A Tasty Treat for a Hungry World

Living by the Book

This morning I was tired when I sat down to read. The coffee machine was sputtering in the background and I had one responding brain cell. I decided to pray before I read because I’m serious about this being a living thing, not a religious duty.

The first thing I read in Deut 4:6 was that if the people followed God, others would look at them as being wise and understanding. Another cell must have gone online. A bunch of thoughts came…”fooled them” and “if you keep quiet people will think you’re wise” and “this isn’t us, or at least me.” Then it hit me, we look wise and understanding, even act wise and understanding, but only because we are doing what God said. It’s actually God, not us. If you follow a recipe people may say what a good cook you are, but what they are really saying is that whoever put the recipe together is brilliant and you, at best, are a great direction follower. The original chef gets the glory and we get the joy and delight of seeing the recipe work and make those who eat it happy.

What a case for “putting on our Lord Jesus Christ” and submitting to God. When we add to the recipe or ignore it, we ruin it. The Spirit makes us imitators of the chef and everyone sees his glory and splendor. We get a pat on the back, but it is never us, it is Him.

And then the reading in Luke 6 was, “Why do you call me Lord, and don’t do as I say?” and then the houses…one builder followed Jesus’ words, the other ignored them. It is not in us, it is in following the building instructions, the cook book.

And I’m sad to think that we have all this and it is as simple as following directions, but we ignore, doubt, neglect, forget and worst of all, interject our ideas, emotions, self-righteousness, and sin into the recipe and we ruin it and people don’t like it, and then they call God a failure.

This is why Paul says, “Besides this, you know what hour it is…Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light….put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the Flesh, to gratify its desires.”

In helpless, humble, grateful Love we need to watch Jesus in the Bible and with great care and confidence, follow His recipe.

Can we be Christ’s Followers?

Hey people, let's grow up.  I served in post modern, liberal, public health Germany. The issue is that, for Christ, we need to reach out to our neighbor...so...  Romans 13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be subject, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due. 8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 11 Besides this you know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed; 12 the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light;

Good Works in Their Time of Need

 

I have always been struck by how often Paul mentions “good works,” or “good deeds” in Titus and in other places. While the “felt needs” approach might get overworked in our church growth, magic tricks, and secret formulas mentality, it is still very biblical and meant to work in a “line of sight” way. That is, we walk out our doors, see a need in our field of vision (in the network of friends and acquaintances God has given us) and we meet it. Very simple mission.

So I’ve got this goal to feed birds. Weeks ago when I began I felt ignored and rejected. I should have been totally disheartened when I discovered that the couple kitty-corner from us has their deck fixed up like “birds are us.” But hey, there are thousands of birds here and I’ve noticed that they go on a feeding route, always visiting, never exhausting one supply, and always looking for new places to feed.

So on my low budget approach, I’ve made two new feeders. I’ve used old bread. I’ve tried new things and diversified. And just as I was getting going, it got cold again. Actually, last night it snowed and I love it. And then something happened. With all the wind and snow the birds are scrambling for cover. So in an act of compassion (risking the cold and whatever weeds might come later) I just went out and threw some seed in areas I could see they were using for cover, like the back fence. I put seed all over, even on the feeders I made before that they seldom use.

So what? I’ve got birds! All over. They didn’t notice my feeders when things were going well, but in this emergency, with easy seed there for the pecking, Voila!

So what are some applications for church planting

First, a non-stop attitude and interest in cracking the code

Second, the willingness to try all sorts of things

Third, getting to know the “birds” and their needs.

Fourth, having compassion to act when the need arises

Fifth, probably should be first, patience.

It helps to read up

So, after going by my gut, I decided to check out some web pages in case they had some stuff I hadn’t stumbled on yet. 

Talk about missing the obvious.

This one page…the autobahn society or something… listed 5 things birds like and one of them was “water.”  You’re kidding.

So I’ve got this old, crumbly bird bath out there and I humbled myself and (since it really wasn’t a lot of work anyway) put 2 US gallons of water in it and Violin! (spelling?) they came.  Actually, I know they already knew it was there, just that this one guy seldom puts water in it.  I had all sorts of birds.  We have been upgraded to the official list of places to visit.

I guess how this all plugs into our mission is that the humblest and easiest thing to do is listen to others and find the stuff already in the area.  It still is very simple.  Get among them and show them where they can find water.  And Violin!?!  We’ll see.

Still getting to know the flighty target group

Yesterday I saw the benefit of diversification. We now have 3 different venues…all low cost… and all 3 bird feeders were hit yesterday. We still have a lot to learn though, but we’re making some good observations.

What I’m noticing about this emerging generation of birds is that they feed on a route, that is, they have a standard feeding journey. It doesn’t matter that they find a pile of seed, they still travel. I would think they would stay put and exhaust the supply, but they’re smarter than that. They visit all the feeding spots and even expand the list, because, who knows, a family moves and the next people don’t feed birds. I think they’re brilliant, and I think God made them that way. If the birds were American consumers, they’d ravish the place like locusts and then move on. But no, they are doing what they are designed to do.

Is it possible that we demand too much of people, absolute true devotion to our church? I know analogies break down and watching birds adapt to their environment is not recommended for church planters, but it does make you think. I have yet to find a church that can meet all the needs of its people, especially in terms of disciple being/making. Our Western churches (traditional, seeker, emerging) seem to academicize, institutionalize and add layers of fat and insulation to people at the speed of light.

The real issue is, are we obeying God, are we leading them into what He considers to be true follower-ship, or just the level of church that makes us feel comfortable and keeps them feeding at our feeder? Is it about Him and them and the lost, or is it about us and this group? The reality of life is that if people entered into true discipleship they might not feel comfortable at some churches, maybe even our churches and they may become less “my group” driven unless the group is driven by mission and discipleship (misscipleship? Or just simple biblical discipleship?).

Anyway, I’m glad their not staving, I’m enjoying seeing them around, and I’m intrigued by the challenge.

Now, back to reading George and Growing True Disciples.

Taking the Challenge

Now all of this is prefaced on the fact that I just might not be patient enough. There is always the possibility that if I just waited, the same results would follow.

I figured maybe the feeder was too near the house and was freaking the birds out, so I took the heavy umbrella stand and put it closer to the back of the yard…sort of in the middle…and put the pole and feeder there.

Then I broke up the Panera© bread into more bite-sized chunks. So the results…the blue jays found it, but they had found it by the house. What they do is grab a piece and fly away…so they have this nervous, security thing going on.

On the other hand, we have herds of robins and we get like 7 or more at a time scanning our back yard. First, they must know the yard pretty well because they knew the umbrella stand was a foreign object, but eventually got over it and came close. But to my amazement, they went right past the bread chunks on the ground. These are definitely blue collar birds. They want meat, worms, bugs, but not Panera. I’ll bet they’d eat wonder white bread with zero nutrients before they’d touch the swanky, artesian breads of panera.

So here is what I see in church planting. Patience is important. Observation is critical. Getting to know who you are trying to reach is crucial. Being willing to experiment and get into the culture is the only way to do it. Thankfully my livelihood is not connected to having a flock feeding at my feeder or I’d be a wreck, but maybe that is part of the problem with this whole business, it’s not about doing it for me, it’s about being, living for Him and for them.

And God does take care of His own.  Elijah actually got fed by birds doing the Father’s business.

Bonzai!

But I don't think the birds like Panera sun hardened bread. It's gotta be right for them, not for me. More to learn if you want to reach people...or birds.