I've often wrestled with what we believe as Christians & how it effects our lives. One of the areas I've had particular interest in is: Salvation. What does it mean to be saved? How is a person saved? WHY does a person want to be saved? How does someone live out their salvation?

As I've explored this subject in the NT & other books I've realized Jesus' main mission wasn't to impart salvation (at least not the way we realize it), but his mission was to impart: life. No doubt we all agree, salvation is important; however, it is the result of being "born again," into a new life. He came to give "life & life unto the full." Thankfully, salvation is a part of the package.

Yesterday I visited a wonderful church. At the end of the sermon, "with all heads bowed & every eye closed," the pastor faithfully asked those in attendance, "who wants to receive the forgiveness of the cross?" I was grateful several people accepted the invitation. My question is: An invitation to what?

Within western theology salvation generally means accepting the mechanism of Jesus' death upon the cross & little else. Like a light-switch that is in the down position, my acceptance of what He's done flips the lever to the forgiven side & it's a done deal. However, is this faithful to the biblical example of what it means to be saved? No where does Jesus use such formulas; & what we've adopted as Paul's formula (Romans 10:9) isn't the silver salvation bullet we all imagine. The explicit implicit theology of Lordship is the overarching theme of this verse, not: "Just say these words in this order friend & you'll be saved." I don't assume Paul ever intended this line to be THE salvation mantra.

Too, what is Jesus continual invitation to this new life within the Gospels? Surely Jesus had one? I'm always perplexed by Jesus turning people away who seem to be interested. Why does He do this? Maybe they wanted to reduce Him to a mechanism of their salvation; instead of accepting who He is: the Living Lord of the Universe who wanted to give them transformational Life.

Jesus wants to forgive our sins is much less an abrasive thought than Jesus wants to give us a new life. Why? Because by giving me a new life He's saying there is something wrong with my old life; the way I live, my systems, my values, my loves & He's going to rearrange them to suit & reflect Him.

The mechanism of what Jesus did on the cross is amazing. However, the new life He wants to give us is so much more. New life; a life; real life; the life; Life to the fullest; Jesus' life lived out in me & through me.

The coolest thing ever.

Dallas Williard puts it so well: "So the replacement of salvation (new life in Christ) for one of its effects or components (the forgiveness of sins) has dominated both the monastic system of Christianity & the reaction against it (monasticism) in which we still live today."

What are we to do?

This last Sunday I was talking about Colossians 4:2-4
“Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. 3 Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains. 4 Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should.”

I imagined being in the room when this letter was originally read &, having come to the end of the letter, thought of what the Colossian church would have done; I imagined they would have remembered Paul’s words to: Pray, & would have spent some time in prayer.

So, this last week instead of expounding upon the text & what it meant in the original context (I don’t think a request for prayer has changed too much even in 2000yrs) I decided we would do the very thing Paul was asking the church to do: Pray.

There were a few new visitors at our service & what happened was very interesting. Two visitors were “Christians” who were “checking out other churches,” which I don’t care for & another visitor is a man we met at the Shanti Tree who likes Jesus, but also participates in other religious beliefs. He is someone who is checking Jesus out, but he likes our church. (Not our services, as there are better church services in SC, but our people). Before the service I grabbed my Shanti Tree friend & said, “Tonight will be a bit different. I’m not gonna’ preach, but we’re gonna’ break up into small groups & pray.” His response was, “Is it cool if I pray too?” I warmly affirmed his desire to pray with us, which he was very grateful for.

The two “Christians” didn’t have such a positive experience. I’m not dogging “Christian,” & what I mean by this is: They were expecting to come & hear a message (fed, entertained?). They were not expecting to participate; ironically even if the text the teacher was teaching on was a request to: participate. I made mention that generally in the church we expect to come & hear a message, but God’s perspective on the church is much different. In God’s economy church is a people who, not a place where. I then shared this picture
& asked, “Where’s the church in the picture?” Humorously my new age friend shouted out: “The four people in front!” We had a good laugh.

After sharing the four things we would pray for as directed by the text, I said, let’s break up into smaller groups to pray. Our “Christian” friends stood up & left; our new age friend jumped right in.

Without a doubt we live in a consumer based culture. So, it’s right to say that a way to engage a consumer based culture is to create an environment where the consumer will be: Awed, entertained, comfortable, caffeinated, & content. However, how do we encourage our consumers to participate when it doesn’t serve their pleasure or purpose in life? As we read we see the example of the church in the NT is very participatory; a group of people gathered for the purposes of God; not themselves. Can we say the same for the successful churches of our day; or is “success” defined by bodies in attendance?

Our culture is filled with professionals who share with us the latest ways at getting people to sit in a service we have created. In fact, we’re often duped into believing this is what a church is: A hip local & bodies. But will the bodies: Pray, serve, love, give, sacrifice, go, defend, etc? I believe this is one of the biggest reasons people are frustrated with the very faith they were created to be a part of: Those who claim to believe in Jesus don’t follow Jesus. Sadly, most have created a system devode of the living Christ & substituted it with a “Christian” culture that allows them to look but never touch, hear but never listen, & learn but rarely engage. "Where's the beef?" Too, this majority fuels the flame of the leaders who gather them into large groups & proclaim, “Church. My latest blog will detail how I did it;” primarily because the crowd is the churches biggest sign of: Success. Yet who is willing to do what is being taught?

Once again: Jesus never said Go plant a church. He did say, “Go make disciples.” There is a vast difference between what we call church & what he calls a disciple. Too, Paul didn’t plant churches; he made converts into disciples who then met as the church.

I invited our church & the visitors to participate with God during this space in history; our New Age friend was eager to join Him.

Peace Tree

So for some time now a few of us have been giving away Coffee & Chai at the local drum circle. This has been a wonderful time for us as we bless this small community of: Bums, hippies, street kids, & musicians. However, a few months ago the city decided to expand the Farmer’s Market into the drum circle territory; effectively creating a drum circle with no home.

In the midst of this we were left to follow this group around, but I asked our group: “What if we started a booth at the Farmer’s Market?” We got together to brain storm & it was evident this was something we were doing. 2 months later: Shanti Tree (Peace Tree) is an official booth at the local Market.

Our booth offers “Meditative Arts,” meaning: candles (to help one meditate) & prayer flags, which are very popular amongst the hippies, people who are into eastern philosophies & religions, & New Age people; so, really, about 90% of Santa Cruz! The belief is when you hang the flags near your house, each time the wind blows a blessing is put onto you, etc.


We are selling candles & are soon to provide booklets for people to meditate with, which will be a practice in Lectio Divina. Too, our flags are in Tibetan, but a Tibetan translation of 1 Corinthians 13. It’s awesome to have people ask us what they say & we point to an English translation of this scripture. I love watching people read the chapter from beginning to end; some people smile, others agree, & still others walk away perplexed.

Our first week was a trial run & most of the time we spent setting up & moving things around. Sadly we only made $10, which doesn’t cover the cost of the space, but we got to speak to several people about who we are & what we’re up to, which all of us agreed was more than enough incentive to keep going.
Week number 2 was a bit different. We asked to get moved to a corner slot, so we had way more foot traffic. Likewise, we set down two big rugs for people to sit down & visit with us. In no time we were selling things & at one point in time we had 3 people join for a time of prayer/meditation(?).

All of us agree Shanti Tree is a very effective arm of our community into Santa Cruz. We’re always blessed to be the church to those who don’t care to be a part of Christianity.

I recently read an article citing 5 reasons why beer is good for you. Here's reason number 4: "A study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that moderate drinking may be associated with better brain function. Women who consumed up to two drinks a day scored 20 percent higher on a cognitive functioning test than those who had less than one drink."

I must admit I remember feeling pretty smart after a few beers. Well, at least I could drive better...