Tag Archives: Institution

Chapter-a-Day

The Question Beneath the Ash

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But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.
2 Peter 2:1 (NIV)

Most people know that Vincent Van Gogh had his own share of mental struggles. What many don’t know is that Van Gogh began as a preacher. Convinced that he was to spend his life in vocational ministry, the young dutchman spent time serving among a desperately poor population of miners as a missionary evangelist.

Van Gogh took Jesus’ teaching seriously.

Jesus told the rich, young ruler, “Sell everything you have and give it to the poor.”

Vincent took Jesus’ words at face value.

He gave away his clothes.
He slept on straw.
He lived in the same conditions as the miners.
He gave his food and income to those poorer than himself.

He didn’t just “minister to” the poor.
He became one of them.

Van Gogh embraced the kind of radical, living incarnation of God’s Message that history records in the lives of the ancient prophets, the desert fathers, and saints like Francis of Assisi.

Van Gogh’s superiors were embarrassed. They didn’t want a modern day prophet who gave away his shoes to the poor and walked barefoot (like Isaiah). As good Dutch Reformers, they valued dignity and respectability. Van Gogh chose identity with those to whom he ministered. In Vincent’s mind, he was walking in Jesus’ footsteps, who left the comforts of heaven to become poor and live among us.

So the church leaders rejected Vincent as unfit for ministry.

God had other plans for Vincent. He would preach with a paintbrush.

Peter would have recognized the tension immediately.

In today’s chapter, he does not mince words as he addresses the problem of false teachers. He is not subtle. He points out that false teachers have always been present throughout history and the Great Story. He points out the consistent thread of their heresy:

Moral compromise
Institutional greed
Cultural accommodation

They deny the Master, exploit others, and are driven by their personal indulgences of appetite. A veneer of godliness cloaks their greed. They observe the sacraments even as they feast on sensuality. They don’t worry about truth, preferring to embrace beliefs that justifies their self-centered desires, even if they have to make a few things up along the way. They appear to embrace God, but they are simply leveraging religion to feed personal extravagance and fleshly pursuits.

Peter quotes an ancient proverb about washing a pig only to watch it return to wallowing in the mud.

God’s word has not penetrated. Jesus’ teaching has not transformed. The fruit of God’s Spirit is not increasing in “greater measure” which Peter described as evidence of “participating in the divine nature” in yesterday’s chapter.

Jesus came to teach a righteousness that comes from simplicity, surrendering, and sacrificial love.

False teachers use religion to self-righteously feed the appetites of self at the expense of others.

In the quiet this morning, my mind wanders back to poor Vincent rattling the sensibilities of his institutional religious superiors. They didn’t know what to do with one who embraced simplicity, surrender, and sacrificial love to excess, and found divine beauty in earthly poverty.

False teachers exploit the poor.
Van Gogh emptied himself among them.

False leaders use position to elevate themselves.
Vincent stripped himself of position.

I think Peter would have preferred Vincent to those who use religion to line their pockets, who wash their guilt in the baptismal fountain only to return to wallowing in the mud, and who partake of the Communion cup even as they intoxicate themselves on self-indulgence.

The question for me in the quiet this morning — is this:

Am I using faith to climb?
Or am I letting it keep me on my knees?

Along my spiritual journey, Jesus has continuously asked me to set fire to my personal ladders.

Thus, I find that question an apt one to ponder on this Ash Wednesday as I begin my annual 40-day pilgrimage to the Cross.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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Chapter-a-Day

Paul’s Pissing Match

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Neither do we go beyond our limits by boasting of work done by others. Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our sphere of activity among you will greatly expand, so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. For we do not want to boast about work already done in someone else’s territory.
2 Corinthians 10:15-16 (NIV)

I began my vocational journey back in the 1980s in full-time vocational church ministry. I shifted for a short time to full-time “para-church” ministry (a non-profit ministry organization outside of a church). I eventually was led in my vocational journey to the business world which is definitely a ministry, but my experience is that it is commonly not regarded as such within the ministry world of institutional churches. Nor was it regarded as such by my own mother who would have always preferred that I got my paycheck from a church rather than a corporation, God rest her soul.

For over 30 years I’ve served various roles in the institutional church as someone who is not a paid staff member, while spending the vast majority of my time and earning the vast majority of my income in the business world. What I’ve experienced as a result is occasional misunderstanding and mistrust. I don’t fit inside the normal paradigm, which I have learned makes people uncomfortable and/or there is confusion about motives, needs, paradigms, and boundaries. I’ve observed that human beings tend to like things operating within simple, well-defined boxes that fit their own comfortable expectations. When you factor in that we’re operating within an institution of faith it can take on all sorts of religious overtones.

Occasionally, the consequence is that I have found myself in an old-fashioned pissing contest prompted by individuals who have questioned my motives, credentials, authority, and sincerity.

I’ve equally observed that most people fail to understand that Paul was constantly experiencing identical struggles.

  • Paul was not part of The Twelve, so he constantly faced opposition from some who felt he didn’t measure up because he wasn’t part of the Movement from the beginning. He didn’t hang out with Jesus by the Sea of Galilee.
  • Before Jesus appeared to him and called him, Paul had been an enemy of the Jesus Movement. He imprisoned Jesus’ followers and oversaw their executions. For some individuals, no amount of repentance or evidence of Paul’s sincere faith were good enough to overcome their nagging mistrust.
  • Wherever he went, Paul didn’t behave like The Twelve and other leaders within the emerging church who were paid staff members vocationally focused on the Jesus Movement. Rather, Paul spent most of his day earning his income by plying his family’s tent-making trade. He learned the trade growing up. He became a full-time religious lawyer in the institutional Jewish establishment. After becoming a follower of Jesus, he went back to his childhood trade and made a living daily at “Paul’s Quality Tent & Awning, Inc.” while still serving the church ministry as an Apostle. Paul did this because 1) he believed and taught that everyone should work and earn their own way and 2) he didn’t want to be a financial burden on the church. People didn’t like this, however. It was strange and made him suspect. It wasn’t the normal way that Peter and the others “real” Apostles do it. I can hear it now: “If he was a real Apostle, he’d be on paid staff. I don’t know. There’s just something weird about it.”
  • Even within the broader circles of leaders within the Jesus Movement, there was a sense of those who were more acceptable, more polished, and more gifted at this or that than Paul. Paul confesses that he wasn’t much to look at, nor was he a particularly gifted speaker. At one point, a kid fell asleep listening to him, fell out a window, and died. Paul had to miraculously raise the boy from the dead (you can find the story in Acts 20). People seem to have perpetually remembered the bad sermon and forgot the miracle.

Today’s chapter is rife with an undercurrent of all these conflicts. Two, make that three, quick observations:

First, three times Paul references “some people.” He’s pointing at those who are questioning and criticizing him. Without naming names, he’s addressing the pissing match that he finds himself in that was not of his own making. It was “some people” within the Corinthian church who were promoting the authority and credentials of people like Peter, Apollos, and others while being mistrusting, critical, and dismissive of Paul. He didn’t ask for this, but he felt he needed to address it. Reading between the lines, Paul seems to have won the support and confidence of most of the Corinthian believers. That said, I’ve learned along my own life journey that there will always be “some people” we must deal with.

Second, Paul speaks of not wanting to boast “about work already done in someone else’s territory.” The implication here is that different individuals had taken responsibility for different “territories.” Even when Paul was sent out by The Twelve in Jerusalem there was a distinctive territorial element. Paul was to go to the Gentiles outside of Israel and focused on Greece and Italy. Jesus’ brother, James, took leadership of the Jerusalem territory. Even around Corinth, there appears to have been some territorial designations of those sent to proclaim Jesus’ message and start churches. Even back in the early days of the Jesus Movement there were issues of boundaries, territory, and egos. People are people. There is nothing new under the sun.

Third, I couldn’t help notice that Paul continually uses the plural when referencing himself…

“We do not dare to…” (vs. 12)
“We, however, will not boast…” (vs. 13)
“We are not going too far…” (vs. 14)
“Neither do we go beyond our limits…” (vs. 15)
“so that we can preach the gospel…” (vs. 16)

Paul has become a “we” that includes his colleagues Titus, Timothy, Luke, Barnabas, and others. This is subtle, but I also think it significant. Paul is not just representing himself in his letter, but an entire team of people dedicated to the spiritual well-being of the Corinthian believers. Today’s chapter begins with Paul referencing “the humility of Christ.” It strikes me that he exemplifies it in continually referencing that “he” is a “we.”

In the quiet this morning, I find in Paul a comrade who understands some of my own life experiences, like finding myself in pissing matches not of my own making. I also find in him an example to follow in how he handled them with humility and deference to the Lordship of Christ.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

Anonymous Cogs

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Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest [Jesus] because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away. Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words.
Mark 12:12-13 (NIV)

Many years ago I stumbled upon a business blogger who went by the pseudonym Anonymous Cog. “AC” was one of those front-line minions in the institutional labyrinth known as corporate America. His vocation was fodder for the comic strip Dilbert and he blogged about the daily travails of being an “anonymous” cog in the giant corporate machine. AC and I began a back channel correspondence. I almost instantly recognized a kindred spirit in his words. Now, whenever I see people working inside of any human institution, I think to myself: “Anonymous cogs.”

Enneagram Type Fours are often known as the Individualists, and that’s me. Along my life journey, one of the things that I’ve learned about myself is that I’m typically (not always) better off when I am able to operate independently. Whenever I’ve found myself operating inside a large bureaucratic system it brings out a rebellious streak in me because they are typically full of silliness, foolishness, inefficiency, and injustice. They become insularly focused on power, internal politics, and of course money.

The Great Story is, at the heart of it, about an eternal conflict between the Kingdom of God and human empire. I’ve observed that human empire can be embodied in an individual human being, but it’s easiest to see it at work in the large institutions of this world. This includes, but is not limited to, the worldly kingdoms of government, commerce, finance, labor, academia, and even religion.

In today’s chapter, Mark is careful to name all of the institutional cogs that had set themselves up against Jesus. He names chief priests, teachers of the law, elders, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians. Jerusalem was a regional seat of power, not only for religion, but also for government and commerce. The Roman Empire, the regional government of Herod, and the Chief Priests of the temple were all separate institutional powers who fought for wealth, clung to power, and controlled the lives of the anonymous cogs living in the region. These institutions held a constant and uneasy tension in the flow of power and wealth.

Jesus was a wrench in the works for all of them.

The clearing of the money-changers out of the Temple courts was Jesus’ way of shining a holy light on the corruption of the religious institutional human empire that the Hebrew leaders had assembled at the Temple. The crowds Jesus was drawing and Jesus’ sharp criticism was a potential powder keg. If riots broke out it would bring down the wrath of Rome, and that threatened both the power and money that flowed out of the Temple and into the hands of Herod and the Chief Priests.

The Son of God, an upstart outsider from rural Galilean backwaters, stands alone against the human institutional empires of government, commerce, and religion. That’s the picture that Mark is painting for us in today’s chapter. One of the things I’ve observed along my life journey is that human empires will always attempt to crush or eliminate any anonymous cog who threatens their system or the power and wealth of its leaders. I refer you to any daily news outlet for evidence.

In the quiet this morning, my individualist heart is stirred by this David vs. Goliath scenario that emerges from Mark’s stylus and the events he reports. At the same time, I have to return to what I wrote just a few paragraphs back. Human empire can exist in me. My individualism can be transformed into a personal empire with me on the throne of my own life, rigging everything I control to consolidate the flow of power, wealth, status, influence, and appearances so that it benefits me above all else. If I allow this to happen, I become a microcosm of the very institutional worldly empires that stand in opposition to God’s Kingdom. The anonymous cog becomes emperor of his own world.

Jesus calls me to live a Kingdom of God life amidst a world of human empires. He calls me as His disciple to seek after eternal things rather than temporal things. He calls me to serve rather than expect to be served. He tells me to be extravagant in my generosity rather than hoard things and money for myself. He calls me to humbly surrender my personal desires rather than demand my own way.

Kingdom of God or personal human empire? That’s the daily conflict. Every day I choose a side.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

Women in the Patriarchy

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Women in the Patriarchy (CaD 1 Chr 7) – Wayfarer

[Ephraim’s] daughter was Sheerah, who built Lower and Upper Beth Horon as well as Uzzen Sheerah.
1 Chronicles 7:24 (NIV)

One of my favorite classes throughout all of my education was high school World History. We had a great teacher, which I discovered makes all the difference in any history class. As we marched through history through the ages, we explored the same themes in each culture and period including the status of women.

This is the first time that I remember being presented with the realities of how unfairly women have been treated through the ages in cultures around the globe.

As I continued in my life journey, I confess that I discovered that I had to confront my own thoughts and unconscious beliefs about women. I don’t think that it’s any mistake that God surrounded me with strong women and gave me two daughters to raise. There were some deep-seated assumptions about women, both culturally and religiously, that I was forced to confront along the way, and for that I’m grateful. I shared some of these thoughts in my post First Words to My Grandson a few years ago.

As we embarked on these opening nine chapters of genealogy in 1 Chronicles, I mentioned that one of the things I look for when reading the genealogical records of the Great Story are things that stand out in contrast. Among them is the mention of women in what is obviously a patriarchal lineage. There are not one, but two of these in today’s chapter. This is highly unusual.

First the Chronicler goes out of his way to mention a specific member of the tribe of Manasseh in what is essentially a footnote or parenthetical addition. The man mentioned is Zelophehad “who had only daughters.” This reference points back to the days of Moses and Joshua when Zelophehad’s daughters rose up and argued that it was unfair for them to lose their father’s land and inheritance simply because he had no sons. Their standing up and speaking out prompted a ruling on the inheritance rights of women in a time and culture when women had no rights.

The second mention of a female in today’s chapter is that of Sheerah (not to be confused with the comic book hero Sheena, Queen of the Jungle). The Chronicler mentions that she “built” three towns. One of them, Uzzen Sheerah, even bears her name.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself meditating on women in history and women in my life. I can’t imagine how circumstances and personal strength had to align for the daughters of Zelophehad and Sheerah to accomplish the things that they did. Props to the Chronicler for mentioning them in a culture and time when no one would have questioned him for simply leaving these details out of the record. For almost all of recorded history, this has been the paradigm. Circumstances and strength of character had to align for a woman to make it into the historical record. It’s only in the last century that this has begun to change.

Which makes me think of my own wife, daughters, and granddaughters. They have given me a priceless gift as they have helped me see the world from their female perspectives. In doing so, they have continued to challenge and change my male perspective in many ways. I want them to continue to be strong women and accomplish all the purposes God has for them on their own respective journeys.

Which leads me back to this faith journey. Women played a significant, if largely unheralded, place in Jesus’ ministry. The Jesus Movement in the first century honored women in culture-changing ways just as Paul wrote to the Galatians: There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Unfortunately, when the Jesus Movement transformed into an Empirical Institution the leaders suppressed those changes. It would be 1500 years before the institutional church began reclaiming the status and spiritual giftedness of women in the mission.

I honor this reclamation.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Mom and the Ministry

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Mom and the Ministry (CaD Gal 2) – Wayfarer

“On the contrary, [James, Peter, and John] recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised.”
Galatians 2:7 (NIV)

It’s Mother’s Day on Sunday so I’ve been thinking about my mother a lot this week. This will be the second Mother’s Day since her earthly journey ended back in March of 2023. Mom was old school in many ways. I think she really enjoyed it when I began my career as a pastor. When my path led to my career in business, she would regularly ask me, “Are you ever going to go back into ‘the ministry?'” It didn’t matter how many times I explained to her the concept of the priesthood of all believers, that ministry is not confined to being a pastor, and that my job is ministry. She would politely listen and end with, “I know, but are you ever going to back into the ministry?”

In the early years of the Jesus Movement, the focus of the disciples primarily remained preaching Jesus’ message to their fellow Jews in Judea. It was what they had done when Jesus was still with them. It’s what they knew. They were comfortable with it. When God opened the door for Peter and the rest of Jesus’ followers to let go of Jewish customs, like adhering to strict dietary restrictions and men having to be circumcised, it was a tectonic shift in thought and life.

In today’s chapter, Paul continues to explain to the believers in Galatia that he was recognized as an Apostle by Jesus’ inner circle. I find it fascinating that Peter, James, and John were happy to let Paul take Jesus’ message to the non-Jewish Gentiles while they stuck with taking the message to their fellow Jews. At the heart of the conflict that Paul is having with the Galatian believers and the “teachers” from Judea telling them they had to become Jews and be circumcised is the fact that the leading Apostles were still hanging around Jerusalem contentedly living and ministering within the Jewish people and culture. It placed Paul in a position in which he appeared to be an outsider doing things differently than the “real” Apostles back in Jerusalem.

As I meditated on this in the quiet this morning, there were two main themes that my heart chewed on.

First, I am reminded that the concept of “ministry” is not narrowly defined in Jesus’ paradigm but expansively defined. Ministry is what every disciple is called to do every day with every person we interact with. Apologies to my mother, but one of the core mistakes made by the institutional churches and denominations was that they promoted the notion that “ministry” was confined to an institutionally defined, approved, and professional class within the institution. The result was that the vast majority of institutional church members came to view “ministry” as a narrowly defined, professional vocation rather than the calling and mission of every believer.

The second theme is the unfortunate reality that we as humans have a hard time with change, and this can be especially true when it comes to transforming our belief systems. Peter and the Twelve said that they affirmed Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles. They even affirmed Paul’s teaching that Gentiles were free from the Jewish law and ritualistic rules. However, when Peter himself visited Paul and Barnabas in Antioch he shied away from the Gentile believers once his posse of Jewish believers joined them from Jerusalem. Old habits (and beliefs) die hard. Just like my mother having a hard time wrapping her heart and mind around the truth that “ministry” is not confined to vocationally being the pastor of a church.

And so, I exit my quiet time and enter another day of ministry in the marketplace.

Have a great weekend, my friend.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Members Only (or Not)

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Members Only (or Not) [CaD Gal 1] – Wayfarer

I did not receive [the Gospel] from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
Galatians 1:12 (NIV)

I have an issue with church membership.

Let me explain.

Many years ago I was hired to be the pastor of a church. I accepted the call, moved my family, and began leading a wonderful group of people. About a year-and-a-half into my three-year commitment, I received a call asking for an emergency meeting of the church elders. For those of you who have never been on the staff of a church let me tell you that an emergency meeting of the elders is never a good sign.

I joined the elders in my office and found out that the “emergency” was that I, the pastor that they asked to lead them and had been doing so for over a year, was not a member of the church. What the elders with their undies in a bunch were getting at is that I had not gone through the official, denominational bureaucratic hoop-jumping steps of church membership. Forget that they hired me to be their pastor and that I had been faithfully and passionately serving them for over a year. I hadn’t checked a legalistic denominational box which called my loyalty and leadership into question.

At the next congregational meeting, I officially and dutifully jumped through the hoops and requested that I be accepted into membership of the church. I’m happy to say that my request was almost unanimously approved.

I wish I could say that this was a one-time anomaly. Actually, I have two almost identical stories involving churches in different denominations and locations. I’ve learned that church “membership” carries a lot of weight with some people despite it being a human institutional invention with no Biblical authority or priority. My struggle is not that the institution wants to do things that bring order to the organization. I get that. My struggle is that somewhere along the line individuals place a greater priority on institutional human rules than the clearly stated life priorities God gave us in His Message. It’s at best silly and at worst an indicator of deeply messed up spiritual priorities.

This morning, our chapter-a-day journey enters Paul’s letter to believers in the region of Galatia today. These are local gatherings of Jesus’ followers whom Paul founded when he traveled through there years before. It was Paul who preached Jesus’ message to them. It was Paul who lived among them and helped them establish and organize their local gathering. Paul is writing to his spiritual children.

But there’s a problem.

The Jesus Movement came out of orthodox Judaism. Paul himself was an orthodox Jew. The believers in Galatia, however, were mostly non-Jewish Gentiles. Some orthodox Jewish believers from Judea began visiting these local gatherings in Galatia with their undies in a bunch and calling emergency meetings of the elders. They proceeded to claim that 1) Paul was not an officially and institutionally sanctioned apostle of the Jesus Movement and that 2) If any non-Jewish person wanted to be an official believer in Jesus they must first go through the orthodox Jewish hoop-jumping steps to get their orthodox Jewish membership certificate, and only then would they be official, card-carrying members of the Jesus Movement. What were the hoops they had to jump through? For men, the major hoop was having the foreskin of your penis cut off.

As you might imagine, this stirred up some conflict and confusion.

These are the circumstances in which Paul picks up his papyrus and stylus to write his friends back in Galatia.

In today’s chapter, Paul addresses the concerns raised about him not being an official apostle of Jesus. Paul reminds the Galatian believers that he was once more zealously orthodox in his Jewishness than any of those who were questioning his authority. He then establishes that it was the risen Jesus who appeared to him and called him to take Jesus’ message to the non-Jewish people. Third, Paul explains that while he had established a relationship and understanding with Peter and James (the recognized, apostolic leaders of the central Jesus Movement in Jerusalem) he was largely unknown to those who were now questioning his card-carrying membership in the Movement.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself meditating on the tension between divine purpose and human organization. When I was a child, most of those who considered themselves Christians were certificate-wielding members of large denominational institutions of human origin. Most of those institutions have now fractured and imploded into small fragmented networks of like-minded congregations. Many believers have abandoned denominational loyalties. I have personally found it fascinating to observe and experience. I don’t grieve the change.

The Apostle’s Creed states, “I believe in the holy catholic church.” “Catholic,” by the way, translates to “universal.” It is not a reference to the institution of the Roman Catholic Church. Rather, it means that I am part of the Church (capital “C”) made up of every other believer in the world as determined by the indwelling Holy Spirit in each believer and having nothing to do with jumping through hoops, attending a class, and receiving a certificate of church membership. It means that I am part of what God is doing in the Great Story on a grand scale and that I have a Church family made up of all believers, regardless of human denomination, nationality, tribe, ethnicity, political views, or local church (lowercase “c”) membership.

Along my spiritual journey, I have personally been led not to sweat my church membership, and to prioritize being a part of what God is doing in His

Along my spiritual journey, I have personally been led to not worry so much about my local church membership certificate, and rather prioritize being a part of what Jesus is doing in His Church.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Note: The featured photo is of an editable church membership certificate that can be purchased and downloaded at Etsy.

Chapter-a-Day

Third Place Witness

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Third Place Witness (CaD Acts 3) – Wayfarer

“You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.”

“Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders.”

“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord…”
Acts 3:15, 17, 19 (NIV)

About the time I was in college, I remember the coffee shop phenomenon began to explode. It was my grandfather who first introduced me to a daily cup o’ Joe. I was in high school and I spent that week drinking Taster’s Choice instant. Coffee was the pot of Folgers my parents made, or else it was whatever they were brewing at the greasy spoon or the 7-11.

Suddenly, there were specialty coffee shops popping up everywhere offering different varieties and flavors of coffee beans made in special ways. Freshly roasted coffee beans from exotic places were freshly roasted and brewed for you in comfortable and intimate spaces where you wanted to hang out and enjoy your java.

In those days, everyone was talking about “a third place.” You had your home, and you had your workplace, but everyone needed “a third place” to hang out, to meet with others, and to enjoy being. Coffee shops became popular third places to be and they remain so to this day. Even in our small town here in Iowa, you can choose from three different coffee shops within a few yards of one another.

In today’s chapter, it is still the early days of the Jesus Movement. Before His ascension, Jesus told His disciples, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Jesus told them to start in Jerusalem. There, on the day of Pentecost and the beginning of the Festival of Weeks, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit happened. Jewish pilgrims from all over the known world had come to Jerusalem for the festival. When the Holy Spirit poured into the disciples, they began proclaiming Jesus’ message in all of the various native tongues represented in the crowd. About three thousand people believed in Jesus and were baptized that day. And, most of those three thousand would go back to their native lands throughout the known world when the festival was over and tell others about Jesus, His message, and the amazing things they’d experienced.

Talk about effective word-of-mouth marketing.

For Peter and the core group of disciples. They are still in Jerusalem, and each day they go to the Temple. The Temple wasn’t just a building. It was an entire complex with courtyards and areas where people gathered. The Temple was their third place. It’s where everyone went, not only to worship and follow prescribed offerings and sacrifices, but to hang out, to converse, and to socialize. It is where Jesus hung out when He was in Jerusalem. It’s where everyone hung out when they were in Jerusalem. And so, it is where Peter and John go.

When I go to a coffee shop uptown or to the pub, I typically always run into people I know. There are usual crowds that I can make a safe bet will be there. Friends and acquaintances will pop in for a pour-over or a pint and stop to chat.

The Temple would have been the same way. In today’s chapter, Peter and John heal a beggar at one of the Temple gates. It became a sensation because everyone knew that beggar. He was there begging every day at the same place. He was a regular and all the regulars passed by him. In the Temple courts, Peter and John would have recognized regulars. Some of the religious leaders who tried and convicted Jesus would have been there, and perhaps the very Temple guards who arrested Jesus in the Garden and were the first to strike Jesus’ face with their unjust blows. All of these people would have been in the Temple when Jesus was teaching there just a few weeks before. Peter and John probably even knew people by name. They had gotten to know certain individuals when they were there every day, all day, with Jesus. That’s what happens when you hang out regularly in a “third place.”

It is this regular crowd of good religious Jews that crowds around Peter, John, and the ecstatic, jumping-for-joy, and formerly lame beggar from the Beautiful Gate. When the crowd of regulars gather around, Peter delivers to them his message.

Peter doesn’t mince words. He calls out this crowd of regulars with the leaders and soldiers listening in. Peter states that they, this group of regulars, had rejected, wronged, and killed an innocent Jesus. But this isn’t a message of anger and condemnation, it is an offering of a second chance. Peter proclaims Jesus’ resurrection, which he and John had witnessed. “You and the religious leaders were ignorant,” Peter says. Now, he offers forgiveness, redemption, and salvation if they will simply repent and believe.

In the quiet this morning, I think back to my early days of being a disciple. In those days I was taught that being a “witness” involved standing on street corners, knocking on doors, and parroting a scripted and well-rehearsed pitch to strangers. I won’t deny that some people responded. The Lord works in mysterious ways, as they say.

But today’s chapter reminds me that being my witness begins at home, in my third place with all the regulars just as the Jesus Movement began with Peter and John’s witness in Jerusalem, in the Temple. My witness is woven into all the “third places” I frequent. It is in the way I greet people with kindness. It is my patience with the barista or pub tender who is so busy I feel ignored. It is my generosity in the tips I leave or the pint I buy for the person next to me. It is in the gentleness and mercy with which I relate to individuals who may have wronged me, or who simply rub me the wrong way.

The institutional church I grew up in loved to cram being a “witness” into programs, processes, and prescribed pitches. But, the further I get in my journey, the more I have come to realize and embrace that my “witness” as a disciple of Jesus is how I interact with the regulars in my life. It begins at home with my most intimate loved ones, at my place of work with my colleagues, and in the third places I frequent with friends and community. If my witness doesn’t start here, it will never make it to the ends of the earth.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Loyalty to a Trusted Source

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Loyalty to a Trusted Source (CaD Jhn 3) – Wayfarer

“The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.”
John 3:29 (NIV)

When I was a young man in my first full-time pastoral position, I served under a very wise and kind man named Bill. We were on opposite ends of our careers. I was hired as a youth pastor, fresh from school full of vim and vigor. Bill was in the final years of his pastoral career and planning for retirement. We were also from very different generations, and we were very different in our temperaments and styles of teaching. Nevertheless, we got along splendidly. He supported me and invested in me for the two years I was under his leadership. I loved him.

There was a church secretary at that time who didn’t like me at all. She wasn’t even a member of the church, but she made it abundantly clear on a daily basis that she was not a fan. In small, passive-aggressive ways she opposed me and used her position to set up obstacles at every opportunity.

One Sunday I had been asked to preach for Pastor Bill. It was a great Sunday, there was an outpouring of God’s Spirit and my message was enthusiastically received. The following morning, our entire staff joined in the break room for coffee time as we ritually did every weekday morning. My colleagues were very excited and complimentary about my message from the day before and the ways God’s Spirit had moved within the service. Pastor Bill joined in support, telling me what a good job I had done.

“I don’t know,” the secretary said in her usual sharp tone refusing to even look at me (which was also usual), “you don’t want him to be that good or people will want to hear him and not you.”

The entire staff sat in shocked silence, not believing that she had just said that out loud.

Pastor Bill smiled and responded, “No. We need enthusiastic and capable young men like Tom. There’s no competition. I couldn’t be more excited about what God is doing through him.”

I’ve forever been grateful for Pastor Bill’s resounding show of support for me in that moment.

Along my life journey, I’ve observed that people build up a sense of loyalty to voices that resonate with them. There’s a certain trust that is built, which can often result in mistrust of any other voices.

As Jesus began His earthly ministry, there were two predominant voices in the religious community in which He operated. The institutional voice of the ruling council was the most powerful and influential. For the non-conformists, the predominant voice was that of John the Baptist. Most of Jesus’ primary audience was divided in their loyalty to those two camps.

In today’s chapter, John addresses readers whose loyalty might lie in either of the two camps, but he’d already foreshadowed these tensions in the first two chapters. In the prologue, John addresses the conservative establishment crowd when he writes “[Jesus] came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” He then immediately addresses the non-conformist followers of John by stating clearly that John had testified, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.” In the second chapter, John once again addresses the establishment crowd writing that, from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry the ruling religious leaders were against Jesus and refused to believe.

There are two episodes in today’s chapter. Nicodemus, a member of the Ruling Council, pays Jesus a visit. His visit makes clear that not all of the Council members were adamantly against Jesus. Jesus, however, makes clear that the establishment will not accept His teaching. John then switches again to John the Baptist who tells his followers that his job was to prepare the way for Jesus and point them to Jesus. He says that this job was “complete.” John was ensuring that whether his readers’ loyalty leaned left or right, those loyalties had to submit to believing in and following Jesus if one desired to be part of God’s kingdom.

Over the last five years, I’ve had a unique opportunity to coach and mentor a diverse number of gifted individuals both male and female, pastors and lay people in the art of preaching. I’ve learned that every voice resonates with different individuals while not resonating with others. There’s something beautiful and natural about this in the context of Jesus’ followers being different parts of one body. I have come to believe that God disperses the gift of preaching and teaching to many different individuals precisely because one voice may not resonate with every part of the body. I think it’s wise that my local gathering is rediscovering this truth.

As I have teamed up with a number of gifted individuals in this endeavor, I’ve often remembered Pastor Bill and that staff meeting years ago. Resonance may naturally create affinity and loyalty, but there is no competition. Like John, the job of the preacher is to point everyone to Jesus. When everyone understands and embraces this truth, there is no competition, only love and support.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Walking the Talk

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Walking the Talk (CaD Lk 13) – Wayfarer

“In any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!”
Luke 13:33 (NIV)

I’m excited this Christmas to see the movie Freud’s Last Session with Anthony Hopkins. It’s an adaptation of an amazing little one-act play that imagines a conversation between a dying Sigmund Freud and a young Oxford professor named C.S. Lewis in 1939 London. Sadly, my friend Kevin and I were preparing to produce the show in conjunction with a college theatre department a few years ago until an individual got us cancelled. It remains a huge disappointment we never got to do the show.

There are several scripts and books that have been written over the years imagining conversations between different historical figures or imagined events around historical characters. I’ve always found the genre fascinating. When I was just a kid, the youth of our local church performed a play in which Pontius Pilate is placed on trial for Jesus’ murder. Members of the audience acted as the jury. If I remember correctly, my father was the Jury foreman. They acquitted Pilate.

Sadly, the death of Jesus was historically used as a reason for antisemitism. In our current wave of public and institutional antisemitism, I feel it important to acknowledge this sad historical fact. It is rooted in the Roman Emporer Constantine’s decision to make Christianity the official religion of Rome in the early fourth century. It was one of many bad things that happened after the organic Jesus Movement became the Holy Roman Empire. Constantine planted the seeds of antisemitism that would lead to centuries of Jewish persecution by the institutional church.

As I have studied the final days of Jesus for many years, I’ve concluded that the death of Jesus was the result of a perfect storm of antagonist power brokers representing the earthly kingdoms of politics, commerce, and religion. (A few years ago I presented my review of Jesus’ arrest and trials in a Good Friday message, FWIW)

A few chapters ago, Luke records that Jesus “resolutely set out for Jerusalem.” Jesus has been traveling toward Jerusalem and is getting close to His destination. In today’s chapter, Luke foreshadows the three key players who will have Jesus crucified.

It begins in the first verse of today’s chapter as Jesus hears news of the Roman governor’s cruelty. Pontius Pilate represents the Empire, and in the political powder keg of Jerusalem, Pilate is not afraid to use force and violence to quell issues. There was a group of people from Galilee who ended up creating trouble. Their offense is not known, but Pilate had them slaughtered and their blood was mixed with their sacrifices. It was a highly blasphemous act of imperial power, intended to send a message to the many zealots who sought to defy Rome.

The next episode Luke records is the religious leaders who continue to antagonize and oppose Jesus. He heals a crippled woman on the Sabbath day of rest, and the religious leaders call Him out for it. Jesus turns the tables on them and Luke records that Jesus’ “opponents were humiliated.” As Jesus continues to humiliate and threaten the power and wealth of the religious establishment, those religious leaders with the most to lose are motivated to have Jesus eliminated.

But Luke also records that “the people were delighted with all the wonderful things He was doing.” Even some of the religious establishment became fans and followers, and Jesus was drawing crowds that numbered in the thousands. The crowds alone were a threat.

At the end of Today’s chapter, Luke mentions the third piece of the unholy trinity of power brokers who will have Jesus’ killed. Some Pharisees who were fans and followers of Jesus told Him to change course and avoid Jerusalem because Herod had already put a price on Jesus’ head. Herod was the regional ruler who had John the Baptist murdered because John had antagonized Herod and turned the crowds against him. Herod had heard the rumors that Jesus might just be John the Baptist risen from the dead. Herod had learned from his father, Herod the Great, that remaining in power means the swift and violent elimination of potential threats, like having all the baby boys two years or younger slaughtered because of rumors the messiah had been born in Bethlehem.

Jesus, however, remains “resolute” in His trek to Jerusalem. He has no illusions about what is going to happen. In fact, everything that He does and says in public only pushes the hands of these political, religious, and commercial power brokers. Jesus states that He must press on to Jerusalem “for surely no prophet can die outside of Jerusalem.”

Jesus knows He is going to Jerusalem to be killed.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking about my post yesterday in which Jesus implores me and all of His followers to approach our earthly realities in context to the larger eternal realities of God’s Kingdom. Jesus is walking the talk.

How can I follow in His footsteps today?

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Jesus’ Way

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Jesus' Way (CaD Lk 10) – Wayfarer

[Jesus] replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Luke 10:18-20 (NIV)

Not long ago, I mentioned in a post that Jesus’ teaching was directed, not at nations or human institutions, but to individuals. It was directed to me. This is just one example of God’s message through Isaiah when He says, “Your ways are not my ways.”

Human institutions from Government to businesses to universities to churches operate on a system of top-down power structure. For human beings, this can work relatively well depending on the level of corruption, pride, and greed that exists in the upper levels of the system. The messiah that those of Jesus’ day were expecting was simply another version of this top-down paradigm. They expected the messiah to show up, wipe out evil through domination, put the Hebrews in charge, and exert salvation via righteous tyranny.

But, “your ways are not my ways” God had already proclaimed.

In today’s chapter, Jesus exemplifies the paradigm of His ways both via example and via parable.

Jesus appoints 72 more disciples and sends them out by two-by-two as as advance teams to the towns where He would be visiting. Their charge is to humbly stay with whoever will put them up and eat whatever they are given. No extra clothing. No purse full of money for emergencies. They are simply to do what Jesus did. Heal the sick, drive out demons, and proclaim the same teaching they’d heard from Jesus. If they were not welcomed, they simply wiped the dust off their feet and went to the next town. No demands. No force. No threats. Act humbly, live simply, and love mercifully.

Then a teacher of the law approaches Jesus. He is part of a human religious institution that operates like all human institutions. The elite and privileged at the top institutional food chain demand submission from the masses below. They drive obedience by threat of expulsion. They squash dissension and threats to the system (especially threats to the power and authority of the elites at the top of the system) with swift retribution, violence is used if needed.

The institutional lawyer asks Jesus what the law demands. Jesus quotes the two commandments that Jesus tells the crowds sum up God’s law: 1) Love God. 2) Love your neighbor. The institutional lawyer then asks Jesus to define “neighbor.” This prompts Jesus to launch into the famous story of the Good Samaritan.

What is lost on most casual readers is that Jesus deliberately describes those who pass by the robbed, bleeding, and injured man on the road as elite members of the very religious institution the lawyer represents. They are part of the human system which had, in top-down power fashion, exempted themselves from basic human compassion by dictating and justifying who was worthy of their precious time, energy, and resources both emotional and financial. In passing by the victim of assault and robbery lying on the road, these powerful figures of the religious institution were acting as they’d been taught and conditioned to behave by that system.

Jesus then chooses to describe the man who has compassion for the needy and helpless victim as a Samaritan. Samaritans were the enemy. Samaritans were excluded from the institutional religious system. The lawyer had been taught by the system to ignore, avoid, and treat Samaritans with prejudice, judgment, and contempt.

The Good Samaritan highlights Jesus’ ways, God’s ways. An individual acts with simply humility, compassion, mercy, and extravagant generosity towards another human being in need – even a stranger. This act is a bottom-up, subversive, human religious system disruptor, and it’s how Jesus intends His followers to change the world one humble act of charity at a time.

This bottom-up disruptor paradigm of God’s kingdom versus the world’s top-down power paradigm is highlighted once more by Jesus in today’s chapter. When the 36 advance teams return to Jesus, they report that they cast out demons and exercised power and authority over the powers of hell. Jesus quickly warns them not to let it go to their heads and infect their hearts. Rather, He tells them to humbly find joy that they have received love, mercy, and grace from God to be simple citizens and participants in God’s Kingdom.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself endeavoring to be a disruptor in this world. I don’t want to be a disruptor through power, politics, and protest. I want to be a disruptor Jesus’ way. I want to disrupt through bottom-up acts of love, humility, mercy, and generosity one needy person at a time.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.