A Monastery Not a Bunker
When you are in a bunker you become short-sighted, jumpy, and things feel cramped and lonely. It becomes easy to define yourself almost entirely by what you are against – at the risk of forgetting what you are for. Ultimately, this leads us to a rather dangerous elitism which sets our view as higher (and…have mercy Lord…more holy) that the church/movement/group, etc, that is located someplace else.
My point is this: we need to be quick to listen and slow to speak because the prayer movement that God is raising up (how many times have we heard our leaders say it?) is going to happen many places on the globe with many different expressions.
God is changing the understanding and expression of Christianity – that will be very messy. That’s good news and bad news because it means all of our sacred cows (that is the optional, personal, private predjudices and idols of our lives) are at risk of being killed and made into hamburger.
The good news: he’s given us God-TV and our support raising efforts to keep us humble. How many people know that we began broadcasting in Pakistan in May? Two cities (Karachi and Lahore…don’t ask me to pronounce the second one) in a predominently Muslim nation now see the Prayer Room. This thing called ‘our lives’ is out of our control. God-TV is a way for God to connect us profoundly to the lives of people with different values, personalities, languages, that all of our personal preferences will be deeply challenged.
Of course, if we are actively raising support (AHEM. I hope this is the case for most IHOP-KC staff) we get to experience the same internal shaking. My trip back to Pittsburgh brought me into contact with Episcopalians, urban missionaries, Mennonites, recovering Emergent church folks, a recent Harvard grad, representatives of the “New Monasticism, missionaries to the Muslim world, and homeless people. In each case, I had the opportunity to affirm what God is doing in their lives, and invite them into what God is doing me.
We need to be quick to listen and slow to speak. Avoiding elitism will take our energy, time, finances, and above all, our patience. The bridal paradigm demands we be patient with those ‘outside’ of our lingo and expression of faith. Remember who you were before you spent six hours a day in prayer. God loved you in your weakness. He loves those who don’t have the privilages we have. Yes, we have privilages. We live in a greenhouse of God’s presence. We have privalages, we are rich.
Some may ask: What does that look like? I’ve got an answer to that. Get to know one of the teens here for the Summer Teen Internship – better yet – email KJ or Brent and tell them you have some floor space. Humility invites action, not pious thought.
