Nicene Creed

In this age of “Christian Right” politics, “Christian TV”, and “Christian” bumper stickers and T-shirts, it is easy to forget that Following Jesus is an ancient, Eastern faith.

When I need to remember this, I meditate on the Nicene creed. “What is that” you ask? The First Council of Nicea convened in 325 AD, under the guidance of Constantine - the Emperor responsible (mostly) for the explosive growth of Christian faith in the fourth century. This council originally met to resolve early questions about the nature of Jesus’ diety (not IF Jesus was divine, but some questions about HOW). Out of this historic church meeting came some key decisions about our faith - like settling on when to celebrate the Reserrection. But in hindsight, the greatest accomplishment came in the first agreement on the consensus of the doctrines central to following Jesus.

Below is the Nicene Creed…

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Twittering

I haven’t been blogging as much… quite frankly because I have spent more time Twittering.

What is Twittering? Blogging on a Double Espresso! The best way to describe it is combining text messaging and blogging. I can update Twitter from the web, my Blackberry (via text message or a cool app called TwitterBerry), or traditional applications (I like TwitterFox). You can also see my Twitter feed over on the right side of this blog: I list my most recent “Tweets” (what you call a twitter “post”).

By limiting the Tweet to 140 characters, Tweets are concise, more in-the-moment, and much more interactive. Because I can not only post Tweets, but I can follow other people’s Tweets and respond immediately to their postings, it feels much more communal.

I need to get a little more intentional about blogging again… but if you haven’t checked out Twitter yet, I encourage you to give it a look. It is free, easy, and fun! Make sure to follow @chrisbellonline

Identity Theft

Over the last few years on my journey of following Jesus, I have encountered a (for me) newly emerging theme: That most of the truth behind faith, sin, and human choice is really about my identity.

Here’s what I mean… at the core of faith is not a central list of doctrines to be believed. Faith, hope, and love are not based on greater emotions that are beamed to us from God. They are not gleaned from navel-gazing wisdom. At the rock-bottom of Christian faith, I am convinced, is this fact: I am who God says I am.

Sin, or deviation from God’s path, is when I try to base my identity on something other than God. This was reinforced again in Keller’s book The Reason For God (I’m on my second reading):

“Defining sin this way, we can see several ways that sin destroys us personally. Identity apart from God is inherently unstable. Without God our sense of worth may seem solid on the surface, but it NEVER is - it can desert you in a moment. For example, if I build my identity on being a good parent, I have no true ’self’ - I am just a parent - nothing more. If something goes wrong with my children or my parenting, there is no solid ‘me’ left… when something threatens my identity I become not only anxious, but paralyzed with fear. Loss at someone else’s hands creates not just resentment, but bitterness. Only if your identity is built on who God says you are, says Kierkegaard, can you have a true self… and there is no way to avoid this insecurity outside of God.  Even if you say ‘I will not build my happiness or significance on any one thing other than me, you will be basing your identity on your personal freedom and independence.  If anything threatens that, you will be without a self.” (pp164-165)

In the same vein, author Neil Anderson asserts that all addictions and addictive behaviors are the culmination of identities based on other things… the natural consequence of creating an identity based on an appetite.

This is still unfolding for me but it is having foundational impact: the hope of life is that I AM who God says I am… that restoration to my true self, and all of creation for that matter, is not in question. That all that was robbed, stolen, or corrupted within me does not define who I am, or my existence. Instead, God’s declaration of my identity - and in fact the identity of all creation - is the rock-bottom of existence, and the source to which all of creation is returning.

That means this broken world - all of the evil, the pain, and the corruption - is not the ultimate reality. My identity, both philosophically and phenomenologically, is grounded in what ANOTHER says is the true me. And my Hope (not as in wish, but as in an assured yet future event) is the restoration to that true identity. This means that most of what it has historically meant to be human - the struggle with meaning and identity - does no longer apply… because My Dad has already given me a name that will never change. When all else shifts, this will not. And just because the reality I perceive around me at times does not match this promise/declaration does not mean the Truth of that identity is bad… simply that my perception of this reality is tarnished by the corruption inherent in it. And one day all of those corrupted and stolen things WILL be restored. My identity will not change, but will one day be in harmony with my surroundings.

Zoomerang

I just completed a revamp of our Weekend Evaluation that we use here at the orchard. Scott wrote a great post about our whole critique and review process and how our Zoomerang survey is part of that process.

We send this zoomerang out every week to staff and key volunteers and solicit honest feedback about what worked and what needs to improve from the weekend. Zoomerang is the perfect tool for this - it eliminates most barriers to honest feedback, and is quick and easy. The level of results disclosure is fully customizable - from total viewing of the results by all participants, to private results only.

Feel free to take the survey - this one is not tied to a specific service, but is IDENTICAL to the one we use every week.

Dude

I know Mother’s Day is this weekend… and having been raised by a single mom who worked her butt off to provide three squares and a roof when everything we had was taken from us, I won’t slight mom’s even a little. You deserve the day and more!

But a quick word for the fellas before we celebrate Mom’s Day. The following I found on Fathers.com:

For every 10 men in a church in the United States…

• 10 are struggling to balance work and family
• 9 will have children who at some point leave the church
• 5 will have to struggle against pornography (CB note: and five more with lying…)
• 4 will get divorced
• 1 will be confident about a biblical worldview

Men, we have asked women to carry the spiritual load in our churches, families, and lives for too long. We have to pray for and help each other.

Happy Mother’s Day.

Shared Church Leadership

The current issue of Leadership Journal has one of the best articles on shared leadership between staff and eldership in churches I have ever read. Ben Merold, an elder-statesman in the Christian church, writes a succinct-yet-powerful piece that I hope every church leader/pastor/elder could read. As my own journey has led me to experience some of the best and worst that shared leadership has to offer, I wish the following wisdom from Ben’s article could be ingrained into each and every leadership team in churches today.

Ben says beyond governance models, meetings, processes and procedures, the most critical elements that a leadership team (including the roles of pastor and elder) must engage in are:

Prayer - Not only about decisions, but about and for the members of the team. I heard Mark Driscoll say that he prays for God’s guidance to avoid elders/pastors who “care more about the title elder than the title of Christ-follower”. Leaders have to pray for each other and create a loving, prayer-centered community where they lift each other up. Ben relates how the elders in his first church gathered around him before every service… lifting him up in prayer, affirming his role as “quarterback”, and asking how they could help clear the way. That prayer, Ben says, carried him over his thirteen years as pastor there.

Fellowship - “It is a mistake to think that elders and staff can be friends in the decision-making process if they are not friends socially”. The leaders should intentionally plan and budget for times for all leaders to simply hang out as friends. This is not only a legitimate use of church resources, it is critical to harmonious leadership. Leadership boards… take the initiative to become true friends socially with pastors, staff, and other leaders. Social separation isn’t regal, “executive”, or business-like… and it definitely isn’t Christ-like.

Compassion - “Compassionate men will be leaders and not controllers.” Many examples of church leadership create a system where a governing board has authority, but the paid staff is held responsible. Compassion for the church, and the church staff, creates a balanced system of authority and responsibility in a leadership team where love and compassion dominate, instead of the politics and back room deals which are unfortunately still occurring in the local church from time to time.

Vision - Church leaders must know where they are. Culturally, leaders must be in tune with what questions the church is asking, what needs it has, and what the culture around the church is saying. Often times, conflict arises between paid staff and leadership teams because these two entities have differing views of current reality. Every leadership team, taking their cue from the Lead Pastor, must ask “Who are we trying to reach?” and “What do we need to do to reach them most effectively?”. I love Ben’s account of the elders surrounding him - “You are the quarterback, and we are here to run interference and help. Please do not get involved in things that hold you back. Call on us and we will be there.” A common vision allows the team to play together for the benefit of the Kingdom.

This post ISN’T what you think…

How long can this go on?

Before you start to think you just gleaned some insight into my political affiliations/support, let me correct you gentle reader… you haven’t.

What I mean is, how long can we choose our leaders like this? I think I am safe in saying that I, and 260 million of my closest neighbors, are ready to scream “GET ON WITH IT ALREADY”. This political season has gone on WAYYYY to long.

I know these thoughts aren’t original (few great thoughts are :)… but consider our convoluted process of picking a leader in this great country of ours:

The resources required to run for president ensure that only the most affluent, or the most connected/corrupt could ever consider it. Then we spend (what used to be) months if not (what now is) years beating them up, turning them on each other, and holding them up to international ridicule to see who can take it the best and come out on top. Then, when we select two candidates (and YES it has to be two… it’s a two party system! How dare you think an independent could ever bring something to the table! They are great for comic relief, but we can’t let any third party SERIOUSLY get to the general election!). And these two candidates beat up on each other, pointing out every bad thing about the country connected to the other guy (excuse me, person), and every great thing about the country connected to themselves. A process that is bifurcated at best, schizoid at worst. The mood of the country becomes more and more sinical [sic], downtrodden, and frustrated, untill the entire electorate just wants to hold an election so everyone will shut up! Because we all know that one of the greatest things about our political process, stability through transition, is also one of its weak points - few things ever change from one administration to another.

The candidates require such vast amounts of money that they become beholden to every small town politico in the Americas, and run around the country at a break-neck pace, straining family, voice, and health until we finally arrive at the general election in November. And just as both candidates are about ready to drop over from years of exhaustion, compromise, and over-spending, the one judged most able in all of the above vices raises his or her exhausted right hand and says, repeat after me, “I do solemnly swear…”.

Then the next few years are spent playing catch up to all of the promises and compromises made on the campaign trail… all in the hope, that in two years, it can all start over again.

Hey Abe… Teddy… ole’ Tommy Jefferson. Stay where you are boys… you couldn’t hack it today.

Park Ave.

Wow - it has been a really busy season!

So to relax a little bit, I have imagined taking another trip to NYC… and stopping here. The Park Ave is at 100 E 63rd St. What makes it so special?

Every three months this reinvention of the old Park Ave. Cafe transforms from Park Ave Summer to Autumn to Winter, and, currently, Spring. Not only does the menu change (with offerings like crab with gazpacho in summer, and venison with pumpkin seeds in Autumn) but so does the dining room decor! Wall panels, light fixtures, and the chair cushions are all easily changed to match the seasonal theme.

Summer offers light yellow paneling and cattail bouquets, while AUtumn ushers in darker wood panels, and crab-apple branches. Winter is starkly white, with silver birch. And the food has received rave reviews! I have got to make a trip to Park Ave. my next trip to NYC!

Elastic Faith

One of my favorite books is Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis. In that book Rob wrote a metaphor that I have used countless time since first reading it… that faith can be like a brick wall or a trampoline. If we build our faith as a wall against the world, then every single brick of doctrine is essential. And if one doctrinal brick is called into question - or even re-evaluation - the whole wall is in danger of collapse. (You can’t punch a hole in a brick wall and maintain it’s stability!)

This is the worldview of people who respond in anger to faith questions that stretch them. Faith positions that get set like stone become monuments - not alive, not growing - just memorials to a moment. God continues to grow me, and my understanding of Him and His Word. I would humbly assert that only people who assume they have it all figured out - that they know what there is to know about God and the mysteries of His universe - don’t need to leave room in their theology for growth, correction, retraction, and… well… God. But if a tweak, or new learning, or a challenge to ANY of my current beliefs makes me afraid that MY WHOLE WALL of faith is set to come down, I would respond in anger, in fear, and reject anything new.

The whole “brick wall” metaphor should instead be replaced by the trampoline. Again, as Rob Bell describes it, a trampoline is held up by many springs. If one spring breaks, the others hold the weight until a new spring can be found. Trampoline faith - or Elastic Faith as I like to call it - operates much the same way. If my understanding of one particular doctrine or another changes or grows, my faith trampoline doesn’t collapse. I don’t fear that all my beliefs are somehow jeprodized by one doctrine being re-examined. The other doctrinal “springs” bare the weight until I can reform or recast my doctrine on the missing point.

Does this mean I doubt the veracity of Scripture? Not hardly. Do I have confidence of the immutability of God? Surely. But it is not God or Scripture that I call into question. It is ME. God doesn’t change, but I had better be changing continually as I grow, as I journey, as I discover anew each day what it means to be a follower of Jesus. And because I am growing and changing, my understanding of the immutable, transforming Creator changes as well. And that is why MY faith must always be elastic…

Jott funnies

Ok, so I’m driving this morning, having some creative thoughts about some future message series. I am listening to a Celtic worship album - so I pull out my phone, call Jott and say “Ancient - Future with first track of Celtic worship”. Here is what shows up in my email inbox…

Monk

One of my favorite shows is Monk - the show about the obsessive-compulsive detective who can outsmart you, but not shake hands with you, due to his issues with dirt and germs. That’s when I had an insight about the church and the culture around us.

Monk is a germaphobe - so scared of germs and dirt that he can barely function. Part of the show’s charm is how far he will go to separate himself from any sort of microbe, sickness, or filth. He could never be a doctor, because Doctors have to be comfortable with a certain level of exposure to sickness and sick people. Monk’s phobia, by definition, keeps him from doing anything about the cause he so vehemently detests - namely dirt and diesase.

How many followers of Jesus have turned into Monks? (pun intended) Called to be doctors - helping the sick at heart, the spiritually diseased, and those covered in the filth of the worst of our culture - they have instead decided that their primary calling is to separate themselves from any possible sort of contamination. To be a doctor, you have to rub elbows and shoulders with sick and diseased people.

Now that doesn’t mean you have to LOVE the sickness - immersing yourself in pools of bacteria. But it DOES mean that you have to love the sick person more than you detest the “ickiness” of the sickness. You have to put yourself around where sick people are in order to care for them!

Christ followers - we can’t distance ourselves so much from culture that we can no longer be the wounded-healers the Christ called us to be. We can’t be so focused on staying “clean” that we refuse to influence the culture and the people in that culture who need the Great Physician!

Because Monk is a great TV show - but it is a lousy way to influence the culture for Jesus.

My Heritage

How could you not be proud with a crop of boys like this?

I’m Batman!

Guess whose picture that is behind the wheel of the batmobile?

Yep!  My high school graduation picture.

I’m batman (at least to my three year old!).

Moleskine - the ubiquitous little black notebook

I love my Moleskine. I use it as a journal, a sketchpad, a collection point for message/planning ideas, and my general go-to point for reflection and thinking. I go through several a year, so I attach a time-stamp to the bound edge with dates, and then file them on my bookshelves in my library.

For me, the few things that make my experience of writing in the Moleskine enjoyable are using the Large, Plain version (big, blank pages). Lines make me feel hemmed in when I am writing. I also use a good pen… either my Montblanc rollerball (pictured) or my Waterman fountain pen that I draw from an ink well. Good pens make the process feel elegant and very enjoyable!

The bulk of my writings are reflective in nature… journaling and the like. I write devotionally, but also as a record that my sons might one day want to read. My deepest thoughts go into my journal, so I hope they never go missing If they do, I always put my name and a $50 reward offer at the front (my thoughts are worth at least $50, right?) I also keep a few calling/business cards and some cut up card stock in the accordion pocket - useful for all sorts of things.

Here are a few great links for using and organizing Moleskines:

Moleskine

How to Organize a Moleskin (Joe Thorn)

Moleskin Hacks (43Folders)

Moleskinerie

and the link I forgot (thanks Kenny)

New Booqbag

I am really diggin’ my new Booq laptop bag.

The mamba sling (I know… they gotta work on that name!) arrived yesterday.  I ordered this bag because my STM alley was just getting too small.  My new Booq can carry about double the stuff of my old STM, and feels about half as heavy.

I chose the blue and orange, but they have a cool assortment of colors.  It has pockets galore, and the comparments are all spaced intelligently.  I like the vertical presentation (the STM was portrait in orientation as well) as it seems I can carry more stuff.  One of the best parts is the strap… the quick release snap and velcro means I can put it on over my motorcycle jacket if I need to, and the strap is very padded.  The shape of the strap also holds the bag close to my body and keeps it from swinging wildly about as I walk.

It even has its own serial number, which I register with Booq.  If it is ever lost it can be traced back to me from this number.  A cool option, although I don’t know how useful it would prove to be.

And don’t buy from booq… resellers have the bag considerably cheaper.