On Grace

I’ve been thinking about grace quite a bit recently. Sometimes that happens to me. An idea or concept gets stuck in my head and I just can’t shake it. It’s a splinter in my brain.

Grace has been like that over the last few days.

I just can’t shake the reality of grace. I keep thinking about a conversation we had one night at my friend Bob’s house. He asked a simple question, “What’s grace?” Everyone sat there quietly. I of course piped up with the Cru answer, “Unmerited favor.” His response, “What’s so amazing about that?”

What’s so amazing about grace? What is it about grace that inspires people to write songs and sing? What is it about grace that inspires some of the most beautiful literature ever written (think Les Miserables)?

Bono wrote, “Grace is an idea that changed the world.”

I remember my grandmother saying on more than one occasion, “But by the grace of God go I.”

What is it about grace?

Certainly grace is defined as “unmerited favor.” But that textbook definition does little to inspire. I wonder if grace in action is something that inspires us and draws us in more than understanding the word?

Grace is what transforms a weary heart into a heart full of life and joy. Grace is that moment when something happens and you look around and can’t quite believe it.

When I read Ephesians 1 grace overwhelms me.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Ephesians 1:3-10 ESV)

It is by God’s “glorious grace” that all things are reconciled to him. I think that really is at the heart of what makes grace amazing. It’s because somewhere in each of us, when we experience that which was lost or broken being found and put back together, we know it’s a picture of what God is doing. We might not say it, we might not even believe it, but deep down, in places we don’t talk about at parties, we need grace, we love grace, and we want grace and are drawn to it.

What would it look like for you to live a life where you pursue reconciliation and peace with those around you? What would it look like for you to be and agent of grace? How would you change if you looked for amazing grace everywhere you went?

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On Calling

I have to get this off my chest. It’s something that has been weighing on my heart and mind for a couple weeks. I’ve wrestled, I’ve prayed, I’ve pondered. I love the Church. I love it with everything that I have. It is beautiful and messy and ugly and wonderful.

The thing that I love most about the Church is that those who lead, do so as a result of calling. True Christian leadership is not about prestige or power. It’s not about getting paid. It is about being called. There is an inward call and an outward call.

The inward call is the Spirit of God working inside the person drawing them into leadership. The outward call is the people of God confirming the inward working of the Spirit. This is the beauty of leadership within the Church it is individual and communal. It is a both/and. Leadership is a calling.

Yesterday I wrote this,

If your calling is dependent on your comfort, it isn’t your calling.

— Daniel Rose (@danielmrose) February 10, 2015

Sadly, I’m beginning to see many in the Church think about leadership in a secular way. There is a sense that to get “talent” you need to sell people on something. You need to “recruit” them.

This is not how Christian leadership works.

It is supposed to be about calling. It is supposed to be the individual hearing from the Spirit and having that calling confirmed by the larger church.

When we feel the necessity to “compete” for leaders by trying to create a context or environment or “benefits” for them, we are moving away from calling to something else. Leaders in the Church are not to be wooed like Max Scherzer.

We are missing the boat when we begin to think like CEO’s within the Church. We are supposed to be better than that. Beyond that, when we start thinking this way we are no longer thinking Christianly, but as CS Lewis would say, “sub-Christian”.

Leadership within the Church is anything but comfortable. Following Jesus at all, is anything but comfortable. If we are promising comfort to potential leaders we are not inviting them into Gospel leadership. We are inviting them into something else, something less.

No, leadership within the Church is supposed to be something more. It’s supposed to be a self-sacrificial act. Too many today think otherwise and it breaks my heart. Careerism is not calling. Climbing the organizational ladder is not calling. Giving all of who you are for the cause of Jesus for the sake of his Church, that’s calling. When you’re truly called it doesn’t matter where, when, or how, you just go. You go with faith your eyes and trust that this Jesus you follow will provide, care, and support you. You trust that the Church will get your back.

If you’re in it for anything else, then you’re not called. If you’re not called, it’s best if you walk away from leadership within the Church. If you’re not called then you’ll make decisions out of a desire for comfort, power, or prestige. All things that are antithetical to the call of Jesus.

I’ll close with Jesus’ pitch to would be disciples,

“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:27 ESV)”

“So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.(Luke 14:33 ESV)”

“As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:57-62 ESV)

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Everything Below the Head

For the last eighteen months I have been thinking quite a bit about the church and what it means to be the church. Maybe that’s just something you do when you are launching a new congregation in a new town. Maybe I’m just really weird.

It’s most likely the latter with a little of the former thrown in.

This past weekend I was preaching from Colossians 1:15-20 and during my sermon I heard the Scripture in a way that jarred me.

Colosssians is not a new text for me. It’s one of my favorites. It’s subversive and rattles us out of our individualistic shells. Colossians is a text that I tend to live in and lives in me.

But, then I heard it.

And he is the head of the body, the church.
     - The Apostle Paul, Colossians 1:18

Those words rattled me in the moment. They grabbed my attention. Jesus is the head of the church.

I have known this for a very long time. It’s Christianity 101. It’s not rocket science. It’s just the reality of things.

For Jesus to be the “head” of the church it means that he is in charge, he is the top dog, he is the primary one, he is preeminent. He’s our leader and ruler. He’s our king, majestic and holy.

Any understanding of the church must start with this singular reality, “Jesus is the head.” Where the head goes, the body follows.

If the head is separated from the body, the body dies.

If we are serious about being the church, we must first and foremost be serious about following Jesus, our head. If we are not on the same page as him then we will die.

The only way for us to be connected to the head is to be in the body.

If you claim to follow Christ but you are not connected to the church then you will die.

There is nothing individualistic about the Christian faith. You simply cannot live as a Christian isolated from the body. You must be intimately connected to it, so that you can in turn be connected to the head, Jesus.

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Isolation in the Digital Age

I shouldn’t be appalled, but I am. I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am.

Whether it’s the conversation about race, policing, immigration, or just about anything, the tone is downright ugly. Every discussion is polarized. It’s either/or and black/white. There is little nuance. If you try to bring nuance you’re seen as soft one way or the other.

Why is that?

Why can we not have real and nuanced conversation? Why is it that each of us are only looking for opportunities to shout down our “opponent”? Where is the real conversation? Where is the honest back and forth where people are willing to learn from one another? Where is the humility in the conversation?

I think a significant part of this is that there we are isolating ourselves. We live in a time when people are supposed to be more connected than ever. The problem is that we are also in a time when we can insulate ourselves from people who disagree with us. We have so many choices in our media and information intake that we can choose to only hear the voices that agree with us. We can filter our “friends” on Facebook and who we “follow” on Twitter. There are news sources all over the spectrum and we can choose to only engage with those whom we agree with.

This isolation and insulation from differing perspectives hardens us. We become like Plato’s cave people. We are largely losing our ability to engage with people who disagree with us.

When this happens nuance goes out the window. When this happens we begin to shout down our opponent. We lose real conversation and have no desire to learn from one another. We become arrogant.

I challenge you to open your information streams to those who disagree with you. Engage with them. Learn from them. Begin to learn the nuances. Don’t be satisfied with either/or, binary perspectives. You’re better than that.

Go deeper.

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Dogmatic Truth and Grace Part 4

I wrote about the most important thing I learned in Seminary, dogmatic grace. One of the people who commented on the post asked how this jived with St Paul’s statements of judgment in his epistles. There are places where Paul really brings some tough words about people and their belief (or lack thereof).

How does dogmatic grace connect to dogmatic truth? How do we apply these issues to our contemporary society?

A Thought on Application

How might we apply dogmatic truth and grace? In my post, Dogmatic Grace I wrote in general terms about a pastor who has written some things that have some people, rightly, concerned about where he stands theologically. How might we apply dogmatic grace and dogmatic truth to this particular situation?

First, after (it saddens me that I need state this, but there were denunciations based on the promotional snippet) reading the text one would write a review. Challenging the text where it needs to be challenged and also commending the text where the author was correct.

Second, after others have reviewed the text and giving appropriate time for the person to be challenged by those closest to him, you watch and see if he changes his position.

Third, after it becomes clear that he does not change his position then in private discussions you disavow him. In public you simply “have nothing more to do with him, know that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.” In other words, you ignore them. There is no need to engage further.

One of the great struggles for us is the immediacy of our current media culture. We see things in our stream and feel the necessity to comment on everything. We are too often reactionary when, if we have decided that someone has been “given over” we need to simply ignore them. In that case, we need to engage the original poster privately and share our concerns with them (ie Paul to Timothy) so that they avoid the pitfalls of the one “given over”.

A Final Pastoral Thought

As social media continues to be a part of our lives we must learn to use the public and private aspects of each platform. We must grow in our discernment regarding which conversations are fit for a watching world and which are not. When you go to engage with a post ask yourself, “Am I about to make a challenge that is helpful for the public discourse? Is this comment better served as a private conversation? Do I truly understand the context from which the original poster is coming from?”

Over the years, I have learned to private message someone and ask for greater context. This has helped my discernment greatly. I think this approach has also helped me to maintain friendships and relationships that may have been lost.

This is part three of a four part series:

• Dogmatic Truth and Grace Part 1


• Dogmatic Truth and Grace Part 2


• Dogmatic Truth and Grace Part 3


• Dogmatic Truth and Grace Part 4

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Lord, Have Mercy

Every day we hear more about ISIS, terrorism, and torture. Every day we are faced with new realities regarding race, class, and politics. Every day we hear about first responders losing their lives in the line of duty.

Every day.

It feels daunting. It feels overwhelming. It feels like there is little hope.

When we feel this way we need to remember something. We need to remember the humanity of Jesus. I like this tweet…

We lose touch with our humanity when we deprive God of his humanity. #advent

— Eugene Peterson (@PetersonDaily) December 11, 2014

Part of what causes us to lose hope is the loss of our connection with humanity. Advent is this great reminder of the fact that God took on flesh in God the Son.

When we remember the humanity of Jesus, we are reminded that he is not one who cannot empathize with our world. We know when we cry out, “Lord, have mercy!” He hears us as one who says, “Yes! Mercy, mercy to you! I know your pain, your heartache, your joy, your world. Have hope! Mercy, mercy to you!”

There’s something beautiful about the reality that when we draw near to God we draw near to one who knows what we’re going through. He is not aloof or uncaring. He truly empathizes with us. He truly walks alongside us in love, grace, and mercy.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14 ESV)

It’s Advent. Draw near to the one who dwelt among us.

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Care for the Other

One of the things that I like about living where I do is that there are so many different kinds of people. It’s probably my favorite part of Doubt on Tap every Tuesday night, the diversity that surrounds the table.

A number of years ago I would not have been able to sit around the table at Doubt on Tap. Why? Because I would have been trying to “win”. I would have been looking for opportunities to “win the argument”, I would have been baiting people into making philosophical or logical errors to beat them in the “debate”.

I would not have been there to listen and learn. I would have been there to win.

I didn’t really care about other people. I only cared about myself and being right. If you asked me whether or not I cared for others, I would have said, “Of course! Why do you think I want them to know the truth?” But, I didn’t care.

A few years ago that changed. I stopped worrying about winning. I started to care about other people, legitimately. I wanted to learn from them and hear what they thought. I really wanted to deeply understand their view of the world. I asked questions and I sincerely wanted to hear the answers.

When I began to care about others, a whole new world opened to me. I began to see the beauty in the other. I was no longer afraid of them.

I wonder if people who are different from one another might realize that the other is a person of infinite value if they would begin to do this one thing, care.

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