main cow pic

02.03.12

Father Richard Rohr

Filed under: books,God's movement — 9:52 am

Fr Rohr

The spiritual teacher who has shaped me most in the last few years is Father Richard Rohr.  His books have been a lifeline to a living, mysterious, non-dual reality that has been largely missing from my faith.  Evangelical Christianity has many wonderful strengths that have shaped me profoundly, but it also has some profound blind spots.  And for some reason, this Franciscan Mystic has opened my eyes to a wider and deeper experience of my Christian faith.  I’m deeply, profoundly thankful for Fr Richard and his work.

If you’re interested in learning more, might I recommend a couple ways…

(1) Sign up for his Daily Meditation Email.  I can’t tell you how important and helpful it’s been to have a short thought from Fr Rohr show up in my email list every day.  In the middle of all my work craziness, I just pause and read his words, re-center, pray for a moment, and then dive back into work with a new groundedness.  Such a gift!

(2) Read his books.  My three favorites are “Falling Upward”, “Everything Belongs”, and “The Naked Now”.  His books aren’t very long, but read them slowly and let the teaching sink deeply in.

(3) His blog, etc.  You can visit his new blog Here, follow on Twitter Here, and visit his Facebook page Here.

Finally, I’ll leave you with yesterday’s “Daily Meditation”…

LIVING A WHOLE LIFE

How does one transition from the survival dance to the sacred dance? Let me tell you how it starts. Did you know the first half of life has to fail you? In fact, if you do not recognize an eventual and necessary dissatisfaction (in the form of sadness, restlessness, emptiness, intellectual conflict, spiritual boredom, even loss of faith, etc.), you will not move on to maturity. You see, faith really is about moving outside your comfort zone, trusting God’s lead, instead of just forever shoring up home base. Too often early religious “conditioning” largely substitutes for any real faith.

Usually, without growth being forced on us, few of us go willingly on the spiritual journey. Why would we? The rug has to be pulled out from beneath our game, so we redefine what balance really is. More than anything else, this falling/rising cycle is what moves us into the second half of our own lives. There is a “necessary suffering” to human life, and if we avoid its cycles we remain immature forever. It can take the form of failed relationships, facing our own shadow self, conflicts and contradictions, disappointments, moral lapses, or depression in any number of forms.

All of these have the potential to either edge us forward in life or to dig in our heels even deeper, producing narcissistic and adolescent responses that everybody can see except ourselves. We either “fall upward,” or we just keep falling.

(Adapted from Loving the Two Halves of Life: The Further Journey)

01.10.12

some help from fellow worship leaders?

Filed under: A New Liturgy,God's movement,worship — 10:57 am

A fellow worship leader asked me a question yesterday that I wanted to open up to everyone.  I COMPLETELY resonate with his longing for something more and different, and wonder if you all could help us find some new songs/prayers/liturgies along these lines…One more thing …

First, Brian McLaren’s article was awesome. Second, I was thinking this morning about the songs that resonate in our community and they’re all (your music included) about more than singing … more than just coming to worship, punching a time card for the week and leaving. It’s about faith in action, living out our call … it’s the “so that” of worship that McLaren touched on. We worship so that we are empowered to give love to a world that desperately needs it. We worship so that we can change the world by God’s grace, etc.

But it’s hard when planning worship to find these types of songs. So much of them, as you’ve written before, seem shallow or don’t take into account the importance of community. It’s just me and Jesus … but there’s more to the story it seems. We need each other. We were created for each other. (I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir here. Forgive me.)

So my question is: Could you point me to resources or artists or worship leaders or songs where you’ve found depth in lyrics and content? Where the message is … let’s be transformed to go out and make a difference in the world in Jesus’ name?

Thanks for taking the time to read.

Grace and peace,

Brent Levy
riseharrisonburg

I’ll share the one resource I know of in the comments, and then would love to hear yours also!
In this together…

01.03.12

A New Liturgy in the New Year

Filed under: A New Liturgy,God's movement,life — 11:30 am

Hello, friends.  I hope you had a great Christmas and New Years!

Our family had the chance to stay at a friend’s house in Florida last week, and we soaked up the warm weather and slow pace.  I was really fried after the Willow Christmas services, and thankful to get to slow down and build sandcastles with my kid.  Here’s a picture of Henry getting launched by his uncle Todd…

Henry in flight

Near the end of the trip, I snuck away one afternoon to journal and dream and pray about 2012.  Although I’m excited about a handful of personal, family, and ministry things, my mind kept coming back to A New Liturgy.  I absolutely can’t wait to see what A New Liturgy becomes in this next year.

As you know, I love creating these 25 minute spiritual journeys, but am pretty clueless about what to do with them when they’re done.  (The business and marketing side is not my strength.)  And so in 2012, I’m going to pour my energy into creating the best Liturgies I can, share them with whoever seems interested, pray like crazy, and see what happens.  Sound okay?  Here are a couple of the next steps…

(1) A New Liturgy No 3.  This morning, I made the first demo of Liturgy No 3: “Lord Have Mercy”.  This one is going to be way more raw, un-produced, sparse, and messy than the first two.  It’ll be a 25 minute journey of confession and repentance…with a handful of organic instruments creating a lot of space to pray.  That’s the intention, anyway!  I’m curious to see how it morphs and comes together…

(2) The New Liturgy Blog Tour.  Beginning this weekend, a number of bloggers will be posting thoughts, reflections, and reactions to “A New Liturgy”…two or three posts per week all January long.  I’ll let you know about each new blog so you can check them out and “join the tour”!

(3) A Remix EP.  While creating Liturgy No 1 and No 2, we stumbled upon a number of alternate arrangements for songs.  Two friends and I are cleaning those up (and adding a few more remixes), and can’t wait to share them with you.

If I haven’t said this recently, THANKS SO MUCH for checking out this blog and being interested in “A New Liturgy”.  Your encouragement and support has been profoundly moving, and I’m humbled to be on the journey with you all.  Can’t wait to see what 2012 brings!

Blessings,
aaron

12.30.11

The Church OF the People rather than The Church FOR the People

Filed under: God's movement,leadership,worship — 1:31 pm
20111230-143100.jpg

Van Gogh

Yesterday, while dreaming and journaling about 2012, and stumbled upon some passionate feelings about the Christian church. This is hardly an original thought, but since it grabbed a hold of me so deeply, here it is:

I am way more compelled by a church OF the people
than a church FOR the people.

This is not to say that one is right and the other is wrong, but I’m becoming increasingly captured by the idea of the priesthood of all believers. Church as a movement rather than an institution. A church created by the people rather than consumed by the people.

A few examples…

In a church TO the people, Worship means: Come hear our most gifted artists provide a worship experience that will inspire and bless you. When it’s done, you’ll want to give them a round of applause, thank God, and be glad you attended.

In a church OF the people, Worship becomes: Prayerful, intentional space that empowers the people to co-create a worship experience – both as individuals and as a body, both at home and when together. The church helps people connect with God and each other, and then gets out of the way.

In a church TO the people, Evangelism means: Bring your friend to church to hear the pastor (who they will never meet) explain to them the truth. It is exporting evangelism to the expert, and reducing the sweeping Story of God to disembodied information.

In a church OF the people, Evangelism becomes: Training up disciples and launching them out to serve the world and share their story…and helping foster a community so alive and beautiful that people can’t wait to join.

In a church TO the people, Mission means: Give your money to the church so it can build a ministry to the poor. You write a check and they’ll take it from there.

But a church OF the people declares: “No one knows the poor in your town better than you. Let us help you serve them. And if you don’t know the poor in your town, following Jesus means that you’ll need to make some changes. Please let us help you humbly engage and learn from and serve the poor in your town.”

Obviously, these are exaggerated examples for clarity. Most churches I’ve been a part of are both, but tend to lean one way or the other. And it’s my personal hope that in this next year, every faith community will inch a bit more in the Church OF the People direction – developing and unleashing the supernatural potential of every woman, man, and kid.

And this year I commit to humbly and constructively use any opportunity I’m given to help and get swept up in this Movement. What an honor and responsibility it is to be (like EVERY one of us) the potential hands and feet of God!

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Eph 4:11-13)

 

 

12.20.11

some thoughts after Rob Bell’s final Sunday at Mars

Filed under: God's movement,worship — 9:55 am

Rob Bell

I just read the letter that Rob Bell wrote and read to the Mars Hill community on his final Sunday.  It was stunning and quirky and beautiful and poetic and weighty and inspiring and Rob at his absolute best.
(You can read it here.)  It brought a flood of thoughts…

First, I’m just so thankful to have been a part of  the Mars Hill community.  When I met Rob in 2002, I was in a pretty dark place spiritually, and he was one of the primary voices that God used to invite me into something more beautiful.  I honestly don’t know if I’d still be a Christian without Rob (and Willard’s “Divine Conspiracy” and McLaren’s “A New Kind of Christian”).  And although there were some very painful moments, something came alive in me during those years that I hope never goes out.

Here are a few things I learned from Rob (in no particular order)…

-Deconstruction is easy.  It takes no courage to point out what’s wrong.  Spend all your energy on lifting up what is most right, most compelling, and most beautiful.

-Modern rock is only a small slice of the historical worship pie.  What about spirituals?  What about liturgical?  What about funk?  What about…God forbid…country?

-If the idea is compelling enough, you don’t need to dress it up.

-Repentance is not just feeling bad and trying to not be such a terrible person.  Repentance is “returning to who you were made to be.”

-The mark of a great message (or worship time) is how many great ideas you leave on the cutting room floor.  Relentlessly edit down to the core insight.

-The worship leader’s job is NOT to energize the room with loud music.  The worship leader’s job is to harness the energy of the community and unleash it upward.

-We must understand every scripture verse and concept in context of the whole story.  (He began nearly every message with Genesis 1)

-Truth is a person, not an abstract idea.

…and those are just off the top of my head.  If I sat for an hour I could probably list a hundred more.  Rob’s approach to the scriptures, perspective on art, articulation of the Kingdom, example of following your passion, vision for what the people of God could be together, and encouragement to me through the years have marked my life profoundly.  And I guess I just wanted to take a moment to say thanks.

It’s going to be fascinating to see what this next season looks like for Rob.  Knowing him, it’ll be surprising and inspiring and controversial and really compelling.  I sincerely wish him all the best.

12.19.11

Why NT Wright is a better person than me

Filed under: books,God's movement — 3:39 pm

NT Wright

Last month, I had the huge thrill of driving NT Wright to Chicago.  To be honest, I was pretty nervous about spending 45 minutes with one of the world’s leading biblical scholars, but couldn’t pass the opportunity.  My goal:  Learn as much as possible and try not to say anything dumb.

We began with a fascinating conversation about the current “us vs. them” mentality in Christianity.  He shared some brilliant insights into how/why this is true and I soaked it up.  It was like driving in the car with a theological Wikipedia…except smarter.  But right when I was finally getting comfortable in the conversation, I asked him, “Do you ever get tired of being the most conservative voice in any liberal room and the most liberal voice in any conservative room?”

He responded with “You know, Aaron, it sounds like you’re reverting to that old, dualistic, ‘us vs. them’ mentality…” and then he paused…

In that seemingly-eternal pause, I remembered that I wasn’t as smart or clever or evolved as I think I am.
And now even NT Wright knows it!  But as I was about to hurl myself out of the car in humiliation, Wright turned to me, with a little smile, and said “…but I know what you’re asking.”

With those 6 words, he made space for me.  Space for me to learn…space to say something dumb…space to not have it all figured out but still stay in the conversation.

Instead of blowing my ignorance out of the water with a freight train of powerful brilliance, he humbly met me where I was at.  And in that gracious space, he invited me into a higher conversation that I’ll remember for a long time.  So many thanks to the good Bishop!  Thanks for teaching me more with an off-the-cuff response than you could have in an hour of lecture.

I want to be more like NT Wright in this way.
How can I help create a space for someone to be who they really are today?

12.15.11

O Little Town of Bethlehem…

Filed under: God's movement,Palestine / Israel — 8:26 pm

This time of year (especially after approximately 2500 hours of Christmas Service rehearsals!), I find my thoughts drifting back to what I saw in Bethlehem.  It was inspiring and disturbing and confusing and moving…and honestly, changed my life.  (You can read profoundly wise words from Lynne Hybels about peacemaking in the Middle East HERE).  So in honor of this wonderful and deeply troubled town, here are a few pictures and thoughts from modern day Bethlehem.

Just hover over each picture to bring up my short description…

12.12.11

The Evil Russian, Shauna’s Marathon, and Why I’m Still a Mess (part 1)

Filed under: God's movement,life — 11:36 am

The Evil Russian

Last week, almost as a joke, a number of us in the band started “The Evil Russian” push-up plan.  Setting aside the ridiculously un-P.C. name, we all committed to follow the plan and do hundreds of push-ups throughout each day.  We do them in unison when together, and trade emails/texts the rest of the time.

In the first two days, I did more push-ups than in the last decade combined.  And my arms almost fell off.  But each day gets a little easier.

Last year, my wife Shauna decided to run a marathon.  She hates running but decided to join Team World Vision and their training plan.  She followed the running schedule during the week, and then joined the whole team every Saturday morning for that week’s long run.  After months of training, she ran the Chicago Marathon and achieved one of her life dreams.

What is the key to both of these goals?  A plan and a community.

You don’t want to know how many diets, commitments, and goals I’ve given up on in the last couple years.  It’s embarrassing and quite discouraging, actually.  I always begin strongly with great intentions, but lose my way without a clear plan.  Or I mold my intentions into a solid plan, but quickly lose heart without a community on the same journey.

I’m beginning to wonder if this also applies to the deeper parts of life.

There are a number of ways I’m not growing as a Christ-follower or human being, and even a few ways I’m drifting backward.  And in spite of good intentions and noble declarations, I can’t seem to turn the ship.  But instead of getting tangled up in the convoluted theological theories and guilt, what if I simply need to admit that in my spiritual life, I need a Plan and a Community.  I can’t just “try harder” in each moment and hope to get there…and I certainly can’t get there alone.

For example, how do I become a less selfish person?  Really?!?  The Christian path has often been:
(1) Go to church, (2) Hear a message about not being selfish, (3) Feel guilty, (4) Promise to not be selfish anymore, (5) Try really hard, but then (6) Realize that I’m back to my selfish self by Tuesday morning.  (7) Do the same thing next week.

This can’t possibly be what Jesus is inviting us into.

I have a few more thoughts (and a hundred more questions) for a future “Part Two” post, but first, what do you think about all this?  What has your experience been like?

Do you have a plan and a community that helps you become the person God made you to be?  What does it look like?  Or do you take a different path?

How does your faith actually help you to change?  Or doesn’t it?

11.08.11

A really important book

Filed under: books,God's movement — 2:47 pm

20111108-154629.jpgI sincerely think that every Christian – especially every evangelical Christian – should read Scot McKnight’s new book The King Jesus Gospel. That’s a big statement, obviously, but here’s why…

Scot asks a seemingly simple question: “What is the gospel”?

We respond with the obvious answer we learned in Sunday School and nearly every church service since: “Jesus died for our sins, and if we accept him as our personal savior, then we can go to heaven some day.”

Scot responds: “What you said is absolutely true. Eternal forgiveness CAN be found in Jesus. But that’s not the gospel that Jesus preached. That is not the core of the good news according to the bible.”

We respond with: “…say what?”

And then McKnight invites us back into the scriptures, back into church history, and back into a fresh interaction with the Epic Story of God. I won’t wreck the surprise of where he eventually leads us, but it’s beautiful and huge and intelligent and so much more compelling than “Just say this prayer so you can go to Heaven some day.”

And the implications for seeing and living the Story in this way are huge. I highly recommend that you read and wrestle and discuss it today. You can dig in much deeper at his blog HERE.

What about you? If you’ve already read The King Jesus Gospel, what do you think?

10.22.11

Actual faith in our actual lives

Filed under: God's movement,Palestine / Israel — 11:48 am

If you are someone who is trying to follow Jesus with your actual life, then I highly recommend this stunning video.  It may be the most moving 23 minutes you have all week.  (It certainly was for me!)

Daoud Nassar is an Arab Palestinian Christian who is living out his faith in an enormously difficult situation.  Most people (possibly many Christians) would give up or turn to violence, but because he follows Jesus, he chooses another way…

Here’s the question it raised in me:  Does my claim to follow Jesus actually affect how I live?  Really?  When I was younger and in more fundamentalist circles, it was easy to be like Jesus and unlike “the world”:  don’t drink, smoke, or listen to secular (cool) music.  Seriously, that was it.  As long as a person didn’t do most of the things on the bad list, they were “living for Jesus”.

But reducing the epic invitation of Jesus (to join Him in bringing beauty and justice and grace back into this world) to an arbitrary checklist is a cosmic tragedy where everybody loses.

However, once we are able to set that checklist mentality aside, we have to ask much more difficult, subtle, honest questions of ourselves:  Is this life I’m living a result of my faith, or would I live this exact way regardless of my faith?  Am I simply living the life I want to live, and then overlaying the christian brand on it?  Is it possible that control and ambition and comfort are my gods, and God is just my means to get them?

I don’t like even writing these questions down because then I have to wrestle with them.

And this is why people like Daoud Nassar (and Shane Claiborne and Mother Theresa) are so inspiring and unsettling to me.  Their lives are unexplainable without Jesus.  There is no rational rationale for why they live the way they live other than trying to put Jesus’ teachings into practice.  And the paths they’ve chosen would be impossible without Jesus, as well.

I guess this is what I’m most worried about:  With or without Jesus, most of my life is very explainable.

10.10.11

From Roman Catholic kid to evangelical church-planter to Episcopal Priest…

Filed under: God's movement,willow,worship — 6:49 pm

Ian and the team

This weekend, we had the huge privilege of leading worship at Willow with my friend Ian Morgan Cron.  Ian is an author of two phenomenal books, a great musician, and crazy smart.

Ian grew up Roman Catholic, planted a non-denomina-tional church in his 30s, and is now an Episcopal Priest.  As you might guess, he has a fascinating perspective about God, church, worship, and liturgy…and so we invited him to Willow Creek to share some of his journey and lead us in a liturgical experience.

After reading a bit from his book Jesus, My Father, the CIA, and me…, Ian lead us in the Kyrie Eleison – which means “Lord, have mercy”.  He taught a very simple refrain, and then guided us through a number of liturgical prayers.  We (the band) did our best to think “What would Sigur Ros sound like in a Roman Catholic cathedral?”, and accompanied the prayers with a moody soundtrack that built and built and finally exploded into a soaring “Lord have mercy;  Lord have mercy.”

As it all landed, Ian invited us to quietly pray:

Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father;
in your compassion forgive us our sins,
known and unknown,
things done and left undone;
and so uphold us by your Spirit
that we may live and serve you in newness of life,
to the honor and glory of your Name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

…and then he took the biggest risk of the weekend.  Ian tenderly said, “I believe that we all are the priesthood of believers, and so I’m going to ask you to do something that might feel weird.  Please turn to the person next to you, look them in the eye, and say ‘In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven’”.

The next few moments were as holy as it gets.  Such a simple thing, but so powerful.

I’m really thankful to Ian for coming to serve our church – and exposing us to an entirely different experience of worship and the liturgy.  (You can learn more about Ian at iancron.com.)

10.07.11

A reason to be a Christian

Filed under: God's movement — 1:35 pm

Thanks for all the responses and comments about the last post.

More and more, there seems to be a growing, shared belief that God’s dream for humanity is WAY more beautiful that we Christians often make it.  Would you agree?  Are you discovering the same thing?  I don’t know about you, but I find myself swinging from cynicism to activism to prayer to despair to profound hope that a better Way is possible.  And a minute ago, today became a HOPE day.

I just finished Lynne Hybels’ short essay about her tumultuous journey as a Christian.  And it is one of the most compelling visions I’ve heard in a long, long time.  While reading it, I kept thinking, “If THIS is what it means to be a Christian, then I’m in!  Baptize me again!”  Here it is…

Lynne Hybels answers, “What is an Evangelical?”

by Lynne Hybels 10-07-2011 12:22 pm

It’s 5 a.m. and I’m in a hotel room preparing for the second day of a conference on Middle East Peace.  Conference attendees are human rights activists from the United States, Israel and Palestine.  Some are people of faith; some are not.

Wednesday night, one speaker described evangelicals as the “problem children” in the room, presumably because we are not generally known as peacemakers.

Increasingly, in meetings focused on a wide variety of human tragedies, I hear these words: “What are you doing here?  I didn’t think evangelicals cared about these things.”

I understand those comments.  I grew up in a form of Christianity that…

(read the rest here)

10.05.11

Why “The Church is the Hope of the World” is absolutely true…and occasionally completely wrong.

Filed under: God's movement,willow — 3:32 pm

For the last 35 years, our pastor (Bill) has been prophetically declaring that “the church is the hope of the world”.  And I couldn’t agree more.  The Almighty God is actively healing and redeeming the entire world, and doing it primarily through human beings who are willing to offer ourselves to this Movement.

But I’ve been noticing a disturbing trend that – in my opinion – wrecks this truth.

just a building

In the wake of a handful of well-known pastors (Francis Chan, Rob Bell, etc) leaving their churches to pursue other opportunities, there’s been some grumbling and criticizing from those who stay.  One very influential pastor said it like this:  “The local church has been, and always will be, the PRIMARY tool for God’s will in the world.  Other ministries are important but secondary.”

But wait…  How is he defining “the local church”?

If he’s saying that “The primary tool for God’s will in the world is when God’s followers humbly submit themselves to His dream for humanity and to each other in the power of His Spirit”, then I completely agree!

But if he’s saying that “The primary tool for God’s will in the world is any 501(c)(3) organization that calls itself a church, and anything outside of it’s walls is ‘important but secondary’”, then I absolutely disagree!

How dare church leaders claim to have the most important job in the universe,
and try to reduce everyone else to “secondary”!  That is religion at it’s worst.

You can be God’s hands and feet as you teach middle school math.
You can be a part of God’s Movement of grace while wearing your blue Best Buy shirt.
You can help heal the world as you bag groceries.

You can also hurt people as a pastor.
And you can cause great division and ugliness while on a church staff.
And you can run from God while giving a sermon.

As the bible says, “People look upon the outside appearance, but God looks at the heart.”
And over and over in history, we see God pass over the people who have all the right credentials and choose to use the excluded, underdog, broken, and flawed.  In fact, according to the story of scriptures, this seems to be God’s primary way of working in the world.

So if you are a pastor or church-worker (as I am), please continue to pour out your heart and life for your community, but let’s not take ourselves too seriously.  Okay?

And if you don’t work at a church, please continue to pour out your heart and life for your community, and take your calling to ministry very very seriously.  The world desperately needs you.

God is really proud of you in your blue Best Buy shirt.

09.30.11

We pray for peace…

Filed under: God's movement — 1:09 pm

This short video reminded me again of some of the complicated, extensive costs of war.  And especially with a new kid joining the world, I’m feeling more and more drawn toward peace and doing whatever we need to do to end the conflict…

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