A Winnowed Church

Perhaps one of the most significant things to come out of this pandemic and stressful election cycle is the revelation that a wide variety of interpretations exist within the Church of what is actually taking place in the spiritual realm. This is not the first time in history that the Church has gone through a season of winnowing within its ranks. Until the dust settles and we are finally able to discern what God has been doing, we need to guard our hearts. That is the only way to guarantee safe passage through these turbulent waters. 

 

Reading Our Bias Into Another Person's Life

It never ceases to amaze me (and I admit, at times, it can frustrate me) how easily some people can read into something I wrote or said and allow their bias to be the interpreter of my intent. Our bias is a powerful filter that can cause us to interpret the purpose of others in a way the person being accused or challenged never intended.

 

We live in a world where our ability to offer quick and unfiltered responses to others is readily available.  It can happen on social media or when hearing a passing comment made during a casual conversation. We do this without pausing and asking ourselves if our corrective confrontation is valid based on what the other party meant to say, or is it just our bias talking. 

 

We live in strange times made even more bizarre when people read into our content and attempt to reinterpret our words through the filter of their emotionally-driven bias. It makes me chuckle at times, causing me to respond, “Come on, really?”. It’s like predicting who will win an election. You have a 50/50 chance to be a “prophet.” These situations can be amusing at times, and on other occasions, they can be distressing. 

I would suggest taking a humorous posture when these things transpire.  It will keep you emotionally, and spiritually sane as the levels of social insanity continue to ramp up, and our biases are given free rein to run ahead of our integrity. 

 

  

Disarming Verbal Snipers

Beginning in late May, someone has been shooting at vehicles traveling on Interstate 5, the main north-south freeway that travels along the west coast. The shootings are taking place on a 70 mile stretch of freeway in the area where Jan and I live. The shootings have only been bullet strikes to vehicles until yesterday when the sniper’s bullet struck a woman in her shoulder. We would appreciate your prayers. This person needs to be brought to justice sooner than later.  

Like all forms of violence, escalation is always possible because violence seeks to increase its presence when not confronted. Just as the freeway sniper has now escalated the deadly potential of his/her acts of violence, so it is with anything in life. Restraint, not the freedom to do whatever an evil desire demands, is the mark of an emotionally and spiritually healthy person.

While a freeway sniper is a real concern for the safety for those of us who live in southern Oregon, so are the contributing words and actions we might add as kindling to the burning fires of emotion now aflame in our culture. Like the progression of the mindset of a sniper firing at innocent motorists, so it is with us when we respond to cultural stimuli without the restraint of the Spirit’s presence.

I understand much of the frustration happening in this emotionally charged pandemic-election cycle-economic downturn social distancing-wear your mask culture. We want to fire off our disgust at someone. We may start by taking aim at the nearest moving vehicle of dissent, but at some point, our unrestrained words can escalate and become a deadly projectile that creates an outcome of harm, not healing. Words do matter. They can be as fatal as a bullet.

 

Today, take a break from what riles you. Walk away from your computer, TV, or smartphone screen and breathe. Bend down and smell a rose, or walk through your neighborhood and say a warm hello to everyone you meet, or simply stare out a window and dream about something you stopped dreaming about when all this craziness first started. 

When we take time to do these simple things, we interrupt the flow of our thinking and our focus shifts. We are able to redirect our thought process and become more willing to put down the weapons of our dissent. This gives the Lord time to speak to our angst and recalibrate our thinking. Under the influence of His love, a renewed sense of hope and trust will come to wash away our need to fire off comments at every passing opinion of which we might disagree. 

Opinions That Divide

Opinions have been shared that have tested the integrity of longtime relationships, so much that a distance now exists between friends. It would be a sad thing, if, in this season of social intensity, a differing opinion would be given permission to create division, resulting in separation, and eventual isolation. In the end, this division will have a more detrimental effect on the mission of the Church than the social disorder we see playing out on the stage of our culture. Our oneness as believers is not found in our politics or sociology, but in the person of Jesus Christ.

Defining Freedom

There is a great deal of conversation taking place in our culture about the subject of freedom. Today, I took a look at what Scripture tells us about true freedom. It became for me a meaningful personal reminder and a point of clarity. While some may say this only pertains to matters of the Spirit, I would respectfully disagree. It pertains to everything because it is everything. This understanding takes place at the core of our being and will form the substance of our principles and how we choose to live our lives. 

OUR FREEDOM WAS GIVEN WHEN WE FIRST BELIEVED - Once we believed in Jesus Christ, we were set free. To remain free, we must continue to believe and trust in the Lord. “But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 3:22).

OUR FREEDOM IS MOBILE - We carry our freedom with us wherever we go no matter what the circumstance. “For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (II Corinthians 3:17).

OUR FREEDOM IS NOT PROGRESSIVE – It took place once and for all and was made available to us by the death, resurrection, and enthronement of Jesus Christ. It is absolute and forever unchangeable by even the most challenging circumstance of life. “He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins” (Ephesians 1:7).

Today, the Lord is inviting us to live and speak like free people. Our words and witness regarding freedom may upset some who still think their freedom is tied to the promise of a nation or a set of cultural ideals. While those can be noble and good, they do not promise the same freedom found in Christ. Nations will rise and fail, and human ideals will change over time. Only Jesus remains the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Don't Take the Bait

Relationships are being tested.  A casual comment or post on social media that creates disagreement can challenge the honor of a relationship. Jesus knew each of us would see life differently, and He still said oneness was possible even in the presence of our varied opinions. We know we have taken the bait when we allow the hook of division to sink deep into our hearts and pull us away from those we previously loved and respected. The evidence the digested bait has been taken is revealed when we begin to see, think, and speak negatively of someone.  Don’t take the bait. It has a dark outcome prepared for your arrival.

Of One Heart

Being of one heart has a greater impact than being of one mind. In a close environment where people work together toward a common goal, hearts that follow after God in love, create a healthy and cohesive work environment. 

The apostle Paul encouraged us in the second chapter of Philippians to be of one mind. That one-mindedness was the by-product of living together in an environment of love. Love is always a matter of the heart.  Many times, we miss what creates a by-product by focusing on the by-product and not what produced the by-product.

If a leader requires all team members to be of one mind, typically, that translates as being in lockstep obedience with the worldview and preferences of the team leader. That requirement actually creates a weakness in the team. It is a false unity and restricts Spirit-led creativity that only comes through a diversity of opinion. It also limits the breadth of expression and insight required to engage greater Kingdom exploits. 

For example, if you are a team leader who releases edicts of how your team should respond to the issues of culture in an attempt to maintain team discipline and portray unity to those outside the team, you are creating followers, not leaders. Work first and foremost at building a team unity around the fruits of the Spirit, not your opinions. If the hearts of your team members are right and expressing love and honor toward each other, even if they say or do something that differs from your opinion, it will all work out in the end because their hearts were right. This is the kind of working environment that creates trust and honor in a team because people know they are loved in their diversity, not only in their conformity.

Ride-Along

When I was a cop every once in a while, I would be assigned a ride-along. A ride-along is a civilian who has been cleared to ride with a patrol officer to see what life was like on the streets. Of all the people that rode along with me, each one left that experience with a greater understanding of the job.

I wonder what it would be like if we could have a ride-along program in other areas of life. What would it be like for someone to ride along with a small business owner struggling to make payroll and keep the doors open during an economic downturn? What would it be like to ride along with a young, single mom with two kids in tow working multiple jobs just to survive, or riding along with someone who has a different ethnicity or social status and on the receiving end of demeaning comments and behavior? What would it be like to be a politician, an honest one, trying to pass laws that only get passed in an environment of compromise?

Separation from each other’s daily struggles is where the danger of misunderstanding takes place. We judge someone before we know who they are or the struggles they face. It’s easy to lob judgmental grenades into the lap of someone who is living in a challenging situation, of which we have no firsthand knowledge or empathy. Perhaps the most life-changing thing that takes place during a ride-along is getting close enough to see and hear the personal struggles other people are experiencing. It’s in that connection where understanding comes, and a compassionate response can be offered.

Our "Don't" and "Why" List

The “Don’t” and “Why” of Life

I DON’T confess my sins against my wife to clean the relational slate and just move on. I confess my sins to honor her and the Lord.

I DON’T work out just to stay in physical and emotional shape. I work out so I can stay in a fight as long as possible to protect those I love.

I DON’T read God’s word to gain more biblical facts. I read it to know the Father’s heart.

I DON’T pretend to listen to someone’s opinion while crafting my response. I listen because it might inform and correct my answer before I open my mouth. 

I DON’T vote for a particular political candidate based on their personality. I vote for the platform they represent. 

I could go on with my list. You probably have a similar list.  The reasons why we do certain things is important to know.  Knowing what motivates our reasoning will inform and create our responses to the stimuli of life. 

There have been many times when the Lord reminded me that my Don’t and Why list needed refinement and adjustment. I have even had them in reversed order at times. This struggle is part of the discipleship process. It is never a perfect science. It is a life-long process of revelation discerning what it is creating the content of our conversations and empowering our actions. Be patient with yourself because God is patient. 

A Change in Direction and an Adjustment in Relationships

This morning, the Lord gave me two different words to share with those to whom they might apply. The first paragraph has to do with seeking direction from the Lord. The second is about coming change within existing relationships.

DIRECTION: You have come this far by wisely evaluating every step along the way. Each time, before you moved, you have waited for the Lord to place a stone to mark your next step along the path. The pause you are experiencing between the last stone, and the one yet to be placed, seems to be taking longer than expected.  There is a direction change coming. What you discerned in the past as a linear and straight-ahead way forward into the future is about to make a turn. The next placement of your time, energy, and resources will be critical.  It will determine the path of your future. Wait for the Lord to place the next stone before you take a step.

RELATIONSHIPS: There is a cluster of significant relationships in your life. Those relationships are about to be tested. It will be tested in the hearts of those who make up the group. Each of you has come thus far in agreement. This unusual time in history has tested some of your previous shared agreements. Nuances are now being discovered. The sounds of a direction change are now in the mix. This is making some in your group nervous. What is taking place is not a work of division. It is a work of clarification empowered by the Spirit. This clarification will make it possible to experience a deeper level of team intimacy and unity. God is clarifying the calling of your group and expanding the breadth of its diversity. He is unifying you in a deeper place than the diverse personal opinions that have recently surfaced. God is at work in the heart of your group. Let Him have His way, and He will make a way. 

Since I Knew It Al;

The title of Jerry Cook's book, "A Few Things I've Learned Since I Knew It All," seems to express what many of us are experiencing as we discover the shallowness of our opinions in this heated time of social unrest. The title of Jerry's book has become an anthem over many of us as we learn how to live with each other in deeper expressions of honor and respect.

God is Offering Us a Great Treasure

As I was pondering what is taking place in our culture, in my mind’s eye, I saw the image of a small clothe bag being held by someone. Immediately, I knew the hand was God’s hand, and the bag was filled with gold. It was a visual metaphor of what God wants to do before we return to some sense of normalcy.

Many of us have been working on a re-engagement plan for our life, work, and ministry. We want that plan to be in place before this season comes to an end, so we won’t miss a beat upon re-engagement. That is good, but it is not the most important consideration. There is something greater. The greater is the treasure within the cloth bag the Lord is holding out to His people. The treasure is reconciliation and restoration.

In the last few months, increasing levels of tension and frustration have manifested in some relationships, causing the exchange of hurtful words and actions. This has created wounding and division. God wants to prepare us to reengage and see our plan succeed, but this will only happen if we are willing to reconcile and allow restoration to take place in our relationships. 

This is not about who is right or wrong. It is about protecting oneness and unity within the Church so that our lives become a living testimony of God’s grace to the surrounding culture. Without a willingness to reconcile and restore, our best-laid plans will not survive the coming reengagement because the plans of God are empowered by love. Without the redemptive power of love, even the best of plans will become hollow and short-lived.

The Love of Acceptance

Prophet Wanda Alger recently shared a word that caught my attention, challenged me, and brought clarity to some of what is taking place in this unique moment of history, "Though your love for me is strong, your love for acceptance is stronger. Though your commitment to me is unquestioned, your compassion has led you to compromise. You have traded righteousness for relational equity and divine providence for self-protection. Your spirit is willing, but your flesh has been leading."

Our pursuit of truth can be compromised by the need to be accepted by a group, any group no matter how well-intentioned that group might be or how much we want to belong. God is not surprised by our weakness in this area. He wants to bring clarity to these broken places in our lives so He can perform a work of deliverance freeing us from the control of this spirit of flawed acceptance. Those set free in this area will eventually find their voice and begin to declare the will of God with boldness and balanced compassion.

This time of social isolation has caused many things to rise to the surface.  What we allow to remain hidden and unchallenged will infect the authenticity of our relationships. 

What we will see rising to the surface is the flotsam of our unhealed brokenness and masked fear. This spiritual debris is what God wants to heal before we move forward. Do not fear when these negative things become visible in your life and the life of those you love. This manifestation is meant for our wellbeing and freedom if we are willing to let them go to receive something better. God is preparing us to reengage life and move into a new season with purer motives and priorities. That is a good and authentic thing. 

Retreat to Reset

What if the future unfolds in a way none of us could have imagined? What if the issues we thought were the problem was not the problem after all, but a diversion not only from reality but from the truth itself? 

I am pondering these questions today because I want to resolve some things in my heart and mind before I move forward from this moment. In some ways, many of us have felt like a greyhound dog at a racetrack. We feel like we are running with the race pack chasing a fake rabbit dangling just ahead of us, yet forever out of reach. That way of living will burn out the best of us. It also makes us hard to live with and to be around.

Unchecked, we can find ourselves running around the track of our thoughts and reasoning, thinking that is reality, never running outside the fenceline of our personal preferences. This way of living becomes even more empowered when we run with like-minded people who feel the same way.

Maybe for just a single day, we could all stop running and retreat into a quiet place to allow God to reset our souls. There we could turn off all the outside input and let God work on our insides. Emerging from that pause would allow a new perspective to pay a visit. It would break us free from the confines of our current race and let us hop the fence and freely run forward to discover a future we would have never imagined had not a retreat and reset taken place.

Layers of Understanding

Every subject will have layers of understanding. It is wise to discern the heart of God in a matter before we make a decision or provide an answer that could negatively affect a relationship or alter the direction of our life. 

God’s heart on a subject is the deepest and purest place of revelation. It requires patience to dive into that deep place. From there, once we discern His heart, we can work our way back to the surface of the moment where an important question was asked of us that required a response. 

This journey into the heart of God is a deep dive. It requires we move through and many times push aside, our personal opinion, emotions, and personality traits, not allowing them to become the prominent voice in our response.

As Time Passes

In a marriage, 5 years will quickly pass, as will 10 and 20 and beyond. Somewhere along the line, you will arrive at a place where time itself no longer measures the depth of the relationship, only a mutual commitment to love each other no matter what may come.

A Fork in the Road

Some of you are approaching a relational fork in the road. At this intersection, good people with longstanding relationships will disagree over sensitive issues and then choose to take different paths into the future. 

This does not have to be a negative interaction if the hearts of the participants remain open, sensitive, and honoring to each other. God in His great wisdom will help both parties to arrive at a safe place in the future even though they will travel on different paths. 

A healthy spiritual family is bound by the diversity of love, not the similarity of control. Each child will respond to life differently from a variety of convictions, even though they share the same family history. 

In the coming days, resist the desire to control the choices of other people by demanding they see and react to life in the same way as you. This is an opportunity for us to model to the world a diverse faith that invites freedom, not conformity.

When Critics Arise

Critics in the Church come and go like the cycles of ocean tides. They run up on the beach of the Church to make their claim and then recede, leaving behind the hissing foam of their declaration of judgment. Over the years, I have noticed several areas where critics are especially drawn.

Scripture – Critics typically have a narrow field of acceptable Bible translations. They find a few sections of a particular translation they view as objectionable and discount the entirety of that translation. They begin to lump entire groups of people into their judgment and dismiss longtime friends and relationships on a quest for biblical purity – a purity not available in any translation.  

Worship – Critics in the area of worship resemble someone kicking down the bedroom door of a married couple, catching them in an intimate moment, and criticizing their lovemaking. These critics have a preferred form of worship. They believe one size of worship fits all and anything outside that understanding is heresy and worthy of their judgment and condemnation.  

Sin – Critics like to focus on the sins of other people, not their own. Unrepented sin does need to be addressed, but only within the parameters laid out in a biblical process. That process is filled with mercy and offers of restoration over time. Sin critics like to use public forums to shout out the sins of other people to gain a following of fellow sin-critics. Social media has made this dark ministry viral, like a virus that infects all who come in contact with its sickness. 

Be careful taking on the assignment to be a critic of anything in the Lord’s Church. Use discernment in all things. Be wise and compassionate in how you apply that discernment. Only the Spirit can convict someone of their sin in any meaningful way. Above all, everything we do must be done in love, or it will produce the fruit of another kingdom, a fruit that is bitter and filled with sorrow.

Before We Come Back Together

Today, as one who served in pastoral ministry for many years, I want to share something with my fellow pastors, church leadership, and those who love and pray for the local church. These are unprecedented times that will require of us deeper levels of wisdom and sensitivity to the Spirit's leading.

When all the social distancing restrictions lift, and we begin to reassemble, be careful that you don't assume you are coming back to something familiar. Yes, we will gather once again in a familiar facility with familiar faces, but everyone will have changed in the absence, including you. It would be wise to explore and understand the implications of that change. Take some of the remaining time of this separation to gather with your staff and primary leaders and talk about the ramifications of what has happened before you make plans to come back together. Your people know what a shared life of faith was like before all of this took place. They need leaders who understand what has happened in their thinking about the Church and how your ministry can help them live in a new world. 

These changes are not physical but philosophical and mission-oriented.  The application of your mission statement may need redefinition to take on new forms of expression, each with the same value as a Sunday morning gathering. The change that has taken place under the influence of this pandemic is more significant than any of us had imagined or fully realized. Those who discern and understand that change will be used by God to lead His people into new frontiers in the coming years, frontiers many of us did not know even existed. 

Catch a Memory

Take a moment and recapture a fond memory. It is a healing exercise. I just did, and a strange and beautiful peace entered my mind pushing aside some of the concerns I have picked up of late. 

As a young boy, I remember going fishing with my dad and riding in his little aluminum boat on Lake Berryessa in California. Dad had an old 2-cycle outboard motor that coughed and chugged us across the glassy surface of the lake at the break of dawn, leaving in our wake a tendril of blue exhaust smoke. Our fishing poles stuck out from the boat’s bow like a ship's masthead with red and white bobbers bouncing up and down. My brother and I sat in the front seat, shivering in the cool early morning air that passed by our pink cheeks. As the boat motored toward our favorite cove, we were anticipating the first tug of a fish taking the bait and submerging our bobber. Dad was at the stern, running the outboard with a Camel cigarette hanging from his mouth. My brother and I exchanged glances with each other and then back at dad. He was smiling. He loved to be with “his boys.”  Those were simpler times with a lot less life clutter to process.

Today, reach back in time and grab a simple memory. Linger in its remembrance for a few moments. Like the power of a testimony, a simple memory can cross time and bring the same joy into the current moment that was experienced when the event first took place. These are gifts from God. Unpack them with joy.