Introducing ONRAMP

So, last Sunday, we let everyone know that we were changing the way we do midweek grouplife at Quest.

Instead of various types of meetings and whatnot, we're going to try an intentional disciplemaking approach called ONRAMP.

You can find details about upcoming ONRAMP gatherings and RSVP HERE.

But here's a brief description of how it will work…

Our lives are busy and chaotic, and it's hard to find time to slow down, take a deep breath, and consider big ideas. Our lives are so complex that we barely have time to think big - especially when it comes to God stuff. But the big ideas matter; God stuff matters. 

If you're like us, you've tried and tried to find a way to think more deeply about God stuff - blogs, Bible studies, small groups, Sunday school, online discussions - but it's a little like trying to parachute into the middle of a speeding interstate highway…

Enter ONRAMP.

ONRAMP is a safe way to exit your daily chaos and merge into the deeper streams of God.

You don't need to be a Bible scholar or a career theologian to understand this stuff. You just need to slow down and enter into conversation with others who are looking for the same things. It's not rocket science. That's why Jesus said, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Join us at ONRAMP. Slow down. Have a drink. Think deep. Explore.

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Without being a slave to structure, our ONRAMP gatherings will reflect the following values and hold to the following format:

VALUES

Dialog | Dependence | Discovery | Discipline

We'll value dialog.

No one person, not even the ONRAMP facilitator, will be allowed to dominate the conversation. This will be a discussion, not a lecture. And it'll be a safe place to share and self-discover.

We'll value dependence.

While this is a Christian-led exploration of Bible texts, we'll depend on the Spirit to "lead us into all truth." So we'll be less worried about correcting people than about encouraging the free exchange of ideas.

We'll value discovery.
We believe the writer of Hebrews, when he says, "The Word of God is alive and active." When we open the Bible and wrestle with its contents, truth will continually rise to the surface. And that's what we're looking for.

We'll value discipline.
We think following the Way of Jesus is an intrinsic good. And in order to do that in our busy lives, we need to develop habits and practices that help us follow him. We hope ONRAMP will be one of those practices.

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FORMAT
At each gathering, we'll spend a few minutes breaking the ice and getting to know each other.

Then we'll use a predictable method to explore a particular passage from the Bible.

We'll read the passage aloud and then ask the following five questions:

• What does this tell us about God? 
• What does this tell us about people? 
• What else did we learn? 
• If we believe this is true, what might we do differently? 
• If we put this into practice, what would be the challenges/benefits? 

You’ll be amazed at how these five questions open up the text and draw insight from it.

Join us at ONRAMP!

The Biggest Threat

When I first joined Theology Pub, I did it to be edgy. 

I was launching a new church that I hoped would attract all the skeptical, hipster, twenty-somethings. And I hoped Theology Pub might be a doorway into that world.

It wasn’t. But, it turned out to be much more interesting than that.

Theology Pub meets in a pub, and is made up of folks who have both an interest in God-stuff and a membership in a web service called meetup.com. 

At first, I was just an attender. I showed up for the fireworks. It was thrilling to observe the conversational ebb and flow, and watch how some people moved the conversation forward, and others - either intentionally or accidentally - derailed it. 

But when I took the group over, I discovered how challenging it was to facilitate.

Theology Pub has been an awesome training ground for extending grace to those who believe differently. Over the past three years, we’ve had pagans, atheists, orthodox Jews, not-so-orthodox Jews, progressives, conservatives, gay, straight, agnostics, astrologers, wiccans, tea partiers, theologians, pastors, skeptics, seekers, and a few regular, old Christians.

This level of diversity makes it absolutely essential to state, up front, that, in this context, all views and opinions carry equal value. We’re not making any claims about the veracity of those opinions, only their relative value within this discussion space. If you don’t make this clear, fundamentalists will ruin everything. 

Since I took over, we’ve had three major threats - a preacher, a new-ager, and an atheist. All were fundamentalists. All attended under the pretense of open-mindedness. But they just couldn’t help themselves; they had to be right, and everyone else wrong.

With certainty, it seems, comes an appearance of arrogance; it seems to be a package deal. I tried to convince them to leave their certitude at the door, to no avail. So, I had to block them. They drove people away, and nearly killed the group.

When facilitating a group like this, it is paramount that you make room for differences of opinion, affirm even ideas that you find peculiar, and shut down certainty. 

In fact, I consider it a badge of honor that a first-time attender once asked me, “Do you believe anything?” I do; but I was tickled that she wasn’t sure. 

You’ll be tempted to answer every question - to be “the certain one” - but consider that your Q Place might be the very first time a person has stopped to think through what they believe. And when that happens, it’s beautiful.

Because, the whole point of a group like this is that, when you make room for self-discovery, you create space for the Holy Spirit to do His work. He will use you to show how He loves. He will use you to protect those who are far from him. And only in that protected space, can people open their hearts to hear from Him.

Blessings,

Pastor Ed

Cycle of Prayer

(from the transcript of Ed’s 9/4/16 message) 

The Cycle of Prayer consists of four elements that are essential for an effective prayer life. And those four things are...

- PRAY

- TRUST

- RELEASE

- PEACE

What that means is that, first, we must actually act. We must pray. Prayer is an actual thing that we do. And this act of prayer begins the cycle.

But prayer isn't just words. It's not an incantation, like in a Harry Potter movie. 

Prayer is more like a spiritual trust fall. We bring our petitions to God, not in an effort to get him to do something, but as a recognition that we understand that he's in control.

The more we do this, the less God seems like a genie, or a vending machine, and the more he seems like a father. 

So, first we pray, then we trust.

And this trust can't just be an intellectual trust. We must respond appropriately. That's part of trust. If we pray, and we feel called to do something, we need to do it. That's the trust fall.

And when we do that, just like in a real trust fall, we release the outcomes to others. We close our eyes and take a leap of faith, trusting that God's got our back. 

But in order to do that, we have to stop thinking that the end results are on us. God uses us, but HE produces the outcomes.

That's why Paul said, "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.” (1 Corinthians 3:6)

We must trust and respond, but God makes it happen. We leave the saving to God - we just show up.

So, we pray, trust, and release, and as a consequence, God gives us peace.

We've come to him in trust, we've responded, we've released the outcomes to him, and now God gives us peace, because we've done all he asked, and we can know that he's got it from here.

And then we start all over again.

Pray, trust, release, peace.

(And here’s some additional insight for today)

The more we pray, trust, and release, the more we begin to align with the will of God, and the more likely we are to pray for the things that were already on his mind.

God will begin to make your heart break for what breaks his heart, and he will remake you into the person who can love them into a relationship with Jesus.

What’s really awesome about this is that it makes interceding for another soul the greatest possible act of love. It means you are willing to be remade to love them better.

God does the remaking; he does the softening. But he still brings people to himself through us. And if we aren't preparing ourselves for them, where will they go? He doesn't soften their hearts because we ask him to, he softens them because we came to him in the first place.

Then he gives us what we need to walk them in.

Prayer Challenge

Something happens when we pray. 

If you’ve been praying awhile, you know that your prayers often fall infuriatingly flat. 

In fact, I have a relative who prays diligently, day-and-night, and she recently told me that she must be cursed because whatever she prays for, the opposite always seems to happen.

But just because we don’t get what we pray for, doesn’t mean that nothing happens.

If we pray with purpose and on purpose - especially when we pray for others, like our family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and classmates - we will experience something. Stuff happens.

- Our interest piques (people become more interesting)

- Our investment grows (people get more of our time)

- Our influence increases (people begin to listen to us)

- Our attitude improves (we enjoy people more)

- Our assumptions change (we judge people less)

- Our apathy disintegrates (we lean into people’s lives)

We become the kind of people that are on mission with God; the kind of folks that God enlists to lead people onto the Way of Jesus. We develop empathy and compassion and intentionality in our relationships with others.

And this is why we’re called to pray for others.

So here’s your challenge for this week:

Pray behind three people’s backs.

Take your noticing skills to the next level. Notice three people (can be the same ones from last week, or totally different folks) and secretly pray for them. Don’t ask. Don’t pray out loud. Instead, before or after you encounter them, silently pray for them, perhaps in reference to something you’ve noticed. 

For example, let’s say you notice a mother at the store, and her kids are acting up. Pray that her kids will behave, that she will have patience and peace, and that people will not call her out for just trying to do her best as a mother.

Or perhaps you notice someone who is working hard, maybe on a road crew, and they look exhausted. Pray that they will be safe and have the strength to make it through the day. Then pray that they get good treatment on the job, and good rest and support from home.

See how this works?

Notice three and bless them. Go!

Just do it!

Training is tough.

In today's modern world of 24-hour digital connectedness, where everyone has a personal computer in their pocket, you can receive a wide variety of training in a wide variety of ways. Or so it seems.

You can screen out best practices from a blog. You can purchase online education for almost any undertaking. Youtube has videos demonstrating everything from playing the guitar to repairing a carburetor, and google has pointers for every pursuit from breastfeeding your baby to house-training your pets. You can find twenty solutions to any problem, as long as you can articulate it and google it. Information is everywhere, and it can be in your hands at the speed of light.

But information is not the same as training. 

Despite the nearly omniscient nature of the internet, I think something often gets lost in translation. There's every sort of learning available on the web, but I think real training in most areas still requires three components that the internet struggles to provide: experience, accountability, and oversight.

In most cases, these components require real people in real relationships. In most cases, you can learn ABOUT a skill by watching others do it, but, in order to LEARN a skill, you have to actually PRACTICE it. Maybe hundreds of times. Maybe thousands.

It's no different walking the Way of Jesus. In order to learn and grow, you have to do. And everybody and their brother has an idea of what that should look like. Everybody has a plan or a program. But talk is cheap. And time is short. And there's just no substitute for doing.

Like the great angst-ridden, teen-aged philosopher, Holden Caulfield, I'm not a big fan of "phonies." But, sometimes ya' gotta fake it 'til ya' make it. Sometimes, you just have to figure out what needs done, and go do it.

Fortunately, the way this whole Jesus thing is set up is that you don't have to do it alone. You should always have experience, accountability, and oversight on the Way of Jesus, because they’re built right into the system. It's called the church. And if we’re doing it right, church should be the perfect example of training done right. But you can’t do it by watching, and you can't do it yourself. You can’t do it in a book or a pew or a laptop. That's not the way it works. You have to do. You have to try. You have to go. Together.

Just do it!

Pastor Ed

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Series Title: 7 THINGS

Message Title: God isn't gullible

Date: 5/8/16

Main Passages: Romans 12:1

Some questions for reflection or group study (or please comment on them, below):

• What is most unnerving about the fact that you can't fool God?
• What makes you most nervous about following Jesus?
• In what area do you feel least qualified in following? Love? Grow? Go?
• What's the main thing that's keeping you from truly following?

Good news!

So, last week at Quest, we talked about how our God is so great and powerful that we can't fully know him (if you missed it, you can listen HERE). But can we know him enough? Can we understand the Creator of the universe well enough to grasp what our relationship with him should be? 

We talk about "being saved" and "repentance" and "The Way of Jesus," but what do those things really mean? Can we understand them in a practical way? Can we truly know how to respond to a God who is so huge and powerful, but who also insists that he is present with us whenever we gather? What do we do with that?

One guy who did a really good job of wrestling with it is Paul. He was a smart guy, and he worked his way through these ideas, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and fortunately for us, he wrote it all down in a series of letters to the very first churches and their leaders.

One of those letters was written to the churches in Rome, Italy, which was, at that time, the central hub of civilization. And there is a long-standing tradition, in the church, to grapple with salvation and what exactly we are saved from, by working our way through the Roman letter.

This is often accomplished with something called "The Romans Road" - a series of verses in the Roman letter, which, when read in order, should open up the good news of Jesus Christ in a clear and understandable way. I have put together my own version of the Romans Road for your consideration, and you can download it HERE.

Blessings!
Pastor Ed
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Series Title: 7 THINGS
Message Title: God isn't simple
Date: 4/17/16
Main Passages: Job 38:4-7

Some questions for reflection or group study (or please comment on them, below):

• If you've ever tried to "share your faith" what was the most difficult part?
• When do you think it's appropriate to do so?
• Would you be more or less likely to share if you had a resource like this? Why?
• What do you think is more important, conversion or discipleship? Explain.

Bless this mess

Last week, we made the case that the first thing we need to know about God before we can move forward and get to know him better is that he's not mad at us. God is not characteristically an angry God who enjoys smiting those who cross him, but is rather a loving God that desires a relationship with his creation. 

So God isn't mad at us, but who is "us?" Who is God not mad at? Surely there are some who aren't included, right?

God desires a relationship with us, and that relationship is not contingent upon our spiritual condition. He wants to reconcile with us now, even if we're still all messed up.

God's not just looking for the really knowledgable folks or the really humble folks or the really spiritual folks. "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)

He wants to adopt ALL of us into his family, even if we're broken and confused. He desires connection with all of us, even if we're judgmental and arrogant. He wants to bring us all together under the same tent so we can shed those old identities and adopt new ones. He wants to heal and enlighten and humble and soften and embrace us, and he wants us to become the kind of people who can do the same for others.

So, who is us? It seems that "us" is everyone who is humble enough to enter this tent. It is anyone who is willing to draw together with God's varied and beloved creations, in all their messiness. It is anyone willing to set aside their opinions, and embrace people who look different, who smell different, who vote different, who believe different, in order to form a new kind of family.

It is messy yet beautiful, like a child's finger painting or a jazz improvisation. It is chaotic yet orderly, like a coral reef or a beef stew. But imagine if we removed the mess and the chaos. How boring would that be?

Blessings!
Pastor Ed

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Series Title: 7 THINGS
Message Title: God Isn’t mad at you
Date: 3/27/16
Main Passages: Romans 8:31, Jeremiah 31:3-5, Zephaniah 3:17, John 3:16

Some questions for reflection or group study (or please comment on them, below):

• What role (if any) did fear play in your faith, growing up?
• So, if God's not mad at us, is it okay for us to be mad at him? Explain.
• If you always thought God was mad at you, has this changed? In what way?
• If we shouldn't use "God's gonna getcha!" to reach people, what should we use?

The Tyranny of Distraction

How full is your DVR? I’m always fighting with mine. If I ever get below 50%, I get so excited. But, two weeks later, it’s right back to warning me that it might be too full.

“Are you sure you want to record this?” it asks me. “Maybe you should get some shows off of me and come back?” it says, with a wink. I know it’s just a machine, but I can’t help thinking that’s a little condescending.

Who are you to shame me for my addiction, DVR? You, who are my primary enabler? You, who keep enticing me with your easy search functions and your ability to record and store every viewing whim? You, who know full well that I’ve watched eight episodes of “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” in the last two days? Perhaps you should stop being so convenient? You mock me with your warnings.

But who can blame me? I’ve heard people say there’s nothing good on, but those people are crazy. Television used to be the filmmaker’s ghetto, where people went if they couldn’t make it in the cinema. But, today, there’s barely a difference between good TV and good movies.

Sure, there’s so much TV available today that for every good show, there are ten terrible shows. BUT still, if all you ever did was watch the really good stuff, you could still occupy every waking moment. So, quit judging me. My overflowing DVR is completely reasonable. Seriously, quit looking at me like that.

And while everything I just said is absolutely true, I’m really just trying to make excuses for myself. The DVR is just another way for me to stall. And you have them too. Your stall tactics might be different, but you have them. My full DVR is a convenient way for me to avoid connecting. It’s not overt. It’s not intentional. But it IS effective.

When I am catching up on my shows and speeding through the commercials, I am definitely not connecting with my neighbors. Sure, I might be collecting data that I can share around the water cooler. “Did you see last night’s episode of “The Walking Dead?” is a good conversation starter, but what difference does it make if your DVR has drained all of the margin from your schedule? How can I be Jesus to my neighbors if all of my free time is spent binging on TV?

So what do we do about it? As the saying goes, “Awareness is the first step to transformation.” During this Lenten season, you don’t have to give up the DVR (or whatever your distraction - sports - facebook - whatever), but maybe it would be a really excellent time to think about priorities. What is really important? Are your friends and neighbors and church family more important than your entertainment?

At this week’s Quest gathering, we’ll be discussing what it means to die to being busy and what it means to start living for others. And maybe joining us on Sunday would be a great first step.

Blessings!

Pastor Ed

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Series Title: DYING2LIVE

Message Title: live4others | die2fences

Main Passages: Mark 12:31, Matthew 11:30

Some questions for reflection or group study (or please comment on them, below):

• What’s your biggest distraction from living for others?
• If you’re not getting your emotional, spiritual, and physical support from your church family, where are you getting it? If you are, share some examples.
• Do your upbringing and experience support living for others or for self? Explain.
• What’s the difference between being responsible TO someone and FOR someone?

The Long Game

In our culture, we want things now. We don’t like to wait. We will actually pay five to ten times as much to get it tomorrow rather than waiting seven to ten working days for standard delivery. Today’s kids probably do not even know what an encyclopedia is - not when you can google everything in the world and have an answer in thirty seconds. When we are done shopping at the big box store, we spend three minutes scanning all the open lanes to see which has the fewest customers with the fewest purchases, just so we can save three minutes in the check-out line. We hate waiting.

We even like our evangelism microwave-style. We want three points and a prayer - or a clever diagram we can draw on a napkin - but, even as impatient and time-crunched as today’s culture is, the canned, elevator-speech methods of yesteryear, while perhaps appealing to the evangelist, are becoming less and less effective. To today’s listener, questions like, “If you were to get hit by a car today, where do you think you’d spend eternity?” only bring to mind the telemarketer. And I don’t know about you, but I hate being hung up on, and I would rather not be on anyone’s “Do Not Call” list.

So, what is the answer?

Relationship.

But why is that? On the surface, it seems counter-intuitive. It seems like the less time people have, the more brevity they would appreciate. But here is what I think is happening. Our frenetic pace and information overload has pushed people toward two extremes - gullibility or skepticism. But I see this as an opportunity, because, now, the only style of evangelism that really works is the style Jesus taught.

What can move the gullible away from the conman? Relationship. What can move the skeptic away from suspicion? Relationship. The old saying, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,” has never been more applicable than it is today. 

Perhaps now more than ever before, clever methods and persuasive words are failing to bring people into a real, life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ, because people are either drawn to the flashy and shallow or they are rejecting the whole thing outright. The only way to overcome this is to do what Jesus did. 

We need to eat with people. We need to build margin into our schedules so we can respond to needs. We need to be intentional about relationships, not so we can evangelize them, but because trust takes time and trust displaces both gullibility and skepticism. In order to truly follow Jesus’ command to “love our neighbors as ourselves,” we need to follow Jesus' example and commit to the long game. Because, when we build relationship for its own sake, we do not have to be clever or persuasive. We can leave that to Jesus.