Something to think about:

"The ordinary man has always been sane because the ordinary man has always been a mystic. He has permitted twilight. He has always had one foot in the earth and the other in fairyland. He has always left himself free to doubt his gods; but (unlike the agnostic of today) free also to believe in the. He has always cared more for truth than for consistency. If he saw two truths that seemed to contradict eachother, he would take the two truths and the contradiction along with them. His spiritual sight is stereoscopic, like his physical sight: he sees two different pictures at once and yet sees all the better for that. Thus he has always believed that there was such a thing as fate, but such a thing as free will also. Thus he believed that children were indeed the kingdom of Heaven, but nevertheless ought to be obedient to the kingdom of earth. He admired youth because it was young and age because it was not. It is exactly this balance of apparent contradictions that has been the whole buoyancy of a healthy man." - G. K. Chesterton "Orthodoxy"

So tonight was the final session of our Vineyard National Pastors conference in Galveston, Tx. It was a great week. For me one of the bast parts was to see how many young people (under 35) are now involved in leadership. This was the youngest conference I have attended in the past 11 years. Two years ago in Anaheim they called for all of the leaders under 35 to come forward for prayer. There were probably 100 - 200 of us, out of about 1500. This year nearly half of those in attendance were under the age of 35. Very exciting. The running joke all week is that the Vineyard has traded in it's Hawaiian shirts for tattoos and body piercings. I'm really encouraged by this mix of the old and the young and excited about the future of the Vineyard movement.

The theme of the conference this year was "Heroic Leadership in Changing Times" and there were some great challenges laid before us this week. For me the biggest challenge of the week came in tonights final session. Rich Nathan, the senior pastor of the Columbus Vineyard, and a man of Jewish heritage, interviewed Sami Awad, a Palestinian, Christian, peace activist. Sami runs a ministry called "The Holy Land Trust" which works with Palestinians in non violent resistance against Israeli occupation of the Gaza strip and the West Bank. He shared much of his story which goes back to the death of his grandfather at the hands of an Israeli sniper, while trying to raise a white flag over his home to protect his family, during the war of 1948. His grandmother, a Christian woman, instilled the value of forgiveness into her children, even to the point that the legacy has been passed down to Sami's children and even to the next generation below that. Incredible story and a very different picture than the one we hear here in the states. In fact if you have the two hours to sit down and listen to the whole session you can find it here: http://tinyurl.com/c6ljjz (if it's not up yet just check back. It may take a few days).

For me the challenge is not in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. My challenge is the concept of justice/equality from a Kingdom perspective and exactly what my role in this is and what it looks like. I have always struggled with this because I truly feel like I am living in two Kingdoms if you will. One Kingdom is made up of the ideal, or what things should look like and be like. In this Kingdom the ideal is that we can bring about peace through non-violent means. We can see justice happen for the poor and the oppressed simply through taking a stand and doing what is right. In this Kingdom there are no illegal aliens, no walls between Irish Catholics and Protestants (or Palestinians/Israelis), no genocide in Africa, etc. That is the Kingdom of God and it is an amazing concept to grasp.

The second kingdom that I find myself in however is the kingdom of reality. The reality that we can't solve all of our problems through non violence, sometimes there is a call to pick up a sword and defend the defenseless . Sometimes the only way to peace is to defeat all of your enemies. The old example of this is Hitler and the Nazi's. They had to be defeated so the Jewish people and even the German people could be free. And it was messy. And it was costly. And people lost their lives. In the kingdom of reality a wall is necessary in Northern Ireland, at least for now, to help keep the peace. Is the goal to eventually tear down the "Peace Walls", sure but in the meantime it is serving a purpose. The same with the walls in the middle east. The desire is to have Christians and Jews and Muslims living side by side in peace and equality as they did prior to 1948, but until that day comes the walls provide security. In the kingdom of reality national borders are necessary to provide stability for governments and civilizations. Laws are in place for the same reason and while it may not be the ideal situation the serve their purpose.

Now how do I live between the two kingdoms? That is the real question, at least for me. I honestly am not sure how this is supposed to look in my life. For some of you, you have it figured out, but I still wrestle with this. So far the best I can do is to strike a shaky balance between the two. I can love the Mexican, or any other nationality, who is here illegally as a person who is created in the image of God, have compassion on their situation, attempt to serve them as best as I know how; while still taking issue with the problem of illegal immigration. The individual is not the whole and vice versa. I can love the individual Muslim that I meet, and still take a stand against terrorism and radicalism, even to the point of supporting a war to stop such ideology. I can speak out against atrocities on both sides of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and still reach out to and love those on both sides. Can I do it perfectly, probably not. Is it ideal, not sure. What I do know is that God is ever changing and shaping my heart and the way I view life in the present and life in the Kingdom. And in all reality, I hope I never truly get it all figured out, because I really enjoy being stretched and challenged beyond my comfort zone.

Jesus said, "Yes, and I tell you that crooks and whores are going to precede you into God's kingdom. John came to you showing you the right road. You turned up your noses at him, but the crooks and whores believed him. Even when you saw their changed lives, you didn't care enough to change and believe him. (Matt 21.31-32)

Does your church pass the "crooks and whores" test? To tell you the truth I'm not sure many of ours would. And if we were to be really honest with ourselves, I don't think we really want them to.

We do a good job talking about loving the siners wanting them to be saved but do we make a place for them in our church? Sure once they have accepted Jesus, and have cleaned up their act and don't have "stuff" to deal with we will love them and welcome them into the church but how about before they look like "us"? How about when they are still dirty? How about when they are still sinners? How about when they still have "stuff"? I'm not so sure we really want them here. This is not the case for every church, there are many who open their doors to anyone, but I fear it has become far too comonplace among evangalical churches.

A couple years ago I was at a conference and heard a pastor say that our churches should resemble going to the local Walmart, locking the doors, and everyone inside was now part of your church. That's a scary thought, especially if you happen to lock those doors after midnight...lol. However this is exactly what Jesus is saying, the crooks and whores are entering the kingdom infront of the religious...yes that even includes some of us. I truly believe that church should be more than just a safe place to bring our kids and meet with other like minded people. It should be a place where the broken can be restored, where the lost can be found, where the seeker can find answers...the homosexual can find love, the abortion doctor can find forgivness, the drug addict/alcoholic can find support and freedom...etc.

The problem is that gets messy. It exposes us and our kids to things we wouldrather not be exposed to. I was talking with a friend of mine on Sunday about this issue. I brought up that while all of this sounds like a good idea most of us don't want it. I used the analogy that if the kids from our weekly Drop In, teens who curse/smoke/drink/do drugs, actually started coming to youth group on Wed nights, parents would freak out. My friend and his wife honestly admitted that they would be right there with those parents. Now I understand where they are coming from and I don't begrudge them at all for wanting to protect their kids from certian influences, but it does show where our hearts are. The truth of the matter is that if we were really doing what we are supposed to be doing the church would be filled with "crooks and whores".

Our pastor told us about one of the things that his pastor used to say "I want you to go find the people who no one else will be their pastor, bring them here and I will be their pastor". I pray that we can truly adopt this heart. It won't be easy but it will be worth it

"The hospitality and pastoral care practiced in the Celtic and Angelo-Saxon monasteries was part and parcel of a broader ministry of presence and availability in which the Church's primary role was conceived of as simply being there in the midst of the people. The ministry of the presence was exercised both inside and outside the confines of the monastic vallum...The exercise of this pastoral ministry of the presence was seen as a more important function for the Church than engaging in mission or evangelism." (Ian Bradley "Colonies of Heaven: Celtic s for Today's Church")

As I am learning more about the early Celtic Church I am finding myself drawn more and more to the Celtic concept of "ministry of the presence". The idea being that it was enough for believers to just be around people. There was no need to preach or evangelize or attempt to convert for the sake of conversion. Instead the Celtic Christians realized that just by being around people and building relationships and getting involved in their lives ministry was taking place.

It is good to see this concept begin to make a comeback. From what I can see more and more Christians are starting to see the value in loving people purely because they are image bearers of God, not because there is a hidden agenda to convert them to Christianity. Making this change in our mentality allows the doors of ministry to open in ways that 30-40 years ago would have not even been considered. Churches are starting to open community centers that provide childcare, after school programs, education classes and even community health clinics. Believers are beginning to build meaningful relationships with their co-workers and neighbors that move deeper than a potential evangelistic target. And in the midst of this doors are opened for the Kingdom of God to advance.

For me the ministry of the presence takes the form of our weekly "Drop In" at the church. Every Thursday night we block off a large section of our parking lot and open up the youth building to give the teens in our community a place to hang out. They come to play basketball and dodge ball in the gym, play video games, shoot pool and play air hockey in the youth room and skateboard/bmx in the church parking lot. We have built/purchased ramps and grind rails for them to use outside as well as balls and games for use inside. We also cook between 75-150 hotdogs for the teens every week. This coming Summer will mark the fifth year of doing the Drop In. We started off with only a handfull of kids (15-25) and are now seeing between 50-70 teens show up every week, the majority of them have little to no church background. There have been many who have asked us what the fruit is that we are seeing, meaning how many kids are getting "saved". They want to know why we don't make the teens sit down for a Bible study or short teaching each week. For some unless we are sharing the Word of God with these kids on a weekly basis then there is no value in it. I think the early Celts would dissagree. We have discovered that there is value in just being here. The realationships that have been built with the kids who have come through the Drop In over the last 4-5 years are priceless. These kids have told us that they count there weeks by "Thursday nights". This is the one highlight to their week and by us just being there consistantly we have built a trust with many of them. They open up to us and share their problems. We are able to pray for them when they are going through difficult times, even if they don't know we are praying. I just reciently had the opportunity to talk with a teen whose grandfather had passed away and wanted to know if he was in heaven. A couple weeks after that I prayed with a teen whose best friend had just gotten hurt in a serious dirt biking accident. And yes, we have even had some of the teens come to church in the past couple of years.

Ministry is happeneing just because we are who we are, not because we are forcing it. St Francis' words ring just as true now as ever "preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words." It is my prayer that God would help us all to see where our presence is all that is needed.

MAKE THE SPIRITUAL CONNECTION

"One day they read aloud an advertisement in huge letters on a distant billboard, and then I realized that something was the matter, for not only was I unable to read the sign but I could not even see the letters. I spoke of this to my father and soon after got my first pair of spectacles, which literally opened an entirely new world to me. I had no idea how beautiful the world was until I got those spectacles...while much of my clumsiness and awkwardness was doubtless due to general characteristics, a good deal of it was due to the fact that I could not see, and yet was wholly ignorant that I was not seeing." - (from a letter written by Theodore Roosevelt, recorded in "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" by Edmund Morris)

An old man said, "Judge not him who is guilty of fornication, if thou art chaste: or thou thyself wilt offend a similar law. For He who said, 'Thou shall not fornicate' said also 'Thou shall not judge.'" - The Desert Fathers

For me the concept of Set Theory when it comes to Christianity is a fascinating, albeit new, concept. If you remember back to your academic days you will recall that set theory is used to determine what items belong grouped together. Most religions of the world, including Christianity, use what is called "circle set theory" to determine who's in and who's out.

Basically imagine a dot on a piece of paper. Now draw a large circle around that dot. everything inside the circle is 'in" while everything outside the circle is "out". Within Christianity we use certain factors to determine who's "in". For example have you "prayed the prayer"? If so you are "in". Do you go to church? If so you are "in". Do you read your Bible? Do you pray? Have you been baptized? And the list goes on and on. Viewing things this way helps us keep things nice and tidy, and it gives us a nice package to present to those who are "out" and are looking to get "in". All you have to do is X, Y and Z. And seemingly the most important is to "pray the prayer", you know admit you are a sinner, ask Jesus for forgiveness, acknowledge that He is the Son of God and died on the cross for your sins, etc. Almost like the scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail where they must answer three questions correctly to cross the bridge or else they were doomed.

Using this thought process one could easily ask the question when did the Apostle Peter go from being "out" to "in"? Was it when when Jesus first called him to drop his nets and follow Him? Was it when Peter first acknowledged that Jesus was the son of God? Was it at the end of John when Jesus restored Peter and told him to "feed my sheep"? What about the fact that even after all of these events in Galatians Paul calls Peter out and tells him that he knows nothing of Christ or the cross? The difficult thing with the 'circle set theory" is that life is messy and complicated. At times people can look at your life and conclude that you are "in' and then at other times like Peter, you can be accused of knowing nothing about Christ or the cross.

I want to suggest that Jesus did not come with a "circle set theory" mentality. In fact he seemed to constantly be at odds with those who held onto this mentality and thought they were "in" while prostitutess and tax collectors were "out". We see this most clearly in the story told in Luke 7 about the sinful woman who washed Jesus' feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. The Pharisees were upset that Jesus would even allow such a woman to touch Him. In Matt 21 Jesus said "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the s are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you." This totally turned everything upside down. Jesus was saying that it's not doing the right things to get "in" its all about where your heart is. Jesus came with a "center set theory" mentality. He is the dot on the center of the page and the question isn't whether or not you are inside the circle, in fact He eliminated the circle all together. The question now become are you moving towards Him or away from Him? What a radical concept. It means now that the sinner who is all the way at the bottom corner of the page and makes a step in the direction towards Jesus, is closer to Him than the religious person who does all of the right things but their heart is far from Him.

How can shifting from a "circle set" to a "center set" mentality change the way we view "outsiders"? How can it it change the way we view "insiders"? How can this change what it means to have a relationship with God?