Tag Archives: Tri Robinson

Cultural Change Agents: Erasmus, Martin Luther, and Michelangelo (Part 1 of 2)

The world is changing. Or, at least, more people are noticing the change as the world has always been changing. Humanity, in general, prefers to experience change in small doses with time enough to process the ramifications before the next wave of change sweeps over them. Although much of human history has progressed in small steady steps, the global events of the last few decades have rendered this luxury elusive. The rapid pace of change has escalated uncertainty with people “crying for justice, honesty, and solutions” [1] while being scared and angry.

This response is not new as people throughout history tend to respond to rapid change with fear and anger. Standing strong against this tidal wave are leaders who embrace the change and help lead others through the darkness of the unknown. These leaders, or change agents, are people who are able to maintain a broad perspective on life while valuing questions, wisdom, and personal character over intelligence, knowledge, and presumed answers.

While history is brimming with amazing examples of such leaders, this paper will focus on three change agents within the pandemonium of sixteenth-century Europe who embraced the values previously mentioned. This time frame was chosen due to the parallel between it and the furor of modern culture within the United States. Both periods experienced change at a rapid pace as new concepts and ideas poured into their culture through globalization  (i.e. European colonies in the Americas and Asia vs. airplanes, global tourism, and mass immigration), increased knowledge (i.e. Gutenberg’s printing press vs. the internet), religious discord (i.e. the Protestant Reformation vs. religious pluralism), and political mayhem (i.e. the end of the feudal system vs. the rebirth of nationalism).[2] The agents themselves, Erasmus, Martin Luther, and Michelangelo, were chosen due to their ability to give a voice to the emotions of their time while personally reflecting the values of questions, wisdom, character, and a broad perspective of life.

However, before looking at the lives of these change agents, it is worth pausing a moment to better understand the four values in question and how they interact with each other. The first value is that of asking questions. Though this may sound like an odd value, it is actually the protovalue from which the other three flow. The prerequisite of asking a question is the humble acknowledgment that the answer is unknown to the one asking the question. Hence to value questions is to recognizes one’s own limitations while seeking to move beyond those limitations. It a multi-layered value that carries within it humility and curiosity coupled with a boldness to receive answers that one may not like.

Wisdom, the second value, flows from the first in that one must understand the world around oneself before being able to wisely choose a course of action. The New Bible Dictionary defines wisdom as “the art of being successful, of forming the correct plan to gain the desired results”[3] whereas Webster’s New World College Dictionary defines it as the “power of judging rightly and following the soundest course of action.”[4] Both definitions carry a sense of practicality where information and knowledge is transferred from the theoretical into the best course of action for that time and place.

The third value is that of personal character development. This value can be defined as having moral strength and fortitude to embrace the uncertainty of questions while seeking the path of wisdom. Change agents who embrace this value are ones who seek to truly know themselves and learn their “strengths, weaknesses, values, and worldview”[5] rather than being content to rely on their inherent intelligence and talent. Having embraced such a journey, the change agent is then able to move forward into the unknown, forearmed with the wisdom that comes with personal reflection and a deep moral conviction.

Having a broad perspective of life is the last value under consideration. This value means having the “ability to see things in a true relationship”[6] across the broad spectrum of life. It is a value that embraces the vastness of humanity as reflected in the plethora of human culture, personalities, and behavior. One cannot, however, embrace the broadness of humanity or begin to see the interconnectivity of things if one does not ask questions or have the personal character to move beyond past assumptions and narrow-minded views of life. Hence, to value a broad perspective of life means opening oneself up to new ideas and concepts that may or may not challenge previously held ideologies.

Those who embrace the values of questions, wisdom, personal character development, and a broad perspective of life may find themselves living on the edge of the unknown. While this may sound frightening to some, it is the best place to be as it means having to trust God as one enters into the uncertainty of life. This is why these four values can be seen so clearly in the lives of change agents both in the modern era as well as in sixteenth-century Europe. A word of warning though, not everyone who embraces these values end up in the same place. As this paper will soon demonstrate, Erasmus, Martin Luther, and Michelangelo all espoused similar values even though they ended up in different ideological and theological places. It is as Justo Gonzalez once commented, “in such an age of turmoil, many sincere Christians went through profound soul searching that eventually led them to conclusions and positions they themselves could not have predicted. Others, equally sincere and devout, came to opposite conclusions.”[7]

 

Endnotes

[1]  Tri Robinson, Re:Form: The Decline of American Evangelicalism and a Path for the New Generation to Re:Form Their Faith (Sweet, Idaho: Timber Butte Publishing, 2017), 92.

[2] Chris Lowney, Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company that Changed the World (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2005), 4.

[3] The New Bible Dictionary, 3rd ed., s.v. “wisdom.”

[4] Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th ed., s.v. “wisdom.”

[5] Chris Lowney, Heroic Leadership, 95-96.

[6] Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th ed., s.v. “perspective.”

[7] Justo L. González, The Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Present Day, vol. 2, The Reformation to the Present Day (Peabody, Massachusetts: Prince Press, 2009), 10.

Experiencing the Kingdom through Environmental Stewardship

It is a sad but true reality that many of the followers of Jesus do not take care of the creation the Creator King made. Instead, they quote selected Bible verses, chosen to support their view that what they do to the environment (biological and geological) does not matter. After all, it is all going to burn anyway. Or so goes the standard view of a lot of Christianity today. In stark opposition to this view is the concept of Kingdom Theology which declares that the rule and reign of the King over every area of life and everything, created or uncreated, invisible or visible.

Time itself began with the Creator King declaring that everything was good. The dirt was good; the animals of the land, sea and sky were good; the trees, grass, and plants that covered earth was good. Everything that was made or would be made was good. This declaration of the King of Kings has never been revoked. It is a fact that God made this planet and all other planets across the galaxies of the vast skies, simply because he wanted to. He found joy in creating things that no eye, animal or human, would ever see. And he declared it all good. Things did change when Adam and Eve decided to try to rule things themselves, as we have seen. Despite the entrance of sin, evil and death into the creation, the essence of creation remained good.

Sadly, as the years rolled by, the creation was ground down by sin and evil. Things that were beautiful became deadly; elements that were to bring life, instead brought death. The struggle for survival overtook every plant, animal, and biological cell, as each fought for life. Each day since the entrance of sin and evil into the land, the land has groaned for the arrival of the day of the Lord when everything would be set right (Romans 8:19-25).

Into this messy world came the King himself, taking on the very flesh of his creation. In doing this, as we have seen, the Creator King ushered in the new age of life. Now, when his followers pick up a piece of trash on the side of the road, they are declaring that the kingdom of God has come and brought redemption to that piece of land, no matter how small. The selfless act of a child of the King has come against and defeated the selfish act of sin that caused someone to throw that piece of trash on the ground. It is a spiritual battle being fought in what looks like a simple act of picking up a piece of trash.

If this seems too radical, please consider that one of the reasons why God took the people of Israel out of the Promised Land was because they failed to give the land rest. One of the laws given to the people of Israel while in the desert with Moses was that every seven years they were to let the land rest. No plow was to turn the soil; no garden was to be planted or orchard pruned. This was to be the Sabbath year in which the people would trust the Creator King to provide the daily sustenance for them. Sadly, the people of Israel found this command too hard, so they as a group refused to follow it, leading them to the day when the King removed them from the land so that the land could rest (2 Chronicles 36:21).

The Book of Ezekiel also tells us that the Creator King was upset at the people of Israel for defiling the land through “their conduct and actions” (Ezekiel 36:17). Specifically, God was telling the people that their worship of idols and misconduct (i.e. the spilling of blood in the land through murder, human sacrifice, injustice and war), was harming the environment around them. The land itself had become defiled and, therefore, God was going to have them removed for a period of time. Later on, after the land had rested and the people have repented, the Creator King would bring the people of Israel back into the Promised Land and make it plentiful again with an abundance of grain, crops, and fruit (Ezekiel 36:24–36).

I tell you this because I want you to know how much the Creator King cares for his creation. He doesn’t just care for humanity, though humanity is his prime creation within whom he breathed his very soul. No, the heart of the King is for all his creation, no matter how small or seemingly unimportant. We, the followers of Jesus alive today, should be warned by the example of the people of Israel, and start taking care of the land and animals around us. We should be the people on the forefront of the environmental movements across the globe, planting trees, picking up trash, and finding sustainable ways of building things.

Sadly, people have bought into the lie that to take care of the environment is not to care for humanity. They think it is a zero sum game in which one side has to win no matter what. However, if we take a step back and look at the amount of resources we use in a given day or year, we will find that we typically consume way too much. This is especial true for us in the United States, where our very economy is built upon hyper consumption without a thought of waste or where those resources come from. This needs to change; it has to change as the Creator will protect his creation one way or another.

 

[box] An excerpt from my book, The Here and Not Yet (Vineyard International Publishing, 2017), pages 195-197.

Additional information on the topic of Environmental Stewardship can be found in the following three books:

Kingdom Theology Resources (Updated)

kogbooksA year ago I posted a list of Kingdom Theology resources for those wanting to know more about the Kingdom of God. This post is an updated version of that original post with even more resources for those wanting to know about the Kingdom.

The resources listed in the first section are dealing with the theological foundation of Kingdom Theology while the second section contain books whose focus in the practical application of Kingdom Theology.

Have fun digging into these books and wrestling with the concepts found between their covers.

 

Section One: Theological Foundation of Kingdom Theology

 

Kingdom Theology Proper

Breakthrough: Discovering the Kingdom by Derek Morphew – If you were to just read one other book on Kingdom Theology, this would be the book I would recommend. Derek Morphew is a South African Vineyard pastor, scholar and theologian who has been studying, living and teaching Kingdom Theology for decades. This volume beautifully captures his view of Jesus’ message of the enacted inaugurated eschatology.  Morphew also has published numerous other books on Kingdom Theology through Vineyard International Publishing.

Kingdom Come: How Jesus Wants to Change the World by Allen Mitsuo Wakabayashi – This is a good starter book on Kingdom Theology and what it means to join God in His Mission to redeem all of creation to Himself. Sadly however, Allen fails to take Kingdom Theology outside of the parameters of conservative evangelism (i.e. no signs and wonders or healing prayers in this book, just a focus on Bible studies and living a life devoted to Jesus).

Heaven on Earth: Experiencing the Kingdom of God in the Here and Now by R. Alan Streett – Written from a Pentecostal viewpoint, this book does a good job at explaining the kingdom message of Jesus as seen throughout the Bible. My main issue with the book is Alan Streett’s view on healing as he leans heavily towards the victory side of the tension with an emphasis on the faith of a person.

Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did and Why He Matters by N.T. Wright – N.T. Wright is one of the top theological historians of our times. Over the past few decades he has helped remind people of the first century historical context in which Jesus was born, raised, taught and died. Simply Jesus summarizes his more scholar works in a manner that the average person can understand. With that said, it must be noted that in this book N.T. Wright stops short of bring the inaugurated eschatology message of Jesus into the practical life of a believer. He touches on it a bit, but overall his main focus in Simply Jesus is to provide a historical context for the message of Jesus.

The Gospel of the Kingdom: Scriptural Studies in the Kingdom of God by George E. Ladd – Kingdom Theology is deeply indebted to George Ladd and his scholarly work on the kingdom of God. This book is based upon lectures by Ladd given during his time at Fuller Theological Seminary. While a bit scholarly at times, it goes a great overview of the ‘here and not yet.’ However similar to Wakabayashi’s book, Ladd stops short of fully exploring the practical ramifications of Kingdom Theology’s inaugurated eschatology. (Those who want a more scholarly version of Ladd’s works can check out The Presence of the Future: The Eschatology of Biblical Realism.)

The Genesis Café: Conversations on the Kingdom by Robby McAlpine – Written as a fictional conversation between three friends, The Genesis Café does a wonderful job of breaking down George Ladd’s writings on the Kingdom of God into a manner that the average church goer can understand. I would highly recommend starting with this book before reading Ladd’s Gospel of the Kingdom or The Presence of the Future as it will help establish a baseline understand of Ladd’s works.

“Start Here: Kingdom Essentials for Christians” by Don Williams – Written for folks who have just started following Jesus, this is a GREAT book for ALL Jesus followers as it summarizes the basic principles of being a Christian. While it is a bit of a topic book, I went ahead and listed it here as Don does a wonderful job of highlighting the value of Kingdom Theology within a very easy to read framework. Don, by the way, is one of the top Vineyard scholars/pastors out there. He was the one, for example, who crafted the Vineyard Statement of Faith.

Online Articles on the Kingdom

“What Is Kingdom Theology?” by Derek Morphew – A short article outlining the basics of Kingdom Theology

“Understanding Vineyard Theology: Introduction & Challenges” , “Kingdom Theology in the Vineyard: Upside Down & Now Not Yet” and “Vineyard Theology Doesn’t Mix with Dispensationalism” are some GREAT posts by Vineyard pastor Luke Geraty on the importance of Kingdom Theology.

“Defining ‘Kingdom of God’: Part 1, 2 and 3 – a three part blog article defining the central message of Jesus by yours truly (i.e. Joshua S. Hopping.

“A Vineyard Kingdom Hermeneutic: Pneumatic, Communal, Transformative, and Missional” by Luke Geraty – A paper written by Luke while at the University of Birmingham on how the Vineyard’s focus on the Kingdom effects how we read the Bible. While it contains a bunch of $5 words, it is a good read for those interested in Kingdom Theology.

Audio Files

“The Kingdom of God” – A five part sermon by Derek Morphew given at the Vineyard USA Southwest Regional Pastors and Leaders conference held in New Orleans from 5-8 June 2006.

“The Kingdom of God: Not just in theory but living a life of practice” – An 8 CD set produced by Robby Dawkins on that Kingdom of God means, how it works and how we are suppose to operate in it.

Metanarrative of the Scriptures

God’s EPIC Adventure by Winn Griffin – A great book which challenges the fragmentation of the biblical story in modern society by teaching the church to understand what “her story is and how to become the people of God living as his recreated humanity.” Griffin does a GREAT job at showing how each of the books of the Bible fit within the grand story of the Bible

The Biblical Metanarrative: One God, One Plan, One Story by Bill Jackson – Written from a Kingdom Theology viewpoint, Jackson traces the main themes of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. The material in the book has been taught around the world as a seven hour seminar called NothinsGonnaStopIt!

Drama of Scripture, The: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story by Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen – Written by two Redeemer University College professors, this book summarizes the grand story of the Bible in an easy to read narrative prose. Some folks will find this book easier to read than Griffins or Jackson’s book as it is both physical smaller and shorter in page length.

 

Section Two: Practical Application of Kingdom Theology

 

Physical Healing/Signs and Wonders

Do What Jesus Did: A Real-Life Field Guide to Healing the Sick, Routing Demons and Changing Lives Forever by Robby Dawkins – Robby Dawkins is a Vineyard pastor with a passion for modeling the ministry of Jesus on the streets. Filled with first hand stories of success and failure, this is a must read book for anyone wanting to do the stuff that Jesus did.

GodSpeak: How to Hear God’s Voice Without Getting Weird by Rick Evans and Jessica Fischer – Embracing the tension of the Kingdom and practicing the gifts of the Spirit can be scary, especially if you haven’t had very many good models. Evans and Fischer do a great job at walking the reader through the ins and outs of hearing God’s voice, prophecy, healing and what not.

Healing Ministry by Jack Moraine – There are a lot of books out there about healing the sick. Of them, I like Moraine’s book the best as he embraces the tension of the here and not yet. He also does a great job at talking about the dangers of breaking the tension and failing into a victory or suffering view of healing.

Empowered Evangelicals: Bringing Together the Best of the Evangelical and Charismatic Worlds by Rich Nathan and Ken Wilson – This is a classic book about embracing the tension of the Kingdom and living with the best parts of the Evangelical and Charismatic worlds within the United States of America. It is a must read for anyone recently exposed to the concept of the here and not yet.

Inner Healing

12 Steps with Jesus: How Filling the Spiritual Emptiness in Your Life Can Help Your Break Free from Addiction by Don Williams – This is a powerful book about the Spirit of God coming inside us and breaking us free from all forms of addiction (chemical, relational, etc.). Williams has also created 13 week recovery course called “Freedom for Life” based upon this book.

Experiencing Healing Prayer: How God Turns Our Hurts Into Wholeness  by Rick Richardson – While some of the books in this list deal more with physical healing, this volume deals with the inner healing of addictive behaviors and broken relationship.

Doing Healing: How to Minister God’s Kingdom in the Power of the Spirit by Alexander Venter – Written by a South African Vineyard pastor, this book contains a lot of practical advice those engaged in praying for both physical and inner healing. Venter also does a great job looking at the Kingdom Theological aspect of healing, although I do disagree with him on some minor points.

Environmental Stewardship

Saving God’s Green Earth: Rediscovering the Church’s Responsibility to Environmental Stewardship by Tri Robinson – Filled with lots of real-life stories, this book does a great job of laying out the biblical command for taking care of God’s creation.

Green Revolution: Coming Together to Care for Creation by Ben Lowe – Unlike some environmental books – Christian or not – Ben does not “preach” at you through the pages. There no lists of shoulds or should nots – nor were there any chapters condemning one group or another. Instead, Ben told the stories of regular people serving God through their personal lives, church, university and/or non-profit organization. These stories were held together by the greater theme of God’s work in the land.

Tending to Eden: Environmental Stewardship for God’s People by Scott C. Sabin –  This book isn’t just about being good stewards of God’s creation – it is a book geared towards getting past the symptoms of rural poverty and focusing on the root causes. It is a fantastic book showing the holistic nature of poverty and all the factors attributing to it.

Social Justice/Human Rights

God of the Empty-Handed: Poverty, Power and the Kingdom of God by Jayakumar Christian – Written by the Associate Director of World Vision India, this is a powerful book that is split into three parts. The first part provides the background to how different groups have defined poverty throughout history. The second part is a challenge to the reader to look at reality through the eyes of the poor. The last part is Christian’s proposal for tackling the issue of poverty across the world.

Kingdom Theology and Human Rights by Derek Morphew – Part of Morphew’s “Kingdom Theology Series,” this book looks at the Scriptural text for human rights before diving into the biblical theology thereof. After that, he looks at the history of human rights throughout the ages as well as the different theological viewpoints of human rights by the major branches of Christianity (Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Liberation, etc.).

Doing Reconciliation: Racism, Reconciliation and Transformation in Church and World by Alexander Venter – Written out of the pain of the South Africa apartheid, this book is about the theology and praxis of reconciliation and transformation through the lens of Kingdom Theology. This was one of the hardest and most challenging books I have ever read due to the real world application of the materials.

Missional Living

Speaking of Jesus: The Art of Not-Evangelism by Carl Medearis – It may sound odd, but in our 21st century world there is a difference between Jesus and the Christian culture that surrounds a lot of the churches in the world. In this book, Medearis does a wonderful job of helping the reader come back to a love of talking about Jesus rather than talking about the Christian culture in which they live. I highly recommend everyone reading this book!

The Art of Neighboring: Building Genuine Relationships Right Outside Your Door by Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon – Written by two pastors in Colorado, this book challenges the reader to think about what God is doing in their neighborhood. It also gives the readers a lot of practical examples and ideas on how to be a good neighbor.

Small Footprint, Big Handprint: How to Live Simply and Love Extravagantly by Tri Robinson – In today’s hyper-consumer culture it is easy to get caught up in buying stuff. Tri Robinson fights back against this consumption mentally with a mandate to live simply so that Jesus followers can have the time and money to love people extravagantly.

Time To Do Something

I know I have talked about i-61 Ministries before…but I just can’t stop sharing their videos and articles as I think they are on the right track. As Tri says in the below video, it is easy to get overwhelmed when looking at the state of the world today – poverty, environmental decline, spiritual decay, etc., and etc…

However we have to start somewhere doing something.

Just like Matthew West states in his song “Do Something”:

I woke up this morning
Saw a world full of trouble now
Thought, how’d we ever get so far down
How’s it ever gonna turn around
So I turned my eyes to Heaven
I thought, “God, why don’t You do something?”
Well, I just couldn’t bear the thought of
People living in poverty
Children sold into slavery
The thought disgusted me
So, I shook my fist at Heaven
Said, “God, why don’t You do something?”
He said, “I did, I created you”

If not us, then who
If not me and you
Right now, it’s time for us to do something
If not now, then when
Will we see an end
To all this pain
It’s not enough to do nothing
It’s time for us to do something

 

So, what are you going to?

From Pastor to Mister: A Transition Story

PRV Plague and flowersI’ve started to write this post several times over the past few weeks but failed to do so due to either life circumstances or raging emotions…

Twelve days ago on June 1st Emily and I officially stepped down as the pastors of the Payette River Vineyard Christian Fellowship (PRV). At the same time the King and the church body commissioned Richard and Mardie Engelhardt as the new pastors.

Wow…I’m amazing at the emotions that came with typing that statement… it is all kind of crazy and hard to believe… a year ago the thought of leaving Sweet was a distance thought…now it is a reality.

And the way in which it all happened is just amazing…

Last year I was privately wrestling with trying to balance my day-job, leading the church, being a husband and a father…not to mention trying to maintain a health spiritual life… I was, quite frankly, very close to burn out and was starting to be ineffective in all areas of my life as I was simply reacting to events rather than having time to process and plan ahead. At the same time there was a growing desire within Emily and mine hearts to start a new church somewhere or, at the very least, to engage in ministry in a different cultural context.

Yet for all the discontentment and pain, I really couldn’t see a way out of this crazy catch 22… Then a series of event took place which ended up with me attending the Vineyard Missional Leaders Meeting (MLM) last October. At that meeting the Lord connected me with several people who helped me pray through and process the growing discontent in my heart.

These folks helped reveal the two big issues within me that tried to block all the wise counsel I was receiving – the first was the lie that if I stepped down I would be a failure; yet another statistic of a new pastor who couldn’t make it… the second was a strong desire to make sure the people of Sweet had a solid pastor to take care of them, which, at this point, seemed like a HUGE problem as there was no one in the wings to take over…

The first issue was resolved through the constant encouragement of Craig Simonian and Ed Loughran – both of whom literally beat that lie out of me!! (Thanks guys!!!)

The second issue was a tad harder…or so I thought… Karen Fields and Jared Boyd both encouraged me to think out of the box and trust God to take care of the people, as He loves them far more than I ever could. Accordingly, I mustered up some courage after I returned from the MLM and talked to the PRV Elders about the possibility of stepping down. They, in turn, surprised me in saying that they knew this was coming and that they full supported Emily and me moving on to something else. All they asked is that we would stay with them until June 2014, after which they would release us to follow the call of God on our lives.

Then in a move only God could orchestrate, I found out that the Vineyard USA had decided to host their very first pastoral transitions conference in Boise…and, if that wasn’t enough, the speakers included my sending pastor (Tri Robinson), area leader (Trevor Estes) and regional overseer (Allen Hodges). It was like God was saying, “You are on the right path.” So Emily and me went – taking with us one of our Elder couples – and had a great time learning about how to help lead a congregation through a leader change.

Then on January 5, 2014 I bite the bullet and told the church body about what God was doing in Emily and my heart. The church’s response was amazing as pretty much every person there confirmed to us that we were indeed supposed to move on. Folks were telling us stories about how God told them that we were leaving weeks before as they were walking up to us in church…or how earlier that week God had told them during their devotional time… it was, quite honestly, unexpected and thrilling at the same time!!

Continue reading From Pastor to Mister: A Transition Story

My Life Through The Three Movements of the Holy Spirit: Pentecostal, Charismatic, and Third Wave

azuzs streetEd Stetzer, the President of LifeWay Research and great missiologist, has recently embarked on a series of blog posts about the Pentecostal / Charismatic / Third Wave Movements. The first post starts off by defining the “continualist movement” (i.e. Christians who believe that the spiritual gifts are still active today) as opposed to the cessastionists who believing that such gifts have stopped. From there, Stetzer gives a good history overview of the beginning of Pentecostalism before summarizing their doctrine/theology.

In the second post, Stetzer tackles the Charismatic movement – with a great history on how that movement got started in in the early 1960s. This was, to me, the most interesting article of the series as I didn’t know very much about how the Charismatic movement got started. (Spoiler: God used Dennis Bennett at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church in Van Nuys, CA to spark the movement).

The next post was about the Third Wave, which moved through the USA in the 1980’s. This wave was different from both the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements in both doctrine and practice. Pentecostalism was rooted in the Holiness Revival of the 1800’s and hold to a doctrine of subsequence (meaning that a believer is fill with the Holy Spirit in a second, or subsequence, event after conversion). The Charismatic movement pick up this doctrine of subsequence and brought it into the mainline churches (i.e. Anglican, Episcopal, Roman Catholic, Lutherans, Orthodox, and Reformed).

Third Wavers, a term coined by C. Peter Wagner Professor of Church Growth at Fuller, disagreed with this doctrine. They believe that a follower of Jesus is baptized with the Holy Spirit at the time of conversion and that one could be filled with the Spirit without speaking in tongues (something the Pentecostal and Charismatic churches would disagree with). Stetzer lists John Wimber of the Vineyard and Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel as proponents of this view.

Wild Goose Chase Computer imageAs I write this overview of Ed Stetzer’s articles, I can’t help but smile as I’ve personally been shaped by all three movements. My paternal great-grandmother, paternal great-granduncle, paternal great-uncle, maternal grandfather, mother, step-father, maternal aunt, and maternal uncle all have been licensed and/or ordinated pastors within Pentecostalism (mostly with the Independent Assemblies, who broke off from the Assemblies of God in 1967). Growing up, I remember attending Buddy Harrison’s Faith Christian Fellowship in Tulsa, Ok, before my family sifted over to some Charismatic churches in Tyler, TX. College found me deeply rooted in a local Church On The Rock church, a network of Charismatic churches in Texas started by Larry Lea. After college I moved to Idaho where I fell headlong into the Third Wave through Tri Robinson and the Vineyard Movement.

Looking back, I can see where these three movements have shaped my worldview and theology. My Pentecostal roots taught me to look at the world through spiritual eyes, seeing the spiritual battle waging around us every day. It also introduced me to spiritual gifts, miracles, and the Christus victor atonement model, among other things. My journey within the Charismatic movement tampered my typically emotional self and introduced me to the Reform/Calvinist approach to spiritual gifts as well as the penal substitutionary atonement model. Charismatic and Evangelical college professors also opened my eyes up biblical studies, giving me a taste of the joy that comes with studying the Scriptures.

Life within the Third Wave over the last ten years have transformed me once again – opening my eyes up the center-set beauty of enacted inaugurated eschatology Kingdom Theology. Big words describing a worldview deeply rooted in the Kingship of Jesus who transformed history and all of creation with his birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension. Gone is guilt of not having enough faith when praying for the sick, or anything else matter; gone is the doctrine of subsequence (granted, I was introduced to the Holy-Spirit-at-conversion concept at the Charismatic leaning Church On The Rock); gone is the strict holiness club mind set of Pentecostalism…

It has been an interesting journey full of twists and turns (like any good journey). Three unique movements with different histories and doctrines with some overlapping theology and practices…three movements that have left their stamp on global church and my life. Three movements all chasing after the Holy Spirit with a belief that God is still working in the world today and is calling His people to step out in faith and do the impossible.

Fun times. Let’s go.

Seven Principles to Staying “ALL IN” with Jesus

steve nicholsonLast Wednesday evening at the 2013 Vineyard National Conference Steve Nicholson outlined seven principles to staying “ALL IN” with Jesus. These principles hold some good truths within their words – truths that are worth looking at and pondering a while. It should also be noted that they come from the lips of someone who has been pastoring and living “ALL IN” the Kingdom for 37 years… so yeah, they are worth looking at.

Seven Principles to Staying “ALL IN” with Jesus

1.    Keep being filled in order to give

While this is true for anyone, it is especially true for those of us who serve the church on a weekly basics. Pastors, ministry leaders, and their spouses can easily get drained as “church” becomes a job to do rather than a time of refreshing. Yet if they – or should I say, “I” – want to continue to give out and love people day in and day out, year in and year out, we MUST find ways and time to receive Jesus’ refreshing spirit and peace. This could be daily mediation, hobbies, or time away at conferences…or something totally different. Whatever it is, we need to be filled up with the Spirit of God in order to give out to others.

2.    We need to keep telling the stories

Stories have a way of building faith and communicating truths that impact one’s daily lives. Accordingly, we need to continue to tell the stories about what God is doing in our lives and communities. Not just the stories of old – which are VERY important, just think for a moment how much of the Scriptures is stories – but current stories. Stories of praying for healings, stories of how Jesus changed lives, stories of stepping in faith, stories of success and failure. And the story tellers need to be folks from all generations as each generation need to be actively walking with Jesus and seeing Him work in their lives.

radicaly in3.    Complete integrity in life and in reporting

The truth will come out so don’t even try to lie or ‘beef up’ what God did. If you prayed for someone and their arm still hurts, say it – don’t try to cover it up by claiming a miracle when nothing changed. The same goes with the number of salvations or people attending an event. If you want a number, count folks – or, at the very least, under estimate the number of folks as it doesn’t help anyone to claim huge numbers. That is just pride.

4.    We need to have a theology of both success and failure

Successes are good. No doubt about that. Yet we also have to have a theology that allows for failure. What happens when you pray and nothing happens? What happens when you take a step of faith and fall on your face? We need to have a theology about how to deal with that – how to get back up and keep going.

5.    Stay in the field of harvest

It is easy to get into a “holy huddle” and stop going out into the streets and telling people about Jesus. We, and I am speaking to myself, need to keep going out and hanging with the non-believers. We need to make sure the organization of the church does not stop us from being the church!

6.    Endure through the desert times

Endurance is hard. It is very, very, very hard. Yet as Tri Robinson is fond of saying, “Keep showing up.” Showing up is more than half the battle – it is most, if not all, the battle. Steve in his talk also pointed out how it was the Holy Spirit that drove Jesus into the desert for 40-days after his baptism. The Holy Spirit. In other words, God may have a reason for taking you into the desert… keep on showing up and following God and He will lead you through the valley of the shadow of death.

7.    Train those who are younger

Don’t just do the stuff. Grab someone younger than yourself, either in age or in faith, and model it with them watching. Then let them do it while you watch – then let them go by their selves. Give away what Jesus gave you for it is His anyway.

Thank You, Tri and Nancy Robinson!!

Tri and Nancy Robinson (picture courtesy of trirobinson.org)

My first ‘real’ introduction to the Vineyard Movement was in February 2003 when visited the Vineyard Boise after moving to Idaho from Texas (I put ‘real’ in quotes as I did visit a concert at the Tyler Vineyard church in Texas in 1999…but they were just a bit too radical for me at the time… oh how we change!).  For weeks I had visited different churches looking for a new family to worship with…only nothing seemed to fit… then I walked into the Vineyard Boise on Wednesday evening, tired and not quite sure what to expect.

Amazingly enough I didn’t make five steps into the lobby before I was inundated by hellos and handshakes!!   This was quite the shocker to me as I was used to visiting churches were I could walking in and out without anyone saying anything at all. Yet, here was a group of people who just grabbed you and loved you before they knew a thing about you.  A few weeks later when I attended a Sunday morning service with my wife, who had recently joined me in Idaho, the same welcoming love was poured out on us. Apparently it wasn’t just a fluke…

On that first Sunday, Pastor Tri Robinson started a new series on the book of James – a book that had been on my wife’s heart for the last few weeks. Afterward, Emily turned to me and said, “I don’t know if this is the right church or not, but I want to stay through this series!” And that, as they say, was that as we never left.

There’s a saying in the Vineyard that you don’t join the Vineyard, you just find out that you are Vineyard. That is so true! The longer we were there, the more we felt as if we had come home. Soon we were serving in the Vineyard Boise food pantry and attending not one, but two small groups!

And while a church is never depended upon any one individual or couple, I can say without a doubt that the culture and environment that pulled Emily and me into the Vineyard Boise, and ultimately the Vineyard Movement, was shaped by the life of Tri and Nancy Robinson.  Mercy, compassion, worship and the scriptures are values that have shaped their life and, as such, the lives of those walked with and around them over the years.

This week marks a huge shift in their lives has Tri and Nancy stepped down from their Senior Pastor role of the Vineyard Boise. They now, as Tri said on November 4th, have a pastor (i.e. Trevor and Andrea Estes, the new Senior Pastors) for the first time since 1989 when they left Lancaster, California, with twelve family to start the Vineyard Boise.

Yet instead of retiring, Tri, who is always on the go and makes me tired whenever I even think about the stuff he does, has stepped into the leadership role of I-61 Ministries, a local church based ministry that focuses on the seven areas of world crises most responsible for human oppression. He is also going to be working with Vineyard USA to help strengthen and fan the flames of mercy and compassion throughout the Vineyard Movement, nationally and globally.

Thank you Tri and Nancy for following Jesus and creating an place that loved people. Thank you for teaching me how to blend mercy and compassion with worship and the study of the Scriptures. Thank you for everything and may your next adventure be filled with the mercies and peace of Jesus.

Blessings.

Reflections on the 2012 Vineyard Northwest Regional Conference

I’m back and wiping the cobwebs off my keyboard as I have not touched a computer in a week and a half. Scary, I know…but it was also very refreshing as I attended the Vineyard Northwest Regional Conference in Vancouver, Washington, at the end of June before enjoying a week at the Oregon coast with the family (a much needed vacation and soul rest).

Now that I’m back, I would like to take a few days and post some reflections on the conference and the Vineyard Movement as a whole.

The theme of the 2012 Vineyard Northwest Regional Conference was “Convergence: For Such a Time As This” as everything is changing this month. The Northwest Region has effetely been split into two separate regions as of this month with Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South and North Dakota becoming the “Big Sky Region.” The theme of convergence also points to the changes on the national front as Phil Strout takes over as National Director on September 13th.

As one could expect, all of the main sessions (and some of the workshops) were focused on this theme. Below is a quick summary of the five main sessions:

Current Vineyard USA National Director and Acting NW Region Overseer Bert Waggoner kicked off the conference with a look back at the landmarks in our history. Pulling from Joshua 4:1-9 where the Lord tells the Israelites to take twelve stones from out of the Jordan River and create a memorial for the people, Bert listed eleven ‘stones’ that God has given to us as a Vineyard Movement and as a region. While the full list is a tad long to list here, I want to mention the two stones that really touched me:

  • Stone #6: “Do you remember…how freeing it was to grasp the message of the Kingdom?”

Ah…yes…I can remember this day very, very clearly. It was during a small group in 2003 when the hosts invited Kevin Thienes, a Vineyard Boise lay pastor, to come and share with us all about prayer and healing. At some point during that Q&A, my view on the Bible and Jesus began to change and a new way of living came into view. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in miracles or healings as I came from a Charismatic background in which all kinds of stuff used to happen… no, it was the theological underpinnings to the experiences that finally made sense and jived with the Scripture. The rabbit hole was opened at that point and there was no going back.

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