Neighbours’ Hope
As the Southern sun
angles across the North,
monochromatic green gives way,
revealing sweet treasure
in leaves of gold,
and red, and orange,
so Grace does
for our
souls.
Change
After Noon Prayers
Most days my sight
avoids the intersection
of creation and sorrow.
Others are standing there.
I see them; they are caught mid-step
by the weight of loss.
Grieving in Mogadishu;
running as Rohingya;
neighbours on the other side of my heart.
Oh, that I could run.
Together we could kneel
before One who knows the hours.
We would cry
for mercy.
Jump Start Your Church Commitment
Jumping into life in your new University community can be exciting and intimidating. We’ve learned that when moving to a new place its tempting to leave our engagement in church community as a “I will get to it someday” kind of thought. But getting involved with a church on campus could be one of the best decisions of your life.
In the first few weeks of University getting involved in a church may seem like something that can wait. But I encourage you, don’t wait. Your mind and time is soon going to be truly occupied with study, new friends, and incredible opportunities to grow. If you don’t put your engagement in a church community at the front of your agenda you may never get to it.
First the Benefits
Maybe you have never really had to think about the benefits of being part of spiritual community charged with following Jesus Christ and fulfilling His mission. When you were with friends and family, “gathering with the church” with just assumed. But now that you are on your own in University — nobody is there to bring you along; its your decision.
But think about it. What have been some of the benefits of being part of your church? Have you
1. Had a community that overflowed with a passionate pursuit of Jesus Christ in worship and mission together?
2. Had a community that challenged you and showed you how to grow in your walk with Jesus?
3. Had a community that laid their lives before Jesus and courageously integrated His Word into all that they do?
4. Had a community that rejoiced in an created opportunities to use the gifts given by the Holy Spirit to men and women?
5. Had a community that cared for you and shared life with you even when things were not going well?
This is what church does. And as a follower of Jesus you are called to be a part of making all these things happen.
Choosing a Church
So how do you go about choosing a church? Maybe you have never done that before; it may have been done for you. Maybe you tagged along with friends or were “happily” compelled to go along with your family. But now its up to you. Here’s a few things to do:
- Pray. Ask God to help you get situated in a church family.
- Search online. Just google it: “churches on campus.” In our case, you can search out “UBC churches” and you will see what’s here.
- Make a plan to check out the gatherings — large group and small group.
- Settle in quickly. Our suggestion is to get settled in congregation within the first 5 weeks of the term.
Some questions to consider as you visit:
- Am I familiar with the tradition or network of churches this (new congregation I’m visiting) is a part of?
- What’s the environment like here for lifting up Jesus and elevating God’s Word in life?
- Are there opportunities for me to serve, get connected, and to grow?
A church is Jesus’ people. Its the very movement that Jesus started and He calls the church His. Jesus loves the church and will help you, even call you, to be a part of a church family during your university years. Jesus seems to reserve some lessons and some healing in our lives for what will happen in the fellowship of His people. For example, Jesus didn’t show Himself to Thomas, until Thomas had gathered with other disciples of Jesus (See John 20:24-39). So it is with our growth with Jesus. Some lessons on faith, life, love, and ministry will not be learned unless they are learned in relationship with other followers of Jesus. So I encourage you, plan now to find a church a make commitments there. The lessons you learn there and with that people can serve you for a lifetime of mission and discipleship.
If you went off to University and got involved in a church — how did you go about making the decision?
Filed under: UBC Churches, church on campus, Origin Church, UBC, Born for More
Get out of the boat… Jesus is calling.
I’ve been leading our summer term crowd at Origin Church through a series on Peter. More specifically we have been considering how Jesus moves, disciples, and shepherds Peter. In my mind the series is all about “How the Carpenter Shepherds the Fisherman.” We are discovering clues into how Jesus will disciple us!
Last week I serendipitously rediscovered John Ortberg’s book, If You Want to Walk On Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat. He has wonderful observations about our view on failure and the negative take we often have on Peter. Here’s what Ortberg writes:
Did Peter fail?
Well, I suppose in a way he did. His faith wasn’t strong enough. His doubts were stronger. “He saw the wind.” He took his eyes off of where they should have been He sank. He failed.
But here is hawt I think. I think there were elven bigger failures sitting in the boat. They failed quietly. They failed privately. Their failure went unnoticed, unobserved, uncriticized. Only Peter knew the shame of public failure.
But only Peter knew two other things as well. Only Peter knew the glory of walking on the water. He alone knew what it was to attempt to do what he was not capable of doing on his own, then feeling the euphoria of being empowered by God to actually do it. Once you walk on the water, you never forget it–not for the rest of your life. I thin Peter carried that joyous moment with him to his grave.
And only Peter knew the glory of being lifted up by Jesus in a moment of desperate need. Peter knew, in a way the others could not, that when he sank, Jesus would be wholly adequate to save him. He had a shared moment, a shared connection, a shared trust in Jesus that none of the others had.
They couldn’t, because they didn’t even get out of the boat. The worst failure is not to sink in the waves. The worst failure is to never get out of the boat.
Hey, get out of the boat! Jesus shows up in our storms and our struggles. When we get a glimpse of Him in them and want to be with Him and in on what He is doing in the world, call out to Him. If He says, “Come on,” then get out of the boat and follow Him! Peter’s heart, his affection for Jesus, drew Him to pursue Jesus in spite of the storm and the waves. When Peter’s head caught up he had to engage faith in Jesus on a new level — and as we will see Jesus faithfully showed up!
It seems that more growth with Jesus happens “outside” the proverbial boat — that circle of comfort — that circle of anonymity — that circle of familiar people and practices — than in it!
Good News for Intellectual Inquiry
photo credit: Jaie Miller
I’ve been thinking about intellectual inquiry and my Christian experience as a person of faith. Six recent experiences have catalyzed my thinking about the topic:.
Conversations with students in my Life Group at UBC.
Reading Scott McKnight and Dennis R. Venema — Adam and the Genome.
My disappointment elicited by ecclesial pragmatism.
Praying through the text for the latest Origin Church gathering. Luke 24:13-35, The Emmaus Road.
Reading Allister McGrath, Inventing the Universe.
Pondering the most recent Angus Reid report, Religion in Canada – 150.
It’s tempting to believe that intellectual inquiry, especially our own, is a solitary experience and can be a pure experience of reason. We may imagine going off by ourselves into the wilds of the Canadian wilderness. But “by ourselves” is an illusion. I say that even as a baptist, a protestor. Such theological independence is an illusion fuelled at its worst by pride but at its best perhaps by a more hopeful motive – a yearning for purity of thought and a desire to live well and close to Christ.
The intellectual survivalist imagines what it would be like to come to truth by themselves. I believe they stand to delude themselves into believing they are the solitary champions of truth. These intellectual Christopher Knights dive into the woods, avoiding people of faith, when in truth they are dependent on other people of faith for their survival. Christopher Knight was recently upheld as one who survived alone for 27 years. But he didn’t survive alone. His independence and isolation actually required the enterprising provision of 100 other families. In fact his solitary experience of 27 years required a community, even be it an unwilling community. In relation to them he lived as a parasite. (I think my catholic and orthodox friends may have a field day with this metaphor… but I’ve put it out there anyway. He smiles.)
Intellectual inquiry doesn’t happen in a vacuum of pure reason. Intellectual inquiry occurs in the interplay between what we think and what we experience. Its a process but not a linear process. If we are honest about the intellectual process of inquiry its best seen as a cyclical process in which we poke into a matter, retreat into consideration, poke into a matter again and retreat into consideration, poke again with others, and then retreat with others for consideration, and then we land on or in a statement of ______. (You fill in the blank. Its tempting to believe its a statement of reason. But on the matters that truly matter — justice, love, purpose — you land on a statement of faith. Reason from scientific “fact,” as Allister McGrath notes, actually has a very small landing area.) Intellectual inquiry may indeed have its moments of serendipity and even ecstasy, but most often its a prolonged agony, especially as we test out, idealize and realize the statement of faith we will adjust our lives to in response to Jesus Christ.
Why prolonged agony: Faith seeking understanding.
Anselm introduced the phrase which we can use to describe the process by which persons of faith move forward with reason in their life of faith. I am proposing its use in the most relational and faith-full of ways. Faith seeking understanding is personal. Personal and communal faith seeking understanding is constantly agitated by the question of truth. Although we declare and may experience the confession, “my faith has found a resting place,” this process sets us up with a persistent willingness to not only tolerate disruption but to also engage the disruption with Christ and grow in Him.
We enter Christian faith via the person of Jesus Christ. Inquiry is an enterprise in which we commune with Him allowing ourselves to be taught by the Resurrected Lord Jesus and drawn to participate in His Kingdom as dearly loved citizen-family-sojourner-friends. While there are many questions that may be settled in our lives by faith in Christ, there is usually something just around the corner to stir us up: our stage and season of life; the questions raised by the city we live in; new discoveries or perspectives in science; a reading of Scripture; a traumatic experience; the inquiry of other persons of faith. All these can disrupt our peace and ease of faith thus pushing us to enter into the agony again of intellectual inquiry.
I find the Emmaus Road text helpful for framing some of my expectations for intellectual inquiry. I am enthralled with the image of Christ accompanying us in the journey of life. There are several relationships at play here: me with others, us with Christ, and me with Christ. Furthermore this framing accepts intellectual inquiry as an active process (a journey) strung out over time, punctuated with rest and with a movement between community and solitude. Three processes can be engaged as intellectual inquiry:
1. Identifying unmet or crushed expectations. Here we are trying to understand what makes no sense to me; this requires that we identify my expectations being challenged by reality. This is most often accomplished when the community asks me personal questions and waits for my answers. I may not have yet given voice to the reality I’m facing and I may not have yet actually named the unmet expectations. On the Emmaus Road, the “unknown companion” (who we as readers know is the Resurrected Jesus) leads them into inquiry. “What are you discussing among yourselves?” Their answers reveal unmet expectations and realities they are trying to comprehend. They were trying to make sense of that which made no sense to them. Their expectations of Jesus of Nazareth as the redeemer of Israel were unmet, for Jesus was crucified. (It was traumatic.) Their expectations that it was all over when Jesus died on the Cross were overturned by the women’s proclamation that Jesus is alive. Intellectual inquiry has to take hold of both matters: new realities and unmet expectations.
2. Welcoming strangers or even people we know as companions who teach/explain from the wealth of their pool of knowledge. Intellectual inquiry welcomes the company of people who can shine a light on our ignorance or on the shape of our mental map of reality without annihilating our own agency or participation in the process. On the Emmaus Road, the unrecognized Jesus becomes not only their fellow traveler but also their rabbi. He challenges the foolishness of their picture of the Messiah. He truly rocks their boat; he creates more disequilibrium and in so doing creates the space to learn something they didn’t yet comprehend. (He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”) Although they had the “right Scriptures” they had the wrong picture of the Messiah and thus had created the wrong expectations about the outcomes God desired. The Messiah had to suffer and then enter His glory. That was a different picture. So beginning with the Scriptures which they “knew” he explained to them what they did not yet see. Their seven mile walk must have gone quickly! The two travellers invited their teacher to remain with them longer and share a meal; they were inviting further consideration and relationship.
3. Receiving grace to recognize and authorize Jesus as Lord so we become His witness.
Now Jesus does not require our authorization to be Lord. He is Lord. He has received the name that is above all names that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord. However, in relationship to Jesus in this life He is actually the initiator of intellectual inquiry. Jesus Himself approached the travellers with questions to stimulate their inquiry with Him. And in so doing, Jesus seems to not really be interested in making sure these two travellers make it to Emmaus. Jesus is truly interested in giving them the grace to recognize Him as the Resurrected One and become His witness. Intellectual inquiry does not need to cease with the acknowledgement of Jesus Christ as Lord of All. It needs to begin and to continue. These two travellers, Cleopas and the unnamed disciple, return to Jerusalem quickly to report to the others that Jesus is alive. They are witnesses now to the Resurrected Lord. Their repentance, their change of mind, their authorization of Jesus as Lord, is quickly translated into their return to Jerusalem and their testimony among the disciples as His witness.
There is good news for intellectual inquiry: Christ is Risen. For the follower of Jesus, every venture into intellectual inquiry if it is in the company of Jesus as Lord can find its culmination in communion. Though we may be tempted to build hollow identities on intellect, or on the prevailing virtues of our academy, or perhaps even on being a hostage of our deathly doubts, the Spirit of God woos us to recognize Jesus and become a participant in His death and His resurrection. I don’t need to fear the disruptions of unmet expectations and confounding realities. Jesus says, “Do not be afraid.” However, I do need company for intellectual inquiry. And I do need to comprehend Christ in ten thousand places.
This is the grace we desire. Lord, help my unbelief.
The is the joy of the Lord. Lord, warm my heart to you.
This is life redeemed. Lord, you!