bride

"For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin." - 2 Cor 11:2 -

Being the bride of Christ has always been a tough metaphor for me to truly grasp. I mean, as a man, to be called a bride...its just always been kinda hard for me. I'm supposed to be the husband. I am supposed to be the MAN. I've never rejected being the bride, I've just always had a hard time grasping the truth of it and fully celebrating being the bride.

Maybe I'll never fully understand it, but I did get to experience a bit of it a few years ago when I was the best man in one of my best friends' wedding. It was the first time ever being best man and it was such a blessing. I'd been a groomsmen in a couple different weddings and it has its benefits*, but often times you are so far down the line that you don't get a great view of the ceremony. If the guy in front of you, lets call him Number 3, gets tired of leaning forward, he leans back, blocking your once good view and causing you to lean forward and therefore being blocked out by Number 2. Its a futile, but neccessary, battle that must be fought all ceremony.

So, in having this unobstructed view of Jeremy's wedding, I got to see something I'd never seen before. As the doors in the back of the sanctuary opened up and Karina walked down the aisle, I got the pleasure of watching Jeremy's face.

His bride. Adorned in white. Beautiful. Walking towards him. To choose him. To spend the rest of their lives together.

I don't even think I watched Karina walk down the aisle that day. I was transfixed by the look of love on Jeremy's face. And then it hit me...



That is how Christ feels towards us.



He is filled with pure joy when His bride is adorned in white. When we, the church, are holy.
He is filled with so much love that He would lay down His life for His bride.
He is filled with pleasure when His bride chooses Him and submits herself to Him.

We bring joy to Christ!

I love the imagary of being the bride. No matter how many times I dress in a gown (uh, I mean, I've only done it once...for this, uh, picture...I promise), it is still hard to imagine myself as a bride. But being able to watch Jeremy's love for Karina helped me to have a better idea of what a beautiful metaphor it is and how much more Jesus truly loves us.

In 20 days I'll be the best man in another wedding. I look forward to getting a better grasp of what it means to be the bride of Christ as I stand beside Jared and watch him as Jordan walks down the aisle.


*In being the best man (and single), you get all the face time (for all the single ladies out there), but you have all the responsibility. I thought that being best man would be the best way to meet cute girls, but in fact, it is the worst. You have to make sure the wedding is going smoothly, make sure the car is decorated, make sure the honeymoon room is taken care of, collect all the tuxes, help pack up the presents, and the countless other details of a wedding. Basically, you do all the work, so there is no time for the ladies. The groomsman is a far superior role in the girl department. You get face time, but you have no responsibility after the ceremony. The reception is free for getting your mac on...

i am the church.

do you want to see the church?

the diversity?

the beauty?

the culture?

the young and old?

see the church.

a fourth interlude

Man, I can't keep quiet. I tried to do only pictures, but I have to express myself in words.

That is a picture of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. We went there today. It is by far the most impressive church that I have ever stepped foot in. Michaelangelo (the artist, not the Ninja Turtle) was the architect for the majority of it. Inside and out, it is beautifully constructed. There are only three paintings in the entire church and the rest is decorated by beautifully intricate mosaics that, beyond ten feet away, look like paintings. Ornate marble statues are placed throughout. There is only one window that has stained glass, because Bernini, the "interior decorator", wanted natural light to highlight the sculptures and to radiate off the mosaics and jewels. It is an amazing structure.

But my heart was heavy the entire time I was there.

I couldn't help but wonder what Jesus would think of such a building. I also couldn't help but wonder what things do we create as Christians now that are meant to be impressive, but are ineffectual for building community and proclaiming the gospel.

My heart hurt as our tour guide explained that Michaelangelo wasn't paid for his work on the church because, "it was for the salvation of his soul and to the glory of God." I'm not doubting his heart, but did he get it? Did he understand that the God to whom he was doing this beautiful piece of art was the one who saved his soul? What works am I doing that I feel are earning me my salvation?

My heart hurt when my tour guide talked about the papal throne.



She talked about how the pope viewed himself as the most powerful religious figure in the world and that the succession was Christ, Peter, and then the Pope. Did they get it? Did they get that Jesus wasn't about acquiring power, but serving? I also wondered who are our popes? Is Rob Bell a pope to me? Are we crushed because Darryl isn't the pastor of SBC?

My heart was burdened today. The Vatican was amazing, but stirring. I just hope that just because we are "Protestants" that we don't ever forget that we can fall into the same traps of the Catholic church.

Polish Worship

The town I live in is right on the Czech-Polish border. Therefore, most of the people in my town can speak Polish as well as Czech. This is especially true of the people in my church. Most of the sermons are in Czech, but occasionally the sermons will be in Polish. There is also this unusual dialect in our town called Ponasimu (sp?). It is a mix between Czech and Polish and sometimes when someone shares their testimony in church they speak Ponasimu. Learning Czech is hard enough, but with all these other languages floating around, it is brutal.

This leads me to my point. Every week, at least half of our worship is in Polish. In fact, even our Hymnal is in Polish. It is really fuuny, because I have not studied Polish at all, but yet, I learn it every Sunday at church. It is close enough to Czech, where I can recognize some words, but it is different enough to where I definitely struggle when I try to sing.

To me, Polish sounds like this, "Shush wosh blush slush wosh." Lots of shushes and wushes...

Sometimes when I am attempting to sing in Polish, I think to myself, "Self, what if everyone just stopped singing and I was left singing by myself. All they would hear would be a whole bunch of non-sense that sounds like "sush mush bush Bog (the word for God) wush blush shush."

Oh, the cross-cultural life.

You don't read my blog for my Theology!

In the year and a half that I've been "blogging" I have written a few posts on the church/theology/bible. Here is what I've noticed: The vast majority of people who read my blog are waiting for funny stories. That's cool. That is one of the main things that I post on here. I also know I'm not the most brilliant Biblical scholar and may not be writting the most thought provoking posts. You can go to Brett's (http://mentalmeandering.blogspot.com/) or John's (http://faithpractices.blogspot.com) for that. BUT, I think I'll still write some thoughts about God.

With all that being said, I was asked to blog my response to Bobby's post on the Postmodern Deconstruction of the Modern Church (http://www.emergentadventure.blogspot.com/). In his blog, he says that the latest movement in the postmodern/emergent church is to meet in homes and he propounds the question, "Can it get smaller than home churches?" This is my response.


I don't know if I have any answers, but I have thought about the movement into homes for awhile.

A couple years ago we moved to home ministries for our high school ministry. We still met as a large group, but HANDS DOWN the biggest amount of ministry, impact, passion, heart, outreach, Spirit, etc. was found in these home groups. Each took on a unique feel and most were thriving...we got people in the homes that would NEVER go to church...Alpha does this same thing...I really do think it is the next wave.

It can't get smaller though...I think what we will begin to see (in an attempt to get smaller) is the "I don't need church" mentality. Meaning, "I don't need to meet regularly and fit into some form. The church is the people, so I will just hang out with my believer friends and do outreach by hanging out with unbelievers." While I totally agree that the church is the people, Paul was still writing to people who were gathering regularly, partaking in the sacraments on a regular basis, listening to the reading of the Word (or Paul's letters), meeting with people of all different ages, etc.

I think this can totally take place in a large church (although, it is much more difficult) or in homes. The bottom line is that we don't "neglect to meet together" (Heb. 10:25).

Uncle Rico

Church services are interesting here in the Czech for me. I know enough Czech so that I can pronounce the words when I'm singing. I know enough vocab, so that I can usually get the main meaning of the song. The sermon, on the other hand, is another level in which I have only begun to ascend. Half the time it is Polish anyways, so what I usually do is find out what passage the pastor is speaking on and just read the surrounding context and related passages for 45 minutes. It is a really great practice, but I began missing the art of preaching. I missed hearing the Scriptures read and expressed from another's mind and experiences. Because of this I started downloading sermons and listening to them on Sunday afternoons or on long car rides. Rob Bell has become one of my favorites and so I listened to him this morning.

The title of this particular sermon was "How to Lose Your Life". He started with telling the story of Mary (the one called Magdalene) seeing Jesus in the garden from John 20. He talked about how, after realizing it was Jesus, she clinged to Him and how Jesus told her to stop and to go tell her brothers that He is going to return to His Father. Rob asked, "Why did Jesus do this? Why did He tell her to stop clinging to Him? Why did He tell her to go tell her brothers that He must return to the Father?" His answer, expounded upon through the Scriptures was because a new time was coming in which Jesus wouldn't be on earth and that she couldn't hold onto Him and the way things used to be, but rather, by the power of the Spirit (2 Tim 1:7), she needed to prepare for this new time. His application was that our tendency is to hold on to the way things used to be. We fear change and the future, so we remember the past and we fight to keep things the same. This is when he moved to Matt 16:24-25. Jesus says, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it." We cling to life. We cling to the way we want life to be, we cling to our hopes and our dreams and we cling to the past. Jesus says that if we are trying to save our life, we will miss life. We will lose out on what He has for us. But if we lose our life, if we lose our life for Him, we will find it!

Man, this spoke to everything that is inside of me. I love the old days. I love the way things used to be. I find myself remembering Arizona. I find myself remembering Oregon. I find myself glorying in the past. It's sad but am I much different than Napoleon's Uncle Rico? Glorying in the days of the past only to be living in a van, watching life pass me by? God has something great for me. He has taken me from humble Redmond, Oregon, population 7,000, child of a raised-Catholic neighborhood babysitter and an Agnostic mill worker/landscaper (who now are both following the Lord) and moved me to the Czech Republic to work to expand His Kingdom! He has given me the responsibility to help run and organize 20+ camps in which 300 American students and youth leaders will be profoundly changed by experiencing dynamic, life-changing, relational evangelism, where 300 Czech students and youth leaders will experience that same evangelism with their peers and 800 unbelievers will hear the Gospel, some for the first time! And yet, I think back to yesteryear. I think back to what was. I sometimes LONG to go back to what was...internship, seminary, the familiarity of friends, the feeling of knowing and being known.

I am losing my life. While watching re-runs of 1996's Senior Year or 2000's Summer of Fun or the ever popular hit from 2001-2004, The Intern Years, I am missing the show that God is filming now. I am starring in a show right now in which I am a missionary in the Czech. God has huge things planned. God has a never-ending budget and I am watching re-runs in poor quality. He has brought me so far and yet I am not grasping onto the future. I am not living for now. I am just content with living in the past. And in doing all of this I am going to "lose my life"...

So what do I do? I don't know. I know that God called me here. I know that God called me to do what I am doing. I know that I have the Holy Spirit inside of me who wants to use me. Even though I often feel no passion for what I'm doing, I know that I need to take hold of what He has called me to. I need to heed Paul's words to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1, "to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control."

Emergent vs. Non-Emergent (for lack of a better term)

I think if I were to come back to the states that I would want to be a part of an "emergent church". I have some friends who have started an emergent church. I haven't been, but I imagine that it is a good blend of relevant worship and theological soundness.

But being in the Czech, I have been thinking a lot about what are the concepts of the emergent church that I can grab onto and use and what things have no relevance here. There are some things that would totally work, but others that would be a huge turn off. It has actually made me question how much I really know about this culture. What I've realized is that no matter what style we use, outreach is about going OUT.

I was just with a youth leader this weekend and he has been hanging with a group of students in a pub throughout the week. All these kids from this one high school go to a pub nearly every day and hang out. When he goes there they talk about life, but spiritual things always come up...It is amazing. He doesn't do anything fancy. There isn't a really cool program set up, he just goes, hangs with them and outreach is being done. It is totally incarnational. He is even thinking about starting a bible study in the pub! It is really cool. This is all being done in the capital of one of the most Atheistic countries in the world. It just proves that people are spiritually interested even in spiritually "dead" places.

I think it is sweet to set up a church in a way that unbelievers want to go, but what I think is more important is going TO them. I hear people talk all the time about doing outreach, but how often is that outreach really going out and how much of it is "inreach", where a relevant event is planned and the people are invited, but the unbeliever is forced to make the first step? I think that it is expected of missionaries to be involved in the community and reaching the people, but where are the missionaries to the States? How many youth leaders and staff are actually going out and hanging with students in their environment? When I was working with students in the states I was constantly hanging out with them at their houses and hang outs, BUT I was hanging out with the Christians...Don't get me wrong, I think this was equally beneficial, but I wasn't doing outreach. Consequently, they weren't either.

I am currently studying Acts and in Chapter 3 Peter and John are on their way to the temple at the hour of prayer (I wonder if they were going there to pray or if they were going there, because they knew that there would be people to get in spiritual conversations with!). Anyways, on their way they heal a man who has been lame from birth and a crowd gathers and then Peter shares about God. This is continually happening throughout Acts. The apostles GO OUT and get in spiritual conversations with people. The ministry that they do "inside" is to the body. I'm not arguing that we should set up services that are only for believers. I'm also not arguing for street evangelism. My point is that we need to be going out and reaching out to people in their world. We can't expect them to come to us. We need to build relationships with unbelievers and use that relationship to talk about spiritual things.

My First Czech Sunday...

The aroma of raspberry tea wafted through the air and the aroma of praise wafted to the heavens as twenty of us sat in a room on the third floor of a building in Karvina, a city just outside of Český Těšín. It was wonderful to sit with these brothers and sisters and listen to the sound of this foreign tongue float through the air. It is remarkable that our God understands every language. I don't think I realized how big our God was until I first heard someone praying in a foreign tongue. It really expands ones view of the vastness of God when we realize that He hears us in all languages. As Americans, we are so Anglo-Centric that we forget that God is a God of the world, not just of the US or English-speaking countries. We serve a BIG God!!

Church was good. We went to a church plant this morning that was planted by the church in Český Těšín. There were only twenty people, but it was sweet. There were four kids there who had all been saved recently from the Jehovah Witness background. There was a gypsy man who was there. (The gypsies are the lepers of the Czech culture and many Eastern European countries. The majority make their living by thievery and the are just not liked by the people). The pastor asked me to share this morning (very typical of the Czechs to ask an American to share during a church service). Fortunately God had really impressed something upon my heart during my time in the Word this morning and so I had something fresh in my heart! The entire time was wonderful and I was very encouraged to be with them.

It is crazy to think that this is my new church family. While my family back in the states is still very involved in my life and ministry, these are the people that I will be walking with daily once I am living in Český Těšín on a regular basis. I am excited and nervous to get to know them...my Czech is going to have to get better much more quickly, though, for me to really invest and be invested into by my new family.