Wayne Jacobsen

Our latest edition of The God Journey entitled Koinonia Killers has just been posted on our sister website thegodjourney.com.

In this edition Brad and I discuss koinonia killers. Christian fellowship isn’t rocket science. People passionate about Jesus who get near each other find themselves sharing his life without much work at all… unless something gets in the way. And believe us, things can get in the way. We call those koinonia killers and Brad and Wayne not only discuss the kinds of things people can do that sabotage, even unwittingly, but also what others can do to turn those moments into doorways of growth instead of barriers to body life.

On a personal note, today is Sara’s birthday, so we’re celebrating that. The fires in Southern Cal are unbelievable and many have called to make sure we’re out of harm’s way. The big one is about 10 miles from us but moving away. We had one behind our development yesterday, but a quick response got it out in two hours. In addition to the podcast, I put up a new chapter in the Jake saga.

First thing tomorrow morning I head to Visalia, California to do a staff and elders retreat for a Mennonite fellowship there and then speak at their weekend services. Yes, this is a strange invitation for me, but I’m excited for the hungers I hear coming from those folks, and to be reacquainted with many of my friends from that region.

Sometimes when I’m responding to an email, I’m aware that what I’m writing is intended for more than just the person I’m writing to, that the question is universal enough that others find themselves in similar situations. When that happens I like to let you look over my shoulder at an email exchange that might encourage you as well. This one from England was like that so I’m going to share the dialog. His response at the end gets it exactly right:

I can say this, however, I wonder if God is doing something in your heart and you keep trying to think it through with your head. Let me encourage you to simply do what God is putting on your heart. If it is to stay and serve IN SPITE of all that seems screwed up to you there, do that. If it’s to not support what you don’t support, then feel free to move out and see what Father might have for you. Don’t think that God will give you all the answers before you follow. You may have no idea where fellowship will come from if you leave, but is that reason enough to stay with something you find so painful? Some people do spend some lonely years before they find connections with others. Some find it right away. I can’t tell you what it will be for you. And I certainly don’t encourage people to a private shell. I think community is a crucial part of living in this family and I do know that Jesus is big enough to place us in the family exactly as he desires. And sometimes I think he finds great value in having us be alone with him for awhile to get some of the religious thinking out of us before linking up again with others.

I can’t tell you how things might sort out, but I don’t think it is helpful for any of us to try to figure that out in advance. We’re usually wrong about our speculations anyway. I’d encourage you to simply sit down with your wife and ask God to make clear to you what he’s asking of you right now and just do it. Don’t make those leaders villains to justify that. You don’t have to think of yourself more right than them. You just need to be faithful to what God puts in your heart. Feel free to make some mistakes in sorting that out. And go for it! Trust him to fit everything together in his way.

In times like this, be absolutely honest when people ask why you’re doing what you’re doing, but do it as graciously and lovingly as you can muster. That’s how we all grow up, when we are each ‘speaking the truth in love to each other.’

When I was in Virginia a few months ago, I was with a dear friend of mine, who presided over my wedding to Sara and has remained a lifelong friend. He is a Methodist minister and also a church historian. When I was with him recently he asked me if I knew historically how the priests in the third-century took on the role of being confessors as mediators between God and man? I told him I did not and what he said fascinated me.

It seems all the heretical movements that sprung up in the 2nd and 3rd centuries had one thing in common. They denied the divine nature of Christ. To combat this, those who fought for orthodoxy crafted their creeds and confessions by embellishing the divine nature of Christ. Though it affirmed him as “man of very man”, its emphasis was on “God of very God”. In time the emphasis on his human nature almost vanished and his humanity was only considered for the brief time he actually lived in the flesh, but was thought of in his current state as the exalted King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

He went on to say that we are wired in such a way that we need a human mediator to usher us into the presence of God. When we lost our sense of the humanity of Jesus, it was natural for us to want to place someone between God and us. The priests and clergy took on that role as a mediator between God and man and people were content to let them do that. Then he looked at me and smiled, “And don’t think you Charismatics get a pass on this. Your dependence on pastoral, apostolic, and prophetic people reflects that same reality.”

I didn’t fight him. I understood exactly what he was saying and saw in my own past how I believed Jesus was a man when he was here, but have always seen him more today as the King of Kings, than my older brother. He still lives on as fully God and fully human, as the firstborn of the new creation. This has had some profound effect in my own personal relationship with Jesus. While I still embrace him as the High King seated at the right hand of God the Father, I am also seeing him there as my older brother and the only mediator I or anyone else will ever need.

It has begun to work some wonderful changes in my heart. It doesn’t diminish his deity at all, but defines it in a more awesome way. It makes me even re-think what we call the Parable of the Prodigal son. What if the older brother in that parable would have been Jesus instead of the religious junkie he was? How would Jesus have acted differently in going out to his brother and letting him know that there is still room in Father’s house for him? Amazing stuff!

I have just finished Larry Crabbe’s latest book SoulTalk on the recommendation of my collaborator on the Jake site. He said it was the best book on Christian interaction he had ever read. Yes, I got over my unspoken what-about-my-books? reaction and read it anyway. Eighty percent of this book is incredible! He definitely gets too cute with the his terminology and too patronizing with his five-steps to transforming conversations, but most of that is probably what the publishers made him do to market the thing.

Don’t let those things, however, rob you from the substance of this book, which strikes to the heart of what koinonia is—a conversation with other brothers and sisters that helps them see beyond themselves and grasp the reality of who God is and how he is drawing them to himself. If you really want to sort out how to have conversations that inspire people in this incredible journey, this is a must read!

Sara and I are reading it together now. Let me give you a quote from what we read this morning, and I’ll entice you with some more in days ahead…

As many of you know, Sara and I moved three months ago into a new neighborhood. We also like connecting with our neighbors so that we can share community life with them. Our old neighborhood made that very easy. The houses were situated so that the living areas were in front and we got to know most of our neighbors quickly. That has not been true here.

All the homes on our current street are situated toward the back yards. We do not even have a window that faces the front yard from downstairs. Most people come home from work, pull into their garages and roll down the doors and you never see them again. That combined with my travel has made it difficult to get to know our neighbors other than the one couple who lives next door.

Lately, I’ve been praying about God making connections with our neighbors. I know the longer you live somewhere the more awkward it is to meet people for the first time. Yesterday afternoon I got some of the answers to that. While watching football with my family, we had a couple of pieces of furniture out on the driveway that we wanted to sell. One of our neighbors came by to buy one of the items so I helped move it into his home and that opened a door to get to know that family. I found out one of the renters there wanted the couch we had for sale, but couldn’t afford it. We ended up giving it to her.

Also a single grad student from next door accidentally locked herself out of her house with her keys and cell phone inside. She came over to use our phone. Unable to reach her roommates, she was going to walk a couple of miles to where one of her roommates was working. Sara offered to drive her but unfortunately no one was there. She came back and we told her she was welcome to hang out with us until one of her roommates returned. She stayed almost four hours with us, watching football and enjoying our hospitality. We got to know her really well.

I don’t know what kinds of doors these encounters will open, but I’m just really blessed that in the normal course of a relaxed Sunday God would open doors to two of the households on our street. All it took from us was a willingness to get involved, do what we can to help others, and extend some graciousness along the way. There’s no telling where those relationships might go or how else God might open doors on this street. More to come, I hope!

Have I got a story for you!

For those of you who haven’t visited our sister website at The God Journey and listen in to one of our podcasts, now is an excellent time to check it out. If you have been a regular, you won’t want to miss this one. This is one of the most compelling stories I’ve run into on this journey.

Meet Stefan Vosloo and through him some wonderful brothers and sisters in South Africa. He was a pastor of a growing Vineyard church in Ladysmith before the hunger of that congregation for real relationship with God sent them on an amazing journey. God began to touch five things in their life together to move them from an old covenant religion to New Testament reality: priest, Sabbath, temple, sacrifice and tithing. His work in them and their response to him forever changed their life together. Wayne shares with Brad an interview he did with Stefan during his trip to South Africa last month. The process they went through and the life they have found in him together will encourage your own journey. Just click on the ‘podcast’ button below to stream it.

I often get emails from people asking me to help connect them with brothers and sisters in their area who might be walking a similar journey. I love to do that whenever I can, and in fact find it one of the greatest joys of my travel—to see Father link up people who didn’t even know the others existed. But unfortunately I don’t always know people in a given area to recommend and it is good to remember at times like that, that placing people in the family is not my job or yours—it belongs to the Holy Spirit according to I Cor 12. That’s a job he’s very good at.

On that note, I came across a quote by CS Lewis this morning that is worth some contemplation: He wrote about how religion distorts things:

Of course, the ‘first thing’ he is talking about is our relationship with God and the ‘second things’ are any other good thing we desire. As I read that I thought of an email exchange I had in the last few days that illustrates this. A young woman from Cincinnati wrote me a few days ago:

My response to her: “I wish I did. You sound like a wonderful person on a great, though sometimes-painful journey. Unfortunately I don’t know of any believers gathering this way in the Cincinnati area, but I have no doubt God does. And he will connect you to them when all is ready. Until then, I applaud your attempts to look however you can, ask questions, seek out referrals. But in the end, how God connects you and when he does will be more up to his plans than your wants. Just keep your eyes and ears open. Someday you may just hear some folks talking about Jesus in a way that captures your heart. Then find out what they’re about…

“Until then, just enjoy him and let him refresh you as his daughter… I’m sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.”

Then I got this back from her last night:

Don’t you just love her response? If we put first things first—our living in Him, he will take care of second things, which is how we fit in his body wherever we live. Until we get that order right we will continue to search and search for just the right group of people and always find ourselves disappointed. But when we put our relationship with him first then no matter who he asks us to walk alongside at any given time, we’ll be incredibly blessed!

I’m finishing up my weekend with some believers in and around the Kalispell, Montana area. This area is awesomely gorgeous, though it has rained three of my four days here. On the Friday, however, I got to go for a hike on a mountain above Flathead Lake with some old friends from the YWAM base near here. What a beautiful hike and we fouind a rock at the top fo the hill where we could look almost 300 degrees around at the lake and mountains and the landscape was as awe-inspiring as any I’ve seen. I love the mountains and forests, so this is like heaven to me.

I arrived here not ever having met the folks that invited me. We had corresponded a bit on the ‘net, but that was all. But in the plans to come up here, many others emailed me to find out where I was going to be and expressed surprise that there were others in the Flathead Valley thinking outside the box. God is definitely stirring a large number of people in this area and freeing them from religious boxes that have distracted them from knowing him.

What a weekend! We did nonstop yakking from Friday afternoon through Sunday evening sharing this incredible journey, affirming the things God’s been teaching his people and celebrating our unity in Christ. A couple of things really stand out from the time this weekend.

First, Father has already been speaking into our hearts the things he wants us to know. For many people here the things I shared weren’t brand new to them, but there were many ‘Ah! Hah!” moments where people recognized that the voice that had been whispering similar things to them all along, but they hadn’t really thought it was God’s voice because it ran so counter to the religious things they’d been taught all their lives. That is so fun! What God is doing to draw people to himself today is a work of the Spirit in the hearts of those who long for him, it is not a movement initiated or controlled by any author, speaker or organization. Leaving people freer to follow the Shepherd’s voice is the greatest joy of doing what I do.

Second, God is preparing people all around us to live more fully in his life. We may not know them yet, or know what God is doing in them, but it is easy to see how easy it would be for God to connect a few dots and we would see how incredibly whole and healthy his family is in the world. When people get together who are on the journey of knowing God more deeply and being transformed in his image, fellowship is so easy and so inspiring. I love the connections that happen in an area simply because people who’ve found their way to my website, get to meet others who live near them who hunger for similar things. Many who thought they were all alone in their passions, find they are not and that there are others around them with whom they can connect.

And as I was finishing this, Eugene Peterson returned my phone call of yesterday. He lives near here and we had met years ago at a small writer’s retreat that Leadership Journal hosted near Chicago. There were only a dozen of us that got to know each other over four days. Even so, I was shocked he remembered me. I just wanted to bless him and tell him how much I have appreciated his translation of the Scriptures and his other writings. Even though we are a few miles apart in how we view the Church, we are kindred spirits in the Father we love and the journey we have walked to live in him more deeply. He’s as genuine a human being as I have ever met and it was icing on the cake to have a chance to reconnect with him today.

I’ve got a few more folks to visit with today and then have a late afternoon departure to head home. I get in pretty late tonight, but there is nothing like the trip home! I always love getting home to Sara and those crazy pups of ours!

A friend from South Africa just sent me this and I thought many of you would enjoy it too. It is an extract of an article in response to Christianity Today of August 2002:

Though most of you know I hate the word models when used of life in Father’s family, I think he gets it mostly right here. Perhaps a better word would be that we’ll see new expressions of local church life as we listen to the Head not try to design a better a better mousetrap to stuff people into. In fact, those new expressions are already covering the world. I’ve seen many of them in places throughout the world. But they happen not where people are looking for a way to do ‘church’, but where they are seeking to live deeply in relationship to Jesus and finding ways to care for each other as a family. Their emphasis is not on meetings and starting some ‘thing’, but on following him as the source of all life an connecting with others as God gives opportunity. Then he will make clear how to share that life together in a way that stimulates each other spiritually and makes his life available to the world around us.

Our latest edition of The God Journeyentitled ’Out of the Church’ Christians? has just been posted on our sister website thegodjourney.com.

A recent letter by New Zealander Andrew Strom has caused a bit of a stir by many who are thinking outside the box of organized religion. He addresses what he calls out-of-the-church Christians, which we think is a bit of an oxymoron. How can a Christian be outside the church? His observations and accusations provide a springboard to discuss life outside the box and give us each an opportunity to reflect on our own personal journey and how it is sorting out in our lives. Wayne and Brad examine this letter along with many who added their comments to our earlier blog.