Adventures in Asceticism

This week has been an adventure worthy of the Count of Monte Cristo. This time, however, the hero of the story was not Edmond Dantes, Though he had his extravagance and dramatic timing. No, the hero wasn’t me either. God is the hero of this (perhaps every) good story.

We set off for district council with little money but some great assets. Brad Trask had graciously offered us Brighton Assembly’s Missionary House. As hard as we tried to share the blessing, we couldn’t find anyone else to stay with us, so we had this big beautiful house to ourselves. Our parents were going to stay at FaHoLo campground in Grass Lake and watch our kids in their bus.

We thought if worse came to worse we could buy some food with our foodstamps and cook back at the missionary house. But we ha a problem there. I had cracked the card a few weeks back and Elaine called for a replacement. The card didn’t come until we had left. So the cash we had on hand was all there was. We were stressed, but we determined to trust God.

We went down to the campground Sunday night. Elaine and I were in the midst of a three day fast anticipating what God would do in us through ordination, so we only had to feed the kids. The next day we dropped off my suits at a dry cleaner (One Hour Martinizing which is no longer one hour, we were extremely lucky they let us have one day service.) That took the last of our money. In fact I had to borrow a dollar from money I had brought to restock the coffeehouse.

Later that day I had coffee with Professor Mojo, and classmates, Joe and Christy. We talked about St. Francis and other things spiritual. I was so hyped up on caffeine courtesy of Live Wired Coffeehouse (R&D) that I was talking a mile a minute. Christy prayed for us, that God would provide the money to get us back home. Will all our talk about St. Francis I was soon to find the joy of his simplicity and relinquishment.

That night my parents got in. They decided to celebrate our anniversary (a month early) and we went to the grocery store for supplies and a desert. They then wanted to get a pizza. We drove all around Jackson to find a place that was open. My parents felt so bad that they filled our tank for us! Then back at the bus we had desert and opened a card with a gift of $25!

Armed with gas and $25 we headed to council. Tuesday was our ordination luncheon and rehearsal. That night was the banquet we had already paid for, so our meals were covered for this day. Dave Williams laughed at the luncheon that he had intended to send us $100 after reading some comments we had posted about our desire to trust God with our finances and become even more generous. He was so tickled that we didn’t act like victims of our economy. We laughed with him, we thought it was silly, but nice, of him to think of sending $100 to us.

Wednesday was the offering for pastor appreciation - our pastor, the pastor’s pastor, Bill Leach. God had already given us a tank of gas and money. He was great! Elaine pulled the $20 bill out of the envelop with a sly delighted look in her eye. I nodded with a grin. The offering went by and we had $5 left.

The next day was the home missions service, where we celebrate church planting and other missions here at home. We love church planting and we love God and the way he was providing so we gave our last five dollars. After that service I was called over by one of the leaders in our district and was given a Pentecostal Handshake, that wonderful institution where the Spirit inspires someone to pass some cash along with the peace of a handshake. As if we needed further proof that God was taking care of us, I found in my hand five $5 bills, completely replacing the money that we had gotten rid of already! We were being blessed by a photographer with royalty free professional photos on a cd so we in turn blessed him with $20 of our money. I tell you we just couldn’t get rid of the stuff. To our surprise Dave Williams then made good on his ridiculous promise to give us some money. So we were then able to go out to dinner on a crisp $100 bill and put another $50 in the offering! We really couldn’t out give God as much as we tried. It was fun to try. I felt the joy of St. Francis dancing through the woods in nothing but a hair shirt having thrown even the clothes off his back down at his father’s feet. “Now I can truly pray, ‘My Father in Heaven,’” he said.

Dave talked about his early days in ministry as we prepared to take up that last offering. He talked about how God had challenged him to be generous. He was making almost nothing, but he decided to tithe to the district, then tithe again to his church and then give to missions before spending the rest. I laughed out loud and leaned over to Elaine and whispered, “That is ridiculous!” Ridiculous and fabulous! God had only in the last few weeks challenged us to the same thing! What fun this adventure is. O for the day when we can finally give it all away! And we can live free, in the joyful asceticism.

He will turn my board meeting into dancing

My first experience with a church board was did not instill much faith in the system. I was on staff as children’s ministry director at a contentious church. The Youth Pastor and I decided to take up an invitation from the Senior Pastor to sit in on a board meeting. It was the first and last board meeting either of us went to of our own accord. They first vehemently denied the pastor any options the pastor gave to assist with his retirement, they didn’t want to encourage him to say any longer. They then dug into me and continued to rake me over the coals for an hour. I was just beginning my experiments with The Disciplines then and was in the midst of an extended fast. That I maintained my cool and sat in submission to the beating had to have been because the disciplines had placed me squarely in Grace. Nothing but grace can account for it. I went home and prayed psalm 119 several times, it was all I could do for solace.

Thinking about guidance brought those memories and feelings up again. I believe this is not the way a board should operate. Instead of viewing themselves as the empowered representatives of the congregation, I believe they are men and women chosen for their maturity and willingness to seek the will of God. Board meetings should be worship, times devoted to the discipline of corporate guidance and firmly rooted in the celebration of who we are together in Christ.

In the West, especially in America, we have been acclimated to Democracy, even to the point of seeing its spread as our sacred mission. Our two party system of representative governance provides us with checks and balances, but it also provides us with winners and losers. Each election sees half the country demoralized and the other half victorious. This is not how the church should operate.

Corinne McLaughlin suggests that a “spiritual” approach to politics would seek a synthesis of ideas. She suggests that synthesis is more than compromise, because in compromise both sides loose something. “A spirit of goodwill towards those with opposing views, a win/win rather than win/lose approach, a release of self-righteousness, and a compassionate, healing spirit are the keys to this new politics.”¹

Of all places a healing, compassionate spirit should be found it should be in the church. The discipline of corporate guidance provides us with the key. Instead of Robert’s Rules which are built on the win/lose model, I would like to take a system like The Handbook For Consensus Building² and infuse it with liturgy.

Guidance is a corporate discipline so it is appropriate that it fit in the context of worship. Foster points out that when sending out Paul and Barnabas as missionaries, The church at Antioch came together in prayer and worship. “Having become a prepared people, the call of God arose out of their corporate worship: ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”³

I envision a spiritual rule for board meetings. Like Foster says this must be in the “organic and functional sense.”⁴ It cannot be empty form or cold corporate policy to be any different from the contentious politicking of the past. The Short Guide for Consensus building suggests stages such as convening, assessing, discussing, deciding and implementing. Building into that the liturgical elements of convocation, worship, meditation and celebration create a mystical format for a spiritual body to use.

Celebration is important. It intersects with guidance in the organizational because we must begin with the joyful understanding of our identity, that we are one, the body. Jesus commanded that we love one another, “that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”⁵

For example, as I read The Divine Embrace, I must confess I was put off by Webber’s mostly negative view of the places his stone “skipped across the water of history.” He spent much time in the first half of the book, “rescuing” spirituality from this danger and that.⁶ His melody had a harsh tone in my ear. This is partly because Foster’s Streams of Living Water still plays there. Foster celebrates each of the traditions before touching on the dangers and so has greatly impacted my thinking. Both authors offer true guidance to me, but the celebratory style of Foster (and the second half of Webber) was much more gratifying to me.

So it is as we gather to seek God’s face. Without celebrating him and each other, we risk turning one another off to hearing true guidance.

Celebration is a powerful thing. This week I spent three quarters of an hour dancing before God on the platform of my church! Discretion is advised here, I signed a paper stating I would not embarrass the Assemblies of God and if any one saw me dancing they would be embarrassed for me! Needless to say I was alone. Most of the music wasn’t of the Christian sub-culture suggested by Calhoun in her exercise⁷, but it was amazing how“Tell Me Something Good” by Rufus can usher one into God’s story of love.

How wonderful it is when celebration can happen with others and not just alone. How I long for the Spirit of celebration to permeate my next board meeting!

1 McLaughlin, Corinne. "Beyond Right and Left." The Center For Visionary Leadership. 2004. 20 Dec. 2007 <http://www.visionarylead.org/articles/beyond_lr.htm>.

2 Susskind, Lawrence E. "Short Guide to Consensus Building." Harvard Public Disputes Program. 9 Aug. 1999. MIT. 20 Dec. 2007 <http://web.mit.edu/publicdisputes/practice/cbh_ch1.html>.

3 Foster, Richard J. Celebration of Discipline. San Fransisco: HarperCollins. 1980. Pp. 177-178.

4 Foster. 175.

5 John 15:11 (NIV)

6 Webber, Robert E. The Divine Embrace. Grand Rapids: Baker Books. 2006. Pp 31, 57, 79, 101.

7 Calhoun, Adele Ahlberg. Spiritual Disciplines Handbook. Doweners Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. 2005. Pg. 28 (exercise 1).

submission

My wife is really good at making me do things that are difficult for me to do. Twice this week I have had to submit to her in things that I had no great desire to do. In both cases she told me what I needed to do. I am afraid my initial response was irritation and rudeness, but as I sat there in the silence of her anger, I realized that I needed the discipline of submission today. I needed to serve and she was making sure that I did. O God help me to always understand your whispered calls to service and when I miss it, allow me to hear the not so whispered reminders coming from Elaine!

Formational Reading

"When we read a book [or a blog post], three intrinsic ... rules govern our study. The intrinsic rules may, in the beginning, necessitate three separate reading but in time can be done concurrently. The first reading involves understanding the book: what is the author saying? The second reading involves interpreting the book: what does the author mean? The third reading involves evaluating the book: is the author right or wrong? Most of us tend to do the third reading right away and often never do the first and second readings at all. We give a critical analysis of a book before we understand what it says. We judge a book to be right or wrong before we interpret its meaning. The wise writer of Ecclesiastes says that there is a time for every matter under heaven, and the time for critical analysis of a book comes after careful understanding and interpretation."

-Richard J Foster,
Celebration of Discipline
Chapter 5: The Discipline of Study

“Pray without ceasing…”

Increasingly on my spiritual journey I have met Jesus as divine lover. Strangely I enjoy imagining his masculinity. It has never struck me as strange, but Sarah refered to God with a feminine pronoun in a post, which got me thinking. With all the romance my relationship with God enjoys, why I don’t also see God as feminine. Dare I say I feel feminine around him. During my times of prayer I sense his presence mastering me, ravishing me. He makes me feel pretty and vulnerable too.

My heart has led me back to my lover through out the day more often as I have grown close to him, but there are times a plenty when the business of my day has crowded out thoughts of love and left me with empty loneliness. I am beginning to resonate with Martin Luther when he said, “I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer” (Foster 34). I have returned this week to the joy of praying the hours. I have found times of meditation stretching and coming back to me. I spontaneously start a breath prayer, “Jesus!”

The repetition of the Liturgy of the Hours, the rosary and breath prayers have brought a rhythm to life and spirit. The disadvantage is the repetition can become rote and I can disengage my attention. I also have to deal with the funk when the rhythm breaks down.

Since experiencing the spontaneity of breath prayer erupting in me, I have tried to make it a discipline. It is overwhelming. I breath in the breath of God. I imagine him filling my inner being, as the breath escapes I whisper breath on me. The power of his spirit filling me is too much for me to handle. This kind of prayer will take much practice to be able to withstand its power for longer times. With greater endurance a breath prayer could powerfully bring me back to attention on God throughout the day.

I was surprised when I learned that most Catholics who pray the rosary do it with a particular intention. I guess my intention is to know God. The intention is what you want God to do, your greatest desire. Praying the rosary like centering prayer is how I express my desire for God.