I’ve been in discussions with like-minded folks and listened (or read) patiently while someone blasts my “radical” notions.

Having been an English (and Theatre Arts major) in school the first time around, I thought I’d put to use some of those history-of-the-English-language skills.

RADICAL: etymologically, the word “radical” comes from the Latin (radix) meaning “to the root.” Feel free to check me on this by clicking here. Looking at radical’s synonym visual family yields this:

From this visual it seems that a “radical” is someone who is revolutionary or extremist to the root about something in particular.

Don’t you think the Christian faith, the Christ-follower is to be radical? Shouldn’t we be engaged in life-long transformation to the root of all that we are? Shouldn’t every aspect of human experience be under constant conversion to the very base of all we do? Shouldn’t our core theme be radical discipleship? It seems this is what Jesus often calls for, invites others into. When Jesus says, “Come and see,” accepting that invitation means a life of change … to the root.

So allow me to stir up the hornet’s nest some more …

Here’s another un-truth I’ve learned from the church: the world is made up of two kingdoms (dualism).

I learned from the church that we Christians should gather in the “church” building as often as possible so that we might escape the evils of the world, be discipled to be more unlike the world, and be equipped to go out and win the world for Christ.

I don’t find that world-view with Jesus at all. Our ancient spiritual ancestors from the pages of Hebrew scripture displayed a type of dualism. They saw good and evil. Sometimes they saw both good and evil coming from God (try to make that one fit in our postmodern orthopraxy!). They felt “called apart” as a specially chosen people.

But Jesus fulfilled what they were progressively learning: God is dreaming to reconcile all of creation to God’s self!

Grappling with this revelation causes us to stop looking at parts of the world as sacred and parts of the world as … well, the world. All of it is God’s creation. All of it is sacred. All of it is being reconciled.

The question for the church is: Are we engaging with God’s activity in reconciling all of creation? Are we making disciples outside the church walls (into all the “world”)? Do we really believe that God’s grace goes before us and that Christ’s Spirit is already at work everywhere?

What I’ve unlearned about dualism is that Christ-followers should see all of creation as Jesus sees it. This is called messianic. And we see ourselves in this creation as ambassadors of and co-workers with the Messiah … everywhere we go!

SO TELL ME SOMETHING:
Do you have a dualistic or messianic view of creation?

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com

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Tags: radical, Christian, Christ-follower, discipleship, un-truth, dualism, messianic

The church has taught me that to be the church means to be attractional. Authentic Christ-followers should, indeed, lead irresistible lives. But this is not the idiom of attraction I learned. Apparently, the church is most effective when it attracts not-yet believers to its gatherings. I learned this from Vacation Bible School, Caravans, Bible Quizzing, intramural sports leagues, block parties, fall festivals, harvest celebrations, huge Easter celebrations that require hiring a string section, Easter pageants, revivals, missions weekends, back-to-school parties, special concerts, etc., etc., etc.

The thinking was that the more special the event, the more spectacular the goings on within the church building walls, the more readily not-yet believers would be awed into a pleasing relationship with Jesus.

I learned that a lot of effort goes into these special events. I learned that if we build it, they will come. I learned that Jesus was a great spectacle, a bastion of entertainment, a religious-colored festival. I learned that Jesus was into crowds.

I’ve discovered this is an un-truth.

As I follow the lectionary and read from my family scrapbook (Scripture), I’m convinced that Jesus — and thereby, the gospel — isn’t about an attractional event.

Instead the gospel is about an incarnational life.

Jesus did occasionally preach / teach to great crowds. Yet, when he plainly extolled the cost of discipleship, the crowds dwindled. Near the end of his public ministry, he was the focus of crowds once again. Yet, this time they killed him.

Jesus’ most effective ministry happened one-on-one and in small groups. Jesus cared about individuals.

Jesus did not ask the thirsty to come to the great big water fountain at the synagogue. Instead, he went to the well that thirsty people frequented and gave a woman living water.

Jesus didn’t have a big potluck in order to feed people’s bellies while feeding their souls. Instead, he gathered with twelve around a small table and gave them his body and blood.

Jesus didn’t build magnificent buildings and point to them saying, “Here I have built my church.” Instead, he called his disciple with the most leadership potential an adversary, then promised to build a community of hope on his shoulders.

Jesus didn’t teach every Sabbath. Instead, he took his disciples with him through a field on the Sabbath, picked the grain for breakfast, and lived the gospel right in front of them.

How can the church I serve become incarnational? It won’t happen with great programs. Nor will it happen by meeting in the building we mistakenly call “the church” once or twice a week.

But it might happen by remembering that we are now Christ’s body. It might happen by rehearsing what Jesus did. It might happen by sacrificing all our false realities for a gospel that is lived and breathed in our communities.

Redemption begins when un-truths are un-learned. Then our hearts of stone are replaced with living hearts. With so much body-talk in Scripture — and a God who inhabited a body like mine — how can I call myself a Christ-follower if I’m not living a mission of incarnation all the time?

The beauty of this redeeming process is that the very church which taught me the un-truth is the church that shows me how to un-learn it and to live differently. For all the church’s flaws, it’s still the church through which God reconciles the world. I choose to be part of the reconciliation.

SO TELL ME SOMETHING:
What’s an un-truth that you’ve learned? And how are you un-learning it?

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com

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Tags: church, attractional, Jesus, incarnational

Now I’ll finally spell out my perspective … a perspective that has been honed that last few months (and will likely change with time as perspectives are want to do).

I’m reminded that Paul often wrote, “This is from me and not the Lord.” So be warned, this is of Brian and not necessarily the Lord (but it certainly doesn’t run counter to what I understand of Christian history and Jesus’ own ministry.)

A minister should have two primary purposes:

• to preach the gospel;
• to equip others to be ministers;

Let me flesh these two purposes out a bit. Preaching the gospel is much more than what happens in a Sunday worship gathering. At present, the faith community where I serve holds two Sunday worship gatherings … each addresses a different learning and participatory style. Consequently, the two sermons or teachings I give each Sunday are often delivered quite differently with different emphases (although the theme is always the same).

When I am done with the Sunday sermons, teachings, dialogues, experiences, I know full well I’m not done preaching for the week. Yes, one aspect of preaching is being God’s mouthpiece. But an equally important part of preaching is the way I live my life. I must strive for Christ to shape me into a walking example of Paul’s admonition: “Follow my example as I follow Christ’s.”

I don’t say what Paul says, but rather I try to live in such a way that my example can be followed. That means I am a servant, a giver, an encourager, a God-bearer.

Now, I’ve been preaching this way long enough to know that I will have both good soil and bad soil in my sphere of influence.

What is good soil? Those persons who desire to be and experience Jesus above all else.

What is bad soil? Everyone else.

Can bad soil become good soil? Absolutely … but the outcome is not my responsibility. I simply spread the seed and leave the rest to the Spirit of God. When I find good soil, I focus the majority of my energy, time, and resource in that good soil.

This will inevitably mean that I can’t spend much time with those not hungering to be disciples. I hear the groans now: “Isn’t a pastor supposed to treat all parishioners the same, after all?: In a word: No! A pastor who operates through this fruitless exercise may be more spiritual than even Jesus. Because Jesus invested his time and energy and resource in the good soil; not the bad. The greatest waste of my life would be investing in bad soil.

Now about equipping others to be ministers. This is exactly what Jesus did. He gathered twelve around him, invested his life in them, equipped them, and sent them out to ministry. Sure, one proved faithless. But through the rest of that rag-tag bunch, the world was turned upside down.

What if I invest in equipping just twelve other people? What if I disciple them to grow in grace? What if I enable them to be ministers who preach the gospel by the way they live their lives and, in turn, they equip others to be ministers? I think at least Coastal Georgia might be turned upside down!

So that’s what I believe my calling is: preaching and equippping. I’m not called to:

• steady a sinking ship;
• mediate petty, un-Christlike arguments;
• be a quivering mass of availability;
• lay down God’s call and vision for the selfish desires and wrong thinking of others;
• marry and bury people;
• run programs;
• be the only dispenser of grace in a faith community;
• etc., etc., etc. …

Oh, I may do some of that … only in as much as it serves the core calling. And in that calling, I am fearless for I trust a God who consistently and without fail weaves beauty out of brokenness.

SO TELL ME:
Are you preaching and equipping? If so, how?

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com

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Tags: perspective, preach, gospel, equip others, ministers, community, Jesus, ministry, disciple

When I can’t sleep, or the pressure of the work at hand causes me to retreat, or I go researching something which long ago I lost sight of and can’t for the life of me remember … That’s when I find myself doing it.

What? I find myself reading the rants of various “Christian” perspectives from those with fundamentalist leanings or those with emergent-as-a-system leanings. I find myself picking apart weak theology, or shallow ecclesiology, or emotionally clouded apologetics.

And then to decompress and recover the minutes wasted as I vicariously follow the intra-Christian absurdities that plague the reputation of Jesus-followers, I flip on my iTunes and here’s what plays: “The Lark Ascending.”

And my entire being stirs for authentic life lived in Christ. Just now as the lark swirls higher into the clouds with my sense of reality girded under its wings, I look at my dim and empty living room, remembering what took place here 24 hours ago:

A small group of 10 friends … some we’d known a few months, some just a day … gathered for a time of food, fellowship, and simply sharing life. We laughed, got to know each other better, shared space and time in a sacred way. We lived the lark … we’re still living the lark.

And the Spirit encourages me that life lived is the thing … the most important thing … the very thing for which God became a baby writhing in a cow’s food digs … the very reason God yielded the sacred life to a public execution … the very reason Christ took up his life again and breathed on the assembled his Spirit of grace and truth.

SO TELL ME:
Are you living the life? Or are you avoiding it?

SO TELL ME SOMETHING ELSE:
If you are living the life … How? Why?

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com
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Tags: fundamentalist, emergent, ecclesiology, Jesus-followers, Lark Ascending, authentic, friends, sacred way

Ideas are brimming these days. Before my traveling began, God was already tipping the dominoes on several different chains of events that could have significant impact for the kingdom in the earth. Seeing what God is doing and searching to find my place in it leads me to several observations:

My frustration level is higher and God’s progress is diverted only when two things happen–

I disobey the Lord’s prompting by not carrying through with what God is inpsiring in my heart; either because of fear or because the inspiration usually doesn’t fit within the usual parameters of “doing church” (though it spurs us on to be the church); OR

I attempt to control the beginnings of what God is doing for what I perceive to be the logical results.

Guess what … God’s activity is most prevalent when I just jump into what God is already doing … when I call for those I serve to jump with me into God’s future … when I don’t waste time on “bad soil” that isn’t willing to let go of comfort zones and step into the Spirit-led future of Christ.

So, I’ve jumped! I’m in 100%.

Living this way as a Christ-follower in a Christian faith community is an organic way to be the Church. It’s messy, somewhat chaotic, unpredictable … but alive and so much better than what the Church has encountered for 40+ years.

Imagine a faith community that actually means something to its neighborhood, its neighbors, its city and county. Imagine people discovering how uniquely God has created them for just such a time as this. Imagine a God that does not even see a box and calls us to be more than outside a box, but to be blind to any parameters as well.

Sounds like what was happening when Jesus, Peter, and Paul were alive. Sounds ancient. Sounds like the future, too.

SO TELL ME:
Are you ready to jump? If so, what are you jumping into?

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com

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Tags: praying, relationship, God, kingdom, inspiration, doing church, be the church, God’s activity, future, Christ, Christ-follower, faith, organic, Jesus, ancient

I feel it’s my responsibility to be as honest with such a dialogue as possible. The great ideas we read in books regarding the paradigm shift of the Church from a Christendom mentality to a practiced communal faith and life are just that — things we read in books.

Oh, they are happening somewhere. Someone has witnessed them. But not usually the ones who read the books.

I’m discovering that Christian life — being a follower of Jesus in relationship with other followers — is far more improvised than I read it described it books.

To truly be a follower of Jesus places us at odds with lots of folks. As a pastor who is a follower of Jesus, that sometimes means I’m even at odds with those who have been Christians longer than I’ve been alive.

It’s not easy. But it’s rewarding to know that we’re being obedient. It’s rejuvenating to see God actually working. It’s the stuff that someday could be the makings of a book.

But I’d rather live it than read it.

SO TELL ME:
Are you “in vocational ministry” and trying to “live it?”

SO TELL ME SOMETHING ELSE:
What’s it like for you?
——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com

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Tags: chat, ministry, seminary, dialogue, Church, Christendom, faith, Christian, follower, Jesus, relationship

The Question:

I am assuming that you have an emergent church outlook. If this is a correct assumption, then could you tell me what the goal of the Emergent Church is? Specifically is there a reformation being sought or simply a separation from the present Church?

My Reply:

I wouldn’t say I have an emergent movement outlook toward the Church and ministry. Yet, I am sympathetic to much in the emergent movement.

That said, there are separatists in the movement. I do not identify with the separatists.

I do believe the Church should always be in the reform process. Much in the emergent movement helps in that endeavor. The difficulty with any spiritual movement is that it tends to become a religious institution. Look at the Protestant Reformation. A great move of the Spirit that resulted in more denominations than I can count or am even aware of … each with its own “manual� or governing policy. As I read Luther, I am convinced that’s not what he had in mind when he nailed the 95 to the door.

In our own movement (yet another “split� in Protestantism that emerged about 100 years ago), some spiritual leaders wanted to identify with the disenfranchised in society. 50 years later there is an emphasis in the heartland and southeast on holiness defined by what an individual does not do. Only in recent decades have we begun to remember and rehearse what began the movement titled “Church of the Nazarene.� In so doing, we are beginning to live a renewed and reformed faith.

Any good “emerging� perspective will make a half-turn toward orthodoxy while keeping a steady pace toward the future.

SO TELL ME:
Do you discern a difference between “emergent perspective” and “Emergent Church?”

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com

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Tags: pastor, emergent, church, Emergent Church, reformation, separatists, reform, spiritual, religious, Luther, disenfranchised, Nazarene, orthodoxy, future