What are the advantages and disadvantages of being outside the four walls? This is a huge issue that is faced by those in a ‘outsdie the four walls context’. Here are some comments from Jennifer but with no final resolution and with questions that remain.
Jennifer Moore: outside the four walls on Vimeo.
The system is broken. Praise God. Funny how many of us still live as if we want the system to be repaired. We just want it to be a bit nicer than before.
I’ve been thinking about the art of listening. When you don’t know what to do it is a good thing to spend some time listening (dreams are a part of this). I think we are in a moment not unlike the post-crucifixion and pre-pouring out of the Holy Spirit time in the upper room. We know that the cross and Jesus’ crucifixion has broken the system. It has opened the important, necessary gaps that we will use to see the Kingdom come. But we haven’t seen the Kingdom come. We thought it came in the form of the church and hey, that was an interesting ride for 2000 years. But if we are honest, as we gaze at the landscape around us we have to admit that the church has not done a whole lot to bring in the Kingdom of God. So we await something new, something that tells us that the cross was effective and succeeded.
I’ve been thinking about failure. . . the failure of the human species to deal with the issues at hand. What was God thinking when he put us in charge of the earth, of his creation? We literally control the life of the planet and everything on it right now and yet instead of creating a garden we would rather turn it into a toxic trash heap and destroy ourselves and everything else in the process. God must have been having a bad day when he made that decision.
What is God’s answer to this catastrophic failure of the human species, of the church, of so, so much? The answer, of course, is the cross. But I think many of us also see that as a failure. We live as if we are in those dark days post-crucifixion, waiting to see if there is any victory in all of this. Is it real? Is it good? So we pray and we listen and we wait. Strategically, I hope.
I am praying for a mighty pouring out of the Holy Spirit, not so we can dance around drunk with joy (though that is fine) but so we can see the gaps, have a revelation of the places where the system is open to be changed, irrevocably broken. It is easy to be distracted by events and believe we see it. I think of sexual scandals from the Roman Catholic Church, to US senators, to a certain Prime Minister of the country where I reside for a wee bit longer. A friend said today that people here are worried that all the sexual scandals have been a distracting cover for possibly large improprieties with money and lots of financial bad news. I realized it is easy to look at what we see and think those things, like the sexual scandals, are the brokenness in the system. But we must go behind those things and find not only what powers them but more importantly find the open spaces where the cross has already gone ahead of us and calls us to prayer and sometimes other actions.
Sometimes when I think of where we are at, of all the environmental issues, of authoritarian nihilism that would destroy us all (often under the cover of the appearance of Christian faith) I want to raise my fists to heaven and cry out to God to do something. But he has already done what was needful and effective whether we see it or believe it or not. Our job at the moment is to listen; trusting that through a fresh revelation in the Spirit we will see the tipping points, the strategic moments that will send this old, evil system on its way and bring in the Kingdom of God in such a way we could not have imagined it.
C.
A few days ago I wrote about maybe being in a dream season. Dreams are amazing, the only challenging aspect is being awake for a few hours after them: writing them up, praying, researching, working out what to do with them. So another one two nights ago – this time for Gayle. Seems we are being pushed more and more into uncovering the ‘piracy spirit’. This one connects the ancient, pre-Palma before it is established as a city (the Romans called on their gods to protect the city) to events in WWII to the current time…
So what about teaching / instruction in faith / helping people understand their faith in a non-structured context. Here is Jennifer making some response to this issue with respect to what is being currently experienced.
Jennifer Moore: teaching on Vimeo.
Shabbat.
Over the last couple of weeks have been reading with interest Steve Lawton’s great blogs on the waiting room and Martin’s great blogs on the question “do you know yet what you are doing?” I think this underlines a great problem that many of us have in the new landscape who have been in a so called ‘ministry position’. Or who have been in ‘full-time paid ministry’, or who continue to be supported for what we do for God. We always feel we have to be seen to be doing something or to be able to at least explain what we are up to. Give a reason to the season. I think it is the season of not having to give reasons for our seasons. What are we to do? I think that we need the attitude that whatever our hand finds to do we will do it with all out might. But more than anything I just simply need to be me. It is time to be found to be busy doing nothing.
A few years ago now when I was still a church pastor God called me to take a Sabbatical. I asked Him what for, to pray, study, gain vision and prophetic insight? The reply was none of these it was just to rest and enjoy my young family. I can remember hearing an audible voice say ‘this time of doing nothing will be the most productive time of your life.’ So I took 40 days out (seemed like a good Bible waiting number) and did nothing except rest, relax, play, sleep, enjoy recreation, do family stuff, travel. I do not think I hardly opened a Bible page or even had a so called ‘personal devotions and prayer time.’ It just was me with me family. Had a great time. Went back to the church life very refreshed. I probably did not appreciate how productive that time had really been until now. I learned so much more than I realised about the art of just being, and seeing God in the being.
Those that wait…
The Bible says so much about this phase of life and yet we are rubbish at hanging around. Waiting to us becomes a stressful occupation because we always feel that it is waiting for the next big thing. We always look ahead and often gaze past Jesus to see what is coming. All we are called to do is fix our eyes on Him, He is the author and perfecter of our faith. As Pentecostal/Charismatic types we always look for the next big thing or event. We have neglected the spiritual discipline of waiting, doing nothing, knowing nothing, emptying ourselves, dying in the ground. Where we are now needs to be the place of being. As I said in my first blog we can be so focused on destination we miss the journey. The journey is the place of pools, but it is what we make it.
They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall rise up like eagles. They shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not faint.
See waiting is the most productive thing we can do, even God says so. Why do we have such an issue with it? Moses learned the art of waiting, so did Joseph, David and even Jesus. He waited 30 years while He was just being a son of Mary and Joseph before He revealed He was the son of God. He invested more time into everyday family life than He did into miracles.
Be still and know that I am God.
We always thought this was a few minutes interlude to get some more words or instructions. A few minutes quiet contemplation. We were not prepared for this being a way of life. After stepping out of the structured church life into the wild, wide, wilderness, I was not prepared for the not doing. I struggled with having nothing to do for God. I struggled with having nowhere to go. This caused all sorts of inner battles. Of worth, value, identity etc. My whole being was what I had become, not who I was meant to be. I was known by title and gift, not by just being me. Then all was stripped away. Naked apart from Him.
Learning the art.
After four years I am not saying I have arrived but I am learning the art of being content whatever the circumstances. That these times can be the most productive times. That I do not have to know all the time what lies ahead and what I am doing here. I do not have to be answerable to anyone but God about my being. I do not have to explain myself or write a report. Yes I cultivate relationships but those relationships do not dictate my direction or destiny. We shape each other and share journeys but as there is a place for the corporate there is a place for the personal journey. And for many right now it is just being. Living. Hoping. Praying. Sharing. Loving. Being found to be busy doing nothing. And I believe that these days are going to be more productive than all the years of doing so called ministry put together.
Sorry must go now, my diary is full of emptiness to enjoy.
It was back in 1990 / 91 that one day while praying I saw queues (lines!!) of people lining up for food. What surprised me was I knew this was Western Europe. An inevitability – maybe not, given the nature of anything prophetic. However at least a warning. And not too far away the way things are going.
If Spain needs a bailout it would not be at the level of Ireland (€80-090bn) but something around €420bn. There is probably around €490bn left (if Portugal gets a bailout). So if these really are the next 2 dominoes the coffers would be pretty much gone.
Debt. USA with a huge debt, mostly to China. China with almost no domestic market and in need of the USA. A symbiotic relationship (strange bed-fellows!!!). [And thanks for this insight to Cheryl.]
Given the 2 beasts in Revelation are economic false trade backed up by military might (maybe economic sanctions is another way that operates, although I think the shedding of blood is always a desire of demonic powers) the future looks challenging. Small acts that reverse this are called for.
I love the title of the book coming out of the crisis by Paul Mason Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed. I do not have the level of faith the title suggests, but I do believe we are coming to a tipping point.
This decade is one in which there will be major re-alignments, a re-balancing taking place. And we need to expect swings in many different directions. We will have the scaremongers and the pacifiers. But there is an era ending.
Back also in 1991 another vision I have lived with since then was of international business people meeting around an oval shaped table, receiving wisdom from heaven as to how to invest skills, economic wisdom (and finances – but that was not the sharp end of things) into nations that had been oppressed economically. I saw them go from the table to the plane and gaining entrance at key levels. This led to national reshaping, and an entrance for the Gospel at a new level (maybe a kingdom-oriented Gospel?).
So, I do not see a transfer of the wealth to the righteous in the sense of into our pockets (greedy righteous are not righteous, but greedy, and in Paul’s words, idolators). Trim our cloth is the future. But my plea is to those who have been entrusted with finances – this is an amazing moment to invest in the future. Not in new pension schemes, but in those who have been oppressed.
We had a good question recently, and a very valid one… it went something like, you guys there do you know yet what you are doing?
A valid question cos we all need to know what we are supposed to be doing. After all the 2 big questions on the day of Pentecost were: ‘what does this mean?’, and ‘what are we to do?‘. It was the gift of the people of Isaachar, for they understood the times and what Israel was to do.
So what season is it? Of course my response is simply mine – your response might be radically different. My response too has to be in this setting here. Your response is in your setting.
There are many ‘post’ words that could be used: post-christendom, post-colonialism, post-capitalism, post-sovereignty of the nation-state… Of course each term would need unpacking, and each one would only be true in part. For me the current scene is one of major crisis. For the past 4 years my single biggest focus has been that of economics, that shakings of enormous proportions are here and coming. [DDET Recent comments on Ireland, Portugal and Spain]“Europe is sinking – inevitably we are at the beginning of a sequential period. The cost of borrowing for the weakest links will start going up, uncertainty will remain,” said Pau Morilla-Giner, a portfolio manager at London & Capital.
Echoing Ireland’s Brian Cowen, Portugal’s socialist prime minister, José Sócrates, claimed that his country did not need any help, and finance minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos insisted the budget would slash the deficit, already predicted to fall two points this year to 7.3%, and then to 4.6% in 2011. But critics said the government’s track record was not promising: the core state sector deficit rose 2% in the first nine months of the year.
“I think it means Portugal is next,” agreed Filipe Garcia of Portugal’s Informação de Mercados Financeiros. “I don’t know if it will happen before the end of the year or after, but it’s almost inevitable now.”
A possible spread to Spain, the eurozone’s fourth largest economy, would shake the euro’s foundations in a way that problems in the relatively small economies of Greece, Ireland and Portugal have not. While Spain has already taken measures to cut its deficit and has a relatively low overall debt, it is dogged by 20% unemployment and lacklustre growth prospects.[/DDET]
At times of crisis we can either run back to what we know, or even go stronger into what we knew before (hence watch for the many advances in right wing, even neo-Fascist, expressions in Europe), or we try and respond not knowing where that will lead us.
So first the time (in this setting). A fast realisation and manifestation that what has been helpful thus far (church as we have had it) is running out of steam. Its viability for the future is hugely in question. A major re-examination of church must be done, not about its structure – the restoration of the five-fold ministry etc. – but along the lines of its purpose, and that the NT presents us with a trajectory not a set of rail tracks. The Upper Room in Jerusalem sends forth a trajectory to the New Creation. The conflict in Jerusalem sends us on a course to confront Rome, and the powers that are the trajectory from Rome.
So timing wise. The church in Europe does not need to be revived. There must be something much bigger and more foundational. Something that goes beyond the salvation of ‘souls’ to the transformation of a society that has both benefited from the Enlightenment, but been imprisoned by it too. There has to be the rebirth of a people willing to live in a different setting. One of potential hostility but one full of hope. We have entered a phase when the setting for the people of God is not one that demands respect because of the past history but because of their open vision for the future of the world. The artists are being called. This is when the stage is not being set for the philosophers who fight for the mind, but for the artists who are the liberators of the imagination. [This is why I think in 91 I saw a vision of artists on the streets and in the arenas of our European cities.]
There has to be a resulting discipling of people in their life-settings, with the discipleship re-awakening them to their participation in this world both as aliens and as manifestions of another set of values. This is one of the reasons why a new economic and politic has to come to view.
I consider the time at which we live to be a major turning point in history. Yes, a time when a one-world government and an / many antiChrists could arise. But because I do not see Scripture as making those predictions I would rather see the possibilities of a people rising up with a totally different spirit, and empowered by the Spirit. Where good news comes to the marginalised (almost like justice rising up) and other-dimension realities break in, with signs of freedom for those who are oppressed of the devil.
So do we know what we are doing yet? Not in a great measure. But one thing is the need to keep unlearning. Old habits die hard. Changing from driving on the left to the right. In the past one knew automatically from which direction the traffic came from. Now it is not so automatic. But we can learn. Even an oldie immersed in the ways of church can learn.
God said to me one day when I was very frustrated with learning Spanish. The speed you are learning the language is the speed at which you are learning. Today I spoke well in Spanish in class. Tomorrow? Who knows. Seems some days what I need to learn I am doing quite well with – other days not so well.
So in the meantime, we can walk the streets, call out to God, dream about what is to come, share our faith.
Today I was encouraged so deeply.
We pray for the thousands who are already in European situations. Thrust there for all sorts of reasons. Many disconnected, some clearer than others. Most questioning ‘what are we supposed to do?’, some getting sight on ‘what time is it?’. We pray for those and the tens of thousands who will be sent by the Lord of the Harvest (not the Lord of the desperate, saying what can we do!!) also.
So today. An email saying we are sensing that maybe in 10 months time we have to relocate. Do you know anything about the place. Where? In a city where we have gone in the past few months to pray. Bring it on Lord.
And I think he knows what he is doing. That is probably enough for me today. So back to the rhythm of rest and pray.
Jennifer was with us recently and I asked her a question… what about discipleship. How do you see that working out in a non-four walls type of setting. She answered with a story: she has so many!! The first of three videos.
Watch and listen in.
Interview with Jennifer Moore on Vimeo.
Stage Four: The Journey Inward
Stage 4 is “the journey inward” – “a deep and very personal inward journey” that “almost always comes as an unsettling experience yet results in healing for those who continue through it” (93). In this stage, our former views of God are radically challenged. The disruption can be so great that we feel like we are losing our faith or betraying loyalties.
This newfound (and often surprising) uncertainty is usually precipitated by a crisis meaning that any move from stage 3 to 4 is often in the context of, or as a result of a crisis. A crisis of faith, a crisis where many of the former truths and answers now seem inadequate or inappropriate for the next phase in the journey, or a crisis over the corporate practices of the church or group we associated with that no longer seem as right as before.
The crisis “shakes our strongly held beliefs or assumptions and we feel adrift on a restless sea, fending for ourselves. Our sense of God is shaken and we can find no new direction, only more questions” (197).
The crisis shocks our system. We lose comfort and question our convictions as our previous faith-supports are no longer adequate.
Why does advancing to this stage usually demand a crisis? The reason is simple: No one would choose this kind of experience on their own!
Most of us are so comfortable and self-sufficient at the previous stage (called the productive or fruitful life) that we have no natural tendency to move at all. In fact, stage 4 does not even look like part of the journey for those of who are at home in stage 3. It does not appear to be an extension of our faith and growth. Consequently, we are not drawn in this direction.
Our aversion to stage 4 is increased because of the very real dangers that accompany this stage. “Sometimes people drop off the journey totally at this point. Overwhelmed by pain or crises in our lives, we absolutely cut ourselves off from God” (107).
There is a very definite transition that has to be gone through to move from stage 3 to stage 4. There is an experience of ‘the wall’. It is impossible to go over, around, or under the wall. One can only go through it. “The Wall experience is the place where… psychology and spirituality converge. Up to this point, one can be religious, spiritual, or fruitful and not be healed psychologically, or vice versa” (115).
At the Wall we are forced to “face the truth” in order to move forward. “The Wall invites us to integrate our spiritual selves with the rest of us. And that involves facing our own and others’ demons. We must face that which we fear the most, and that is why it is so unsavory, and why so many people only enter the Wall under duress” (233).
Only through self-acceptance and surrender to God’s will can one go “through” the Wall to deeper levels of spiritual growth. “The power behind the transformation at the Wall is this: learn to embrace your whole story with loving, forgiving detachment” (234). We must accept ourselves with all our wounds and imperfections. We must experience God’s love and acceptance of us as we are in all our weakness and humanness. And then we must fully and completely surrender to God’s will, even though we remain in the dark.
An example of the spiritual/psychological healing and transformation that occurs is the realization that fixing others, overhelping others, codependency, or excessive enabling of others is not selfless service. These motivations have unhealthy roots. They betray a sense of low self-esteem, a desire to control. (119)
Through doubts and difficulties we come to know God and ourselves better.
These first three stages keep churches in business. It is what produces workers, people who sit in the pews and learn, tithers, and volunteers who pull the ministry off.
In the wall, the transition to entering into stage 4, there is the scary place where it feels like everything is up for grabs. Everything we once knew is somehow gone or just doesn’t bring life. We don’t feel safe or satisfied or energized in the system we used to give our heart and time and money to. The way we used to experience God just doesn’t seem to be working any more, or at least not at the level it was. There are far more questions than answers. It can be a most confusing stage but also a most glorious stage because it is where we begin to let go of some of the comforts that protected us so well, but also kept us from deeper and richer experience of God.
Many (concerned) onlookers observe thinking that we are losing the plot, becoming heretical, losing the faith, with the hope that once this phase is over that we’ll come back ‘home’ as soon as possible.
The huge challenge is that it is possible to dance with the transition, use the language but never go through. To talk the talk but always to default back to stage 3.
Got a little behind on this one, but here is chapter 10, the final chapter in this first ‘volume’ of Toward Transformation – material originally in Gaining Ground. This Chapter is on paradigm shifts. Essential ones over church, theology and in the practical area too.
Apologies the link was initially wrong – corrected now.
A strange connection. Although I do not accept following Christ as being a religion, I concur with the statement I once heard that ‘Christianity will never make a good state religion.’
Here are a few random aspects:
The Archbishop of Zaragoza speaking on the Civil War said: “This violence [by the Francoists] is carried out not in the service of anarchy but legitimately for the benefit of order, the Fatherland and Religion.” Really?
In Italy if the Catholic Church places a little shrine in one of its businesses, a cinema, shop, restaurant or hotel, it escapes paying 90% of what it owes to the state for its commercial activities. And in Italy tax payers have to devote 0.8 % of their taxes either to the State or to one of the five officially recognized religions. In practice, this means that the taxes of almost 90% of them wind up in the Church coffers.
I, of course, come with a Constantine-was-not-good viewpoint, and I am of the conviction that there has to be a much clearer separation. Yes I am looking for the disestablishing of the C of E, but that is only a signpost. Where there is manipulation of followers of Jesus over politics; the belief that get-the-born-again person in the place of power and we will then bring the country to Christ also has to change. I honestly believe that to shift the spirit of Islam from the shores of Europe, the church as a body has to be weakened (or weaned away from the Constantinian stance). Yes challenging times ahead.
If we see the Vatican shake in the next season, we then should be expecting some major shaking in the Italian political realm… signs of what is coming.
Tim Fellows recently sent me this link to Sir Ken Robinson’ presentation on the need to reform education. Absolutely brilliant presentation… What a time in history we live at. A time when there is such a call from the ‘gates of society’. Could it be that creation’s voice is getting louder to the sons/daughters of God with a desire to share in their liberation?
Of course the talk is directed at education but could be applied to other spheres.
Much of the material that will be central to these posts will cover perspectives on the 'gates' of society, the places of influence that shape the culture. If transformation is a desired outcome, such aspects as strategic prayer and understanding the redemptive gifts of places will play their part. As prayer opens up space, filling it will be vital, not in a controlling, top-down sense, but with a servant spirit. Finding appropriate terminology is difficult. Maybe 'transformation' is not the right term, perhaps 'transfiguration', where inner qualities burst through.
I have chosen to use the term 'gates' and although they can be defined any number of ways these are the seven ways I have chosen to group them by:
These are in two formats. Epub can be read in many ereaders, such as Ipad, kobo etc.; if using a kindle then the format will be mobi. If there are difficulties in reading the format an internet search should show any peculiarities for your specific ereader
Vol 1.1 Epub format Vol 1.1 Mobi format
Vol 1.2 Epub format Vol 1.2 Mobi format
Vol 1.3 Epub format Vol 1.3 Mobi format