A month of gratitude

According to Brennan Manning, "It is simply not possible to be simultaneously grateful and resentful or full of self pity".  I believe this to be true ... I also believe that those who follow Jesus do not model a life of gratitude nearly enough for a broken and hurting world.  People do not need any more relationships in their lives that are based solely around commiserating with perceived trials and challenges.  We don't need any more "life sucks then you die" fed into our lives.  Resentful and self pity are becoming the norm, like the concrete skies of a Seattle winter.  Gratitude is like a sunbreak when all that is expected are clouds. 
We have much to be grateful for here in the earliest days of Common Table.  The most obvious, for me, is that we would even be entrusted to a task so large and eternal in nature as the establishment of a new church community.  For that we are exceedingly grateful...but there are more involved and invested in this eternal effort than Joanie and I.  Locally, we have a growing core of people who are becoming the hands and feet of Jesus in the neighborhood.  Beyond the local, we have an ever widening team of people who have invested in us through prayer and or financial support.  During the month of November, as a unified expression of gratitude to the one who makes all things possible, members of our team, both locally and beyond, will be sharing posts on this blog.  The posts here will be as diverse as the people who are posting them...the only thing the same will be the feelings of gratitude behind them.
We, those of the Common Table, invite you to enjoy, to meditate, be inspired and encouraged to interact with each of these.  Please comment freely and share these posts and this blog everywhere its needed.

vision

It was recently shared by a well respected leader and one time church planter that if he had it to do all over again, in our current cultural context, he would want to focus on communicating a compelling vision for a new church.  Elaborating on this, it was described as an ability to communicate why a new church was needed and why it was different from other forms of "church" already being offered. 
We find ourselves right in this place early on in the formation of a "new" church.  I confess a level of skepticism in this process.  At the same time, I recognize the absolute necessity of it.  The skepticism comes from the tendency of church culture to spend more time in competition with itself rather than on our call to reveal light in the darkness, sent on mission from God the father, leading others to  Jesus the son, and enabled by the supernatural strength and guidance from the Holy Spirit.  That's a big enough calling in and of itself.  If we focused on that, we'd more likely see those walking beside us as fellow travelers rather than competition in a race.
So my prayer for us is this ... a compelling vision is the vision that God has for our church in this community ... to learn about Gods love and plans for us in new and compelling ways, to connect with others and develop relationships that are beyond the "hi, how you doin", "I'm fine" interchanges that we are used to...and through it all, to love and serve the community we are placed in as if Jesus himself were wearing our shoes.
We are not looking to enter a "church" competition and compete against anyone else's vision.  It'll take all the energy and focus we can spare to follow the one laid out for us.

No shortcuts

 For these past 10 days, Joanne and I have had the amazing opportunity for some time away from the city that we love.  We have been, literally, on the road through 6 states.  It's been a circular journey for visiting family and good friends while combined with sharing what is going on with our community, life and work in South Lake Union.  For a good section of the road part, sometimes more than I care to remember,  our drive followed the path of the infamous Donner Party.  I don't know if you've ever travelled this stretch of our country, through Utah, Nevada and into California, but there is a great deal of nothing... And a great deal of nothing can lend itself to a great deal of thinking and wondering.  I found myself wondering thoughts like "why?" And "what were they thinking?".  This path across the country can be challenging enough in a vehicle.  The only thing giving relief at times is the ability to legally drive 80 across the vast nothingness.  During a decent stretch of this, and wanting to give my wife the joy of speed in a fabulous car, I was able to dedicate more time than usual to consider these questions, along with the constant question of "how?"...as in "how in the world did they get themselves into their infamous predicament?" Along with what, if anything can one still learn from their tragedy?
Due to the marvels of modern phone technology, as well as the ever reliable google and Wikipedia, I took a refresher course on the drive.  I thought it a useful investment of time, seeing as we would be making a stop at the memorial to their demise.  Being in a journey of sorts ourselves, along the trail of church planting, I have been wrestling with what I might be able to learn from this.  After all, many who have journeyed before us, in the endeavor we now find ourselves in, have failed to complete the journey.  I want to learn from others successes as well as their failures.  I do not demand the right to make my own mistakes.  So here, for what they are worth, are some things that I've gleaned from their American tragedy which might benefit our journey.
1.  Make sure that you are following the right guide ... Many will try to influence the direction, but the path is already there, follow the one who knows more than the ones who claim to know.
2.  Be sure of your companions for the journey ...you will be relying on them through some of the most perilous times you will ever face.   The hardest journeys take a hard toll on everyone, and everyone needs to be of one accord and heading in the same direction.
3.  Be willing to wait.  Sometimes the wisest and bravest move that can be made is simply to  wait...insisting on "forging ahead" can lead to tragedy.  
4.  Money is nice, but it won't save you.  It was reported that one of the families left Illinois with $10,000 sewn into a mattress.  It couldnt push them over that pass.  It didn't save them on the Titanic, it didn't here, and it won't along the hard roads of planting a church.  I've been in ministry long enough to know that it won't overcome lack of leadership, wisdom and harmony.
5.  History will not remember the result of the journey over the tragedy along the way.  The end of the story is that "some" of them made it...only about half really.  Some of them made it, but at what
cost?  I am not naive enough that i dont understand that not everyone who begins this journey will be there in the end...whatever that looks like.  But I'm committed, more than ever to these things that I've seen on the road before me.  In the end, my dream is that people, somewhere down the road of time, will
remember this journey, not for what was lost, but for what was gained.

a story of real heroes

When talking about the concept of church planting with observers, I am often asked either "What excites you the most about planting a new church?" or its alter ego "What frightens you the most about planting a new church?".  In the quieter moments of this journey, like enjoying a caramel latte at my remote office, I realize that the answer is quite the same.  What both excites me and terrifies me is that, somewhere in the future, in part because of my participation in its conception, a life giving community of people who lead and live and love as Jesus did will exist where one didn't before.  Prior to this neighborhood, I was privileged to spend more than 13 years in a community that has experienced over 100 years of life giving and life changing influence in their own neighborhood... and it all began as a few people who felt a call to a new and growing neighborhood across the water. 
So this is all exciting to me, probably more so having experienced all that has occurred in that immediate context as well as literally worldwide.  To think that, because of a "mustard seed" beginning, years and lives down the road, a light to the community and the world, bearing witness to a life giving faith in Jesus who calls us to this, will be shining brightly because we said yes, both encourages and scares the hell out of me. 
It would all, most likely, be overwhelming and I'd want to walk away from it all if it weren't for the real heroes of the story.  As someone who thinks that Gods character is, has always been, and always will be unchanging, I think that his methods of working through and leading people has not changed either.  The names are changed and certainly the times and cultures, but the realities have not.  What I mean is simply this ... certainly God lays a plan before individuals ... insert Noah, Abraham, etc here.  This is true and is seen throughout the stories in the Book of Books, but what about those who followed those that are traditionally seen as heroes of the faith?  What about Mrs Noah?  What about the sons of Noah and their families who obviously did the bulk of the work without the benefit of a personal conversation with God?  In my opinion, those are the real heroes.  They were the original first responders that we talk about so often in our context.  They were the ones who sacrificed time, resources and reputations to run towards the challenge instead of going to the "safe spot".  All on the impression of another who thought that God was leading.  In case you were wondering...this still happens today in the form of church planting.   We may not be building boats, although my new neighborhood is home to the "Center for Wooden Boats" ... ironic???.  We are building refuge from the storm, if you'll forgive my reaching for metaphors.
Once again, the real heroes are those who have gone to this place with me.  First and foremost is most definitely my wife, a real time, real life, more beautiful version of Mrs Noah.  She is the one with the most to lose in this were it not really God's lead.  Fortunately, soon after my own wrestling's with God's lead, she is open to her own.  She's even pretty good with a hammer.  Other first responding heroes are those of my "core team" who, for whatever reasons, have followed into the unknown and grabbed on to the dream.  They have risked resources and reputations to help in the construction with something, not unlike the ark, that no one has ever seen before.  Its not that this neighborhood has never seen a church ... they've never seen "Common Table". 
So what about the rest of the story?  We know that in Noah's case, no one else participated in it.  I'm pretty sure, having dealt with volunteers throughout my years as a pastoral artist, that the work would have been much lighter, had anyone else jumped in...had anyone else been willing to risk resources and reputation to see it through.  I've heard that the process of church planting should be seen as a spiritual opportunity, not only for those actually doing it, but also for those willing to jump into it with the eyes to see it that way.  Everyone who reads this has an opportunity to be a hero...to be a first responder...to see participation in it as life giving, not just for the moment but for generations to come.  The heavy lifting of building a life saving and life giving entity is a spiritual opportunity that relatively few will ever be brave enough to run towards.  It falls on the real heroes ... those willing to risk resources and reputations to see it through until its afloat.  I am fortunate enough to know this first hand as my wife and I have had a hand, from a distance, in a number of new churches across the country.  My story has been part of theirs and my part, small that it might have seemed, has helped these to become realities where once they had only been dreams. 
The most responsible thing that I could do is invite all who read this to consider being a hero in this neighborhood, to people you may never meet, but who will be forever changed because something that wasn't before, is now, and will be for generations to come.  Resources are certainly a big part of the reality here and how you allocate yours is undeniably a spiritual practice.  You can consider the opportunity to be a hero in Seattle with your resources and/or you can contact me to put us into your prayer life.  I'm not sure where your life is at in this moment of God's story, but I do know that, while risky, being a hero is a great deal more fulfilling than being a spectator.  To all of the heroes out there, I salute you.... thank you for risking.  And right on cue, it's beginning to rain.