An Open Letter to Tim Stafford

In the current issue of Christianity Today, author Tim Stafford in an article entitled The Church—Why Bother, states, “There is no healthy relationship with Jesus without a relationship to the church.” Here is my response to that article.

Sara and I are continuing through Blue Like Jazz and enjoying lots of wonderful observations. In one chapter he finds himself teaching a college group at a local congregation. He substituted one Sunday, only to turn out to become the college pastor the next few weeks because they liked his teaching so much. He describes a process too often repeated in people who have a heart for ministry in honest terms one rarely hears:

And he wasn’t kidding. After a year or more he discovers that his teaching has replaced his own relationship with God. In a quote worth the price of the whole book, he writes:

When he realizes how empty his life became while teaching a class that everyone loves, he goes to the pastor to resign saying he’s leaving for awhile. The pastor tries to talk him out of it, but Don knows something isn’t right and he needs to sort it out. He tries to explain to his befuddled leader why he is going away.

That’s what religion does to you. In pretending to be what we’re not we lose sight of who we are. How can recognize the presence of the Living God beckoning us to his life if we are so busy pretending to be what we think we should be instead of letting God have us just as we are. God doesn’t live in our fantasies. He lives in reality. Part of learning to see him clearly is emptying ourselves of all that we use to hide behind. It may be a painful process, but it will allow us to once again connect with the Father who loves us so much and who is the only one who can put our lives back together.

No, I did not wash away in the torrential California rains. (The picture at left is a rainbow I found dancing along the Marin County hillside.) The blog has been quiet, because I’ve been way too busy! I’ve been on a circuitous trip of California. I left last Friday, drove an hour to I-5 just as they closed it because of snow. I had to drive back the hour I’d come and take 101 north through Santa Barbara to meet some old friends for lunch in Fresno. Later that afternoon I drove up to Elk Grove to have dinner and fellowship with two couples and a single brother who spilled out of the system a while back. We had a chance to talk together about de-toxing from religion and the joy of embracing relationship with the King and with his people without the complicating factors of guilt and institutionalism.

I spent the next two days with believers north of Sacramento who have been on an interesting journey with Jesus that has resulted in deconstructing their congregational structure. Over the last five years they have transitioned from being a traditional congregation to learning to live as God’s people in relational community. It has not been easy, nor did they see from the beginning where they would end up. In October they ended their Sunday morning gathering, in December their paid staff relinquished their salaries and in January they are selling their building. I’ve been with them a number of times through this process. On Saturday I facilitated some dialogue on “Thriving Outside the Box.” Needless to say there were lots of questions about rethinking the church and relational life without the safety of the box. One theme kept repeating itself over and over with those who had gone through this process: It had not been easy and though they missed some of the props that used to hold up their life together, they had so grown

On Monday I drove down to Fairfield to meet the District Superintendent there who was the person most influential in helping me start BridgeBuilders. From there I met with a delightful man in Marin County who has one of the most incredible salvation stories I’ve ever heard and is helping believers in that area have a positive impact on their public schools. He invited me to come back later and help with a similar effort in Oakland involving a couple of Oakland Raider football players who are deeply devoted to Christ. (Yes, I was shocked to hear that too!) It will be interesting to see how that develops. I ended the day in a home on the San Francisco Bay in Tiburon overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, the Presidio, Oakland and Richmond. I stayed with Chris and Cathy, two people I’d met in Alaska a few years ago and we talked the night away with breathtaking views of the Bay.

The next day the three of us when to Mac Expo in San Francisco! Many of you know I am a Mac freak and spending the day looking at new products and getting questions answered about programs I have trouble with was incredibly helpful even if it did peg my covet meter. I didn’t spend too much though, but learned a lot. I even had lunch next to a man who called himself an orthodox atheist. Needless to say we had a great conversation. From there I drove down to Gilroy to stay with some dear friends from my Visalia days.

On Wednesday, I drove down to King City to have lunch with a school principal there with whom I attended high school and who had been a pastor for a number of years near where I had made that same mistake. We had a lot to catch up on and I got a copy of an essay he wrote years ago entitled “Moldy Buns in the Pews.” I’m going to use it some day because it is brilliant, humorous and makes a profound point, but am not sure how yet. After lunch I drove back home which was no easy task. Southern California roads are a mess with the mudslides and washouts. Ten people were killed about 20 miles north of us where a mudslide swept through their neighborhood. It too me almost four hours longer to get home since I could not use Hwy 101 and had to go back into the Central Valley and use I-5. But only one lane was open on the southbound side due to a mudslide, so at one point I spent almost two hours traveling only five miles.

But I did get back home. Yesterday I had stitches removed from the surgery I had two weeks ago to remove basal cell carcinoma from the back of my head, tried to catch up on over 200 backlogged emails (so please be patient those of you waiting responses) and prepared for a meeting today to possibly revive our radio show idea from a year ago, but this time with an interesting twist. I hope to share more on that in that with you in the next few days.

What a crazy week, but one filled with so many incredible conversations and moments sharing the life of Jesus with people across the broadest spectrum—from orthodox atheist to radical out of-the box believers..

The pictures in this week’s Time magazine of the aftermath of the tsunami disasters in the Indian Ocean are almost incomprehensible. Over 150, 000 people are believed to have died in tsunami’s rage itself, with the prospect of more deaths to come as unsanitary conditions and disease wreck further havoc on the survivors. I heard one man tell of running from the rising tide with a five-week old daughter under his arm, and couldn’t help but think of my own granddaughter at that age. So many people have died, so many families torn asunder.

The depth of human sorrow and suffering are beyond our imagining. Many have taken to calling it a crisis of Biblical proportions, and it is! Some news reports have said that one-third of the population vanished in the waves in some areas of Sumatra. That same one-third figure is used throughout Revelation 8 as the seven trumpets are blown and disasters follow. I don’t think this is that fulfillment, but it is interesting to note all the same. With a world now ravaged by religious war, and natural disasters, who can say what the days ahead might bring to our generation?

In considering such things, however, I am always a bit troubled by those who call these things God’s judgment, as if he is the destructive influence in creation. There are two things I know. One, God is the redemptive influence in Creation not the destructive one and, two, judgment in Scripture is never something his people dread. The chaos of creation is the fruit of our own sin—a world out of synch with its Creator. Judgment in its truest sense is not God wiping out people in senseless violence but God setting things right. In the Psalms it is why the trees are clapping and the hills are dancing. “God is coming to judge,” is not the cry of terror, but the song of his people. Let the kingdom come! Let the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ! Those are not days to fear, but to celebrate.

So how do we look at these days? Let us not find relief in blaming those affected by the disaster as some how deserving of it. I heard one fundamentalist Muslim cleric note that these happened during the Christmas holidays as Allah’s wrath against Christianity and the moral depravity of western cultures and against Muslims that have not done enough to rid the world of this influence. No, he doesn’t speak for all Muslims, and yes he looked as ridiculous as Jerry Falwell did after September 11, decrying that day of devastation as God’s judgment on America because of homosexuality and abortion that has been legalized in America. Our Father just isn’t like that. Jesus warned us (Luke 13:4) that we shouldn’t think the victims of tragedy any more guilty than those who escape it.

What do we do in tragedy? We weep with those who weep! I cannot imagine how God contains in his great love all the terror of that fateful day and all the sorrow that follows it. I don’t know how he holds in himself the desperate cries of need that rise out of the aftermath today. But he does. Our prayers can join with him as he reaches to people devastated by this disaster. We can also put feet to our prayers by doing whatever we can to help further God’s redemptive purpose in sending money or resources to provide help to those in need—feeding the hungry, providing housing, caring for orphaned children. By doing it for them, we do it for him.

And somehow our hearts can hunger a bit more for the day when this whole world reflects the glory of its Creator rather than the chaos of our sin. We can feel a bit less at home here and the frustration of creation that has been subjected to the futility of sin. And we can let Jesus have a bit more of our hearts today so that we can be even more the sons and daughters of God revealed in the world so that others might know who he is.

My recent blog on Just How Deep Is This Rabbit Hole, inspired a friend of mine to put the finishing touches on a poem she has been working for about five years. I enjoyed it at the same time I related the struggle and the new found freedom that lies at its end. Many of you will recognize her references to various terms we use around Lifestream. I reprint it here with her permission

You can see our Year In Review Photo Album at Ofoto.com for those that want to see some of the places and people we got to hang out with over the past year. We couldn’t include every one or every body, but this will give you a taste of an incredible year…

Also please keep in your prayers the victims of the horrendous tsunami in Asia. And if you can afford to give generously to help in the rebuilding of those stricken countries, please consider doing so. There are many fine organizations that can be a conduit for God’s generosity through you.

And may your New Year be filled with God’s presence as he works in you!

In my last Blog I wrote about the amazing miracle of God making the Word flesh among us—first in Jesus himself, now in us. As I’ve thought about that more, the last phrase from the last verse of O Come All Ye Faithful, has really captured my heart—“Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing.”

I live near LA, where our entertainment section is filled with which stars are appearing in which venues here or in Vegas, such as “Celine Dion Now Appearing at Ceasar’s Palace.” It has made me think of the lives I’ve known this year in whom Jesus is now appearing. And I mean that not just because they confess him as Lord and Savior, but because God has changed them in significant ways and liberated them to know him better, even through the most unspeakable tragedies. So that today I can see the Word of the Father in Tim, Nancy, John and hundreds of others whom Jesus is making more like himself. None of these would even claim to be replication of Jesus, but I see him now appearing in them in cities all over the world.

Religion doesn’t transform people. It weighs them down with obligation and busies them with countless activities. While it may compel us to make external cosmetic changes to appease God, it doesn’t change them at the deepest core of their being. Only God does that and I think he does it best as we simply live each day with our eye focused on him and responding to his grace as situations unfold around us.

Nothing illustrates that better than one of my favorite Mike Yaconelli stories, this one from his book Messy Spirituality. He tells the story of Daryl, a reluctant youth group volunteer who got roped into visiting the local nursing home with the youth group. Daryl didn’t want to participate in the service so he stood against the back wall between two residents in wheelchairs. Just as the service ended Daryl was thinking about a quick exit, someone grabbed his hand.

I can’t imagine any greater joy than to be mistaken for Jesus in the way we love and care for others. As this New Year begins, I pray that Jesus will be more visibly seen in me this year and that somewhere often in the year ahead you might be mistaken for Jesus. Word of the Father, now in YOU appearing!

I remember feeling the same awe holding my daughter in my hands 26 years ago on her first Christmas and I it has all come back holding my new granddaughter today. He came like this!
God became part of his own creation in the form of a human being to show us exactly who he is and how feels about us. He took on the helplessness, vulnerability and limitations of human flesh so that he could experience life just as we do, from infancy through adulthood to his tragic but glorious death on a cross.

Isn’t that the most awesome miracle? He was here! In flesh and blood, experiencing the same sorrows and stresses, joys and affections! We get to behold that through the eyes of those who lived with him in those days by their accounts in the Gospels. But the miracle doesn’t end there. He came in human flesh to open a door whereby he could come and live in us. Among his last words to his followers were these:

This is the miracle of all miracles. The Word is still being made flesh in you and me! Christianity is a life lived in him and he in us; it is not primarily a theology, a ritual or an ethic. In this season Sara and I pray that Father will make his presence known to all who call upon him. May you see him in whatever way he makes himself known to you in these days and may you know the depth of his delight in you and the freedom to run to his side in the darkest of days and the brightest of joys!

Most of you who read these pages have no idea what a team effort this is. So many times God has brought to us just the right person with the right expertise at a time when we really needed their help. Without folks like that we would never have been able to publish the books we do, put up the websites we host or travel to the places I go. For each and every one of you who have helped us along the way, please know how grateful we are for your generous heart and service.

As we approach the New Year we are considering some changes in how we do some of the things we do, to expand our capacity to help people on this journey and to automate some of our more menial tasks to free up time for helping others. If you know something about adding a secure shopping cart to our website for people who want to purchase items directly, about automating our email notification lists, or about streaming live audio to the web and would like to help us sort those things you would you please email me. I would really appreciate it.

On a related note, our recent Course Adjustments at Lifestream has brought some wonderful feedback from all over the world. One man wrote from Russia, “I do not know the details of how you support yourself and your family, but I want you to know that I am very encouraged by the decision to offer this resource free of charge.” We don’t talk about money much around here because we don’t want anyone who benefits from the materials here to feel any obligation to us financially. When we began this part of the journey ten years ago now, I promised I’d never beg people for money but look to God to provide for us as he desired. We don’t raise support. We don’t let people know when there is a financial need.

We just do whatever God puts on our heart and watch as he makes provision for us. It has absolutely been amazing over the last ten years how he has done that in so many different ways. We rarely know when a month starts how we’ll have the money we need at its end. But God has been gracious to provide what he desires. Some of that comes through book and CD sales, some through my speaking or consulting work and some through the generous gifts of people who felt a tug on their heart to send us a gift. I can’t tell you the number of times we’ve received a check or two or three on just the right day when we needed to have it.

That’s it! No great mystery there. Just a lot of gratefulness to God for being the provider he said he would be, and a heart full of thanks for the various ones he has used over these past ten years to make all of this possible.

I went for a long walk with an incredible woman yesterday. It was the first day of Sara’s Christmas vacation and we treated ourselves to something we’ve been talking about doing for a long time. We boarded a boat at the Ventura Harbor and sailed 20 miles out to the Channel Islands, a national park seeking to restore these magnificent islands in their natural state. They are uninhabited except for campers and offer miles of hiking trails and incredible vistas. The photo at left is of Potato Harbor, a three-mile hike from the dock, on the horizon you can see the mainland.

We both came back from our day together renewed in so many ways. I wonder if the days Jesus loved the most were the ones many would have considered the wasted days of travel—walking from one village to the next with his guys. I have a whole new appreciation for them, having just spent the day with Sara far from any distraction and in the beauty of God’s creation. We observed wild flowers and graceful birds in flight and thought of Jesus’ words in Matthew 6 that when you do so, remember how much Father loves you and be assured that he will take care of you no matter what life throws at you.

Sara and I got to talk about so many things that get swallowed up in the busyness of responsibilities and the distractions of life in the 21st Century. We obviously can’t do that every day, but it’s worth doing more than we take the time to. There’s nothing like long, uninterrupted day together to renew our souls and our relationship to each other. I think our culture has become claustrophobic with its myriad of demands and entertainments. Only by pulling away from it from time to time can we see once again what is most important. And for those who live in colder climates, don’t think I’m trying to torture you here. Next week I’ll be at my parents’ home knee deep in snow and Sara and I will bundle up there and take a walk as well. Freshly fallen snow also has a beauty and stillness all its own.

We sailed back at day’s end to an incredible sunset that peaked just as we docked back at the harbor. I took the photo at left just before the boat docked. It was breathtaking!

On the way back Father had another treat in store. It turns out the naturalist on our tour is a retired Lutheran pastor, who is as disillusioned by the state of Christianity in our day as Sara and I are. We had a great time sharing with him on the way back to the mainland. It seemed he’d learned some similar lessons on the journey about who Father is and how he transforms people. He even asked us if we could give him a ride home afterwards. We did and even gave him a copy of He Loves Me as well.

What an incredible day. It reminds me of something I read last week in Philippians 4:4, and this from the Message again. “Celebrate God all day every day. I mean revel in him!” Yesterday we got to do that. We reveled in his great love and renewed our own for each other. I hope you can find a time and place to do that a well this season. It will touch you in ways you’d never forsee.