Gray Zone Moment
Thoughts from the Prairie District Guy

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gray zone moment

Perhaps the best book I’ve read since the start of the pandemic is Mark Sayers’ A Non-Anxious Presence. Sayers describes how we’re currently living in a gray zone moment: the world has changed, and we do not yet know completely how, or what, the world is changing into.

In gray zone moments, we seek out comfort and security in “strongholds” that have brought us identity and “safety” in the past. However, they fall short in the new context we’re finding ourselves in. And the result is anxiety. Sayers writes, “Most understand that the world has changed. However, the sheer rate of change has left many disoriented. We, too, have been left with a sense of the potent chaos in the world. We are not as in control as we thought. We are left with questions of how to lead at such a time when the rules seem to have changed” (p.20)

Sayers spends time looking back at how we’ve arrived here, and some time describing the current landscape. And then, he highlights how this is a time of opportunity.

We don’t grow when we’re comfortable. It’s in the “wilderness” where God grows leaders for the Church.

“Leaders move people toward growth. Comfort zones insulate us from development” (p.109).

God is at work during the anxiety-filled gray zone moments! He is growing leaders who will lead with a non-anxious presence in the midst of change and seeming chaos. These leaders are able to lead with a non-anxious presence because they encounter and are refreshed by the presence of God (p.145).

Our churches and our people, and I would add, our society, need us to be leaders who live daily in the presence of God. Our identity, our strength, our wisdom come from Him. As the psalmist declares, “He is my loving ally and my fortress, my tower of safety, my rescuer. He is my shield, and I take refuge in him…” (Psalm 144:2). Keeping our eyes on Jesus in the midst of the storm is the best thing we can do for the people whom we lead and serve.

“In an anxious, crisis-driven environment, the leadership leverage comes from a non-anxious person” (p.100). We become non-anxious persons by living and leading in the presence of God.

 

Trevor Brawdy
EFCC Prairie District Superintendent

 

The Hills are Alive with Dying?
(Apologies to my wife who loves the Sound of Music)

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the hills are alive with dying

The phrase “a hill to die on” originated as a war time expression. According to Google’s Ngram Viewer (a place where you can track the usage of words or phrases over time) the phrase was used originally in the second world war. It was used again, but only about half as often, in the Vietnam war period. Otherwise, it hasn’t seen significant use until more recently. Modern day usage has spiked. Beginning in 1990 (interestingly just as the Cold War ends), usage moved from virtually none to over three times as much as its previous peak in the second world war. It peaked in 2017 and has only edged off slightly since. Apparently, we think we have a lot of hills to die on. But should we?

I would suggest we need to reduce the number quite a bit.

In theology, humans do the work (not divinely inspired, but hopefully guided by the Spirit) of attempting to make sense of God’s revelation. This is complicated work, since revelation was given to a specific people, at a specific time, in a specific culture and language, addressing specific issues, all of which are highly foreign to us. We read someone else’s mail. We do this with our own set of assumptions and blind spots as we come to the text.

Our theology attempts to interpret the revelation in the text in ways which shape and inform our context.

Even our “essentials” carry some of this contextual bias, let alone the “nonessentials.” Case in point, compare our EFCC Statement of Faith with the previous one. Some of the issues have changed and the ordering certainly has. Or compare it to some of those from evangelical churches in Africa. Some of the articles look virtually the same. Others are quite different. Some of theirs have whole articles on miracles, Satan, demons, unity, spiritual warfare, equality of faith across race, gender, and class. None of these issues has a whole article, or even at times a mention in our statement. Why? Different context, different issues. I apologize for the brevity here; whole books are written on certain aspects of this paragraph.

As we continue to think about moving from “Argument to Discussion,” this issue of context and the hills we choose to die on is important. Let me add one more issue. The next generation. As a former youth pastor; the next generation has always been near my heart. For me, Philippians 2 resounds with echoes of the future. How can we encourage the faith of those who will lead the church tomorrow? How do we put the interests of those yet to come ahead of our own? What “stuff” do we need to lay aside for the sake of the next generation? What faith and the church look like tomorrow might be quite different and we need to be okay with that. More than okay! We need to empower our youth and kids to move into the future with a robust faith that will address their issues, not ours. That may be very difficult for us. Especially if we are dying on too many hills. So, can you ask with me, “which hills do I need to abandon to see the church not only survive, but even thrive, in the next generation?” We haven’t even begun talking about how many of our young people are confused and hurt by the rhetoric we lob at each other (speaking of arguments) as we attempt to hold hills, including the ones we actually need to hold.

We live in time. We have a past. We glean, gather, learn, and contextualize from the past. We are in the process of seeing Christ redeem our past. We hope into the future. We prepare for it. Yet we live in the present. It is a present that has come from somewhere and is on a journey to somewhere else, probably not in a neat linear pattern, however. We are not, as James K.A. Smith says, nowhen Christians. We inhabit time. Soon it will be someone else’s time. Let’s attempt to set the stage for them to inhabit it well.

Neil Bassingthwaighte
ServeCanada Director & Interim Prayer Catalyst

Truth is No Excuse

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truth is no excuse

Over the past weeks we have been reflecting on the challenge we face serving at a time when it seems like “argument” is the default approach to everything, and extreme polarization is the posture from which we argue. Unfortunately, Christians have been infected by this cultural malady, despite the great harm it does to the Church’s testimony. The challenge, it seems, is to get our message of truth heard, and it seems the only way to be heard is to join the shouting match. Therefore, at times it is tempting to feel that if we have truth, then it matters less how we speak, for truth trumps disposition. As tempting as that may be, I would suggest that is counterproductive, and more importantly, antithetical to the examples and mandate of God’s Word to us.

No one had a better grasp on truth than Jesus. No one understood better than Jesus both the distortions of truth and the cost of untruth. Further, Jesus lived in context and time that was no more friendly to His message than today’s culture. God’s people (at least most of the leaders) didn’t like him or his message. Very few were cheering for him, and even less understood the message he was bringing. No one deserved to “shout the truth” more than Jesus. But, as we well know, he did not do that. John describes the very character of Jesus, from the beginning of his ministry.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14 NIV)

And, lest we didn’t catch it the first time, he repeats that only three verses later.

“For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17 NIV)

In his second letter, John again repeats the refrain: “Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.” (2 John 1:3 NIV)

Additionally, the apostle Paul says in Acts 24 that his accusers did not find him “arguing with anyone at the temple, or stirring up a crowd in the synagogues or anywhere else in the city.” (Acts 24:11 NIV)

Here’s the point: from what I see in the New Testament, mostly from the life of Jesus but beyond that as well, truth is never an excuse to be argumentative.

Truth is never an excuse to be mean spirited. I like to say that for the Christian, truth doesn’t travel alone. Truth travels with grace and love.

Jesus’s example makes it clear that we can stand for truth and also express grace – the two are not antithetical. In fact, they are coupled. That is made clear to us in Scripture, and it is made clear because we need to see it! Truth is never an excuse to leave grace and love in the dust.

So, how are we doing as a movement? Are we delivering truth wrapped in grace and love? Doing so, especially in the present age we are in, will more effectively draw attention to — and affirm the validity of — the truth with which we have been entrusted with. If we must argue, let our arguments be made through our grace and love, the only conduit through which we deliver truth.

Terry Kaufman
EFCC Leadership Catalyst

A Key to moving from Argument to Discussion – The Better Way

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the better way

Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes … now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. (I Corinthians 13:9-12)

These past three weeks Terry, Neil and Ike have challenged us regarding how we hold our convictions, how we ought to listen, and the theological mandate for unity. Terry beat me to one of my favorite passages – Romans 14. So let me focus for a couple minutes on Paul’s way of life; that is, the “better way” (I Corinthians 12:31). The Corinthians were a divided bunch: divided over knowledge (who was right), gifts (who had the best ones) and piety (who was the most). Paul repeatedly warned the church against division (chapter 12 of his letter reminds them that the church is a family of diverse people who are united as Jesus’ body). Each part is equally necessary, and no part should look down on another. In his book The Significance of Silence, Arnold T Olson declares that the Free Church Statement of Faith was intentionally silent on those issues that had divided believers: equal piety, knowledge and commitment to the Word. He reminds the reader that there were “to be no second-class members” in Free churches. Thus, while they had strong convictions forged out of persecution, they refused to break fellowship with those who disagreed with them on a myriad of issues that divided other churches.

This sounds much like Paul’s encouragement to the Corinthians. His words in chapter 13 are not primarily intended for weddings – they are intended to challenge a church where members found reasons to view others as second class. Paul wants them to choose the better way of love. And so, he says that love is better than spiritual gifts, knowledge and piety. “If I could speak all the languages of earth… if I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge…but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. Love is patient and kind, love Is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude…prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless.  But love will last forever!” Love moves us to be patient, kind, humble, and respectful.  Further, in the verses I quoted above, he argues there are good reasons to choose the way of love over arrogant, dogmatic knowledge. In short, our knowledge is partial, incomplete. As mere mortals, we only see part of the big picture – and it is fuzzy at that!

Moving from argument to discussion makes perfect sense when we realize that we are not qualified to argue (with 100% certainty) our positions and opinions dogmatically.

We are mere mortals who have at best a partial, fuzzy knowledge and understanding. Further, even if we knew 100% of all there is to know on every topic in the universe, God’s call on us is to pursue the way of love. That means arrogance, rudeness, and unkindness all ought to be off the table for God’s people. Love of our brothers and sisters, humility regarding what we think we know, and gentleness and respect (see I Peter 3:15) are the default settings for those who “set apart Christ as Lord”. The way of love is the “better way” that moves us from argumentation (meant to belittle and defeat) to loving discussion (that seeks to clarify and understand).  If our conversations generate more heat than light, then we are likely not practicing the better way.

Bill Taylor
EFCC Executive Director