What is it about Bethel: Thoughts on the Revival at Bethel / Redding

The revival going on at Bethel Church in Redding California has been a subject of growing interest to many Christians in America and around the world since the late 1990's.  It is a long-lasting revival by any measure, and continues to grow in impact.  Linda and I relocated to Redding in September 2012 for personal revival and to get a much more intimate view of this church and its culture.  We have graduated from 1st year of the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, and that shapes our viewpoint, of course, but the culture of the church shines through everything Bethel does.  This is my perspective on the church as I see it today.

Worship at the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry.  The first
year school is held at the Redding Civic Center to allow space for
the 1,100+ students.  

It is easy to see that something extraordinary is going on just by visiting a church service: if you want a good seat in the main auditorium, plan on arriving about an hour early for the 10:30 AM Sunday service.  If you want any seat at all in the main auditorium, don't be late.  Lines form outside the auditorium to get in and claim a good seat.  The church has added an additional campus a few miles away to serve the growing membership.  A much larger campus will be completed not far away by 2020.

Furthermore, people move to Redding, a Northern California community, just to be part of this church.  We have met several couples who sold out, uprooted family, and moved here to be part of what God is doing. We know from conversation that  many have come in just this way.  We will be in their number this year.  We are in the process of selling our home in Anchorage, Alaska and moving to Redding where we are enrolled in the 2nd year ministry school, and where we intend to live until we know it is time to move again.

The Bethel ministry has global impact.  Bethel leaders travel frequently all around the world.  Thousands of churches are in relationship through the Bethel Leaders' Network.  

There are number of characteristics of the revival that has filled Bethel with holy fire.  Probably the most significant from my perspective is a powerful emphasis on seeking more of the Presence of God.  Senior Leader Bill Johnson, a sixth generation pastor, made a vow at the Toronto Blessing in 1995: "Lord, if You touch me again I will never change the subject".  He has kept the vow, and so has the church.

The Presence of God is valued above all else. While there are obviously tensions in church service timing, I have no doubt that in the event of a Holy Spirit move at any given church service, Bethel leaders would make space for Him and let everything else work around what He is doing.

Revival is the main Kingdom push.  Everything supports revival and/or flows out of revival.  There are MANY ministries in the church with MANY talented workers covering every aspect of the work of a local church.  But revival remains the main thing.  The signs, wonders, miracles and healings, for which Bethel is widely known, support revival, and flow from it.  The Church leadership team is working diligently to create a culture that will facilitate this present revival to continue and spread indefinitely.  Jesus is preached, not the Bethel way. Kingdom is what is important, not Bethel culture. 

Love undergirds the ministry.  The surpassing, unalloyed love of God is a major theme and is very visible in how people treat one another. The very visible culture of honoring one another is a practical outworking of God's kind of love.  Because of honor, Bethel relationships are low control and high accountability.  The church works hard to love and honor the Redding community in practical ways.   Bethel culture is highly relational.  Relationship has priority over structure.  Spiritual fathers and mothers are important; both broadly (e.g. Bill Johnson, Heidi Baker) and personally with individual relationships.  Family is key.  Children are celebrated and actively trained, not warehoused.  

The entire five-fold ministry is powerfully in operation.  The five-fold ministry is led by a strong apostle (Johnson) and a gifted prophet (Vallotton).  There are also: strong pastors (Silk, Backlund and many others)  exceptional teachers (Farrelly and others) and gifted evangelists.  Johnson and Vallotton have worked together for over 30 years, and have been in covenant working relationship since 2001.  This long term, covenant relationship, and other strong, decades-long relationships are a large stone in the foundation.  The apostle has transferred day-to-day decision making in the local church to his son, Eric Johnson.  Senior Bethel leadership is in relationship with other like-hearted ministries through the Revival Alliance.

The Bible School is focused on inner transformation pointing to a revivalist lifestyle.  Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM) is designed to bring students to a place of understanding their identity as believers, and their place of significance in the Kingdom of God.  Practice of Kingdom lifestyle is emphasized more than learning Bible facts, although Bible reading and intense study is required, and principles for understanding the Bible are strongly taught. Activation is key.  BSSM1 focuses on identity, core Kingdom values, and practice.  BSSM2 focuses on Kingdom practice, ministering to others, and leadership.  BSSM3 places graduating 2nd year students in intern positions at Bethel and in other ministries.  There will be around 2,000 students in all three training years in 2013-2014.  More than one-third of the students come from overseas; most from Europe, but also from Oceania, South America, Asia, and Africa.

Prophecy is celebrated. Prophecy is thoroughly taught, modeled and practiced.  It is seen as a way of bringing God's heart from Heaven to earth, and of edifying or "calling out the gold" in those around us.  It is one of God's calling cards and is taught as powerfully useful in evangelism and the everyday Christian life. In mid-winter, our daughter visited a Bethel 4th grade class with her baby.  The teacher asked if they would like for the kids to pray and prophesy over them.....and they did. 

Taking risks is encouraged.  Throughout the church, risk taking is encouraged.  BSSM1 students are told that they cannot graduate unless they make at least three mistakes.  "Messes" are not encouraged particularly, but they are expected as a necessary side-effect of risk taking.  Johnson says, "Any rule in the church that prevents a Judas from arising will also prevent a Peter or a John from arising."

Women and men are equal partners in ministry.  Bethel teaches that women can fill any role in ministry.  While women can be found in senior leadership positions of this ministry, the most visible leaders remain men. Nevertheless, the real intentionality test of this teaching is what is happening in junior levels of leadership, because these leaders are the future of the ministry.  What we see here is gifted younger women and men both rising rapidly into the roles that their gifts support.

There is more to report, of course.  And I am hardly an unbiased observer.  Nonetheless, I hope this will give you some useful insight into one of the powerful centers of revival that are rising around the earth in the early 21st century.

What have you heard about the revival at Bethel, and what do you think is its global impact?  Your comments are welcome below.  

Read more in this blog about Bethel and our experience within this community.

Our friend Dani posted these perceptive thoughts about Bethel on her blog:

3,000 Ever Notes and Counting

If you don't yet use Evernote, but do use a smart phone and/or tablet plus one or more computers, you may be missing an important productivity application.  Stay tuned for how this could be useful for the way you work.

First, how important IS Evernote to me (and potentially to you)?

Well, the counter on my Evernote rolled over 3,000 this past week....a little more than 1,000 notes per year, or around 20 new notes/week.  I mention this because it is a measure of usefulness.  I use Evernote multiple times daily, either referring to, editing, or adding new notes.

What does Evernote DO that makes it so useful to me and 50 million (February 2013) others?

For me, two things: 1) store digital snips of life, and 2) allow easy access to those snips via search or notebook on any of my platforms (PC laptop, Mac Mini, iPad, iPhone, or random computers with web access).  It all synchronizes securely via the Evernote cloud.  Some basic Evernote functions are:

• Notes - that might sound obvious, but I find notes are even useful for initial composition because they are available everywhere I work.  I add pictures, hyperlinks, formatting, audio, PDFs, and more to make notes even more useful.
• Audio - I often record audio from within Evernote.  For example, I record conversations with our financial consultant for future reference.  
• Pictures - Evernote is not designed for massive numbers of pictures, but it shines with the addition of pictures to notes, either individually or several at a time.  I usually add a picture to my daily journal entries in Evernote.
• PDF documents - I have a small sheet feed scanner about the size of a brick.  It will directly scan paper documents into Evernotes all day long.  All I have to do is title the note and add any tags.  Evernote automagically scans PDFs (and pictures with legible writing) and adds those words to the search database. For example, if you are searching for a PDF document containing "fenestration", it will go through all your notes, find and display the note for you.  
• Web clips - I use this a lot.  When I find a web page with information I might want to refer to later, I use the web page clipper extension in Chrome and clip to Evernote.  Clipping is better than bookmarking: 1) it provides searchable notes, 2) bookmarks are hard to locate again once you have more than a few hundred, and 3) web pages change, and the information you want could disappear.
• Other files - If you have the paid version of Evernote, you can store MS Word documents, Keynote files, etc.  This is useful if you are working in multiple locations.  
• There's more - Evernote has other tricks, too, but this is enough for synopsis.  And, it keeps getting better.

There is a LOT more that I could write, but let me end with this: Evernote has changed the way I work and think.  It is one of the few apps that appear on my iOS dock and PC taskbar.  But don't take my word for it....just try Evernote for a few weeks.  It's free, although there is a paid version which has some additional tools.

Do you use Evernote already?  Please share with me and other readers what you have found most useful about the program/app.

Maintaining Focus on What is Important....with TULIP

For some time now I have been planting fresh "T-U-L-I-P" at the beginnings of my days to help me focus on what is important.  TULIP is an acronym for five attitudes: thanksgiving, un-offended, love, identity and purpose.

TULIP is used as a memory aid in another context, but I like it for what I am doing.  You may want to focus on a different set of attitudes; the point is to keep them in front of us every day until they become an unconscious part of life.

I "plant" these in my journal at the beginning of the day.  Writing them each day keeps them fresh in my mind.  Because they are fresh, they continue to transform my mind, and help me remember to act on them during the day.  I become what I focus on.

Here is how I use TULIP:

T-Thanksgiving = I want to stay in a place of thankfulness.  Hard things will happen in every life, and I want to give thanks in all circumstances. 1 Thessalonians 5:18
U-Un-offended = I have chosen to live an un-offended life.  Offense blocks love.  Love is the essence of God and His Kingdom.  Love is more powerful than we can possibly imagine.
L-Love = Jesus commands that those who follow Him love their brothers and sisters. John 13:34-35 It's easy to pay lip service to that command, but I want to pay it feet and hands service, especially since I have seen its power.  Jesus loves everyone.  Why would I do less?  I have begun to say "I love you" to people: mostly behind my eyes, but when the circumstances are right, I say it out loud.
I-Identity = I am a son of the living God, and an heir. Galatians 4:7  If God is the King of Kings (Revelation 19:16) and He has made me a son, that makes me a prince.  I chose to walk in and from the princely identity of my sonship.
P-Purpose = My purpose is to worship God with my life.  I have other specific purposes within that; some I know and others are being revealed to me.  I write them out.

This is an actual example from my journal for May 9, 2013:

• Thanksgiving - Lord Jesus, I am deeply grateful for my Linda.  She's yours really, but you brought us together.  I love her on so many levels. 
• Un-offended - I will live un-offended today.  I will not allow offense to turn off my love.
• Love - I will change atmospheres by loving those around me today.  I will say "I love you" to those around me with my heart or my words.
• Identity - I am a prince of the Kingdom.  I will walk, talk, think and act as one today. I am an embodiment of the love of Jesus.
• Purpose - My purpose is to worship the King.  I will live my life today as worship.

This works for me.  When the opportunity for offense comes, I often remember my affirmation of living an un-offended life.  More and more I am speaking "I love you" behind my eyes.  Affirming my identity makes me walk taller and modifies my behavior.

How do you keep focus on that which is important to you?

A New Psalm

Bernie Ooley, one of our BSSM teachers challenged us to write our own psalm. It was a good exercise: it helped us enter the minds of the Israelite worshipers of 3,000 years ago. It helped to see understand a little more of the challenge of balancing praise and the art of framing it memorably.

She suggested no rules, and that's fair, because the Hebrew psalms are an eclectic lot.  Hebrew poems and psalms mostly did not rhyme internally, and even if they did, it would be lost on us, because we read them now in other languages.

The Hebrew poets instead used a variety of other literary techniques.  My worship psalm below uses chiasm and parallelism.  The parallelism reverses at the pivot point.

It turned into more than an exercise for me; it became an act of worship.  I know countless others who have taken pen to paper have had the same experience.

- | -

How is it, O Lord, that you who are so great, are so gracious to us;
why have you been so merciful and kind to us who are so small. 

For our home you crafted a universe beyond understanding;
for our cradle you spun a verdant, moist, warm, life-filled orb. 

You filled the planet with peoples of many tongues;
You chose one to be your own and bless the rest. 

When the time was right you stepped into time;
You came to help us home through your own Son. 

Your fire fell on 120 in an upper room in Jerusalem;
That fire now burns in millions `round the verdant orb. 

The end of the ancient cradle of man comes ever more near;
Yet you decreed the days of your faithful ones will never end. 

Why have you been so merciful and kind to us who are so small;
How is it, O Lord, that you who are so great, are so gracious to us.

Deep in Aslan's Country -- the Land of Love

This is a love story. It's not a boy-meets-girl love story. But when you have come to the end, you will know you have read a love story. 

We are now deep in Aslan's country -- the
Land of Love

The story starts with a group of about 70 mostly young and a few older men and women in the western United States. A few in the group are married, but most are single. A few are locals, but most come from other states and some from other nations. The group gets together most Monday afternoons, and at other random times. 

The group has a leader, an extraordinary young woman whose email tagline is "love always wins." This is not just a tagline for her; it is how she lives her life, and how she leads. 

Because of her skill, she in just a few weeks facilitated a high level of trust among the members of the group. The men and women in the group began sharing stories about their lives; their hopes, defeats, fears and joys. When brought out into the open, the worst disasters of life were covered with warm hugs, tender love and forgiveness heaped high around the broken-hearted. 

The love in the group quickly shot past even the high levels of love found in most church families. It continues to grow. The group has talked much and openly about boundaries, what it means to love, defining the relationship, bravely communicating, unconditional love, love without agenda, great male friendships, honor, the joy and majesty of sex -- and how in the real, non-media world, love is not always connected with sex. 

It is possible that a few romances may come out of this group; and if so, that would be wonderful, but what is over-the-top amazing is how many loving friendship relationships there are. Men aren't afraid to be like loving brothers or fathers to the women. The women trust and are affectionate with the men. 

Nearly every adult on the planet has a sex drive, but in this group, sex is subordinated to the right time in the right committed relationship. It has been foretold that going forward there will be no divorces in the marriages of this group. 

February was love month in this group. Mid-month, the men planned a love celebration for the women -- a kind of Valentine's Day party. It was the vision of a man on the group's leadership team; a man with a great heart to love and honor the women around him. 

The men planned for weeks in secret. They planned food, activities, decorations, and even trained together to make everything go well. 

On the night of the celebration, the men did everything.  The multi-course, home-cooked meal was prepared, the decorations hung, the tables carefully set, and name cards set out. The men dressed with coats, ties, and shined shoes with great expectation. 

The women arrived in their beautiful attire, lovely faces shining with anticipation and hope that this would be as sweet as they had started to believe might be possible. Each woman was announced like nobility arriving at a ball, and escorted to their tables. Hors d'oeuvres were offered and accepted. 

Then duos of men invited individual women to accompany them to large mirrors standing around the walls of the room. There the men spoke words of love, encouragement, and affirmation over the women who had become their friends and sisters. They looked into each woman's heart, saw the gold and called it for what it was. They spoke of hope and life and love. 

After dinner, a poet among them read his verse aloud. The few married men brought out love letters and read them to their wives in front of the group. Tears mixed with affirmations and laughter as the loving words rolled over the wives and through the group. 

At the end, the men brought out clean basins, towels, and pitchers of warm water for each woman.  On their knees they washed the feet of the women while speaking words of love and affirmation. 

How did the women respond? This note is from one of the women who posted on the group's FaceBook page (used with permission): 

I have NEVER felt so much honor from men in my whole entire life. And besides my dad and brothers, I've never felt love from men like that either. Never, ever, ever. I suppose that's why it was so difficult for me to receive it at first. But wow. Thank you so much to all of you men. This was seriously one of the BEST nights of my life. I will NEVER EVER forget it. This is one of those nights that I'll tell my children about; and even my grandchildren. I'll let them know how real men honor women, and show them that this is the type of example to follow. 

Tonight, I can honestly say that you men made my heart come alive in a way that it's never come alive before. I feel so valued. 

This is a true story. I know because I was there, and a part of it all. It was easily one of the best evenings of my life. I have not included names or places, although those of you who know me can guess pretty easily. 

What made this love celebration possible? Certainly, good leadership was critically important. Willing men was huge. Planning and training helped quite a bit. But really, it was Jesus. He did it. He taught us well and paid the price so that we could be so free to love like this. We took a risk and followed His example like never before in our lives. 

Recently I was watching as one of the men in our group walked up and sat down beside one of our women. He stretched his arm around her shoulders, and she put her head on his shoulder for several minutes. There is no romantic connection between these two. They just love each other like a close-knit brother and sister.  I see scenes like this often in our community of friends.

We are now deep into Aslan's country -- the land of love. The walls keep coming down, and it just keeps getting sweeter than I ever thought possible.

Walking With the Dove

Two powerful signs launched the Christian faith nearly 2000 years ago.  The first sign was the resurrection of Jesus.  That event was a major pivot point of history.  It could be argued the resurrection of Jesus was the central pivot point of history.

Fire falling on the disciples and their Holy Spirit baptism in the upper room was the second sign.  In a way, the first sign opened the minds of men and women to believe the unbelievable -- that God had come among us -- and the second opened the spirits of believers to receive Holy Spirit power.  Both had to happen for the Church to be born.

Immediately after Jesus was baptized by John, "heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him."  About three years later, the Holy Spirit fell on the believers in Jerusalem.  Today, two thousand years later, that same Holy Spirit falls on Jesus followers who seek Him.

Not long ago, I saw Bill Johnson speaking about walking with the dove.  He took a white handkerchief from his pocket and put it on his shoulder.  Think of this as the dove, the Holy Spirit, he said.  Then he walked around carefully so it would not fall.

If a dove landed on your shoulder, how would you live so it would not fly away?  I'll tell you, Johnson said:   You would walk carefully.  Every move would consider the presence of the dove.

A dove HAS landed on my shoulder.  He is the Holy Spirit.

Johnson wrote about this in his book, Hosting the Presence:  "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God (Ephesians 4:30). Do not quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19). This simple insight took my focus from the expressions of the Spirit (gifts, etc.) and shifted them to what the Holy Spirit actually felt because of me. And the more I walk with the Holy Spirit, the more my priorities shift to contribute to this relationship."

If we who follow after Jesus want the Holy Spirit in our lives, we ask and He will come.  Once He has filled me, I want to live my life in such a way as to neither grieve Him nor quench the fire He lights in me.  It means, as Johnson says, that my priorities shift.

Come Holy Spirit.....Fill me once again!

Seasonal Change

I have found in my life that sometimes things move along for months or even decades with little change. At other times, things change very quickly, even things that I didn't think would ever change. 

Being Alaskans is something that I thought would be a constant in our lives. The Swedish national song says, in part, "I will live and die in the North". As recently as last summer, as I listened to that, I thought that applied to us: that we would live our lives in Alaska. 

Flags of nations fly along the Bethel Church main campus entrance
road in Redding, CA.  The building at right is the prayer chapel.

And I thought as we left Anchorage last summer for a school year in California we were going on a sabbatical.  When we took off from Alaska in mid-August 2012, I left with the idea that we would almost certainly be back in a year -- two at the most. I called it a sabbatical, and believed that is what was happening. But it has become something different.

But I think it finally hit me with certainty that the end of a very long season in our lives is coming to an end as I read again the word of the Lord to Abram in Genesis 12: Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you." Linda and I have lived in Alaska for nearly all of our adult lives. We were barely out of our teens when we came north 41 years ago. That we might ever live somewhere else was a foreign concept for most of that time....I was sure that we would live and die in the Far North.  (See also the post Thoughts on Leaving Alaska)


But today we find God's word to Abram applying to us. It is time for us to go "to the land that I will show you." We will be moving to Redding in Northern California at the end of summer 2013. When Abram left his country and his family, he must have left behind the place he fit. It was his geographic territory, but it also must certainly have been the place of his security, comfort and influence. It was the place of molding his identity. That is what Alaska has been for us. We don't have any of that in Redding, but we are already seeing the beginning of God's supernatural provision for us here. 

I think we had some glimmer that change was coming even a year ago when we came to Bethel for a conference. But it has taken our hearts a long, long time to be emotionally able to leave Alaska, to leave amazing friends, and to leave a warm church family and leadership team that we have been so happily a part of.  

Linda is thriving here physically and spiritually. She is engaged and happy. Her balance is better, she has sometimes walked several steps without electric stimulation, and she has begun to lift her left leg a little. None of this worked a year ago. And, the climate is quite a bit easier on her....although it gets REALLY hot here in the summers.

I am thriving here too. I never knew I could prophesy, but I am doing so now. I am more of a spiritual father than ever before. These are just a few glimpses into what is going on in us. Our hearts are full of the ongoing revival at Bethel and the rich texture that entails, and there is more ahead.

We don't know how long this season will last. Perhaps it will be five years, or ten. Maybe the tent pegs we pound into this soil will not be pulled up by us. God is good, and He will guide our steps. 

 

Women in Ministry

It is time for the Church to completely open its doors to women in ministry.  In order to fulfill the Great Commission, the Church needs men and women serving in every role their gift and character opens to them in local churches and church networks.

In some parts of the Church, women already serve in the same ministry roles as men.  But in much of the Church, the issue is far from settled, or a men-only practice continues with little discussion.

Much has been written about the rightness of women in ministry leadership and teaching roles.  Men and women much better equipped than I am to find answers from scripture have staked well-researched, thoughtful positions on both sides of the question.  I respect their hearts to serve faithfully and their diligent scholarship.

But I suggest a simple way to cut through the differences:   just decide that the cost of failing to use gifted women in strategic ministry roles is far too high, and the cost of doing so in error is low.

In a recent team-building exercise in our church community, a group of us tried to accomplish one simple task keeping in mind one simple rule.  To our shock we initially did exactly the opposite of the task.  We had tried to balance the task and the rule, and it turned what should have been a two-minute task into ten minutes.  Once we began to focus on the task, we were able to quickly finish.

On the issue of women in ministry, I would say that the Church has tried to accomplish the task (the Great Commission) while significant parts of the Church have been obsessing over what has seemed like a rule.  In this case, "the rule" would be the seeming Biblical prohibition in the letters of Paul against women in ministry.....or maybe just tradition.

Right doctrine and right practice are important.  On key issues of faith, the Church cannot be flexible. But the issue of women in ministry is not a key issue of faith.

From my perspective, we have misunderstood Paul's intent in writing about women in the Church.  I believe Paul's words were bound to the culture or cities he addressed and do not relate in the same way to us today.  And I believe a male-leaders-only tradition has blinded us to a significant opportunity to advance the Kingdom.

If the Church is wrong in permitting women to enter strategic ministry roles from which they are now excluded, the cost of that error is low.  No one's salvation is threatened.  The key doctrines and creeds of the Church are not contravened.  If we are found to be wrong, our gracious Lord will restore right practice to the Church, as He has done before.

Brothers, where we do not already, let's clear paths for women to come into every role of ministry...and not only clear those paths, but actively encourage gifted sisters to walk them.

Sisters, we need you like Barak needed Deborah.  Together we will win victories that the Church can lay at the feet of the King, victories that it could not win without you.  I am so deeply sorry we have delayed you and held you back.  But for the Kingdom's sake, join us now!

Now that you have read this, men, what are your thoughts on this issue?  Women? How about you?  Your comments are welcome below.

A Christmas Story

"Mary, quite big in her last month of pregnancy  was accompanied by over a dozen aunts and female cousins.  Joseph walked alone in front, followed by all of these women  who were chatting and giggling merrily about babies and 'motherly' things.

Nativity scene

A few minutes later the noisy entourage arrived in Bethlehem and were directed to the "sheep pen," crowded with sheep. Soon Mary started labor. Joseph paced nervously back and forth in front of the stable, while the women, several of them midwives, crowded around Mary to help deliver the baby. A short labor ensued, and soon the women all gave a high shrill vibrating cry—the typical Ethiopian joy cry that announces the birth of every child in Ethiopia. The spectators cheered, and the women in the crowd joined in the joy cry with the actors. Hearing the cry, Joseph ran into the sheep pen to see the newborn baby. Later, of course, the familiar shepherds came, followed by the wise men."

Sound familiar, sort of?

The above is part of a story about how one Ethiopian church presented a Christmas pageant not long ago. The not-totally-familiar Christmas pageant story appears in a textbook (Grasping God's Word) we are using at the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM).  

You may be wondering about all the extra women.  They aren't in the Christmas story, are they?  No....they are not mentioned in the Biblical text.  But that does not mean they were NOT there.

The point of telling the story in this textbook is to help us understand what WE bring to the Biblical text.  For example all of us come with some "cultural lenses" whenever we read the Bible.  

The Ethiopian culture suggests that of course there are other women along with Mary on the trip to Bethlehem.  After all, who could expect a young first time father to help successfully deliver a baby?  And who among women would not ululate with joy at the birth of a child?

Those of us who have seen many American Christmas pageants come to the Biblical text with the cultural understanding that it was just Joseph, Mary and the donkey on the road to Bethlehem.  But just as there are no extra women in the Biblical text, there is also no donkey.  

The image illustrating this post contributes to faulty understanding of the text.  In this case, "Mary" has a typically European face, wears clothing more typical of a few hundred years ago, there is a cow, and so forth.

The reality is that probably neither the Ethiopian nor the American perspective is totally accurate, but I wonder if those Ethiopian believers may have been closer to the mark.

We all bring our "stuff" along with us when we read the Bible.  Duvall and Hays suggest four influences we bring as we read:

• pre-understandings that come from experiences, hymns, art, literature, etc. that make us think we already understand the text
• pre-forumulated theological agendas that make us look at the text merely to fill in the details of what we already believe 
• familiarity that comes from reading the Bible often -- and makes us think we already understand the passages we read
• culture is almost transparent to us as water is to a fish -- the fish doesn't notice it, and neither do we notice how our culture is projected into the reading process.

I was both dismayed and delighted to study this.  I was dismayed because I realized that I have been guilty of all four of the above flaws in my own Bible reading.   But I was also delighted because knowing these reading traps can help any of us read the Bible without falling into them.  

How about you?  What does reading this do to your thinking about how you read the Bible?  You can post a reply below.

The Mission has a Church

We who are Christians in America often talk about “missions.”  The word brings to mind  missionaries laboring lovingly in foreign lands among people with difficult language and strange customs.  

And the overseas missions movement has produced incredible fruit as the rapidly growing number of Christ followers in places like China, Africa, South America, and India attest. The movement has been so successful that Christians in these regions are now sending missionaries back into Europe and the United States!

But let’s bring our focus back to the reason for missions....the original mission.  Let’s read again the words of Jesus:

...you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. (Acts 1:8 ESV)

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. (Matt 28:19-20 ESV)

There are some key pieces in the above for Christ followers who call Anchorage, Alaska home:  First, what we do will be Holy Spirit empowered.  Second, we will be witnesses in Anchorage (=Jerusalem), Alaska (=Judea), North America(=Samaria), and all the world (=end of the earth).  Last, we are to make disciples. Converts are not disciples, although they can become so.  In other words, the mission is more than helping people find Jesus.  The mission is to reproduce the Jesus-following life in people in all nations - starting with our own city.

I read something recently that has impacted me quite a bit: “It’s not so much that the church has a mission but that the mission has a church. Church follows mission, not the other way around”. As we see above, Jesus articulated the mission before the Church was born on the Day of Pentecost.  

The point is this: we are all individually on mission, not just the church acting as a group sending missionaries. This means we are all missionaries (witnesses in the language of Acts).  A few of us will serve as overseas missionaries, but most of us should see ourselves as missionaries at our schools, our jobs, among our friends, and everywhere we come in contact with humanity.  America is steadily becoming “de-churched”, and most of us have the mission opportunity to help people find Jesus.

Mission can be as simple as being filled with the Holy Spirit and “leaking” the fruits of the Holy Spirit on those around us (joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, etc).  It can be sharing the Good News with a friend at the right time.  In Anchorage City Church mission projects, it can be serving homeless people at Beacon Hill or our Emergency Cold Weather Shelter, or feeding the hungry via the Food Shelf.  It can be helping prisoners reenter society, or helping young people graduate through New Direction, or serving Alaska communities by training leaders, as Beyond Borders does.  You can even start your own mission project! The possibilities for being on mission with the love of Jesus are many.  

As we celebrate the birth of the Savior at Christmas, it is a perfect time to commit ourselves again to missio dei, the mission of God.  Jesus came to redeem us, and because of that we have the amazing privilege of being on mission to share that amazing story of redemption with those that God places in our paths.  

This was originally published in December, 2011 in City Life, the newsletter of Anchorage City Church. It has been modified slightly for this blog.