I have been struggling with how church is done.  What's new about that?

In my desire to operate in Christ's Kingdom community (ya know, actually becoming a disciple-following Jesus into his work and will in the earth), I have had some offensive discussions within the church at large.

Everybody seems to have figured out individually different Christs that they follow.

The "teaching church" believes that dispensing information in a classroom setting is who Jesus is; the "worshiping church" thinks that contemporary songs and remaking hymns in a sheltered subculture is what Jesus was building; the "administrative church" thinks that moving money into programs to "minister" from a distance is Jesus' "Way;" and the "Business Model" church encounters Jesus as a CEO, his managers are the clergy, his supervisors are deacons, and his employees are the laity.  (I know this is not thorough, but please let's not get sidetracked.)

The trouble being (I think) that there is only One Jesus... Right?  I think that I have encountered him in the scriptures, and have seen lots of examples of what is important to him, as well as what isn't.  (I am not talking about gifts at this time (different people serving in different ways), although they are important to the total church).

I am a church planter.  I've started a church under, not the most ideal circumstances from a "Church Business" standpoint, and have been told such things as Still Waters is not a church, "[we] only do ministry."  Also things like, "losers don't make for a healthy church."

As we started out, our mission was to follow Christ into his work in the world; connecting with the undesirables in our area in genuine friendship, and helping the more affluent community (church folk) into their lives and service.  As Christ's disciples, we find him doing this throughout the gospels.

There is one thing that I am sure of; that Jesus befriended and identified with those who were struggling on the margins, and had little respect for the comfortable, affluent religious types who thought that they were better, more educated, clever and religiously right.

I've been told to "pastor" building a church.  I sense that the clergy has no room for actually touching the undesirable personally and to the point of inconvenience.  We have heard that we are helping the wrong people, and in the wrong way.  Again, I've been told that this is not a church.

We have applied for a grant within our own fellowship of churches, beginning communication with them in October 2004, and still have had no answers to probably one of the most thorough applications that many professional grant writers have witnessed, let alone unanswered emails, and unanswered questions.  Could it be that they fear that we will waist the funding on helping the wrong people?  I don't know...

I would like some dialog to help me figure this out... 

Beginning with this question:  Is Jesus a pastor?  And, did Jesus plant a church?  Careful now...

Looking forward to hearing your answers.

Peace.

Posted by Pastor Kork at 2:11 PM EST

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We Have a Chance to Save Countless Lives 

Did you know that right now, Congress has an incredible opportunity to continue saving millions of lives in the world's poorest countries by fully funding the fight against global AIDS and extreme poverty.   

The last Congress left nine critical spending bills unfinished leaving the new Congress the difficult work of allocating our 2007 budget; a daunting task to be sure.  At stake is $1 billion vital to continuing to provide clean water, education and life-saving medicines to people in Africa and the world's poorest countries.   There are few places in the U.S. budget where dollars translate so directly into lives saved. 

Without this funding, 350,000 people will not receive life-saving AIDS medicines, nearly 1 million anti-malaria bednets will not be distributed and 120,000 people will not receive treatment for tuberculosis.   

As a member of Christ's Church, Still Waters churches, the clergy, the ONE Campaign, The Ministries at Main Street, and a member of the global community, I strongly encourage Congress to protect this funding and ensure our commitment as Americans, to continue the fight against extreme poverty and global HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.   

America's example and will to do good in the world, exercising moral assistance to those needing help, models our best to the world in the tradition of compassion and generosity.   

Please write your Congressional Leaders asking them to continue this effort with your dollars as your representatives. Together, we can give the world's poorest people the tools they need to overcome extreme poverty, giving them the gift, and the chance for a hopeful future. 

In my view, it is our moral imperative to act at a time such as this. 

Kork Moyer, Pastor

Still Waters churches & worship center & The Ministries at MAIN Street

Posted by Pastor Kork at 12:46 PM EST

Updated: Monday, 22 January 2007 12:49 PM EST

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10:30 PM Jan 15, 2007

Last week, over 70,000 ONE members sent over 200,000 letters to Congress, urging our government to save nearly a billion dollars for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria programs.

Today, Archbishop Desmund Tutu, one of the most remarkable leaders of our time, asks Congress to fund the fight and "remind the world of the good that can be done in the name of the American people."

From Desmond Tutu's Op-Ed in today's Washington Post:

"The U.S. government has repeatedly promised to combat HIV-AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria: At the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000 and as a member of the Group of Eight the United States committed to the goal of universal access for HIV-AIDS prevention and treatment by 2010. However, the funding resolution Congress is considering would shortchange and potentially sabotage every American program to address these diseases, leaving innocent people in its wake...

"It is a sign of our breakdown as one human family. Worldwide, we have made stops and starts at healing this rift and keeping our promises to one another. But if Congress does not act to restore that $1 billion for global health, poverty alleviation and foreign aid, the rift will only grow wider and healing will be further beyond our reach...

"As we honor the life and vision of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. today, I hope and pray that Congress will choose the righteous path, the path that will save tens of thousands of lives and give countless children opportunities and hope they have never before imagined. I join the world in watching, and waiting for its decision."

Read the full piece here

Posted by Pastor Kork at 12:43 PM EST

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Meditation:“Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak.” (1 cor. 12 .1--2)  

How may of you have an “idol” in your home?  The Christian landscape is diverse in its definitions, ranging from Christmas Trees, Victorian Cherubs and Santa Clause, to the movies, music and entertainment we prefer. (Incidentally, I have all of these.) The apostle didn’t have these things in mind when addressing his brethren in Corinth, he was talking about literal wooden carvings, kept to appease testy spirits and/or fickle gods who acted as though they were little more than children.  He was also drawing a comparison, that acting as though there are “gifts” that would set those possessing such gifts, over others in the church, is tantamount to dumb idol worship.  Abilities were given by God to individuals in order to benefit others (for the “Common Good”) as a “Gift,” making the Family complete.  

I love weddings.  I really enjoy weddings that I know will last.  You know, where the couple is more devoted to Christ—even more than each other.  I just performed a wedding a few months ago where I had this certainty, knowing the family story and being a privileged witness to much of their history as they journey along life’s road.  It is just satisfying to sit back into the comfort and confidence of knowing that the family will survive.  The things that their parents poured into them will continue; the “Name” and their “Ways” will go on...   

Marriage is not easy though…  We fool ourselves if we believe that commitment is only as good as one’s first failure—or some glaring failure that we would never have expected.  Commitment is holding fast for the other person when there is failure.  In this commitment is safety, and hope that the family will go on, no matter what; children will come and learn our Ways and we will continue to be a people—a legacy remaining in the world.  

Our Lectionary reading from 1 Corinthians chapter 12 tell us that everyone contributes weather they know it or not, with gifts given buy the Spirit for “the common good,” in helping us to live in this family, safely and dependent, (Yes! Dependent…) not one being better than the next.  All the gifts make the family complete—not “idol worshipers,” but worshipers of the One True God.  

We are imperfect if we are family with only those who share the same gifts.  It is dangerous and creates cast systems that make us nothing more than idol worshippers.  

Today within God’s church, Sunday morning is the most segregated day of all, as we all worship the same God, with only those who are like us—those who have the same “gifts.” 

Who do you worship with…?  Who are your exclusive friends?  Do they have homes like yours?   Are your incomes similar?  Do you read the same books?  Watch the same TV shows?  Drink the same beer?  Do they have a home?  Are they mentally ill?  Are they the same color, or the same age?  Are you complacently isolated from the real gifts of diversity?  Hmmmm…  

In God’s family, we are all adopted family members; people transformed into a New Way of being human.  Truly human as we are immersed into God’s family; taking on His qualities, passing on the Hope of this New Way, and in our being Christian, becoming cup bearers of the best wine at the human party.  

The price of admission; humility, servitude and a desire to follow…  

Jesus throws a Great Party!  

Reflection: The Wedding at Cana is a beautiful picture of three essential qualities of Christian discipleship: bringing new life, radical commitment, and transformation of humanity. Are we willing to believe that, like the wine in a grape, we have the inherent ability to be a sacramental presence in the world?  

The early Christian community had to decide, often, what it meant to be Christian. As part of this journey, Paul cautioned the Corinthians to value every gift, every person, and every contribution to the community: Teaching was as important as administration, and public visibility was as important as private consecration.

Are we a people of self consecration or people of sacramental trusting.  

Consider: How comfortable are we in our Christian disciplines to our own edification only? As vessels –or holy grails– where can we invest ourselves as visible sacraments—vessels, containing the new wine of God’s community, and how does this affect our “Living with Jesus” today...?

Posted by Pastor Kork at 1:28 AM EST

Updated: Sunday, 21 January 2007 1:36 AM EST

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Hi Everyone,

I found this on Scot McKnight’s Blog “Jesus Creed” this morning...

We’ve been saying for a long, long time that “emerging” is more than philosophy and theology and progressive thinking. In fact, it is about “how to do church.” Our local paper, The Daily Herald, has a front-page story about homes becoming the house of God. This is no small element of the emerging movement. The challenge for all churches is whether or not they will shift to include such groups as central to what “church” is all about. Church needs to move to the neighborhood.

Can a home be a house of God?
An increasing number of Christians are moving from cavernous churches to worship in a more intimate setting - their homes.
BY LISA SMITH Daily Herald Staff Writer, Posted Sunday, December 24, 2006

There are no pews and no altar, just six chairs arranged in a circle.

There is no pastor relating Scripture to contemporary American life, just a group of friends discussing
spirituality.

Neither bread nor wine is offered. Most who walk in are clutching cups of Starbucks coffee.

Yet the people who enter this Arlington Heights living room every Sunday morning label this gathering - and themselves - church.

“We have a deep conviction that we grow spiritually when we’re in relationships,” said Andy Padjen, 33, who has been hosting this weekly get-together for about the past year. “We feel like a lot of times there’s some structure and theology in the institutional church that limit people’s intimacy with each other. So we’re all about making relationships central, helping people to be known and loved.”

That’s something that attracted Curtis Anderson to the group after a lifetime of involvement in traditional churches. Getting to know Padjen and the others in the group has made the Lake in the Hills resident feel closer to God.

“I would say that we would all agree that we’re feeling God in a very personal way through the group,” said Anderson, 29.

Click Here to Read On...

Posted by Pastor Kork at 11:09 AM EST

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This is a post from Scot McKnight's Blog, "Jesus Creed." If you can tape this show, or find the time to watch it, I would like to spend a little time ourselves discussing it since our church model is trying to leap the enlightenment wall as rediscover what Jesus really meant, and how the early church followed His "Way."Here is what Dr. McKnight posted this morning...

If you have a chance, I recommend each of you carve out tonight, from 7-9pm, to watch CNN. The show is called After Jesus: The First Christians, and it is an excellent and stimulating presentation of the first four centuries of the Christian faith. CNN kindly sent me an advanced copy and I have watched it in its entirety.

Tomorrow morning I would like to begin a conversation on this blog with those who watched the show. (It will also be replayed Friday Dec 22 at 10pm and 1am; Saturday Dec 23 and Sunday Dec 24 at 8pm and 12am.)

Here are some highlights and an indication of the shape and content of the program:

 

CNN interviewed Bart Ehrman, Claire Pfann, Amy-Jill Levine, Robin Griffith-Jones, Lawrence Schiffmann, Richard Freund, Marvin Meyer and Gerald O'Collins. Ehrman appears the most.

 

The visual images are brilliant, as always for CNN, and there are an abundance of graphics, icons, artwork, pictures, all done with lovely color and texture.

 

The emphasis, to be expected, is diversity in the first four centuries, with a solid segment devoted to the gnostic threat to orthodoxy.

 

I won't give away too much of my own view here, but the essential story line is one familiar to those who have engaged the public debate since Dan Brown's DaVinci Code and Bart Ehrman's numerous publications. In my estimation, the silencing of the voices of Ignatius, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Athanasius is telling.

Posted by Pastor Kork at 9:01 AM EST

Updated: Wednesday, 20 December 2006 1:30 PM EST

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SaveDarfur.org has a post called "Materials for Thanksgiving Action" that's worth checking out...

Thanks for including the people of Darfur in your Thanksgiving celebration. We truly appreciate your help. There you will find links to download the two documents you'll need to share this desperate humanitarian crisis, including a one page document that provides a brief overview of the crisis in Darfur.

Posted by Pastor Kork at 11:16 AM EST

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I was just reading (like others), a quote, of a quote, of a quote, in a recent book, while enduring some terrible realizations about Christians and how they/we selectively "believe" God; inventing our own "brand" of religion that caters to our narcissism. 

We love to convince ourselves that God would never have the audacity to discomfort, or disquiet our selfishness.  We breed this here in the states.  I've heard all too often (more recently now) how God is just "leading" Christians to do everything that I've never seen Jesus do; from witch hunting within my own fellowship, to others autonomously deciding that "God is leading" them to leave friends and family when closer examination is warranted.

This past 3 weeks have been nauseating as I encounter our smiley, well dressed, "you-can-have-whatever-you-want-at-no-cost" Christianity, putting on a professional hypocritical facade of personal rightness, and the exercise of solo Christianity where no one has the right to challenge or "I'll take my toys and go home."

Then I read this...

The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church's prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.¹

Søren Kierkegaard

Many have, of course, read these words, and many more will read them - even agree with them.  But the modern, western, Christian cultural, rational mind will coddle itself into a numb, selfish, convenient, forgetfulness that will later insulate itself with the low road of "well I'm only human-nobody is perfect-everyone has issues" excuse.  "After all I believe that God would never want me to feel uncomfortable."

Kierkegaard's quote helps my understanding of how we got here.  It frustrates me because, knowing this, will not change a thing.

Sad.

1. Moore, Charles, ed. Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard. Plough: Farmington 2002.

Posted by Pastor Kork at 10:37 AM EDT

Updated: Saturday, 7 October 2006 10:57 AM EDT

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It is appropriate for us to note what they are saying, for it is the stuff that we have been trying to embody. It is the Christ-likeness that we try to be. Please take their statement seriously--it is important to God.

Here is their closing statement.

An End... And a Beginning.

Sacramentis has been a pioneer site on worship and culture for seven years. From the beginning, it has been a gathering spot for the best worship resources available. Sacramentis has also been a place where church leaders could go deeper into what classic Christian worship is and does, and where they could re-imagine worship for communities where church-going is no longer the norm. From your letters of support and encouragement, it seems we were able to accomplish these two goals. For that, we are grateful.

We regret that our site has been down for so long and apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you. We had hoped to put Sacramentis back on the web this month, and had been working toward that end. However, we have simply come to realize that it is time to move on. Sacramentis still believes strongly that corporate worship is central to the life and vitality of the Church. But we have become convinced that the primary meeting place with our unchurched friends is now outside the church building. Worship must finally become, as Paul reminds us, more life than event. (Romans 12:1,2)

To this end, Sally Morgenthaler and the rest of the Sacramentis team will be focusing on the radically different kind of leadership it will take to transform our congregations from destinations to conversations, from services to service, and from organization to organism.

We have valued our community with you these past seven years. Your support has been integral to keeping Sacramentis vital and responsive to the shifting needs of congregations in the midst of worship change. We can?t thank you enough for your friendship, and for your own pioneering work in thousands of congregations across the U.S. and around the globe.

Sacramentis may be ending, but the crucial work of connecting people with God continues. We invite you to continue the conversation as we explore what new-world leadership looks like at its best.

Please visit us at our new home: trueconversations.com. (Launching in 2006).

Sincerely,

Sally Morgenthaler

and the Sacramentis Team

Posted by Pastor Kork at 1:42 PM EDT

Updated: Tuesday, 20 June 2006 1:59 PM EDT

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