Disorientation and Reorientation. Walter Brueggemann is the one who gives voice to this understanding of the Psalms (cf. Praying the Psalms, Spirituality of the Psalms) and expresses that the Psalms of Lament are meant to disorient us.

In being a missional people seeking to participate with God in what God is up to in the world, we are deeply disoriented from our take-charge-of-our-own-lives way of living. To live our lives guided by the leading of the Holy Spirit requires a paradigm shift in our way of thinking, doing, and being that can only be described as a constant disorientation of our lives, a constant turning-around or repentance in our lives – which is what repentance means. Such repentance disorients before it reorients.

Learning to walk with God is a disturbing thing – it is meant to disturb us. Too often we want God to embrace us on our terms, our walking with God to be comfortable – for God to “baptize” the way things are in our lives with a modicum of godliness that enables us to feel good about ourselves and what we are doing. We do not have to surrender anything we do not want to, nor take on anything with which we are uncomfortable, and so God is able to fit neatly into the space we provide for God.

Yet, being missional requires a complete turn-around from this kind of attitude and behavior. In sensing a calling in our lives to participate with God in God’s mission, it is not a calling for God to fit in with us, but rather a calling for us to fit in with God and what God is up to in the world. This requires a letting go, a surrendering, a dying to our ways – and dying is always deeply disorienting.

To be raised up or reoriented to the ways of God in our lives, to live being aware of what matters to God, to engage in what God is engaged in, to speak what God wants us to speak is something that may excite us, but in my experience is something we do not to do very well – since too often we still try to do it in our ability. We catch a glimpse of what life with God is like and then we say to God, “okay, I think I got it, I can get it from here.”

Rather, to live in ways being oriented to God’s ways requires a daily dying or a daily disorientation from with what we are comfortable. And rather than trying to create a new set of comfortable ways, what we are being called to involves us in the disorienting reorienting ways of walking with God, the disorienting reorienting ways of being led by the Spirit of God.

Perhaps, we must never become comfortable with walking in/with the Spirit – but to develop the discipline of daily giving ourselves to be open to the discomfort of being disoriented by the Spirit. In this way, we are reoriented to the ways of God, to living as disciples of Christ Jesus, to the mission of God, to walk in new ways of being human – as we depend utterly on the Spirit to lead us – to lead us in a dance of the rhythms of God’s ways.

To continue this metaphor, we may get better at dancing, but we can never take the lead if we are to remain in the Spirit – we are always partnering with the Spirit, who is continually leading us into new ways to dance, new places to dance, to dance alongside different people in different life contexts – because the Spirit is always leading us into some new thing partnering with God who is always doing a new thing.

The focus then for us in walking with God, is not how great we become at dancing, but how well we follow the lead of the Spirit in dancing with the Spirit.

The only way that we do not become overwhelmed with the disorienting reorienting ways of God, is to take our focus off of how uncomfortable our being disoriented is, and instead develop an attitude and way of being that continually gives ourselves to the Spirit to lead us in ways in which we are continually being reoriented in the ways of God.

Dare we give ourselves to the disorienting reorienting ways of God as we participate with God in God’s mission.

]]> http://imissional.org/2012/03/06/vol-310-missional-journey-lent-the-disorientation-of-walking-with-god/feed/ 0 Vol 3:9 Missional Journey: Lent – A Time for Embracing Those Whom God Brings into Our Midst http://imissional.org/2012/02/28/vol-39-missional-journey-lent-a-time-for-embracing-those-whom-god-brings-into-our-midst/ http://imissional.org/2012/02/28/vol-39-missional-journey-lent-a-time-for-embracing-those-whom-god-brings-into-our-midst/#comments Tue, 28 Feb 2012 20:05:48 +0000 Roland http://imissional.org/?p=484 As a Mennonite community, the community I pastor, we are on a journey throughout Lent in which we seek to focus on Psalms of Disorientation and Reorientation. Walter Brueggemann is the one who gives voice to this understanding of the Psalms (cf. Praying the Psalms, Spirituality of the Psalms) and expresses that the Psalms of Lament are meant to disorient us.

In the spirit of disorientation and reorientation, this past Sunday our Adult Christian Formation class talked about the uncomfortableness or disorientation that comes when, we, in seeking to offer a place of peace, we make space for persons God brings into our community – which suggests that being missional can be very disorienting for us in the cherishing of our comfort zones.

One of the statements/confessions we make in our Mennonite community is that in seeking to be a missional community, we are open to whomever God brings into our midst. Yet, in stating that, we realize that this can make us very uncomfortable, no matter how missional we seek to be.

This could be true for a number of reasons.

First, making space for those the Spirit brings into our midst changes the dynamics of our community. The personalities, the questions, the passions, the theological perspectives these persons bring changes our personality as a community. (Likewise, when people leave, our community’s personality changes as well). I see this happening.

As new persons in our midst, I receive them as a gift to our community, yet their presence shakes us up a bit – in a good way. In hearing the questions they are asking about what it means to be an Anabaptist, about their struggles they are facing in their spiritual journeys that is leading them to explore how being an Anabaptist may offer fresh insights and ways of growing as a disciple of Jesus Christ, in being receptive to the theological perspectives they bring challenging our understandings, making room for the exploration for their ministry passions and ways they seek to minister and serve others – all this stretches us and re-creates us as a community.

If we were trying to preserve what we have or who we are – this would create tension and conflict. Yet, our seeking to participate with God in God’s mission as a community, we are discovering that we are learning to rely on the Spirit more as we make space for whom God wants us to make space for.

Second, we recognize that these whom God is bringing into our midst have needs that we may not have skills to address. It might be tempting for us to direct them elsewhere to a different community that has more specialized ministries, were it not for the fact that we receive them as ones whom God has brought into our community. This is indeed challenging to our comfortableness because the Spirit is leading us to develop skills for ministry, skills for being empathetic, skills for engaging others, in order for us to more effectively participate in what God has in mind for us as we engage in God’s mission.

But the other side of coin, if you will, is that not only do new persons bring the possibility of new sets of needs, they also bring with them giftedness which can serve to equip the larger community – God is fully aware of how these ones God brings into our midst, not only change the personality of our community, but also equip us further so that we would be more able to do what God is calling us to do as his missional people in being sign, foretaste, and instrument of God’s present and coming reign.

For example, in our community we are asking the question of how might we as Mennonite Church – a peace church, reach out to returning Iraqi veterans who may be struggling with their involvement in violence, in killing, in war as a means to resolve conflict. As Mennonites we are often more adept in guiding our young people to seek alternatives to military service in being conscientiously opposed to participating in violence as a way to resolve issues – even political issues. And so, we are discovering we may be less adept to help returning soldiers struggling with PTSD, or other emotional and mental scars due to their involvement in killing other human beings. However, not only are we discovering that these new persons in our community expressing a passion to minister peace to all, including returning soldiers seeking peace, but we are also discovering that we as a community are being equipped through the perspectives and giftedness they have to offer.

There are likely other reasons, but these two are enough for now.

Though we may be disoriented by the ones the Spirit of God is bringing into our midst, is gifting our community with, it is a missional disorientation. And such a missional disorientation, when we are open to encounter the uncomfort that such disorientation brings, leads us to be reoriented to more clearly discern how we are to be a community that more intentionally participates with God in God’s redemptive mission – and that can only be a good thing!

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