outside is better

Beatles or Stones? Asking ourselves the hard questions....

Beatles or Stones?

Earlier this year I asked this question on Facebook and got around 200 comments. I love the question. It tells me so much about a person and their musical taste and preferences.

Good questions tell us so much more than a simple answer.

Earlier this year I wrote a piece on Why I became a Methodist. In the article, I mentioned one of the primary decision points being my belief in the effectiveness and necessity of Wesleyan discipleship.

Part of  historic discipleship and formation (growing closer to Christ) in the Methodist tradition is the act of asking questions. We ask them to ourselves in our own personal devotion. We ask them to others we are in accountability with.  This was important in the Methodist movement and I feel a recovery of the asking of questions will be a key thing to any spiritual development in our world now.

A little history...

Wesley organized his folks (you couldn't really call them a formal church yet) into 3 groups. From largest to smallest; the Societies, The Classes and The Bands. Part of the fundamental design of the two smallest (classes and bands) was a series of questions designed to keep each person in forward motion towards Jesus Christ. The Class met as a mixed group of sexes and ages. When they met, these questions formed the main conversation points. They got SERIOUS!

When the Bands met, the questions got even more in depth. They also centered on this small group (usually no more than 5-6 and same sex) really keeping each other on track. You gave the others the permission to get into your business.

Here are another set of questions Wesley and his original small group, called The Holy Club, asked themselves in their lives and meetings.

Our life now

These questions matter. They help us to be real and honest with each other. One of the best small group experiences I have ever had focused on asking a few of these questions every week. This isn't casual discipleship. It is changing and transformational discipleship. It is the kind of spiritual relationships each Christian needs to have in their life.

Several groups have done a great job trying to incorporate these classic notions of discipleship into current life. Most of them are going really well. What I really appreciate are the attempts to quickly get the emotive qualities of these HUGE lists into a few simple questions. You can answer them openly, in front of people you know and don't know. You can be asked them by people who know you really well. The most important quality is these questions are approachable. It is frightening allowing others into what most modern Christians consider to be pretty private.  Here is a listing of the ones I have found, liked and used.

1. Are you growing closer or further away from God since the last time we met?
2. How do you see God moving in your life right now?
3. How is your life in God?

Lately, I have a new one I have been thinking about, asking myself and asking others. It comes from my own personal conviction and values.

How have you allowed God to change you lately?

This question tells much more than a simple yes or no. In my own examination it causes me to think about my openness to Christ, my expectation of his presence and activity, how my false self is being broken down, etc, etc. It is great and broad.

Self-examination has long been part of Christian tradition. It helps us to make the points in which we have grown closer to God, progressed in our sanctification, won victory over things controlling us or simply mark our maturation in Christ.

So friends, How have you allowed God to change you lately?

 

 

Beginning Prayer: Wesley and His covenant prayer

When anyone intentionally decides to start building a life of prayer the first honest question is "How?." Through my life, I have had moments where these decisions have to be made. Prayer, like any other part of the Christian life, means constantly pushing forward...going deeper and deeper. What counts is finding moments and different practices which continue to push this journey forward.

At this years meeting of the Louisiana Annual Conference of the UMC, Rev. Adam Hamilton lead several sessions and discussions on church vision and vitality. At several moments along the way he either pointed to or lead us through Wesley's Covenant Prayer. Traditionally this prayer is used at the beginning of the year as congregations recommit towards holy relationships and mission. What Rev. Hamilton illustrated was this prayers place in the everyday life of individuals and congregations.

For anyone looking for a new way point in the life of prayer, either beginning or reinvigorating, the covenant prayer is an excellent addition.

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,

exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine.

So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.

I have found by making multiple copies and placing them in both intended and surprise location, I pray the prayer several times during the day. I have a copy in my bathroom and I pray it almost first thing in the morning. I pray it when I transition tasks during the day or when I start a time of devotion or study. It provides a wonderful embedded space in my life.

Yes, the language might be old fashioned, but I decided to not update it. It marks things as "special" for me.

I encourage you to practice this prayer. Make it part of your day at least once. Find the best place to put it into your devotional life. Trust me, it will be a blessing.

As a side note, I want to resource you in using this prayer. For the first 72 hours of this posts life, I want to run a contest. If you link to this post, through either Facebook or Twitter, and include my handle (@chaddbrooks on twitter or THIS account on Facebook), I will enter your name into a drawing. The winner gets a swag package from me, with multiple of my laminated copies of this prayer along with a few other goodies.

So share this prayer. Make it part of your life. Above all, pursue a deep life of prayer.

Related Posts: 3 Steps To Beginning Prayer

Saturdays in Scripture: Sin, Harshness and Christian Perfection

This summer I led a short Bible study on 1 John. I decided to not teach it as a formal study but instead teach a few strategies to help folks learn to read and study their Bible better. During one of our lessons, my good friend Jeff mentioned how harsh some of the injunctions to not sin seemed to be.

Jeff was right! If anyone was in the wrong mood or spiritual state, these verses could seem to be pretty heavy.

1 John 3:4-10

Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God. ⁵ And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him. ⁶ Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.

⁷ Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. ⁸ But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹ Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God. ¹⁰ So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.

Part of the design of the class was to teach using larger portions of the Bible to begin study and learn to interpret based on a more holistic approach to reading scripture...ie; do certain observations still have the same validity when we put them as part of the entire book of 1st John?

Knowing 1st John was one of John Wesley's favorite books and he preached a sermon on this passage, I had my class read sermon 19, The Great Privilege of Those That Are Born of God. What we found most helpful was Wesley's idea of "outward" sin, especially the person who has latched themselves to God cannot sin, not out of command but out of operation. If a person has placed themself in the Holy Spirit, outward (willing) sin is not part of the persons life. Wesley's own definition of sin according to this passage was a "willing transgression of a known law of God."

Wesley then gives a pattern from grace to sin, to help people understand the path to willful sin. You can find this in section 2.

You see the unquestionable progress from grace to sin: Thus it goes on, from step to step. (1.) The divine seed of loving, conquering faith, remains in him that is born of God. "He keepeth himself," by the grace of God, and "cannot commit sin." (2.) A temptation arises; whether from the world, the flesh, or the devil, it matters not. (3.) The Spirit of God gives him warning that sin is near, and bids him more abundantly watch unto prayer. (4.) He gives way, in some degree, to the temptation, which now begins to grow pleasing to him. (5.) The Holy Spirit is grieved; his faith is weakened; and his love of God grows cold. (6.) The Spirit reproves him more sharply, and saith, "This is the way; walk thou in it." (7.) He turns away from the painful voice of God, and listens to the pleasing voice of the tempter. (8.) Evil desire begins and spreads in his soul, till faith and love vanish away: He is then capable of committing outward sin, the power of the Lord being departed from him.

In our discussion, we did note the complexity of understanding a "known law of God", and the weight of grey area in our culture.  The call to "not sin" was actually a call to the deep life with Christ that keeps us away from such practices. It is about trusting Jesus! Those who are focusing on and are close to God are kept from sin by the power of the Holy Spirit! 

It was a great discussion and a great time helping folks realize how important our heritage was in sorting out tough issues. The call to Christian Perfection is one we as a people called Methodist should hold close. In so many ways, our forgotten knowledge of this principle should be lamented. What would our lives and the lives of those around us look like if we all banded together and made this the focus of our lives once again?

How Hollywood teaches Wesleyan Grace

Earlier this year I was asked to speak to St. Paul's confirmation class about the Wesleyan/Methodist understanding of grace.

Methodists understand grace as acting in three major moves, in a progressive (we are Wesleyans after all!!) manner. The goal was to get 6th graders to engage a concept I have been asked about in almost every oral examination on the process to ordination. A tall task indeed! I used this analogy of Hollywood and the film industry to help them understand more about their faith.

Prevenient grace...
is often like a movie trailer. It exists before the real thing and gives experience, making us familar with the story and hoping to excite us about the actualization in an encounterable manner. Trailers make us want to see the movie.

Prevenient grace is the free gift of God to all men and women tugging their hearts towards a saving relationship with him.

Justifying grace...
brings us to the moment in the movie theater. You can call it an opening night gala. What can be known beforehand is known. The trailer worked and drew us into the physical event. A person is now truly experiencing the story for the first time. Where it once existed only in brief and broken ways, the full story is made known.

Justifying grace marks the awareness of sin and the need for a recognition of Jesus Christ. In justifying grace, each of us truly experience the depth of Christ and His love for the first time.

Sanctifying Grace...
seats the DVD in our permanent collection. It is the special collecters edition with all of the extras (But not those horrible Star Wars editions that change the whole thing...those DVD's totally blow the illustration). It doesn't change the story, but presents the permanent and ongoing fulfillment of both the trailer and the original theater viewing. The DVD purchase brings the movie into the home, where we own it and are able to continuing experiencing the story in new ways.

Sanctifying grace brings us closer to holiness. It is the constant move of God in our lives as we pursue Jesus Christ more and more. Through sanctifying grace we are continuing to experience the transformative power of God in our lives.

I find this threefold expression of saving grace helpful because it is hopeful.

God moves in each of our hearts, edging us towards saving and justifying grace. If and when a person makes the decision, they are not abandoned. Grace continues, always changing us. May God be changing each of us as we read these words.

Related Posts:
Thoughts on Christian Perfection
Hymnaling (and Being Methodist)

Why I became Methodist

Over the last few years as I have been in the ordination process in the United Methodist Church I have been asked the question “Why did you become Methodist?”. Given my background I can see why it would be a puzzling questions. Growing up the son of a Southern Baptist preacher in a large church doesn’t provide the best incubator for someone whose theological influences are The Wesley brothers, church fathers and desert monks and prefers slow church. I want to share with you the three reasons I became Methodist.

Even more so, why did I decide to make a career transition from a “growing” church style to one in the midst of decline? It is because I believe the Wesleyan framework of salvation and discipleship is best poised to draw people to Jesus Christ in the 21st century.

Entire Sanctification

I remember being a confused college student and participating in a bible study on Romans 6. One evening, in a moment of early adulthood angst the comment was uttered..”Are you trying to say it is possible to NOT sin?” You could easily hear a pin drop in the room as the leader started explaining a wesleyan understanding of holiness and Christian perfection.

In that moment...years sorting out, struggles, questions and false spiritual disapproval were gone. Instead of taking a “Cowboy Up” approach to sin, the task was to focus more on Christ. To fill life up with holy things and allow Jesus to take over.

As I entered into seminary coursework, the more academic renderings of Sanctification continued to be fruitful. I started to read Wesley’s sermons and other publications. I became part of small groups that mutually were holding each other to sanctification.

It also related well to my own Father (who had been my youth minister at one point in time) to let Jesus do the things he needs to do...and not you. It felt like it was already part of me, just articulated better.

It’s odd to think a doctrine can make such a difference, but it did.

Sacramental Awareness

As a child, when my pastor said “This is the body and blood of Christ” when we took quarterly Lord’s Supper I believed him. It was only when I hit college at a conservative Baptist University I was told this wasn’t so. I never had a view of presence reaching the Catholic sense, but I felt something was going on because this HAD TO mean something.

Baptism was much the same. I remember being frustrated at how high we treated it, but explained it as a simple follow through. The build up happened and then it was never mentioned again. Baptism lasted just a few seconds.

In both senses, the Wesleyan understanding of sacraments as being something God does, and not us, appealed to my heart. It pushes these sacred acts to the forefront of Christian life. We learn what it means to revolve around the presence of Christ, to realize the power that we have in our baptism. The Christian life ebbs and flows around these holy mysteries where God has shown and given himself to us. It gives us the power to live on the journey of a sanctified life. God is with us and God is powering us.

A tradition of Faith

In college (a public University by now) I took a class on the history of the Christian Church. I was memorizing the Apostles Creed for the class and in frustration I hurled it across the room exclaiming “No one has said this thing in a thousand years...I don’t want to memorize it.” My then girlfriend, sitting on the couch next to me, turned as started immediately saying, “I believe in God the Father, maker of heaven and earth.....”

I was floored. When I asked for an explanation I found she grew up saying it every Sunday in worship. I then realized my faith carried a much greater legacy than imagined. Soon afterwards I poured into the writings of the Church Fathers and found so much I had been looking for. I remember carrying a printed out copy of “The City of God” on a tour that summer. The preachers of the Christian camp had a kick out of the sound guy reading Patristics after set up.

In the Methodist church I found the practice of a Historic faith that also encouraged continuing to forward movement in contextualizing worship in the 21st century. I also found a spiritual home in the legacy of John Wesley. I had descended from something and someone. I could trace my spiritual Fathers and Mothers. I found a faith with defined boundaries, with statements about what it meant to belong.

As I often tell people, I feel like I was born Methodist. What I found was a family of faith who put better words to what I had felt and thought for years. I was a closet Methodist. I am part of this tradition now. I am a Methodist.

Related Posts:
Hymnaling (and being Methodist)
Thoughts on Christian Perfection

Reading together

Over the last month or so, I have been drumming up folks to read scripture together in the new year. Last week, John Meunier also mentioned reading Wesley's Standard 52 through the year and some people expressed interest in doing so together.

I like reading with people, even if our only connection is via the internet. To facilitate greater interaction, I started two simple little blogs for both projects. They will be tweaked out in greater measure over the next few days, but if you are interested in either project, consider joining and contributing to them sites.

Let's walk this journey together!

standard52.tumblr.com

90daybible.tumblr.com

 

Contemporary Communion in Advent

This Christmas Eve we are having communion together in my congregation. I pastor and lead the contemporary service at my church and over the last few months we have used the more formal Great Thanksgiving liturgy in the United Methodist Hymnal. Due to both time and the fact I we have been pretty high church lately, I decided to use a less formal approach to communion for Christmas Eve.

The tension revolves in the sacramental conviction I have as a Methodist pastor to keep communion in line with the greater tradition of the Church. Specific words do not matter, but the greater story does. I wanted to find something brief but strong and would fit well within our service.

This Advent, my secret weapon for a few special services as been the A Christmas Sourcebook. I found this while in seminary and it has proven its worth several times over. It has plenty small bits that work well in Advent and Christmas services. It is a must buy for worship designers.

Below is what I am using to tell the story of Christ during our communion time. You can find it on pg. 23 of the sourcebook.

The grace of God has appeared, ordering salvation to all men and women. It trains us to reject the godless ways and worldly desires and live temperately, justly and devoutly in this age as we await our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of the great God and of our Savior Christ Jesus. It was he who sacrificed himself for us, to redeem us from all unrighteousness and to cleanse for himself a people of his own, eager to do what is right.

I wanted to share this great resource with you. Buy it and be ready for next Advent season.

Night Moves

I am a night owl. I have never slept that much. As a child, it drove my sleep enthusiastic parents up the wall. In college I was able to fully sculpt my sleep schedule. I normally don't wind down until well after midnight and I can be up fairly early in the morning. All in all, I need about 5 hrs to function as a responsible adult.

When I was younger, these late nights would haunt me. I would be by myself and could get easily absorbed in my own thoughts. If I was ever struggling with depression, it would manifest itself during these hours. Being by myself and wide awake at 3 am wasn't a good thing. I routinely would pull all nighters just because my head would keep reminding me of situations where I felt inadequate.

It was during a time of counseling I had someone actually mention that I might not need to force myself to sleep. It was at that time I heard the classic christian reflective phrase "redeem the time." John Wesley even wrote a sermon about it, number 93 titled "On Redeeming the Time." It was the same wise counsel who suggested I begin patterns of devotion late at night, in prayer asking for the Father to heal my mind and bring me to a greater life of holiness. Looking back now, that was just part of my prevenient Methodist training.

For the last 10 years or so I have patterned my devotional life around my late nights. The wife goes to bed early, and I try to use several hours for reflective work and devotion. I read scripture, journal, pray and take care of my soul.  I spent many years of college in healing prayer at night or reading pieces of classic devotional material.

I say this to encourage you to carve out the time in life for God. If we are able to devote a couple hours a day to television or random interneting, why can we not start to build up a deep devotional life? The Christian life is rhythmic, not stop and go. How can we expect to have the abiding relationship with Christ if we are not willing to invest the time.  God doesn't desire to be our acquaintance, but our Father. How can we expect to live holy lives if we don't train ourself in the habits?

Friends-Redeem the Time

A theology of the parsonage

I live in a parsonage. That means my church owns my house and I am allowed to live there rent free as part of my compensation. Even though I grew up as a preachers kid, I have never lived in a parsonage before. I really haven't even seen them either. Most of the churches I have been around chose to sell them and provide a housing allowance.

But I live in the parsonage. My church (St. Paul's UMC) built this house before they finished building their first church building. The early meetings of the church council met in my dining room. Sunday school classes, youth, children and other groups met in the parsonage in times of growth. My study has one natural spot for a desk, and the finish on the wood floors in heavily worn where countless chairs have been. The view from the window has aided countless pastors as they prepare the word of God for this congregation.

I pray in the same places the leaders of my church have always prayed. When the residence was transferred over to the associate pastor in the more recent past, the leaders of our contemporary service have lived, studied, prayed and prepared their sermon here. The house has a very specific purpose. It serves to care for those who pastorally care for a group of people called St. Paul's.

I can't get my job out of my head. Even at home, I am constantly reminded of the group of people I am called to pastor. While that might drive some crazy, I enjoy it. Every step around my house is taken in prayer. I am remindedin every room that my doors are open and that fellowship and hospitality are built into the rhythm of each day.

I live in a parsonage....and I love it.

 

We're Moving!!!

This spring has been full of transition. The last semester of my Master of Divinity kept me occupied with many things. Taking care of denominational tasks, finishing my last classes, writing my Thesis and attending to family meant a busy spring.

But now that it is all said and done, Meredith and I are excited about transitioning to Monroe, Louisiana. I will be serving at St. Paul's United Methodist Church as the Associate Pastor. I will primarily be working with their contemporary service as well as overseeing their student ministry.

St. Paul's is a great congregation with a history in the community and a flourishing ministry in Monroe. I lived the next town over in college and am familiar with the area. I can't imagine a better situation to be going into as I head back into full time vocational ministry.

I head to annual conference next week and we move directly after that. My Louisiana bones are aching to be back at home. Moving this distance is always interesting, but these last few days in Wilmore will be bittersweet. Meredith and I have made quite a life here. We often joke that we became adults in Kentucky.

So this means the blog might shift a bit. I don't exactly know where that direction will go, but I am excited about another season of life and the holy task of pastoring the people of God.