ok so i am reading through Agile Web Development with Rails and I found this profound section on why rails is referred to as agile:

Those are quite profound when you think about…especially in terms of church.

Can you think of how we can take those statements and relate them to agile church development?

steve and jen

Originally uploaded by urbanplanter.

Jen took some pictures of our community so i thought i would post one of them here.

feel free to click on the picture to see more our pics.

This is a great one of Steve and Jen getting ready to play at our first ever toh gathering.

As I entered into this passage for this weeks gathering I realized how inexperienced I was with the concept of spiritual warfare. Our group has so many people from so many different backgrounds (culturally and denominationally) that it would be quite a task to determine the "right" response to passages such as these.

Personally I come from a un-churched background, not unspiritual, but unengaged with the Christian church world that as I look back seemed relatively strong. Because of this I missed out on some of the "spiritual" dialogue that occurred between the churches in their search for a powerful gospel that wasn’t consumed by modern enlightenment thinking, but embraced the unexplainable and that comes by faith.

But even as I look back on my church experience I see a very conservative one that tolerated alternative views, but never really embraced them as being "right" or spent the time investigating them; they merely let them be.

So now you are expecting this long post on spiritual warfare and how I see angels and demons hovering over my bed in serious battle, but I am sorry to disappoint you. Instead I want to introduce you to a few concepts and then tonight let the big guns come out…and maybe have some good discussion.

I want to introduce you to a couple questions I have been thinking about:

• What are the perceptions of the spiritual world in our culture?
  • Do we tend to minimize it?
  • Do we tend to trivialize it and make it cartoonish? (I’m picturing Adam Sandler as the son of the devil and the devil being the small little conscience on your shoulders)
  • Do some overemphasize it and have an unhealthy interest?
• In the church I have wondered whether we have we swept spiritual warfare under the carpet due to its unreasonable nature?

Whatever we decide to do with the topic, this passage tells us we must take into consideration the spiritual struggle we are in and the equipment at our disposal.

What I love about this illustration of "battlefield" Paul uses, is its relation to the bigger picture. You see we make our Christian life very individual in how we refer to individual morality, individual purpose, and individual growth, but this analogy brings out the dimension that we are actually a part of a bigger mission.

Using the metaphor of the battlefield, we can struggle to know the “why” of our ongoing battle, as we protect a small part of the field in a war. The generals know the "why" and we just continue on, but it is important that we continually realize that there is something bigger going on, and we need to know that "something" in order to move forward. It’s easy for us to picture the Christian life as a very individual, but when we challenge that assessment to mean the battle between individual goals and doing our individual best to support the whole community, the realization of a greater mission ensues.

So despite what we determine as the meanings of the "equipment" listed in this passage, we must remember that it is given for a greater mission, beyond simply our individual task, but for God’s mission of redeeming a lost a broken world to Himself.

With that said here is a little overview of the weapons of this spiritual battle.

Paul starts by mentioning the belt which signify’s truth. I guess the main gist of this for us is if it is not true, why bother living it and professing it? And for us this way of life works because it is true (not necessarily the other way around). It doesn’t always work for us, but it is still true and we need to hold to that.

Then we have the breastplate which is connected with Justice or Righteousness (words can be interchangeable in the Greek, which is a another discussion entirely). This attribute is not just about virtue, it is more about how the one God (the only judge) is going about bringing the whole world to order. The process began when Jesus was vindicated and we were then vindicated through Him. We were given right standing before God in Jesus (like a breastplate gives us protection from the front).

The shoes represent the Gospel of Peace. As it relates to Ephesians directly, the message of peace connects us in two ways: between God and us and between different human relationships such as the hostile cultural groups in this book (see 2:11-22; Gentiles and Jews). As it relates to shoes, good shoes keep you steady and on your feet when the enemy sets you back. when people want to destroy the relationships between people, you are ready and steady to continue working at them.

The next defensive piece is the shield that represents faith. Belief in Jesus as risen Lord and loyal following to his teachings will protect from the onslaught of arrows. The arrows can be represented by the doubt, despair, adverse circumstances, temptation, and personal tragedies that we encounter every day. It can even be represented by arrogance and pride that comes from our personal life triumphs.

The last defensive piece of armour is the helmet that represents salvation. Knowing that you belong to the family of the Messiah and have been rescued from death leads us into a right relationship with each other and the encouragement to continue.

Lastly we have the Sword of the Spirit representing the Word of God. Word in this context is related to verse 5:26 not the bible (as many would assume, but the majority of the NT hadn’t been written yet). The message of healing and renewal by the gospel; in which God is transforming individuals hearts and lives in light of the mission He has for them. This may be a reference to Isaiah 11:4-5; 49:2; 52:7 which point to the Messiah who comes to announce the gospel of peace. Therefore being strong in the Lord (in the example of Jesus) can lead to us being the messengers in our own context.

This only really touches on Ephesians 6:10-17, but it is a good start as we look at the entire text for tonight. As Paul prays and pleads for prayer in the last few verses of this passage we feel for him, as an ambassador in chains. We are challenged with conceptualizing and contextualizing this message of hope that we have; what more for Paul who is in jail; how does he announce the coming kingdom?

Our messages are meaningless if we are not in prayer; and our boldness is determined by our prayers and being prayed for. Paul is asking the churches to join him in this ministry of prayer that he had demonstrated throughout this letter and encouraged in our life. Prayer accomplishes that which we can not with our own effort, organization or skill.

How has this passage spoken to you?

I just found a great new bible study resource for those of you interested (thanks Lacey).

Basically this web app would have been really helpful in Hebrew and Greek class (back in Seminary) when I needed to parse all those verbs (heh), but it’s really helpful for those of you who would like to study a little more in depth the original languages of the Bible.

Check out www.zhubert.com!

I think most of you knew that we had to cancel the Community forum for today, but we plan on re-scheduling soon.

See you Tuesday where maybe we can arrange a new meeting time.

Hope to see you there!

Had a great lunch with my good bud Jay today downtown after I picked him up at the airport. Jay is here for the faith and politics conference that is going on this weekend in Vancouver.

We had a really good talk about what side, if any, the Christian can have in the debate over “which party” to pick. It seems that each party has Christian elements that can lead to a reasonable decision on who to vote for…and/or support. So then what are we to do?

It is really important for the Christian to know what kingdom like values they have and which party seeks to bring that quality out. I don’t believe that there is one party any more “Christian” than any other and so it makes it really important for the Christian to use their minds and consider all the parties, research and seek out one that is helping redeem this world the best way they can.

I have never voted the same party twice…

I was reading Bob Hyatt’s blog today and he had a great post on some of the lessons that he has learned in his journey as a church planter. The greatest impact his post made on me was his comments that part of a church planter/pastor job is to help people leave well and how the mistakes we make affect us as leaders.

He says,

The past few weeks I have learned (or begun to learn) a lot of lessons on helping new people come and integrate into the community, helping people leave well, communication, pastoral care… a lot of things. I just hate that every lesson represents a place where a mistake was made- and every mistake impacts real people. Real people whose real relationship with Jesus and the community gets impacted by stupid stuf I/we do or fail to do.

In our short journey as a church plant we have seen people come, leave, stay, visit, avoid and engage us on all levels. Some of the greatest victories I have seen are those who have left, but have left well. You see we never want to force people into this Christian way of life, or neglect our teaching of it, so we want to see people move in a Jesus direction which ever way is the most healthy for them. Does it have to happen in the "church?" Well that is another discussion, although I do feel it is quite important as church pertains to the community of God, but what I want to see is a right direction.

So if people need rest and healing from certain activity then I believe God works in that; if there are others that need to be pushed to be in community then God works in that for them; for others they need to explore, ask questions and belong with the community before any steps of belief take place. Whatever the situation, the community of God is made up of individuals who encounter God on different levels, through different experiences with each other and need to be treated individually.

What am I saying in all of this? I guess I think that we need to see each life differently and help them along in their journey. For some it will be letting them leave, for others it will be bringing them in, and still others going to where they are. But in each case seeking God on that best route and not defaulting to the program we saw work before.

It’s messy as Bob says. And I will make mistakes that cause anxiety. But perhaps in it all there will be joy, and healing, and community that makes it all beautiful and worth it…in fact I have seen it, and it is worth it

The fam

Originally uploaded by czarnicholas.

Just wanted to let you know that our friend Nick in Calgary is doing his first public gathering with his church plant in Rocky Ridge.

Feel free to drop by their site and give them some support and some good ole Vancouver love!

We are stoked for him!

I am currently listening to a podcast of Brian McLaren when he was in Toronto for a small gathering. Here is a great comment he makes.

When you are searching for answers sometimes what you need to do is divert some of your energy to search for practices, practices that help you be in touch with God, and focused on God, in ways that acknowledge Gods mystery.

What would it mean for us to search for practices versus answers?