Jason Valendy 2/4/12 Jason Valendy 2/4/12

Spiritual Entrepreneurship and new churches

Back in 2009 I wrote a bit about Spiritual Entrepreneurship as a concept that I encountered at a conference I was at.

I am not sure what it means to be a spiritual entrepreneur but at the heart of the matter is one who is willing to risk.

Around this time of year, ministers in the UMC are on a bit of an edge as there is a chance that different ministers might be moved to different churches. This creates a number of distractions, which I have come to welcome as best as I can.

For a number of reasons that I do not understand where they all come from, I am commonly asked if I want to start my own church. Words like, entrepreneurial, young, spirited, motivated and creative are used to butter up the person and get them thinking about starting a new church. This is something I have never been interested in at all. The church has a lot of communities to tend to much less ditch the old in order to start a new one just because that is where the new tract homes are being built.

I know that to start a church takes a lot of drive and motivation and grit, but to be honest I do not have those attributes when it comes to starting a new church. I many ways I feel starting new church would be easier than to revitalize an existing church and that is often overlooked.

The UMC is able to move those who are are spiritual entrepreneurials to where ever needed - but it seems those people are asked to start new churches rather than work to revitalize the established communities. What would it look like to move leaders who are willing to risk to established churches? What would it look like to infuse a stale church community with the spiritual entrepreneurship of a leader?

Ultimately what I pray for is that in our efforts to be creative in ministry and start new churches or new models of ministry, I hope that we are not boxed into thinking that spiritual entrepreneurs are best used in non-traditional ways.

Because sometimes (perhaps many times) they are not.

Jason Valendy 1/25/12 Jason Valendy 1/25/12

Bibliolatry and John 1

Reading the opening verses of John's gospel, I am reminded how incredible the incarnation is. That is just how amazing it is that in Jesus is what a life full of God looks like - Jesus is God incarnate.

As great as the Bible is, let us be very clear, the Bible is not the greatest revelation of God. John is very clear that the greatest way we know God is not through scriptures but through the Word made flesh (aka - Jesus).

The UMC has a tradition of holding the scriptures as one of the four corners of the quadrilateral. You may have heard it before that the UMC "does" theology using scripture, tradition, experience and reason. But again, for clarity sake, these four sources, even if they are combined, are not even close to being on par with the Word made flesh.

So while we read the Word, let us not be confused. John is not talking about the written words on a page. John is not talking about the Bible. John in not talking about any scripture at all. John is talking about Jesus Christ.

We do not worship the Bible. We worship Christ, whom we understand to be the Word made flesh.

In our efforts to better understand Jesus, let us not forget that the Bible is but a finger pointing to the moon that is Christ. Do not confuse the finger with the beauty and complexity of the moon.