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David, who describes himself a church planting missionary in Thailand sent me a great question the other day. I figured there would be others interested in the answer, so here it is:

As I looked over the letters I couldn’t help but notice that EVERYONE had ONLY positive comments to make about the site. But, I was wondering, why don’t you post the negative letters that you receive? One of the things that I really enjoy about the site is the feeling that you are trying to be “honest” in your approach. As a word of constructive criticism please let me say, you make yourself look much less “honest” by not also sharing the letters from folks who are against what this web-site is all about.

Here is my response: Thanks for your email and your input and I do appreciate your perception of what we’re trying to do here and your concern. Let me try to answer you as honestly as I can.

The Letters we use in BodyLife are designed to encourage people on the journey or help them see how others are finding encouragement on the Lifestream site. I have never considered running negative letters there because people I’m want to encourage already hear the negative voices from people around them. That section is really meant to ‘build up’ people with positive encouragement to pursue the work God is already doing in them.

That said, I do not often receive negative email about my site. Most of the negative comments come secondhand and thus they are unusable. The negative comments I do receive directly usually fall into two categories—(1) vitriolic rants by people who are incredibly destructive, and (2) honest questions or struggles with something I’ve written or espoused. Let me tell you how I have handled both of those. I respond personally to the first group, assuming they are someone who has been badly burned by some Christian experience, and with gentleness reach out to their concerns. Most I never hear back from, but occasionally some engage an email conversation that opens some real doors in their heart to see past people’s failures to God’s reality. I don’t consider posting those anywhere because I don’t know who they would help.

I also respond personally to the second group, but if I think their concern would be shared by a number of others, I post that exchange (anonymously, of course) on the blog, with my response to show how I processed it. So that is where you would find the negative comments or struggles with my content. More often, however, differing viewpoints appear in the comment sections of the blog. I do not delete negative responses unless they are intellectually dishonest or resort to false accusations or name-calling. In the 21 months I’ve had the blog I have only deleted one comment due to these concerns.

So the disagreeing dialog is there, it just isn’t in the BodyLife “Sharing the Journey†section, because I want that to be encouraging to others just embarking on this journey. Perhaps that will change in the future, who knows? This is (or better said, I am) a work in progress and what we do here will continue to unfold. Please be assured that I deeply appreciate people who take the time to let me know how we might do this better or more honestly. And those suggestions often shape what I might do in the future.

I write this at the Boise, Idaho airport at 5:30 a.m., waiting for my flight to leave for home. They have free wi-fi here! It would be great if more airports allowed it. Usually it costs something like $8.00 even though you’ll only be there an hour or so. Really, not worth it!

I just spent an incredible weekend, however, with a broad spectrum of folks from the Boise area. I touched base with four different pockets of believers up here over the five days I was in the area. I am always blessed by the people I meet who hunger to know the Living God and are willing to follow that hunger even when it pushes them away from the safety of the status quo. I even got a chance to prune some grapevines yesterday and let others see what it looks like when God prunes up our lives to make us more fruitful.

One of the things that has kept coming up in this trip is that routine is the death knell of relationship. Whether it is our spouse, God, or the body of Christ, whenever we find more comfort in the safety of a routine rather than live in the spontaneity of the moment, relationships begin to die. Routine and ritual is the language of religion. Relationships are just too organic for such things. So if you think things are getting stale in your relationships, break out of the box a bit. Learn to see your God, your spouse and others through fresh eyes and respond to the moment rather than stay to the comfort of past routines.

His mercies really are new every morning. In the uniqueness of your life and this day may the creative God inspire you today with something fresh from his heart and may you follow him today to places that you’ve never gone before…

Our latest edition of The God Journey entitled Meet the Wives, Again has just been posted on our sister website thegodjourney.com.

We got them started, and now we’re not sure we can get them to stop! After our last podcast, Sara and Kelly were still talking about some of their issues in living outside the system. We turned the microphones back on and thought you’d appreciate the issues they’re facing today as they talk about their feelings regarding corporate worship, their children, and finding fellowship with other people, especially other women, as their journey’s continue. Those of you who asked for more of Sara and Kelly had your prayers answered before you asked them.…

I had lunch at an interesting place today in Eagle, Idaho. As you can see from the photo it looks like a building many Christians use for Sunday morning meetings. Look closely, though and you can see something is amiss. It used to be a clubhouse for the Baptists, but it isn’t any longer. Observe the sign in the front that says Rembrandt’s. (Yes, I know it is a bit small to read… sorry!) Inside, the entire facility has been converted into an upscale combination coffee shop and art gallery. The food was amazing and the ambiance delightful.

But wait, there’s more. A group of believers went together to buy the building, refurbish it and open it as a commercial establishment. But the proceeds from this restaurant/gallery go to support a youth center nearby that is an old converted fire station. Here kids can find tutors, recreation and people who care about them.

What an amazing combination. I was blessed to hear the story and inspired by those who were so proactive about their faith, their generosity with the community and their creative way to finance a youth center that doesn’t have to rely on donations.

And this has become one of the most popular eating places in town, with a full parking lot when we arrived at 11:30 on a Thursday. I think I want to nominate this as best use of a previously owned religious establishment for 2005. Any other nominations?

As I was clearing up so old files in my office the other day, I came across a quote I had cut out of a Leadership Journal almost 25 years ago now. I remember being captured by this quote when I first read it and it is as fresh and true today as it was then.

These words were written by Father John McKenzie, a Catholic scholar back in the 1970s, which gives rise to a few of questions: First, why would someone who says such things still travel with the title ‘Father’? And second, why didn’t anybody listen to him? And finally, why didn’t I actually believe these words when I first read them? They would have saved me years of grief. For I have found out in the years since that it is exactly true. Until we give up all the false places where we’ve tried to control God’s people, we won’t know the reality of the church of Jesus Christ as she has existed down through time outside the walls of our own institutions.

I guess it is easier to speak words of that ring of truth, or jot them down in journals, than to actually heed them.

We are no longer able to maintain our blog at the site where it has been generously hosted for us the past 20 months or so. We need to convert it and bring it onto the Lifestream site, which may take a bit of work over the next few days. If the site is not functional during the next few days, please understand why and bear with us.

Ahh… the growth curve! I hate the growth curve! But then growth doesn’t happen without, physically or computerally!

Thank you.

I can’t believe I didn’t get a new blog entry up here between the last podcast and this one. But it’s been a bit nuts around here, especially with the holiday week and some family events that coincided with all that. But I thought you’d want to know that our latest edition of The God Journey entitled Systems and Structures has just been posted on our sister website thegodjourney.com.

When people begin to see through the illusions of organized religion, many have the tendency to through out all structures, thinking they are inherently evil. Are they? Some feedback from Wayne and Brad’s podcast on George Barna’s Revolution and some listener questions regarding structure and associations give them an opportunity to sort through this issue, considering where structures can be a blessing by helping to facilitate Gods’ working, and where they supplant it and distract people from the simple joy of living out of their relationship with Jesus.

If you’d like to post comments or questions about this show, please do so on the God Journey Blog so that others can read them there as well. Thanks! I know it is sometimes easier to respond here, but then others on that website don’t get to interact with your comments or questions. Thanks!

Our latest edition of The God Journey entitled The Freedom Not To Have It All Figured Out has just been posted on our sister website thegodjourney.com.

As Wayne and Brad respond to a recent flood of reader comments and letters, they wander into a discussion about the challenge of living in Jesus without having all the details figured out or having the results of our circumstances guaranteed. Our safety is not found in our plans being fulfilled but in our growing friendship with Jesus. When our confidence is vested in him alone we will be able to navigate the ruggedness and uncertainty of the journey with his wisdom and grace.

If you’d like to post comments or questions about this show, please do so on the God Journey Blog so that others can read them there as well. Thanks! I know it is sometimes easier to respond here, but then others on that website don’t get to interact with your comments or questions. Thanks!

Joshua from Virginia wrote in response to my recent Breaking Free blog, show how that process has not been easy for him. I love the issue he raised and how he responded to what I wrote. Grace is not something we get for a day or two, it’s something we need for life. We will stumble and fall but as you can see in this exchange, God transforms us faster when we keep relishing grace, not as we stew in condemnation.

Here’s how I responded to him: This journey can be complicated some times, can’t it? I’m sorry you’ve gotten sidetracked again somehow, but anyone on this journey knows what that is like. Yes, it seems we make great headway for a season, then find ourselves marooned again on our own self-pleasure and wonder what it is all about.

The letter you read is not a momentary catharsis. I am in touch with the man who wrote it and some wonderful things are going on in his life that I’m certain will bear fruit years down the line. But I guess time will tell us for sure. One thing I know is that this growing in Christ often has times of fits and starts and distractions and falls and the people who find freedom and fruitfulness are the ones who keep getting back up, going to God accepting his forgiveness and drawing near 40 times a day if need be.

It seems guilt might be overriding you in failure. It makes you feel bad for a while, then lets you up and then slaps you down again. That’s pretty consistent. Somehow God needs to make it real for you that he is your partner in sorting out this bondage, not your critic and judge waiting for you to get it right. Invite him in, even at the moment of failure and let him do what he needs to do in you to set you free.

He’s really good at this; we are not. He just wants you to get to the end of yourself, so you won’t keep trying to do what only he can do. I don’t know anything more encouraging than that!!!!

You go, Bro! This is what the journey is like at times. Discouragement only ensures the cycle. Receiving his affection at the place of our brokenness is what breaks it. I’m praying for the latter in your case…

I loved what he wrote back:

This was posted on the Lifestream List the other day and I thought it was a fabulous reminder about what fellowship is really all about and I also think it is the best way to spill into relationships with others. The author is Lynette from New Zealand. Sara and I spent some time last summer with her, her husband, and their two children in Wellington. She hosts Unveiling where she posts some wonderful articles encouraging people to a deeper life in ther reality of Christ.

Someone had just shared how difficult it was for them to find fellowship with people on this journey and asked others where they were finding fellowship. Here’s what Lynette wrote:

All fellowship flows from the Son. Learn to live in him and you are in fellowship with every member of his body all around the world. That’s the reality of this kingdom. And Jesus is able to connect you with those he needs you you at any given moment and can do that in a variety of ways. We participate in that best when we’re resting in our relationship with him, and miss it most when we’re anxiously trying to make it happen ourselves.