My Fasting Experience - Week 3 - Communion Really is a Feast

I have to admit that I am not really a sacramentarian. I just don't get it.  I appreciate the sacraments as signs that point to spiritual reality.  They are outward symbols of inward grace.  I believe that baptism and the Lord's supper are means of grace.  But my experiences of the Lord's Supper are not as "powerful" as the experiences of many of my friends.  Maybe it is because I am so analytical.  My most meaningful experiences with God usually occur in moments of intellectual awakening to new ideas or concepts, most often discovered in study of the Bible.

But tonight I experienced the Lord's Supper in a new way.  Tomorrow is the 21st day of my water-only fast, which I will break on Easter morning.  My body has digested no food for 3 weeks, and the only liquid I have tasted other than water is a 12 ounce bottle of green tea that I drank in sips last week to help with heartburn.

This evening, as we remembered the suffering and death of Jesus during our Good Friday service, we celebrated the Lord's Supper.  Even though I am fasting, I planned to fully participate in communion.  As I broke the bread during the institution of the ritual, I longed for a big bite of the carb-laden doughy goodness that we call bread.  I considered a mouthful, but the celebration of communion is only intended for a small bite of bread and a mere sip of juice.  What happened next was completely unexpected.  As I stood behind the table, waiting for our servers to give the elements to everyone in the room, God spoke to me.  "If this was all you ever had, would it be enough?"

In other words, he was asking, "I am enough for you?"

Throughout this fast, I have been regularly reminded of the words of Jesus, spoken while he was fasting.  Resisting the temptation to use his power to fill his empty stomach, he said, "Man does not live on bread along, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."  (Matthew 4:4, (quoting Deuteronomy 8:3))


Am I enough for you, or do you need food to make life enjoyable and meaningful?

As I invited the congregation to take and eat, I ate a small piece of bread.  With my senses heightened and taste buds cleansed from the extended fast, I enjoyed a morsel of bread like never before.  It was rich, salty, and delicious.  As I invited the congregation to drink in remembrance, the juice never tasted so good, full and filling.  A bite and a sip were enough...tastes that lingered and lasted.  I don't need steak and eggs, bacon and coffee and a sweet roll.  I need Jesus and his grace.

It was more than food, more than just pleasure for the palate.  It was food for the soul.  Yes, Jesus is enough for me.

Like the old song says,
     Hallelujah! I have found Him
     Whom my soul so long has craved!
     Jesus satisfies my longings;
     Through His life I now am saved.

One of my prayers as I break this fast is that instead of chasing the delicacy of the sweet and savory, I will allow Jesus to be the pleasure and comfort for my soul.

Source For the Hymn: http://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/325#ixzz2zIYBpdMU

My Fasting Experience - Week 2 - The Paradox of Strength

My original plan was to fast for 21 days, then break the fast a few days before Easter so that I could operate at full strength on our biggest day of the year.  Unfortunately, I realized too late that I started late and in order to fast for an entire 21 days, I would have to break the fast on Easter morning.  Ugh!  That would be like a quarterback showing up to the Superbowl not having eaten in a week! For a preacher, Easter calls for protein, calories and caffeine! So I decided to fast for only 20 days in order to get one day of recovery before Easter.  Until this week...

The second week fasting went remarkably well.  I felt no hunger pains, and the heartburn and stomach pain was minimal.  By the end of the second week, though, I started to consider how and when I would break the fast.  From what I am reading, how you break an extended fast is just as significant as the fast itself!  Having digested no food for three weeks, I will need to take it slow.  In my research, I am finding that it takes 4-5 days to resume eating normal food.  I have a plan and will stick to it.

Last Sunday was not easy.  Preaching twice was extra hard - I just didn't have the energy to project my voice and to be as animated as usual.  However, at the end of the service, so many people shared that it was a powerful message and that God really spoke to them.  One guy in his twenties came up to me with tears in his eyes telling me how he really heard from God!  Then, to cap it all off, a friend whom I trust very much told me that I preached differently....his words were "slower" and "more deliberate."  While I felt very weak, people were hearing from God like never before.

The apostle Paul tells about a spiritual encounter that left him in awe and how, in order to keep him from becoming conceited, God allowed him to struggle with what he called a "thorn in the flesh."  While we don't know exactly what it was, this "thorn" was a source of frustration, pain, and weakness for Paul.  He didn't like it.  But he grew from the experience. In 2 Corinthians 12:8-10, he wrote this:

 "Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

I like this, but I don't like it.  I like to be strong, not weak.  As I look forward to Easter, I want to be strong!  I get to meet a lot of new people.  I will have the privilege to baptize eight Jesus-followers!  I get to share the good news of Jesus and invite people to make a life-long commitment to follow him!  I want to be strong, and "on my game!"  But I want God's power more than I want my own strength.  And if I can somehow experience God's "perfect power," then I am willing to be weak.

So, I will fast for the full 21 days and break the fast on Easter morning.  Then I will carefully follow my post-fast plan.  And I will pray like crazy that God's power will work in people's lives like never before.

My Fasting Experience - week 1

It seems like fasting is something that is largely ignored and not practiced in our American Christianity.  But I think it is time we give it some attention.

To this end, I recently lead our church through a five week Fasting Learning Experience.  We viewed the teaching series produced by Jentezen Franklin, pastor of Free Chapel in Gainesville, Georgia.  Jentezen is a revivalist pentecostal preacher who focuses more on the seeking the Lord than seeking his gifts and blessings.  He regularly fasts and leads his church through periods of prayer and fasting.  Specifically, he leads his church to fast for 21 days at the beginning of every calendar year.

After leading our congregation through five weeks of learning and practicing fasting anywhere from one meal to two full days, I felt lead to engage in a 21 day, water-only fast leading up to Easter.  I started a bit late, so it will end up lasting only 20 days, but it has been quite the experience.

When people first hear about such a radical concept, they immediately ask if I am starving.  Honestly, I am not.  They say that the hunger pains go away after a few days of fasting - and they are right! (thank the Lord!)  Yesterday I went almost all day with no hunger pain.  I do drink lots of water, and I have committed to drinking fruit and vegetables juices if I get weak.

An interesting thought occurred to me last week, about three days into the fast.  I was at a church meeting with our small group leaders, and I realized that while I was not physically hungry, I had a strong desire to eat.  My stomach was not growling, nor was I feeling weak.  But I wanted some food.  While there was no physical desire, I experienced tremendous mental and emotional desire for food.

I really enjoy food!  I like the various tastes of marbled steak, juicy strawberries, hot coffee, BBQ chips, burritos with salsa, bread of any kind slathered with butter, sweet and creamy desserts, and, well, pretty much everything.  It is enjoyable to taste food!  And it feels good to have a full stomach and then to rest and maybe take a quick nap.   Food is comforting!  So you could say that I enjoy both the experience and the effects of eating!  When I think about food, I don't know that I desire the food itself, as much as I desire the pleasure and comfort I get from it!

I think this is one reason fasting is so helpful.  It refocuses our desires.  When Jesus was tempted to turn stones into bread, it was a very real temptation.  Having fasted for 40 days, he was no doubt hungry!  But in resisting the temptation he said, "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4)  I do not want my life to center on eating.  I do not want to find pleasure and comfort in food.  I want to find pleasure and comfort in the God who created the food.  I do not want to live on food.  I want to live on the words of God!  Yes, food is necessary for the human body, but if my body is well nourished and my soul is starving, I am not really living.

So in these few weeks of fasting, I am praying that God will teach me how to feed on his word and to find comfort, pleasure and purpose in him.  I am praying that he will refocus my desire, so that I desire him first and food second.

Apprentice Field Guide - good stuff for learning how to mentor a ministry apprentice

After reading Jon Ferguson's book Exponential, I knew that I wanted to learn more.  The Ferguson brothers richly blend  personal discipleship with systemic discipleship.  That is, they are not just engaging in one-on-one discipleship, which always creates bottlenecks and is difficult to do on a larger scale. At the same time, they are not just church systems thinkers who attempt to disciple by program (which also doesn't work).  It seems that the key to maintaining this balance between personal and systemic ministry is their process of leadership development.  They develop leaders of programs by personal contact - and to which they give the term, apprenticing. 

Christian Community Church is by no means the first to use the term apprentice.  They know that.  But they have interestingly appropriated it to Christian discipleship and leadership development.  And I think this is a  key theory.  In the church world we have typically used the term "discipleship" to describe a process/plan of spiritual growth.  We also use the phrase, "spiritual formation."  In many circles, though, both of those terms describe a process that is all about "me and Jesus" and rarely results in reaching out to others or purposely developing as a leader.  With this in mind, the Fergusons and the folks at Community Christian refer to Peter, James and John as apprentices of Jesus - the guys who were bound to Jesus for the purpose of carrying on his work.  We then are called to become apprentices as well - carrying on the work of Jesus in our culture. 

This is genius!  It is action-oriented.  It expects reproduction and multiplication!  It acknowledges a need for the classic spiritual disciplines taught in spiritual formation- but not for merely personal reasons!  It is also highly relational!  To be honest, I have struggled to know how to develop leaders.  This is giving me some hope - and so I am giving a lot of energy this year to learning and practicing the development of ministry leaders.

Okay, enough for the philosophy of it all - the real help of this book is the practical help of how to identify, ask, mentor and release an apprentice.  Their list of must-have traits of a possible apprentice leader are great and very helpful.  I love the "parking lot test" for relational intelligence - when I see their car pull into the parking lot, am I excited to see them or do I hope to avoid them?"  Very interesting....

For me, the most helpful chapter discussed how to "make the ask," - that is, how to get someone on board to become an apprentice.  The authors remind us to "never say no for someone.  We must allow God to work in their lives.  We cannot have an apprentice if we do not ask.  It's up to us to present the opportunity, and up to God to work in them from there."  I need constant reminder of that.  I am too quick to say, "they are already so busy..."  Who knows how God has already been moving in their hearts?  Further, though, was their teaching to ask the person to pray about it, think about it, and get back to you, and then to pursue them.  Their approach of using ICNU, or "I see in you....the qualities of leadership....a love for kids....a heart for prayer....."  Genius!

This book has been very helpful for me as I explore this concept of developing leaders through apprenticeships - I will keep it on hand!

If you want to order a copy of this book, you can buy it here from Lulu.

I also just found an electronic copy available for free here:  http://242community.com/apprentice-field-guide

I Can't Stop Thinking About This Quote!

In an earlier post, I wrote a few thoughts about Dave & Jon Ferguson's book, Exponential. If you read my review, you can tell that I really like this book! (Click here to read my review)

There is one line that I have not been able to forget, though.  It is just so good!  In the process of welcoming new people to church, they try to (Are you ready, now?  Here comes a great quote!) "Treat everyone like a Christian until they realize they are not."  This has occupied my mind for weeks!

Dave and Jon Ferguson rightly describe following Jesus (being a Christian) as a lifestyle more than a label.  In chapter 3, they talk about the word discipleship and they talk about how they prefer to use the word apprentice instead, as it helps to give Jesus-followers an active sense of what it means to follow and obey Jesus.

When they describe the process of bringing others to faith in Jesus, they talk in terms of a process, or a series of steps taken over time, rather than a one-time decision.

As evangelicals, we have often called people to a decision - to that moment in which they repent from their sins and trust in Jesus.  Psychologically, we know that it is helpful to be able to remember a specific moment when we experienced something, so that we can mentally revisit the decision associated with the experience, and in a sense, re-experience our decision.  We often liken it to a wedding ceremony.  I know I am married because I remember my wedding.  But what about the person who knows they are following Jesus with everything in them, but who cannot identify a moment in which they decided to do so?  Can  conversion be a gradual process or a series of small steps taken over time?  The Ferguson's think so.

Whether they are right or not, their guidance is still good advice.  Even if we believe and insist on that remembered/datable "born again" experience, we can still admit that people rarely listen when we tell them (especially in a personal conversation) that they are not really Christians.  What if we just treated people like they were already Christians and allowed God to show them that they are not?  They Dave and Jon recognize that so many Americans believe that since they are good people they must be okay with God, and that if they attend a Christian church, then they must be Christians.  If it is the Holy Spirit's job to convict people of sin, they will recognize their non-Christian state only as much as they listen to him!  At that point, they will be ready to really hear the good news of Jesus and salvation by grace through faith!

What does this mean practically?  It means we invite everyone to join us on the journey of discipleship/apprenticeship of Jesus.  And when we see sinful behavior, we confront it as sinful behavior.  When we see immaturity, we confront it with a call to maturity.  When we see hurt and pain, we console.  When we see discouragement, we encourage!  And when the time is right, conversion will happen as our friends allow God to convert them.

Let's try it!  Let's treat everyone like Christians until they realize they are not.

"Exponential" has pushed me into high gear!

The corners of the book are bent, the cover is scuffed, and the page edges are green and brown.  You would think that I dragged this book through the woods or something!  Well, I did.  While this is not a post about deer hunting, I have found that I just cannot sit in a tree stand for more than an hour without something to do.  So as I packed up for this season's two day bowhunting camping trip, I grabbed my fresh copy of Dave & Jon Ferguson's book, Exponential.  I believe I received the book from my friend Dale Schaeffer who planted Bridgeway Community Church in Pekin, Illinois.  I attended a workshop where he shared the leadership development principles outlined in this book.  After hearing him, I was hooked. 

While sitting in a tree stand for two days, I was mostly glued to this story of how to do church.  Incidentally, five minutes after I finished the book and put it away, and one hour before heading home, a nice deer walked down the trail.  I will spare you the details, but just know that my family has meat in the freezer!

Dave & Jon Ferguson planted Community Christian Church in Chicago and have experienced explosive growth and an amazing move of God resulting in thousands of changed lives. Exponential: how you and your friends can start a missional movement is their story.  The idea is simple:  focus on reproducing leaders and a church will grow exponentially.  Like many ideas, it sounds so simple, but in practice is difficult!

I noticed three concepts that stood out as consistent cultural practices in the life of their church.  First, their church is built on a theology and strategy of reproduction.  Rightly so, the Fergusons began with the end in mind - following the example of Moses, Jesus, Paul, and the implicit history of Christianity, they realized that a great and godly church must reproduce!  Christians must reproduce Christians; groups must reproduce groups; churches must reproduce churches, and movements must reproduce movements!  Beginning with that end in mind, Dave and Jon built their programs and structures around the idea of effective reproduction!  Genius!

Second, I heard loud and clear their plan for leadership development.  While this sounds like a very organizational term, we again see the example of Moses, Jesus and Paul as they developed future leaders.  If we need churchy language for it, we could call it "discipleship through mentoring, aimed at ministry and evangelism."  (Or we can just call it Leadership Development for Jesus)  At Community Christian, they are focused on developing godly, competent leaders, starting at the most basic level of small group life.  Potential leaders are identified and then asked to be small group apprentices.  Since this is the regular practice of the church, everyone knows that the apprentice is preparing to lead.  And they go from there, gradually promoting leaders in a system in which every leader is both mentoring and being mentored, developing both their skills and their devotion to Jesus.  This system is not only applied to fellowship/discipleship groups, but also to ministry teams.  I loved their description of a campus worship leader introducing an apprentice leader to the congregation, telling them that the apprentice is going to lead "the next song."

This idea inspires me!  It makes me want to push all of our church's LIFE group leaders to identify and begin training an apprentice.  We struggle so much in this area of identifying and developing group leaders. 

Interestingly, the books features the story of Troy McMahon, who started out as an apprentice small group leader, moved up to become a pastor on staff and then eventually moved to Kansas City to plant a church in the north suburbs.  And I know him!  He participated in the interdenominational church planting fellowship in which I participated!!!!  Small world!

The third recurring concept I discovered was that small group life is not only a leadership development system, but is also the connectional system for the church.  I know, I know, I should know this already, that growing churches help people to connect in small groups.  This just affirmed it once again that small groups are massively important.  It doesn't matter what we call them, but our people will only really connect with each other to the degree that they are active in a smaller group.  (This also helps to show the relational skills or lack thereof of potential leaders).  They believe in small groups so strongly that they state that, "small groups are the epicenter of community life in a church." (page 102)

Can you tell that I really liked this model?  Now I want to go to the annual Exponential Conference!

I am going to add two more of the Fergusons' books to my to-be-read pile.  First, I want to check out their Apprentice Field Guide in order to learn more about how to initiate a church-wide apprenticeship program.  Next, I want to read The Big Idea in order to learn how to craft worship services that really teach and connect well.

By the way - there is one more idea in this book that I just cannot forget!  Check out my next post for that idea.

Is "Radical" too Radical?

We have a love-hate relationship with radicals.  On the one hand, we admire their commitment to their cause (and are possibly secretly envious of their focused devotion).  On the other hand, sometimes we just want them to shut up and talk about something other than their cause.  We are okay with Muslims who practice their religion peacefully, but then label terrorists who attribute their to their faith as "radicals."  Politically, "radical" is the preferred adjective to malign those who differ from your views.  After all, how can you fight against a "moderate" without being viewed as the bully?  And yet, when we personally discover a cause worth giving our life to, we easily become radical.

A few years ago, Pastor David Platt released Radical: taking back your faith from the American Dream and it became an instant bestseller.  After all - we are both attracted and repelled by radical manifestos.  I finally read this book - and I have to say that I agree completely.  In the book, Platt argues that too many followers of Jesus have given their time, attention, energy and money to pursuing the so-called "American Dream" of status, success, comfort and wealth.  And he is right.  As the pastor of a wealthy, suburban mega-church, he speaks from a position of "been-there-done-that" and therefore is not a small-timer with questionable motives taking pot-shots at large churches.  He confesses and struggles with the reality that as American Christians, we spend too much our personal and church money and time creating comfortable Christianity.  Through a simple investigation of Jesus' teachings, Platt challenges Christians to be true, radical Jesus followers.

If you are a follower of Jesus who is tired of church programs, you need to read this book.  If you claim to be a Christian based on a prayer you prayed years ago, you need to read this book.  But be ready to be shaken.  You will feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

Pastor David Platt in India

One warning, though. As you read this book, you will wonder if you are really saved.  You will probably ask yourself if you are really good enough, or radical enough to be saved.  I counseled a friend who really struggle with this book.  Therefore, I would encourage you to not read this alone.  Remember that it is by grace you are saved, through faith in Jesus.  And David Platt would agree with that.  He is not advocating salvation by human obedience or good deeds!  But he does recognize that conversion and following Jesus necessarily results in good works and good fruit, and in the absence of both, one might want to seriously consider if they have truly repented of their sins.

In the end, David Platt casts a compelling vision for an experiment that will change you and will change the world.  There is no sense of manipulation or empty promises.  He is not an old-fashioned preacher who is just trying to guilt-trip his readers into a simple prayer.  He believes in the power and the promises of Jesus - that a life lived for Jesus alone is the best way to live!