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The View from Here ~ Finding or Losing our Way ~ Bryan Collier

Thursday, April 12th, 2012 | By Bryan Collier
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Bryan Collier

Bryan Collier

Finding OR Losing Our Way

 

On April 24th of this month, The United Methodist Church will gather for its quadrennial General conference. I have either observed or participated in five of these gatherings, but this year I am neither a delegate nor an observer. I have been less involved in denominational matters than at any time in my ministry, and because of that, this last year has been a startlingly revealing year to me. My greatest revelation is a personal one—“I don’t care.” I don’t care about most of the issues that we will spend ten days arguing about. I don’t care about many of the things we will spend ten days celebrating. I don’t care what decisions are made because the Church will survive, even if the denomination doesn’t. Picture with me a worse case scenario and I can point to at least ten positive scenarios that are created out of it.

Another revelation for me during this year that parallels my indifference is that I have found that, like me, most of the people in the pews don’t care either. Our culture has moved to the place that it looks upon behemoth, out of touch, organizations as organizations not to be trusted—and I am not sure that this wariness is undeserved. Most of us sign on for the “best” parts of the organization content to live with the “worst” parts of the organization—but at what point is the trade off just too great?

Now lest you think I am only ranting about what I don’t care about, let me clarify that there are things that I do care about. What I DO care about is being part of an Organism that has as its core motivation the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ.  I want to be a part of a community of faith and a network of local churches that want to win people for Christ, raise them up to be like Christ by discipling them, and send them out into the world to serve Christ’s purposes by serving others. What I am not sure of is whether am I a part of that kind of community or not. We talk about it, think about it, publish resources that claim to be aimed at it—but this central work that Jesus gave us to do (Matthew 28:19-20) is not a priority for the General Church and that distraction hampers the work of the local church—where lives are actually changed.

I hope that we can find our way back to what we were called to be but I have little hope that re-orientation will happen when our delegates gather in Tampa. We have lost our way, and finding it again means that we make difficult decisions about the denomination, how it works structurally, how it works functionally AND what our priorities will be. You can always tell someone’s priorities by what they celebrate; watch what we celebrate at General Conference and draw your own conclusions.

My conclusion is that we have lost our way, and finding it again will determine whether or not we CAN or SHOULD expect to be useful to God in fulfilling his purpose for humanity.

Written by Bryan Collier


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The View from Here ~ Bryan Collier ~ The First Need of Leadership

Thursday, March 8th, 2012 | By Bryan Collier
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The First Need of Leadership

Bryan Collier

Bryan Collier

The book of 1 Kings is a study in leadership.  Adonijah, whom we read about in chapter 1 (and in my last post) was an agent of his own demise and other’s demise because he had never been disciplined.

Chapter 2 and 3 introduce us to a child king whose story is very different.  From the undisciplined passions of David came Solomon whose great restraint in chapter 3 honors God and therefore God honors him.  However, a key conversation between Solomon and David occurs in David’s last days that are recorded in chapter 2.

As the time of King David’s death approached, he gave this charge to his son Solomon:

 “I am going where everyone on earth must someday go. Take courage and be a man.  Observe the requirements of the LORD your God, and follow all his ways. Keep the decrees, commands, regulations, and laws written in the Law of Moses so that you will be successful in all you do and wherever you go.  (1 Kings 2:1-3)

One wonders what might have become of Adonijah if David had instructed him as he did Solomon.  Solomon was only a child but he heeded his father’s charge about what the first need of a leader was – a relationship with God.  David did not tell Solomon to pursue wisdom or provision, or blessing—but to pursue the One who was the Source of those things and more.

I am often tempted as a leader to pursue the “thing” and not the “Source.”  I can gain understanding through study, provision by effort and blessing by courting the favor of those who can bless me.  But there is something dangerous in my pursuit of the “thing”—it becomes my god.  When I pursue understanding for understanding’s sake I elevate the importance of knowledge and judge (and often belittle) those who don’t possess as much knowledge or regard knowledge as highly as I do.

The same thing can be said for provision and blessing.  If provision is my pursuit then I make an idol out of the level of provision I desire and I become a slave to favors I owe when blessing comes by human favor.

Solomon, as his inheritance, already had more than enough provision and blessing and his decrees would have been obeyed even if they were unwise.  But he wanted something more.  He wanted the life that he had seen his father David enjoy in relationship with the living God.

There is a reason that David is regarded as the greatest king the nation of Israel has ever known and a reason that Solomon is regarded as the richest.  Solomon lost his way as he began to revert to his own idea of blessing and provision—and in doing so he laid Godly wisdom aside.  How different his life might have been if he had finished as he began.

We see both in David’s end and in Solomon’s beginning the first need of a leader—a relationship with God in which the Source, not the thing is pursued.  For what we pursue will not only determine our beginning, it will determine our ending.

 

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The View from Here ~ Bryan Collier

Thursday, January 26th, 2012 | By Bryan Collier
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Seek Boundaries and Discipline

Now [Adonijah’s] father, King David, had never disciplined him at any time, even by asking, “why are you doing that?” 1 Kings 1:6

Bryan Collier

Last year I worked my way through Scripture; as I finished one book I would let my heart and the Holy Spirit lead me to the next book to read. As I finished Matthew’s Gospel and asked God for a leading, it was clear that I was being led to 1 Kings. “1 Kings?” I asked God, “are you sure?” I knew there was that great story about Solomon offering to divide the baby between two quarrelsome women, but other than that, “1 Kings?”

Only six verses in, however, I begin to find plenty of interesting guidance for my circumstances and these truths cropped up twenty-two times in twenty-two chapters.

Adonijah was never disciplined.  In fact, as the text points out, he was never questioned. This is dangerous for a child, but the consequences for the adult who was treated this way as a child are devastating. Adonijah moved into a position that was not his and his life was endangered—simply because no one ever told him “no.” He never received discipline or the discipline of boundaries that keep us back from the bottomless pits of self-destruction.

I wonder how many times I assume roles and positions that were not meant for me. For lack of discipline, both “being disciplined” and “acting disciplined,” I end up in places that are not only a danger to me, but endanger others and God’s will for them. Patience, waiting, listening, and seeking need to be a part of any leader’s discernment. The humility to received discipline and the seeking of those who will administer it in our lives is a Divine necessity in any next steps that we would take in furthering God’s Kingdom. Discipline and boundaries are to be sought, not avoided if we are to help someone take Next Steps…or take them ourselves.

 

 

 

 

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The View from Here

Thursday, December 8th, 2011 | By Bryan Collier
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Bryan CollierThe View from Here: Insisting on My Own Demise

The Lord had clearly instructed the people of Israel, “You must not marry them [foreign wives], because they will turn your hearts to their gods.”  Yet Solomon insisted on loving them anyway.  He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines.  And in fact, they did turn his heart away from the Lord. (1 Kings 11:2-3).

Solomon insisted on his own way, even though that meant disobedience to God.  Even though Solomon got what he wanted temporarily, the consequences were immediate (see 1 Kings 11:14, 23, 26) and generational (see 1 Kings 12).  I wonder if the tradeoff was worth it?  Of course I ask that question rhetorically because we know the answer—Israel as a nation and people would never fully recover.

The life that we want, settle for, and often insist on is rife with consequences of choosing life as we define it instead of life as God designed it.  This choosing is both sinister (we know it and choose it anyway) and insidious (we choose it without choosing it) and the consequences are both immediate and generational.

I am reminded of a Dennis Kinlaw’s devotional entitled “Subtle Calls to Sin” in which he says, “Satan disguises himself under the ruse of personal autonomy.  He never asks us to become his servants.  Never once did the serpent say to Eve, ‘I want to be your master.’ The shift in commitment is never from Christ to evil; it is always from Christ to self.  And instead of His will, self-interest now rules and what I want reigns.” (A Day with the Master, November 14).

Too often I am Solomon (except for the wives!) insisting on my own way even though it means disobedience.  Obedience to my own desires always carries with it an impact that I am unprepared to measure in the span of my life.  My decisions mark a trajectory for those who come after me that they may not escape but by the grace of God…unless I by the grace of God do not mark that trajectory of disobedience.

What is the antidote to Satan’s deception and my corresponding self-deception?  Obedience that comes from trust.

The trust that the devil murdered in the garden still gets assaulted in my heart unless I am continually connected to the God who proves, in Jesus Christ, He can be trusted.  Then, and only then, will my obedience come not from duty, but from a love that is a response to knowing that I am loved, and that I can trust the Lover…and therefore no longer must insist on my own way (1 Corinthians 13:5).

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The View from Here – Denominations as a Starting Place – Bryan Collier

Thursday, November 3rd, 2011 | By Bryan Collier
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Denominations as a Starting Place…

 

Several years ago I was near Quito, Ecuador on a short-term mission trip with a group from The Orchard.  We were staying in the dormitories at SEMISUD which is the largest South American Seminary for The Church of God of Cleveland denomination.  On the way to my room I met one of the General Secretaries of The United Methodist Church.  He was there as part of a World Council of Churches delegation who had come to South America to dialogue with Pentecostal churches about their unwillingness to participate with the WCC.  He was amazed to find a United Methodist Congregation doing what they had traveled thousands of miles to discuss.  Amazed, he asked me about how we, a United Methodist Church, were able to work out a partnership with the Church of God of Cleveland Seminary.  My reply was simply, “because we are both more interested in the kingdom than in the denomination.”

One of the principles of growth that stands out about vibrant congregations is that the denomination is a starting place, but it is not their final destination.

The stated mission of the Mississippi Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church is to equip the church to make disciples for Jesus Christ.  That is an outstanding mission, fully on target, one that is true to our call.  However, theory and practice can prove to be radically different, even in well-intentioned denominations.

Denominations, if not kept in their proper perspective, can demand so much of the pastor’s time and the church’s attention that they actually prevent us from accomplishing its and our stated mission—to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

The local church must be the primary location of ministry and transformation of the denomination must take place by the overflow of the local church.  This is not only the most effective way of transformation; it is also the most congruent with the call of the Gospel.  We are called first and foremost to be builders of Christ’s Kingdom, not our denominations.

In John chapter fifteen, verse sixteen, Jesus makes very clear the mission of the disciples.  They were to go and bear fruit that would last.  No one would argue that Jesus meant that the disciples would add people to the Kingdom (see John 4).  Somewhere along the way Jesus disciples began grouping and in grouping became more concerned with adding to their group than in fulfilling Jesus’ mandate.

In any community there is plenty of Kingdom work to be done.  Jesus himself recognized that the fields were ripe for harvest, but the laborers were few (John 4:36).  Statistically in any community of 50 to 5 million, 50 percent (or more) of the residents do not have a personal relationship with Jesus or a connection to a community of faith.  Some would argue that this is simply not so in their community.  My response is that they simply do not hang around the right kind of wrong people.

This statistic should inform our work in several ways.  First, if 50% of the people in our community do not have a personal relationship with Jesus or a connection to a community of faith I am not in competition with the other churches in town because there are plenty of people to go around.  The real competition is every other available use of a person’s time.  We are not competing with other churches in our community.  We are competing against soccer, t-ball, sitcoms, bunko groups and the like.  Any time people choose to be in a growing discipleship process it is a Kingdom win.

Secondly, we need to be supportive of the other churches in our community because we are not trying to make the next generation of Methodists (or Baptists, etc.).  We are trying to make the next generation of Christians.  This is not an idea that sits well with denominations.  But pastors or denominational leaders who lament a family the next church down the road instead of ours have a very narrow view of the Kingdom of Christ.  In Tupelo, there are 20,000 unchurched people.  If one person joins the local Presbyterian Church, then that only leaves 19,999 to go.  That is a Kingdom win.

The reason we so often miss this is that we are focused on who we do have—how many in comparison to the other churches in town or in our denomination.  We must stay focused on our target group, the group to whom we were sent—those in our community who are outside the Kingdom.

Third, we need to partner with the other churches in our community because if all the unchurched people in our community decided to show up at our church this Sunday, our church wouldn’t hold them all.  The only hope we have of reaching the whole community is if the whole Body of Christ is focused on this task.  Competitiveness among churches and between denominations is counterproductive to the Kingdom.  It only confirms to those who are outside the Kingdom what they suspected all along—that we are petty.

Finally, we need to help people find a place to belong, even if they belong at another church.  This is true because we are in the business of helping people find and enter into a relationship with God.  If they can do that better somewhere else, we should encourage them to do so. It should be no big deal if a family or 10 families leave our church.  If we are focused on the outsiders there are plenty of people there to replace them.

This is what it means to be the Body of Christ.  Just as within any community of faith (church) there are many and diverse gifts, within the church universal there are particular roles that each denomination plays.  There are appealing (and not so appealing) aspects to each of these groups.  But we need each other if we are ever going to reach our communities.  This will become more and more apparent to us when we are honest enough to admit to ourselves that by ourselves we will never reach everyone in our community—as bad as we hate to admit it—not everyone will like us or be attracted to Jesus at our church.  But if we remember that our primary task is building the Kingdom then we can work together to do so.

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VIEW FROM HERE: FLAWED PLANS-BRYAN COLLIER

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011 | By Bryan Collier
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Bryan Collier

Bryan Collier

Neither my wife nor I are morning persons.  We get up, but it is usually really slow going.  When my daughter was two we moved her out of her baby bed and at first she would wander down the hall into our room at all hours of the night.  We came up with a plan.  Every night we would put her to bed and tell her that she needed to stay there until the sun came up.  Shortly thereafter, she wandered into our bedroom at daybreak and announced as loud as she could, “THE SUN IS UP!  Careful what you wish for!

We often make plans that seem logical to us when we make them, only to find out that when they are enacted they leave something to be desired.  Flawed results don’t often come from a perfect plan.  Most often, flawed results follow a flawed plan.

For most of the last 20 years that I have been in ministry I have witnessed churches and denominations (mine included) keep trying to get better results from a flawed plan.  That plan has led us to believe things like: “if we build it they will come,” “bigger is better,” and that the way to “save our church” is to invest in the structures and decisions that got us into this mess in the first place.  The plan—the same one we have been working for 50 years—is flawed.  Jesus had a simple plan and he laid it out for his disciples.  Remain in me (John 15:1-15); bear fruit (John 15:16); love one another (John 15:17); under the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit tell others about me as those who know me best (John 15:26-27).

Now I am sure that when our denominational plans were first articulated they aimed at just these things.  But over the years, the have ceased to be the means to the end and have become the end themselves.  If any local congregation or any denomination seeks to remain vibrant, its plan must simply be Jesus’ plan—everything else is flawed—and the results will show it.  God has a plan for His Church; a good plan for fruitfulness.  But we have to follow his map to that destination—not ours.  The flaw in our plan is often that we want to arrive at God’s blessed destination while following our selfishly designed road map.  When we give up our plan for God’s we find that we not only get what we wished for…we get what we needed, AND God’s purposes in the world get accomplished.

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THE VIEW FROM HERE: A ONE WAY EQUATION…-BRYAN COLLIER

Thursday, July 14th, 2011 | By Bryan Collier
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Bryan CollierI read with great interest Dr. Dunnam’s recent blog post “The View from Here General Conference: A Balancing Act of Responsible Action. I not only deeply respect Dr. Dunnam’s observations but also wholeheartedly agree with each of them. I wonder, however, if the work of pruning might be simplified by an equation we use around The Orchard. It goes like this—“If we will do what is right for the Kingdom of Christ it will always be what is right for the church.” That is the equation, but then we tack on a reminder—but the equation won’t work the other way. If we do what is right for the church we have no assurances that those decisions are right for the Kingdom. One equation is Christ-centered and world focused; one is self-centered and preservation focused.

Now I know at the General Church level we have sharp disagreements about what is right for the Kingdom. In truth, sober-mindedness about the severity of this divide might be the thing that ultimately separates us. We want different things. Some want to preserve the United Methodist Church and yet are making decisions that are killing it. It is only as we make decisions about what is right for the Kingdom and act in accordance with those decisions that The United Methodist Church continues to be a useful instrument in the hand of God to accomplish his purposes in the world. When we lose this usefulness we should expect to be laid aside by God. Wesley and his friends tried desperately to reform the Anglican Church and when it would not be reformed, something new was born—a Holy Club that became the seed of Methodism. We should work for reform, but not be surprised, if this church will not be reformed, that something new is born. Only “something new” that is focused on doing what is right for the Kingdom of Christ and that understands the equation doesn’t work the other way, will see the vibrancy that Christ intended for his Body because it is aligned with His purposes.

People ask me all the time why we are experiencing exponential growth at The Orchard. One of the reasons I give them is that we desperately want to do what is right for the Kingdom of Christ—knowing that is what will be right for the church. Some of our greatest failings have come when we got the equation backwards—because it is a one-way equation. I fear most of our denominational failings can be attributed to the same mistake.

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THE VIEW FROM HERE: HOLY PATIENCE WITH THE UNHOLY – BRYAN COLLIER

Thursday, March 24th, 2011 | By Bryan Collier
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Bryan Collier

He hung around after the service to ask me an important question. Jack wanted to know if he would be “welcomed here.” I answered that I hoped he already had been since we were through with the service. But he pressed on to tell me about how he was a misfit. He fit the part: disheveled, clothes worn thin, thinning hair, in need of a bath and walking with a severe limp, feeling as much a relational misfit because by his own admission Jack was homosexual. He was moving from a town, to our town because there was no place for his “kind” and he began looking for a church where he could attend because he had promised his daughter he would attend church if they would just relocate.

What was as unusual as Jack’s story was the way he found our church – he and his daughter went to the local library to search online for a church where “misfits fit.” After hours online Jack didn’t feel like there were any churches that looked promising, so, after telling his story to the reference librarian he quizzed her if she knew a church where they would be welcomed. Her response is one of the most prized compliments our church has ever received. She said, “You need to go to The Orchard. They take anybody.”

What made this statement even more complimentary, is that the reference librarian attended a different church!

At The Orchard we understand that it takes an incredible amount of patience with people who are coming to faith. While we will never tell people that a lifestyle of life-taking habits are acceptable, we will walk with them in patience as God coaxes them toward his life-giving way.

Several times a year, a new family to The Orchard will make an appointment to talk to me about membership. By now, after several of these appointments, I am well prepared for the conversation that is about to happen.

Generally the couple will come in, sit down and begin with compliments about our church. “We really love the music.” Or “We really enjoy the sermon” or some other encouragement. Eventually they get around to saying, “We really love The Orchard; we just can’t join. See, we live next door to some people who say this is their church home. In fact they invited us. But do you know what they do during the week? If that is the kind of church this is then we can’t join.”

My response usually shocks them. “I do know what they are doing during the week. I know it seems inconsistent for someone who goes to church and calls The Orchard their church home. But you should have seen them last year!”

My point is that we cannot expect people who are not Christians to act like Christians until they are. And, furthermore, we cannot expect new Christians to act like mature Christians when they aren’t. They don’t know they shouldn’t act a certain way, go certain places, or do certain things until someone tells them and the Holy Spirit convicts them!

One of the problems Christians have in reaching people who do not have a personal relationship with Jesus is that after having been a Christian for a while they don’t know anyone who is not a Christian. They spend most of their time with Christians and sooner or later Christian behavior becomes the expected norm so much so that they cannot tolerate anyone who does not act like or sometimes even think like a Christian.

The problem is no less prominent in churches. Too often our churches expect that people who come to church will behave themselves both inside and outside the church. The church needs to be reminded that we cannot expect people to act like Christians until they are and then only as the church takes the responsibility to teach them everything Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:20).

It is easy to understand why Jesus had to emphasize that he came for the sick, because religious leaders forget that truth in light of their preference for the whitewashed. Therefore, those who do attend church feel the need to pretend and those who cannot pretend simply do not attend! Churches must communicate loudly and clearly, “you don’t have to have it all together to attend here.” And then they have to communicate Christ’s promise that with the Spirit’s guidance, we will figure it out together.

This means that we may spend more time reading the felony arrests than the obituaries. We may spend late nights picking up parishioners from bars or visiting them in jail. But the church that communicates “we take anybody” through relationship and through the constant affirmation that “there is a place for you here” will find that they have a ministry in the nature and character of Christ.

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