A Sad Day in Des Moines

I went out to coffee today to get some work done.  I decided to drive to Java G's.  Even though there are a lot of coffee shops between my home and there, they are the one shop in Des Moines that has put it all together: great espresso drinks, nice ambiance, and free internet.  A lot of shops have one or maybe two of these, but Java G's is the only shop with all three.  I'm very sad to say that I just finished my last drink from them.  Today is their last day of business.  I remember when I first went to Java G's 5 years ago on a visit to Des Moines with Heather.  We were excited that upscale coffee had finally made it to Iowa.  The coffee scene here in Des Moines has grown by leaps and bounds since that day 5 years ago, but it is taking a turn for the worse with the loss of Java G's.  They did everything right.  I guess that is why they are going out of business.  It seems most people would rather go to Starbucks and pay for internet, sit in an artificially transferrable  environment, be covertly barraged with marketing schemes, and be charged too much for bad coffee.  (Come to think of it, replace the word "coffee" with "theology" in the above sentence and that is what it seems a lot people in America want out of church.)  I'm really disappointed.  It is just a reminder that nice, well-run, local establishments like Java G's are an endangered species in America.  More generally, it is a sad reminder that doing things right doesn't necessarily guarantee success.

In the Name of Jesus

About three years ago I sat down to read a book, In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership by Henri Nouwen, for a class I was taking at Fuller called Henri Nouwen: A Spirituality of Imperfection. Taking the title of the class a little too seriously, I wallowed in my imperfection by procrastinating reading the book. With a review of the book due in two days I decided to try to read it in one night. After all, it was the shortest book I was ever required to read in seminary: 107 pages with large font and large margins. Armed with my usual highlighter and notepad I was ready to identify key phrases, analyze arguments, form opinions and efficiently bust out an "A" review like many I had written in the past. Little did I know how much that night would change me. I didn't get past the first few pages before I stopped reading the book and started listening to the writer. He said something startling, "I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant." I had to reread that sentence. Irrelevant?! Was that a typo? How could that be? For the past year everything I had been working on at church and thinking about at seminary had been focused on being relevant; making the gospel meaningful for the current generation; replacing old methods of doing church with new methods more important to the emerging postmodern generation. Heck, I even got a subscription to Relevant magazine. What was Nouwen thinking? I read on. Before long my eyes began to tear up as I began to realize the truth in what the author was saying and the error in my own ways of thinking and being.

Last night, having felt somewhat confused about ministry of late, I read the book again. As it did three years ago, Nouwen's insights and illustrative stories adjusted my priorities and focus in ministry. Here is just a little of what he talks about.

Nouwen uses Jesus' temptation in the wilderness as a model for the temptations that Christian leaders of the future will face: the temptation to be relevant, the temptation to be popular, and the temptation to be powerful. His identifying these as temptations rather than goals or blessings is completely opposite of what we are often are told - not just by the world, but by the church.  Some of the influences in this direction are obvious like with Joel Olsteen's books Your Best Life Now and Become a Better You. But some are less obvious, like this article entitled "A New Approach to Success" in Relevant magazine. Both, however, operate under a similar assumption, that God's desire is for His followers, and particularly leaders, to be relevant, popular, and powerful (they use softer terms like meaningful, well-networked, and influential).

Nouwen challenges this way of thinking by offering three alternative ways of living. First, through an intimate prayer life we build a firsthand knowledge of God's unconditional love for us and others that acts as an anchor when we are constantly encouraged to prove our competence.  Second, by confessing our faults and forgiving those who have wounded us we remove the safe distance between ourselves and those to whom we are called to minister and  keep ourselves from projecting an ego-boosting image of spiritual superiority.  Third, instead of moving along a path of upward mobility that involves manipulating and controlling others while we get to where we want to go, we choose to follow Christ down a path of downward mobility full of humility and powerlessness that ends where we don't want to go.

Adopting these principles as a foundation for ministry enables the Christian leader to think with the mind of Christ.  This kind of thinking - thinking modeled by Jesus  - is what is needed for Christian leaders to go beyond being one of the many voices in our world "trying to help their fellow human beings cope with the stresses and strains of everyday living."  It postures one to understand and proclaim all the seemingly random events of our lives as opportunities to be led deeper into the heart of Christ, a journey that ultimately ends in spiritual healing and victory.

This is a message I need to hear over and over again.  The question God is asking me and asking his church is not, "What have you done for me lately?" or,"What do others think of you?" but, "Do you love me?"  That is the only question that matters, and my answer to that question has nothing to do with whether I'm relevant or irrelevant, whether I'm popular or unpopular, or whether I'm powerful or powerless.

This is why I believe theology is so important.  Theology is just another word for studying or knowing God.  Ahead of studying church-planting strategies, creative methods of ministry or diagnosing the culture, ministers must be theologians.  They need to know God - who He is and how He works in the world.  Theology must never be allowed to move to the sidelines of our lives, because when it does we can easily miss the lessons God wants to teach us.

The sin of the Pharisees wasn't legalism as much as it was missing what God was doing in their midst.

a sure-fire investment

We recently moved to a new place (new to us anyway) in an older part of Des Moines. We like it so much better than our old place. All except for one thing: the shower. Before deciding to signing the new lease, Heather and I closely examined everything we thought was important. We opened cupboards, checked outlets, turned the oven on & off, examined closets, and tried out the faucets. The one thing we never thought to try was the shower. It looked to be a new shower head, and seemed like it would be fine. That was until I took a shower the evening of Moving Day. I stood in the shower dirty and sweaty from a long day of moving, longing for a refreshing stream of water to clean me off and renew my energy. Instead, to my horror, all I got was a trickle barely strong enough to clean the dirt off an insect. With every dribble of water that came out, I sunk deeper into the depths of despair. I began to think I never should have rented the place. I envisioned going through the next year of life always feeling a little dirty. My sanctuary that was my shower was gone, and I had voluntarily given it up.

After the shower, my dismay slowly turned to problem-solving. How could I make this shower work better? I first thought about replacing the showerhead, but figured that the previous occupants had surely come up against the same problem and picked an optimum showerhead for the situation. After all, it looked nice and new. I also assumed that, being an old house, there must be a water pressure issue that nothing could be done about short of replumbing the house. As a last resort, I tinkered with the shower knobs and improved the situation slightly. I found out that if I turned the hot water knob on as hard as it would go and then balanced it with the cold water I got a little more pressure than before, making a shower at least tolerable. That has been the state of things the past two weeks.

Thursday night, things changed. I was headed out to Costco to get gas for the car, and decided to thumb through the Costco coupon book we had recently received in the mail. I noticed a $10 off coupon for a Waterpik Linea 12-mode showerhead. I decided to at least take a look at it. It was $37.99, but the coupon made it $27.99. I was skeptical about it working on our shower, but decided to give it a try and return it if it didn't work. It was the best $27.99 I have ever spent in my life! The showehead had a removable flow regulator for houses with low water pressure; I rememoved that and then installed it. It only took about 5 minutes, then I gave it a try. The water blasted out so hard I thought it might bore a hole in the tub. I was so elated I took a 30 minute shower that night, and again yesterday morning, and again last night. As soon as I'm finished writing this blog, I am going to take another shower.

For the cost of a GAP swearshirt, or a dinner for two at Olive Garden, I got something that greatly improves my happiness, productivity, and overall outlook on life every day and night. Pastor Jim recently talked about how consumer products always over promise and under deliver. This is one exception to that rule. The package could have said, "Your're new Waterpik showerhead will fill your life with a renewed sense of joy, fulfillment, and happiness regardless of your life circumstances," and it still would not have over promised. I can't understand why anyone would pay money for a big screen TV, or finish their basement, or buy a new set of golf clubs, and still have a rinky-dink showerhead. If we ever run into a boat load of money and build our own custom house, this is the showerhead I think I'll get.

My First Caucus

Even though we just got home from Oregon yesterday, Heather and I decided to embrace the frosty winter wonderland in our front wheel drive sleigh and caucus. Because of parking issues, we barely made it to our caucus site before the 7:00PM deadline. Once inside, the whole process was more chaotic and ad hoc than I thought it would be. We were directed to a room specifically allotted to our party that was way too small for the 260 people gathered there. The first thing that was done was to count every eligible voter in the room. This was done by the chair by simply counting everyone and then asking the entire group, "Is there anyone who I did not count?" We were then told to stand in certain areas of the room depending on who we were supporting. The room was so full of people that it was difficult to discern any kind of dividing line between the six groups that formed. We just stood in our area and eventually someone came around and counted everyone in our group. This was done by making eye contact with the counter, and then sitting down once you were counted. A couple people made this process more confusing because they were not physically able to sit down on the floor (there were not chairs) after they were counted. Finally, all the groups were counted and the candidates with a number of supporters that totaled less that 15% of the number of people gathered in the room were declared to be ineligible. Those who were supporting an ineligible candidate were given the option of realigning with an eligible candidate or sitting off to the side in support of nobody. People supporting any of the eligible candidates were given the option of talking to any of those who were supporting ineligible candidates to convince them to realign with their candidate. This process took quite a while. Finally, three groups were formed (three of the candidates were declared ineligible) and a total count was acquired from each group. At that point the total number of supporters for each candidate were divided by 15% of the total number of eligible voters in the room to determine how many representatives each candidate would receive from the precinct. The results were then announced to the entire group and representatives were chosen from each group.

In the past, voting had always been for me a private, orderly and official feeling event. This caucus was refreshing. It was public, loud, spontaneous, and disorganized. More like real life.