What if John when he was writing his Gospel was saying by his opening words, “In the beginning,” that his book was a Genesis 1 sorta thing, a rewriting of the story of Genesis 1 with a new Adam (although he doesn’t use the term). What if we read John in that way? Of course, Genesis 1 is about creation given to us in an account of “days” not necessarily twenty-four hour days. On the sixth day, God created humankind in his image. In John’s Gospel on the sixth day, Jesus appears before Pilate and Pilate says, “Behold the man.” Could we understand that as John’s way of saying here is the true human being giving his life for the world God created. Remember, at the conclusion of the sixth day in Genesis, God finished all the work of creation. On the cross Jesus says, “It is finished!” On the seventh day God rested. In the tomb on the sixth day Jesus rested from all the work of recreation.

O Sabbath rest by Calvary,
     O calm of tomb below,
Where the grave-clothes and the spices
     cradle him we did not know!
Rest you well, beloved Jesus,
     Caesar’s Lord and Israel’s King,
In the brooding of the Spirit,
     in the darkness of the spring. (N. T. Wright)

On the first day of the new week, resurrection, a new creation.

What if we read John and understood John that way and became part of that story instead of the story that so many of us find ourselves living in.

What if…

Well, I decided not to blog live but to link to the actual talks that were given at the conference. It was a great time of inspirational learning about being missional. So take a listen. I’m not sure how long these feeds will be here.

Click on the Right Arrow to stream. Click on the link to open in a player.

Enjoy and make any comments you would like to make.

Friday Evening
The Meaning of Missional: Scot McKnight

The Meaning of Missional - Part 1: Todd Hunter

The Meaning of Missional - Part 2: Todd Hunter

Saturday
Reflection: Todd Hunter

Morphing the Missional: Rose Swetman

What Shall I Call This Presentation?: Scot McKnight

Interview with a Missional Minded Atheist: Jim Henderson

Going Missional without Getting Mean: Todd Hunter

This weekend (March 23-24) I am attending the Missional Matrix mini conference in Shorline, WA at Vineyard Community Church. The two main presenters are Scot McKnight and Todd Hunter. Scot is a well published author whose blog The Jesus Creed is well read by many in the emerging church community and Todd is the national director of AlphaUSA.

My intention is to blog the conference as close to live as possible. Of course, that depends on the WIFI connection and the ability of my computer not to give me any trouble in the process. So tune in if you choose, and make comments if you like.

Recently, I was listening to Len Sweet talk about addressing the NRB and talking about “futuring.” He shared that he talked about five substantial areas. The one that caught my attention was “The Well Curve not the Bell Curve.”

You remember getting grades in school based on the “Bell Curve.” A few got an “A,” a few got and “F,” but most grades were in the center. This idea was based on normal statistical distribution. About a 150 years ago those working with math noticed that when different things were measured in a large sample, the results was clustered around an average. Plotted on a chart, it looked like a bell. The “Bell Curve” became normal in statistical distribution. It became a fundamental law of natural science, a foundation of statistics.

However, in the culture shift that is in process the “Bell Curve” has completely changed and is being replaced by a concept called the “Well Curve,” which suggests that the things at the edges, which were small in the “Bell Curve” are now large, while what was large in the “Bell Curve” is not smaller. Opposites are happing at the same time, but are not contradictory as may have been perceived in the “Bell Curve.”

As one example, in the consumer culture screens are getting smaller and larger at the same time, i.e., cell phones, PDAs, wrist PDAs / large screen TVs. It seems that the mid-sized is going out of style.

This reminded me of part of a course that I teach from time to time in which I deal with worldview and a concept I call: Thinking Like A Hebrew. The Hebrews of the Old and New Testament seems to have had the knack of taking things that were opposite and holding them together in tension. What was opposite was held in tension without trying to solve the tension.

Our Western worldview, however, wants to solve the tension. It is driven to get an answer, to come down on one side or another. In theology this can be seen in the arguments between the sovereignty of God and the free will of humankind. John Calvin came down on one side and Jacobus Arminius came down on the other. The debate still rages in some circles to this day. It is strange to say but both Calvin and Arminius were wrong when standing alone in their beliefs but in a Hebraic way of thinking, their seemingly opposites are correct when held together in the tension they produce.

In a world traveling at the speed of sound, where signs of change are all around us we need to hold the opposites in tension and build bridges from the sides to the middle, other wise we will have a bridge to nowhere, and that would just be useless.

On February 23, 2007 the movie Amazing Grace will hit theaters all over USAmerica. It is the story of one man’s struggle for justice in his time and place. Below is a trailer for the movie. If you want more information, you can discover it at Amazing Grace Movie.

I have had open heart surgery and five heart stints/stents. I am also an adult diabetic. Diabetes effects my nerves and their ability to send messages in my body. So my heart pain is never the same because my nerves send and received messages differently because of the diabetes.

I though about how that looks in the “body of Christ.” It seems more than not that messages that need to be sent are garbled because of damaged senders and the results it a mess trying to figure out what the communication really is. We may have a kind of “spiritual diabetes” in the church, which has effected our nervous system and causes pain that is unrecognizable.

Now that’s not a thought that I cherish living with “physical and spiritual diabetes.” The medical world tells me that diabetes is only controllable not curable. I choose not to believe such. That doesn’t mean that I stick my head in the sand (sugar sand at that) and “eat my way” into a sugar coma. My faith provides me with hope that God can heal me of that disease in this life. I choose to believe that. That would lead me to also believe that “spiritual diabetes” in the church could also be healed within the body of Christ. I choose to believe that also.