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Reaching Far…and wide
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All is well…
Horatio Spafford wrote this poem, turned hymn in 1873, after a string of painful life experiences. He had lost one son at age four. Then was financially ruined from a successful business he had built from the ground up in the great Chicago fire. His family was going to Europe, and he ended up in the last days staying behind to tend to zoning issues following rebuilding his business in Chicago. His family’s ship sank after striking a sailing ship. All four of his daughters were lost, only his wife survived. Her telegram sent was “Saved alone.”
He set sail to join his grieving wife and as they passed near the ship’s sinking, he wrote this famous Hymn clung to by saints and sinners alike in times of suffering and loss. They went on to have three more children, one more of whom died in infancy. The Spaffords moved to Jerusalem in 1881. There they helped begin what was known as the American Colony….a community called to serve the poor. They were nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
In today’s world, the western affluent world where technology does so much for society, we have become accustomed to solving most problems. Ever watch Star Trek… all is possible in a cultural mantra and more. Yet, in life, this is not the case and this reality has ruined many a fragile shallow faith in the Living God. Life does and will bring hurt, loss, pain, suffering, injustice, and injustice. There is no avoiding it. Ever met a leader who has not faced such a time(s)? They are confident, arrogant and proud. Ever meet a person shaped by such losses? They are humble, dependent upon the Lord and know their temporal state not long for this world.
Wrongly, our churches today preach a health and welfare Gospel that says “Trust the Lord and it will all be right, He WILL bless you and make life easy and smooth and it will all work out.” When this proverbial wisdom taken out of contexts does not universally prove true and real loss and pain come, faith is shattered and lost for so many. This is sad.
The equation is not always solved. Multiple choice and the freedom to re-choose again not always accurate. There is an unexplainable reality for us in life – that we must walk in the dark, hold His hand and trust, even when we fall down, even when we do not understand, when it is unjust, when it doesn’t work out, when it is not comfortable, not understood, not rescued, no good answer, but lasting loss and grief. Then and only then is it a real faith, a true confidence.
Our world is chaotic, as the news yesterday of the school shooting claiming at least two lives – the result of bullying – testifies, as well as the insanity of Afghanistan and Syria. This is the constant: chaos and a fallen world for now….
Until He returns and sets the creation and lives back on the straight, laying hills low and valleys level, we must really hold on, not in cheap shallow trite pithy claims, but a gut hardened faith that weathers all storms unconditionally. I wish not testing of the metal for anyone, yet when found in such hard and dark seasons, may we be found not wanting and proved true and faithful servants.
Recall the saints in the hard places where reality is harder for one’s faith, even unto death. Expecting all is well is not accurate with what we are promised by our Lord. May we set our feet on the rock and stand stalwart.
It Is Well With My Soul
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know***,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Refrain:
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life,
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
But Lord, ’tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul.
And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
~ Horatio Spafford
***Horatio penned “know” at the end of line three, but most recordings and printings have “say”. I have chosen “know”, his intent and that the Biblical truth.
Posted in Forging Leaders
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SBC …XYZ
The Southern Baptists have just concluded their wrestling with changing their name or not. I agree – time to reconsider their label as a growing percentage of their churches are not in the “South”. It is more reflective of present realities, and respects and validates the number not in the “South”.
The issue being missed though is the wrestling with what is church, how do we practice life as Christians and what do we need to change.
The SBC, born from a peaceful departure from the Baptists in the mid-19th century over the issue of slavery, has lots of issues to wrestle… and have traditionally been late in doing so. Baptists in the 18th and 19th century failed to bring Christ, the Gospel, to their slaves as common practice. The departure from the NA Baptists was done peacefully with a promise to do so. Historians can wrestle if this was done in the spirit of that agreement or not. But to not have done so, to deny the soul of a person with a different skin pigmentation is something only recently, historically speaking, addressed in any real public manner, though there is still work to be done.
More contemporary, and yet historically common in all denominations, is a slow uptake on the changes in societies, particularly the passing of Christendom to post-Christendom (where our society has abandoned its mooring to the church and has become secular, to the point where our society is now 2d generation pagan as a vast majority!). The SBC while wrestling it’s label, has not done well wrestling the churches it plants in the US or overseas. In both cases, generally, even in their self called “cutting edge” church plants, there is a US conventional model of church. Sure, this includes the Sunday morning representation, or gathered aspect of being the church, but in a much deeper way, the SBC (LIKE every other movement I know of, study, watch and interact with) continues to plant and operate in Christendom. Overseas the churches planted are American churches on foreign soil, failing to be good missiologists, or missiologists at all, of the host culture…and confusing American cultural expression with Biblical definition of being the church. In America, the definition of being the church, its organization, power, pedigree (& value of pedigree), function, ministry, and little mission that occurs, is all in a Christendom paradigm. The SBC, the most “evangelical” (focused on proselytizing) movement in the world, fails miserably to understand, embrace, wrestle with and move in the missiology of a post-Christendom reality.
So, the SBC did not change it’s name… to be honest, my response is “So?” It doesn’t matter one iota if they do or don’t. It’s the wrong question, wrong use of their time, and wrong focus of their heart. To be more reflective of their geography, their focus of resources, and their trite attempt to engage a culture (by changing their name) is all great, but the wrong answer in the wrong order.
If they asked me, and they won’t, my counsel would be to get some people who are outside their institution, and anything similar with similar issues, and have them speak and walk with them, investing into them, into the future. Listening is nice, but this must be followed by real and substantial legitimate changes to their orthopraxy, orthodoxy and their posture, resources (including $$$) and orientation.
Will they? To be serious (& I like the SBC folks – at least they want to reach people!!!) I doubt they will. People and institutions do NOT change until the pain is high enough and while the $$$ is going “South” (pun intended) it’s not painful enough yet. They’ve noted a 1/3 decrease in baptisms (the mean all standard by BAPTISTS), the reality has not yet hit to consider actually changing, wrestling some ways that have gotten in the way, and redefine themselves. Right now, they are just doing what they do harder. Hmm. When did we see that work recently? …Me, neither!
So SBC, we love ya, but we got some bad news. There’s hope, but you gotta embrace some reality… it’s a huge shift and will mean some warm cozy comfortable things change, but it’s that or follow the way of the UMC…. their decline is about to roll over stage now.
We need leaders courageous enough to lead change in the SBC and far beyond to every conventional movement… and if they are squelched, they’ll go outside the structures, oh, ugh, wait, that’s already happening. Sad and exciting!
Peace.
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Lord, please move in Syria
Dear Lord,
Yet another despot lords violently over the people of a country, people weak and without a shepherd. Please move in Syria. Please rescue them from Assad. Please bring down this violent, evil, ugly demonic despot and his regime.
Lord, bring peace, we pray. Bring Shalom – even more than peace. Bring salvation to these people. Your will be done, we trust.
Amn
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In a multiple choice world, choosing to stay
We live in the most mobile society EVER… the economic crisis and recession that began in 2008 has seen the most stable our society has been since before WWII. AND a huge increase in shared living arrangements, including multi-generational houses, including adults with parents, or parents with adult children.
I think it is great! Sure, I acknowledge self definition and all that goes with it – but I also support shared life and the iron on iron it forces – not popular in our individualistic society. It’s great for us – helps us become better people, forces us to be known and challenged and loved unconditionally. It forces community.
Counselors tell us that if we had community like that we’d need less than 20% of the counselors and mental health workers we have today…and that is what they admit to the threat of their own profession.
Some learning we have in Communitas (an order incarnating Christ to people beyond the reach of the church, and 2d order to InnerCHANGE, part of CRM) is that our consumer society is not accustomed to commitment, nor to being able to well discern better from good, and best from better, and when we do decide, we want to maintain the option to choose over again when something better comes along.
Ever ask if maybe God doesn’t want you to take the promotion? Possibly what’s best for you, for your family, is to stay put, not have a higher position, more money, but the rich foundation of relationships committed and lasting, through thick and thin? We live in New Orléans. Most cities would have died having experienced what our city has – yet it continues to rebuild – even better than before – a people committed together. Why? It has a unique culture that binds us as a people – who stay, who’s families stay, who’s daughters who marry away – always drag them home. Staying power is powerful.
A friend, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, wrote a book called the Wisdom of Stability. I recommend it. In our learning, we have come to appreciate his message tremendously and have incorporated it into our formation process, as so many of our proselytes have that American cultural DNA for freedom, moving, multiple choice and lack muscle in commitment and investing, staying, digging in and having relationships that grow roots.
This week, Christianity Today published an article on this. Have a read, then go read JWH’s book. You will not be disappointed.
If you can – buy local. You may pay $1-2 more, but 55% stays in your community, whereas buying it through a corporate monster takes almost every cent away from your community!
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God and His hope for this world…and eternity
I appreciate the perspective many more mainline (liberal) movements have regarding the planet and things here today. So often, evangelicals dismiss here and now, be it institutions, be it the planet, be it conservation and recycling, be it ecology and natural resources. So often evangelicals have a “it’s all going to burn” perspective.
Yet, last I checked, God never once rescinded the mandate from Genesis on our responsibility to steward the creation – living, physical, plants, people. In fact, He often is upset by our tolerance of injustice, shortage of mercy, gratuitous approach to the creation itself and our consumer selfish consumption in greed, slovenly narcissism and the spirit of Babylon.
Take a read of Isaiah 58 and 61. Then pop over to Psalm 119 and 139.
God cares for the injustice of our societies and we need and must be the ones prophetically standing up against it. The bloody civil rights movement was so late coming and so painful and leaves yet such pain and bitterness because the church (people – us) failed in our mandate. The Hitler Nazi nightmare happened because the church refused to stand up.
The ecological horrors, like the Gulf oil debacle last year happened because we do not demand responsibility over profit. The creation and resources are being trashed because we’re simply selfish and like a child cannot fathom delayed gratification and better manage ourselves and we, the church, do not say anything.
It’s an idea who’s time has come.
Our Community’s guest writes about our tribe…
Julian, visiting here with us this week, wrote about a sister community to us in Los Angeles. We know these people well and his words are kind. Great to see them recognized and worth the read, the listen and the watch… Check out the video and the audio links.
Episode 20—Catherine Rundle of InnerCHANGE Los Angeles: “No Such Thing as Mess-Free Art”
February 1, 2012 by Julian
Catherine Rundle with Husband Alastair (left), Family, and FriendsInnerCHANGE emerged in the mid-1980s from the aspiration of John Hayes. While living and ministering with his family among immigrant neighbors in the most poverty-stricken, overcrowded street in Orange County, California, John recognized the urgent need to better enable missionaries to share more concretely in the lives and struggles of the poor to whom they minister. Identifying as “a Christian order among the poor,” ecumenical in composition, and affiliated with the larger mission organization CRM: Church Resource Ministries, InnerCHANGE communities have since taken root in impoverished neighborhoods in South and East Africa, Central and South America, London, Cambodia, Bangladesh, as well as a handful of urban centers in the United States.
I first encountered writing by and about InnerCHANGE while reading of the New Friars, a movement of Christian missionary communities seeking to live more integrally among the poor, in part through appropriating the wisdom of the classic religious orders. I was particularly impressed by the maturity reflected in their writing, a clear awareness and responsiveness to historical, economic, and political conditions, and the intention to create sustainable ways of life and lifelong formation in community. In fact, I had met members of InnerCHANGE years before at New Camaldoli Hermitage, again impressed by their intentionality in integrating solitude and contemplative disciplines into their lives. Perhaps the most significant note of appreciation I heard, however, came from my monastic formator, Michael Fish OSB Cam., who gave a talk at one of InnerCHANGE’s recent annual retreats. After the retreat, he spoke excitedly to me of his impression that such emerging communities represent a springtime of renewal in the church. Hence, I had already developed an appreciation and curiosity before meeting InnerCHANGE members on their own turf, first in San Francisco and then in Los Angeles. In particular, as a former member of a monastic order, I’ve found InnerCHANGE’s capacity for liberally incorporating the creativity and spontaneity of their members a breath of fresh air, a capacity Catherine Rundle compares to the necessary messiness of the artistic process, equally applicable to life and ministry.
Catherine Rundle’s story was grafted onto that of InnerCHANGE when an urban mission internship in North Hollywood, California, put her in contact with longtime InnerCHANGE Los Angeles members Jude and John Tiersma-Watson. While this internship (unaffiliated with InnerCHANGE) provided the motivation for a way of life among the poor, she and her husband Alastair still lacked the tools, ongoing mentoring, and enduring context to make that happen in an intensive way beyond the period of the internship itself. Hence, in 1999 Catherine and Alastair joined InnerCHANGE as apprentices, therein finding the guidance, maturity, ongoing formation, and modeling they sought from those who had walked the path well ahead of them. However, an unexpected medical condition compelled them to move to Texas after three years, where they bore their two children surrounded by the loving embrace of extended family members. Six years after their move, having served as outreach pastors for a Presbyterian church, they discerned the call to return to InnerCHANGE and to Los Angeles specifically, where they continue to live and grow and learn what it means to live out God’s tender heart for the poor.
In our conversation, Catherine and I discuss how she’s been transformed by her relationships with the poor, her initial entry and return to InnerCHANGE, the significance of raising a family as members of a diverse religious order, raising financial support for her life and ministry, and her love for the city of Los Angeles where she’s chosen to set down roots. She speaks of her special passion for imparting a sense of personal dignity and value to others through writing their stories in light of scripture and God’s love for them. Finally, Catherine gives a taste of her practice of prayer and praise walking, of sharing holy attentiveness, blessing, and inspired song as she walks the streets of her Westlake/McArthur Park neighborhood.
To learn more about InnerCHANGE, see John Hayes’ book, Sub-Merge: Living Deep in a Shallow World.
Into/Outro music “He Prabhu” by Fr. Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam., and John Pennington, from Compassionate and Wise.
