Exile Column...
Week 9: Direct Hit
Like many if not most American kids, I played baseball in my youth. I enjoyed many things about the game: the smell of my glove, the dirt in my cleats, sliding into second base, the mud hole near third base, and so on.
But most of all, I cherished a few split seconds each game. These moments were small in the scheme of the game, yet they are the moments I remember first.
Every game, there were opportunities to hit the ball just right--on the fat of the bat--as we called it. When the ball is hit correctly it doesn't hurt or sting the hands. Rather, the hit resonates with mighty force. The swing is smooth and not jerky; it seems to generates more power than effort would dictate.
Crack! A great sound.
I was a slower base runner than the rest of my team mates. I stayed that extra split second in the batter's box just to cherish the hit.
Crack! A great feeling.
My coach wouldn't let me stay at home plate too long. After all, the purpose of the game was score as many runs as possible. The purpose was not to simply hit the ball.
Still, I celebrate those moments. The sound, the feeling, the reality within the game.
Church, Batter's Up
As those in ministry, we have days when we feel as if we hit the ball well--we have all made direct connections--they were solid, powerful, and smooth. They created more momentum then we could have imagined.
Of course, in ministry, there are also days when we do not hit the ball as we would have liked. Sometimes we can only tip the ball. On other days we foul the ball off the stain-glass windows or into the peanut gallery of fellowship hall or city hall.
Strike Three
When I first became a pastor in the Canton area, I had an elder who wanted to experiment with a ministry similar to Alpha. It was a professional curriculum, with movies, questions, and discussion groups. We gathered friends, colleagues, and neighbors to join the weekly celebration.
We prayed for weeks in small groups and large groups. We prayed for leaders, for participants, and for servants.
We prepared, prepped, organized, and promoted the ministry.
In the end, there were some great results of this particular journey; however, the ministry just did not feel right.
Some gatherings seemed to be a strike-out. The next week may have seemed like a foul ball, and the following week like I was hit by the pitch.
Batter, take your base.
While I loved the truth and realities that were expressed each week, the ministry lacked something. God did not seem to be present in the same way I had experienced in previous ministries. Jesus did not seem to be in charge of the gathering. The Spirit did not seem to move over, through, and in us.
Slow Motion
In baseball, like golf, players analyze their swing in slow-motion--frame by frame. Doing so, players find both major issues and small nuisances that need to be corrected. Now, more informed about their current efforts, the players head back to the field or the greens and swing with more enlightenment.
After our ministry season concluded, like other churches who are walking into a growing exile, we sat down, debriefed, and looked at the ministry in slow motion--frame by frame. What did we do correctly? What could be done better? Where did we fall short? Where did we miss the mark?
Where Are We Standing?
In retrospect, I have realized one thing that has revolutionized how I think about and practice my faith.
We may have identified issues of concern in the high-definition analysis. However, our mutual swing as a church wasn't the major problem with our efforts. Therefore, a slow motion review would never be as productive as we would have liked it to be.
There was something much larger at play--something so large that we would never see it as we reviewed the tapes in close and grueling detail.
The power of God did not seem to be present because we were not swinging from the batter's box. In fact, we were not even on the field.
Instead of playing in the context of life, we were swinging our bats from the bleachers behind right field. The ministry did not enter in to the immediate lives of those who came, and therefore, no matter how beautiful our swings may have (or not) have been, we would never hit the ball. The ministry had no context to bring the well prepared and beautiful curriculum alive.
In those days, I learned that we can not stand on curriculum. Instead, we must stand next to home plate.
Discipleship at its core is not curriculum based. Flowing from God's person-hood and work, discipleship is essentially people based and relational. Discipleship best takes place when Jesus meets people as and where they are as they participate in Jesus' work within the world.
Leaving the Bleachers
Like Europe before us, the long-standing American church is in decline. We feel, experience, and know the reality of this growing exile. In an attempt to manage this decline, we have tried to hit the ball as best as we can and run around the bases--often to no avail.
I imagine like me that you and your teams have struggled in this way. Ministry can be a difficult and trying existence when we work hard, especially when we do not seem to be near the ball or the bases.
So, how can we hit the ball? How can we win if we are in the ballpark, but not on the field?
If we want to play baseball we first have to leave the bleachers and carry our bats, balls, and gloves down onto the field. We need to feel the ground beneath our cleats and we have to rub our hands in the dirt. So let's go.
Life on the Field
Below and in future posts, I will provide a description of how we can live forward into ministry during a time of exile.
Working with our current baseball theme, I ask one simple and basic question: What does it look like to be on the field? What does it look like to disciple ourselves, one another, and our communities? How do we educate ourselves? How do we seek and arrive at a greater level of maturity as Jesus followers?
Traditionally, like my ministry experience mentioned above, we as the church have answered this/these question(s) through the lens of a program for people to attend, a curriculum for people to follow, a devotional book to read, or a discussion to share.
There are great resources out there and I make use of resources on fairly regular basis. Resources can be helpful in the growth of individuals and groups. Yet, resources and internal gatherings can no longer function as our primary means of disciplining ourselves. For the exilic church, like Jesus, there is a different approach appearing--one that will most likely frighten a majority of church-goers.
It is time to rub your hands in the dirt and pick up the bat.
Hey! Are you still there? Please do not run back to the bleaches just yet. The fun is just about to begin. You can handle this. In fact, once you experience it, you will beg for more!
The Jesus Way
I have studied the scriptures since I was a boy, and more recently, ancient church history. In doing I have yet to find an ancient account where Jesus brought curriculum to use as the primary means to disciple others. In fact, from Jeremiah to Jonah, from Peter to Paul, and from Ignatius of Antioch to Polycarp, I can not find a single moment in our ancient history when a tract of the Roman's Road or a published Prophet or Rabbi was implemented as a system to disciple the church and world.
Instead, according to our earliest history, discipleship was centered around the lives of individuals and small gatherings as God's people were in the world together. Maturing disciples were discipled by other growing disciples as they walked in the world and engaged the world together with the Good News.
The pattern is simple: Jesus lead ministry and discipled his closest friends along the way. The disciples were developed by Jesus and set loose to imitate Jesus in his life-time and after his resurrection. Others were developed to do the same by Jesus' first disciples.
It is my contention that in the exilic church the process of discipleship (and our thought patterns about it) will look significantly different than what we have practiced for decades. It is more likely that our views and practice of maturing disciples will be rooted in the Biblical and ancient historical models.
Perhaps the Jesus' methodology was implied or expected as we have spent so much time and energy in formal discipleship settings. However, the Jesus Way is not a vibrant, clear, or even regularly visible practice in our tribe. In truth, as leaders, we enter into this mode of ministry. Yet, we have not created broad systems or a mutual culture for this form of ministry to be the norm.
Pastors are not the only ones who are called to disciple the church and the world. The whole church is called to actively disciple and be discipled. As leaders, we must be ready to spread the platform and change our culture.
No longer will we have mission committees and education/discipleship teams. Rather, in the exilic church, as communities we will learn to walk in the Jesus Way of discipleship--in the context of external ministry.
Jesus Thinking
Here you will find three ways to think about the basic reality that Jesus primarily discipled his followers during informal settings and through conversations.
The first way to think about the Jesus Way is that Jesus actively, regularly, and frequently discipled people along the way. Recall the gospel stories. Jesus guided, corrected, rebuked, and refined his closest friends as they were journeying through life and larger ministry together. As Jesus made his way around the region, and as we make our way around our communities and world, we will no longer primarily "disciple" one another in small gatherings or training sessions. No!
We will mature one another and our communities as we drive in cars, ride buses, and stop at rest-stops as we have been meeting and engaging with people in the world.
It is only as we are on the field of life--in our communities--in larger ministry that we have a context for discipleship.
A second way to think about the Jesus way, is that Jesus(in the words of Reggie McNeal) is concerned with people development--not programs. Programs are great for basic information, but lack the intimacy of being tied to one another in mutual ministry. There is nothing like four people squeezing into the back of a cab after serving the homeless that enables discipleship within us and among us.
A third way to think about Jesus' mode of ministry is see one, do one, teach one. While common in the medical world and other fields, this motto is not at all common in our mutual life. Instead, we often promote systems like: study, study, study, study, study, study study, study, study...try.
The Final Pitch
Like Paul, I can go on and on about that which I am passionate. So please make sure that you are not reading this while sitting in a window.
Let's go back to the baseball field so that I can offer you one final pitch for you to hit directly.
As a church, we spend more time preparing one another and less time actually building one another up in the context of world/community ministry than we should.
With the no exceptions, discipleship does no require a Ph.D to get started. Ministry isn't as complicated as esoteric quantum physics or organic chemistry. According to our ancient roots, the basic ministry of the church was powerfully lead by the high-school drop outs of their day--the fisherman.
We certainly need to be informed people. Yet, it is also imperative that we move from books to the world--there finding Jesus in our midst and in our hearts while he is asking us to grow deeper in faith and truer to his Lordship.
Ministry and discipleship are indispensable components--like two sides to a coin. One necessitates the other. Ministry requires discipleship and discipleship can not truly take place without participation in a larger ministry.
My long standing axiom--We can not grow unless we go--is appropriate here.
It doesn't matter where we go in ministry. God can use us there.
If we seek guidance, it doesn't even matter who we go with in ministry. We don't need the first string players. God can invite us into mutual discipleship along the way if we are ready and attentive.
So let's intentionally get on the field with our whole worshiping community. Let's go and grow.
The alternative is to sit in the bleachers and spit on the field when there is a bad play. Of course, sitting and spitting don't make us better ball players. Rather, resting in the bleachers just means that we are fans watching the game pass us by.
Crack! I love that sound. I can feel it in my hands. Can you?
Peace,
Matt Skolnik
Holy Habit
-To start off easy: take a group of 3-6 people and engage in a pre-established community ministry.
-On the way, while you are there, and on the way home, look for opportunities to disciple and be discipled. Act on the opportunities.
Week 8: Thriving in Exile
As we progress into the blessed journey of exile, it is important to remember that the kenotic (self-giving) church is well, alive, and thriving today--especially in areas of the world that promote the church's physical exile through persecution.
Whether the church of Jesus Christ is under the thumb of communistic atheism or being oppressed by an Islamic theocracy, kenotic forms of ministry are invited daily during the exile of persecution.
Likewise, as we become better acquainted with a life of exile, we too will find daily opportunities to live within the kenotic ministry of Jesus.
Below you will find two recent stories from the Middle East. They have been carefully selected among many experiences. I have chosen them because one is the organized work of the church and the other is a spontaneous gospel opportunity of an individual and family.
In exile, God uses both our organized life and spontaneous opportunities to spread the hope we share in Jesus Christ.
May these stories of transformation, self-giving, and love help us all be more faithful within our current and coming exile.
Refuges of Hope
It is no secret that Syria is in chaos. The regular bloodshed born in the strife between the Assad regime and the people has grown as the months pass by. Currently the death toll is approaching 100,000 people and the number of Syrians who have fled their homeland to the relative safety of nearby countries has almost reached half a million people.
Jordan, just to the south of Syria, is one of the countries that has been forced to receive both legal and illegal Syrian refugees. The vast numbers of displaced people is so great that in recent days, Jordan has spoken very clearly to the UN regarding how unsustainable the situation is.
While the Jordanian government officially does its best, and while there are mosques who seek to help the refugees, the needs of the people can not be met. More tragically, the refugees are often taken advantage of. This is especially true for the young and beautiful Syrian woman who find themselves in a foreign land.
Echoes of Ruth and Naomi reverberate in the streets of Jordan. However, there is not always a Boaz to look after the vulnerable. Imagine Ruth loosing her husband to death, leaving her homeland because of turmoil, and then being regularly abused while trying to seek refuge.
The reality is hard to conceptualize.
It is within this context, that Jordanian Christians organize, visit, take food, and provide care to both Muslim and Christian Syrians.
These displaced people are caught up in so much turmoil that they have little sense of safety and they are willing to cross social boundaries out of desperation.
I recall one Syrian family that I had the pleasure to bring food to and to spend time with. This particular family had lost most of their men to fighting, and as they left their homeland, the few men who remained alive, stayed to fight.
When we stood up to leave after our time together, the matriarch asked us to pray to Isa (Jesus) that he might bring hope and peace to her family.
These days, this occurrence is so regular that a Christian leader in Amman was recently asked by a Muslim refugee, "Does your God teach you to love me?" The leader's response was, "God loves you, and teaches me to do the same." The Syrian man replied, "You are truly a man who obeys."
The regular kenotic self-giving of Christians in Jordan to their world is an invitation they find even while they are being persecuted in varying degree.
Justice: From the Gates of the City to the Lord's Table
In 2011, Shauna and I were part of a team who visited, encouraged, and worshiped with Christians in Iraq. Among the towns we visited was Al Cush, the historical home of Nahum.
There, a layman named Thacker looks after local Christians in the area. Christians gather in his home to pray, sing, read the scriptures, and build one another up.
In the corner of Thacker's home is an arsenal of guns for protection.
Being in Thacker's home was like watching a movie that parodied the old west. Thacker's home held great warmth and friendship. Yet there was also a sense that Thacker would shoot any threat without pause, still holding his smile, and moving instantly on to the task at hand.
In 2012, Thacker's home was robbed in the middle of the night and his wife was held at knife point.
Some how Thacker defused the situation and no one was harmed.
When the police asked Thacker if he wanted to press charges, he refused, not wanting to add to the shame of those who violated his most precious loved ones. The police therefore sequestered the town so that the thieves could kiss the feet of his wife, who was once held in the thieves' captivity.
Knowing that this action would be a great loss of honor, Thacker and his family instead insisted on using the opportunity to share the hope and love of Jesus with the town.
That morning, as the town gathered to witness the thieves be humiliated, Thacker stopped the ceremony and invited the entire town to his house for breakfast.
Thacker, his family, and his church, are now know in Al Cush as people of God's love.
In the Middle East, as it was in Biblical times, justice is often carried out in the gates of the city. However, in Al Cush, the justice of the Gospel was carried out while the town broke bread together and gave thanks in Thacker's home.
Wrestling with God
Beloved, these are mere examples of life-giving kenosis; a daily opportunity when God's church is in exile. On the other hand, when the Church is the powerhouse, we are often blind, deaf, and dumb to those beyond our walls. In power, we often hid from the world and the Great Commission. In exile, hiding is futile.
Therefore, let us thank God together for exile, its purpose, and its blessings.
- Praying through the Matthew 5:1-16, ask God to offer you a heart of thanksgiving, and a faith full of wisdom. What opportunities does God want you to see today? What can you imagine God's call will be on your life and the church in 10 years?
Peace,
Matt Skolnik
Holy Habits
God gives us over to the world so that we may impact the world with God's forgiveness, grace, life, and relationship.
Gather your church's leadership team and invite 3 to 5 people who have served God over-seas or outside of their immediate geographical context.
Ask these men and women to share how they have seen God at work through the organized life of the church and through the spontaneous actions of Christians.
Bring a piece of 4x8 foot plywood and make a graffiti wall of God's mark on the world--as seen in these stories.
Leave a space on the graffiti wall blank and regularly pray for God to provide you and your church with an opportunity to share God's love for the world in a new way.
Week 7: Over the City
As we have continued to look at the common traits among different exile movements we have been invited to join with Jeremiah and weep a godly grief for our pride, the pride of our congregations, and the pride of our land.
Today as we move on, we remember that Jerusalem has been the ground for more than one of God's prophets.
The Vistas of Jerusalem
You might recall that the Temple Mount in Jerusalem stands, or should I say, sits in stark contrast to Olympus. Olympus reigns over all of Greek land, but the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is not even the highest point of the holy city. There are other vistas in Jerusalem that overlook and oversee city life.
Walking into the Valley of Gehenna, to the south-west of the Old City, the land is hot and dry like an oven. Looking up, one can see the ridge of the hill of the City of David, and in certain places, the heights of the Temple Mount. From this perspective, it is not difficult to recall the Psalms of Ascent. I lift my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from?
Likewise, from the Kidron Valley, the walk is very similar. Its heat is scorching, with no shelter from the sun. Above the Kidron Valley, not being as low as Gehenna, there is a line of site to David's City, the Old City, the infringed Mercy Gate, and the Temple Mount.
But more importantly, in the Kidron Valley, one is aware of two higher lands than the Temple Mount. In the Kidron Valley while facing east we find a mount that the church knows well. Here, the Mount of Olives towers over Jerusalem.
Half way up the Mount of Olives, near the Garden of Gethsemane, visitors can look into the Temple Mount and the former Temple complex. From the top of the Mount of Olives, pilgrims can clearly look down onto the Temple courts and business that goes on.
The second mount, to the north of the city, as the topography continues to rise, is a distinct stony hill. At the base of this hill is a major traffic artery which runs in and out of the city, and towards Damascus. In fact, based on the design of city gates, the northern or Damascus Gate is the grand entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem. Here, masses of people swarm around in a fury of commerce, dining, conversation, prayer, and even solitude.
Today, just east of the Damascus Gate and at the base of this stony hill lies a bus station--soot rising to greet the stony walls above. Hundreds, if not thousands of people come and go, or travel through this bus station each and every day.
I wonder how many of these bus riders know that just above them--that the sooty hill which encompasses them and looks down on the rest of Jerusalem--is a simple and barren place called Golgotha.
From both of these mountain tops, the Mount of Olives and Golgotha, Jerusalem knew another weeping prophet in addition to Jeremiah:
Luke 13
34 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 35 See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.' "
Luke 19
41 As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, "If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for [shalom]! But now they are hidden from your eyes.43 Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side.44 They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God."
Luke 23
34 Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."
Flowing Down the Mountains
While God has placed his Temple within the city, and as Jesus walked among the city, Jesus also took time to be above the city watching, waiting, and acting. From these high hills, Jesus cried.
He wept.
Jesus mourned.
As God mourned over creation in Noah's day, God mourned through Jeremiah. As God mourned when the covenant people asked for a king, God further mourned through Jesus, from the garden and from the cross.
Just as the blood flowed down from a sacrifice to cover a multitude of sins, so the tears of God run down from the high mountains. As Jesus gave his lifeblood and as it fell to the ground, so Jesus' salty tears carried his love to the earth. From the Mount of Olives to Golgotha, Jesus wept like Jeremiah, for our pride and sin. Jesus wept, not because God rejects us in exile, but because we have the ability, willingness, and actions to reject God before, during, and after exile.
In this Easter season, we remember that God mourned and grieves for creation while overlooking Jerusalem from the top of two hills. One hill is named for olives, and oil, and blessing. The second is named for skulls, and death, and curses. God engages creation from both life and death, blessings and curses.
Wrestling with God
- Pray through Luke 13, 19,and 23.
We often ask God to give us Jesus-Eyes so that we can see the world as Jesus does. While you read, ask God to give you Jesus-Tears, so that we might experience how God mourns for us, the global church, and all of creation.
- Do an internet search for images of The Valley of Gehenna, The Kidron Valley, the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane, and Golgotha. Print them out and lay them before you. What do you see in these places? As you examine and pray over these pictures, how do you experience Jesus-Tears? What is God calling you to be and do with these experiences?
Peace,
Matt Skolnik
Holy Habits
From the Mount of Olives and Golgotha, Jesus overlooked the city. There he prayed for the city. Jesus also watch, waited, and acted from these high vistas.
Go with the leadership of your church to the highest point(s) in your town or city. You may find yourself in a building, on a hill, or climbing a flag pole. As you look down, what do you see. More importantly, what does Jesus see?
From these experiences, how do Jesus-Eyes and Jesus-Tears, challenge your hearts, your congregation, and the way you do life and ministry together? What new way of life is Jesus calling you to do today, this week, and this month?
To contact Matt Skolnik - [email protected] or 330-449-4606
