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It has been a while since I’ve written because I have just been swamped since I left for the UK and Ireland. I’ve only managed to keep up with my email while spending so much time with some incredible people. In the UK we had people come from a wide area to share over the weekend. Many of the folks were recent immigrants to the UK from Zimbabwe and South Africa. Many of these have been through so much in moving their lives and watching their children scatter across the globe. But what incredible people and their passion to live in the life of Jesus without rituals and obligations was amazing. We ate and laughed and hiked in the woods and talked through the life of Jesus together. What great days. I left with many new friendships.

On Tuesday I arrived in Ireland to visit a wonderful network of people who live south of Dublin. I’m staying in Killiney and the picture above is the view from a Killiney Hill, looking south. Sara jumps on a big United bird to join me here tomorrow night for my remaining 10 days in Ireland. It will be great to have her here and there are so many people who want to meet her.

For a three-night period here we are sharing together about the cross of Christ and how his work reorders everything about the way we think and live. It’s a house packed with people, youth and adults together. You should see the place. The energy and fellowship between all of these folks is a joy to share in. Many of them were part of a congregation 30 years ago, that God led them to disband institutionally and invited them to live together relationally over the years. They have great hearts for God’s life. We’ve even had some folks come over from England to join us this week.

And we had the most amazing encounters yesterday. I went out to buy my mom a birthday card and one of my hosts offered to take me on a bit of a sightseeing drive along the shore. I don’t usually do much sightseeing when Sara is about to join me because she wants me to wait for her. But we went anyway. Con, my host, was showing me a unique home built into the edge of a cliff overlooking Dalkey Island. The view was amazing, but we could barely see the home because it was below the wall and we could only see the roof. As we got out of the car just for a moment, the owner drove up. As we told him we were admiring his home he invited us in and introduced himself. He is Jim Sheridan a film director of some renown. He was so gracious showing us through this very unique home with all the latest electronics and panoramic views of the ocean and island. It was breathtaking!

During our conversation my writing came up as well as the fact that I’ve begun work with a group of people to bring an incredible unpublished story to print and ultimately to the screen. Can you imagine? What are the odds? He seemed intrigued and asked about the movie as well as my other books. I didn’t have any with me, but we’re going to drop a Jake book off later. Who knows what God might do with this brief encounter?

What movie, you ask? It is a book and a movie called The Shack and is the most incredible story I’ve ever read about God making himself known in the brutal tyranny of someone’s tragedy and restoring them in the intimacy of his love. It was written by a friend of mine in Oregon. I can’t wait for everyone to read it, but we are still polishing it up a bit and beginning to put some things in play to make a movie of it. It has been an absolute shock how God is seemingly lining up the people and the circumstances to pull this off. The connections I and the others on the creative team have had back in the States the last two weeks has really affirmed God’s hand in this. We are going to need about $15 million in investment money to make this, and we already have a number of people who have expressed interest about investing in this film as a way to help reveal God to the world. We even have one production company suggesting they take it all over, but we don’t just want this story told, but the heart of the Father in it as well. I sit here today in awe of what God seems to be doing at this point to bring this whole thing together. I will let you know more as it unfolds.

One last item, as I went for a walk yesterday with a couple that wanted to spend some time with me we stumbled upon a film production going on in the park for a new film called A Tiger’s Tale and watched them film part of a scene. Again, what are the odds? I don’t know that anything will come of these brief snippets yesterday around Dublin, but the combination of them both seemed to be God pointing the way forward with a smile on his face, affirming that he was in this and he would make whatever arrangements and connections we need to see it through.

Absolutely awesome! Then last night we got back to the cross, which is one of my favorite things to talk about. What a day in Dublin! Now I can’t wait for Sara to get here.

In a few hours I catcha big bird for England to spend the weekend, then I’ll be off to Ireland for a couple of weeks… I’m really looking forward to catching up with some of the believers there…

Also, we’ve also just combined our first year of podcasting into one CD of mp3 files that will lead you through our entire season. In these 42 podcasts Wayne and his co-host, Brad Cummings, discuss our relationship with God, rethinking the life of the church and how we live in our culture. They also interview others from around the world who are sharing in this journey. All of these podcasts are available at The God Journey, but many people haven’t figured out the whole podcasting technology, so we’ve put all of our first season podcasts on one CD and are making it available for $12.00 for those who want to listen on their computers or mp3 players. Even most DVD players today will play this disc. You can order it from our audio page.

In our morning moments while Sara gets ready to leave for her high school we are reading together a little book that has touched me in the past. It is The Christ of the Mount By E. Stanley Jones. It is a study ofn the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5. This quote sums up his approach which makes the whole discourse so incredibly powerful:

The essential difference between Phariseism and the teaching of Jesus is just here: “One was devotion to an idea – the Law; the other was devotion to a Person – the Gospel.†In the first, one could feel that he had attained and could stand in the temple and thank God that he was not as other men; but the other could never feel that he had attained, for love was always opening new doors. The one produced the perfect Pharisee and the other the perfect lover.

“If religion is concerned with love to a person there can be no limit to duty and there can be no question of merit,†says Findlay, and he laid his finger upon an essential truth. There is a beyondness in the Sermon on the Mount that startles and appalls the legalistic mind. It sees no limit to duty – the first mile does not suffice, he will go two; the coat is not enough, he will love enemies as well. Come to that with the legalistic mind and it is impossible and absurd; come to it with the mind of the lover and nothing else is possible. The lover’s attitude is not one of duty, but one of privilege.

Here is the key to the Sermon on the Mount. We mistake it entirely if we look on it as the chart of the Christian’s duty, rather it is the charter of the Christian’s liberty – his liberty to go beyond, to do the thing that love impels and not merely the thing that duty compels.

AMEN! This life is a person we love who transforms us, not set of principles or rituals to observe. Get that and your as close the kingdom as anyone on the planet!

Many of you have heard me talk about a dear friend of mine, Dave Coleman, from Visalia. He and I wrote So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore under the pen name, Jake Colsen. Here’s your chance to meet him.

In our latest podcast of The God Journey entitled Meet Jake Colsen Brad interviews Dave and I about the new book and a bit of what went on behind the scenes as we wrote it. The three of us fall into a wide-ranging discussion about shame, guilt, religious obligation and control and how Jesus’ work sets us free to live in him. I think you will enjoy the discussion as we challenge people to rethink Christianity, not as the religion it has become, but as a transforming relationship with his Father that Jesus always meant it to be.

On the way to the airport for my recent trip to Dallas, I got a call from someone whose home I’ve stayed in a number of times in the past. He was in a bit of a crisis and wanted my input. As he described the events playing out in his life, he told me he was never more circumstantially confused and personally unsettled about all the things going on around him. None of his old boxes or definitions seemed to be working. Yet, he said, never had he known such peace and confidence in the midst of it. He seemed a bit unsettled with that reality and wanted to know if I thought this sounded like God.

Absolutely. It has God’s fingerprints all over it. Religion teaches us to put our security in our ability to have things all figured out. The only problem with that, however, is that most of our ‘figuring out’ is based on human wisdom and false assumptions. It promotes the illusion that we are in control of our own lives and thus can be at peace when all is well and in turmoil when it is not. That’s why when they unravel, as they inevitably will, people are thrown into confusion and doubt about God’s love or their own worthiness.

Paul wrote about the peace that passes all understanding, the security God gives us in himself when the storms rage about us and yet we know that we are safe in him even if we don’t have the foggiest idea what’s going on or how things turn out. Living relationally means exploring the moment with him and finding our security not in a well-defined present, or in guaranteed outcomes to our current crisis. God invites us to find our security in him alone, and his unfolding purpose in our lives whether we see it or not. It is enough that we live in him each day, doing what he asks of us and resting confident that he will accomplish his work as much in the valley of the shadow of death as he does in the green pastures and still waters.

Sara and have been reading together The Way of Jesus: A Journey of Freedom for Pilgrims and Wanderers by Jonathan and Jennifer Campbell. It was recommended to me by a friend from New Zealand. Though the reading does get tedious at times with a lot of intellectual curiosities, I love the journey this couple is on and the conclusions they are coming to. I think many of you will enjoy the book. Here are a couple of excerpts:

Sadly, despite many charismatic renewals over the past fifty years, institutionalism remains. Even the most gifted leaders who reach freedom in Jesus and long for a greater outpouring fo the Holy Spirit perpetuate structures that prevent the free-flowing movement of the Body of Christ. With few exceptions, church in the West is still described in institutional terms: a worship service whereby passive laity sit in a sanctuary listening to a didactic monologue from a professional. Most of what we see today are primarily cosmetic changes expressed in the superficialities of style: music style, clothing style, program style, architectural style. Styles may change, but the systemic structure remains entirely modern. (p. 101)

“The real issues are not methodological or structural’ they are theological and deeply spiritual. The church was never meant to have a permanent (or stationary) residence because it was to be always enroute toward the ends of the earth and the end of time.… The problem with the church is not that it’s out of touch with the culture, but that it is out of touch with Jesus. Our powerless ecclesiology (understanding of church) reflects our powerless Christology (understanding of Jesus). We know about Jesus without experiencing Jesus. (p. 99)

Some of you have been following my adventures in the nation’s capital. I got this email from a friend in the heartland who saw the CSPAN appearance. I love what he shares about his own transformation:

I thought you all came across very well and clear. I did wonder while watching it, how people (especially Christians) hearing these ideas and approach to this issue for the first time, would process it? I’m still amazed how the culture in western Christianity seems to breed this defense of truth at the expense of loving people. Maybe that is just the only outcome we ever get out of religion. The love and acceptance that Jesus lived in scripture is so easy to over look. I can’t help but think of the time I spent as an obnoxious Christian defending truth. It really is amazing looking back at this whole experience outside the box and how Father has change so much of that in me. I tell my girls often when they have been hurt by someone to never forget how it feels when someone does something hurtful to them and to ask themselves at the same time if they ever want to inflict that kind of pain on anyone else ever? It has been through things like this in my life Father really started teaching me about compassion.

For those of you interested in the follow-up to the press conference, the Associated Press did a story that hit 78 newspapers around the world on the next day. Focus on the Family covered it as well, and there was also an article in the Ventura County paper where I live.

When Sara read the AP article, she noticed I wasn’t even mentioned in it, nor was BridgeBuilders. She asked how I felt about that. I felt great. You see, I think the real purpose of a facilitator is to bring people together then step into the background. The story shouldn’t be about me it should be about the others who represent the constituencies that need to see this differently. Especially in this case. For the last year I’ve gotten the sense that BridgeBuilders may be winding down for me, and while I have loved doing it, I have so much more passion for the other things Jesus has asked me to do. So I really do want to work myself out of a job here. That helps. As long as we’re building something it is about us, and when we want to let go, it becomes about others. I don’t know if God is done with it yet or not. Time will tell. But I know it is much better for me to live with it having my hands wide open than grasping for what I think I need in it. That said, I’ve already accepted an invitation to speak to Washington State school board attorneys about this issue in April. Go figure!

When I’ve worked in various school districts, I notice the people quoting me a lot after we’re done. I always encourage them to stop. If the language has become theirs, there is no reason to assign it to me and it will be better for the community they live in if it comes from them. I won’t be around and they really need to learn to live this stuff with each other.

Interestingly enough, after I hung the phone with Sara I read John 3 in my daily reading about John wanting to decrease so Jesus could increase. That’s it, right there! The heart of ministry and even leadership in the family is to point people to Jesus and fade into the background. It isn’t to keep standing on the stage drawing attention to me and what I did, but to point the way to him and what he did. That’s our purpose in every life God gives us to touch. Help them see him and then fade into the background. Oh you can still be their friend, but you don’t need to be their mentor after that. Once they learn to follow him, let them go and see if Father has someone else for you to encourage onward in him.

What a trip! Yesterday was wild with the national media and the CSPAN taping. That show does air tonight for those who want to see it. It’s called Close-up and will air on CSPAN – 1 at 7:00 Eastern time, 4:00 Pacific. I was pleased with how it all came out, but I have no idea if it will make sense to others. That’s not my favorite kind of venue. But the story of that press conference was told in nearly 100 newspapers today around the world through a story in the Associated Press. Google ‘first amendment framework’ in their news section and read the first story and the others related to it.

But for the last 24 hours I’ve been talking with some wonderful people. I met a man this morning that has been involved behind the scenes in helping build relationships between the divided factions and tribes in Africa. What a story! We’ll share it in a future God Journey podcast, because I was able to tape part of that conversation. It is amazing what God does in the simple power of relationships when hearts are willing to do what he asks even if we don’t have all the expertise or knowledge we think it would require. God is really good at what he does. It’s an amazing I can’t wait to share with all of you. It will give you such hope about his work in Africa in spite of all the great challenges and need that pervades that country.

Then I got an email this afternoon that told an incredible story about how God has been sorting himself out in this brother’s life. He had been in some incredible places learning how to ‘do’ the stuff of ministry, but all without really knowing the depth of the Father’s love for him. Listen to his words:

I went to a home church group run by the apostle who taught me to hear God’s voice and I ministered alongside him for a while, for a year, before the Lord told me to leave that group. The group was wonderful, and I was hungry, but the only focus was learning to hear God’s voice and the gifts — what I knew I desperately needed was to learn how to love others, and how to allow God to show His love for me (I guess I should reverse the order on that).

So for the last year I have been *alone* with the Lord, as He has stripped me of the remaining barriers until just last week He broke through my insecurities enough to show me how secure I truly am with Him. Funny, isn’t it? How we can work miracles and give great prophetic words and have great wisdom and still not know the love that is God. It truly is a mystery. I would have done anything for Him, if He had asked me, except let Him love me.

I love that last sentence, because it was true of my life for a long time, not because I didn’t want him to love me, but because I wanted that love to come my way. It is funny how much ‘incredible things’ we can do ‘for’ God, and do it out of the desperate search for his love, rather than out of its reality. This is the most important ‘get’ for us all. For while God is gracious to still work good out of our miserable attempts to earn his love, it still diminishes something in us and only feeds our frustration and anger.

This journey truly begins when we discover just how secure we are in this Father’s love and that by simply following he will do all he wants to do in us and through us. He’s not looking for people to ‘use’, he’s looking for people who will let him love them to the very tips of their toes–now and forever!

Tomorrow I’m off to Washington, DC for some venues I’m not accustomed to, nor do I necessarily enjoy. This summer I worked with the First Amendment Center on some guidelines to help public schools deal with cultural and religious conflicts. This one, Public Schools and Sexual Orientation: A First Amendment framework for finding common ground is designed to help schools deal with sexual orientation discrimination and harassment without undermining those parents, students of faith who have moral objections to homosexuality.

I helped Dr. Charles Haynes of the First Amendment Center broker and draft this agreement with representation from educational, gay and lesbian, as well as religious groups. Here’s some of the language from those document:

In recent years, many public schools have increasingly become a front line in the escalating debates over homosexuality in American society. Conflicts over issues involving sexual orientation in the curriculum, student clubs, speech codes and other areas of school life increasingly divide communities, spark bitter lawsuits, and undermine the educational mission of schools.

The advice in this guide is built on the conviction that we urgently need to reaffirm our shared commitment, as American citizens, to guiding principles of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The rights and responsibilities of the First Amendment provide the civic framework within which we are able to debate our differences, to understand one another, and to forge public policies that serve the common good in public education…

Under the First Amendment, a school is both safe and free when students, parents, educators and all members of the school community commit to address their religious and political differences with civility and respect. A safe school is free of bullying and harassment. And a free school is safe for student speech even about issues that divide us.

I will appear with representatives of the First Amendment Center, the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network and the Christian Educators Association at the release of this new publication nationally on Thursday, March 9 at a press conference held at the National Press Club at 9:00 a.m. EST and followed up with a forum discussion on CSPAN’s Close-up, which will be aired on Friday evening at 7:00 EST. (We haven’t gotten final confirmation that it will air this week, so if it doesn’t, check it out next week.)

I am always amazed at the doors God opens to me. After the media activities on Thursday, I’m going to spend the evenings with some friends Sara and I met in New Zealand a couple of years ago who have just moved to DC to work for the New Zealand government. Then on Friday I’m going to meet with a man involved in reconciliation work in Africa before heading upstate Maryland to spend the weekend with some folks near Haggerstown. Then a few dear friends of mine are meeting for lunch in Bethesda before I catch my return flight home to California.

If you think about all of this, pray for me. Just when I think the whole BridgeBuilders things is winding down, God opens some pretty strange doors. I also got a call two days ago to address a convention of school attorneys in Washington state in April. Curiouser and curiouser…

The March 2006 issue of BodyLife is now available at the Lifestream website.

The lead article is called The Real Question, which examines the conflict between those who frequent traditional congregations and those that do not and offers some ideas as to how we can live out the love of Jesus and the reality of the family without getting caught up in that conflict. I hope it is helpful to you as you engage believers in your life that helps build up the family rather than further fragment it.

A new podcast entitled Lights! Camera! Action! has just been posted on our sister website thegodjourney.com. This one takes a look at some interesting aspects of believers and the movies with some fellow-travelers involved in the filmmaking industry.