"All ideas must have passionate advocates behind them."
—Thomas Davenport, Professor, Babson College
Passion is not optional, at least not when you want to do something outrageous like love the world. Do you think the world matters? Well, I do. God loves you and your neighborhood. That's awesome news and exactly why helping transform congregations into missional agents in their own community is mission critical.
How often do churches have to be castigated for being irrelevant before they choose to change?
How often does faith have to be dismissed from the marketplace of ideas or from the conversations at the water cooler before those of faith learn to infuse, not impose, their faith in ethical, real world living?
The true test of relevancy for the church is as its always been; mercy, justice, and love. How will our culture and community realize that God loves it, if we refuse to be passionate about making the Good News visible and relevant? If you believe that Jesus is the Living Water, what kind of containers will you craft to hold it?
The practice of missional transformation can become every congregation's passion. You can learn to use practical tools for contextual, collaborative, faith-based ministry. www.kevinyoho.com is a neat place to get some tools. Every congregation can increase it's capacity for mission with a passion.
Now that I think about it, that "It's all about me!" t-shirt is actually a pretty accurate faith statement. Here's why: the relevancy of your faith experience and it's expression depends on YOU! Sounds an awful lot like something I read somewhere... umm. Nah.*
Build your passion, build your mission. Be an advocate for passionate hope. It’s that important.
Kevin
*Oh, yeah. Now I remember. Take a look at the book of James; around James 1:27.
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Sunday, October 10, 2004
Missional Life
What does a missional life look like? Well this is just a work in progress.
I am a man in relationship and in love with God by grace through faith. This relationship and the relationship with my children and my significant others are my first priorities. I accept my call by Jesus Christ, Lord of the universe, to be both a sign and agent of God's kingdom in the world and will try to balance the mind, body and spirit dimensions of my life in the world around me.
I believe all of us in community as Christ’s Church are the true ministers of the church—ordained by God and gifted by the Holy Spirit for all the ministries required in the retrieval of our neighborhoods and culture. I will seek to affirm physical, emotional, mental and spiritual wholeness. I believe the Church must be liquid, dynamic, flexible, fluid, adaptive, and relevant.
All things belong to God, not to us, and I commitment myself in loving, enthusiastic service to Jesus and his kingdom, together with all my sisters and brothers in Christ. I believe the people of God in church, institution, media, health care, and government, must once again be change agents in the neighborhoods they serve. That applies to me, too. I must show and tell the true Good News of sin, repentance and forgiveness to the hurting, the poor, and the lost, even while I try to understand the real, physical, social, political, and relational context we are in and attempt to make a positive difference in measurable ways.
I will reach out in whatever language or form necessary to build bridges of friendship and care, and in the church, offer a relevant experience of worship and in the community, a relevant expression of mission. I will not impose my own models or expectations across race, class, age, linguistic, physiological, gender, or physical lines, but rather seek to be a servant of all.
Well, that's a start. What do you think?
I am a man in relationship and in love with God by grace through faith. This relationship and the relationship with my children and my significant others are my first priorities. I accept my call by Jesus Christ, Lord of the universe, to be both a sign and agent of God's kingdom in the world and will try to balance the mind, body and spirit dimensions of my life in the world around me.
I believe all of us in community as Christ’s Church are the true ministers of the church—ordained by God and gifted by the Holy Spirit for all the ministries required in the retrieval of our neighborhoods and culture. I will seek to affirm physical, emotional, mental and spiritual wholeness. I believe the Church must be liquid, dynamic, flexible, fluid, adaptive, and relevant.
All things belong to God, not to us, and I commitment myself in loving, enthusiastic service to Jesus and his kingdom, together with all my sisters and brothers in Christ. I believe the people of God in church, institution, media, health care, and government, must once again be change agents in the neighborhoods they serve. That applies to me, too. I must show and tell the true Good News of sin, repentance and forgiveness to the hurting, the poor, and the lost, even while I try to understand the real, physical, social, political, and relational context we are in and attempt to make a positive difference in measurable ways.
I will reach out in whatever language or form necessary to build bridges of friendship and care, and in the church, offer a relevant experience of worship and in the community, a relevant expression of mission. I will not impose my own models or expectations across race, class, age, linguistic, physiological, gender, or physical lines, but rather seek to be a servant of all.
Well, that's a start. What do you think?
Friday, October 08, 2004
From Babel to Pentecost and Beyond
As I have reflected on my own leadership style, Biblical images inform my perception of reality. I recall the great tower of Babel which was built by a homogeneuos group of self-centered persons who had lofty aspirations of god-hood, not the God-head. (People just don’t seemto get it that there can be only one God. Even the Lord God cannot make another God, for anything the one and only God makes is by definition a creation, and anything that is created cannot by definition be God.) In the stiffling, sameness of pseudo-community, people seek god-likeness. They become crazed with ability and define everything from their own point of view, shared with others. Perception is reality. The Babel multitudes envisioned a great stairway to heaven and needed a paradigm shift, a fundamental change of reference which of course could not come from within. Paradigm shifts do not usually come from within, but rather are observed by looking at a set of conditions from a different vantage point, a different perspective, a different field of view, so that what is obvious or hidden, good or bad, in one paradigm may in fact be totally opposite in another paradigm. God introduced the paradigm shift, God reoriented the masses and with one fiat act (of grace, I should add!) changed everybody in a moment. Like the youth mixer where each person is given one of many different barnyard sounds to imitate and thus have to hook up like-sounding others. The activity divides the crowd into smaller groups. At Babel, God assigned a langauge distinction which made communicating others of a different langauge impossible. The great multiplication bacame a great migration.
This is chaos, plain and simple. But on Pentecost, something amazing happened. God’s Spirit took a chaotic, dysfunctional community of people, namely those gathered in Jerusalem for the high holy day, and again introduced another paradigm shift. A fundamentally different way of looking at life. The Spirit of God descended on the believers and each bagan to speak in a langauge of someone they did not know. A reverse-Babel, a new community, the Church was born. Finally, the commonality of the Spirit brought the potential for true community but I notice one important feature of Pentecost: God, instead of giving the gift of tounges to his people, couldhave just as easily (Is one miracle any more or less difficult for God than any other?) changed people’s hearing to hear, say Hebrew, or Aramaic, or Greek, or any other langauge, but he didn’t. God condemned the self-centered sameness of Babel but affirmed the beauty of diversity at Jerusalem on Pentecost. Our differences are not the problem. Diversity is not the problem. My goal in this class was not to conform to someone else’s style, attitude, learning model, type or proclivity. Rather, my goal was to discover all the diverse richness of Kevin Richard Yoho, his uniqueness, his giftedness, his strengths and weaknesses, my preferences and likes, AND affirm, appreciate, encourage, others in their distinctiveness and complexity, and learn from them. From pseudo-community to chaos, to emptying to real community. A journey begun with intentionality which will find its finality in Christ and his body, the Church.
Many years ago I recorded an unatributed poem in the back of my Bible which has often reminded me of the reality of growth:
“There was a very cautious man,
who never risked or tried.
He never hoped.
He never failed.
He never laughed or cried.
And when one day he passed away, his insurance was denied.
For since he really never lived,
they claimed he never died.”
Beyond Pentecost. That's what I'm talking about.
This is chaos, plain and simple. But on Pentecost, something amazing happened. God’s Spirit took a chaotic, dysfunctional community of people, namely those gathered in Jerusalem for the high holy day, and again introduced another paradigm shift. A fundamentally different way of looking at life. The Spirit of God descended on the believers and each bagan to speak in a langauge of someone they did not know. A reverse-Babel, a new community, the Church was born. Finally, the commonality of the Spirit brought the potential for true community but I notice one important feature of Pentecost: God, instead of giving the gift of tounges to his people, couldhave just as easily (Is one miracle any more or less difficult for God than any other?) changed people’s hearing to hear, say Hebrew, or Aramaic, or Greek, or any other langauge, but he didn’t. God condemned the self-centered sameness of Babel but affirmed the beauty of diversity at Jerusalem on Pentecost. Our differences are not the problem. Diversity is not the problem. My goal in this class was not to conform to someone else’s style, attitude, learning model, type or proclivity. Rather, my goal was to discover all the diverse richness of Kevin Richard Yoho, his uniqueness, his giftedness, his strengths and weaknesses, my preferences and likes, AND affirm, appreciate, encourage, others in their distinctiveness and complexity, and learn from them. From pseudo-community to chaos, to emptying to real community. A journey begun with intentionality which will find its finality in Christ and his body, the Church.
Many years ago I recorded an unatributed poem in the back of my Bible which has often reminded me of the reality of growth:
“There was a very cautious man,
who never risked or tried.
He never hoped.
He never failed.
He never laughed or cried.
And when one day he passed away, his insurance was denied.
For since he really never lived,
they claimed he never died.”
Beyond Pentecost. That's what I'm talking about.
Transformation Begins at Home
Did you hear the story about the French ornithologist who went out into the deep woods to try out his bird calling. He was shot by a hunter.
I have learned that it is pretty foolish and even self-destructive to pretend to be someone you’re not. There seems to be a tendency displayed in the pseudo phase of community building where we surround ourselves with people like us. We pretend to be like the people we admire, so we can act like them and justify our desire to be with them. We invest a lot of energy in being phony and artificial. Self-centered instead of self-less, many never discover who they actually are. We deny our uniqueness and force ourselves into molds and methods that just aren’t us. Personal transformation for renewal begins with community building at its core and I have learned the value of self-knowledge in the context of community for like often quoted lyric, “no one is an island.” Diversity is reality and I have come to appreciate my own uniqueness and that of others which has enriched my life.
Homogeneity is the god of the church growth movement, not diversity. The church growth gurus since the eighties have promoted this as a preferred method of accelerated membership and even as a desirable outcome of ministry. But it is instead a feature of pseudo community where differences are negated, similarities are superficial, and communication is inauthentic. The beauty of creation is complexity, the radiance of the Church is diversity, the strength of the person of God is acknowledging his or her own gifts and uniqueness. The Triune God is the God of the Church and where the Church embraces diversity and gifts expression, the Church becomes real and authentic. This is the beginning of transformation.
I have learned that it is pretty foolish and even self-destructive to pretend to be someone you’re not. There seems to be a tendency displayed in the pseudo phase of community building where we surround ourselves with people like us. We pretend to be like the people we admire, so we can act like them and justify our desire to be with them. We invest a lot of energy in being phony and artificial. Self-centered instead of self-less, many never discover who they actually are. We deny our uniqueness and force ourselves into molds and methods that just aren’t us. Personal transformation for renewal begins with community building at its core and I have learned the value of self-knowledge in the context of community for like often quoted lyric, “no one is an island.” Diversity is reality and I have come to appreciate my own uniqueness and that of others which has enriched my life.
Homogeneity is the god of the church growth movement, not diversity. The church growth gurus since the eighties have promoted this as a preferred method of accelerated membership and even as a desirable outcome of ministry. But it is instead a feature of pseudo community where differences are negated, similarities are superficial, and communication is inauthentic. The beauty of creation is complexity, the radiance of the Church is diversity, the strength of the person of God is acknowledging his or her own gifts and uniqueness. The Triune God is the God of the Church and where the Church embraces diversity and gifts expression, the Church becomes real and authentic. This is the beginning of transformation.
Sunday, October 03, 2004
Wet Water's Wonder
“If you are thirsty, come to me! If you believe in me, come and drink! For the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water will flow out from within.”
An average adult human body is 50 to 65 percent water. That’s roughly 45 quarts. O.K. That's a lot of water. Water plays several crucial roles in the body. It helps regulate temperature, carries nutrients and oxygen, and removes waste. It also cushions joints and organs. I even like the taste. The taste of my well water, that is. Cool.
And even more essential are the “rivers of living water” that Jesus refers to. Yes, water is essential to existence, and the Holy Spirit is essential to living. Living water refers to water that flows, not stagnant. Living water refers to water that not only "lives" but is life-giving. The Bible tells us that the power of the life-giving Spirit frees us from the power of sin that leads to death.
Water is mentioned in the Bible more often than any other natural resource. The waters are divided on the Second Day of Creation. John the Baptist baptizes Jesus with water. In John 19, Jesus on the cross cries out that he is thirsty. And today we are baptized to show our commitment to new life in Christ.
Next time you reach for a bottle of water, think about the potential of the water to refresh and renew and to rebirth. Thank God for the Spriit of God that hovers over the face of the deep and calls forth life from arid death.
Ahh.
An average adult human body is 50 to 65 percent water. That’s roughly 45 quarts. O.K. That's a lot of water. Water plays several crucial roles in the body. It helps regulate temperature, carries nutrients and oxygen, and removes waste. It also cushions joints and organs. I even like the taste. The taste of my well water, that is. Cool.
And even more essential are the “rivers of living water” that Jesus refers to. Yes, water is essential to existence, and the Holy Spirit is essential to living. Living water refers to water that flows, not stagnant. Living water refers to water that not only "lives" but is life-giving. The Bible tells us that the power of the life-giving Spirit frees us from the power of sin that leads to death.
Water is mentioned in the Bible more often than any other natural resource. The waters are divided on the Second Day of Creation. John the Baptist baptizes Jesus with water. In John 19, Jesus on the cross cries out that he is thirsty. And today we are baptized to show our commitment to new life in Christ.
Next time you reach for a bottle of water, think about the potential of the water to refresh and renew and to rebirth. Thank God for the Spriit of God that hovers over the face of the deep and calls forth life from arid death.
Ahh.
Monday, September 27, 2004
Reneighbor: Yes or No?
Churches: When should they close? When should they open?
Why do churches disconnect from their neighborhoods in the first place? This displacement is complex and can even be demonic. It can also be historical and political, racial and financial, personal, generational, and spatial. In our post-Christian culture we rarely invest our best assets in places with the least resources.
If we did, we would understand a theology of location as much as our other theological amusements. If we really got it, w would be putting skilled and fully funded teams of transformational leaders in strategically critical urban areas to build collaborative ministries.
It takes time and faith to earn the love and respect of a stranger. What’s more, it takes courage.
We have incredible social capital to reinvest in our urban places. Sure, there are identical problems facing people in our suburban and rural places, too. But the tragic fact is that despite or because of the challenges of scale, it is in the places of greatest concentration of need that the fewest spiritual and other resources are invested.
We should think twice before closing a vital neighborhood resource like a connected congregation. And we should not hesitant to close ineffective, unable-to-be-reneighbored congregations, nor hesitate to start a new neighborhood-based ministry.
Blessings,
Kevin
Why do churches disconnect from their neighborhoods in the first place? This displacement is complex and can even be demonic. It can also be historical and political, racial and financial, personal, generational, and spatial. In our post-Christian culture we rarely invest our best assets in places with the least resources.
If we did, we would understand a theology of location as much as our other theological amusements. If we really got it, w would be putting skilled and fully funded teams of transformational leaders in strategically critical urban areas to build collaborative ministries.
It takes time and faith to earn the love and respect of a stranger. What’s more, it takes courage.
We have incredible social capital to reinvest in our urban places. Sure, there are identical problems facing people in our suburban and rural places, too. But the tragic fact is that despite or because of the challenges of scale, it is in the places of greatest concentration of need that the fewest spiritual and other resources are invested.
We should think twice before closing a vital neighborhood resource like a connected congregation. And we should not hesitant to close ineffective, unable-to-be-reneighbored congregations, nor hesitate to start a new neighborhood-based ministry.
Blessings,
Kevin
Slipcovers
My Aunt Alyce was the most loving person I could imagine. She loved everybody. She loved her family. She loved dogs. She loved the neighborhood kids. She loved her life. She loved her church. She loved God. And, what was very evident to me: she loved me, too. I know that because she always called me her favorite nephew. (Yes, there were other nephews. :))
But her love had an anomaly. It was a confusion between now and then. A present offering of love versus a future one, and it had to do with slipcovers.
Aunt Alyce apparently loved the people who would eventualy get her living room furniture when she decided it was time to get rid of it. You see, she put clear, plastic slipcovers on the couch, chair, and ottoman. You ever sit on a plastic slipcover on a warm day with shorts on? Whoa. It always amused me that she should be so careful. I had always wanted to ask, "Aunt Alyce, why do you use slipcovers? You should enjoy your furniture. (Thought bubble: I want to enjoy your furniture!) The only thing you are doing is making the furniture nice for the next owners, while you can't even sit without sticking to it." I suppose my Aunt Alyce would just have smiled. She didn't get it.
Churches have slipcovers, too. Things that keep the hardware preserved for some future What?, yet esentially un-useful to people now is a sign that the church has become absent for people it is called to serve. To become present for others is really pretty simple. Be there. Be there in the morning. Be there at noon. Be there at night. Be there on weekends. Be there during the week. Allow the resources to be used to meet needs, of course according to the mission plan, but serve now.
In my congregation, we decided that we needed to be present. To tell and show a neighborhood that God loved it, 24/7, not just for an hour or two Sunday mornings, but every day became my passion, not just my mission.
We opened those red church doors and took our imagined, but just as real, "slipcovers" off the gym floor (not used for twenty-years or more !), and let kids from the community reclaim our assets as their own. Whoa, did we have kids in the neighborhood!? Not a few of our Elders shuddered at what we were nervously trying to do: give ourselves away. This was our social capital, our God-given assets for the common good.
Note to church: barriers, even plastic ones, diminish mission. Future potential is not the same as realized present. Aunt Alyce was right about everything, except the slipcovers. She was also right about who her favorite nephew was, because she was my favorite Aunt, my Aunt with slipcovers.
Blessings,
Kevin
But her love had an anomaly. It was a confusion between now and then. A present offering of love versus a future one, and it had to do with slipcovers.
Aunt Alyce apparently loved the people who would eventualy get her living room furniture when she decided it was time to get rid of it. You see, she put clear, plastic slipcovers on the couch, chair, and ottoman. You ever sit on a plastic slipcover on a warm day with shorts on? Whoa. It always amused me that she should be so careful. I had always wanted to ask, "Aunt Alyce, why do you use slipcovers? You should enjoy your furniture. (Thought bubble: I want to enjoy your furniture!) The only thing you are doing is making the furniture nice for the next owners, while you can't even sit without sticking to it." I suppose my Aunt Alyce would just have smiled. She didn't get it.
Churches have slipcovers, too. Things that keep the hardware preserved for some future What?, yet esentially un-useful to people now is a sign that the church has become absent for people it is called to serve. To become present for others is really pretty simple. Be there. Be there in the morning. Be there at noon. Be there at night. Be there on weekends. Be there during the week. Allow the resources to be used to meet needs, of course according to the mission plan, but serve now.
In my congregation, we decided that we needed to be present. To tell and show a neighborhood that God loved it, 24/7, not just for an hour or two Sunday mornings, but every day became my passion, not just my mission.
We opened those red church doors and took our imagined, but just as real, "slipcovers" off the gym floor (not used for twenty-years or more !), and let kids from the community reclaim our assets as their own. Whoa, did we have kids in the neighborhood!? Not a few of our Elders shuddered at what we were nervously trying to do: give ourselves away. This was our social capital, our God-given assets for the common good.
Note to church: barriers, even plastic ones, diminish mission. Future potential is not the same as realized present. Aunt Alyce was right about everything, except the slipcovers. She was also right about who her favorite nephew was, because she was my favorite Aunt, my Aunt with slipcovers.
Blessings,
Kevin
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Nouns and Verbs
Every church building I pass seems to turn into a time portal, of sorts. I am transported back to Miss Espenshade's fifth grade English class. Whoa. Not an entirely pleasant trip. A crystal clear image rises in my memory of drill exercises on the difference between nouns and verbs. Nouns are objects. Verbs are action words. Nouns are objects. Verbs are action words. Ahhh. O.K. Miss Espenshade, I get it!
As the church blurs by me on the right, I think: the Church. It's a noun. An object. Not an action word. Church, an action word? Umm. Miss Espenshade, I have a question.
As the church blurs by me on the right, I think: the Church. It's a noun. An object. Not an action word. Church, an action word? Umm. Miss Espenshade, I have a question.
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