It is fascinating to me that part of God’s rhythm is this holy day of rest. One of the things that Heschel mentions;

“ Man is not a beast of burden, and the Sabbath is not for enhancing his efficiency to work…The Sabbath is not for the sake of the week days, the week days are for the sake of the Sabbath.” (p. 14)

Those two sentences are paradigm shifting for me. There may not be a more subversive act of allegiance to Christ in our culture then keeping Sabbath. We have allowed ourselves to believe that we are in fact “beasts of burden” relentlessly needing to answer texts, emails, deadlines, the next thing then the next thing and we almost celebrate success as the one with the biggest burden wins. We worship work.
Sabbath confronts our understanding of ourselves and our work through the lens of how we treat time. Time is given to us to call our attention to God. For six days we work then we rest. The Sabbath is there at the end of our week reminding us whose we are and whose world we are living in.

It is so tough to do. Turn off your phone for a day and find out what I mean.

Perhaps there is something that Heschel gives us that will help us. In that last line he tells us “the weekdays are made for the Sabbath”. That subtle shift in realizing that I am working so I can take Sabbath. I am moving toward something not looking forward to a break so I can work some more, but moving toward a day where I can celebrate God, his creation and remember who I am in the context of time.

Eugene Peterson and his wife Jan decided that their Sabbath would be a day to pray and to play. I like that. It’s an easier way of looking at it. Instead of a list of things we are not going to do they simplify it. We pray and we play. We talk to God and we recreate.

Jeanne and I are trying to take this seriously. I don’t think which day you do it matters but what we have grown convicted of is the need to anchor our week in something larger than the things we need to do, and the places we need to be. We want our week, our time, to reflect and be centered on Christ. I am hoping that we can learn to do it well. So far it’s tough and rewarding. I don’t think keeping Sabbath was a suggestion though. I think it is an often-disregarded commandment that if we can keep we will know God in a profound way and understand ourselves better too.

I wrote this book for a number of reasons but the main was to anchor our motive for mission in the Gospel. It is easy to slide away from the Gospel and make mission into an idol. I know that sounds odd, but I think it is true. In all of our attempts to change the world, or plant churches or reach people it is easy for us to desire the Kingdom but not because of the King.

One of the major paradigm shifts that God’s people need to make is moving from How to–to-Want to. We spend so much time focused on the how question that we never face the underlying questions that run deeper in our soul; do I actually want to? Do I want to love Jesus?  Do I want to love my neighbor? Do I want to serve the world? Do I want to follow in the Jesus way? If we never face those deeper questions then we just hide behind the How questions and act like our biggest problem with following Jesus is that we are ignorant of how to do it.

In order to do that it seems to me we will have to confront the obstacles to our deeper desires. I think those are death, duty and dishonesty and I try to tackle those topics because I think they paralyze people at the deepest levels where Jesus does his deepest work. All of that sets the table to be confronted by the love of our risen King. I wanted to help us look inside the life of Jesus from the incarnation to the ascension peering into our own hearts through the lens of desire.  I think seeing Jesus from this vantage point is pretty crucial for us, if we are going to be the people of God.

So I wrote this book. I hope it will help us make that shift. To help us move from people who hide behind the How and actually move into desire. Following Jesus and loving the world because we are in love with the King.

Sample chapters

I have gotten a lot of feedback from the sermon I preached on Audacious Faith out of Matthew 9:18-34. I wanted to share a few thoughts as I have reflected on the stories that have come in.

Audacious faith is first of all difficult for secular people like us. When we are faced with seemingly hopeless situations our first response is often not one of faith. It is often a reaction of despair and even for believers in Jesus thoughts readily turn towards God not liking me, or failing me, or punishing me.

What we are learning together through Matthews Gospel is that those are the situations that invite us to come to Jesus with faith that he rules over our situation, is present in our situation, and can choose to change our situation or change us through our situation. All of this is predicated on the fact that he loves us and is good.

Sort of a paradigm shift for many of us isn’t it?

The ruler of a synagogues daughter is dead, the woman had suffered bleeding for 12 years, the two men are born blind, and the boy can’t speak and is harassed by a demon. All of those things are hopeless. Yet they have the audacity to come to Jesus, except for the boy whom Jesus heals without anyone asking him to.

It takes audacious faith to stand in the midst of what seems hopeless and bring it to Jesus trusting that he can change it or change us through it. It takes that kind of faith to stand in hope when all the laws of our secular culture tell you there is no hope.

We invited people to come for prayer and as we prayed over people I was struck at how powerful the act of bringing those situations before Christ in prayer breaks though despair and puts us in that place of audacious faith. For most of us we had never really brought our pain, or sin, or suffering to Christ in a way that would believe him to take care of it. So just like the man whose daughter died, the woman bleeding, the blind men, there was an experience of healing in simply coming to Jesus.

In order to have audacious faith in Jesus, we come to him in our need and ask him to help us.

It’s that simple and that difficult all at the same time.

This kind of faith pursues Jesus. It doesn’t retreat into the lies of secular thinking, which tend to be hopeless or despairing but instead it invites us to come after Christ believing that he will help us. It believes that Jesus is our greatest hope and that he will not fail us.

Jesus isn’t interested in being some kind of heavenly genie who grants us wishes. He loves it when we pursue him, He loves to have us bring him our deepest needs, he loves it when we begin to see him for who he truly is and through that he changes out hearts as he allows us to believe he is all we could hope he is. Do you have the audacity to bring your situation to Jesus and believe he is God he is good and he will help you?

Well after wrapping up the Advent Conspiracy Project with Christ Seay and Greg Holder, I began to work on A Kingdom Called Desire: Confronted by the Love of a Risen King, I am thankful it is coming out at the end of March with Zondervan.

I will be speaking on it at Catalyst West in one of the labs March 2nd and will have a few advanced reader copies with me. If you are planning to come to Catalyst West and if you’re not you should (there are still some spaces) then come by my lab on Wednesday at 1:30.

I am excited about this book because I think one of the key conversations that we should be having is about desire for Jesus. I think a lot of Kingdom work goes awry because at the heart of it we desire the work more than the King.

So I have attempted to confront the obstacles that keep us from our deeper desire for Jesus and then explain why in the greatness of the Gospel, Jesus fulfills our deepest desires so that we could be like the man who in his joy sold everything he had to buy the field with the buried treasure. It is the joy of desire met only in Jesus and by Jesus that sustains a life that displays the Kingdom.

So I am excited to have it out there and hope it helps many of you. I love the cover artwork that was done by a friend of mine at Imago Aaron James, I get a lot of questions about it but as with all good art we must ask, “what does it mean to you” and it makes you go “hmmmm…” Hope you like the book!

This year we have the privilege of hosting Q in Portland along with many other local leaders who are doing amazing things across the country. What I like most about Q is the community of people who come. The people sitting next to you are people who could be on the stage presenting. Artists, business leaders, social entrepreneurs, pastors and civic leaders who are leading the way in creating a new world for the sake of Christ.

Q is an experience that will equip you to think differently about the place that God has put you and it will inspire you to dream a new dream, as we seek together to display the Kingdom throughout the world. This really isn’t some cheesy sales pitch, I want you to come to Q because I truly believe it is one of those unique shaping influences that could alter the course of life and take you into a new sphere of mission.

The Gathering is in the Crystal Ballroom, one of Portland’s premier venues sitting just across the street from Powell’s Books, famous for being the nations largest independent bookstore (you will need a few hours just to make it through but it is totally worth your time). I love my city and I hope you will come experience Q with us.

Imago is hosting a half-day gathering for Pastors, if you can come early. It’s free and we would love to have you. We will discuss what our journey has been in engaging one of the nations least churched cities and working together with other churches, local government and business leaders and creating a culture of Gospel unity and mission here in Portland.

So if you are a leader in any field, if you have a dream for the Kingdom and if you want to build relationships with pioneers who are on the same journey you are, then make sure to sign up.

I am also teaching at Multnomah Seminary and have created a two credit class that will allow you to get seminary credit for coming which you can transfer to whatever seminary you attend. You can register until the conference begins April 27^th.

Hope you see in Portland in April.

There are five questions that are important to ask in those in-between places.
1.    What do I know?
We feel like our situation is a thread that could be pulled and our whole world would unravel like a knitted scarf. We need to know that God is holding the thread. We aren’t and the circumstance isn’t, God is holding us and keeping it all together. We need to know that God has called us and has authored our story and his calling comes out of love and goodness and kindness that he has shown us in Jesus. He didn’t call you to drop you, he called you to love you.

When the Apostle Paul stood facing death in a Roman prison and the hope that he had been promised by Jesus that he would care for his life and bring him into an eternity of perfection he told his young friend Timothy this:

“I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day” 2Tim 1:12

Paul had entrusted his life to Jesus and knew and was convinced that Jesus was good on his promise and his life was secure whatever happened to him.
It was his knowing the nature and character of Jesus that allowed him to trust that in the in-between Jesus would pull him through even if that meant death, because Jesus had overcome death too.

2.    What do I trust?
This is where what we know gets put into play in the arena of our hearts. Our emotions are temporary in these times. Don’t let them have the final say in what you are trusting in. Jesus is orchestrating your life with a sovereign hand and he is doing it perfectly for the glory of God. Emotions become untrustworthy paths to let your trust walk down. Trust that Jesus is in the middle of it all. Trust that where you are is part of your particular story of redemption and God is able, present, irreducible and incomprehensible in this place. We don’t know what he is going to do but we do know that we can trust him.
3.    What am I hoping in?
I hope in his promises to me
I hope that he has given us a reason to hope?
I hope that if all fails or goes away Jesus is still with us and He is enough
I hope in the fact that I am not alone
I hope in the reality that he understands us and we understand enough of him
I hope that in the lonely in-between place he is making himself real
I hope that this refining of my faith leads to a deeper placing of knowing God

4.    What am I depending on?
God is our resource. In this place I have come to realize that I am unable to change the circumstances. There are things going on that are way beyond my control. I am able to put the ability of people in their proper place and realize humbly that I need something more. I need God. He has to show up or I’m a goner. God is enough, he is all I have and I am depending on his ability, his resource, his knowledge, his salvation, and his presence.

5.    What can I change?
I can’t change much in the in-between, but I can repent. I can offer up to God that I know I need to change personally in this place and I want to change, but I admit that I don’t have the ability to do the changing. I need the changer to come and do that for me. I need Jesus through the Gospel and by the Spirit to come and shape me here.  He makes that change.
These five questions have been critical for me in these in-between times. They call me back to the reality that I am just a man. They call me to the largeness of God and more than that they show me that God is teaching me deep truths as I face the insurmountable obstacles.  Above all of this I find myself learning the art of detachment. The gift of these in-between places is that God is deeply at work in our formation. We are learning to let go of lesser gods and lesser hopes, depending less on others and ourselves and more on him. As we let God loosen our grip on the lesser things that he is detaching our hearts from, we discover that our grip on Him is tightening.
The false belief that always creeps into my thinking is that the most important thing is to get out of these in-between places and quickly get to the place where life is all blessing. That is normal for us to want. But it is not the normal path to holiness. The times where we stand between the promises of God and the great obstacles to entering into them are crucial. These are the times that God in his grace will keep leading us into, so that we can continue to learn to trust ourselves to God alone. Until one day in a frail body we breath our last breathe and commit our spirit into the hands of the one who will breath into us his eternal life and welcome us into his presence. God is making us a people for himself and our hearts are finding rest in him.

The main sign went up on a busy intersection, in the heart of the city, just four blocks from our first offices on 8th and Burnside. After years of being nomadic, God brought us back to the heart of the city, in a building that we could not afford to buy but are leasing for the same cost as the school where we have been meeting. This entire blessing comes amidst a budget shortfall that is at a critical place. When the blessing of God and reality of crisis are enough to fracture your psyche.  It is here in the midst of all of this that our staff and countless volunteers have worked tirelessly to make this huge move into our new home happen.

But, sitting around that fire, we were tired. Celebrating and thankful but just really tired. It was there, caught in a contemplative paradox, that a stranger walked up to our fire. He was probably in his late twenties early thirties holding his IPA and a pack of American Spirits. He asked us for a light and sat down. He told us that he was a vendor at concerts and festivals and liked to tell jokes and poems to strangers. We smiled and tried to be polite but were tired and inwardly rolling our eyes back into our heads. Really? Jokes and Poems? He asked if he could tell us a joke or a poem. Eric picked “joke” because we needed the laugh. The jokes were horrible. I chose poem just to get him to quit telling jokes. He asked who my favorite poet was and I told him Wendell Berry, an incredible writer, subversive Christians and sustainable farmers. I thought he wouldn’t know who Wendell Berry was and Eric and I could get back to our conversation.

Jesus knew we needed Wendell Berry to remind us that doing it the right way, waiting on God and practicing resurrection is at the core of this journey that Jesus has us on. He may have been a wandering stranger or an angel who liked IPA and cigarettes but for us it was a gracious reminder that God is here, with us and for us and  that we have to stay on this journey of faith regardless of how we may tire from it.

As we walked up the hill, past a trophy shop, a strip club and a hardware store, the sun literally broke through the clouds and shined on a massive sign that said Imago Dei Community. Our little symbol that God is our living and resurrected God who has placed us in the middle of the city to practice resurrection. Follow Jesus regardless of how hard the journey is, never resign yourself to worldly tactics and  never stop believing that our God reigns.

When I got home that night, I parked the car in my driveway and walked up the front steps of my house. I looked down and saw a book sitting by the front door. It was Weddell Berry’s The Hidden Wound. I had ordered it on Amazon awhile back and it showed up today of all days.

In the midst of the mighty acts of God’s blessing, He still shows up in the simple but profound faith building acts of kindness. A great friend, a free sign, a stranger, a poem, and a book on my front porch.

In his terrific commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, Frederick Dale Brunner outlines the four main ways that the Kingdom has been understood by the church and he summarizes the thoughts of K.L. Schmidts work. The Kingdom comes from heaven, it comes through preaching the Gospel, it comes into the heart of believers, and it comes into history through peace and justice.

1.    The Kingdom comes from Heaven
This is the Kingdom coming in all of it fullness when it will be on earth as it is in heaven. This is the hope that the church has in a world where little kingdoms seem to be having their day and war and evil and sin seem to rule the moment. The Kingdom will come in the fullness of time and Christ will be rightly throned as King of Kings and every knee will bow. This is the hope that the church holds onto and the moment that we long for, pray for and work toward.

2.    The Kingdom comes through Preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ
The Gospel is a royal announcement that the worlds’ King has come to us in Jesus and he is going to reconcile all things to himself on earth and in heaven. Preaching of this announcement is a dynamic activity. What we often right off as a dull sermon could very well have the powerful activity of the Spirit of God bringing the Kingdom to bear in the world. The preaching of the centrality of Christ in the Gospel is central to the work of the Kingdom because through this preaching activity the Kingdom breaks into the lives of God’s people who repent of sin and receive the grace and new life which is given to us in Jesus.

3.    The Kingdom comes into our hearts
Wherever Christ is made Lord of our lives there the Kingdom is. In his people that are surrendered to Jesus his Kingdom is showing up in our hearts and forming us into the image of Jesus for the sake of the world. This is why the church is the one place on earth where Jesus’ lordship as King of the world should be unattested. His is our God King and his brings the fullness of his peace and presence into our lives through the union he has made with us through his Spirit. In our hearts we set apart Christ as Lord and make room for his reign to spread throughout the whole of our life and being. The end result is a people who live into the hope that another world is coming and has come to us in Jesus and we are his peculiar people who love sacrificially and live lives of worship that glorify our King Jesus.

4.    The Kingdom comes into History now through the church
The people of God anticipating the fullness of the Kingdom coming in the future, announcing the dynamic power of the Gospel of Jesus and enthroning Christ in their hearts, are a people who work for peace and justice on earth as it is in heaven.  The Kingdom of God breaks into our world wherever injustice is being torn down for the love of the King and peace is replacing violence and hostility. This is the on going work of the church as we live into the reality that the Kingdom has come among us and show the world what it is like to live in a Kingdom of light in the midst of darkness.  We work hard for peace and justice because this displays the Kingdom of Jesus to the world.

It seems to me that churches and people tend to pick one aspect of the Kingdom of God and focuses there insisting that the other aspects are not really crucial pieces of the Kingdom. This is unfortunate because we essentially make our own little kingdom out of one aspect and discount the others. In doing this we essentially reduce the Kingdom into something that it is not. The Kingdom is not less than all of these aspects combined.

It is tough to pull off, and I don’t think we can do it without the Kingdom breaking into our own hearts and lives.  I do pray that we would be a people striving for the fullness of the Kingdom to break in on earth. A people with a great hope for the Kingdom to come in all its fullness, a people who boldly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus and watch the Kingdom break in through the Gospel, a people who have enthroned no other King but Jesus in their hearts and experience the transforming power that comes from worshipping Jesus as Lord and we would be a people who would give our lives away to the world so that the Kingdom would be displayed in places of violence and injustice bringing with it the Kingdom reign of peace and justice through Jesus Christ.

Our front porch has become a gathering spot for community. Some of the deepest conversations I have had with my son and my friends have taken place on the porch. Sometimes its freezing, other times it’s a warm summer night, but regardless we gather here and share our hearts and stories, experiencing the grace and presence of Christ in our relationship with one another.

We gathered on the porch and each man wrote a letter to Josh, that they shared. Giving him wisdom, affirmation and a warm welcome into the community of men.  It was an amazing time for Him. I could hardly keep it together as they shared their love for my son.

One of the things that Jeanne and I have always prayed for is that our kids would have specific people in their lives that would affirm our love for Jesus and help them on their own journey of faith.  We have asked God to do something bigger in their lives than we could do on our own as parents. He answered those prayers.

The men chipped in a bought him a killer knife that will be the fear of all pieces of wood that he widdles away on. But something much larger happened there. It was not that something magical happened and the confusion, innocence, and youthfulness of being 18 disappeared. What did happen is that a young man was affirmed in his identity as a man, welcomed into the community and called to be all that God is calling him to be as a Son of God.

It’s a remarkable thing to see your 18 year old son “want” to be on the porch with these men on a Friday night, and not be out hanging with his friends. He wanted to be there because something him desires to be what God has made him and this community of friends is the place where he gets to become that.

I know that through all that God has for him in the years to come, this event will be a marker for his journey and these men will be there for him. The gift of relationship with other men is the most powerful thing you can give a guy on his 18th birthday.
To be fair I was flying blind in all of this. I have never been part of something like this and most the guys there hadn’t either. We were not sure if it was going to come off cheesy, or lame or awkward. I didn’t know if he would hate it and want to run for his life.

The risk was so worth it and I hope that perhaps it gives you a bit of courage to call your own sons into the community. I hope that the church would call our young men without Dads onto the porch and let them know that the absence of their physical fathers does not mean the absence of men who care, and it in know way means they are deficient as men.

I read my letter to my son as the last one to go. I was choking out the words through tears of love and joy. I had to pause while I was reading because of the emotions, my friend Luke said, “preach it”. For some reason it struck me, that is what we were doing. Through all the emotions, and our own inexperience in doing this we were proclaiming a great God to my son and calling him to the great adventure of being a man.

Here is the last paragraph of my letter to my son:

Blessing
Lastly, it’s a joy to give you my blessing. I don’t want you to ever doubt this and I want you to hold it deep inside you. No matter where life takes you or what mistakes you make I want you to always remember this blessing.
Joshua McKinley; you are my beloved Son, and in you I am well pleased!
I love you Josh, Welcome to the party!
Dad