by RobertCummins | Dec 1, 2015 | 48. Together
Together – Hebrews 10:19-25
I was chatting with a guy at a Dallas hotel who informed me that the church across the busy freeway had just gone to 5 services. They had to in order to accommodate their 25% annual growth. While my friend was waiting for a “wow” I was wondering if God measured success with the same yardstick we do. In light of Jesus’ comments about broad and narrow paths, I would’t think numbers alone should be our benchmark. Can we build the city whose architect is God using our standards of measurement and our tools? What were the apostles using as a plumb line?
Once upon a time there was an apprentice who was handed a board by the journeyman carpenter and instructed to produce 100 boards exactly like it. Eager to please, the zealous apprentice laid the original on top of the board to be cut and struck his line. He made his cut and produced his first board. He then used it to mark the cut for the third. He followed this procedure for each subsequent cut. When the journeyman came to see how his apprentice had done, he was not pleased. He asked where the original board was. The journeyman picked up the template and compared it to the last board that was cut. He showed him how setting aside the original pattern had resulted in a slow accumulation of error. The consequence was that much time and materials had been spent cutting 98 boards that could not be used.
Why is Christianity being increasingly marginalized in modern culture? The reason, (we devout ones often tell ourselves), is that men are by nature either hardened, depraved or unelected –probably all three. While I see an element of truth to this, I don’t think its the whole story. I believe that substituting numbers and dollars for the simple transformation of human lives has resulted in our accumulated error. We must now call this normal lest we delegitimize our own existence. In other words, each subsequent board cut over the centuries became a tradition sanctified by time and practice. Institutions perpetuate themselves by comparing themselves to their own traditions not by comparing themselves to the original early church example which would raise serious questions about themselves. I believe there are many yet-to-be-saved who keep Christianity at bay because the last board looks so different than the first.
To insure that our boards look like the original, I am proposing to the small groups I participate in that we read and meditate on the the New Testament narrative, retaining it as our standard. I am proposing we learn to read this story in a new way – not to merely add to our base of Bible knowledge, but read it in such a way that its light searches our hearts and becomes our own internal standard of measure.
Today’s passage reminds us to not forsake our own assembling together. The writer tells us we are to encourage and stimulate each other toward love and good deeds. I don’t know if you caught that, but Pastor (and Pastor’s sermon) were not mentioned. The writer has presumed saints have the capacity, in themselves, to stimulate each other. Welcome to community – the original pattern.
Christ is in us. We are in Christ. This is why Jesus is actually present where two or three are gathered in his name. Leaders who grasp this simple devotion to Christ, will go far in honoring the original pattern and ultimately serve to facilitate the type of growth that fits within the narrow gate.
Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. Matthew 7:13-14.
Father, I believe You desire to pour out Your new wine – from us – your vessels. I believe you desire to see us even exceed the good works you did while on earth. Just as in Cana, I believe you have saved the best wine for these last days. As we revisit the New Testament and search out the ancient markers please show us how to be transformed and to transform our institutions into communities – family units where new wine can be better received, retained and served up to the called and thirsty souls who surround us. Let it be.
by RobertCummins | Nov 30, 2015 | 48. Together
Together – Ecclesiastes 4:7-12
A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.
Insight Ministries shaped how I thought about Christianity. IM was the collegiate discipleship ministry Daneille and I were a part of for the first 6 years of our marriage. Insight was essentially a charismatic version of the Navigators. We studied our bibles, memorized scripture, shared our faith, held retreats, conducted Summer Training Programs and worshipped together in small groups. The ministry was also like YWAM except it was equipping people to live as missionaries in our culture as opposed to foreign ones. Insight grew to include 7 campuses in the U.S. and 3 in Europe. Around 1983 everyone returned to Tulsa to form Ahava Community Fellowship.
We had all just been married or were about to be. Kids were multiplying like rabbits. While people intentionally lived in the Tulsa mid-town area, we were continually moving, remodeling and painting. We helped watch each other’s kids, repair each other’s cars and appliances. We shared many common goods, even money. Many of us came to think of our life together as worship. While our families and most church attenders saw us as cultish, we saw ourselves as a New Testament church.
We lived in the Ahava community for 6 formative years. We did not know how intertwined with these people we had become until we moved to Enid in 1991. Neither did we know how unique our experience was until, for the first time, we became a part of a traditional local church.
As we attempted to integrate into our new Enid church family, we were shocked at how private, independent and disconnected people were (at least by our standards). It felt as though we had moved from a family into an organization. Right or wrong, we had been ruined for church in the traditional sense of that word. Daneille and I had thought our Ahava DNA might be transferable. We felt as though our lives depended upon it. I kicked hard against the organizational goad in an attempt to reestablish what we had lost. It was futile. People were kind and patient but, to the eldership, I was a thorn in its side and was eventually censored. Censorship is a sign that its time to move on.
However, the strand had not been quickly torn apart. We participated in the traditional local church for 23 years. I was an elder most of that time. Since 2013, I have been living life as an untitled person, relating to others simply as a friend or as a potential friend. It seems I have been a much better representative of the kingdom of God as a friend than I ever was as an elder, worship leader or teacher.
I learned the hard way that institutions don’t want reformed; they want perpetuated. And the things that perpetuate them tend to shape them into businesses with employees who have jobs as opposed to families who have members with lives to live. Those called to model community as shepherds end up modeling corporate america as CEO’s. Life together cannot be modeled by someone on the top of a pyramid.
Ultimately, whether we are in a traditional church or an organic community our kingdom relevance will remain proportional to our relational intimacy with Christ and each other. Before the final chapter of the Church is written we are going to need Christ in each other far more than we may currently grasp.
Father, as we see the day drawing near, teach us to abide in you and draw near to each other. May your love give us the security to become authentic and available to each other. May we become the family to which all men hunger to belong. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Nov 30, 2014 | 48. Together
This is an account of a 2012 event but it identifies values I believe are kingdom-values. My ongoing experience encourages me to cultivating them in those places where God seems to provides favor. These values comprise the spiritual vision I live within and they seem to promote community.
John 13:31-35
I am preparing to share “my story” this morning at the 2012 Eufaula Kingdom Summit (EKS 2012). Perhaps what is coming to your mind is an auditorium, numbers of people, a PA system and a keynote speaker. The truth is that EKS 2012 is just a “big” name for a “little” gathering. We are just 8 guys (nine yesterday) who have intentionally pulled off the busy freeway of life and church business. We have downshifted into “retreat gear” and are moving at a speed that allows us to better appreciate each other as well as the beautiful scenery outside our windows. Even though the venue is small, it seems like big (maybe even “kingdom” -sized) things are happening.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
In light of this verse, It is quite a wonder that the division marks on the current yard stick that we use to measure “ministry” success are in increments of numbers on one side and dollars on the the other. I know good organizations also have a “souls saved” yardstick but if you are in leadership, eventually the following questions will arise; “How many people have you got coming out?” “What does you budget look like (especially missions)?” These are not the questions we are asking at this gathering.
The simple premise of this retreat was to create a safe space for men to be themselves and hopefully feel comfortable enough to tell their stories. We didn’t come to fix each other up. We really just came to identify and affirm the handiwork of the master builder in each other’s lives. Amazingly, without a single prepared message from the Bible, without a worship center or a bulletin, without any titled religious professional presiding, the Spirit has been moving – drawing us toward each other and toward the Father.
What I see as people gather in this way, free of the obligations and pressures to grow financially and numerically, is that they seem to behave and relate to each other differently. In this unlikely form of gathering I have watched something going on in our midst that resembles the gatherings I read about in the new testament where each person had something to contribute, where words of encouragement are given to build each other up, where the obligation of leading and teaching is shared.
The EKS 2012 made a contribution I think to the structure God is building out of us as living stones. While, we are all different sizes and shapes and vary in degrees of hardness, the give and take of our time together has brought more clarity as to what manner of stones we are individually and how we may fit together in the larger structure that God is building.
It strikes me that in the kingdom that God is building, He is the Master-Builder and He has positioned us strategically in our relationship to those around us. I believe it will be His love that will ultimately find expression through us that will be the mortar holding us together. We will not always just be independent piles of dissimilar rocks. A Master plan will one day be completed and we will find ourselves fitted together (to those so odd and even offensive to us) into a gloriously beautiful structure – the habitation of God.
The men at this retreat came from different generations, backgrounds, experience and theology. (We first appeared to be very different types of stone.) However, as we intentionally drew near to each other apart from our busy and familiar contexts, we gave love a chance to grow as we listened to each other and discovered the unique way He has transformed us from inert stones into “living” stones. Creating safe spaces in our relationships, listening to the stories of how He breathed His initial life into us and has since been endeavoring to sustain and grow that Life is proving itself a way of being together worth replicating.
Holy Spirit we give You Your rightful place in the center of our beings and our gatherings. We give You continual permission to fulfill Your mission through us of drawing men toward You and toward each other so that all men may one day see and believe. Help us to make time and space for the relationships you have given us to cultivate so that Your love will bear fruit for Your kingdom. Amen.
The EKS 2012 motive;
– I love you.
I want to do you good
I have no agenda –
The EKS mandate;
Be yourself. Tell your story. Those who mind don’t matter; those who matter don’t mind.
by RobertCummins | Nov 29, 2014 | 48. Together
Luke 10:25-37
When the learned man stood to test Jesus, his motive, as a lawyer, was to ply his trade and expose some contradiction in Jesus’ testimony and thereby discredit Him. I picture Jesus, totally at ease and unthreatened, standing, smiling, and saying “Thank you, I’m glad you asked this.”
At this point the lawyer may have even thought he had lulled this country boy to sleep with his pretended deference to Him as “Teacher”.
Jesus replied with words this man had known since he was a child; “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind…” At this point the lawyer may have been disarmed himself by these familiar words and Jesus’ authentic deference and respect for Him. Then Jesus plies His trade (exposing our heart’s contradictions) and adding…, “(and by the way), you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Being perhaps caught off guard, yet still nimble of mind, the lawyer, rationalizing, managed, “(Yes, but) Who is my neighbor?”
The story Jesus tells in response to his critic is familiar to us. A man is waylaid by a band of robbers and left alone to die. Both a priest and a Levite “passed by on the other side” leaving the victim as they had found him – mostly dead. But a Samaritan (with less in common with the victim than the first two passers-by) slowed down and observed the dying man’s condition and felt compassion. From there it is a story of the Samaritan taking ownership of the man’s situation and making what resources he had available to help return the half-dead man to full health.
I could picture a tribal man from some remote jungle village being brought to America and being given the opportunity to observe us for a while. When he returns home and is asked what he saw, he might report, “They are a people who pass by on the other side. He might then add. “at high speed!”
Perhaps the speedy pace of our lives is handy in the sense we never really slow down enough to observe and discover the needs of the bleeding and dying souls around us. Perhaps our compassion remains untapped because we are racing past each other, just being who we have allowed ourselves to become, the byproducts of a materialistic, technological, production oriented culture. And perhaps it is also handy because, at high speed, we can keep (our?) resources (what God has given us) for ourselves.
The lawyer may have attempted to test Him but Jesus turns things around and tests the lawyer (and, I think us). Who is our neighbor? According to Jesus, it is anyone we encounter who has a need or a burden we can relieve by sharing of ourselves and our resources. Maybe as important as sharing what we have is, is the act itself of assuming ownership of another’s well-being until they are whole.
I am thinking that our culture is not going to slow down. We will have to exit the freeway of our own accord and downshift from over drive into a more efficient gear. At this new pace, we can begin to truly discover the persons we are passing by on the other side. Instead of speeding by we will turn to them and ask, with sincere interest, “How are you doing?” Perhaps, as we do this, our compassion will be awakened. By really listening, we can create safe spaces for others to reveal who they are and discover what has been robbed or is being robbed from their souls. And perhaps, even more profoundly, we may also discover what has been robbed from ours.
Perhaps communities (safe spaces) of newly connected people can even prevent the isolation that gave the robbers opportunity in the first place. If we are to pass Jesus’ test we will discover that we are each called to be the Samaritan and to be each other’s keeper. As agents of His kingdom we are to take ownership of the space around us for the sake of His kingdom.
Father, may Your love triumph. May we discover the nature of our oneness. May we learn to defer to one another and consider the needs of others above our wants. Give us the courage to slow down and really look at those around us. Awaken our compassions and transform them into those many deeds which you have prepared beforehand that we might walk in them. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Nov 28, 2014 | 48. Together
John 17:20-26
My attention is drawn to verse 22. “And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one…..that the world may know….
I was recently involved in a discussion on the subject of humility. A few of us attempted to describe how our understanding of this word had been transformed. The word “glory” in verse 22 has further provoked my thoughts regarding humility.
A great deal of my Christian life has been lived as a devout religious person. After discovering God’s love for me, which was 100% free and unearned, I quickly devoted myself to living in a manner that I believed would please Him. I studied the Bible. I memorized scripture. I witnessed. I fellowshipped. I prayed. All these things I did diligently which created opportunities for leadership.
However, as I ascended along this assumed pathway of Christian growth, my heart, strangely, seemed to be on more of a downward trajectory. I was struggling privately with sin. I had been growing progressively barren of joy and suffered with some significant depression. Many of my key relationships were strained or broken. I was growing increasingly angry at the unfairness of this. (Unfairness? I know. I’m just revealing to you the folly that was in my heart) Yet still my errant heart reasoned, “How could it be that while I am devoting myself to doing good I was personally doing so bad!!” My solution was always to redouble my commitment and rededicate myself to the spiritual disciplines which usually ended up just producing more guilt as I failed to ever study, pray or witness enough to overcome the shame I had grown accustomed to as the normal load of this cross I assumed I was to bear. I was indeed, (by my late definition of the word) a humble man.
In that season, nothing could have been more apparent to me than the fact that my depraved nature was a domineering force that I would be wrestling with (and apparantly loosing to) until the day I die. Sure enough, my heart was just like the bible had said; it was desperately sick. All that I could find comfort (and a bit of pride) in was the fact that Paul and I each understood that we were the chiefs of sinners and that even though we concurred with the law of God at one level, we were really prisoners to the law of sin (our depravity) on another. How humble could you get?
Well…it turns out it was true; my heart was sick, just as Jeremiah had said. However, it was not with “sin”, at least in its conventional manifestations of fleshly desire as I (and most of the church) had believed, that was my problem. With a little help from my friends, within a process overseen by the Holy Spirit, I finally realized that I was a prisoner of another more subtle (yet no less deadly) aspect of my depraved nature, my flesh’s predisposition toward religion.
Note: I view religion (in this sense of working) as sin because of its roots in pride and the alienation it creates between man’s heart and God’s.
With my fallenness-fixation, I thought of humility as something I must do, reminding myself continually that as a descendent of Adam I was a monster of iniquity – a man driven from God’s presence, a being whose entire motive was to live independent of God’s rule. Here was the problem; I was running my race with the identity of a fallen man out of my obligation-orientated definition of humility. I humbled myself with zeal, devotion and deep conviction until I “hit the wall” a few years ago both physically, emotionally and spiritually. Here began my introduction to a more authentic humility.
After the Spirit used this place of weakness and pain to bring some authentic repentance (renewing of the mind) regarding my true identity, I have changed my definition of humility. Today, from this new vantage point, I simply define humility as that state of heart where I am agreeing with God in regards to who He says that I am; I am his son. The impact of this on my experience with God has been noteworthy (at least in my notebook). My conversion as a sin-addicted prodigal son produced a truly dramatic transformation in my life. My conversion as a religious-addicted elder brother has been no less dramatic. Those closest to me like the twice baked Rob better than the once baked one.
A more complete revision of my identity: I am God’s friend. I am a younger brother to Jesus therefore I am a co-heir with Christ. I am a new creature. The old me was crucified with Christ. That me passed away. The new me was raised with Christ to eternal life. I can now stand in God’s holy presence with boldness and great joy. Maintaining this perspective is what it means to me today to humble myself in the sight of the Lord.
I am not sure which burden was heavier, blatant sensual sin, or subtle, devout religious flesh so prideful and blind that it could somehow imagine itself qualifying for God’s love. So, as one twice -converted, I consider them both; “the sinful” and the “religious” expressions of “the flesh” to be deadly. But… I believe the “religious spirit” does more damage. Matt 6:23 refers to a light that is in us that can actually be dark and that can be very great. I think the religious expression of our depraved natures are darker because outwardly they can look great. It is rewarded with honors, titles and the accolades of men. It is put in charge of things and consequently misleads multitudes! The great tragedy is that it cannot lead out of love because it does not feel loved. (That is why it is working for God’s approval.) It is working out of insecurity and obligation as it attempts to compensate in its distorted identity.
Jesus intended for the cross to be the place where He finished His work so that we could be relieved of the workload of making ourselves acceptable to God. The religious lifestyle of working to please God gave off a light but it was a cold dark light. It was the daily fighting of this unwinnable war with my flesh which I perceived was the cross I was to pick up daily as my load if I was to be a follower of Christ. I couldn’t have been more mistaken.
Father, I pray for that day when Your glory will be apparent in us, Your children, as “works-religion” is exposed for what it is, a satanic means of entrapment. I pray for that day when the Kingdom’s sons and daughters, all of us prodigals and elder brothers will meet in the middle with Jesus, the Mystery of the Ages, to celebrate the scandalous love of God we have both so badly misunderstood. Release us into the freedoms that the cross was intended to produce in and through us, that from this place of security and rest we can all enter into the ongoing celebration banquet of His estranged and returning children. In so doing may our eyes see the glorious foretold unity that even the world must acknowledge. Amen.
And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one…..that the world may know….
by RobertCummins | Nov 27, 2014 | 48. Together
Colossians 3:12-17
In the first two chapters alone, Paul mentions at least 15 times that believers are in Christ. I believe he has said this because his goal is to eventually present everyman to the Father complete in Christ. He also repeatedly said that Jesus Christ is God’s mystery. He teaches that we are to see to it that the words of this Mystery richly dwell within our hearts.
How comfortable do you think our western consciousness is with mystery? This genius that has conquered the wold through science and technology; can it conceive of building anything on something so mushy as a mystery? I can understand the reluctance in trying to construct anything on a collection of soft religious propositions but this is not at all what Paul is saying. He is instructing us to put the whole weight of what is being built upon nothing more or less than the rock solid foundation of a resurrected Person.
You might be thinking, “So what’s the big mystery? I believe that Jesus is the son of God; he died for my sin and I’m going to heaven. What’s so mysterious about that?” Well ….there is plenty to be sure but let’s skip over this (simple) idea of getting man to heaven for a moment and focus on the fuller version of salvation which involves the communal-process of getting heaven into man (in this life). This was huge to Paul as it should also be to us. Paul reveals a key in how he envisions the gospel spreading….
Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity.
The conduct Paul is referring to is simply the resurrection life of Christ being manifested through us in this life. When Paul spoke of salvation he was never thinking (as most do) of a singular decision that results in life after death. To Paul, salvation was a process where the life of Christ is always being worked out by way of resurrection power in our every day eating, drinking, playing and working lives. In the context of our hearts and lives, each of us is preaching some version of the gospel at all times. This is why Paul says…
Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
So what does resurrection power look like in the process of living. Our passage explains……
So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
For Paul to succeed in his mission he knows he must also convey that this salvation process is anything but a solo journey. He wants us to know that we have each been grafted into a single Body so that we now belong to one to another. I suspect this is why he said working out our salvation comes with some fear and trembling. The process of being transformed into the image of Christ does not happen without the messy, high friction dynamic of being together. This is why “one other” is mentioned 100 times in the NT. Those words “friction” and “messy” provoke a bit of fear and trembling for most of us western believers with our comfortable and relatively well-ordered lives.
It might seem daunting for us to see that the love-relational bar has been set at such an impossible height; Really! None of us can love as Jesus does! And Jesus said that his is an easy burden?! Right. But here is the good news. It is in fact impossible. We can’t do it in our own strength. Living and loving like Christ can only be done as we reckon with the reality of its impossibility and the fact that we have died in Christ and have been raised up with him in newness of Life. Now that is a mystery! We will clear the bar in Christ. Walking on water might seem impossible but it has been done. All things are possible with God. Since it is in our weakness He can becomes our strength, the impossible is one of God’s favorite haunts.
I believe that as the life of Christ, (not the religion of Christianity) finds its native resurrection expressions within the community of Christ, which is the only place disciples can be birthed and nurtured, the kingdom gospel will finally be proclaimed as disciples are finally being reproduced in the Body of Christ. Is it possible that community will be the source of all those laborer-disciples who are needed in the harvest that Jesus said was ripe for harvest?
Father, as those who are being saved by and have been caught up into a great Mystery our hearts may need to let go of things we are hedging our bets with. Only you know what those things might be. Please flush us out Lord so that our hearts can return to childlikeness, where our they are enabled and willing to see the unseen and trust without understanding.
