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Sara and have been reading together The Way of Jesus: A Journey of Freedom for Pilgrims and Wanderers by Jonathan and Jennifer Campbell. It was recommended to me by a friend from New Zealand. Though the reading does get tedious at times with a lot of intellectual curiosities, I love the journey this couple is on and the conclusions they are coming to. I think many of you will enjoy the book. Here are a couple of excerpts:

Sadly, despite many charismatic renewals over the past fifty years, institutionalism remains. Even the most gifted leaders who reach freedom in Jesus and long for a greater outpouring fo the Holy Spirit perpetuate structures that prevent the free-flowing movement of the Body of Christ. With few exceptions, church in the West is still described in institutional terms: a worship service whereby passive laity sit in a sanctuary listening to a didactic monologue from a professional. Most of what we see today are primarily cosmetic changes expressed in the superficialities of style: music style, clothing style, program style, architectural style. Styles may change, but the systemic structure remains entirely modern. (p. 101)

“The real issues are not methodological or structural’ they are theological and deeply spiritual. The church was never meant to have a permanent (or stationary) residence because it was to be always enroute toward the ends of the earth and the end of time.… The problem with the church is not that it’s out of touch with the culture, but that it is out of touch with Jesus. Our powerless ecclesiology (understanding of church) reflects our powerless Christology (understanding of Jesus). We know about Jesus without experiencing Jesus. (p. 99)

Some of you have been following my adventures in the nation’s capital. I got this email from a friend in the heartland who saw the CSPAN appearance. I love what he shares about his own transformation:

I thought you all came across very well and clear. I did wonder while watching it, how people (especially Christians) hearing these ideas and approach to this issue for the first time, would process it? I’m still amazed how the culture in western Christianity seems to breed this defense of truth at the expense of loving people. Maybe that is just the only outcome we ever get out of religion. The love and acceptance that Jesus lived in scripture is so easy to over look. I can’t help but think of the time I spent as an obnoxious Christian defending truth. It really is amazing looking back at this whole experience outside the box and how Father has change so much of that in me. I tell my girls often when they have been hurt by someone to never forget how it feels when someone does something hurtful to them and to ask themselves at the same time if they ever want to inflict that kind of pain on anyone else ever? It has been through things like this in my life Father really started teaching me about compassion.

For those of you interested in the follow-up to the press conference, the Associated Press did a story that hit 78 newspapers around the world on the next day. Focus on the Family covered it as well, and there was also an article in the Ventura County paper where I live.

When Sara read the AP article, she noticed I wasn’t even mentioned in it, nor was BridgeBuilders. She asked how I felt about that. I felt great. You see, I think the real purpose of a facilitator is to bring people together then step into the background. The story shouldn’t be about me it should be about the others who represent the constituencies that need to see this differently. Especially in this case. For the last year I’ve gotten the sense that BridgeBuilders may be winding down for me, and while I have loved doing it, I have so much more passion for the other things Jesus has asked me to do. So I really do want to work myself out of a job here. That helps. As long as we’re building something it is about us, and when we want to let go, it becomes about others. I don’t know if God is done with it yet or not. Time will tell. But I know it is much better for me to live with it having my hands wide open than grasping for what I think I need in it. That said, I’ve already accepted an invitation to speak to Washington State school board attorneys about this issue in April. Go figure!

When I’ve worked in various school districts, I notice the people quoting me a lot after we’re done. I always encourage them to stop. If the language has become theirs, there is no reason to assign it to me and it will be better for the community they live in if it comes from them. I won’t be around and they really need to learn to live this stuff with each other.

Interestingly enough, after I hung the phone with Sara I read John 3 in my daily reading about John wanting to decrease so Jesus could increase. That’s it, right there! The heart of ministry and even leadership in the family is to point people to Jesus and fade into the background. It isn’t to keep standing on the stage drawing attention to me and what I did, but to point the way to him and what he did. That’s our purpose in every life God gives us to touch. Help them see him and then fade into the background. Oh you can still be their friend, but you don’t need to be their mentor after that. Once they learn to follow him, let them go and see if Father has someone else for you to encourage onward in him.

What a trip! Yesterday was wild with the national media and the CSPAN taping. That show does air tonight for those who want to see it. It’s called Close-up and will air on CSPAN – 1 at 7:00 Eastern time, 4:00 Pacific. I was pleased with how it all came out, but I have no idea if it will make sense to others. That’s not my favorite kind of venue. But the story of that press conference was told in nearly 100 newspapers today around the world through a story in the Associated Press. Google ‘first amendment framework’ in their news section and read the first story and the others related to it.

But for the last 24 hours I’ve been talking with some wonderful people. I met a man this morning that has been involved behind the scenes in helping build relationships between the divided factions and tribes in Africa. What a story! We’ll share it in a future God Journey podcast, because I was able to tape part of that conversation. It is amazing what God does in the simple power of relationships when hearts are willing to do what he asks even if we don’t have all the expertise or knowledge we think it would require. God is really good at what he does. It’s an amazing I can’t wait to share with all of you. It will give you such hope about his work in Africa in spite of all the great challenges and need that pervades that country.

Then I got an email this afternoon that told an incredible story about how God has been sorting himself out in this brother’s life. He had been in some incredible places learning how to ‘do’ the stuff of ministry, but all without really knowing the depth of the Father’s love for him. Listen to his words:

I went to a home church group run by the apostle who taught me to hear God’s voice and I ministered alongside him for a while, for a year, before the Lord told me to leave that group. The group was wonderful, and I was hungry, but the only focus was learning to hear God’s voice and the gifts — what I knew I desperately needed was to learn how to love others, and how to allow God to show His love for me (I guess I should reverse the order on that).

So for the last year I have been *alone* with the Lord, as He has stripped me of the remaining barriers until just last week He broke through my insecurities enough to show me how secure I truly am with Him. Funny, isn’t it? How we can work miracles and give great prophetic words and have great wisdom and still not know the love that is God. It truly is a mystery. I would have done anything for Him, if He had asked me, except let Him love me.

I love that last sentence, because it was true of my life for a long time, not because I didn’t want him to love me, but because I wanted that love to come my way. It is funny how much ‘incredible things’ we can do ‘for’ God, and do it out of the desperate search for his love, rather than out of its reality. This is the most important ‘get’ for us all. For while God is gracious to still work good out of our miserable attempts to earn his love, it still diminishes something in us and only feeds our frustration and anger.

This journey truly begins when we discover just how secure we are in this Father’s love and that by simply following he will do all he wants to do in us and through us. He’s not looking for people to ‘use’, he’s looking for people who will let him love them to the very tips of their toes–now and forever!

Tomorrow I’m off to Washington, DC for some venues I’m not accustomed to, nor do I necessarily enjoy. This summer I worked with the First Amendment Center on some guidelines to help public schools deal with cultural and religious conflicts. This one, Public Schools and Sexual Orientation: A First Amendment framework for finding common ground is designed to help schools deal with sexual orientation discrimination and harassment without undermining those parents, students of faith who have moral objections to homosexuality.

I helped Dr. Charles Haynes of the First Amendment Center broker and draft this agreement with representation from educational, gay and lesbian, as well as religious groups. Here’s some of the language from those document:

In recent years, many public schools have increasingly become a front line in the escalating debates over homosexuality in American society. Conflicts over issues involving sexual orientation in the curriculum, student clubs, speech codes and other areas of school life increasingly divide communities, spark bitter lawsuits, and undermine the educational mission of schools.

The advice in this guide is built on the conviction that we urgently need to reaffirm our shared commitment, as American citizens, to guiding principles of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The rights and responsibilities of the First Amendment provide the civic framework within which we are able to debate our differences, to understand one another, and to forge public policies that serve the common good in public education…

Under the First Amendment, a school is both safe and free when students, parents, educators and all members of the school community commit to address their religious and political differences with civility and respect. A safe school is free of bullying and harassment. And a free school is safe for student speech even about issues that divide us.

I will appear with representatives of the First Amendment Center, the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network and the Christian Educators Association at the release of this new publication nationally on Thursday, March 9 at a press conference held at the National Press Club at 9:00 a.m. EST and followed up with a forum discussion on CSPAN’s Close-up, which will be aired on Friday evening at 7:00 EST. (We haven’t gotten final confirmation that it will air this week, so if it doesn’t, check it out next week.)

I am always amazed at the doors God opens to me. After the media activities on Thursday, I’m going to spend the evenings with some friends Sara and I met in New Zealand a couple of years ago who have just moved to DC to work for the New Zealand government. Then on Friday I’m going to meet with a man involved in reconciliation work in Africa before heading upstate Maryland to spend the weekend with some folks near Haggerstown. Then a few dear friends of mine are meeting for lunch in Bethesda before I catch my return flight home to California.

If you think about all of this, pray for me. Just when I think the whole BridgeBuilders things is winding down, God opens some pretty strange doors. I also got a call two days ago to address a convention of school attorneys in Washington state in April. Curiouser and curiouser…

The March 2006 issue of BodyLife is now available at the Lifestream website.

The lead article is called The Real Question, which examines the conflict between those who frequent traditional congregations and those that do not and offers some ideas as to how we can live out the love of Jesus and the reality of the family without getting caught up in that conflict. I hope it is helpful to you as you engage believers in your life that helps build up the family rather than further fragment it.

A new podcast entitled Lights! Camera! Action! has just been posted on our sister website thegodjourney.com. This one takes a look at some interesting aspects of believers and the movies with some fellow-travelers involved in the filmmaking industry.

Twice over the last month I’ve had people pull out the Hebrews 10:25 gun when a group of folks I’m with start talking about finding real community in places other than the Sunday morning congregation. It makes me cringe. Not for the people I’m with, because they usually know that Hebrews is talking about something incredibly more powerful than just having your fanny in a pew on Sunday morning. It’s about having your lives intersect with other believers in ways that allow each to encourage the others and in doing so stimulating each other to love and good deeds. That’s not about what meetings we attend, but how we live our lives each day.

The reason I cringe is for the person saying it. If the only reason they go to a congregation is because they’re convinced Scripture tells them to, then they have missed what’s beautiful about fellowship. It’s not a chore, it’s a joy! When we reduce body life to a ‘have to’ instead of a ‘get to’ we’ve already admitted that we’ve lost the life in it.

Someone on the Lifestream list the other day used the word irresistable to talk about their connections with other Christians. I loved that. Because sharing our life in Christ with other believers on similar journeys is not onerous. It’s irresistable!

I’m in Corbett, Oregon at a men’s retreat this weekend as we talk through living in Father’s affection rather than living by religion’s obligations. I’ve got some wonderful guys here who are sorting that out in a very real way. I also had the chance to meet some lovely people near Salem before the weekend got started who are looking outside the box for relevant ways to connect with God’s people.

Today I read a link someone sent to a website of a good friend of mine. Lynette Woods, formerly of New Zealand and now of Washington, DC (where I’ll be in a week and a half) has a lovely article on her website, unveiling.org that contrasts life in an ocean tide pool with swimming in the ocean. Our little boxes of religion are like the tidepools, that appear safe for the moment, but actually keep us from growth that takes us to the fullness of his love. You can read the entire article here.

I really liked her conclusion:

In the past I have prayed for revival, yet it seems to me that I often missed the point.Often I have prayed for the Lord to refresh and feed me while the oceans of His love have remained waiting for me just beyond the rocks. Because of fear and unbelief it is easy to become afraid to leave the familiar surroundings I have grown comfortable in. I am forced to wait for storms or the occasional extra high tide to refill my pool.

Yet His purpose for the extra high tide and storm is not to refill my little pool but to get me to move into the limitless depths of the oceans of His Love. I cannot really grow in the pool. There are NO large fish found in rock pools. Yet out in the fearful depths I am out of my depth and cannot see the bottom. There are unseen dangers that in my fear I think will harm me In His Love there really are limitless depths and I will lose many things, but in gaining Him, I find that the “dangers” were imaginary.

I think that the ‘”revivals” down through the centuries have been “high” tides. They are not supposed to fill the pool we live in but draw us OUT of the pools into His ocean of Love, into Him!

My latest book, So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore, has arrived from the printer and all the pre-orders have gone out. So they should be arriving soon. Thanks to so many of you for your help and patience as we sorted out this book. They arrived just as I left for Portland so I did get to take some with me. So my small, but dedicated office staff, worked on them yesterday to make sure we could get them on their way long before our release date.

We have heard from so many people who have been deeply impacted by this book and are amazed and blessed at how far it has traveled via the Internet. I thought I’d share with you bits of a few of those that have been such an encouragement to us:

Jake has given me a voice and a vocabulary for things that have been stirring inside my heart for many years. Stephen in Illinois

I appreciate that this book is not “church bashingâ€, but that it is Christ exalting. Thank you for giving words to feelings that I have had for so long, yet have not been able to express. Sarah in Arizona

My husband read your story and is a changed man! He’s struggled with guilt and just not measuring up. He’s never gotten the ‘relationship’ part of it. He’s got it now! He’s been on cloud nine the last few days. Heather by email

Terrific story, I am recommending it to our pioneer church planters around the world. — Brian, Director, International missions organization

Exceptional story that will make you laugh, cry, and be in awe of the love that Father has for ALL His children! It will challenge you to rethink what ‘church’ is all about! — Chris, a student at East Tennessee State University

To anyone who is wondering if God still moves among us as He did in the Bible, here is a story to show the truth—He does! It spoke to something so deep inside me that I couldn’t relax until I reached the end. and even then I knew it was just the beginning. — Jillene, Camp Director, New York

This book has proven to be the most radically confirming piece of literature I have ever read. –Becky

Searching for GOD’S truth is stranger than fiction. —Dottie, a searcher, Orlando, Florida

You can order the book from lifestream.org. Don’t let the author’s name, Jake Colsen, confuse you. That was the synonym my co-writer, Dave Coleman and I used to tell this little tale.

There was an interesting juxtaposition in our local paper this past Sunday. I don’t know how many of you saw Sunday’s Garfield comic but it made a great point. Garfield, for those that don’t know is an overweight cat with food always on his mind. In Sunday’s strip he is sitting at a table with a bear that is exhilarated having just escaped from the zoo. He throws his arms up in the air shouting, “I’m free!†A “Yahoo†and a “Yippee†later he is already looking a bit unsettled. Finally in the last panel he says, “Well gotta get back its feeding time.â€

Sound familiar? That’s what the children of Israel wanted to do. They had been delivered from bondage in Egypt and were on their way to the promised land eating manna every morning. They soon grew bored with it and complained that they were better off as slaves in Egypt with three meals every day than depending on God to provide each meal for them. I guess that’s why bondage works so well. At least you get fed!

A section or two over from our comics on Sunday was an article about pet myths. One of the myths they debunked is that cats can survive in the wild. The article said once wild animals have been domesticated they lose their ability to survive in the wild.

The comic strip and the article said a mouthful. We’ll never really be free until we learn how to feed from Jesus ourselves (John 6) and not think we’re dependent on anyone else. Abusive religious institutions through history have maintained their captive audience by convincing people that they are the place where believers ‘get fed.’ Regrettably they have convinced many that is so and instead of learning the joy of freedom that can only come when Jesus becomes our soul source of life and provision for things spiritual as well as physical. Over the years on this journey I’ve met many people who wanted to leave an abusive system but couldn’t, because they don’t know how they will be fed spiritually. And I’ve known many pastors who wanted to leave such systems but couldn’t because they didn’t know how else they could make a living.

I guess this much is true. Until we learn to feed on Jesus himself, we’ll be the captive of anyone who pretends to do it for us.

Someone sent me a link they other day to test to self-diagnose how much like a Pharisee you are in your thinking. It’s cute and makes some incredible points. I like the first one best of all and referred to it in our most recent podcast, “A Death Worth Dying.” But it bears repeating here for those who might miss it there.

To a Pharisee, “truth is more important than love.”

To the spiritually healthy, “Love is the most important part of truth.”

Isn’t that a great way to say it? In Jesus love and truth come together. You don’t have to sacrifice truth in the name of love, and truth dispersed without love really isn’t the truth at all. If only we followers of Christ would live like that, the world would not be turned off by our passion for the truth we have found in him.