Continuing with Todd Wagner‘s emphasis on “church” being the people, not a building, what difference does it really make? It makes a lot of difference if you’re a Navigator, a member of what is sometimes referred to as a “para-church” organization. That is, a lot of people believe that the real “church” are those organizations with buildings that meet on Sundays, and everything else is, at best, para-church.

Todd is the first pastor I’ve heard say that we Navigators are as much the church as the buildings and organizations that claim the title “church.” Max Barnett, many years a professor at Southwestern Baptist Seminary, about whom I’ve blogged, was also at the 2:7 Jubilee Conference in Dallas three weeks ago, and he spoke highly of Beyond the Local Church by Sam Metcalf. I’m about halfway through it.

Sam makes the biblical case that God has always worked with two types of organizations: those who shepherd people day-to-day in a local context (Old Testament priests, Roman Catholic Dioceses, and Protestant churches) and those who are called to a special, often pioneering work (Old Testament prophets, Roman Catholic Orders like the Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits, Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, and organizations like Campus Crusade–Cru, The Navigators, Young Life, etc.).

Sam says strongly, “Mother Teresa was NOT a para-Catholic!” and he calls ministries like Mother Teresa’s, The Navigators, and World Vision “apostolic” as opposed to churches led by shepherd-teachers.

This view of church and the variety of God’s work in the world takes seriously the concept that we’re all called to be the church, not just go to church. It also is big enough to include leaders who would be terrible pastors but are very effective at mobilizing people for ground-breaking Kingdom work. Jesus himself was outside the religious establishment.

Todd closed his sermon with a long list of things that had been accomplished a group of people who are part of his fellowship. His friend Christie wrote:

This is what’s been going on in my local church: because of God working through us, I’ve seen children in the local foster care system have an advocate; I’ve seen birth moms supported when they’ve had an unexpected pregnancy; we’ve found lost kids who have been trafficked in the sex industry; women that are being saved out of the sex trade; [and the list went on…]

Then Todd said, let me show you a picture of Christie’s church: “These six young women are responsible for everything I just read. Six young women, all of whom came from dysfunctional backgrounds. That’s Christie’s church.” It was a very provocative sermon including a whole section on “feckless” churches. You can hear it all here.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. (Ephesians 4.11, 12, ESV)

The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. (Acts 4.13, NLT)

If you were keeping track, you may have noticed that I shared one thought from Thursday’s presentation at the 2:7 Jubilee conference and two from Friday’s. What happened to Saturday?

The last presentation was by Todd Wagner, pastor of Watermark Church in Dallas, and it was a winner! However, three things have prevented my sharing highlights: (1) we traveled home the next day, (2) between the sound system and my hearing, I missed some key points, and (3) some of what he said was so provocative I didn’t know quite how to capture it.

I’ve since listened to a recording of it, and there are some important lessons I want to share with you over the next few days.

Let’s start with something simple: Todd is actually using change.org to petition Merriam-Webster to change the definition of “church” in the dictionary! Here’s the definition as it looks today with the building as #1. The closest of these definitions to the real one is 3a or 3c.

Todd is making the point that somewhere along the way, the New Testament’s ecclesia, assembly of people, got hijacked and replaced by the German word kirk, church building. Here’s the official Greek definition of the word translated “church” in the Bible:

ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia) ‘assembly’ church, congregation, assembly; a group of people gathered together. 

Why is this important? Here’s how Watermark Church expresses it on change.org:

If we primarily define church as a building, we miss the point of what God intended His Church to be: a group of people that are on mission 24/7 to bring hope and restoration to a broken world. This could not be more important. We’ve let culture define what the church is, causing people to first think of walls and windows instead of men and women who love and care for them.

I’ll have more to say on this and related topics over the next few days. In the meantime, please consider going to change.org to sign the petition!

And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16. 18, NKJV)

Here’s a lesson from Jesus’ encounter with Satan as described in Luke 4.

When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. (Luke 4.13, NIV)

What were some of those “opportune” times for Satan to return? One surely occurred when he was on the cross. The tone was exactly the same as one of the temptations:

If you are the son of God…

• Turn these stones into bread (Luke 4.3)
• Come down from the cross (Luke 23.35 – 37)

But here’s another, and it happened right after Jesus’ tutorial on his upcoming death that we discussed yesterday:

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” (Matthew 16.21, 22, ESV)

It’s the same form except it’s not if you’re the son of God but since you are the son of God…

• This shall never happen to you.

People, even well-meaning people, can try to direct us away from God’s will for us. Jesus didn’t reject Peter, but he did call out his error and said Peter was advancing Satan’s agenda: 

But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” (Mark 8.33, NIV)

We know he didn’t reject Peter. The very next event is the Transfiguration, and he took Peter. 

We had friends who, when they retired from the Air Force, intentionally bought a house a couple of doors down from ours. Then within two years, we received our call from God (and a church in Alabama). Our friends absolutely rejected that call. “I thought we would grow old together.” At the time, it made our move even tougher.

Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” (Mark 3.20, 21, NIV, emphasis mine)

No matter your religious tradition, it doesn’t hurt to use a particular season to do what you probably ought to be doing anyway! Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, a time we can set aside to remember the Lord’s death and what that might mean for us. We’ll get to Resurrection Sunday soon enough!

As soon as Peter acknowledged Jesus’ true identity as “you are the Messiah, the son of the living God,” (Mark 8.29) Jesus began the tutorial:

And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. (Mark 8.31, 32, ESV)

Then Jesus directly related his life’s plan to ours:

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (Mark 8.34, ESV)

What might that look like? Taking up our cross and following Jesus? And if, like me, you don’t know exactly what that might look like, can you take one action step for these 7 weeks? Just a small one. I like the tradition that says let’s not merely “give up something,” say, chocolate, for Lent. Rather, let’s add something in.

For example, if Monday’s blog reminding us how much we use our phones (or computers or engage in…[you fill in the blank]) was thought-provoking, maybe we trade some time we spend doing that for time doing something that will enhance our relationship with God, serve our neighbor, or complete important projects.

As the weeks go along, please send your actions to me at bob@ewell.com, and maybe toward the end of Lent, I can blog about how this year’s Lenten season advanced the Kingdom in ourselves and others.

We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1.23, 24, ESV)

For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. (1 Corinthians 2.2, ESV)

A recent Costco Connection article entitled All Apologies lists six components of a good apology from Roy Lewicki, professor emeritus of management and human resources at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business:

• An expression of regret
• An explanation of what went wrong
• An acknowledgment of responsibility
• A declaration of repentance
• An offer of repair
• A request for forgiveness

It’s a good list, but we see it violated all the time. The funny thing is when it is violated, everyone knows the apology is phony or less than complete whether they could recite the six things or not.

The biggest non-apology apology of late has been the Houston Astros in general and their owner, Jim Crane, in particular. The Astros were stealing opposing pitchers’ signs and relaying pitch information to batters. They won the 2017 World Series doing that. Here are some key observations in an article by Jeff Passan of ESPN:

• In the span of 27 minutes at a news conference, he [Jim Crane] claimed his team’s routine cheating during its 2017 championship season didn’t impact the game, declared he shouldn’t be held accountable for the organization he runs, …
• Amid his attempts at apologizing were clear signals that his contrition went only as far as his ability to absolve himself of wrongdoing.
• Crane — endeavoring to explain away the Astros’ illicit use of a center-field camera to decode catchers’ signs that were then relayed via banging on a trash can to alert hitters as to the pitch type about to be thrown — said with a straight face: “Our opinion is that this didn’t impact the game.” When pressed on what exactly he meant by that, Crane said: “I didn’t say it didn’t impact the game.” He had, of course — 60 seconds earlier, for those curious about the capacity of Crane’s short-term memory. And it did, clearly, as his team’s shortstop, Carlos Correa would later admit.

At a minimum, to go back to our original list, there’s no acknowledgment of responsibility, no repentance, no offer of repair, and no request for forgiveness. Missing at least four out of six!

As I said, it’s a good list, and we rarely see it executed in the public eye. May we as believers do better!

Yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. (2 Corinthians 7.9, 10, NIV)

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1.9, NIV)

I’ve written before about the importance of not letting our technology overwhelm us. Seth Godin’s blog for Sunday, February 23, is too good to pass up. Here are the first and last paragraphs:

When you bought your first smartphone, did you know you would spend more than 1,000 hours a year looking at it?… If we wasted money the way we waste time, we’d all be bankrupt.

Well said!

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5.15, 16, ESV)

A recurring theme in the Ewellogy is what my son Mark calls America’s new indoor sport: recreational outrage. Here’s the one I wrote about Uninformed Outrage, and this blog on Piling On is where Mark introduced us to the term recreational outrage in a comment.

Today, Pearls Before Swine captured the phenomenon beautifully and even included a cure. Rat tells the Offendedistas who take offense at everything someone else says and then destroys you for it:

What if we just go on with our lives like we used to, leaving creative people free to create and you free to ignore it?

Rat is advising us all to practice a holy indifference as well as realize that my outrage doesn’t fix anything.

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. (James 1.19, 20, NIV)

So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. (Romans 14.12, NKJV)

I was discussing with a friend about Annie Dillard’s observations about church as I wrote a few days ago. Here are some additional thoughts, as I expressed them to my friend:

I think thoughtful people like Annie Dillard react to our calmly confining the living God to a building where we practice sometimes ridiculous rituals. I’ll never forget a photo I saw accompanying an article about dying churches. There was a sanctuary that would hold maybe 150 people occupied by 6 people scattered around, facing forward singing a hymn, presumably led by someone, accompanied by an organ or something. The article was in World Magazine, and while I can’t find the picture, my letter to the magazine was published:

The photo of the United Methodist Church in Kansas says it all. It’s not just that there are only seven people in the building; it’s that they are using a form designed for large groups. When people expect, even demand, a particular form and refuse to change even when it must appear to be madness to any objective onlookers, it’s no wonder people looking for any sign of life and relevance can’t leave fast enough. – Bob Ewell, 2005

A friend of mine talks about scaffolding. We build a beautiful building, and to build it requires scaffolding. But the scaffolding should be removed after it’s built. But we leave it there. In Christian circles, more people are enamored with their particular scaffolding than they are with the true God.

Having a form of godliness but denying its power. (2 Timothy 3.5, NIV)

To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. (Revelation3.1, NIV)

I always believed that Jesus’ miracles had purpose: sick people needed healing, dead people needed raising, a wedding host had run out of wine, hungry people needed feeding… When the disciples needed help in the middle of a lake, Jesus walked on water to get to them. But what’s the purpose of this miracle?

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. (Matthew 14.28, 29, NIV, emphasis mine)

I’ve written about this before, but I’m still puzzling over it, so it’s worth looking at again. Again, there seems to be no purpose in the miracle. Peter isn’t trying to go anywhere. He’s just seeing if he can walk on water. And he can! Somehow Peter seems to realize something that Jesus hasn’t said yet. Namely, “I am a Jesus-follower. If Jesus can do something, I should be able to do the same thing.” Later, Jesus affirmed:

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. (John 14.12, NIV)

Peter, in Jesus’ power, could walk on water. Later, in Jesus’ name (power) he heals a lame man in Acts 3 and raises a dead woman (Acts 9).

So the question is, do we have and use such power? One answer is that any time we take a step of faith, we’re walking on water. I wrote earlier that miracles happen in motion. A friend told me about a fractured relationship he had with someone. He said, “Finally, I ‘walked on water.’ I humbled myself, apologized to him, and the relationship is now whole.”

I think this is the same message as in the John Ortberg title: If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat!

So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing... So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. (Joshua 3.14 – 16, NIV, emphasis mine)

We’ve been thinking about compassion, and here is a concrete example.

John and Ginnie are friends of ours, about our age, and live in Virginia. Ginnie has Parkinson’s and can’t get around without a wheelchair. John, until recently, had been involved in diplomatic activities at the very highest level. They frequently spent months in Vienna on assignment. 

Now he mostly takes care of her. They still travel, but, of course, John is completely responsible for all the logistics. When June told John in a recent phone conversation with both of them that we greatly admire his patience with, and love for, Ginnie, John cheerfully replied:

That’s what I signed up for!

That will preach.

Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. (Ephesians 5.25, NIV)