You’ll thank me for this…

I have just received a copy of a new book titled When the Church Leaves the Building, written by a friend of mine, David Fredrickson from Sacramento, CA. Some of you have heard me talk of this congregation in Sacramento that over a number of years followed the Lord’s leading right out of their congregational model to live more relationally as God’s family together. It’s an amazing story and now he’s published a book that tells their story. He asked me to write a Foreword for the book, and it expresses what I feel about this work:

Over the course of years, following the gentle nudging of the Spirit, they set out to unravel the mysteries of the body of Christ and found it leading them to places they had never considered. At each turn they continued to risk the status quo and their own comfort and security to find a richer life in Jesus together. They discovered what most people only dare to dream. You’ll be shocked at the choices they made and inspired by the lessons they learned.

It is a compelling journal and you’ll find his words raw and honest. This is not the story of a well-constructed success strategy and how to implement it, but of a people willing to go on a journey even though they could only see one step at a time and whose destination was far from clear. The costs were considerable, the rewards far greater.

In the end, whether you agree or disagree with David’s choices and conclusions you will know that he has taken the road less traveled—not for his comfort or ego but to follow an undeniable passion deeply planted in his heart. He put it all on the line, even his own vocation, while some of his colleagues did everything they could to dissuade him.

I had the incredible joy coming alongside them in the latter stages of this journey and count many of the people you’ll read about here as close friends. This really happened. I found myself rooting for them and weeping with them as David recounts the joys and challenges of rethinking their life together as the church. It not only transformed them personally, but also taught them how to live freely as the body of Christ every day, not just on Sundays.

At a time when many are rethinking the nature of the body of Christ in the world, this book provides much-needed insight and a powerful example. If you’ve ever thought that there must be more to church life than going to a building on Sunday mornings, clear your evening. You might be going to sleep a lot later tonight than you had planned.

You can hear David on the current podcast at The God Journey where we talk about his new book, and a new DVD that some of the brothers have just released. It is the first in a four-part documentary titled Church Outside the Walls. It examines people who have found more effective ways to live as the body of Christ outside the congregational model.

You can find out more about all these things at their website: Family Room Media. Spend some time there. I think you’ll enjoy what they’re doing…

Perhaps you’ll enjoy reading over my shoulder again. This is an email exchange that came up yesterday. I think his questions and passion speak volumes for us and some of his questions might help us take a fresh look at how we all live in the world…

Just listened to the latest podcast Why are we so angry?. It’s so funny (or tragic) how I flop back and forth between laughing with you and then feeling guilty that I’m laughing. Guess I’m still detoxing.

I’d love your perspective on something. I’ve had such a heart for young people for years, but I am finding it increasingly difficult to enter their post-modern world. I’m a designer/illustrator by trade
and really want to mentor/apprentice kids in the arts. I’ve been hanging out at this group that gets together once a month. The desire is to create opportunity for artists to share or be a light to someone who doesn’t know Christ. However, it usually devolves into a Bush-hating-social-gospel-nothing-is-really-true kind of rant. I understand these people are reacting to Church abuse/irrelevance/hypocrisy, etc. I’ve seen enough of it myself. Yet, God and His word are still true. The tolerance and open-minded atmosphere is so full of arrogance. Yet, I feel drawn to them. I don’t want to appear to be a pig-headed evangelical, yet I can’t nod and smile at some of the foolishness that passes for enlightenment. Add to that mix we are meeting in New Haven, in the shadow of Yale (shudder). Any insight/encouragement?

You gave me a good chuckle this morning. I love the fact that you realize how false your guilt even while you’re experiencing it.

As to your opportunity to touch kids through the arts… PRICELESS! I’m glad you’re there, glad you’re not falling back on old approaches to engage them, which (as you say) wouldn’t engage them at all. The key here is not to fight over ideas, but just to show them that you care about them as people. You don’t have to smile at their foolishness, and you don’t have to agree with them. They can handle that. In fact, some of them want to be wrong.

But this is not a war of ideas; these are lost children God wants loved. Apologetics will not win them. Love will transform them. Look beyond their words and their arrogance and acknowledge them as individuals who are asking some huge questions. Show an interest in them personally and you’ll be amazed at the conversation you’ll get to have with various ones of them.

Don’t worry about the larger atmosphere there. Sometimes ‘ministries’ like this prefer to control the environment thinking they’re being helpfull, when they are just pushing kids away. Just love whoever is in front of you and God will give you the words to say and the demeanor that will most speak of him. I guess I’m saying get your eyes off of the larger worldview conflict going on and just love them as people with a humble honesty and God will do some incredible things. I’m glad you’re there…

Someone mailed me a brochure recently that a former pastor had made one afternoon when he had way too much time on his hands. I found it hilariously tragic! I know it’s a bit edgy. I know not every Sunday-morning group out there would advance this notion. But I have been part of groups that live it this way, even if they would never have the courage to actually spell it out so clearly.

PLEASE!!!! This is not the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is the double-talking bondage of religion that takes us captive again to the rules and traditions of men, and does not free us to live deeply and freely with Father.

Man, this really freaks me out in a wonderful way!

I got an email the other day and in the course of telling his story he included a question posed to him by a friend that he later said “rocked me to my core and ricocheted around my emptiness for years like a steel marble in a pinball machine.”

Consider yourself warned! Here it comes:

What if the guy who sold everything he had to buy the incomparable pearl, was God and you were the incomparable pearl?

What if? I have never heard that interpretation before. Wouldn’t that change everything about the way we relate to God?

If you missed yesterday’s blog, go back and read it before continuing the saga here. This is an amazing story of a man who came to Jesus days before returning to Africa and how God is making himself known through this man as he simply follows Jesus each day. If you want to read the whole story, or pass it on to a friend, I’ve also included on the website with some other stories of God’s incredible ability to transform lives. You can find it here.

Let’s continue from yesterday:

8/3/2006

It has been too long since last I wrote to your friends and to you something other than ordinary days and many questions. Here many are praying every day for the spirit of his love to fill each of you up so that it flows over you like the waters that are too much for a dam in the river. When this happens you will all be living as the clay pots you have me reading about in Paul’s letter Corinthians. That is how it has become with us. I am remembering that here so many of the wells are having water bags in them for pulling up to get the water and that no one is ever remembering what the bag looks like but only the taste of the fresh water when they are no longer being thirsty.

Tell the peoples you know that they can be praying for us also. Everywhere we are going people are turning from their old ways to walk after Jesus. This He is doing and there is nothing ever before in front of my eyes such as this. For people that are always in fear since being tiny children are finding the peace of our Jesus. Mostly they are being born in the parts of the land that are following the Islam that is afraid and filled with rage. (Not all of Islam is walking away from peace, but our hearts are sad for those who are).

But now some are becoming angry and filled with hate toward us because of the changes inside the peoples who are knowing Jesus. One brother has been beaten so badly that he is very near to die. But the power and trust in Jesus is with him and he is smiling and saying we should change his name to Job because he is reading those words of Job who is saying even if they are killing me I will still trust only in God.

And we are learning what he is saying. As we are running from a village in the night’s blackness so thick that there is no seeing because the angry men there are coming will shouts of death on their tongues. One brother John is falling off the road and a stick is going through the top of his leg to be out the other side and the blood is everywhere. And we are hearing the voices and shouts following after us and Samuel is saying to us that John will be dieing from the bleeding and that he cannot keep running and we are saying back to him that if John is staying that they will be killing him anyway and so what can we do. And Samuel is saying back to us that the letters of Doug to us are always telling us to be praying first and thinking after so that is what we should do. So now as the lights and voices are coming closer they are praying for Jesus to help John and I myself am learning what the Bible is saying about watching and praying, and thinking later that this is meaning something different. And the bleeding is stopping and so we are breaking off the branch and saying if there is no bleeding then leave it in the leg until we find the doctor. And as the angry ones are getting closer we can see from their light that we are in a deep ditch by the road and they are running right past us but not one of them is seeing us and then we are escaping to another village where things are being safer.

When we are finding the doctor and he is pulling out the stick and cleaning the leg inside then there are two children coming to the doctor who have been hurt and he is leaving to look at them and then coming back to us and saying who is it that is helping John and we are saying that our Jesus is working through Samuel to do this, but he is not understanding us. So he is taking Samuel to one of the girls and saying that he should be sowing up the vein in her leg so that it will not be bleeding or else she will die and there is no time to wait but to help both girls or else the one will be dieing. Samuel is saying to the doctor that he cannot do this because he does not know how. The doctor is saying back to Samuel, How is he then sowing up the big artery in the leg of John and why he will not help to heal this girl as he has done his friend. Samuel is saying that all he can do is to do as he has done with John and the doctor is saying to do it, but he is not understanding. So Samuel is kneeling beside the bed and praying for Jesus to help the little girl and the doctor is screaming that the girl will be dieing, but the Jesus who hears is with her and she is being made well. The nurse who someone is running to find is coming and hearing the doctor and she is walking in and looking at the young girl and taking off the clamp and saying the doctor is working very well on her with the sowing and there is no bleeding. And the doctor is saying her mind has been lost and he is coming to see. And when he is looking down he is seeing the sowing that Jesus is doing on the young girl is perfect and looking just like the sowing on the leg of John and then he is saying if he does not see this with the eyes of his own that he is not believing that Jesus is the healer. After Samuel is speaking to him then kneeling next to Samuel in the blood of the little girl and he is believing in the blood of Jesus and becoming one who will follow Him. This is the real miracle of Jesus.

And we are telling him that all this is not us that we are like the bags in the well that no one remembers and Jesus is the living water. This is not what happens every day but our Jesus is always able to show us that he has power to do what no man can do if when doing it he is showing himself to those who will believe. But we are with John trusting him if we live or if we die. And to some this would be the words of fear, but to those who hear the voice of our Jesus in their hearts this is the life of freedom and the road of peace and they are walking down that road with us.

Please be asking your peoples to pray for the peoples telling the story of our Jesus to those who are living in fear in the villages of the angry people. Every day the danger they are living in is real and we are needing Jesus to protect them and to pour his water of life out through them. If this you will be praying for us, then you must know that we are praying for you this also.

Your friend and brother because of Jesus,

Jamal

8/20/2006

We are still feeling in our spirit that this thing that Jesus is doing here is not for outsiders to control or pay monies for and for the faith of the peoples here to turn to them instead of our Jesus if this is happening. How could they be leading us somewhere that Jesus could not? How could they be sending more money and things for helping than Jesus can? No he is wanting the people here to be trusting only him and walking the path deeper into his love.

I am taking the advice that you are giving me to not be using your name as much here for this same reason because you are saying that God is the father of me and of you and that we then are only brothers together in him. This I am always knowing because this is what your heart always shares with me even when it not among the words that you are speaking. As you told me this is to protect the hearts of others who must be like Peter on the water and always looking to Jesus with his name always upon their lips.

Yet sometimes when Samuel is being stubborn then we could say to him let us ask our brothers for help and you would be one who would be helping and then I could be using your name sometimes.
I was beginning to be wondering how it is that faith is growing in the peoples. Not just the faith of beginning to turn to follow Jesus but the growing faith in the hearts that journey with us. I am reading in many places about how Jesus is saying to the disciples…”What has happened to your faith that it has disappeared?” This I am not wanting to happen to the people here.

I am reading this in Luke’s letter chapter 1 and this is what Jesus is saying in my heart about the journey he is walking with us:

“…to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

Walking in the morning SON and the path of peace,

Jamal

I have to be a bit vague on some of the details here, because the writer of these emails, Jamal (not his real name), lives in an area of Ethiopia dominated by Muslims who persecute those known to be Christians in that region. He was in the States on an education visa, and at the end of his studies he had an encounter at a service station that started an amazing journey.

After a rainy night at the state fair and missing his daughter’s performance in the musical he want there to see because his daughter had given him the wrong time, a frustrated Doug stopped at a gas station on the way home. He was thirsty so he went inside instead of paying at the pump. It was during the Olympics so he asked the Ethiopian gas attendant, Jamal, what athletes he was watching and what sports were big in his country. Jamal asked Doug why so many American athletes say that God helps them. Doug told him about Jesus and answered his questions for about 20 minutes. Jamal said he wanted to learn more and Doug gave him his phone number as they walked out of the gas station in the rain, at the end of Jamal’s shift. They talked a couple short times after that, over a gas purchase. Now Jamal was a graduate student in a doctoral program at a local university. He called Doug several weeks later and wanted to meet for lunch before he left to go back to Ethiopia.

They met at a deli for lunch. Doug would often have to write words down and let Jamal look them up in his dictionary. He drew the 4 spiritual laws cross diagram and showed him verses in the Bible. Jamal asked about prayer and then, without another word, he dropped to his knees right there, bowed 3 times and prayed out loud for forgiveness in his broken English.

He wrote Doug the following email that evening:

11/1/2004

Since my tongue will not say correctly so many of the words I can write I wish to tell you in this way my deepest gratitude. I wish there only was more time to learn from you more what is beginning in my heart this day. When I come first to America I am thinking that my heart is full of many dreams. But really it is only my head that is filled with these. My heart was still beneath the smiles filled with many pains and wounds, many because of my own hands. This I am trying all the time I am here to hide from all around me yet mostly from myself. I am looking for the “special magic” of America that so many peoples from over the world are longing for to find some success only to know that it can not fill up the emptiness leftover from past hurts.

But today I am praising this Jesus who sends you into my store in the rain to tell me that his love is the gift that heals what no man can see or touch. As your words come to me I can feel him touching this pain that I am hiding for so long. Can it be this easy that he would bring to my heart the joy of his forgiveness as a present like your Christmas every day? I am wondering how I must pay for such a freedom treasured. In my country if you wish to be free from prison you must bring money to the police and guards from your family. How then can Jesus way be so free? I am wishing I had some of the money left I am paying to the University and knowing that it would not be enough. This I am thinking as your words from Jesus talking are flowing through me like water poured over the cracks in dry stone. Then I see that it was never easy because of what Jesus has paid for me the blood poured from his heart. And I am seeing him with scars and brokenness because of the things I do. Yet knowing that he says to me, this is for you so you may be free.

Now I cannot wait any longer. So I am asking how I can open this gift? When you are telling me prayer is not remembering words from writing down somewhere else but turning away from the road of myself and toward Jesus and telling him all that is in my heart. So I am kneeling on the floor in the restaurant to ask Jesus for this forgiveness and he is with me making the wounds of my heart like new flesh.
Now I am thinking when I am coming to America my wallet is full and my heart is empty and now I am going home and my wallet is empty but my heart is full. I am dancing inside myself. Now the story I am telling as I go to home is not about America but about God’s son and the gift of his peace and freedom.
I am also asking you to thank your church for the Bible. I will be reading and writing to ask you many more things I need to learn. Thank the church also for the prayers they have been giving to Jesus for me.

Your friend,

Jamal

Doug got another email from him the next day that said he was struggling to pray in English when Jesus spoke to him in his language of Swahili. Jamal wrote, “Now I know your Jesus is not just the God of Americans but of the forgotten peoples as well.”

With a minimum of what most people call discipleship, Jamal returned to his native country with the simple encouragement to read the Bible, talk to God and follow him as he makes himself known to you. Here is what has happened since, in Jamal’s own words in emails he has sent to Doug:

11/8/2005

I am writing once again to you for sharing with your friends. Tell them again that I am not having a translator like at University and so I am very sorry for this bad mistakes in writing. If there heart is like yours in love they will understand and be glad.

Many days have past and I have not written you. Your heart must be filled with wonderings about me. Sorry I am for this beyond words for I cannot count how many times I wished to write to you or am thinking of you or needing from you answers but I am not in a place where e-mail works until I return to a larger city. This I am planning to do many times but the journey is so long and always something happen to keep in a greater working.

For my days in America I am trying to fill my head with knowing and remembering of things taught so that I can come back to Africa and use this learning for my family and the peoples here. But God has always planned another way that my heart would be so full of Jesus that this is all I am able to share.
So now in every village I am first planning of helping people in living ways to find some success in the world, now God is building the “living stones” that you were telling me the reading of in Peter’s letter. This is best for in many places now there could be no building of my hands big enough to hold them all. All this God is doing as we share the Jesus of our hearts and his great love.

In my city I am beside myself because it seems there is a mountain too high for any climbing between the people and the words of Jesus. They are saying that these words are for the white man only and there is no place in the heart of Africa for them. When hearing this I am in sadness deep within my heart too much for words of any kind to tell. I am melting on the inside and afraid I will run into the sand and be soaked up. I am wishing to speak to you and not able to eat for many days. Then I am remembering some of your words sent to me from Jesus’ brother James to ask God for knowing what to do. So I am talking to Jesus many days and then my mind is remembering the story you told me of the man from Ethiopia, how that in the great success time of Philip, God is saying by his Spirit that what is more important is to go to the desert and tell one man from Ethiopia about Jesus story. So I am reading from this Acts in my bible to the peoples. This I am saying there everyday and it is as though the mountain is falling into the sea of God’s mercy for this people and their dry spirits are drinking of water that is ever living.

But also a door is opening inside of me and I am walking now the path of some of your teaching to me and more. Before this too much of this is only words spoken about a far off place made of dreaming. But now I am not dreaming because this I see when I am awake in the day. This people with me and myself are learning to ask of Jesus from their hearts and the answers are too many for the telling. And so wonderful to see that even then they are hard to believe. And the greatest thing of all is that in the asking by this peoples to God they now know this is not the power of Jamal but the power of our Jesus.
It heals the sick when there is no doctor or medicine, it brings a doctor who is lost to the home of people who are made well by his care, it brings food to the hungry paid for by other Christians who know us not. They tell the driver, take this food west until someone asks you for it, we do not know where only that this is what Jesus is telling us to do. And they are driving no more because they are running out of gas in front of the house where we are praying to ask Jesus for this food. And then we are praying to Jesus our thanks for them and this people we know not and that he will provide them gas for driving back and no one is coming all night to the village but in the morning David is walking by the truck and smelling gas and we are finding the tank so filled it has spilled out onto the ground. And the boss is saying who fills this truck up with gas and the men sleeping in it all night are saying no one has ever done this. SO we are knowing this is Jesus doing. In another place we are praying for the rain water to come for the people are dying because there is not rain for many days. Then the rivers are flowing with water and the drums are celebrating and the drums from the mountains close by are coming back from up the streams of water and saying how can there be celebrating when here is no rain and how can there be water in the valley when there is no rain in the valley or the mountain.

But all this and more God is doing to say to this people that his love for them is great but the gift of Jesus for them is greater. And the people are kneeling in the road and the dust and the desert and the cities and the stores and the homes and like me in the restaurants to ask Jesus to fill their hearts and this he is always doing.
I will write to tell you more and ask you many things. But tell those people who have been asking God for us that he is hearing and now we are asking for them to live in this love that is shared opened to us by our Jesus. That he will bring healing to the hearts of your people also. That he will fill them with the wonder of our hearts because his hand reaches out beyond the seeing of man to do more with you than even bravest hearts can dream.

Your friend,

Jamal

Isn’t that amazing? Look what God simply does with people who will follow him! We think this life in Christ is rocket science. It is not! It is simply people learning how to trust him in the face of their unfolding circumstances. I’ll follow-up tomorrow with two more emails from Jamal tomorrow that takes the story even further…

I got this email yesterday from a brother in Missouri and got quite laugh out of it. It reminds me how easy it is to see through the bondage of religious obligation when the smallest bit of light gets in. The only ones who can’t see it are those who either make their living selling some piece of religion, or enjoy controlling others even as they feel superior. That’s why common folks found Jesus so engaging and why the Pharisees found him so enfuriating

Now, I’m not sharing this so all you parents will give Transitions to your sons and daughters, nor for you sons and daughters to give it to your parents to try to ‘win them over.’ Obviously this young lady was just in the right place spiritually to see what Father wanted her to see. But I think this is awesome:

I must share with you something that you may find amusing. I had given my grown daughter your Transition messages several weeks ago. Now this young lady loves Jesus with all her heart and has been in Churchianity all her life, and currently attends the local so called mega church.

The first evening after she listned on the way to work, she came home and as we were discussing what she had listened to, she started to cry. The Lord had touched her heart with this truth, and she could see some of the religious yokes that she had been carrying.(She is seeing more all the time) Anyway, she is listenening to the Podcasts and really enjoying those as well.

Yesterday (Saturday) she had a Sunday School class meeting. When she came home, I just casually asked how everything went. She first shook her head, then glared at me and said “This is your fault!”. I started chuckeling and asked her what she was talking about. She said the meeting was full of all kinds of “you should do this, and you should do thats”. As I laughed harder she said, not only that, but the church had sent spies into their Sunday School class to check them out to see if they were being friendly enough! That is when I completly lost it and laughed almost until I was in tears. Of course she laughed too, but not as much.

I remember having a similar conversation with my daughter when she came home from college one semester. “You ruined me,” she said with a smile. She told Sara and me that everywhere she went to find fellowship, she could see through the guilt-inducing, manipulative tactics so many so-called leaders us to control God’s people and burden them down with obligations God has not asked of them. Yes, it does ‘ruin’ you a bit, but in a wonderful way.

I love how simple life in Jesus really is. We don’t miss it because it is too complicated for us to figure out. We miss it because we see it more complicated than it really is, and those who control our religious structures want it that way. That’s why God made it so simple. No one can own it, use it to control others, or even set themselves up as the expert in it. This is for everyone—from the least to the greatest. All get to know him first-hand and live in the glory of his unfolding grace!

I’m going to continue this theme over the next couple of days. On a recent trip, I heard the most amazing story of someone coming to know Jesus in the U.S. just a few days before having to return to their native North African country that is controlled by Muslims who persecute anyone known to be Christian. For those who wonder how God can work outside the big-box missionary organizations to make himself known in the most dire circumstances, you won’t want to miss this.

Here’s another over-the-shoulder read. I got a wonderful email today and know many others with similar questions who might appreciate a bit of our dialog:

Since I have been a Christian I have followed the leadership of my pastorfriend. He has served as my mentor for over a decade, but int the last couple years our relationship has become strained. I have four kids and feel that I need to direct more of my time at home and he sees this as a segmentation of my life. Here’s what I mean… At the start of this year I served as a board member, youth leader, went to men’s group, setup for sunday mornings, sound manav coordinator guy, had to attend Learning to Lead (LTL) meetings every month as well as board meetings, youth meetings etc and at the same time we were planning a mission trip which required more meetings. And that was just church life… I also have a full time job along with continuing education courses. Things came to a head over the last Super Bowl. He wanted to have an LTL that night and I wanted to watch the game. He wanted to change the date and I said go for it, just leave Saturday’s alone. It was the only day that didn’t require me going to work or church…it was GOLD. He accused me of segregating my life and went on this big spiel that we don’t really understand what it means to follow Christ.

Now, I do disagree with him and I let him know. Things didn’t get any better at all and I ended up resigning from the board and leadership as a whole.. now I’m only doing Youth, Mens group and setup. I love this, I love how it feels, I feel free… my relationship with God is better, I have very little stress now except with my pastor still. I want to rid my self of religion, I want a close personal relationship with God – I want to draw closer to him – but I seem to have been programmed by my pastor friend here, he trained me, mentored me and now I want to change but I am still at his church and still fall under his leadership. How does a person move forward?

You’re in a very common situation, even though it can be quite disorienting. What do you do when God is leading you differently than the one who has helped ‘mentor’ you wants you to go? Isn’t it sad how easily personal friendships and even mentoring relationships are put at risk just by our desire to simplify our lives and follow Jesus? That’s what religion does to our free life in him. I would hope your friend/pastor would be excited by that and free you to do as you think God is asking you to do, but I also know that is very rare.

Pastoral types, (and remember I was one once) have a hard time seeing past their vision for the institution and thinking everyone should ‘give their lives’ to it as much as they do. He obviously sees value in you and what you do and may even feel he’s made an investment out of which he has the right to expect a return. I’ve been there with people, too, and you end up hurting the people you care most about. He seems threatened by losing your gifts in the congregation and instead of being honest about that, he turns it into an accusation against you.

Personally, I like the sounds of what Father is doing in you. It sounds like he is bringing added grace into your life and with it added space. I think one of the things that religion does is that it makes us so busy we don’t have time for him, or those closest to us. Now you have a choice: to live to him or the expectations of your friend. That’s the most difficult choice in this kingdom, especially when he can’t understand what God is doing in you and we care about them so much.

So, don’t be too hard on your friend. Maybe you could have a conversation with him some day like, “Listen, I know you’re having a hard time with some decisions I’m making right now. I can appreciate that since I’m not as available as I used to be. Even I’m not one hundred percent sure I’m right either, but as a dear friend of mine I would hope you would encourage me to follow what I sincerely believe God is asking me to do. I hope you can give me the space to do that because your continued accusations and disappointments will tear apart this relationship. I want you to be free to do what God asks of you, and I hope you can extend me the same freedom.â€

Of course that could turn into a huge conversation, but you can still love him, be gentle with him and follow-through on the things God has put on your heart. If he can free you to that the friendship will survive. If he can’t love you without controlling you, you might be wise to take some distance for a time. This is a good reminder for everyone who helps others grow in Christ. That is not a life-time assignment. Help others learn to follow him and then let them go and do it, even if they make some mistakes in the process. We all do, after all!

I’m only feeding back to you off of what you said, and obviously don’t have his side of it. But I know how threatening freedom can be to those who have a system to run and need a never-ending supply of warm bodies to fill the holes…

Got this from a friend in an email last week:

I’m leading a devotion today in our all church staff meeting titled “commitment and discipline is what we do when we are no longer in love.†I think you would like it.

I think I would to. The title’s awesome and so profound. When love begins to wane, I think our first choice might be to rekindle the love, not knuckle down on the commitment or discipline. While that may be a short cut to better behavior for a season, it will not of itself lead to lasting change or fruitfulness in his kingdom.

I got this email a few months ago from someone I met in England during my last trip there in late March. I have wanted to share his letter here for some time, because it is so full of life and freedom. I hope other people’s stories like this are as encouraging to some of you as they are to me. I know it isn’t easy to re-think this life away from all the religious rituals and rules many of us are schooled in, but Jesus is up to the challenge…

Here’s a bit of Eddie’s story:

I have been wanting to drop you and Brad a line and now at the backend of a busy and blessed week I have snatched some time in the office to get this out to you. Let me start by saying that the podcast CD I picked up when you were here with us is blessing us so much. I also thank God for the fact that this little island has such busy roads, it means that each day, as I commute between clients, I am able to have at least an hour listening to “the on going conversation”. Some may think that an hour a day alone with the two of you in a car in traffic is more than the human mind can take, it may be, but the spirit is thriving in the revelation and the joy of hearing so many real stories and testimonies and clear articulation.

Over the last few weeks the inside of my car has seen tears, laughter and heard many an “AMEN TO THAT”. It has also heard many an “OUCH” as the truth and openness of the discussions have touched heart and spirit, Oh! and the flesh has taken a beating as well. I have had to stop on the road to throw out the bodies of all the sacred cows that have been slaughtered. It has been very intense listening to all the material in such a short space of time. Submitting one’s self to microwave ministry of this type in a confined space is guaranteed to destroy religious tumors real fast. Let me just add that Father has used you and Brad, and the others on this journey and in the podcasts. Father has used this as an instrument to engineer some major changes in me, my family and other we have contact with. Many thanks for the openness and honesty (can’t emphasis that enough), which the podcasts have as their fabric, it’s so refreshing and transforming and dare I say entertaining. The mind is being renewed and the transformation is taking place.

We still have contact with many of the folk and are seeking to help them understand our journey as and when they ask. I have come to understand that I have to let Father open the doors to and for those conversations, only those who have ears for the message will hear and I just never know who they are. I am content to just get on with the business of walking simply, daily with Jesus. I seem to be getting better at it with all the clutter, clamor and obligation out of the way. I am trusting that the peace, joy and clarity, which the transformation is bringing, will be the catalyst for conversations with others.

Let me run and get my chores sorted for the day. Just wanted to stop by and say hi, thanks and keep the conversation “on-going”, it is without doubt a >â€Life Stream”. Why? Because it comes from Fathers heart.