Recently, my Facebook news feed has been frequented by pictures of friends across the country participating in mud runs. These are 5-10k races filled with muddy pits, obstacles, and puddles ensuring all runners are thoroughly soaked in mud by the time they cross the finish line. I’ve seen friends submerged in sludge and slipping [...]]]>

Recently, my Facebook news feed has been frequented by pictures of friends across the country participating in mud runs. These are 5-10k races filled with muddy pits, obstacles, and puddles ensuring all runners are thoroughly soaked in mud by the time they cross the finish line. I’ve seen friends submerged in sludge and slipping across slimy surfaces – but always smiling and hugging their fellow runners when they’ve reached the end.

There’s something innately human about playing in the mud and getting dirty, and A.J. Swoboda gets it.

As a pastor, professor, and Portlander, A.J. wrote Messy: God Likes It That Way (Kregal, 2012), a book about the messiness of God, faith, and the human experience. Messy is a series of meandering reflections on life, doubts, struggles, Scripture, and theology written with the kind of pastoral sensitivity and honesty emerging from an authentic place of struggling, searching, questioning, and, ultimately, holding on to Jesus in the midst of it all. A.J. writes about the messiness of humanity – from adolescence, broken families, sexualities – and the messiness of God – a paradoxical God, present yet concealed, the One who enters our mess and allows himself to become bruised and scarred on our behalf.

A decade ago, I read Donald Miller, Anne Lamott, and Brian McLaren and found some of the first writers who showed me it was possible to hold on to belief while acknowledging and engaging all the questions that surround life and faith. A.J. Swoboda continues in that tradition while perhaps retaining a more hopeful vision of life in here and now of God’s kingdom, despite the mess we find ourselves in.

Messy humans – messy Scriptures – messy God. But that’s the way the world works, and as the subtitle of Messy indicates, God likes it that way. A.J. encourages asking big questions – messy questions – and in the process encountering a big God who wraps us up in a mess of love and grace.

I loved Messy; it’s creative, witty, irreverent, and faithful to the Scriptural record of the God who is at work in our world – a book worth reading.

To give you a feel for A.J. and the heart behind Messy, I asked a few questions he was gracious enough to answer.

What’s the story behind Messy? What prompted you to write the book?

A number of years ago, I began observing in my conversations with other Christians that there bubbled over a sense of frustration that they “weren’t getting it.” In the end, their experience over and over was that their faith wasn’t everything they claimed it was. Doubts, struggles, shame, addictions. You name it. I wanted to write a book to those friends.

Messy is a book written for people whose faith is more messy than they’d like to advertise.

My thesis stands on the idea that faith will either be like a Poloroid Picture or an Etch-a-Sketch. Shaking it will either erase the picture you have or make it more and more clear. Scary as it is, faith is made clearer by shaking.

This is a book in praise of the shaking.

You mention the role of the Spirit throughout the book. What role does the Spirit play in your regular rhythm and practice of spirituality and how do you talk to those who haven’t come from charismatic backgrounds or traditions about the vibrant reality of the Spirit?

Christian spirituality and theology has historically been built on this idea of the Trinity; God as community. I didn’t write it. But it inspires me. The idea is woven into the very fabric of the Scriptures.

However, the Spirit is often forgotten, neglected, and bemoaned in our contemporary experience. Why? Being of the Pentecostal/charismatic stream, I’ll be the first to admit: the Holy Spirit has some rather odd publicists in the world today.

Even the early church struggled with what to do with the Spirit; it took nearly three hundred years for them to affirm the Spirit as a full-fledge divine figure. The Son makes sense because He saves us from our sin and depravity. The Father is clear because He sends Jesus. But the Spirit is this amorphous being that invisibly gives us all life. Kind of scary.

However, we don’t believe that the Holy Spirit is the Third Wheel of the Trinity; it is as much God as Jesus or the Father. To practice a life imbued (or Paul… “drunk”) on the Spirit is one where we consistently place ourselves at the well of God. To allow the Spirit, as Jesus puts it, to move and blow where the Spirit will (John 3). That’s a scary, but exciting existence.

A lot of people want to make the Bible really plain and simple – an easily understandable set of spiritual laws, a big drama with a clear storyline, etc. What does it look like to teach a “messy” Bible, either in a classroom or a church setting?

Those people will be, sorry to say, sorely disappointed.

The Latins would often speak of God as the absconditus Deus—the hiddenness God. This hidden God at times would make Himself known for a certain period of time, to a certain person, in certain unique ways. Even in the gospels, we are given the impression in the story of the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24) that Jesus sometimes hides his own identity even from his disciples as they walk out of Jerusalem following Jesus’ death.

Often, I’ll play Hide-and-go-Seek with my 9-month old Elliot. Not to be mean. But it keeps it all fresh. He laughs. I laugh. But I always end up showing up. The Bible is God’s way of playing Hide-and-go-Seek with humanity. Showing up at times. Hiding at times. Jesus warned religious people some time ago that it was possible to read the Scriptures and not have life (John 5:39).

John Wimber used to speak of the Bible as a menu. It shows us and leads us to the stuff in the kitchen. Not many of us, in our right minds, would begin to believe that the menu is the meal. The menu isn’t the meal. It gets us the stuff in the kitchen.

Stayed tuned for the rest of the two-part interview with Swoboda tomorrow!

From Moody Radio, Fuller’s own Eddie Gibbs is featured on the “against” side of the multi-site church debate.

You can listen in at the Up for Debate page.

What do you think about multi-site churches? 

Did you ever hear the one about the “stiff-necked” people, marching around the desert on life-support until a new generation could replace them? They made a movie about it.

Or the group of religious leaders who lost their purpose so tragically that their whole rasion d’etre (de croyance?) was taken from them and given [...]]]>

Did you ever hear the one about the “stiff-necked” people, marching around the desert on life-support until a new generation could replace them? They made a movie about it.

Or the group of religious leaders who lost their purpose so tragically that their whole rasion d’etre (de croyance?) was taken from them and given to the least likely people imaginable?

They’re making a reality show of that one–right now.

If you want to know the reasons that millennials are leaving the church, not attending services, and not fully embracing the Christian life as it has been defined by the past 50 years of American life, then you can find out here (via The Huff Post and WaPo; H/T to The Public Queue).

Here’s a summary:

Three-quarters (76 percent) agree that present-day Christianity has “good values and principles,” and 63 percent believe that Christianity “consistently shows love for other people.” On the other hand, strong majorities also agree that modern-day Christianity is “hypocritical” (58 percent), “judgmental” (62 percent), and “anti-gay” (64 percent).

Combine that with Rachel Held Evans’ post this week regarding her travels to Christian colleges (H/T Tony Jones):

When I speak at Christian colleges, I often take time to chat with students in the cafeteria.  When I ask them what issues are most important to them, they consistently report that they are frustrated by how the Church has treated their gay and lesbian friends.  Some of these students would say they most identify with what groups like the Gay Christian Network term “Side A” (they believe homosexual relationships have the same value as heterosexual relations in the sight of God). Others better identify with “Side B” (they believe only male/female relationship in marriage is God’s intent for sexuality). But every single student I have spoken with believes that the Church has mishandled its response to homosexuality. (You should read the rest of the post before you leave this page. –TB)

The Millennial generation has no use for judgment and exclusion–much less hypocrisy. Christians are called to love God and love others and selective prerequisites to relationship are not going to attract.

This does not mean that anything goes or that all things are permissible. (Where did I read that…?) Just that the restrictions that Jesus put on the relationships he fostered were different than the restrictions of religious leaders of the day.

Jesus was open and affirming.

Jesus was honest, consistent and authentic.

Jesus was popular among people who were tired of the old way.

Jesus did not burden people; rather he liberated captives.

Sure, Jesus himself was unblemished–but he hung around with a lot of pimple-faces.

The religious leaders of the day don’t seem to be following Jesus’ example–then or now.

But no matter–church participation trends seem to be pointing to an “even what he has will be taken away” kind of end-game.

Maybe kind of a two-part season finale.

(If you want a more authoritative opinion, you can read Tim Keller’s review of Ross Douthat’s Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics. –TB)

The original title from Nate was “Caine’s Arcade and the Kingdom of God,” but The Burner couldn’t really read the title because his eyes were watering. Not crying, of course–just watering. Nate’s original post (and sorry to Nate for hijacking his space) –TB:

Watch this short video and see how your church in its unique [...]]]>

The original title from Nate was “Caine’s Arcade and the Kingdom of God,” but The Burner couldn’t really read the title because his eyes were watering. Not crying, of course–just watering. Nate’s original post (and sorry to Nate for hijacking his space) –TB:

Watch this short video and see how your church in its unique context can learn from Caine’s Arcade.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As I saw this powerful story for the first time I wept like a baby. What a powerful lesson from a young boy who is a faithful dreamer, a dad who sells used auto parts and a random film maker!

I remember hearing Dr. Chap Clark say many years ago, “Every kid dreams about having their name written in the sky.” Is it possible for the church to help young people have a “Caine Experience” in the current model of youth ministry? I don’t think so. I think Clark, Mark DeVries and Kara Powell are all on the same track as they talk about having 5 adults for every student, or stacking the stands with the entire body of Christ for teenagers. Kara Powell encourages the church to embrace the ministry of noticing as it pertains to youth. Isn’t this simply a story of noticing? One man noticed a powerful story and he dared to tell it to millions through film. I’m glad he did. We as the body of Christ can learn much.

What have you learned? What insight have you gained about the church and young people?

Last week, The Burner offices were surrounded by Doctor of Ministry students soaking up all the knowledge that instructor Bob Logan had to offer in his class, “Transforming Your Leadership Development Process.”

You missed out.

But Pastor Tom Acton has your back.

Pastor Tom has blogged [...]]]>

Last week, The Burner offices were surrounded by Doctor of Ministry students soaking up all the knowledge that instructor Bob Logan had to offer in his class, “Transforming Your Leadership Development Process.”

You missed out.

But Pastor Tom Acton has your back.

Pastor Tom has blogged about each day of class at his blog:

Day 1 - How do you free up time from your weekly schedule to make a healthy change? Maybe you would like to volunteer at church, exercise regularly, enroll in a new class, or tackle another goal. But you can’t just add more to your plate without taking something off — everything you do will suffer… (more)

Day 2 - Day two presents me with a challenge. I am energized from the discussion with pastors of many different church groups worldwide. It’s been a day of listening and of contributing from my experience as appropriate. The challenge?  How do I relate 9 1/2 hours of classroom experience in a couple of paragraphs? Obviously, that’s not possible, but I’ll share a couple of the items that we discussed…(more)

Day 3 - My task is to help people cooperate with the Holy Spirit to see that God’s agenda becomes a reality. In our circles this is called coaching.We come alongside to help as Barnabas came alongside Paul, and then as Paul came alongside Timothy and others. A coach invests time and energy in another person which, God willing, will lead to an exponential impact for the church…(more) 

Day 4 - In the next few weeks, I will be designing a plan to identify new leaders and transform recognized leaders into more effective leaders. If you are a leader at Immanuel (my home congregation) reading this blog, please don’t panic. If I do my work well, it might be difficult to see my plan in action because we’ll implement it gradually and actually make it easier for you to fulfill your responsibilities. The result? Leaders will be more focused on accomplishing the church’s mission and vision. More people will come to know their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.   More people will volunteer and become focused in a specific ministry (obedient discipleship)… everything from VBS to visiting the home-bound.  More people will become engaged in Bible Study.  And more people will assist with our worship services, everything from helping with the audio-visual to reading scripture, to participating in one of our choirs.   Bottom line: if we reach more people with the Gospel, then this time and energy will be well spent…(more)

Day 5 - It was a fitting conclusion to our time together. All of us have significant challenges before us in our ministries and in our personal lives. We prayed for our churches, our church leaders, our families, and even our governments (remember that some students came from other countries).  Sharing prayer requests, praying for the other pastors, and hearing my classmates pray for me, were unmistakable reminders that God enables the change to happen, that growth comes from Him, and that on our own, we are doomed to fail. God supplies the leaders and the pastors… The people of the church who unselfishly give their time, talents and treasure for the Kingdom…(more)

Pastor Tom Acton is the senior Pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Palatine, IL. Thanks to Tom for sharing this content with us!

This is the second in a series of posts with ministry tips to sex workers. The first is here. –TB

The second thing to keep in mind when wanting to begin this type of outreach ministry is to do your research. If you want to be [...]]]>

This is the second in a series of posts with ministry tips to sex workers. The first is here. –TB

The second thing to keep in mind when wanting to begin this type of outreach ministry is to do your research. If you want to be a street outreach ministry then you need to know what types of resources in your area are available to men and women that will reach out to you and ask for your help.

What will you do when:

When a woman says she wants to get off the street?

When she says she is afraid for her safety?

When she says she has children that she also needs to take care of?

What if she is an illegal immigrant?

What if she has a drug addiction?

What if she is underage?

These are the kinds of questions you need to take care of.

“The Game” is what they call the network of prostitution, those involved and its rules. There are lots of rules and terminology in The Game and it is important for you to at least be aware of what that is so you do not go out onto the streets ill-informed and into potentially dangerous situations.

You need to know the rules and psychological effects of The Game.

You need to learn where the tracks are in your town, how they work the girls, when the natural rotations happen, when to pursue girls and when to respect the fact that a sex worker’s time is money. You also need to respect the psychological trauma that has taken place. For example, insulting a woman’s pimp by saying he is a jerk that treats her horribly will make her cut you off and never listen to you again. You need to understand the psychological manipulation and deep connection that has been formed there and learn to work within those bonds to reach out to her.

We’ll examine some of the terminology related to The Game in the next post.

Julia Speck is assistant director for Fuller’s DMin program and volunteers with After Hours, a street outreach to Pimps and Prostitutes in Los Angeles. 

I have never been a big fan of boxing. I’m sure there are many reasons for this: I was raised in a family that never paid attention to it; I’ve got an aversion to blood and knocked-out teeth; I generally prefer activities in which no one has a chance of death or concussion or [...]]]>

I have never been a big fan of boxing. I’m sure there are many reasons for this: I was raised in a family that never paid attention to it; I’ve got an aversion to blood and knocked-out teeth; I generally prefer activities in which no one has a chance of death or concussion or tooth losing.

But there is one image that sticks with me from the boxing world that I have found incredibly helpful in my life and my image of God—and it has nothing to do with Joe Louis or Muhammad Ali.

At the end of a round in a boxing match, the timekeeper rings a bell and the boxers retreat to their corners. Members of their team attend to them, caring for their wounds and offering words of encouragement. It’s a scene we’ve watched in a thousand movies, and it never fails to remind me that we have, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer would say, a God who is for us.

God is in our corner.

We know that, or at least we know that we’re supposed to know that. As people who work in the church, we make a profession of knowing God, talking about God, and interpreting God to other people. And these are not bad things. But we cannot minister well from a place of rote knowing or repetition. There are times when we all need nothing more than to remember that there is nothing more to achieve, no person we need to impress, no task that needs to be accomplished that will bring God more to our side. God is more on our side than we are; he has a better vision for our lives than we do.

When we lose sight of this truth, we may as well be boxing at the air. The kingdom of God is available to us here and now, and our exhaustion or confusion or emotions might not point us in that direction. We may feel like we are fading fast. Which is why we need our corner more than ever.

The corner isn’t outside of the boxing ring. You don’t leave to get cared for or re-energized, you interrupt the very thing you came to do at an inconvenient but vital moment to get the care and restoration you need. We do this for each other, too, but mostly, God does this for us.

So let him remind you, before you need to do anything for anyone else, that he is there. He is in your corner, and he is for you, and he is good.