Spiritual Family

October 22, 2017 By Mike Bishop

A Movement of Everyday Christians – Part 2

Being a Christian in America in 2017 might seem perilous, but I believe it is an exciting time to be asking questions like this:

If I were to reboot my own experience as a follower of Jesus, if I were to try and learn this way of Kingdom love, and if I were to seek to understand how to be salt and light in this world, what would I do?

Well, I think I would start a Movement of Everyday Christians. And below is how we would try to live, our Rule of Life. Now, you don’t have to agree with everything I’m going to say from here. The goal of this isn’t to convince you, it’s to provoke you. The question you need to ask is, do these make sense? Do they fit within the overarching goal to transform us into people that love? Are they practical to live out? Can you see yourself doing these? Can we do these together?

The Movement of Everyday Christians

1. Move on.
Grieve the loss of Christianity’s position of influence in American society and culture if you need to, but do it quickly and privately (not on Facebook). Make room for each other in community to give voice to this grief.

2. Trust the Kingdom of God, not political power.
Relinquish attachments to political power through supporting candidates or issues as Christians attempting to protect a way of life or acting as the moral police. Instead, trust in the power and “long view” of God’s government transforming the world through self-sacrificial love, servant leadership, and mustard seed activism changing neighborhood after neighborhood (see #7).

3. Practice simple church.
Stop relying on the business model of church that uses marketing and performance to attract people to services. Embrace celebrating the Kingdom by eating meals together, sharing our pains and praises, and reminding each other about the Way of Jesus and our hope in the resurrection.

4. Listen to, learn from, and love the LGBT community.
Develop relationships with LGBT people and listen to their stories and their pain. Pray for them and refrain from the need to speak about their sexuality. Invite them into community as you would anyone else and let the Holy Spirit work as he does in all our lives.

5. The Bible is God’s Story and our Story.
Read and interpret the Bible with humility. It is first and foremost a story of how God works in the world and how we respond to his love. It is holy because it reveals God. It is not a tool to control behavior or define who is in and out.

6. Unite science and faith.
A false wall has been erected between faith and science. Fear of what science is discovering about origins and how the world works is more an indication of how weak our faith is rather than the quality of the science. Our response should be to become learners and inquisitors, which is actually part of the scientific process. This false wall has created “scienctism” or the idea that science and technology are the only ways the world’s problems will be solved. Ironically, we have the same goal – make the world a better place for humanity.

7. Practice everyday mission.
Bear witness to the Kingdom through everyday activities rather than huge, costly endeavors. Become a movement of ordinary people doing small, extraordinary things in the world. These acts will exemplify the self-sacrificial love of Jesus he displayed on the cross.

8. Have a spiritual family, not a Christian bubble.
Resist the enclave and herd mentality. Develop relationships with equal parts Jesus followers and not. Become a “regular” at a bar or coffee shop. Send your kids to public school or a sports team. Listen, learn, pray. But put down deep roots with a spiritual family.

9. Jesus is our model for life.
Relearn Christianity as “little Christs”. Read and discuss his words and put them into practice. Actions like “turning the other cheek” are not effective; they are how the Kingdom works. That is the same with everything Jesus taught his disciples.

10. The Holy Spirit is real and not weird.
Embrace the normal work and ministry of the Holy Spirit through healing, taking authority over the demonic realm, prophetic words and actions, and trust in the already-but-not-yet power of God’s Kingdom.

11. Befriend the poor and the other.
Actively pursue relationships inside and outside the church with people of other races, beliefs, and economic statuses. Do nothing to help before you get to know them and listen to their pain and their wisdom. Mostly, just treat them as equals as children of God and those who are loved by God.

12. Be people of hope.
Jesus will return as King, evil will be judged, the dead will be raised, and heaven and earth will be renewed and united forever. We should not expect everyone to understand this hope. It will sound “foolish” to some, but will be salvation to others. We should not fear or downplay God’s judgment, because what would heaven be like if evil still reigned? Rather, we should rejoice that through Jesus’ death and resurrection he has made a way that none should perish, but all can experience the life of the age to come. This hope is at the center of all we do.

December 17, 2015 By Mike Bishop

Church: On Sticking to the Things That Matter

For about the past decade and a half I’ve tried to stay faithful to the idea that the best way to help a group of people “be the church” is to keep reminding myself what really matters. It is so easy to get distracted by dreams, visions, plans, and goals. It is equally easy to get distracted by theological debate, controversy, or political issues that mask themselves as signifiers of true versus false Christianity. I humbly suggest that God’s desire is for Christians and their churches to become obsessed with how they can make the green grass that their feet walk on every day a better place to live. It starts – and for the most part – ends there. So along those lines, one of the questions I ask myself often is how our church can continue to stick to the things that matter, and stick with the people that matter, right around us.

Sometimes it can be difficult to answer the question, “Where do you go to church?” The other day I was thinking about how I usually answer that question (terribly…which is one of the many reasons why I wouldn’t make a great traditional pastor). But this brilliant thought popped into my head…

We are not trying to be right, better, or different than everyone else. We are just trying to keep it real.

So true. Maybe that’s our vision statement. I’m so tired of gimmicks or the next, great movement that will save western Christianity. In fact, I’ve stopped keeping track of what’s new or next in the church. I don’t want to save the church anymore; just give me real. Life is busy. People have jobs and families to care for. I’m not going to ask them to join my program to save the world. Toddlers cry and interrupt sermons. Good people get into bad marriages. Sickness happens. Teenagers make bad choices. Sometimes, you just want to pack a cooler, skip church, and hit the beach. I don’t think that scares Jesus away.

But on the flip side, I have seen great beauty in the simplicity of love shared in community. We need each other. In the wisdom of AA, it only works if you work it. Sometimes all you have to give is your presence, and that’s all you really need to bring anyway. Just show up. God does the rest.

So if our vision statement is to keep it real, then what follows must be our statement of faith and practice. Yeah, I know, how low-church of me…

We are a family adopted by God.

We trust that one day God will make all things new including us.

We are trying to be in the present what we will be in the future.

We don’t spend too much time dwelling on our mistakes, failures, or shortcomings.

We forgive and forget because we have been forgiven much.

We love parties because the kingdom of God is a party.

We like inviting others to the party.

That’s about it. Yep, I think we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing.

June 3, 2015 By Mike Bishop

The Good Life

From Adam and Eve forward, humanity has been trying to answer the question, “How do we thrive?” Another way to pose that question would be to ask, “What is the good life?” There are a thousand ways to answer that question. Whole societies have been built on certain answers like survival, freedom, conquest, the pursuit of wealth, power and control, even hatred for other societies. America was built on answers like opportunity, adventure, exploration, religious freedom, and a healthy dose of individualism.

But once a society is built and established, it gets steadily more difficult to maintain “the good life”. The ideals that build a society, the over-arching Story that pioneers lived and died for, gets watered down. Pioneers are quickly replaced with settlers. And settlers have a habit of forgetting the reasons why the society was built in the first place.

To a settler, the good life means to have a good job, a good marriage, well-adjusted and healthy kids, a comfortable house, work out 3 times a week, drink in moderation, and only occasionally order 2 dozen crullers from the local gourmet donut shop. Settlers – and let’s face it, all us are settlers – eventually lose touch with the powerful founding Story that motivated the pioneers to accomplish the amazing things they did.

In the book of Joshua, it is recorded how the people of Israel occupied the land God gave them under the leadership and faithfulness of Joshua son of Nun. It is the story of a generation of pioneers and warriors that believed with absolute conviction that nothing was going to stop them because God was with them and for them. But eventually their time came to an end. In Judges chapter 2, starting in verse 7 it says:

“…each of the tribes left to take possession of the land allotted to them. And the Israelites served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and the leaders who outlived him—those who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel. Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110. They buried him in the land he had been allocated, at Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.”

But in verse 10 it says, “After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel. The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight and served the images of Baal. They abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They went after other gods, worshiping the gods of the people around them.”

So in one generation – one single generation – the Israelites went from the spoils of victory and the blessing of God to abandonment of God and utter failure. Stunning.

What is the Good Life? How do settlers – those of us tasked with living in the in-between times, where no volcanic, society-creating activity is going on – stay faithful to the Story that got us here in the first place? Well, just like the people of Israel, if we forget where we came from, how we got here, and who led us here, we are doomed for failure.

As great as the American Dream is and as great as the pioneers were that founded this country, as followers of Jesus it is not our ultimate Story. Phillipians 3:20 and 21 says, “But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.” Now this is not describing some otherworldly future where we will be floating on clouds and playing harps. This is talking about God-shaped reality; life as God intended it from the beginning. This is where heaven and earth come together. This is resurrection and new life as citizens of God’s kingdom.

Because this is our future, we live now with this image in full view. As bad as the world gets, we know who comes out on top. As messed up as people are, we know God is in the rescue and recovery business, the resurrection business.

In 1 Corinthians 15:54-58, Paul tells us how this all fits together:

“Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:

Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory, O death, where is your sting?

For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.”

That is our story. That is our promise. Nothing you do for the Lord is useless. No-thing. So that brings us full circle. What is the good life? What does it mean to thrive? Well, it starts as we follow Jesus together as a family. It starts around the table, sharing a meal, singing, praying, interacting, remembering our history and imagining our future. And then we go out from there, or more accurately, we get sent out. And we become representatives of the kingdom that will have no end. We work, we raise families, we love our neighbors, we pray, we heal, we suffer, and we laugh. And all of those things, every-thing, matters to God. Not just what we do in a church service.

Truth be told, much of life is pretty ordinary and unglamorous. It is the stuff of settlers. Many churches try to pump up crowds with big ideas, big programs, and big visions – pioneer talk. But what happens when you leave church and have to change a diaper? Or wash the dishes? Or do your homework? In God’s economy, that is holy work, not just what is typically called ministry.

So here is the truth. Do you want to live the good life? Then find some friends, some fellow settlers that have not forgotten the Story. People that love God and love each other. You don’t have to do anything fancy. You don’t need smoke machines and a million dollar sound system. Just be together, worship, pray, eat, laugh, and love. Then go live. And be a generation, like Joshua’s, that serves God for the rest of your lives.

March 15, 2015 By Mike Bishop

A Liturgy of Resistance

Below is an introduction to something our community – Resurrection Church – did tonight as a part of our weekly worship gathering. We met at a local park – this one. I read the introduction and then sent the group on their way. Bummer for me, I had to pick up one kid and then deal with another kid’s sick friend, so I missed out on the conversation. But that’s the great thing about a liturgy that is truly participatory…the Spirit knows how to lead the Church! Please feel free to use / modify / or otherwise rip off this for your own community of faith.

Our lives are filled with ever-present obligations and responsibilities. From the moment we wake up until we go to sleep, an endless list of have-to’s and should-have-done’s consume our minds. We are bombarded by the tyranny of the urgent. A crying baby needs her milk. A deadline needs to be met. The pantry needs to be filled. The car needs a new tire. These “needs” never stop. To make matters worse, everything we read, watch, and hear from the outside is aimed at either trying to create a need within us (advertising), convince us that the crisis of the day in the world should be our crisis (the news), or help us escape from having to cope with this thing called life (entertainment).

The Gospel – the Message of God’s Kingdom – is like a Molotov cocktail thrown in the middle of our living room. God is not interested in helping us prop up our distracted, conflicted lives. He doesn’t want to give us keys to a better self while the self we have is riddled with sin, pain, guilt, and shame. He doesn’t want to slap a new coat of paint on the walls and call it a new house. No, he’d rather burn it down and start building you a mansion.

Don’t be fooled by the current attempts to sanitize or domesticate the good news of Jesus Christ. Here are some truths that should be stated plainly. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. There is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. Christ has been raised from the dead. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed!

Today, we will practice together a liturgy of resistance. Recall that liturgy simply means, “The Work of the People.” It’s what we do as a community to worship God and orient ourselves in God’s kingdom, which is in fact the real world. There have been times in the history of God’s people where our worship takes on a certain edge. Sometimes, we have to stand up to the powers that be and say, “Enough’s enough. You are not God. You are not in control of our lives and we don’t have to live by your rules.”

So today, in solidarity with churches around the world that have no permanent place to worship, we are proclaiming this park to be our sanctuary. The leaves of the trees will be our musicians, the birds will be our choir, and the trails will be our pews. Printed on these papers are a few scripture verses that remind us about the truth of God’s kingdom. There are also a few questions to think about and discuss. For the next hour, let’s walk through the park and ponder these verses together. You may walk alone for a time if you wish, but I would encourage you to be together as much as possible. Turn your cell phones off and try to keep the small talk to a minimum. Choose one person to be the facilitator and to read the verses and questions. Don’t worry if you don’t finish all the questions – let the Spirit lead!

A Liturgy of Resistance (pdf)

February 12, 2015 By Mike Bishop

Reading the Bible as God’s Story

Ever struggle with the Bible being dry, repetitive, or even confusing? Tired of listening to other Christians spout off Bible verses that seem to say something else when you read them? Do you listen to sermons and just feel like you must not be smart enough to really understand the Bible?

Well, a lot of these feelings are a direct result of the way most Christians have been trained to read the Bible. Although we could spend a lifetime and barely scratch the surface of the historical, literary, and theological dimensions of Scripture – for most of us, we just want to hear what God has to say. That starts with learning the underlying story that lives within the Bible. With that foundation, we can begin to hear what God is saying to us without a Doctorate in Theology.

I’ve made this short video to introduce the Scriptural story and why it’s so important to helping us read the Bible the way God intends. If you want to know more after you watch, here’s a few very helpful resources: