Charlie Wear’s Notes

I had a moment over the weekend of deep emotional impact. I was driving with a friend to Mother’s Day brunch. I started talking about my mom. She has been dead now for 20 years. As I shared with my friend the story of my mom’s brokenness I began to get in touch with some deep emotional pain that I haven’t ever processed.

There were moments as we talked that I thought that if I tapped in to that pain hard enough, that a dam would break and a wellspring of healing tears would come. I knew in that moment that there is a moment of healing coming for me in the near future. As we drove along it wasn’t the time or the place for that catharsis, but a glimpse of it’s nearness gave me a lot of encouragement.

We all come from a story of brokenness and redemption. The cry of the human heart is for the compassionate and listening ear of a friend. Slowing down to listen to the heart of one another is an important step in the healing process. How amazing it is that God always bends such an ear toward us. It helps if our brothers and sisters are nearby. But knowing that God is there for us is one of the amazing benefits of following Jesus.

Recovering Pharisees, by Charlie Wear and Scott Bane from Charles Wear on Vimeo.

This is a message that I gave with Scott Bane, Next-Wave editor in March of 2010.

I’ve really been enjoying the last couple of weeks. We leased a Honda Accord and I have felt like everything is coming up roses! There’s nothing like driving a new car to give you that feeling. Then yesterday afternoon on the way home from the office, Bam! I was rear-ended, and pretty hard! I avoided hitting the car in front of me, and drove the car into the parking lot of a service station on the corner. I was a little light-headed from the adrenaline and the bump on the head, and was amazed that the person who hit me, had driven off.

Rear-ended!

A couple of young people witnessed the accident and stopped in to see if I was okay and to wait for the police, in case their statement was needed. I called 911 and waited. A few minutes later another young man drove up in a truck and told me he had witnessed the whole thing and had followed the person who hit me. Unfortunately, he did not get the license plate. A Riverside Police officer drove up a little later and took my report and the witness statement and gave me information for the insurance company.

Driving home I felt a definite disturbance to my “mojo.” A little earlier that day I had been talking with a friend who mentioned that he had lost his “mojo.” When we were talking about it I thought I knew what he meant, but I asked him anyway. He said he just had not been feeling on top of things. I looked up the dictionary definition of:

mo·jo
/?mo?d?o?/ Show Spelled[moh-joh] Show IPA
–noun,plural-jos, -joes.
1.
the art or practice of casting magic spells; magic; voodoo.
2.
an object, as an amulet or charm, that is believed to carry a magic spell. [dictionary.com]

It’s true, the last several weeks have been feeling magical, but I don’t believe in magic, I believe in real life. But it is kind of human to enjoy seasons when it feels like we are going from mountaintop to mountaintop with no trips to the valley. But that is not the way life really works, is it? Even though I have been experiencing a season of profoundly experiencing the Holy Spirit’s presence in my daily life, literally going from what feels like one divine appointment to the next, that feeling couldn’t last forever, could it? I was listening to a sermon the other day and the preacher seemed convinced that watching “Sex and the City” could definitely block the presence of the Holy Spirit. That didn’t sound exactly right to me, but I am still thinking about it.

Purple Flowers with Thistles!

As a recovering legalist (Pharisee) I am learning that God’s presence does not depend on my activity, but on His activity. My salvation does not depend on my actions, but on his completed action. I can’t “conjure” up God any more than I can make bushes burn or Red Seas part! I am learning to enjoy my friendship and partnership with God. It seems that the more he floods into my life, the more I experience his overflowing. One example? My wife was thinking about the accident in the midnight hour last night (she told me about it this morning) and before she knew what had happened she found herself praying for the person who hit me. Praying that they would find and experience God! What a great example of the overflowing of God’s Spirit.

We live on a Ranch in Riverside County, California. And the ranch is in full bloom this spring with all kinds of wild plants (weeds) that have an abundance of flowers. I like these little purple flowers that grow on the thistle plants. When the plants dry out later this summer it won’t be safe to walk among them. Our dog’s coats will be filled with stickers. So, this is what life is like, huh? Flowers grow among the thistles, and then they dry out and the seeds fall to the ground. If the next year is particularly rainy, the plants will grow taller and the flowers will abound.

I am grateful to have walked away from my accident unharmed. I feel blessed. I know that Jesus loves me! Forget about “mojo.” I am just going to keep following in His footsteps.

I was happy to attend the first Verge Conference this year. Missional Communities are the new buzzword for churches. Megachurches and minichurches are interested in discovering what it means to be organic and missional. I was happy to be in a place where I could meet Tony and Felicity Dale and hear Neil Cole speak. For me, the few conference days were one of those “aha!” times when knowledge and inspiration come together to give clear future direction.

Everyone Gets to Play by John Wimber

One of the take-aways from the conference was the way that one of John Wimber’s one-liners has infiltrated common usage. More than one speaker when describing the missional community proclaimed boldly “Everyone Gets to Play!” By the way, this is the title of a book of Wimber’s writings compiled by his pastor-church planter daughter-in-law, Christy Wimber. Now, I have some experience in the Vineyard. And I think I know what John was saying when he said it. I also think I have some insight into what he was not saying!

Let’s take a side trip into what “Everyone Gets To Play” means in children’s sports. This is the concept that has every player participate in the game, no matter their skill level. It means that every player will get a certain amount of playing time in the soccer game, or a certain number of at-bats and in the field in the little league game. It does not mean: “Everyone Gets to Play Goalie! or Everyone Gets to Play Pitcher!”

In the church, everyone does NOT get to play Preacher, or Pastor, or Worship Leader! Recently I started attending the church services of a congregation that is, in a sense, restarting. The first week the Pastor proclaimed something like: “We want to release you to follow your [ministry] destiny and dreams!” My inner-Pharisee replied, “No, I don’t think so, Pastor, because my destiny is to preach for the next six weeks to your congregation, and I don’t think you want to release me to follow that dream!”

You see, in a baseball game, there is only one pitcher, in a football game only one quarterback, and in a soccer game only one goalie. Even though Wimber’s statement was a game-changer in the church circles he influenced, it didn’t actually change the game that was being played. I do believe that when Wimber first became a Christian he “got into the ministry.” He was a soul-winner for sure before he ever went on the staff of a church. He was doing Jesus’s stuff, the stuff he was allowed to do by his denomination, 24-7. He hadn’t yet started playing the “church” game, I don’t think.

For people like Wimber, those who aren’t consumers but those who are full participants in the way of Jesus, there is no amount of money, power, fame or position that motivates them to do Jesus’s stuff. They do it because they understand that it is the gospel in action. I wish I could say that I have grasped this concept for many years, but I only have kind-of figured it out in the last couple of months. I am a minister of Jesus. No, I am no longer a paid clergyman. But I am “a person acting as the agent or instrument of another.” [dictionary.com]

Understanding this has made a huge difference in my life. My clients are my ministry. Each one a gift from God. I found myself comforting a client whose 90 yr. old mother had recently died, praying for a client’s low back pain to be healed and asking God to help my clients keep their home. Now John Wimber figured this out early, and the church noticed and made him a paid clergyman!

Paul didn’t say “Everyone Gets to Play,” he said, we “are the body of Christ” each one of us is a part of it. Being part of a body is not a game we play. Paul’s approach to describing the body, did not leave any room for “special” parts of the body. A close reading of the New Testament does not reveal a clergy-laity distinction and implies that ordinary people were engaged in extraordinary exploits in advancing the gospel.

Over the years I have learned that in the “church game” not everyone gets to play. However, recently I have seen that in the real life that comes from Jesus, we are all invited to be players to the max!

I think the most important thing a follower of Jesus can learn is to hear from God. Walking in the Spirit in our daily lives requires a cultivation of this ability. However, when you hear God about the big things, that is always overwhelming and very re-assuring.

The last time I got clear “orders from headquarters” was in 1999. I had closed my “normal” church the year before and was attending a pastor’s conference. Even though the church had closed I had started Next-Wave and a ministry to skateboarders in Moreno Valley. On the second night of the conference I got a clear message from God that he wanted me to continue in both of those ministries and that they would be very fruitful and so they were.

Now, more than ten years I have recently attended the Verge 2010 National Missional Community Conference, and I think I may have just gotten fresh “orders.” I didn’t come expecting it, but still some of my struggle to understand what has been happening over the last ten years clicked into place and I think I have some clear direction for at least the next ten years! You don’t know how great that is.

Having listened to the many challenging speakers on the topic of the DNA of Gospel Movements, I can sense that God is on the move here in the U.S. I am excited to be around to see it and look forward to what is going to happen in the years to come.

By the way, I got to interview Neil Cole, author of Church 3.0, and Tony and Felicity Dale, authors of The Rabbit and the Elephant. It seems that planting churches may be simpler than I ever thought!

This is part 2 of an excerpt from Ed Stetzer’s message on Disciple-making at Verge 2010 Missional Community Conference:

It seems that a significant portion of American Christianity, at least those who publish magazines and books, have discovered “the Kingdom.” Some have claimed that this is a “secret message” of Jesus. Others have built upon the work of Eldon Ladd and others to explore the nuances and implications of God’s kingdom. I think it is unfortunate that “kingdom” is the word and message that is being explored.

When I think of a kingdom I conjure up images of round tables, knights, princes, dukes and earls, a hierarchy of persons and of polity. When Jesus began his ministry proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near,” I believe that most of those hearing him misunderstood what he was trying to communicate. As we try to understand the “kingdom” message today, I think we have some similar problems. Let’s face it, the metaphor of kingdom has some pretty elaborate baggage, especially for Americans who threw off the bonds of monarchy to gain their freedom.

The church is full of kingdoms within kingdoms and their requisite rulers. Sometimes the ruler of the kingdom is the church board acting like an elected Congress, some times it is the founding senior pastor exercising his “leadership” gift. Words like covering and submission and authority are used. I think Jesus was trying to communicate something else entirely with his sound-bite message.

I think he was saying something like this: You are going to have to change the way you think about God! (Repent) He has shown up right here, right now so you can understand who He is and what life with Him is like! (the kingdom of heaven is near). I think Jesus knew that his listeners would not truly understand what he was saying! If they had he probably would have been killed immediately! He needed some time to show his followers the Father, to show them what God does when he walks among humanity, and to form authentic friendships with those who would expand his “light” in the world.

I believe that Jesus did not come to start a “religion.” I think he came to show us that religion is not necessary. He came to set us free from the realm of religion and welcome us into the realm of life in direct connection with God. He came to quiet our fears and to bring us peace. He came to show us that God was not interested in fealty but that he wanted friendship. He came to walk with us, and talk with us, to be “God with us.”

Unfortunately, humanity loves religion and appreciates a God that we can appease, manipulate and cajole. Even the atheists have a strong religious fervor and faith! Jesus came to slice through all of those man-size gods and to show us that we had it all wrong! “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father!” It’s easy to see how that might be a jaw-dropping, paradigm-shifting concept. Understanding the truth of Jesus’ message sets us free from the bondage of religious observance and ritual.

I am just beginning to get a glimpse of what this freedom might look like, and it just seems too good to be true.

“I think we underestimate the power and importance of loving one another. Consistent love for other Christians is key to a healthy spiritual life because loving fellowship is God’s prescribed environment for growth. This kind of love is based on commitment to God Himself. To be committed to God is to be committed to His community, the Church. This is not a commitment to the theory of the Church, but to an actual body of other fallible, imperfect people.

Many of us treat church life like immature adolescents. From other Christians we want thrills, constant exhilaration and to have our needs met. When Christian brothers and sisters fall short of our expectations, when they are boring and imperfect and fail to meet our needs for strokes, we pout, turn away and isolate ourselves from them. Jesus calls us to mature commitment of love for His people—the very people in our fellowship.”

—John Wimber, p. 188-119, Everyone Gets to Play, Ampelon Publishing, 2008