My Heart is Broken

 My Heart is Broken

Jesus announced His ministry with the act of reading Isaiah 61, which includes, “…He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted…”. 

From the first breath, His first sermon, the first moment of controversy ~ Jesus is about healing the brokenhearted. Hearts broken by betrayal, ignorance, fear, sinfulness, and yes, even broken by misplaced religious conviction. And perhaps especially, by religious conviction.

We’ve all lived through more heart break than most of us would like to rehearse. We all have our stories. We all know the crushing sense of, “what the living hell just happened?” Some of us have diaries filled with our tear filled curses and secret weeping about, “WHAT THE…?!”

Betrayal sneaks up on us and hides in our sweet ideals of us always trusting, always relying, always believing. A broken heart begins with “knowing” but it ends with, “WHAT THE …?!”

So here’s my deal: after 48 years of ministry, staying the course, holding my values to a singular calling, shaking hands with a few political kings, and being courted by the same…my heart is broken. 

I felt it coming when I was asked to pray at a political rally in 2004 IF I gave my church mailing address list to that Party, but I refused to sell my prayer. I knew then, but I didn’t want to accept it. I wanted to believe, I longed to trust, and I was determined to win any opponents. 

By the way, I attended the aforementioned political rally and heard my replacement pray, in the presence of hundreds of people, and in the ears of a future “king”; but I knew the cost of what that prayer was for me. A cost beyond my heart.

So began my final lap around a race to remain true to my heart. My heart belongs to One, and I discovered the heart-breaking reality that my heart is not for sale. 

So in 2016, when nearly all of my spiritual family began to rally around Donald Trump as the prophesied Isaiah 45 Cyrus, I was nervous. I held my thoughts tight…I measured my words…I tried to protect my heart.

I thought that this moment would pass. I hoped that my spiritual family would arrive at something more measured, more insightful, and more fully aware of how our hearts could be captured by an image of our ideals wrapped around hidden illegitimate purposes. 

All hearts reach for dreams…yet, that’s where illegitimate sales people arrive with a sales pitch. 

For a moment, I need to reinforce my beginnings. My mom was healed at the hands and healing of a man who ended up in a tragic failure of his own fraud. I’m forever grateful for that miracle but I am also forever aware of that man’s frailty. It reminds me to stay true to my heart.

I came to a revelation of my current Kingdom convictions from a man whose back-stage realities were tragically reprehensible. While I remain grateful for the Kingdom this man revealed to me, I am also painfully aware of his betrayal. It again reminds me to stay true to my heart.

Now, an entire movement, committed to the Kingdom I deeply treasure, this movement now boldly and openly endorses President Trump as the *only* Christian choice, the *only* valid vote, and the *only* opportunity to save the USA. I have thought, I have hoped, I have believed…however…now, again… My heart is broken.  

I KNOW that Jesus will again heal my broken-heart as He has before. Every time my heart is healed, I become a better human. And I KNOW Jesus will remain the only power worthy of my heart and create a new heart for a better day. 

I am concerned that an entire generation watching this crisis will doubt the veracity and credibility of a church whose endorsement of President Trump sounds more like a confession of faith than a simple choice on a ballot. 

I am concerned that the gospel too often sounds like, “Receive Jesus, be baptized, and accept His choice of the Republican Party, and you shall be saved.” 

An entire generation has headed for the exits at that sound…and their hearts, and mine, are broken. 

My hope is that ultimately, this might just be the Good News in this broken hearted moment. Jesus patiently waits to bind up the brokenhearted who long for MUCH BETTER DAYS.

Racism: A Life Without Love To it or Through it

 Racism ~ 

It's a life without love TO it or through it. 

An aberration of a human being but not a human present.

A tree without branches.

A mountain lost in a larger valley.

A car with 3 wheels roaring down a highway at high speed.

A flower with no peddles.

A wedding without a bride.

A house with no doors.

A street with no intersections.

A train straining to reach full speed with no tracks beneath its enormous weight.

An orchestra on stage sans the musicians.

A song without a melody and missing a cadence.

We can live without love just as we could live without sleep...and we slowly become ghosts of exhaustion.

Why do we even bother to look at the extremists who shout? Because we can not help but stare...rubber necking at the view as our instincts shouts, "Beware! Be aware!" Or worse yet, "Could this be me?"

We watch and wonder, "Why?" and, "When will this crash?" 

And we suddenly know that any life without LOVE always fades into fear...fear of the other. 

We watch and wonder, "Is there any lack of significant LOVE in full blown within my own experience?"

Racism dies, line by line, the instant authentic Love begins its unfailing ferment within our soul. 

Born in the USA...Born Again in the Kingdom of God (Part One)

I’m blessed to have had many profound life defining epiphanies. Indulge me a few moments please, while I share the highlights of a few of these definitions.

Like many of you reading this, I was “born again” into the Kingdom of God. I did not have a single moment altar call experience, but I found the reality of Jesus Christ as a high school kid searching for a way out of a world of internal misery locked up in me. I grew up in a home with significant addiction issues and the “new birth” pains in me led me to a Love in Christ for which I am forever grateful. Trust me…this is a very long story made very short for this blog. 

Now on to another epiphany…

I went to a denominational Bible College who taught me an appreciation for listening to the Holy Spirit…an internal, beautiful, supernatural GPS, if you will. That denomination began the process of ordaining me when (drum roll please) I followed the Holy Spirit to work for a beautiful expression of the Kingdom of God outside the aforementioned denomination. My relationship with them was terminated due to my failure to keep the Kingdom of God as the sole property of their organization. Broke my heart…

But what began as a flood of tears for the loss of that relationship, has evolved into one of the best decisions of my life… and a pattern setting epiphany for my future. The Kingdom of God won my affections, yet again.

You might say, I was born again…again.

Which brings me to another new birth epiphany. After a 38 day fast my wife and I discovered a spiritual family, 1200 miles away, who taught us the phenomenal beauty of the Kingdom of God! And, with yet another long story made short, we happily jettisoned doctrinal/theological confines that had been restricting our full embrace of the Kingdom. 

And you might say, I was born again…again…and again. See a pattern developing here? For the sake of time and space, I’ll need to condense the next few epiphanies…

One day while preparing a sermon on my passion for Pro-life, my internal GPS (Holy Spirit…remember?) whispered, “While you may wax passionate about this, remember there will be women in your audience who have had the heart crushing experience of an abortion. See them with the eyes of Jesus.” 

New birth was the result of months of training myself to walk in that revelation. 

Years later, a local Republican party leader called me and invited me to pray at a George W. Bush reelection rally. Initially, I was all a flutter…but then another request was made; “Could you provide your church’s email/mailing list so we can contact them?” I simply refused to cross that ethical line… and my invitation to be seated on the platform with a President was withdrawn. 

Born again…and so, my political persuasions bowed to a Higher Power.

Fast forward to the night President Obama announced that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by our brave military. When I fist pumped the air, my Holy GPS alerted me; “Recalibration required.” And my life turned abruptly toward a more profound and lovely revelation of the Kingdom of God. 

You see, part of the life in the Kingdom of God is a journey toward, “…they will turn their swords into plowshares…learning war no more…those who live by the sword will die by the sword.” I could’ve remained in the safety of my spiritual womb…or be born again to the Kingdom of God.

More currently, I found myself completely surrounded by an association of people of faith whose mantra was something like this: “Christianity is the same as and equals conservative Republican politics. God has chosen a new President and this is prophetically affirmed.” (See January 11, 2020 blog ~ "This Was Bad Behavior...")

My GPS went off like a tornado siren. 

In this context I have witnessed an avalanche of correlations and equalizations to our nation as it relates to the Kingdom of God. Most are subtle, some are not. I’ve learned an awareness of the subtle hybrids and the blending of America and the Kingdom of God…such as churches where they fly the flag of the USA with the Christian flag symbolically lower as an expression of submission. 

An easy way to apply this is to try this exercise: If the King of any third world nation said, “Our country is the closest thing to the Kingdom of God on earth. We believe we are God’s gift to the world. God has told me I am His chosen and my nation is a chosen people. I’m fairly certain we would laugh him to scorn. 

And yet, similar statements have been made about the USA. “A City set upon a hill” and “the last best hope on earth” to name a few… but these are truths that only apply to the Kingdom of God! 

On a smaller scale, here’s condensation of another example; “the Democrates/Left are an evil force seeking to destroy our nation! Christians must speak up.” Read that again. Just typing it makes my spiritual GPS spin… 

Christians are present in the Democratic Party too. Christians have left-leaning ideas as well. Christians are not the sole possession of any ideology. And the only nation Christians are called to speak up for is…the Kingdom of God. Right leaning and left leaning Christ followers might rally AS ONE declaring, “Jesus Christ is Lord. We have no king but Him.”

I love the USA, but I love the Kingdom of God more. I love our fledgling form of government, but I love the Government that rests upon the shoulders of Jesus more (Isaiah 9). The USA has phenomenal freedoms, potential, and blessings seldom seen on the earth. I know I won the birth lottery when I was born in the USA…

But now, I must chose to be born again into the Kingdom of God. This is a Kingdom of Love seeking full expression “on earth as it is in heaven.” I have discovered that what our King said is profoundly true, “No one can serve 2 masters” (Matthew 6:24). Another way of saying that is, “You can only serve one Higher Power at a time.” (Dr. John MacDougal; Being Sober and Becoming Happy).

My loyalty to Kingdom values will always supersede my love for country. “For God and country” will never be my motto…

 “For God and Kingdom Come” is where I have planted the flag of my heart. 

 

 

SANCTUARY: A Place of Refuge for Spiritual Refugees

Sunday Night Sanctuary

March 22, 2020

I’ve been painfully aware of the dwindling population among USA churches for the past 2 decades. Prior to that, I lived in a church fantasy world of believing the notion that if we would just, “win the lost at any cost” our pews would always be packed. Well Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore…

To be perfectly blunt right off the bat…the whole approach I just referenced is a value statement related to our decline. “They” versus “us” rather than the collective family of humankind in search of the Sacred, the Divine, the Beauty of God. Winning the lost often looked like counting how many people we could BS into saying the “sinner’s prayer” and receiving Jesus. I’m through with the bait and switch…as well as the other definition of BS.

A professional counselor friend of mine shared a parable fitting for this challenge: “If I’m strolling along a city sidewalk and suddenly I’m confronted with a scene of person after person leaping from a 3rd floor window, falling to certain injury or even death, I do not shame them angrily for being stupid enough to jump…NO! I quickly seek to determine what could be so bad on the 3rd floor of that building that makes jumping seem  preferential over staying up there! 

The church of the west continues to witness a steady “run for your lives” stampede from our once solid sanctuaries. Even a casual internet search bears out my point. Estimates range from 25% to 50% of the next 2 generations have exited organized Christianity. As a pastor of over 45 years, I admit the reality of my own participation in failing to seriously carry out and gather a collective healthy assessment of what could be so bad about who we are that would make a 3rd floor leap seem better than staying… 

As of January 2019 my wife and I left the church we pastored for 30 years and began a journey of discovery. We went out in search of “spiritual refugees”, or the “one sheep”, as described by Jesus. Our promise to any we would find was to “listen and love” as best as we could. No BS and no attempt to shame anyone back to the 3rd floor. Did we find dysfunctional excuses or blame without appropriate self evaluation? Of course! But I’d propose we are ALL  guilty of that, now and then. 

However, the great majority of those we have found represent a very real demand for an authentic renewal in the western Church. In ways great and small, multitudes are isolated within the church walls or simply walking away. They aren’t rebels flicking the bird at a steeple…they’re treasures with stories too compelling to ignore any longer. 

We were always supposed to be a “city of refuge” and a sanctuary for the pursuit of a beautiful spirituality. Many of them (myself included) believed the church would be a beautiful sanctuary for restoration but found too many sad compromises from that purpose to tolerate any longer. 

What compromises? Here’s a partial list of what my wife and I have discovered:

1. Commitments to purity, culture wars, righteousness, and a determination to change everyone else to make them look like us. For instance, the “LGBTQ agenda” became our war cry against human beings made in the image of God rather than a construct for the potential of healthy, adult conversations. Think about it; the woman at the well (John 5) represented everything a good Jewish boy should shun! But Jesus took the risk of a healthy adult conversation that demonstrated his genuine interest in her life’s journey. I’ve learned to listen to ONE person sitting in front of me rather than fighting a group and their agenda. The more I fight a group, the less I’ll be trusted with one person coming to me with a trust for love. More to unpack about this at another time…
2. Political marriage for the purpose of national influence. I do not care which side of the spectrum we’ve married, it was not a marriage made in heaven. “No one can serve 2 masters” according to Jesus, yet we’ve been determined to prove Him wrong. The Kingdom of God introduced by King Jesus can certainly participate and influence systems around us with salt and light…but we can only serve one higher power at a time. To hear some preach, you’d think the call to follow Jesus is stone cold equal to becoming a card carrying Republican. No! Two masters is one too many. More to unpack about this at a later time…
3. Pure and simple ~ a failure to grow in an honest pursuit of LOVE. Loving our neighbor, our enemy, ourselves and God. Love; the final reality. Love alone is credible. Love; the ONE value Jesus proclaimed as THE value of His people. MUCH more to unpack about this at another time… 

In order to unpack the above (and more) we are offering Sunday Night Sanctuary. Stop by beginning Sunday March 22, 2020 at my Facebook page from 6pm to 7pm CST.

The definition of sanctuary is simply this; a sacred refuge and a space to become a whole spiritual human being. My wife and I want to do our best to provide that kind of space. A sacred place for becoming, belonging, and loving toward a dynamic of living beautifully and powerfully. During this time very Sunday night we’ll offer prayers, confessions, messages, and Communion toward that end. A brief Sanctuary to build upon for a lifetime of sanctuary Love. 

Sunday Night Sanctuary

Sunday Night Sanctuary

As of January 2019 my wife and I left the church we pastored for 30 years and began a journey of discovery. We went out in search of “spiritual refugees”, or the “one sheep”, as described by Jesus. Our promise to any we would find was to “listen and love” as best as we could. 

At first we went out to meet one on one, then it progressed to a group, and then to other personal contacts as schedules and life allowed. We’ll still attempt all of the above but as life allows today, in the day of COVID-19, the idea struck us like the promise of Spring ~ meet online, via Facebook Live (to start off) and provide a Sanctuary; a spiritual refuge for these refugees. 

The definition of sanctuary is simply this; a sacred refuge and a space to become a whole spiritual human being. My wife and I want to do our best to provide that kind of space. A sacred place for becoming, belonging, soul food and loving toward a dynamic of living beautifully and powerfully. During this hour every Sunday night we’ll offer prayers, confessions, messages, and Communion toward that end. A brief Sanctuary to build upon for a lifetime of sanctuary Love. 

So, stop by beginning Sunday March 22, 2020 at my Facebook page from 6pm to 7pm CST. 

Make choices out of clear headed, freedom based thinking ...

I just read another post/Tweet loaded with a command from “God” to vote for President Trump; unequivocally, unquestionably, and without a slight consideration for any other thought or choice. This post, along with dozens of others like it I’ve seen, makes it clear that any other choice is only a choice for evil. It places shame on anyone whose thoughts may be tempted to consider the dark side beyond “God’s choice” in President Trump. 

Read this carefully... I completely disagree with this process of shame based, broken rationale. Everyone, please...make your choices out of clear headed, freedom based thinking. When any church demands conformity for political ideals, run away from those demands and *think* for yourself. Vote President Trump, Joe, Mike, Bernie, etc...because you alone believe in your choice. You...alone...believe...in your choice. 

"This Was Bad Behavior. We Are Sorry. Please Forgive Us."

At age 66 I've lived through more public church scandals than I care to list. All embarrassing, some catastrophic, and some requiring serious legal action. But none of them are akin to what I'm witnessing now. Today's scandal is far and away more baffling than any I've ever witnessed before.

This is NOT a political statement. This IS the voice of a pastor/elder/bishop with 45 years of experience struggling to speak truth for whoever has an ear to hear. This IS also one of the greatest heartaches I have experienced in my role of "preacher."

The doubled down, overtly "prophesied", spiritualized endorsement of President Trump by some high profile church leaders and their followers is a sadness that will haunt the Body of Christ for decades to come. Those of us who did not join this chorus will spend an inordinate amount of our future making sure that our listeners knew exactly how we felt about this but ALL of us will be picking up the pieces for a very long time.

When prophets declare our 45th President to be the Isaiah 45 Cyrus, we have sadly diminished our potential witness. When ecclesiastical leaders hold church rallies for the faithful to cheer and chant with near worship like praise for President Trump, we have placed a bushel over our lamp. When prophetic words are wrapped around the realities of this national political duress in an attempt to make it look like something other than it really is...AND, when TV preachers look at the camera and declare, "If you don't support our President, I doubt your salvation", the Good News becomes the evening news excusing thousands MORE of a generation who are already walking away, to break into a full sprint.

I am a lifelong pentecostal/charismatic believer. I LOVE the Holy Spirit and all the gifts and fruit available to me by the Spirit's power. Early in my training I was taught a simple principle of the prophetic; "No mates or dates." By definition and extension that meant, "NEVER use the Spirit for control, whether subtle or otherwise, for any kind of gain over a flock or person." NEVER. But what is happening now is well beyond "mates or dates"...some are in a full scale attempt at political endorsement via the Holy Spirit's gifts.

I repeat ~ this is NOT a political statement. Endorse anyone for any office you'd like, in your own name but NEVER in the Name of Jesus Christ. NEVER.

We have one way out of this embarrassment, one statement to attempt at making this right, and one opportunity to heal this terrible behavior. Even those of us who have not participated in this can participate in a solution. I'm not a Catholic priest but I am a member of the Universal/Catholic Church and as such, I have often offered apologies (for whatever it is worth) for the broken and evil behavior of clergy abuse. In that spirit, I invite all my sisters and brothers in Christ to the following effort...

As soon as possible and with as many of us as who are brave enough to do so, I believe we must say with authentic humility, "This was bad behavior. We are sorry. Please forgive us."

21st Century Magi

To all who feel like a homeless spiritual troupe wandering/wondering with a simplicity of love for God BUT uncomfortable with and wary of brittle fundamentalism waving swords of Bible proof texts, BE OF GOOD CHEER. The Magi/Kings/Wisemen of the Christmas story are our forerunners. 

They had no Bible or established religious support for their journey...just a curious star in the night sky. They are the ultimate party crashers. No formal invitation except their deep contrarian spiritual instincts. They stepped onto a stage of profound harsh "Religion Inc." so bound up with Bible proof texts that the ultimate promise of the Bible, sleeping in a manger, was completely missed by professional blindness... in spite of the astrological radiance in the inky black skies. 

The Magi of the 21st century are still searching for the real Jesus. Modern Wise People are suspicious of political power brokers trying to trick them and those who posture for positional influence. They're looking for something unassuming, without the sound and fury of political noise. They are more at home finding a teenaged mama holding her baby who is being sought out by grave-yard shift workers who smell of livestock. 

21st Century Magi have traveled from strange places, long emotional distances, and refuse to be denied. They don't look or dress like "us" so they surely don't appear to fit in. But to ignore them is to ignore a future as bright as EVERY STAR in the sky!

The Potential of Ragged, Reckless Love

Very early in my journey of faith (circa 1970’s) I was confronted by the fundamentalist doctrinal establishment of the denomination God was using to draw me to Himself when I heard (loud and clear I might add) that divorce was a clear “Biblical” infraction. So clear an infraction that it would forbid anyone from serving in any leadership level in a local assembly. 

In Bible College, when I verbally noted (in contrast to this hard nosed view) that recovering drug addicts were beautifully preaching and leading us in a vibrant renewal, I was told that I was “young in the faith” and naive. And, after all, there was a "clear Bible teaching" about marriage and divorce. 

Well, I’ve observed that today’s “clear Biblical teaching” can easily become tomorrow’s sad commentary on our lack of love. There are so many examples I could cite …like racially mixed marriages (clear Bible teaching), men with long hair (clear Bible teaching), worldly entertainment (clear Bible teaching)... just to name a few.

What if today’s limited understanding of a wide range of cultural challenges will one day be compared to the ignorance about racial integration in the USA from the 1950’s and ’60’s? We had Bible verses! What if we’re so afraid of the extremes, the aberrations, and the fear mongering that we can’t see ONE person sitting in front of us asking for love? Asking for acceptance? Asking for a simple margin of patience from us while they sort out the madness (ours, theirs, and the wide world)?

Love refuses to lump anyone into a monolithic category. Love floods our vision with insight, sight into, and simply SEEING that one person beyond any and all character assumptions and assassinations. Love respects ALL humans even when a Bible verse seems to disrespect that very same human being. Love never fails. 

When I Talk About Love I'm Not Trying to be Relevant or Clever...

I'm known for preaching, writing, and posting about love. Some have called me "Bishop Love" or "The Dean of Love"... I guess I could be called much worse, so I'll happily accept the labels. But I want to be specific as to why I'm so committed to this topic...please allow me 10 minutes of your time ~

The best place to start would be with this quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Please take some pains to read this carefully;

“I’ve seen too much hate to want to hate, myself, and every time I see it, I say to myself, hate is too great a burden to bear. Somehow we must be able to stand up against our most bitter opponents and say:”We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will still love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws and abide by the unjust system, because non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good, so throw us in jail and we will still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and, as difficult as it is, we will still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities at the midnight hour and drag us out on some wayside road and leave us half-dead as you beat us, and we will still love you. Send your propaganda agents around the country and make it appear that we are not fit, culturally and otherwise, for integration, but we’ll still love you. But be assured that we’ll wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves; we will appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.”

The complexity AND simplicity of Love is found in the sheer impossibility of it. That's inherent to King's quote here because this statement requires us to remember that he actually survived his own home being terroristically attacked. We must recall that black churches were routinely fire-bombed and Sunday School children were killed...in my life time...in the USA. King's creed and response? LOVE. More than simply being "relevant" or "clever"... he put his one life on the line for LOVE. I'm convinced that 21st Century Christianity is at a similar intersection today. 

The political bitterness of our time is a potential set-up for a raw discovery of the practice of Divine Love. Dealing with every hot-topic of our day from a Christian perspective must find a way to default to this "One Command" of Jesus Christ. I am convinced that we will either spend our energies on other methods or we will spend and be spent in a healthy and joyous practice of Love. 

M. Scott Peck, author of the classic book, "Road Less Traveled" said, "Real love is a permanently enlarging experience." Some of us get stuck in small definitions of love and fail to see a wide world dying for a mature and vital love... 

When I was 5 I loved my original dog, “Tiny”....but when I was 12, she got sick and had to be euthanized. I accused my parents of not “loving her” like I did because they made that decision. Well, I was right. They grew, but I was still a 5 year old kid in a 12 year old body loving a dog without an adult mind.

Mature Love is the most difficult, mind challenging choice we can make in a world of complexities and vast choices. But it is the choice Jesus said we'd have to make if we were to be known as His true disciples.   The path I've found through this narrow way (sound familiar?) is the path of LOVING ONE PERSON SITTING IN FRONT OF ME. If that sounds cliched, let me challenge you...

If I get publicly loud about political ideals and indignant about groups of people seeking to corrupt my world I might ultimately find ONE person, sitting in front of me, from one of those groups...seeking and perhaps even desperate for...Love. I can not afford to fight broad political groups when I am committed to LOVE ONE PERSON...sitting in front of me. 

Looking in the eyes of that ONE person, my broad generalized political statements will pale. That ONE person, whose singular "finger-printed" life story, will not fit my pat simplistic answers edited to fit on a political party platform. Like Dr. King, my passions had better be shaped by my real life, first hand experiences, or I risk making Jesus my poster boy for a current news cycle rant. 

I'm not suggesting we should be dispassionate about worthy causes...I'm simply shouting that we should remember that "ONE PERSON" who is disparate for love but might be afraid of us due to our loud political protests. 

Yes...that's a tough gig. Love is ALWAYS the hardest choice to make in the midst of our simplistic news cycle driven culture. 

"LOVE = ONE COMMANDMENT" ~Jesus~

“Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.” ~Erich Fromm

To the Spiritual Refugees Part 2

Since early November of 2018 I have been seeking out the lives of those whom I have come to lovingly call "spiritual refugees"; the young, middle aged, and seniors who have been alienated from the brick and mortar of 21st century church for a wide variety of reasons, too lengthy to list for the purposes of this blog. Maybe you're still in a church but not quite feeling "at home", or you've fled the standard evangelical format, or...or...or...

Originally I thought it would be easy for me to set up "one on one" meetings in the Twin Cities to LISTEN AND LOVE. Unfortunately, I underestimated the logistics of that goal due to my own new life schedule and the very busy lives of those with whom I am seeking to communicate.

So....If I've contacted you or you've contacted me about meeting with me on this basis, I am trying a new strategy in the hope of getting this off the ground. Saturday April 6, 2019 my wife and I would like to invite you to our home (2694 200th Ave Emerald, WI) at 6pm. I am not giving up on the possibility of meeting everyone "one on one", but at this juncture I simply need to adjust, review, and start fresh.

I continue to be blown away by the responses I've had...both the number and the spirit of all of you. I promise (as I have all along) that I will LISTEN and LOVE. No judgements, no pressure, no need to explain in depth why you've walked away from most churches...my wife Ginger and I simply want to offer our 45 years of pastoral ministry as a listening post. In fact, for lack of a better name for this meeting, I've decided to call it, TO LISTEN AND TO LOVE.

If you have more questions about this goal, I have outlined it on my website randydeanministries.com and on other blogs here at randydeanministries.blogspot.com. You can also call me at 715-265-7141 or email me at randydeanministries@gmail.com

Replacing Awful with AWE

The brand spanking new baby church of the New Testament discovered and practiced AWE. The book of Acts chapter 2 verse 43 says, "...and everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles...". I've often tried to imagine what this might have looked like but, almost as often, I fall back into seeing it in the context of the 21st century church...through buildings, worship services, and the like. I'm certainly not opposed to our buildings and services creating "awe", but I just don't think this passage is referring to those things.

Almost every awe-struck act Jesus demonstrated in the Gospels was simply in the dust and dirt of the paths He walked. It seems to me that the apostles immediately sought to replicate this ordinary pattern in order to introduce the extraordinary.

When Jesus said, "The poor have the gospel preached to them.." it was in the surroundings of the harsh realities of, well...the poor! (Matthew 11:5). In the frustrating middle of disabilities, disease, death, and poverty Jesus introduced the AWE of His Kingdom. This is what the apostles pursued and I am convinced we too must be in full pursuit of the rainbow of AWE in the middle of our brown paper bag bland world.

We're living in a time of awful events and awful behavior by an awful lot of people! There's no time like the present to introduce AWE as a light in the dark tunnel of awful. Let's practice AWE, let's plan AWE, let's prepare AWE, and let's get busy with AWE.

Jennifer Stellar, PhD, an assistant professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Toronto says, "People feeling awe focus more of their attention outward and value others more in social interactions." She defines awe as the emotion we feel in response to something vast that defies our existing frame of reference. She has also studied how AWE can affect our immune system in positive ways. Simply stated, I think it has to do with firing up our child-like wonder as we learn to expect and practice AWE instead of being awful.

Here's how we can practice AWE:
*Do kind things. Let me slow it down a bit....Do...Kind...Things! Seeing someone react to kindness, directly or indirectly is awe-inspiring. Be fully engaged in DOING KIND THINGS DAILY.
*Look away from our phones and into the eyes of everyone we see. Smile randomly at random strangers. SEE people with the aim of pure love and say "hi" to everyone...spooky, I know.
*When we are asked to pray for someone, do it right on the spot. Not with showy loud expression, but with authentic connection to that person.
*Expect spiritual activity in and around every bland activity and thing you are doing. Imagine how different life today would be if Moses had not seen a "burning bush" in the middle of his day job shepherding sheep. (BTW, he called it a "marvelous sight" Exodus 3:3)

Not long ago, I had a dream about someone in a completely random way. The next morning I contacted that person to tell him how beautiful it was to see him in my dreams. Their response was, "That's awesome!" It was simple and free! And the result built AWE into both of us.

Get up and go do some AWE right now!

Love Alone is Credible

For as long as I can remember, when I scan the night sky I am at a complete and wonderful loss to comprehend what I’m seeing. I’ve read the science and attempted to grasp the genius of astrophysicists. And while I respect it all, it almost always fails to pull me upward, outward, forward, and into a substantive transcendence matching what I’m looking at in that night sky. 

The Hubble telescope images we are now able to casually enjoy show us furious explosions of blinding light and excruciating colors without defined shape or even the slightest explanation for their existence. And yet the Bible simply says, “the heavens declare the glory of God.” (Psalm 19:1).

When I’m completely honest I have to admit that my faith is smaller than I’m comfortable with and inadequate to carry the love I know I carry for the God of this glory. Love is where it all lands… “love alone is credible” (Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar) and love alone sorts it out, finalizes my questions, and keeps me founded. There are no competitors for my heart. Love alone for God alone! 

From his book, “Love and War”, John Eldridge says, “Every thing that has ever stirred your heart~that is God romancing you.” Since we love Him because He first loved us (I John) I personally must conclude that God’s irresistible, passionate love seeks to ignite the same quality IN me FOR Him. While faith will always be standard spiritual equipment, love out distances the requirement for faith and, in fact, is the only fuel worthy of mention FOR my faith (I Corinthians 13:2-3). 

It’s the only container I have, the only grasp, and the only true desire that keeps me secure. I love this God. His starry skies hold my imagination and the rapturous, mind crushing expanse is more than I can resist. This glory leaves me with one solid purpose for my living ~I will love this God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. 

This God landed on earth and my love tells me, His name is Jesus Christ. That’s greater than faith and far far larger than rational thought. There are no faith formulas or dogmatic demands capable of holding my attention…Love has won my full attention. Jesus Himself made it clear that love was the ultimate evidence for our faith (John 13:34-35)! In fact, Jesus prayed that the love of Heaven (and if you will, the supernatural adhesive between the trinity) would penetrate and permeate we humans on earth (John 17:22-26).

So I have chosen not to be overwhelmed by the lifestyle choices others or my culture’s slide into confusion because I know this God’s glory is capable to love us all into recovery and sanity. How? I can no more explain “how” than I can explain how our Sun, a dwarf star, 93 million miles away from earth can hold 7 billion lives in complete and perfect balance while we spin through the universe at thousands of miles per hour with exact precision. My choice in response to all fallenness is to make my life more available for Love which, in turn, makes me a delivery port for Resurrection life for my world. 

The siren song of doctrinal purity demands my time and affections with constant noisy rhythms seeking my ego driven one dimensional quotes to end all quotes. But those night skies, those glories, those implausible expanses, and that crazy lover of all humans, Jesus just keeps my eyes straining for more than Hubble will ever disclose. 

7th Century bishop, St. Isaac the Syrian said, “In love did God bring the world into existence; in love is God going to bring it to a wondrous transformed state, and in love will the world be swallowed up in the great mystery of the One who has performed all these things; in love will the whole course of governance of creation be finally comprised.”

This God has kissed my soul so that I am flat out ruined on lessor, feeble attractions for my attention. 

I will always and forever love this God. And this God will love us all here on earth until His Kingdom comes and His will is done, on earth as it is in heaven.

In Search of the "One"

For the past 30 years my wife and I have had the pleasure and honor to pastor the flock of Living Word Chapel in the township of Forest. We concluded this loving assignment as of December 31, 2018 and we began a new adventure the very next day. At the age of 65 and 62, we believed it was time to re-FIRE and not retire. 

We are blessed with good health, a deep and abiding love for God, and a rich desire to serve and love people outside the “brick and mortar” of the church building. With our daughter and son-in-law taking our place as senior leaders of our church, my wife Ginger and I are embarking on what we’ve passionately called, “a mission to America.” 

Researchers tell us that the fastest growing demographic of religious participants are the folks coming to be known as “none of the above.” They are an amalgamation of some running away from organized religion, some (right or wrong) who’ve lost confidence in clergy, and some who are outright weary of anything resembling the previous two categories. 

I’m convinced that there remains a latent and vital spirituality in the hearts of these dear sheep…who seem to me to resemble the “one” lamb who has drifted away from the 99. I’m deeply committed to the discovery of a way to search and find these sheep without giving them any more reasons to run or hide. When I read the gospels, I see Jesus walking dusty paths in search of these folks who’ve I’ve come to call, “spiritual refugees.” Our new life is taking us on similar dusty paths in search of the “one.”

One of the beautiful (and somewhat unexpected) side effects of this new adventure has been the renewal of our “first love” passion (Revelation 2:4). Life outside the security of our previous normal routines has pressed us to pray with a renewed faith and a love with a reckless joy. 

American Christianity has not failed…it is simply awaiting our reach for its most basic tenants; laying down our lives for others, faith to move mountains, RISK, and most of all, sacrificial love. The life of Jesus Christ beckons us forward and upward. While we will always need the beauty of our sanctuaries, I am also convinced that we must walk out FROM our places of worship and lovingly learn to see the majority of America’s population who have either fled our churches or they have simply never entered the doors. And when we truly see them, we must also genuinely learn to LISTEN and LOVE them…right where they are, without attempting to strong-arm them back into our churches. 

Perhaps our authentic love is all they’ve ever wanted…and maybe, just maybe, love will change US more than it will ever change “them.”

Sloppy Wet Kisses: The Jesus Love-In

Luke 7:37-50 tells the story of a day in the life of Jesus that demands our full attention. It's about a woman with a terrible reputation expressing wild affection for Him, up to and including, sloppy wet kisses.

As with all Biblical narratives, there are ancient cultural norms throughout this gospel treasure. I would invite every reader of this blog to Google search the hosting expectations of that time and place. But for the purpose of my moments here, I need to express what I see as the deep human energies happening and the intense emotions painted by Dr. Luke's word picture. It is nothing short of jaw dropping by any cultural norms but especially....21st Century Church standards and sensibilities.

The Passion Translation says bluntly, "...there was an immoral woman of the streets, known to be a prostitute...", and the story unfolds from there. She crashes the dinner party of a respected leader of the Jewish tradition in order to give an incredible gift of love to Jesus. We have no proof of any previous significant conversations she may have had with Jesus. We do not explicitly know to what extent Jesus may have personally spoken to her previous to this dinner party.

Whatever else the case may be, this much we know; she is overcome with love and emotion at the mere possibility of Jesus' forgiveness toward her ragged and raw reality. Old Testament law and human traditional additions to it coldly required the death penalty for her lifestyle. The rigid fundamentalist of that era would have been repulsed by any religious tolerance for her behavior. She was spiritually dead to the conservative members of the organized faith surrounding her life and in the home she had just invaded.

This is nothing short of a sign and wonder of the magnificent transcendent energy radiating from the personage of Jesus. She knows somewhere in the caverns of her emotional bankruptcy that HE will love her so completely and so perfectly that she will live the rest of her life with a freedom she's never known. For her, this is not about her sinful life. For her, this about discovering what her potential life was always supposed to be. This Love was so completely perfect, so soul satisfying, so emotionally charged, so psychologically healing, that she instinctively knows, LIFE has arrived within her desparate reach.

This is the baseline of how we 21st Century people of faith in Christ are to be loved and, to LOVE our entire world. If it seems impossible, then we are on notice that we are potentially bankrupt of the most genuine nature that should be defined as "Christian". The sin and diversity of the 21st Century is no surprise to our Eternal Father. Whatever we deem as aberrant, deviant, disgusting, and vulgar is not outside of the Love of God. If we are determined to redefine His Love as constrictive or restrictive to any human brokenness, it is simply and sadly the definition of our own lack of a deep encounter with the God of all transformitve Love (I John 4:7-21).

The words of Jesus to Simon (the host of this party) underscore what I've just stated. Wildly generous forgiveness, internally and externally, determines our genuine encounter with this existential, monumental LOVE. Knowing this, experiencing this, and giving this Love freely to all is our challenge and privilege. It is also the full measure of what it means to be truth-fully Christian.

Tune in to my Podcast on this subject ~

http://nobsbishop.com/NoBSBishopSloppyWetKisses.mp3

First Two "No BS Bishop" Podcasts

The following links will take you to my first two podcasts....help me spread the word! In the near future I will put the podcast on an app for widespread distribution.

http://nobsbishop.com/MaidenVoyageofNoBSBishop.mp3

and

http://nobsbishop.com/NoBSBishop2.mp3

"No BS Bishop" Podcast January 3, 2019

Beginning January 3, 2019 I am beginning my podcast ~ No BS Bishop. I have dreamed of this platform for speaking my heart for a very long time.

At the age 65 with 45 years of pastoral ministry under my belt, I believe I have some things to say... beyond the sterile, outside the simplistic, seizing the sublime, and reaching for the supernatural. Why? Because all of the above is what Jesus Christ demonstrated in His courageous "no BS" life and ministry.

The complexities of the 21st Century are no surprise to God. I'm convinced that God has always been far and away more than enough to answer all of humanity's diversity. As Time and Eternity have always been transcendent to our wristwatch/calendar driven idolatry, so God sees it all and invites us to "come up here" (Revelation 4:1) in order for us to see it all along with Him....today, and not in some other dreamy time after we die.

Tune in. I promise to dodge the BS of standardized Religion Inc., the politicized partisanship of the Evangelical Sons of Thunder, and the pitiful/sad unnecesary avoidance of mysterious supernatural expectations.

No BS. All Bishop. Join me for the fun.

Help support this effort at ~

paypal.me/randydeanministries

To the Spiritual Refugees...

Let's come together...

To all my extended spiritual family (especially youth ministry alumni...of any age) in the Twin Cities region ~ if the brick and mortar of the church has become more of a cage and less of a sanctuary and you consider yourself one of the following:

*spiritual refugee 
*ex-angelical 
*spiritually alive but ecclesiastically numb
*conflicted by the marriage of church and political parties 
*troubled by the partisan and tribal divisions of our culture 

I’m setting up a schedule of times and places to sit with you, to listen and to love. No agenda. I’m NOT starting a church. I simply want to give you what I’ve always tried to give you in the past; a father’s heart and a pastor’s ear. 

Starting January 1, 2019 I’ll come to you—coffee shop, bar, small group settings, etc. Message me. One on one, or groups of any size. 

I’m very serious about this.

Here's How You Can Support Randy Dean Ministries

Previously I tried to post my PayPal button and it failed to connect...here's another try!

Check out my new website (I created it myself...I'm pretty proud of me!)
https://www.randydeanministries.com/

I'm also a non-profit 501(c)3 organization with a PayPal connection

We launch January 1st into our full time outreach to the spiritual refugees of the USA.