BeChurch

Moved: Check Out My New Home At BeChurch.Net


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Hey guys! Just letting you know that the official move to my new doman ( bechurch.net ) is happening tomorrow. I'm so stoked!

If you forget and come here you don't need to worry though, because I will be setting up an automatic redirect sometime tomorrow morning that will take you to the >new url.

Please remember to update your links when you get there.

Thanks guys! You rock for putting up with me!


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John Wimber once said that “the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” Now that I read that all written out… it doesn’t quite make as much sense as I thought it did before I wrote it down… Doesn’t matter…just play along and pretend it makes sense…

The reason I bring that up is that lately I’ve been feeling like I’m missing the main thing. I kind of feel like the core of my faith is being diluted by my theological wanking and all the time I spend trying to figure out how to make Christianity relevant and accessible to people like me.

The main thing I think I’m missing is a vital awareness of the power of what Jesus has done for us. It used to be something that I knew so intimately. It used to be on my mind from the moment I woke up to the moment I went to sleep, but something has changed. I feel like the hope and power of the gospel message is eluding me and I’m starving to be confronted by the reality of it again.

I used to hear stories of how God changed someone’s life miraculously. I used to preach fearlessly and unapologetically about what Jesus did for me, whether I was standing on a street corner or sitting in a smoked out hippy flop house. Miracles were real and my hero Jesus could do anything that was thrown his way. I had faith to believe that when I sinned I had a loving God that I could run to who would forgive me and comfort me in my weakness. I had faith to believe that the Church was the beautiful bride of Christ and that one day she would emerge victorious.

What happened? Where did the innocence and the hope go? When did it leave me?

I think that it left when I came to the place where the gospel message became so ordinary and familiar to me that I could make a “gospel presentation” in my sleep. It left when time and the power of God built a wall between me and the sins of my youth, making it easy to forget where I came from. It left when I started getting frustrated at the way that my pastor would ask everyone to bow their head and pray “the prayer” every week at church. It left for me, it left for a bunch of my friends and now I feel like I’m a sinner with no hope and I don’t really have anything left to hold on to.

It’s not like I don’t believe it anymore. Not even close! I’ve always believed, that has never been a problem for me. It’s just that it’s not as vital in my life anymore. The gospel used to be my lifeblood and now I’m being sustained by a steady diet of deconstruction and theological theorizing. I think that I need to spend some more time focusing on Jesus and what his death really means. I need to recapture the wonder of life in Christ and rediscover the power of his resurrection. I don’t want to be hopeless anymore; I need something bigger and more powerful than me.

It’s really easy to get discouraged by the church and spend all of your time trying to fix things. It’s also really easy to focus on the broken stuff rather than on the things that are miraculous and a gift from God. It’s really difficult to admit that you’ve done it and that you need God to help you get back on track. That’s where I’m at. I just need forgiveness and hope and the power of God. I need Jesus to help me change my focus back on to what’s really important and what gives me life.



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Not much of a rant really, more like an observation that I've been holding on to for a while.

I've just been wondering why it is that churches that are usually very "cutting edge" or "modern" in their regular Sunday worship all of a sudden become very traditional and religious looking around Christmas time. I've been to a bunch of churches that are normally pretty comfortable and cool that turn into a really bad Thomas Kinkade painting around the Christmas Season.

All of the services start to become more formal, they tone down the normally cool worship band and get more "responsible" and "respectable" people on stage, The pastor's messages start to start to sound more like a touched by an angel episode than his usual off the wall ramblings with object lessons.

I've never understood this. I thought it was just me going nuts when I first noticed it, but I keep seeing this year after year and my friends see it too so I'm starting to believe that it's not just me.

The explanation that I have gotten for this from different pastors is that Christmas time is a time when far more "non-Christians" come to church so we need to take advantage of the opportunity. It's a great chance for us to "Evangelize" since they're jumping into the nets, so to speak.

In other words, we need to give them a watered down, fake caricature of what our church services normally are so that we can "win them" to Jesus. We need special Christmas pageants that will wow them with our professionalism so that maybe we can prove that we are still worthwhile in society...Professionalism=relevance.

If you are normally excited and active in your worship of God then you better tone it down and become a bit more respectable. We don't want the "heathen" thinking that we Christians have any fun.

If your style is too "culturally relevant" you're going to need to hide the TV's and Dj and break out the shepherd costumes and manger so that people won't find out that we use culturally accessible media to proclaim our message.

If everyone normally comes to church in jeans and tshirts, we should all dress in suits and ties for this special once a year event. We wouldn't want to destroy the stereotype that Christians are all out of touch modern dress and ruin our natural association with Ned Flanders or the Church Lady.

What a waste of a great opportunity to be ourselves.

Unless.... Maybe "ourselves" aren't all that attractive..... In which case maybe it's time that we put all that money and time and energy into helping people in our churches become Christians that attract people to Jesus by our lives rather than by our professional Christmas programs.

Just a though.......Humbug.... :)


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Today is Indie Allies Meetup day again. I'm really excited about it. I love making the trip into the city to hang out. It makes for just over 3 hours of driving by the end of the night, but it's totally worth it.

I'm hoping tonight to have the chance to meet some of the bloggers that I read regularly. I'm also hoping that I get to see Ron Z again. He's always saying things that challenge me and he has so many great thoughts that I end up beating around in my head until the next time I see him. Can't forget Jocelyn either.


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I've pretty much got my new blog site BeChurch.net up and running. All of my post are moved over and I've been double posting (here and there) for the last few days so that it's up to date.

I know it's a hassle to move but having my own domain and hosting will make this whole blogging experience way better for me and anyone who likes to read my blog. It means better access to archives, tracking back, permalinking, and all that other stuff that is all the rage with the kids now-adays. It is also giving me the chance to include video, audio, and a resource library of essays and handouts that I have put together.

I'll be adding a redirect script in the next few days so that any traffic that comes here will be automatically sent to BeChurch.net. Since the new site is pretty much set you can feel free to keep up with the blog over there if you want to (if you don't mind some formatting tweaks for the next few days) but, like I said, you've got a few more days here until I officially move over and set up the redirect.

I know you've already thought of this, but make sure that you update your links to my new site (It's really easy if you have blogrolling) and tell anyone who might be interested in linking to me to do the same.

Thanks for putting up with me guys!

Jamie



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Well... Weekend's over. It's almost seems like it never happened. Last week was the week from hell and I could really have used a good vacation to get over it.

I don't know what happened to make last week so bad, but it was like something was just let loose on everyone in the Thursday Group. Most of us came through it pretty beaten and bruised.

I come from a charismatic / empowered evangelical (Vineyard) background so spiritual stuff isn't all that new to me, but this was something that I have never really experienced before. It was as though there was some sort of concerted effort to harm us. (way too much stuff to just be regular life junk). It's really hard for me to say that because I'm not one to blame everything on the enemy, but this was different.

I don't think I have ever felt quite as depressed and ready to give up as I did the other day. It was as though every ounce of happiness and strength had been sucked out of me. I found myself lying in bed on Friday night unable to sleep and unwillingly walking through every single one of my faults and weaknesses in my mind. I also felt torn up by all of the junk that has been happening to eveyone else in the group. It wasn't that I was feeling their struggle, but I was frustrated because everything seemed so hopeless. By about 2 am I was ready to just throw in the towel and off myself. I couldn't take it any more. I was practically in tears from the sorrow and frustration.

I'm not one to get depressed like that. I get bummed out and frustrated every once in a while, but this was harsh. To have thoughts of suicide and dispair like that is not something that I am used to. Especially for no real reason! It's not like there's tons of bad stuff going on in my life.

I toughed out the night and made it through the last couple of days, but it was only by the grace of God. I met with a couple of other people from the group last night and I found out that they have all been going through similar (sometimes way worse) stuff as me. It feels like someone is walking among us and hacking us down like someone using a scythe to cut down long grass in a field. It's just messy.

Right now I am wondering what my next course of action should be. I know that prayer is definately at the top of the list, but I am also concerned about how I should deal with this in the group. I have been putting a lot of time aside to meet with whoever needs it to make sure that everyone is supported throught the crap they are facing and I have also tried to keep our house as open as we can. I want to make sure that people feel like there's a place for them to step out of the junk they are going through (sanctuary?). But I don't know what else there is right now. Maybe we just stick it out and wait and trust that the storm will blow over soon.

I hope I'm not coming across like a big drama queen. I don't mean to. It's not as chaotic or dramatic as I think it sounds. It's more like a heaviness that just won't go away. I just hate to see my friends stuggling like they are and it just seems like they are struggling way more than normal... I'm struggling way more than normal! If you feel like praying we'll take it!

Pray especially for a girl in our group who's mom (for no real reason) has refused to let her come any more. She is a real important part of our group and it would really suck to have her leave.



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Yesterday was thursday group day! YAY! I feel like things are finally starting to come together for us. One of the things that has been on my heart quite heavily for about the last year has been to see people in the church move out of a place of consuming and into a place of contributing. This doesn't mean that I'm trying to get volunteers to do stuff, but that I long to see people really begin to share their hearts and personalities with the church.

I was really encouraged last night when a couple of people in the group told me that hey have vision to start sharing some of their passions and talents with the group. I'm encouraged not because we need anything done, but because these people want to share really unconventional things that are totally unique to them.

One person really loves playing with numbers and doing math (I know... wierd, hey?) so I encouraged her to think of ways that she could use that passion to somehow build up the group or glorify God. No restrictions on how... I left that up to her. And she is actually doing it! Yesterday she shared that she loved that idea and was finding a ton of joy in putting together some sort of number project that she wanted to share with us. She wouldn't say what it is yet, but it somehow involves numbers, statistics and the bible....Go figure! I don't know what God is planning on doing with it, but I am so stoked to know that she is giving a big chuck of herself to the group.

It is just so cool!

I have always had such a heart for this kind of thing. I have always wanted to belong to a community where everyone felt free to contribute in a way that reflected who they are and what they love. I am so thankful to God that he has sent so many cool people to our group that are willing to step out and follow their dreams.

One of the core beliefs that I hold is that people in our generation need to regain a sense of hope and of purpose. A big part of my day is spent thinking about how to help the people in our group discern and then accomplish the awesome things that God has called them to. Seeing people practice and start doing it for real is such a huge encouragement to me. Something that I really needed after a sucky day like yesterday.


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HELP!!! I'm drowning.... I can't figure out how to get this moveable type thing working. My domain and hosting is all good and I got MT installed. I just can't wrap my head around the configuration stuff. I have someone helping, but I think I need even more help. I'm pretty sure that my MT.cfg file is done properly, I just have no clue what to do now that I have MT running. How do I set it up. How do I configure it? What's the deal with core setup and what goes in these "local archive path" etc... boxes?

I know it's kind of lame to blog about my blogging struggles, but I there's lots of MT users out there who might be able to help out... and trust me.. I need it!


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I know that I promised to post something by the end of the day, but I just can't today. I'm having a really rough time and can't really focus too much. Just pray for me if you think about it and maybe things will be better tomorrow.


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Today looks really crazy... but I promise I will post something by the end of the afternoon. Until then you can have fun playing with Mr. Picassohead.


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Thanks to the wonderful people at oneandone.com and a really cool guy who offered to help. i will shortly be moving bechurch.blogspot.com into moveable type and onto my own domain bechurch.net. I've been wanting to do this for a long time, but I've been way to intimidated by the process and all the technical junk that goes with it. Finally the opportunity has come up to do it for free and with some help so I can't help but jump at the chance.

Anyway, the move probably won't happen for a little while (I still need to learn MT and figure out the whole hosting thing) so no need to get too excited yet, but I thought I'd let you in on the news.


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The last year has been pretty tough. They say that the first year of marriage usually is, but I never dreamed things would be this hard. It’s not that we are having a difficult time relationally, it’s that both Em and I really want kids, and there are times when it doesn’t really look likely.

From the day we decided to get married we have dreamed of having a family (we both really love kids), but on our honeymoon in Thailand Em got really sick with some mystery illness. When we got back the doctors did some tests and surgeries and found out that the illness was linked to some genetic problems with her reproductive system. We also found out that my plumbing is kind of screwy and that I don’t work all that well either. The last few months have been a real roller coaster of emotion as we have struggled with facing the death of our dreams and also some little miracles and victories. Our chances of conceiving have gone up lately thanks to some restorative miracles that God has done, but it has still been a rough way to start an exciting new marriage.

Anyway, I guess I’m bringing this up because right now I’m waiting to hear if we were even successful in conceiving this month. Every month there is the chance that God has blessed us with a child, so we hold our breath to see if it worked out for us. Up till now we have always ended up disappointed and broken. I don’t know what I expect this time. I don’t want to get my hopes up only to have them dashed, but I also can’t live without that hope. It’s just who I am.

Since we have been going through this stuff I have spent a lot of time thinking about God’s love and how our pain fits into his plan. I have often been told that God uses suffering to build character in me, but why? What is the big deal with character? Does it really matter in eternity whether I have strong character or not? What about those who die before developing good character?

I think that a lot of people have a wrong understanding of why God allows suffering and what character really means. You see, most people have the idea that God allows suffering in our lives so that we can get tougher and one day be able to face difficult trials without flinching. Kind of like the more we suffer the less suffering affects us. One day we will be superman and not even notice it when it comes. That is strong character.

I think that the truth of the matter is quite the opposite. I believe that God uses suffering as a way to Soften us rather than toughen us. I don’t mean to say the he uses it to break us down or anything, I just mean that God doesn’t want a tough guy… he wants a sensitive, honest guy.

God gave me a picture of a boy riding on a bicycle in his driveway. He falls off of his bike and scrapes his knee. What is the first thing that a normal child would do after this happens? The kid would run inside to Mom or Dad to be comforted, right? What do you think a dysfunctional child would do? He would fall off his bike and run off to the playground by himself to nurse his own wound. He doesn’t want his father’s comfort because of fear or pride. Sometimes he will even get angry at his father and blame the fall on him for giving him the bike.

A lot of the time I am the dysfunctional child. When I face pain I try to be the big strong man who sucks it up and doesn’t get shaken. I don’t need help, I have faith and character. The idea of character that people have taught me to believe has helped make me to become more and more like that dysfunctional kid. When suffering comes I try to grit my teeth and bear it like a Christian of strong character should, but I have been robbing myself of the comfort that is available to me.

You see… suffering isn’t an opportunity for me to show God how strong and tough I am, but a chance for God to show me how loving he is. If only I were soft enough to ask for his comfort. God is not afraid of a mess. He can handle my fear and my pain, he can even handle a few tears. He’s not a God who is afraid of pain... he went to the cross after all. I just think that most of the time we are blind to the fact that he is there for us. We turn our backs like the dysfunctional kid and run off to do it ourselves. I believe that God wants us to be open and honest with him. Admit our pain and admit our anger so that he can be the one to comfort us.

God has taken suffering and redeemed it. He has taken that which is the scourge of human existence and turned it into a healing balm. When I face pain I have a choice… I can either run away from God and be tough (or angry at him), or I can make the decision to run to God, who like a loving father, will comfort me in my pain. If we do that for our kids, how much more will Our Father in Heaven do that for us. That is real character… the ability to choose to depend on God for our comfort in times of pain. That is the type of character that makes a difference in this life and prepares us for the reality of the life to come… living in the presence of our loving Father in heaven.

If you're interested in seeing my wife's take on all of this she has a post on her blog about it. Her and I are dealing with this in very different ways and it's cool to get that kind of perspective. I have posted some more thoughts about this topic in her comments as well.


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If – Church growth is God calling and adding people to His Church. (Often by partnering with us)

And – People who write books on church growth say they believe this

Then – How come when people from different faiths borrow principals from these same books (servant evangelism, seeker sensitive marketing, purpose driven programming, etc…) they achieve the same or (often) slightly better results in growing their organizations?

Are we missing something?

How does God fit into it all if we can be just as “successful” without him being actively involved?

I think it's time for some serious questioning of motives and methods in church growth...




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A few weeks ago I incorporated something new into the communion service at our house church. We eat a meal every week, but at least once a month we do a bread and wine communion as part of it (grape juice lately due to several brothers and sisters who are weak to alcohol). The thing I added the other week was a great big chunk of wasabi before communion. I got the idea from the bitter herbs in the passover meal.

I asked everyone in the church to complete the sentence..."without Jesus I am...." and we went around the room hearing the answers. We heard everything from alcoholic to greedy to racist... you name it....someone claimed it.

After we all shared who we are without Jesus we all partook of a huge nugget of holy wasabi (That stuff is pretty gross when you take a decent amount of it). As we took it I explained to the group that the wasabi was supposed to be symbolic of the sting of sin in our lives. Before we met Jesus we were slaves to this sin and it was not only gross and negative for us but also gross for God. Sin left a bad taste in our mouths and in God’s as well. I let everyone experience the wasabi for a few minutes and meditate on the sin in their lives.

Then, when most people were really dying we took the bread and finished the rest of the communion. I thought it was really cool to see the way that the elements brought relief from the gross taste of the wasabi. It was a real parallel to the way that Jesus’ death on the cross brought us relief from sin and death.

I originally wanted to use the bitter herbs, but I was looking for something a little more easily recognizable that still tasted like crap. The only problem was that some of the people in the group really liked it and kind of missed out on the whole experience of it all. But I’m sure they got the jist of it.

Just an idea for anyone who's interested in trying something a little different.



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Here's a great article from a few years back that I just stumbled on again. It's from GQ magazine and it does an awesome job of painting a fair picture of Christian consumer culture in America (and probably Canada too).

I have always dreamed of being able to write an article like this, but there's no way I could have done it as well as this author. I think the power lies in the fact that he was truly open to learning more about Christian Consumer Culture (CCC) and not just ripping it apart from the start.

I know this one is an oldie, but it sure is a goodie!

If you're interested in seeing some of the Jesus Junk that ark culture has been pumping out in the last few years there is a great collection of stuff here.

More thoughts on this topic coming soon...




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Well... just letting you know that I finally got blogrolling so that you can easily add me to your links list. I also figured out how to get an rss feed with blogger thanks to some comments on Jonny Baker's Blog.
I still don't fully understand how it all works, but I'm starting to learn. The links to the blogroll and the rss are just under my blog links on the sidebar.


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1) I thought you all would be interested in knowing that one of our local clubs, Tornado Joe's, is throwing a Pimp 'n' Ho party later this month...... FYI. [gag!!] I drove by and saw the sign and felt like weeping!

2) Just read some interesting stuff about Vanilla Ice. Aparently after his rise to stardom and subsequent fall into the land of one-hit-wonders he went through a really rough time with drugs and partying. He ended up really wasting himself and one day found himself in a puddle of his own puke... overdosing on drugs. In this interview (last one on the page) he talks about how when he finally woke up from the overdose he "discovered God through it. I woke up and was still alive. And I took that as a sign He [God} was giving me a second chance to go and prove myself. And ever since then, I made a promise to God never to turn around. It's the weirdest thing."
Later on in the article he shares "Yeah, I'm a Christian."

Seems like his lyrics are all still about drugs and sex, but maybe I'm just looking at older stuff. Anyway.....

I know it's really lame to get excited by almost famous people (Vanilla Ice, Kirk Cameron, Lauryn Hill, etc...) who claim to become followers of Jesus, but after reading Nile's story on his blog today I couldn't help but get excited and praise God when He led me to another story of a life changed by Jesus.



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Things at our Thursday Group have been going so well. It seems like every week God shows up and does awesome stuff. It has been amazing to see people change and grow and find support as they go through the struggles that they are all facing.

I've always dreamed of belonging to a community of believers like this. It's like after years of struggle I'm finally in a place that is a fit for who I am and really allows me to follow my calling and giftings. The people who come are so awesome and it chokes me up just to think about how much they all mean to me.

I know it sounds cheesy and sappy, but I don't think I have ever felt as free and happy in church before.

[Enter Scene Left - the devil wearing a red smoking jacket twirling his cane in a laid-back manner]

I question whether all of the good stuff that is going on in our group is really God, though. I don't know if people are growing and being blessed because God's hand is in it or because the people I know just really need to belong to a community that cares? Is it God moving or is it just the natural outflow sharing your life with other people?

Would things still be going well if we were a quilting group or a group of model train enthusiasts? How much of it really has to do with God being in it and how much has to do with the fact that our culture is just starved for authentic relationships?

[Jamie steps back into the scene]

Just some questions I've been wrestling with...
in the end I really believe that it's God who doing all of this great stuff. I believe that it's only through Him that we can have authentic Christ-like love for each other and a truly supportive community... so for us to see that happening means that He's probably in it.

At the same time I think it's really healthy for me to be asking these questions. I don't want to come to the place where I get lulled into thinking that God's hand is in something when the blessing is in fact only the natural results of some program or structure that I've dreamed up or facilitated.


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This quote has been bouncing around in my head for the last few days so I thought I would give it some room to breathe.

"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried." GK Chesterton

Ain't it the truth....



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In the last few days I've been thinking a lot about all the friends that I knew back in my hippy days when I lived on the street and hitch-hiked around the country. It really bums me out to think about how many of them are dead now. So many of those kids have lost their lives to OD's, suicides or murders. All in the name of "love" and "freedom".

Anyway... Thinking about all those kids reminded me of a link that I found a while ago. It's for The Phat News of Mark, a hippy paraphrase of the bible. Not the most accurate translation in the world, but it's still a pretty fun read.

I am so thankful that God saved the day and rescued me when I was going through that time in my life. Without him stepping in there's no way that I would still be here today. Thanks for the miracle God!

Here's a little sample of the Phat News for you...

Mark 6:56. Wherever He entered, into camps, circles, or a gathering, they laid the sick in the trade circles, and taxed Him that they might just touch the hem of His hoodie. And as many as touched Him were healed.

ps... the picture is of me when I got baptized about 5 years ago. Dig those natty dreads! Man... I was skinny back then. I guess not eating for weeks at a time will do that to you! You can see a more recent pic from my wedding a little further down the page... and that's me in the title bar too.



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I was reminded of this thought I once had by a post on Jocelyn's Blog.

It had to do with the idea of being a Nominal or Cultural Christian.

I've always found it kind of funny that there are people out there who don't really believe in the basic truth claims of Christianity (salvation through Jesus, etc..) who still go to church and refer to themselves as Christians.

I find it strange because becoming a Christian was a very difficult thing for me to do. Christianity isn't exactly the coolest, or most accepted, religion in our culture. By becomming a Christian I have subjected myself to mockery by television and movies, being completely trashed in most academic circles, and being misunderstood by pretty much everyone else I meet. I'm labelled as intolerant, closed minded, and irrelevant.

I just can't understand why people who don't even believe in this stuff would put themselves through this kind of thing.

There are so many way cooler religions out there. If you are just going to be nominal in a religion why not pick one that will make you popular and open minded like Raelianism or Falun Gong or something.

Just a stupid thought...


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Well.. I'm feeling a lot better than I did yesterday. It seems that the whole stomach flu thing is working it's way through my system. I was able to make it to work today (which is a good thing since I have a mountain of stuff to catch up on now!)

Although I am doing better physically things have been kind of rough spiritually for the last few weeks. I just can't seem to get my act together and keep myself motivated. I feel kind of like I'm trying to walk through spiritual jell-o. I just have no energy anymore.

I don't know how I got to this place. Things were going really well for a while there and all of a sudden I just got bogged down. I'm not burnt out or really busy with anything... I'm just in one of those valley times.

The thing that is making this time the hardest is that I just can't seem to stay on top of my bible reading. I know that my relationship with God isn't measured by how much I read the bible, but it's something that brings me so much joy that I really miss it when I'm not doing it. The last few months have been a really intense time of study and reading but all of a sudden it just fizzled out. I haven't really read much of anything for the last 2 weeks. I find it hard because bible reading is such an act of worship for me. I find that by digging into the bible I am drawn into the presence of God. It's the place that I find it easiest to draw close to him.

Anyway... I guess this is just one of those times that I need to buckle down and just tough it out. Things will lighten up eventually. I know that even if I'm feeling a bit crappy God is still there with me and still working through me.

I really thank God for times like this. I see them as an opportunity to model the reality of the Christian walk to the new believers (or spiritual seekers) that God has me ministering to. The truth is that Christianity isn't always easy and there are times when it really feels like God is far away. There are times when you feel like you're drifting and times when you don't think you are ever going to feel normal again.

I think that as leaders we often try to make it look as though everything is good and easy all the time, or at least we try to make it look like everything is good for us. I believe that it's important for followers of Jesus to know that every one of us will face quieter times in our walk with God. Every Christian goes through seasons. Some are bright and full of life and others are cold and dull.

Right now I'm in one of the dull ones!

I think I'm going to try to find some of those people who are on the mountain top to cheer me up a bit.


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Sorry I've been a bit quiet for the last few days. I've been pretty sick with some wierd stomach flu. I left work yesterday at noon because I wasn't feeling well and I had to skip work all together today. I hope I get better soon. I hate being sick!!!


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Sorry guys... This is really long! It's an edit of a post that I wrote on the Ooze a few weeks ago, but it fits with some things that we talked about at our group last night and I've been meaning to blog about this.

The post is about some thoughts that Rigel and I have had *thanks to Les* about the nature of authority and how it fits into the church. The main focus of it is on the difference between what I call prophetic authority and Legal authority.

The church these days is spending a lot of time talking about authority and leadership, so I think it's important for us to take a look at what authority is and where it comes from. Is authority something that a man can give another man, or is it something that comes from God? Can it ever come from both? Is there different kinds of authority? Here's some of my thoughts on the matter.

I believe that the definition of authority that we generally use in the church doesn't really do justice to the intricacies of biblical authority. I have been taught by churches that all authority is from God and that all authority is equal. I have also been taught that as Christians we need to submit to all authority and leadership unless the leadership is leading you to sin. But where does this authority come from. What role does God play in establishing the organizational authorities in the Church.

I have discovered recently that there is really [at least]two types of authority described in the bible. One is Prophetic Authority and the other is Legal or Kingly Authority.

Prophetic authority is authority that is given by God and directed by God (like the judges and the prophets in the OT) Their authority came from their calling from God and their obedience to his leading. This would compare to a leader in the church who has a clear vision of what God is calling him to do and walks in his God given authority to accomplish it. This person doesn't need to be commissioned or backed up by an institution because his/her authority rests in the fact that he/she was called by God to complete a certain task. He receives a vision of his mission and does it....no middle man. The authority comes from God's specific calling. Whether the Church or the organization acknowledges and gives support to this authority or not is irrelevant since the authority is not dependent on human legitimization.

The second type of Authority is Legal or Kingly authority.

Legal authority is also instituted by God, but the direction of this authority is shared by God and Man. This is the authority that is imparted to a man by another man. (in the church this is usually done by a recognition of God's call on the leader's life). An example of this would be someone who is sent by their denomination to pastor a church that has just lost it's pastor. The new pastor might not have a specific vision for the church yet or even the call to lead this church, but they have been given authority by the denomination (and the new church) to take over this work and accomplish the task of pastoring the church. The leader who receives his authority in this way can often end up kind of torn. He has been given authority by God, but is also accountable to a legal system that has granted him authority. The trouble usually comes when what God is saying (the prophetic vision of mission) is in conflict with the institutional mission.

I saw this theory of prophetic and legal authority play itself out first hand when I helped planted a church within a church a few years ago. The church grew out of a small group that met at my house that got too big for our living room. The pastor at our church thought it would be cool to have a similar kind of thing (pomo gen-X service) at the church so he asked my friend and I if we would do it. The vision that we had for it was something that God had been speaking to us for several years. It was rooted in relationship and community and we knew that God had given it to us. We lived it and breathed it every day. But the pastor at the "mother" church had an inside man...a guy he was grooming for ministry that he wanted to be part of the core leadership team. This guy didn't really have the same vision (prophetic call) from God that we did, but he had authority (legal) given to him by the church. After a while my friend and I were pushed out of the core leadership because of strong personalities and conflicts (more to it than that simple explanation...there was stupid sin on my part and other stuff going on). The only guy left was the guy with the legal authority.

What do you think happened to the service? It ended up changing and taking on the character of the church that it was in... the source of his authority. He was still hearing from god on how to lead, but it wasn't him who was supposed to do it. His authority was honoured by God, but it wasn't given by God... it was given by the church organization. Since then the service has fallen apart. All of the things that were originally central to it's mission had been removed and in the end it looked just like the church that it came from ( it just had cooler lights and better music)

All this to say that often what we call leadership in church is legal authority. We give authority to people to do things within our organizations (denominational ordination...Etc..) based on credentials and education...Not necessarily on the prophetic authority given to them by God. God doesn't always work within this structure. He gives authority to whoever he wants even if the organization doesn't recognize it. This is how most great moves of God got their start!



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