Thoughts on a new vision for the church

Whyte Total Personal Fitness on Main St. Markham has a slightly different slant than most other gyms on how to design and market a fitness facility.  Tim Whyte’s 20-year experience in the fitness industry has shown him that opening a gym and just passively offering the best equipment, the best environment, the best hours, the best location is not a key to longterm success – either for the gym or for the clients. 

 

Research in the fitness industry has shown that 80% of people who sign up for a gym membership never step foot in the facility to use it … not even once?!!  Of the 20% who do show up for their first visit, only 4% of them will become longterm clients.

 

At Whyte’s Fitness the statistics are the exact opposite – 80% of new clients remain with the gym on a longterm basis.  What is the key to their successful approach?  Their focus is not on gym membership (and in fact they only allow a very limited number of “passive” memberships at any given time) but on personal training. 

 

When you sign up with this gym, you are strongly encouraged to sign up for regular sessions with a personal trainer.  You pay for these sessions with the trainer and then there are no other gym fees – no initiation fee, no monthly membership, nothing.  Of course, the financial cost is greater because these services do not come cheap, but for someone who can afford it and is serious about getting in shape safely and reliably, the statistics show this approach to be the best way to do it.

 

Do you think that this sounds something like people’s experiences in the church?  I’d venture to say that perhaps 80% of people who have not yet found spiritual “fitness” have thought about seeking out some kind of spiritual input, but have never walked into a church … not even once.  And then I would bet that of those who have walked through the doors of a church with the best of intentions - looking for a way to find a connection to God - another large percentage of those come once or twice but then slip away in discouragement or confusion, because they don’t really know what to do, what all the “stuff” means, where to start, what the pitfalls are, how stay focused and encouraged through the tough times.

 

And we all know those who dive into it head first, full speed ahead with nothing that can stop them or slow them down.  They have great resolve and determination to do it all for God, and do, for a while.  But then along the way they get injured because they didn’t take the time to build up stamina and wisdom in the faith.  Whether it is a careless tongue, or an insensitive heart, it cuts them deep and they scurry away wounded and jaded and never return.  And so it is only a small percentage of those who do actually come in through our doors who stay for an extended length of time and develop a healthy level of spiritual fitness.

 

But what if as a church we offered and encouraged the same approach as Tim Whyte? (without the financial cost … but pointing out that there is a personal cost …)  When you “join” us in worship, we strongly encourage you to connect up with a “personal trainer.”  This person will get to know you, walk along side you, develop a “spiritual exercise” regimen at your level and pace, encourage you, challenge you, pray for you.  I would venture to bet we would begin to realize a much better “success” rate than we currently see.

 

Of course, this would be no easy task – we would need a strong core of us to be willing to get ourselves into top spiritual “shape” to be able to assume care and responsibility for 2-3 new Christians at a time.  Our spiritual focus would have to be on them, not us – we would need to create an environment that would best suit their needs, learning and worship styles so that they have the best chance for success.

 

But at the same time, we would also need to do what is needed to keep ourselves in top shape in order to be credible role models and mentors. In any “customer-oriented” organization, the focus always has to be on the customer, but a wise employer also provides a comfortable enough work environment and sufficient educational opportunities for its employees so that they are motivated, well-informed and healthy.  Healthy and happy employees generate and retain healthy and happy customers. 

 

And so in this model for a church, there is a symbiosis of intent – we move forward with a view to creating an environment that is best suited to effectively serving our “target market” while at the same time balancing that with creating enough space for comfort and growth in those who are the ones serving that market. 

 

So we who are “servants” in the church have a right and a responsibility to continue to stay fit and strive for greater fitness. But that fitness is not to be to the sole end in itself toward which we are to strive – we do it only so that we can best serve others and take joy in seeing their growth and developing their own fitness in the faith to eventually become “personal trainers” themselves. 

 

So lace up your spiritual joggers, Christians … we’re going for a run!

An Easter meditation video

You gotta love it …

Life is rich with irony and poetic justice.  Yesterday I had to laugh at life’s irony as children graduate into adulthood and have the tables turned on them. 

 Any of you who are parents have undoubtedly experienced times when children plead with you to let them do something with their friends and they try to con you by saying that “everyone else” has already been given permission to do it - implying that you are the last holdout and threatening them with mortal embarrassment by withholding permission.

Initially as a parent you sometimes naively cave to that pressure, rationalizing that if other parents have already given permission, it must have been considered carefully, and therefore is acceptable for you to comply.  (Of course, then when you meet up with those same parents when you drive your child to said event and compare notes, you come to realize that each of the friends have used the exact same strategy with their parents, and so the “group dupe” has once again been successfully executed!)

But yesterday I was treated to observing this classic in reverse, as a young adult was relating to me how they had been coerced into signing up for an “adult” event at our church by another parent telling her that their own daughter had already signed up. And so this young woman agreed to sign up … of course, only to talk to that daughter to find out that she had signed up only because she had been told by her father that the other girl had already signed up!!

 Ahhhh …. there is such a sweet justice in the world sometimes!

So I now have the first day of my first class of my M.Div. degree under my belt! Three hours of wondering if I’ll ever master all the terminology, the mental gymnastics of academia and the spiritual challenge of intense study of a book that has inspired the most courageous acts of love as well as having been used as a cowardly defense for the most despicable crimes against humanity.

The first half of the class was spent with mutual introductions of the instructor and the students and then going over in detail the format and expectations of the class as well as the assignments and grading. How wonderful to have my laptop with me and access to wireless internet right there in the classroom! (I got caught up on my e-mails while listening to all this information, thanks to the ability to “multi-task”!)

However, as the second half of the class began, we dived straight into the heart and soul of academic life. This lecturer is one who has taught this subject (Biblical Interpretation: Interpreting and Applying the Biblical Text) for many years and is passionate about it! Fortunately she is an excellent lecturer – animated and well-spoken – but as her understanding of the “lingo” is so-well entrenched, the words flowed fast and furious, and I was left daunted as I tried to capture electronically the wealth of wisdom pouring forth while also trying to process the concepts and applications. (There is NO time for e-mail or web-surfing now!)

It is envigorating as one of the deepest parts of my brain that has laid dormant for so long has begun to once again stir with activity and (neural) excitement. The last hour was one of a delicate dance between vigilance in taking in as much as possible of what was said and a myriad of springboards to other ideas and concepts in my head.

Yesterday I learned about “hermeneutics”, “appropriation theory”, “the post-modern interpretive situation”, “intrinsic textual constraints vs extrinsic contextual constraints”, and much more.

But the key word that I came away with for the day was tension. No, not in my mind or in my heart – but we learned about the dynamic tension that intrinsically exists between the reader and the text. To some extent such tension exists as one reads any work of literature. But in the case of the Bible – the God-breathed, God-soaked, living Word of our Creator – its existence is rooted not so much in the concrete, physical inscription upon paper, or even in the original conception and creation by its earthly authors. But its true existence lies in its tension between the reader and the text – in God’s transformation of the reader by engaging him or her in a metaphysical interaction of interpretation, absorption and re-creation of soul - the true meaning of the text, though conceived and inscribed centuries ago, is actually created through its interaction with the reader in the present.

And further, it was heartening to hear this long-time scholar acknowledge that such tension must continue daily as we read and re-read scripture, meditate and pray through it – meeting God in it and through it. She pointed out that studying and interpreting scripture is not solely a science – i.e., deconstructing it to arrive at an absolute meaning of its text – but is an art in its lifelong upward spiral of expanding one’s boundaries into ever-deeping and dynamic understanding of God’s intent in any passage.

And so the word for the day was tension. It is the one time I’ve ever felt joy in in this word, as I began to look forward to actively seeking this tension in my life!

A work in progress

Autumn is my favourite season of the year. Call me crazy, but I love it as the days gradually cool to the point where there is a hint of crispness in the air that gently tweaks one’s cheeks, and one needs to put on a light jacket and long pants to guard against the chill. I love to be wrapped up in a blanket by a crackling fire as the rain teems down on a dull, grey day, watching the leaves beginning to be blown from their summer resting place in the trees.

But most of all I love the rich colours - the plethora of shades of red and yellow and orange in the autumn leaves before they give in to nature’s call and fall to their final resting place on the hardening ground.

For the past week I have been up north in Muskoka. It is late August and just in the past three days the forest has started to become ablaze with its ripening colours. One day it was just shades of green and then suddenly - literally overnight - there have been pockets of flaming colour appearing throughout the greenery.

Perhaps it was that the previous day was just the right temperature of warmth coupled with a sudden shiver of cold in the night to set off the chemical chain reaction in the leaves to convert chlorophyll (which gives them their green hue) into those rich shades of red, orange and yellow. But whatever it is that triggers this miraculous transformation, it is always a thrill to witness this final sweep of God’s magnificent paintbrush in nature around us at this time of year.

As I sat and drank in this glorious colour yesterday – somehow heightened in its contrast to the drabness of a dark and rainy day’s pallor – I mused on how nature offers up this “last hurrah” of radiant beauty right before a part of it dies off. For me it certainly is the height of the beauty of a tree. Blossoms and freshly sprouted leaves are nice, but there is something much more exciting and vibrant to me in the brilliance of autumn colours.

With this, I also began to think of the nature of humankind. There is a freshness and an unbridled energy that comes with those who have just blossomed into adulthood, and they bring an unswerving enthusiasm and passion to life, but it is usually only those in their “middle years” who finally attain high positions such as presidents of countries or large corporations, having been tempered by longstanding experience and having learned wisely from years of observation and interaction in all kinds of situations. There is a brilliance of beauty in these later years that is not found in their younger counterparts.

And beyond such success we often see even greater humanitarian, diplomatic and political success. Certainly former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, as well as former vice-president Al Gore, have been shining examples of the “beauty” to be seen their mature statesmanship and greater accomplishments subsequent to what would have seemed to be the pinnacle of their political successes.

Similarly, it is only when one reaches grandparenthood that one finally arrives at the realization and true understanding that children will reach maturity safely and happily in spite of a parent’s rules and regulations and provision for them, rather than because of them. The wisest of grandparents also understand that children flourish best when they are delighted in and seen not just for who they are now, but for all the potential they hold in the future. There is no greater joy than to watch a grandparent gaze upon the children of their own children with unabashed adoration and complete true love!

Yet in spite of the fact that there seems to be a natural climactic peak for such wisdom, grace and inner beauty in the later years of life, we have sadly seemed to have become a culture that reveres youth and which almost desperately goes to extreme lengths to preserve (or perhaps mummify?) a physical youthful look.

How many of us have shaken our heads at the parades of television and film stars whose faces get tighter, eyes wider and motionless brows and upper lips slacker as they years move on. Their dread of the inevitable visible signs of aging ironically seems to take a greater visible toll on their spirit, and really does not recapture any essence of their youth – it only just tightly saran-wraps their aging bodies and yet seems to regresses them emotionally and spiritually.

How often I hear from those my age and older that they would never wish to return to their really youthful years (in spite of the disappearance of hair where it used to be, and the cruel appearance of it where it shouldn’t!) And though it can be physically frustrating as our bodies begin to set limitations on our stamina and strength, there is something in aging which is quite remarkably beautiful, if we allow it and recognize it within ourselves.

We have finally become comfortable in who we are and how we see the world. And there is beauty in the richness of life experience coupled with a softened heart that has learned to appreciate that everyone is unique, both in their strengths and in their flaws, and so is to be accepted and enjoyed just for who they are; beauty in the humility that has come from a lifetime of mistakes and disappointments that reminds one that they have no basis on which to judge others, joined with a newfound urgency in making each day and interaction with others meaningful and worthwhile, as one has a heightened sense that death is increasingly nipping at one’s heels.

So just as nature winds down the aging cycle with a masterful burst of rich and glorious colour, so we too as humans can look forward to not decline but to a richness of character and beauty that is not overshadowed by the fading of the physical, but is in fact somehow enhanced by it. These glorious colours in nature that now surround me remind me to look not at what no longer is and mourn its loss, but to marvel at a new richer beauty within - to give thanks and make the most of the timeless richness it can add to the world around and within me.

The transformation has just begun …

Take the Nature Challenge

 As a Christian who believes in the reality of the God who created all the beauty and wonder of this exquisite, complex and most perfect world that we live in, I am embarrassed that we as Christians have not more visibly led the quest for environmental stewardship and respect for the world we live in.

We talk about the sacrifices we make in our faith in not seeking first all the earthly rewards that others do, but are pretty paralytic when it comes to putting the real money where our mouths are … i.e., in “religiously” making environmentally sound and prudent choices in our lifestyles, even if it costs us more financially. 

 Walk into a Loblaws Superstore and tell me you are not tempted by all the luscious fruits and vegetables from (literally) all over the world and don’t salivate at the massive array of every type of decadent chocolate, myriad of exotic pre-prepared dishes, every possible combination and permutation of every food imaginable??!  But have you ever tried to imagine the inordinately increased cost to our environment to import and/or prepare each of those seductively tasty morsels?

I admit I am one of the first to cave in to the attraction of these overpoweringly tempting choices - both from a taste perspective and from the ease of preparation.  But David Suzuki challenges us to just take a few simple steps to at least begin to reverse the devastating effect of our gluttony on our immediate and global environment.

I challenge each of you to “Take the Nature Challenge“.  (I have!)

Next time you’re grocery shopping, think about it …

“The most important environmental criteria for buying food in Canada is to minimize the distance between field and table. It’s best to buy locally grown organic food. But given the choice between imported organic and local produce, buying local is better.

Buying local produce helps support Canadian farms located near urban areas and reduces the environmental costs associated with food transport.

Buying local produce also helps conserve precious farmlands and wildlife habitats. In Canada, the best agricultural land is located near our largest cities.

Keeping this land in production instead of converting it to strip malls and suburban housing will conserve fertile land and preserve biological diversity for the future.

The closer consumers are to their food producers, the greater the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants from food transportation.”

from David Suzuki’s Nature Challenge

Initiation into blogging

Ok … so this is my first foray into the blogging world.  My first task will be to upload previous writings (some published, most not … yet?!)

 It’s a whole new world to learn the “art” of blogging.  To reveal enough of oneself to share insight with the world, but to avoid the temptation to be so narcissistic that it in fact shuts the world off from oneself.

 Not sure how this will all look to begin with, but bear with me …