Are You "On Mission"?

When some of my friends get together who have shared the “One Year to Live” weekend retreat we ask about each other’s mission. What is your mission? And what percent of your time since we last met have you been “on mission?”

So what is a mission? Remember the old television series, “Mission Impossible”? Peter Graves played the team leader. Each week he got a message about a mission (a tape message that would automatically destroy itself after being played!). It gave Peter Graves a mission – always a tough, almost impossible) mission. In the mission message was always the qualification, “should you accept this mission…” meaning that he could say no to. Of course, he never did. Graves always accepted the mission and always completed it! Wouldn’t that be nice if life was so easy? But if we never thought about what our mission in life was would we ever be able to accomplish the things we thought are important in life? Would we then just muddle through our years? Many folks do.

Think about these three mission questions: WHO are you? WHY do you exist? HOW are you going to live this life? This is identity, mission, and action! And when it comes to a life-mission, you do have a choice as to whether or not you are going to identify your mission in life and whether or not you will work to make life happen the way you wish it would. Because a lot about mission is about vision – a vision for your future. In the wisdom literature of the Psalms it is written: “without vision, the people perish.”

Think about WHO you are. Your identity. Is it as a father, mother, spouse, friend, a beloved child of God, a person with a positive self-concept?

WHY you exist. Your vision. Is it to do good in the world, to love family, friends and neighbors, to make a difference, to be a loving parent, a good spouse, a faithful friend?

HOW you are going to live this life. Your actions. Is it to maintain a life-long, loving marriage, strong personal relationships, a successful life at work, helping others whenever you have the opportunity?

Almost every successful human endeavor has a mission. I think individuals need them, too. What is your mission in life? Is it worth reflecting on and taking some time to develop? Is it worth reviewing from time to time? Is it worth sharing with the most important people in your life so that you keep on task – on mission and are living with integrity?

Maybe one way to start is to identify the three to five most important things you value in your life – things you deeply and strongly hold in the core of your being. Write them down. Now ponder them and then write down the things you are actually doing to make these important values real in your life. We may say we want to be wealthy, healthy, have a happy marriage, raise loving and successful children and so forth. But when we look at what we are actively DOING – where are spending our time and money – the actions we are living don’t seem to fit with the values we say are important.

So here’s an action plan: Draw up your own mission statement. Then invite one or two or your closest friends to talk about what they see as their mission in life. Ask them to join you in writing out a mission statement and sharing it regarding WHO they are, WHY they exist, and HOW they are living this life. Then meet again and share these statements with one another and then honestly look for the “beef”: where you all are spending your time and money.

I can assure you that it will be time well spent. And if your spouse is not in that “close friend” group, include him or her by sharing what you have written. Then give it the test. Ask your best friend: Do the things I am doing support that values that I say are important to me?

Good luck – and don’t forget to put some prayer into this – pray for honesty, insight, and, yes, courage!

Leaky Skins

Is it time to find new "wineskins?"  Jesus told us to put new wine into new skins because if we used the old skins for new wine they would burst (Matthew 9, Mark 2, and Luke 5).  Every vintner of his day knew this.  They knew the difference between old and new wine.

I have to admit that I see leaders of Christ's church today as sitting on a vat of new ideas (wine) and looking for the new place (wine skins) to pour them into.  But they remain reluctant to do so because they fear of breaking their "old wineskin" church open.  In their hesitation, the church as we know it (and most others don't) chugs on week after week and year after year with its old, tasteless, and undesirable "wine."  The only folks drinking the old wine are those who have always drunk that wine, and who simply don't have a curiosity or taste for God's new wine.  It's familiar wine, but not the great wine of the Kingdom of God.  All this goes on while the "old tasters" pray and pray that their children and grandchildren will somehow come and find the Jesus who, at Canaan, turned water into the very best wine imaginable.  But forward, Kingdom-thinking church leaders today know that the Jesus wine can't be served because it is too dangerous -- too explosive!

What is it that God expects of us?  Serve the new or stay with the old?  I suggest that God expects us to put the new wine of Jesus into new communities of people and invite those who love the old tasteless wine to join the party!  The new ideas that Jesus brought to us and taught us are still are new to most of his followers.  You and I know that to be a man or woman who actually follows Jesus is to be a cultural renegade -- a revolutionary wine taster!

So what is that which God asks?  God asks us to love God totally and to totally love other people that God has created -- our "neighbors" in the broadest of sense.

First, let's talk about that which God asks of us is NOT.  It is not using the majority of our "tithes/our giving" to maintain a building that is only used about 20% of the week.

It IS, however, about living in an authentic community/relationship with other Jesus followers and DOING Jesus to those outside this community.  It is serving and healing others while we, ourselves, grow more Christ-like; imitating Christ.  Inch by inch; day by day through the discipline of Christian living.  It is loving God through Jesus and letting our lives overflow and shine into the lives of others (mostly by not saying a word or getting in any one's face!).

This means we live a life of compassion, confession, forgiveness, and prayer -- and strive to see the face of Jesus in every other human being -- rich or poor, whatever race, ethnicity -- everyone!  We especially are called to not only see that Face but to especially serve those who are poor, ill, suffering, or in prison.

So, if this became the "church," the agenda, the practice (not the architecture) of a group of Jesus-followers how would that play out?  What would it look like?  But most importantly what would it BE and DO?

Brothers and sisters, this has been my spiritual/faith struggle.  I think I know what God wants of me, but I am too timid, too old, too insecure to act on it.  But if I were to actually PRACTICE my faith I would need a lot of prayer and support from others to do it.  I would need a lot of help from like-minded Jesus people who also find strength in community.

How would we begin?  Then how would we continue in this practice? About four centuries before Jesus, Aristotle (who also greatly informed Thomas Aquinas and other spiritual thinkers) said that it is not about what we do, but about the kind of person we become.

What do you think about all this?  What are your thoughts and about where the new wine should go?

Reflections On Another Great Men's Retreat

What in the world is God up to?  This is a question many of us ask after having experienced the "One Year To Live" weekend -- a Christian men's retreat sponsored by (would you believe it?) Lutherans!  If my denomination (Episcopals) or any other so-called "mainstream" Christian denomination sponsored this weekend I would be equally amazed.  But there is no doubt about what is going on -- IT IS OF GOD!

This past weekend I went on as a staff member to another retreat (my sixth) and heard this from a man who was in my small group,

"Before the retreat I would have said that I had been a Christian for forty years.  But after this retreat I realized I had spent those forty years sitting on the couch.  Now it's time to get up and go!"

We all need a spiritual tuneup from time to time -- otherwise we would remain "sitting on the couch" -- a spectator to the Jesus journey. There is a great similarity between our spiritual and our physical lives.  If we spend our life literally "sitting on the couch" we will some be visited by some people we quickly wish were not in our lives -- "Mr. Fat, Mr. Cholesterol, Mr. Stress, and Mr. Coronary Artery Disease!"

The same thing will happens to us if we just sit by and watch the practice of Christianity and not DO IT as Jesus would.  When we become a spiritual spectator rather than practitioner, we too, will visited by some unwelcome spiritual "visitors" who will not help us get to where we want to go in our spiritual life. 

In the absence of some kind of regular spiritual practice (like physical excercise), life will somewhat less than what it could be.  Jesus said he wanted us to have an "abundant life;" not just an ordinary, dull, and sedentary life.

What I again saw this weekend is not only God working powerfully among us and throughout our whole bodies, but I also how God sometimes breaks us open to teach us a deep spiritual lesson (and how God puts us back together again as well).  I guess I would call this the "humpty-dumpty" effect.  While all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again -- God does! 

For most of our lives, we men protect our selves at all costs (otherwise wouldn't we share our feelings more?).  And that protection of our hearts (our feelings) at all costs leads to tremendous damage to our most important relationships: wife, children, and friends. We have trouble connecting with them, telling them how much we love them -- telling our children we are proud of them and blessing them!

So, sometimes God uses us to show others our vulnerability.  I was in a hospital emergency room three years ago when Sabine was diagnosed with cancer.  It was then after weeks of ER runs and not knowing what was happening to her that I finally gave it up.  God broke me open; knocked me to my knees, as I finally admitted that I was no longer in control, that I deeply needed God -- that God was now in charge. I was no longer (nor did I want to be) the "captain of  my soul, the master of my fate."

It was a tremendously painful experience for me as I called one of my closest friends on the phone and sobbingly cried out, "I can't do it anymore.  I need help! Come down to the hospital!" And my friend and his wife came to my rescue.  God knew I needed help and I needed to be broken open before I realized it; before I willingly practiced what had been preaching -- "Let go and let God."  And from that "breaking open" also came God's repair and strengthening and the realization that I needed some strong, supportive and Godly men in my life.

Most of us realize this at one time or another in their lives.  I have come to realize that it is not my job to fix those men.  I can invite men to the weekend retreat, but it the next step is between them and their God).

Like the that wonderful hymn, "Amazing Grace," I know that "I once was blind, but now I see -- was lost but now am found."  It is a big step for a man to confess this.  For most of us it is a life-long process of seeing and finding.  And it is an open heart that leads us to do both.

Another powerful "fruit" of this weekend was to see a man stand up and ask to be baptized.  Over the three days, God opened and moved in this man's heart -- and on the last day of the retreat he was mightily baptized with his new-found brothers-in-Christ standing around him and agreeing to sponsor him.  I have come learn that few Christians today have ever seen an adult baptism!  Perhaps that is why it was so powerful!

So, again, have seen blessings, men touched by God, men moved by God to be better husbands, fathers and friends.  I have come to see that this is powerful spiritual work.  And as a priest and pastor, I will have to say that I have seen God most clearly during these weekends.

A lot of men ask me about the "agenda."  We don't publish or talk about the agenda because we want the weekend to special for each man.  Each one of us who have been through the retreat came because of one fact -- he trusted the man who asked him.  So I ask you, by trust, to come.  The reality is that you either trust me or not.  I pray that you do.

But I will give you more.  I will give you a guarantee that this men's retreat is the best, most Spirit-filled that you have ever attended or I will see that you get your money back! No questions asked! 

The next Wisconsin retreat is September 16-18 at the Mackenzie Center just north of Poynette.  You can find more information at: http://www.lutheranmeninmission.org/events/oytl.html. Mark it down on your calendar today.

God bless you -- and keep moving forward -- spiritually as well as physically!