Aaron Loy's Ragamuffin Blog

Gauging Spiritual Maturity

Perhaps no other factor plays a more central role in shaping a church’s ethos than how it measures spiritual maturity.

As an inherently spiritual community, the church’s gauge for spiritual maturity essentially defines success for its congregation. In other words, the church’s measuring stick identifies the goal that everyone ought to be shooting for. Is the ultimate aim to accumulate a wealth of theological knowledge? To be passionate about humanitarian issues? To be an outspoken republican? To become a central leader in the church? To live a life of simplicity? To not do anything "bad"? 

The easiest way to get a feel for how a church gauges spiritual maturity is by looking at its leadership. These men and women represent the kind of lifestyle, discipline and/or giftedness that is deemed worthy to lead (and thus most valuable) in that community. In a way, they represent the quintessential believer because they set the bar for what it means to be spiritually mature, or at least spiritually mature enough to lead everyone else.

If a church says that true spiritual growth is revealed by acts of compassion, but the majority of its staff has theology degrees and spends most of its week in the church office, then it is the latter that comes to be understood by the community as the standard for spiritual maturity. Although that church might really believe that spiritual maturity ought to be fleshed out through acts of love in theory, it is communicating through its own action that in actuality theological education is the ultimate gauge for maturity.

This is extremely important for leaders to understand because whenever certain qualities are considered more valuable than others by a community, that community will find itself attracting, developing and retaining people with those qualities. Over time, the community inevitably becomes a reflection of its leadership.

Don’t believe me? Take a moment to think of an established church near you that places a very high value on biblical knowledge. They probably teach through the scriptures verse by verse, use lots of big words with extensive theological meaning, regularly examine the original Greek and Hebrew texts, argue that one biblical translation is superior to all others, generally assume that people will bring a bible to church, encourages extensive note taking on Sunday morning and most of their staff have a seminary degree or its equivalent. Okay, are you picturing it? Now survey the general characteristics of that congregation. I’d venture to guess that the church you are picturing has a very high theological IQ compared to most churches. Chances are that its members (like its leaders) would blast most of yours in bible jeopardy. These are the sort of people they attract, retain and develop because that is how they have come to define spiritual maturity.

Although the details change, the story is always the same. Churches that use the Knowledge Gauge are really good at bible trivia and enjoy lengthy theological debates. Churches that use the Financial Generosity Gauge have white teeth, pleated pants and large budgets. Churches that use the Tolerance Gauge have a smorgasbord of sin issues and very few hard conversations. Churches that use the Faithful-To-Show-Up-Each-Week Gauge have apathetic congregations and less and less young people. Churches that use the Involvement-In-Church-Functions Gauge have very full calendars and lots of single women. Churches that use the Frugality Gauge have small budgets, organic produce and no parking issues. It all comes down to how you measure spiritual maturity and how that value is reflected in your leadership.     

So how does your church measure spiritual maturity? What is your gauge? What cherished "spiritual" characteristic is most clearly modeled by your leaders as the most important? Is there consistency between this and what your church says it values most? Or how about between this and what you are asking of your people? If not, what needs to change? And most importantly, what does your gauge say about what you believe as a church? Is it biblically sound? Or did it generate from somewhere else?

(In part 2, I'll be looking at the way Mosaic gauges spiritual maturity and how that fleshes itself out in the church. It's probably not what you think...)

Belong Before Believe (part 2)

Creating a culture where people can belong before they believe is a practical application of our first core value: Mission is why the church exists. At first glance this might not seem like a big deal. After all, many Christians would nod their head in agreement with this statement. The mind of the seasoned Christ follower might even jump to relevant passages like the Great Commission in Matthew 28 or Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 9. However, it is in praxis that this core value often becomes problematic.

Every church has got to decide which voices they are going to listen to. In most churches, it is the loudest, most persuasive, most powerful, or sometimes just the most deliberate Christian voices that get listened to. But the conversation is essentially the same: everyone vouching for their own preferred brand of Christianity. Mosaic essentially ignores these voices of religion in order to better hear the voices of humanity.

There are always any number of conversations going on throughout Christendom that church people consider to be of immense importance. The details of these conversations are always in flux - traditional/contemporary, emergent/emerging, modern/postmodern/post-postmodern, and a never ending plethora of theological asterisks. But as a movement whose very purpose for existing resides outside of its four walls, Mosaic just isn't all that interested in engaging in such "internal" conversations. We want to spend the best of our time, energy, passion and creativity on connecting people to God who wouldn't normally associate themselves with church.

This doesn't always involve a choice. After all, we are not a divided humanity. At our core we all desire, need and long for the same things. Mosaic speaks into those things that are true of us all. However, in those times when we must choose, we will always choose to ignore the voices of religion and internal religious conversation in order to begin new conversations with those who do not know Jesus.

Belong Before Believe

Mosaic puts great emphasis on being a community where people can belong long before they believe. This is really just a reflection of our value for those who don’t normally associate themselves with church. Have you ever walked into an environment and felt totally out of place?

I remember a rather memorable evening spent at a local gay bar. A friend of ours was performing that night and we decided to get a crew together to come out and support him. We had a really good time, but as a straight, church-going, rural Midwestern married man, suffice to say that it was a little out of my element. I had never been to an event MC’d by a drag queen, had never seen so many fashionable men under one roof, and I’m pretty sure there were a number of brilliant puns used seamlessly throughout the night that just didn’t register for me. I was out of my element. And as hard as I tried to fully immerse myself in the experience, and as wonderful as the company really was, I still felt like an outsider.   

I think that church can often feel the same way to those who aren’t familiar with it. Often times it is just assumed that people know all of the ins and outs. But sometimes what we don’t realize is that over the years, we’ve developed a highly complex (and often bizarre) subculture. This subculture has its own language, norms, values and rules – most all of which are unwritten. To someone on the outside looking in, it can look really strange at best, and uninteresting and alienating at worst.

Mosaic is a community that desires to deconstruct this sort of “insider” culture by creating an inclusive space where people don’t need to know the secret handshake or subscribe to a set of beliefs to be a part of the community. Everyone who wants in is already in. There’s no process. No membership. Just a community of people from all walks of life that recognizes and respects the unique journey of each individual, and who embraces that individual regardless of where they fall on the spiritual spectrum.

What this means practically is that at all times there are a number of people throughout the Mosaic community – people who serve on various creative teams, who are a part of small groups, who travel with us overseas and serve with us locally in humanitarian projects, who attend Sunday gatherings and who consider Mosaic their home – who are not professing Christians. And that is not just okay, but it is precisely what we desire to see happen.     

Our hope is that Mosaic will be a place where all can encounter God and pursue what He might desire for them on their time, when they are ready.

How to Kill Leaders or Run Them Out

Don’t talk about leadership.

Never trust people with any significant responsibility.

Avoid risk.

Assume you are the expert.

Stay clear of men and women who might challenge your leadership.

Never ask things of people that require any real sacrifice.

Make sure all major decisions have to go through you.

Never expect much of others.

Don’t model personal development.

Invest your time and energy in those who are most needy.

Make sure you remain the most talented person in the room.

Don't talk about leadership.

Instruction Manual for Life

This video is poignant, beautiful and packed with truth. Wisely invest 8 minutes of your life and watch it. And if you're a Jesus follower, grab a couple close friends and spend some time wrestling with the questions this modern day parable brings up and its implications on our lives and ministries.

I love this short film. It beautifully portrays our human tendency to resist that which is mysterious and unpredictable. Only in worshiping religion do we attempt to reduce the great narrative of God and humanity to a static, symmetrical cupboard of do’s and don’ts. Why are so many of us afraid to embrace and celebrate the God-given uniqueness of each person? How can we possibly think that God’s ultimate goal for us is to look, act, feel, believe and behave in exactly the same way? Like the young boy portrayed in this film, we will discover entirely new colors, shapes and dreams for our lives if only we are courageous enough to step outside the demands and confines of religious dogma and consider what the book really says about us and its author.

If only we will do this, perhaps we will find ourselves more gracious and loving with those who disagree with us. Perhaps we will find entirely new designs and colors and shapes along the way, ones that inspire, guide and empower those who don’t know where to start or who find themselves stuck in a world of black and white. Perhaps we will find ourselves drawn to the author who believes in us enough to leave so many pages blank, yet to be written by us, and us alone. Perhaps we all need to rethink the cupboards we have built for ourselves.

Top 5 Most Ridiculous Church Signs

Call me cynical, call me vulgar, call me whatever you will, but here are my Top 5 Most Ridiculous Church Signs! (Signs were unfairly judged at my discretion on the basis of hilarity, irony and/or just plain ridiculousness.) Enjoy!

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Re-Engaging Relevance

 Relevance has been a favorite topic of conversation in many circles over the last decade. The word is everywhere. We have Relevant Magazines, Relevant Radio (& these guys definitely are), Relevant Churches, Relevant Worship, Relevant Performances (sorry, I had to) Relevant Multimedia, Relevant Para-church Ministries, Relevant Branding, Relevant Blogs, and Relevant Conferences where Christian leaders can learn how they and their ministries can become all things, you guessed it, relevant.

The word has soared to the great heights of Buzzword - reserved for only the most ridiculously over-used terms in Christendom - taking its place alongside former chart-toppers, like seeker, contemporary, community and postmodern. But like most buzzwords, the hype has since fizzled out leaving our poor word to hang out in ambiguity with the other has-beens. Here they are generally assumed to be understood by most, but rarely are. And since they are no longer considered a relevant part of the conversation, they remain misunderstood.

Thus is the case with our friend Relevant. And so I thought I'd bring him back into the conversation today in order to address some of the common misunderstandings about him and to better understand the valuable idea he still represents.

"Relevance is not about being cool. It is about being understood." - Jason Jaggard

Tuesday I spent the day snowboarding at Big Bear with buddy Kurtis. If you've never been to Big Bear, it is a relatively small mountain consisting of 90% snowboarders, 75% fake snow, and 100% terrain park. It is a x-gaming terrain freak's dream. Every run on the mountain has terrain features - even the bunny slope. We're talking table tops, jumps, rails, funboxes, trees, wall rides, bonks, even conversion vans and broncos (the car, not the horse) on which to pull your sickest trick. The venue naturally pulls in a large hipster crowd from all over L.A. and Orange County.

In surveying this melting pot of cool, a converted midwesterner, like myself, can't help but muse on the almost comically obvious reality that I have stepped into a world far from the one I was raised. "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto." As we took another ride up the mountain, Kurtis and I talked about the importance of fashion to L.A. You don't even have to live here to see it. Visit L.A. anytime of the week or weekend and you'll see it. It is everywhere. But here is the interesting thing about L.A. fashion, it is both necessary and relative. There is no one way to dress that is deemed cool or in. There is no one designer, one look, one anything, there are many. There is an understood freedom to express oneself. And because it is relative, no one is really better than the other. However, the one thing that isn't acceptable is to disregard the importance of fashion - in essence, to say with your look that you really don't think fashion matters. To do this is to essentially take a shared value of the culture and say that you do not deem it to be worthy of your time. Like all matters pertaining to relevance, it is a sure way to alienate yourself from the culture in short time.

And so herein lies a valuable truth about relevance to culture: It is not about being cool. It is about being understood. And at least in part, it is about communicating to others that their interests, concerns, struggles and needs are worth your time.   

Relevance is about starting on even ground.

Sometimes pastors make the mistake of thinking that being relevant gives them "one up" on everyone else; as if one's ministry could only be cool enough, hip enough, edgy enough, it would almost certainly succeed. This is not the function of relevance. Relevance only affords you the opportunity to start the conversation on even ground. Irrelevance, on the other hand, forces you to start from behind. In ministry and relationships, it can often cause you to lose your voice with people before you even start speaking.

Relevance, therefore, is only Step 1. Failing to engage people in a relevant way may prevent you from ever getting to Step 2. And so it is important. Very important. But again, it is only Step 1. If relevance is all you have to offer, you don't have much.

Relevance is not a tool. It is a worldview.

Please hear me on this, being relevant does not mean repackaging what you are already doing in a trendier way. In fact, if you want to guarantee failure in engaging with those outside of the church, keep on doing what you're doing and repackage it to look like something different. That is not innovation. That is not vision. That is manipulation. And many pastors and churches are really good at manipulation. Relevance is not a tool to get people to do what you want. It is not the missing piece in your life or ministry. It is a worldview. It is a way of approaching life and ministry that puts the desires and needs of those who do not yet know Christ before your own and before those in your church. 

It is the latter part of that statement that often makes leading relevant movements so difficult. The desires and perceived needs of church people almost always conflict with the desires and needs of those who do not yet know Christ. And just to spare you some time, the two mix about as well as oil and water. Choosing to pursue relevance may force you to make some difficult decisions. You may have to decide between talking about real and uncomfortable issues or maintaining the status quot. You may have to axe some programs that are loved by your members but that do not serve the mission of your church. You may have to watch friends leave and big tithers take their checks to the church next door. You may have to endure a lot of pain. Ultimately, you will have to choose between which voices you will listen to - the loud, constant and often powerful ones coming from within your church's four walls, or the soft, unspoken, unrepresented voices of those who do not yet know Christ.

Your relevance and irrelevance will be decided by which of these voices you choose to listen to. It is a choice that is made not once, but one that must be made continually. The voices will continue. The powerful voices within your ministry will continue to campaign for their interests, and that might involve also campaigning for your resignation. But that is the price of leading a ministry that strives to do what Jesus called us to. That is the price of relevance. Is it hard? Yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely.

IKEA, YOU'RE THE DEVIL - Thoughts on Window Shades and Generosity.

I’m not sure if it’s the scores of commercials reminding me that it’s tax season or the fact that we’re trying to sell our house right now, but I’ve really been struggling with the animal of wealth lately. It’s not that I want to hoard it to myself or spend it frivolously. It’s that I want to give it away...all of it.

I’ve found that something happens to your soul when you get outside the excess of the United States long enough to see the unforgiving realities of poverty up close and personal. For me, it was trips to the Dominican Republic and Brazil when I was a boy and then back again to the D.R. for the summer following my freshman year of college. Ever since that summer, I haven't quite been the same.

When you take in an experience like this, something happens to the very core of your being that is both beautiful and terrible at the same time. On the one hand, God uses experiences like these to open up our eyes and transform us. He begins to birth in us longings for justice, hearts that are moved to compassion, and lives marked by generosity. Our peripheral vision expands alongside our horizons. Our understandings of life, ministry, and mission are shaken. Scriptures take on new meaning. Our priorities are fundamentally reshaped.

On the other hand, however, I have also found that he uses experiences like these to shatter us. He begins to break our hearts with the things that break his. Statistics can no longer be subtly pushed aside and forgotten as each one now evokes memories of names and faces.

When I read that

• “every year, 10 million children die before their fifth birthday, nearly all of them from preventable causes” or that
• "Over 1 billion people—1 in 6 people around the world—live in extreme poverty...on less than $1 a day."

I find the unnecessary things that fill my house and sit on my shelves staring me right in the face like an old girlfriend I'd rather forget. I try to hide from them, but I can't. The $60 curtains...the $80 bedspread...the $25 lamp...the [gulp] $300 entertainment center...each one sitting there like a kilo of crack at a crime scene - evidence of my own fleshly desire for more stuff.

I try my hardest to justify it all. I really do. I mean, most all of the stuff in our house was given to us at some point or another - some dating all the way back to our wedding day. Others given to us just this last Christmas. We rarely ever make big purchases. We try not to go out to eat all that much. We've had just one car for most of our marriage. We never buy clothes. We tithe...

But no matter how hard I try, its not enough, because deep down I know the difference between needing and wanting. The matching living room decor? Its all luxury. The meticulously framed pictures in our bedroom? Luxury. The stacks of t-shirts I never wear? Luxury. I don't need much, but I sure have a lot.

Now I'm not condemning all of these things. There is nothing inherently wrong with having a trendy bedroom motif, some extra pairs of tennis shoes, or a self-propelled lawn mower. But what I have found is that it really doesn't take much for me to be ruled by my possessions. There's always one more little knick knack to go somewhere. There's always another cool little gadget to make life easier or more enjoyable. There's always a reason to buy something. But then things also need to be fixed, updated, insured, and replaced. There are the "necessary" purchases, like cars, insurance, gas, electricity, food, etc. There are the "smart" purchases, like real estate, retirement, stocks, college funds, etc.

Before you know it, there's just not room for generosity in our lives. So we compare ourselves to the (literally) millions of people all around us who have more than we have and we determine that we really don't live that unreasonably. I mean, sure, we'll spoil ourselves every now and then, but who doesn't? And we proceed to throw out a measurable number like 10% to give us a tangible marker for what God expects of us so we never have to feel guilty for turning down the volume during those obnoxiously depressing commercials that play between episodes of our favorite sitcom or for deleting those pesky World Vision emails that are always making their way into our inbox. Why should we? We faithfully give our 10%.

I know this country is an insanely expensive place to live. But is spending the vast majority of our wealth on our homes, our families, our future, our stuff - ourSELVES - while much of the world struggles to just stay alive really living generously? I'm just asking...mostly, I am asking myself.

Picture borrowed from 'chejenchu' at http://flickr.com/photos/24587527@N05/

colbert for president

In case you haven't heard, Stephen Colbert has officially announced his bid for the presidency! Although he initially seemed hesitant to come out of the candidacy closet, he eventually caved, citing in a recent article written for the The New York Times, "It's clear that the voters are desperate for a white, male, middle-aged, Jesus-trumpeting alternative." When asked about which party he will align himself with, Colbert replied, "Both. I can lose twice." Stephen Colbert, I salute you.

seminary or cemetery?

I've been thinking a lot about seminary lately. If you know me, then you realize just how strange this is. I am very skeptical of cemeteries...ahem, seminaries. I recently heard a statistic that claimed the average seminary student drops out of ministry just two years after graduation. Wow, seriously?  Whatever happened to "equipping servants for the work of the gospel"?

Shortly into my first year of ministry, I remember reading Steve Farrar's Finishing Strong (a great book for any Jesus-follower, especially anyone in ministry, considering ministry, or owning a penis.) I remember being completely floored by the statistics he shares. He, too, cites the 2 year mark as the point in which most pastors exit the ministry. I recall just a couple years later speaking with Rich Peil, CEO of Reign Ministries, who spoke to me about his mentoring seminary students to help them prepare for future ministry.  "Aaron," he said, "9 out of 10 of the guys I mentor are completely unfit for ministry." How is that possible? Why do SO MANY pastors crash and burn? And where do schools fit in to the problem?

I suppose I can't blame it all on seminaries. I mean, it is only common sense that socially retarded home-schooled kids whose moms sew their pants and force them to watch TBN and read the Left Behind series are going to get eaten alive when they step out into the real world for the first time at 25 with their shiny new MDiv.

But that doesn't mean seminaries are off the hook. After all, they're the ones welcoming these guys into their programs. I completely understand that seminaries have to pay their professors and what not, I do, but shouldn't there be a screening process to weed out some of these guys? "Hey man, you seem like a good guy and all, but have you ever considered computer programming?"

When it comes down to it though, I believe the real issue is not so much with the students, but with the schools - specifically in their failure to equip men and women for ministry. It seems to me that seminary, needs a complete overhaul. I've heard Driscoll say that he is convinced that seminaries are on their way out. He believes that all ministry training in the future will primarily happen within the context of local churches. Although it'd be tough to consistently do with excellence, I generally like the idea, mostly because it would force those who think they want to go into ministry to actually get their hands dirty first and DO ministry before wasting years of their life and the lives of their professors. This would also eliminate the damage that these people WILL cause if they go into ministry.

All that being said, I still find myself wanting to study the scriptures at the graduate level. And seminary seems like my only real option.

I guess I'll just have to learn to put up with the home schooled kids and their crappy music.