Jesse A. Schroeder

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One of the hardest things for me to wrestle with during this time of unemployment and career transition has been leaving teaching. I absolutely love teaching, and I think I have a natural talent for it. I remember many times being in my class, excited about the questions, eager to continue sharing and discussing and idea, and then at the end of the day thinking, "I can't believe I get paid to do this." I've come to realize that teaching is a part of who I am.

When reading Dallas Willard's Divine Conspiracy this morning, I came to the section in which Willard discusses how and why Jesus taught his followers. He states that, "the aim of the popular teacher in Jesus' time was not to impart information, but to make a significant change in the lives of the hearers." Therefore, Jesus "taught in such a way that he would impact the life flow of the the hearer." He explains that the disciples weren't aiming to record every single word of "information" in order to "know stuff" so that they could accurately reproduce during an arbitrary assessment. Rather, when Jesus taught, "we don't have to try to 'get it' and remember it. It has stuck in our life, whether we want it or agree with it or not."

Willard concludes the section by reminding us that, "Jesus not only taught in this manner; he also tuaght us, his students in the kingdom, to teach in the same way....By showing to others the presence of the kingdom in the concrete details of our shared existence, we impact the lives and hearts of our hearers, not just their heads."

When I read that, I realized that my teaching career has far from ended. And I don't just mean that I might continue to work in high schools, or eventually try to teach at a college or university. We teach each other things every day. And we don't forget the really important moments, the times when we see the kingdom of God in each others' lives. I have the opportunity every day to teach those around me - whether family, friends or strangers. Realizing the kingdom of God in each instant of life, celebrating its presence and profound power, and sharing it with the lives of others around me can be a significant teaching moment.

Even though I can no longer write "Teacher" on the blank line after "Profession:" on an application for an education discount, I can still live and be a teacher. Who knows who will be my student (or my teacher) today? As Willard says, "The condition of our hearts will determine who along our path turns out to be our neighbor, and our faith in God will laregely determine whom we have strength enough to make our neighbor."

And the same can be said for "teaching."

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I've been thinking today about being on a journey, searching for God, searching for life and meaning.

Another aspect of this journey that has struck me as interesting, is how much I want to know the end goal. I want the information and knowledge that only God has. I am not content to just walk alongside him on the day by day.

Especially in America, especially in the current economic situation, I feel a lot of pressure to have a financial plan, to know how I will pay bills and purchase food and get a better cell phone. Contrary to these pressures, I've had an interesting experience this month in which our finances are better than they have ever been, and yet we expected August to be a month where we would be struggling to not spend at all. But we've received income, some we expected and others we didn't, during the time when we needed it most.

Am I really willing to pray every day, "Lord, give me today my daily bread?" Or am I praying, "Lord please give me assurance that I will be able to eat tomorrow, next week, next month, and all year."

A short devotional thought from Oswald Chambers' classic "My Utmost For His Highest" has always stuck with me: "God will not tell you the future. He will tell you about himself."

On my pilgrim journey, am I content with finding God? Or do I need to find my own success, my own career, my own pride? I think these questions are incredibly formative for me right now, and I know what I should answer, but working through those answers brings more discord and tension within me than I have experienced in my life before.

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Have you seen this commercial? I think it is really powerful. The tagline says, "It's life, and it's yours. Know yourself. Know life."

Then its followed by the link scientology.org

Could this same video be played with the tagline, "Christianity?" "Evangelicalism?"

How about, "Jesus?"

Something to think about...

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Kel and i at the waterfall

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...in Rochester at Lakes Ontario and Seneca. It was a beautiful day, mid 70's, partly cloudy. We had a great time checking out bike paths and light houses and side-of-the-road restaurants. The pics of the restaurant are from Orbaker's Drive In, a stellar place with awesome food and a fun atmosphere. Enjoy the pictures -

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Just ran across this post from Frank Viola on the Out of Ur blog. I have not read any of Viola's books, but I know he is well-respected and a great scholar. I don't want to disagree too strongly, but I had several thoughts after reading some of his statements in this particular article.

Viola's description of a "postchurch" mentality is:

"The postchurch brand of Christianity is built on the premise that institutional forms of church are ineffective, unbiblical, unworkable, and in some cases, dangerous. Institutionalization is not compatible with ekklesia. So say postchurch advocates.

But the postchurch view goes further saying, “any semblance of organization whatsoever . . . any semblance of leadership … is wrong and oppressive. Church is simply when two or three believers gather together in any format. Whenever this happens, church occurs.”

In many ways I would agree with these statements. Institutionalization leads to religion, denominationalism, and seems to run contrary to what being the body of Christ is all about. Frank does a great job critiquing the use of the verse "wherever two or three are gathered" and I fully agree with him at that point. However, he concludes that "Because this is the primary passage the postchurch viewpoint is founded on, I’m of the opinion that the position cannot stand up against the light of the New Testament."

I'm not sure what he is basing his statement that "this is the primary passage" for the postchurch viewpoint. I would argue that a comprehensive understanding of the gospel and of the body of Christ would lead a person to see many problems with the American church in it's current form. I appreciate Jason Coker's explanation of "Why Church Doesn't Work". He offers five simple points:

We work to attract people to large gatherings.

We require very little for them to join us (often we expect nothing whatsoever).

We ask them to sit passively while we provide information and entertainment.

We do our best to cater to their needs.

We attempt to motivate them to change their lives based on the information.

I have found this same formula in dozens of churches in Tennessee and Michigan, and while I haven't studied church as much as Viola, I know he agrees that the body of Christ in the typical church building on Sunday morning is struggling. Viola himself states,

"...organic church life is the "experience" of the Body of Christ. In its purest form, it's the fellowship of the Triune God brought to earth and experienced by human beings...We can think of the difference between organic churches and institutional churches this way. When God's people assemble together on the basis of the organizational principles that run General Motors and Microsoft, we call it an institutional church. But when God's people assemble together on the basis of the life of God, we call it an organic church."

As I see it, when Viola talks about an organic church that is not an institutional church, he is describing something very different from the current dominant ecclessiological paradigm. I agree with his assessment of institutional churches as more damaging than helpful, and so I am looking for followers of Christ to go beyond church, to become "postchurch." In my experience, my weekly, and sometimes daily, meeting with friends (some Christians, some not), brings me into God's life, challenges me, encourages me, and gives me a greater experience of God's life here on earth.

I would consider this an experience of "church," and I like that it is not organized, because then it is alive, flexible, moving and always responding to the real life experiences of the people involved, not following a prescribed schedule and performing irrelevant religious exercises simply to appease a board or to do what has always been done.

For now, I'm not sure how much I agree or disagree with Viola's assessment of the postchurch viewpoint, and I have not read much that uses that particular language. There seems to be some distinction between "emergent" and "house churches" although it doesn't seem to be well-defined yet.

I would argue that a postchurch perspective is one that is encouraging followers of Jesus to move beyond and out of the typical church paradigms, to recognize that church is simply an expression of our faith, but not the totality or identifying factor. As a postchurch proponent (for now?), I don't believe that church is even necessary, and can perhaps be a hindrance to Christian discipleship. Church can draw all of our attention, efforts, energies and especially finances out of the world in which we are living, and into a synthetic and "pretend" sub-culture in which Christians work really hard to feel good about being Christians.

In contrast, a postchurch, contemplative, incarnational approach would be living life to full, in the world, in the culture, and finding God every moment of the day with other Christians and non-Christians.

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