Face Set Like Flint

When we moved to Northwest Indiana from Florida to plant a church, I really wasn't even sure what that meant.  I was on a team in Tampa that was planting a church and doing everything that I thought I always wanted to do.  It's just that now that I was doing it, I realized that it was absolutely not want I wanted to do.  The "crowd to core" mentality (whether people label it that way or not) is not something I'm interested in working with any more. I've never told people that I was starting an emerging church.  I've never told people that we aren't.  I don't have any particular love or distaste for the word or the idea.  This month's issue has some fantastic perspectives that, I guess, come from the realm of emerging - Julie Clawson's article on worship is wonderful.  Bob Hyatt brings such practical importance and synthesis to the glut of information and discussion about what emerging is and isn't.  He points to how the experience has transformed, inspired and equipped him.  I love everything Bob has to say. There is something going on.  Jesus is saying something to his Church now.  I don't think it has "happened" yet, but he's giving us warning.  At some point, there will be no more dialogue, no more conversation, no more opinion.  We will all be in the midst of it and must decide how we will respond to what he is doing.  The description that I find myself often using comes from Jesus' message to his followers on the way to the cross and resurrection.  He starts warning them early, "I'm going to Jerusalem. I'm going to be betrayed."  Jesus says that several times before it happens and we get a little feedback about what his disciples could be thinking about it.  None of them really understand what he's telling them.  When all the warning was over, we read that Jesus "set his face like flint" that he was going to Jerusalem.  There are basically four responses among his followers, and I think they represent the responses we see and will continue to see to what Jesus is saying now. What was Bartholomew thinking?  We don't know.  He was a follower.  He was there - in the upper room, the garden, the seaside breakfast after he rose.  Bartholomew was among those wondering whether or not he could actually be the betrayer.  But Scripture doesn't let us know what he says or thinks beyond that.  Most of the disciples fit this category of response.  This is information enough - oblivion.  I've noticed that there are large portions of "the body" that don't seem to notice what's going on.  They're enjoying the ride and not all that tuned in to the frictions the rest of us are feeling. Peter openly resists Jesus.  I hear people doing this today, don't you?  They don't want to hear it - they don't want to believe that things will ever be any different than they are right now.  Any suggestion that it will ever be different than it is today can't be tolerated. Judas betrayed him.  There are people that will still conspire to kill Jesus if he doesn't do what they want him to.  They'll destroy themselves in an attempt to destroy him and they'll accept whatever momentary prize they can grab. John simply reclined against his chest.  This is where I want to be.  He didn't understand it either.  He asked, "Is it I?"  He fell asleep in the garden too, but John was quiet and listening.  He was there no matter what happened.  He saw it all unfold and actually entered the empty tomb. What has been important for me to remember is that three of these four reaction types go on to follow Jesus and "survive" what he promised would happen.  Only Judas was shipwrecked.  Even Peter's resistance, defiance and denial was redeemed.  Are the people arguing over every little change someday going to be among the biggest supporters of the message we're hearing.  I think so. Next-Wave is one of the ways that I lean against him and listen.  I usually take this moment to encourage you to jump into the conversation by commenting - of course I hope you'll still do that - but this is an amazing issue to "listen" to.  Bill Dahl's cover piece is still doing things in me! You can reach Scott by email at scottjbane@gmail.com