Paul must have known that his reading audience in Corinth would be reading these letters thinking, “Paul is a complete idiot,” “He doesn’t grow the church the way Apollos does,” “Paul is weird,” “Paul sure seems stuck on himself and his way of following Jesus,” “Paul just doesn’t understand what it’s like to live in Corinth,” and so on.

I find myself identifying with Paul’s missionary plight more and more in recent days.  I wish I didn’t.  I mean, even the religious elite in his own movement (i.e. Peter and the Council at Jerusalem) would look down on him … not to mention his former tribe (the Jewish leaders).

And yet, in the face of opposition from every side, and even from those who should be supporting him, Paul writes:

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. - 1 Corinthians 1:27

It’s frustrating to be considered foolish.  It’s frustrating to have “the system” breathing down your neck because leaders have aligned themselves more closely with the cultures of this individualistic, business-driven world than they have the Prince of Peace and God’s Kingdom.

Part of me wants to see the “shaming of the strong.”  God forgive me for that, even as much as I forgive the strong.

Still clinging to foolishness …

SO TELL ME SOMETHING:
How do you deal with walking the foolish path of Jesus?

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com
If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.Related Posts:

• Journeying with Jesus
• Sharing the Journey
• Disclaimer: “24″ Plot Confessions
• What’s Love Got to Do with It?
• Book Comments: “Selling Out the Church”

For now, I must share the page from Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest for yesterday, September 30.  It was timely and a perfect expression of where I am these days:

The Assigning of the Call

” I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church . . . “

-Colossians 1:24

We take our own spiritual consecration and try to make it into a call of God, but when we get right with Him He brushes all this aside. Then He gives us a tremendous, riveting pain to fasten our attention on something that we never even dreamed could be His call for us. And for one radiant, flashing moment we see His purpose, and we say, “Here am I! Send me” ( Isaiah 6:8 ).

This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. Yet God can never make us into wine if we object to the fingers He chooses to use to crush us. We say, “If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way, then I wouldn’t object!” But when He uses someone we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, to crush us, then we object. Yet we must never try to choose the place of our own martyrdom. If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed- you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.

I wonder what finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you? Have you been as hard as a marble and escaped? If you are not ripe yet, and if God had squeezed you anyway, the wine produced would have been remarkably bitter. To be a holy person means that the elements of our natural life experience the very presence of God as they are providentially broken in His service. We have to be placed into God and brought into agreement with Him before we can be broken bread in His hands. Stay right with God and let Him do as He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.

The grapes are being squeezed.  This is the sacramental life!Related Posts:

• Not Living By Bread Alone
• God Producing God
• Covenant: A Promise to Serve
• Stirring Up the Hornet’s Nest
• Where is God in Brokenness?

I’m honing in more on the similarities between my plight and that of my spiritual grandfather, Phineas Bresee.

Bresee was rejected by the establishment of his tribe.  His rejection culminated in the formation of a new tribe about 10 years later.

He was rejected because he wanted a Christian life that was not just about words.  Bresee not only believed that ministry to the urban poor was important, he intentionally stood with the poor in ruined communities. He and those around him defended the poor, advocated against the injustices that fueled poverty, and developed spaces of belonging and access in which the poor were, not only welcome, but at home.

Bresee and the early Nazarenes challenged social injustices.  They urged their church familiy to move from merely preaching a holiness of heart to expressing holiness of life–in the physical, ordinary, and mundane–as solidarity with the disenfranchised. This is in the direct line of my spiritual great-grandfather, John Wesley.

Because of the poor, Bresee called for radical simplicity of church facilities, not only because ostentatious styles were off-putting for the poor, but the sheer cost of unnecessary embellishments were poor stewardship of resources of God’s people. Tithes and offerings should be used to serve the poor, not build impressive structures. Likewise, words, dress, and lifestyle were to be simple … because of the implications for the poor.

Bresee once wrote:

The first miracle after the baptism of the Holy (Spirit) was wrought upon a beggar. It means that the first service of a Holy (Spirit)-baptized church is to the poor; that its ministry is to those who are lowest down; that its gifts are for those who need them the most. As the Spirit was upon Jesus to preach the gospel to the poor, so His Spirit is upon His servants for the same purpose.

And so Bresee was rejected by his church establishment for challenging Christians to live like Jesus.  He was rejected for being Jesus to the disenfranchised and seeing Jesus in them.  He was rejected for not becoming like the ones who already called themselves Christians.  He was rejected for suggesting church resources should be used for something other than maintaining an institution, a building, an flawed paradigm.  He was rejected for moving beyond a stale, useless, faith.

Bresee was rejected, just as Jesus was.  His primary persecutors were the most “religious” people of his day … as were Bresee’s.

So when I celebrate a centennial marker next week, I’m not celebrating the dawn of yet another schism in the Church universal.  I’m not celebrating the founding of a particular tribe in which I happen to be an ordained elder.  I’m not celebrating the misguided and failed ways we have exercised the inheritance of our spiritual ancestors.

Instead, I’ll be celebrating a wonderful idea made tangible: preaching the gospel to the poor in word and deed.

SO TELL ME SOMETHING:
Can you identify with the plight of Bresee?

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com
If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.Related Posts:

• The Legacy of Bresee
• Changes
• Bresee Vs. Constantine … Not Even Close
• Why Preaching Has Been Too Narrowly Defined
• What Is a Minister? – Part 3

To go where healing love is needed, and give it in a way in which it can be received, often means acting in the teeth of our own interests and preferences, even religious interests and preferences.  Christ risked his reputation for holiness by healing on the Sabbath; he touched the unclean and dined with the wrong people; he accepted the love and companionship of a sinner (that most wonderful of all remedies for the wounds of sin).  He loved with God’s love and so went straight to the point: What can I do to restore my fellow creature and how?

–From The Light of Christ by Evelyn Underhill

SO TELL ME SOMETHING:
How easy or difficult is it for you to be like Christ in these ways?

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com
If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.Related Posts:

• Some Excellent Quotes from Jim Wallis
• Trinity and the “Other”
• Sharing the Journey
• 24-hour Prayer Vigil … Hours 4 & 5
• Prayer of Humility

I am finding out time and time again that we do not have a welcoming culture, but a culture that says it is your job to become one of us. Do the paperwork in a timely matter and that proves your worth. Do this and do that and that will show you care enough…

I have learned that a call for a pastor should not be a call to “come be one of us, do what we want you to do.”  No, no, no.  The call comes from God and invites us to go be agents of change, renewal, and vision.

It seems that our Church culture has not embraced this movement yet.Related Posts:

• Still Detoxing
• Why I’m Serving as a Shelter Manager – Part 2
• Thoughts while considering the future of my local church
• What Is Emergent? Who Is Emergent? – Part 1
• “If I could just be one . . .”

“Courtney?”

“She said, ‘Hi, is Brian in; it’s Courtney.’”

I know some Courtney’s … but none that casually.  Who knows …

“I’ll take it.”

Courtney started out by asking if I received the really nice pen with Grace Community Church imprinted on it that she sent me for free.

“Ummmm … I’m sure our office manager might have seen it.”

“Well, can I direct you to a place on line that you can see what it looks like.”

“Courtney are you trying to sell me something?  Because we wouldn’t be interested in buying any promotional items.”

“Oh, well how do you promote yourself?  How do you say ‘thank you’ to your clients that come to your services.”

I’m thinking to myself that so many things are wrong with the question she just asked:

We don’t have clients; we have people.
We don’t thank people we see; we embrace them.
We don’t ask people to come to “services”; people are invited to worship gatherings.
People can’t come to “service”; people must go out to engage in service.
What the heck does promotion in a faith-community setting mean anyway?  (I’ve discussed this in response to church marketing before)

Instead of calling her on those points, I just replied to Courtney:  “We thank people by equipping them to be Jesus in their daily lives.”

Long pause … A few words incoherently started and abruptly changed … Finally Courtney says:  “Well, do … uhh … how do the people in your area know about your church?”

“Courtney, we just try to be the hands and feet of Jesus all the time.  As relationships and friendships are built, some people want to walk on the journey of faith with us.  Our thanks go to God for working ahead of us, and through us, and in us.  It’s hard to express that with a pen.  Much better to just live it, like Jesus did, don’t you think?”

Long pause … again … Finally:  “OK.   Well you have a good day … Thanks.”

“Thank you, Courtney.”

SO TELL ME SOMETHING:
How is your energy and money being used these days to live like Jesus … other than in pens?

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com
If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.Related Posts:

• Why I’m Serving as a Shelter Manager
• “If I could just be one . . .”
• The Mysterious Presence
• Relational Giving
• My Father’s Work

In my dealings with people over the last month of my busy life, I’ve relied on three things I’ve learned about Christian leadership to keep me focused on God’s calling, my priorities, and the need for Jesus in my community.

#1 — Just because I used to think a certain way doesn’t mean it’s true.

There are often times I take a retrospective look at my life and wish I could go back and get a second take on some situations and events. I shake my head as I remember how I used to passionately and unreservedly push my opinion through at meetings and encounters. It didn’t matter if I was right (and I’m wise enough to now realize about half the time I wasn’t right). What matters is how I handled the situation.

I used to think that if something was the right action then everyone else had better get on board or get out of the way. I still think there are rare occasions where this tact is appropriate, but it is seldom necessary. It’s far better to gain consensus. These days when I think I’m right about something, I sort of float the idea out and let others run with it. I figure if several others find it to be right, then we might be onto something. If not, then I eat my humble pie and move on.

This approach allows for a real sense of community. I think it pleases God.

#2 — Just because someone with more experience than me thinks something is right doesn’t mean it is.

I’ve never been one to blindly follow authority. I tended to be a skeptic of authority and try to find ways to “be better” than those over me. It was a fruitless exercise that caused me much grief … not to mention the headaches I gave to those over me!

These days I’m more apt to try to discover how an authority figure is trying to help me. Instead of focusing on our points of contention, I try to remember that the odds are this person is trying to help me but something is getting lost in translation.

Instead of making sure they fully understand my point at all costs, I try to retain a relationship that is open and honest. I may still disagree with the person in authority … I may still take a different course than what they want me to … But I do so letting them know I deeply appreciate their insight and good intentions. I ask them to pray for me as I take the next step.

#3 — When all else fails, look at what Jesus did and try to emulate that.

Several years ago during the WWJD craze, I never was a fan of the phrase. The more important question to me is “What DID Jesus do?” Granted, Jesus never sat in a church board meeting, or negotiated terms with a bank, nor hired staff, nor many of the other myriad things a Christian leader does that sometimes feels so unrelated to what he or she is called to do. But Jesus did have dealings with small groups of people: some for him and some against him. Jesus did try to deal with material matters in a way that pleased his Holy Father. Jesus did invite people to “come and see” and, despite hundreds of them turning away, a handful did become his disciples.

So when the logic of this world just isn’t making sense, and people who call themselves Christians aren’t acting like Christ-followers, and I seem to be surrounded by a lack of faith, and I’m unnecessarily challenged, I ask myself “What did Jesus do?”

Not only does that help me maneuver many situations I’d rather not deal with, it almost always opens me up to a surprise about this Jesus I serve. I learn a little more about who God is and what this life is about. That’s always worth the exercise.

SO TELL ME SOMETHING:
If you’re in leadership, what’s something you’ve learned?

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com
If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.Related Posts:

• An Un-Truth I Learned From the Church … And What I’ve Un-learned About It
• “If I could just be one . . .”
• Sin and Facial Hair 2
• “We are such stuff / As dreams are made on”
• We Need Culture Change in the Church