What are you learning?

As we speak, I am in Portland, Oregon with the rain pelting down outside the window of my very luxurious Homestead Suites chalet (ok, it's not luxurious, and it's not a chalet, but...). I am here because I am enrolled in a Doctor of Ministry degree program at George Fox Evangelical Seminary here in Portland, and this is my 3rd of 4 on-campus cohorts, which runs until the 26th.

For those of you who have never heard of a Doctor of Ministry degree before, I would liken it to an Ed.d degree for teachers. It is an academic program open to practicing clergy and church leaders after they have received their Master of Divinity degree (which is the standard for most denominational clergy), but who want to keep learning and growing without leaving their professional life and moving on campus (the Ph.D route). It is a 3 year program, with two years of academic coursework and (at least) one year of research and writing of a dissertation. I am 1 1/2 years into it and am having so much fun I can't stand it! It is a lot of work, but I am learning a ton that impacts my own life of faith, as well as my life as a pastor. I am grateful to Kristi and my girls, the church, and God for allowing me to do this.

OK that just sounded like a Golden Globes acceptance speech from last week, but you get the picture.

Anyways, I was Instant Messaging with a friend from church a few days ago and he asked me what I was learning at school. As I am about half way through my time on campus for this session, I thought it would be good for me to think about the "ahas" of my time here, and then I thought (maybe stupidly) that you might like to know as well. There have been many, but here are two of the things I've been thinking about.

1. The body's terror alert system. As you know, the US (since 9/11) has come up with a color coded terror alert system to warn the public of the level of terror threat in our country. Well, did you know that our bodies have the same sort of thing built right in? It's called anxiety. Anxiety and its bodily repurcussions are our alert network that something is not right. Individuals have it, but groups (and churches) have them too. When we get anxious, our bodies do all sorts of funky things, like our heart pounds, we can't think straight, and I'm sure each of us could add our list of symptoms to the list. We also react to our anxiety in wierd ways with others. We might be compliant, but inwardly be frustrated (and thus act passive-agressively). We might rebel, or blame, or disengage emotionally from the one that we are in conflict with (the one who is causing us the anxiety). We might even turn to addictions to supress or anxiousness (I would have to say food and biting my nails are my preferred modes).

Now, it would be HORRIBLE to live an anxious life for too long. In fact, God doesn't want us to -- he has given us the chance to live in the freedom of his love for us (perfect love casts out fear, he says).

But the fact is the places where we are anxious are the places that we can be transformed.

Our anxiety comes from disharmony, in one way shape or form. As followers of Jesus, those are the places we should not avoid -- but steer into, to get underneath, to examine, to lift up to Jesus, because those are the places God can transform us and make us whole.

What are you anxious about? How are you presently dealing with it? God wants to heal our anxieties, and he will, if we allow him to.

This was powerful for me.

2. Searching for Jesus. For a lot of people in the church, the world "Evangelism" is a scary thing. First, it is scary to think about actually talking to people about Jesus, when most of the world today could care less (it seems) or you don't feel like you "know" enough to share. It is also a big burden to think about the fact that Jesus is counting on me to introduce them to Christ. That is a big responsiblity, and one that most of us feel unprepared (or unworthy) to do.

But that understanding of evangelism is incomplete, and even misinformed. The fact of the matter is that it is not our job to bring Jesus Christ to people, or even bring people to Jesus Christ. The fact is that Jesus is already there with them. He knows them by name and is walking with each of us, whether we know it or not. We don't bring Jesus to anybody. We as Christians believe that when Jesus rose from the dead, he is now speaking to us in the eternal present (remember he claimed God's name I AM for himself), and he is already there, whether people know it or not.

Therefore, my primary job in evangelism is not to say, "Do you know Jesus?" but to say "What is going on in your life?" For we can guarantee that Jesus is already there, somewhere. Our adventure is getting to look for Jesus in that person's life, and then finding ways to help them listen to their life and help them recognize His presence.

That requires that I listen to them, befriend them, get into their culture, and pray that Jesus will show himself in the situation. Evangelism then is like the game "Where's Waldo?" -- we get to try and find Jesus in the picture of people's lives. Because he is already there, whether they know it or not.

Those are just a couple of things I have been noodling on from Portland. What do you think?Agree? Disagree? Let me know!

Prayers from Portland,

jeff