An E-mail Chat...

(Hey - The following is an e-mail chat that took place today between Dr. Rich Frazer, President of Spiritual Overseers and a board member of Patrick Crossing. I took the liberty to clean up the misspelled & omitted words; otherwise, this is the real deal. It reflects both a great spiritual friendship and some current thinking in regard to simple church. Enjoy). - CJ

Date: Feb 27, 2007 1:37 PM
Subject: Chat with Rich Frazer

1:37 PM Rich: How you feeling about everything?

1:39 PM me: Okay - just getting a number from a college student - hang on. Had 5 great contacts today. already getting appointments set up for the new office.

1:40 PM Rich: Great! Are you still feeling the sense of freedom - like you were made to do ministry this way vs. institutional, keeping the machine going kind of thing?

1:42 PM me: Yes. but, there is the lure of the default - the default being - "Geeze, how are we going to accommodate all the people that we're meeting and beginning to see some fruit in? Let's think it through. Let's stress. Let's get busy." I am intentionally trying to NOT think about the future but to keep focused on the moment. It is a hard discipline and one the Lord seems to be insistent that I learn - at least for now.

1:47 PM Rich: The paradigm you're working toward (DANG - there is that preposition at the end of a phrase again) gives you freedom - and maybe the opportunity to redefine or recast, or rediscover (that's the word) what "ministry" objectives are - ie, NOT simply getting them to show up, lift up, and shovel out. What do you want these people to become?

1:56 PM me: That is becoming really easy to define. I have spent my ministry life loading people up with great concepts, great facts, 7 steps to this - 10 steps to that. I think, for the most part, I have succeeded in making people more religious - in the bad sense of that word. I know a lot of "factual" believers that are not terribly pleasant to be around, nor are they effective change agents for the kingdom. My goal is more Hebraic. I want to help people experience the nexus of God actively involved in their everyday affairs - to experience the supernatural presence of God at work in them and through them. If a person experiences God using them in some way, or providing miraculously for them - it is worth a thousand sermons. I find that the kind of challenge that gets people to that place is most effectively accomplished when I can see them face to face - where we can linger, where questions can be asked. Which would I rather have - a hundred people really experiencing God in the daily - or a thousand people showing up each week and learning a few religious facts? Application is more than just being inspired to go and do something. Application is revelatory. Paul prayed for the Ephesians to have a spirit of wisdom and revelation. The reality of the near presence of the Lord so blew away the writer of Hebrews and Paul that they would talk about the boldness of entering his throne room and really expecting Divine intervention - at any time. The word for "understanding" in the Greek is way more encompassing than just getting a fact in our head. One word study I did showed that it involved the totality of our entire humanity - all five senses - and more.

1:58 PM Rich: I would love for you to be my pastor. I'll wait till you're done to write more...


2:01 PM me: Hey, membership is open! Also, as far as "thinking" goes - Jesus talks about the leaven of the Pharisees, the leaven of Herod, and the leaven of the kingdom of this world. When you think about it - each represents some way of thinking that robs our faith. Our mind is a sort of gatekeeper for our faith. If our mind is leavened by any or all of these power bases, faith cannot be released and we cannot experience God. It is that simple. Our mind can be so corroded by religious thinking, by political thinking or by worldly thinking - that faith is never given an open gate from our mind to be released. Setting the captives free seems to be part of the job description.

2:04 PM Rich: And you are a great visual aid for the concept. What a great way to say it - faith needs to be released. Without it we cannot please God. I guess He is "unpleased" much - if not most - of the time. Personal testimony. Defining faith, though is precarious. I've heard that faith is a positive response to God's initiative. Saying "yes" to the opportunities He has already laid out for us (Eph 2:10). I know the definition in Hebrews - looking for what we can't see and waiting for what is coming. I like that, too. So - what thoughts can we implant into people's minds so they are THINKING Faith (good title for a sermon) 24/7, and responding with Christian Character and buying up - redeeming - the opportunities before them in these evil days? What say ye, Pastor Curt?

2:13 PM me: Well, how about this? Let's allow some mystery to re-enter the faith walk. To tidy up our theology to the point where there is no mystery - by definition - requires no faith. In other words, if my theology and methodology is so secured that I don't need to even think or process - I already have an answer or a methodology sequestered away - then why is faith even necessary? I simply believe in my beliefs which can pretty much run on automatic. That is not faith. I am blown away by how many times Paul uses the word mystery in his writings - it is a great "word bunny trail" to pursue. Great is the mystery of godliness. Mystery means that options are still on the table - the future is malleable. God can do anything because He is God. He can intervene at any moment for the most pedestrian of concerns - He can use me anytime, anywhere, to be his agent of change. That immediacy of His creative presence seems to be what the book of Acts is all about.

2:15 PM Rich: Amen. And what if IT really IS done according to our faith? I guess it really is. It is.

2:17 PM me: Yes, that is the point. Faith is exposing ourselves to the immediate presence of God's creative availability to release His wisdom and power into a situation. Wasn't it called the book of "Acts."

2:19 PM Rich: Yes, Acts. Or Doings.

2:19 PM me: It wasn't called the book of Doctrine. My job description boils down to: I get up in the morning and God does stuff.

2:21 PM Rich: Doings wrought by God through faith in the power of the Holy Spirit. Faith (animated) and THE Faith (doctrine). THE Faith leads to faith. "Our Father" leads to "Your Kingdom come," give us this day, etc. yada yada yada. So - what do you need to do to catch yourself responding with confidence to God-ordained opportunities on a consistent basis?

2:27 PM me: To come full circle - we need to live in the moment - that is where God operates. He forgives our past, He secures our future, but He works with us in the present. Thus, I must keep my guard up against trying to ferret out the machinery of the future - what I was trained to do in seminary and beyond. Everyone wants to know the vision. What is the good future ahead? A better question would be: "What is the present opportunity?" God is already in the future figuring things out and arranging things. I don't want to crash that party anymore. It seems at the very least like bad manners - like talking to someone but always glancing over their shoulder. Intimacy happens in the moment. The Lord is here - right now - what more do I need or need to know than that? The Psalmist said, "The nearness of my God is my good."

2:33 PM Rich: Vision gives me intentionality, incentive, and a greater perception of what our Lord is doing now in light of what I hope and think He will ultimately accomplish then. For me - it's then that helps me see Him at work and close now.


2:36 PM me: Yes, we run amuck w/o vision. But, vision has been horribly co-opted by our penchant for "long-range planning". Vision, to me, is spelled out in the great commission, "Go into the future and make disciples. Teach them all this stuff that I taught you - teach them how to do it."

2:42 PM Rich: Excellent point. Vision precedes long-range planning. Vision is not the culprit - it is our hope!. Though we can plan the HS out of it all and build it all on a business model - sans faith. That always bugged me.

2:43 PM me: Yep. So full circle - life is good, carrying a light yoke, keeping it real in the moment - (no committee meetings ahead!) - Gotta run .

God in a neon sign...(Not deep. Not deep at all).

So, I was driving home this evening after meeting with a guy who I am helping grow in the faith. As I passed one of the new strip malls that houses an oil change business and a tire shop, I noticed that the second letter on the neon sign of the tire shop was burned out. It read: G_OD YEAR. "Cool," I thought.

Was it a sign from God? Would God burn out a letter on a new neon sign just to give me a sign? Sounds good. I'll take it... Except that stuff that Jesus said about a wicked and perverse generation needing a sign. Well, I didn't really need a sign - or ask for one - so maybe this was okay. But then, I kinda felt bad for the owner of the new biz. having problems with his new sign and all.

I have bumped into a few folks who would have fallen down and worshipped on the spot, built a little shrine, opened a gift shop, or - sent out one of those e-mails with cheesy Casio generated music in the background, and fat little angels wisping about the page with words that tell you to send it to ten others and that, if you love Jesus, not to break the chain of the "sign" blessing. "It was a sign ON a sign. It HAD to be from God! God is going to bless me and you and all who read it THIS year. I declare and prophesy: IT IS A G_ODYEAR."

Goodyear, G_odyear - no big dif. to me. It is a distinction without a difference. A G_odyear is a Goodyear. And, a Goodyear is a Godyear. I would have even been blessed by a burned out "r". Goodyea_! Oh yeah! A burned out "d" would have alarmed & confused me: Goo_year. And, I have definitely had years that were missing both the "g" and the "o": _ _odyear. So....with all of that in mind - it must have been from God. Look for an e-mail soon. Don't break the chain! (Gotta borrow a Casio and get busy).

Rambling on...Did you hear the one about Paddy, an Irishman, who was late for a meeting and was having trouble finding a parking place? In desperation he cried out to God and said, "Dear God, if you'll please give me a parking place I promise to go to church every Sunday and give up me Guinness and Whiskey!" Miraculously, a parking spot appeared, at which Paddy said, "Never mind God, one just opened up!"

Blessings -

CJ

The gift of obscurity...

One of the more troubling things I have observed in myself and in others is a desire to be noticed, admired, appreciated, thought of as the brightest bulb in the room, and so on. Affirmation is a drug. Most drugs, if given at the right time and in the right quantity, can do much good. So, it is with affirmation. A bit here and a bit there -applied with a right and sincere motive - is quite enough to keep us on our feet. But, for many of us, we move about like crazed addicts seeking a fix when it comes to affirmation. We desperately want to be singled out for our wit, wisdom, sacrifice, spirituality, giftedness and good works. Now, the really adept among us are able to pretend as if we do not want to be singled out, when in fact, we really do. But either way, when such notice fails to arrive in sufficient quantities and in tightly modulated frequencies, we suffer much.

I remember many times - after leading worship, or preaching what I thought an incredibly insightful message - sort of waiting around for someone from my family to comment. When no one took notice of my sighs and my fidgeting about, I began fishing: "Well, that was a good service today, wasn't it?" "Yeah dad...yep, a dandy...what's for lunch?" Or, "Hey honey, did you get what I was talking about?" "Uh, huh. It was good." Inside, I went Vesuvius..."Good??? My gosh - do you have any idea of the hours I poured into that 40 minute message. Good??? How about, awesome? How about: That message defined my life and my purpose. You touched the very ground of my being. You made my soul soar. I now want to be a missionary, a Sunday School teacher, fight poverty, cure cancer, run for President, and pray 8 hours a day." That's the sort of thing my grade USDA flesh wanted to hear.

And here's the thing...the very strange thing - Jesus Himself wants to affirm us - but in much the same, understated way. He has promised to His faithful followers that at the end of our days, when we stand before Him, He will say to us: "Well done, good and faithful servant." How nice. But wait a minute. That doesn't sound like much either. Yes, yes consider the source. After all, it is Jesus saying those words. But it sounds like little more than a verbal pat on the head.

I have thought about this future moment a lot over the years. Thousands of sermons preached, thousands of hours in prayer, skills mastered, sacrifices made, people helped - and what do I get? "Good job, Curt. Welcome to heaven. Have a look around. It's a great place. Next!" I suppose my over-active imagination has a diminishing effect on the real majesty of that which the Scripture is attempting to convey. But doesn't this simple exchange remind you a bit of a commencement exercise? You stand in line, slowly move up the steps, and then, finally, it is your turn in the spotlight. A guy hands you a degree, you both pan for the camera, flash a hideous grin , you see a blur of family members shamelessly shoving people aside to snap pictures - there is grandma, there's dad, there's your uncle - and then, "Bam!", it is over. "Get off the stage - you're holding up traffic. The next "well done" needs to be greeted." Honestly, I have received more enthusiasm and affirmation from a waitress, or an insurance agent or Expedia.com.

What was I expecting? Jesus doing cartwheels? A band? A speech from a born-again Senator? I don't really know. But, this humble welcome is a more than a little puzzling. 6 words. (7 words if you include the "thou" from the King James). A lifetime summed up in six words. Puzzling. I would have expected more. And there's the zinger: expectations. That word. The great killer of relationships. The lurking demon of division. Expectations. Or, better yet - wrongful expectations. How many times have we found ourselves in major conflict because someone didn't live up to our expectations? Someone didn't pick up after themselves. Someone didn't put the dishes away. Someone dumped out a fresh load of laundry from the dryer and the dog made a bed on it. Someone didn't return our affections. You see, wrongful expectations have a way of fast-tracking us toward self-pity, toward martyrdom, toward anger and depression.

Somewhere in this equation we must come to grips with expectations. Just what was it we were expecting when we signed on with a man that the prophet Isaiah describes with such unflattering terms as this: "He doesn't have a body or a face that when we look at Him causes us any desire. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and well acquainted with grief - so much so - that we hid our faces from Him...?" Jesus would one day tell his disciples: "You know guys, the servant is not greater than the Master." And, "In this world you will have tribulations..." That is simply Jesus way of saying that what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

You want to know something about rightful expectations? Read those words of Jesus again. To counter wrongful expectations Jesus offers to the willing a narrow, mysterious and not so well trod path to follow with a little sign above it that reads: Obscurity. Obscurity is the private delight of a servant of Jesus. Obscurity - allowing God to work through us to heal, comfort, and to reconcile - without fanfare is a great secret and a great blessing. In those few moments in life when I have been healthy enough to walk in this truth, I have felt the pleasure and the presence of God in ways that could almost be described as delirious. I have felt His pleasure - His singing over me. When, however, I have whined and pined about not being appreciated or noticed - the distance to heaven grew to light year proportions. And there is this: that one troubling passage about those guys who showed up for commencement exercises and proceeded to carry on about how great they were in life, how many miracles they performed, how many demons they had cast out, how much money they had raised, and such - and what did Jesus say? "Depart from me. Shoo! I never knew you."

So you see, Jesus offers us the grace of obscurity, of learning to do the right thing when no one else is paying attention, of entering by the narrow and low gate of servanthood. It is where He lived His life when He was on this earth. It is where He lives out His life now.

Move that spotlight...just a little

There is a power in not being known - in remaining hidden. We can observe and discern so much more when: the light is not shining on us; when we are not making a noise about something we have done or said; and when our left hand is blissfully unaware of what our right hand is doing. Jesus, almost without exception, asked those to whom He ministered to keep things quiet. They rarely did. It seemed a modest request. I wonder what their motive was in breaking His trust? Could it have been that they somehow enjoyed some of the spotlight of His marvelous work? I mean, He did say, from time to time - "Your faith has made you well." Maybe that little pat on the back went to their heads. When I think about it - as unflattering as it might seem - I am pretty certain that I have done that very thing. Have I not said, "Praise God, look what He did with this incredible answer to prayer?" And, all the while, deep down within me, there was some little thought that flashed through my mind that went something like this: "Yes, praise God indeed, but also, be ye wowed at the great man of God standing before you that uttered the prayer to get those results."

I am sure the disciples must have had a similar, vicarious rush as they attended to the Master. I mean, think about it - you're out in the country, no good Jewish deli around, and Jesus hands you a small fish and says: "There disciple, go up and feed the folks in sections 1-5." You look at the little limp fish in your hand and then you look up at the crowds in your section and you guess, just guess, off the top of your head, that you're staring at maybe 750-1000 people. You can remember eating several little fish this size for brunch the day before. But, in doubtful obedience (is there any other kind?) you head toward the crowd and hand out your first fish - your only fish. But something amazing happens - another fish appears - smoked and seasoned, a first century MRE (Meal Ready To Eat). How incredibly cool is that? You giggle to yourself. On and on it goes -fish after fish. Before long, the miracle from God gets blurred by your participation in the miracle. "Yes, Joe - here's a fish for you and - whoa! - here you go Doris, here's a fish for you and well - check it out - here you go little Billy." Before too long you're like the peanut guy at baseball games. You're chucking fish behind your back, through your legs, doing hook shots. You start asking people if they want seconds. Awesome.

At Kadesh-Barnea, Moses went postal on a rock that God had told him to simply tap. It cost him his one-way ticket to the promised land. One scene-stealing moment and God took it personal and said: "Passport denied." That is troubling. I have always felt bad for Moses. I feel bad for me. How many times have I allowed a blessing of God to go by without personally trying to initial it? I feel like one of those guys in the posse of some famous rap star or boxer. How ridiculous they look when they preen and posture around the famous person and their only claim to fame is that they are somehow related to the star - not having themslves rapped or boxed. How pathetic.

Or, think of how ludicrous this sounds: "Praise God for His mercy, for His grace - and folks, ahem, that grace and mercy would just not have been possible without my sin - thank you very much." Who would glory in that? It kind of puts a different spin on things. But you see, all works of God on our behalf are works of mercy. Yes, those works are to be lifted up - better yet, the God who works those mercies on our behalf is to be lifted up - but it must be done in such a way that the spotlight doesn't move even a jiggle our way. To Him be glory and honor and praise, the Scriptures tell us. I just cannot find my name receiving even honorable mention.

I believe Jesus gave the command to be quiet not only so that He could get some work done - but also as a mercy to those who were the beneficiaries. Knowing the dim view God takes of stealing His glory, He didn't want these little folks to miss out on the future favor of God. So, it seems that there is in store for us some discernible intention toward aquiring a taste for the obscure - of allowing the spotlight to remain where it does us the most good - on Him , not on us. Our eyes were not made for such brightness, not at least until that day when He wipes away the tears of this world and we can then see clearly. It is this appreciation for obscurity which we'll talk about in the next post. Crazy blessings on your day.
-CJ

The supernatual moment...

If we resist that common temptation to worry and strategize and dwell primarily on the future, we are then liberated to discover the possibilities and opportunites given to us in the present. Great futures are secured by that which is recognized and acted upon in the moment. This present moment is where God - who dwells in eternity, above and outside of time and space - intersects with His creation, which is limited by the confines of chronology. The "now" is always infused with the supernatural. - CJ February 15, 2007