A Fresh Encounter with Jesus | Greg Boyd

our first presenter this morning is the senior pastor of Woodland Hills Church in Saint Paul Minnesota he is the author of numerous books including his most recent called benefit of the doubt and a book called myth of a Christian nation that would be especially helpful for today's context they made it to the New York Times bestseller list he's a Princeton of both Princeton he is a graduate of both Princeton and Yale and maybe the most important thing you can know about him is that he is a drummer in the band not dead yet he confided in me yesterday that he actually left his notes that he was going to present from today at home before getting on a plane please welcome dr. Greg Boyd Wow this is this is fantastic this is fantastic feels like coming to your tribe I know many of you like myself of kind of what wandered in the wilderness wondering who my family is who my tribe is and I don't know about you but most of the Christian events I go to they tend to be more academic but I never feel quite at home with them I mean because I guess a lot of people don't like me but it's becoming here yeah I could try there's a shared vision you know I just love it it's just very refreshing it's really an honor to be asked to speak at this event I just feel like in my heart this is huge God is up to something very very cool in this world and raising up of people who serve at Jesus looking God and just aspire to you Jesus looking people and it's a thing of beauty I'm going to say a little bit about how I kind of got into this was dragna's how God ruined my life one of the things that is refreshing here is about half people I talk to God screwed up your life you got wrecked and and that's a good thing and I guess you know there's some solidarity in that we'd be sure right and we share wreckages so I'm gonna tell you about how God screwed up my life and then where I think we're going from there but you know in the 80s I could have been in contender I could have iiiiii I could have been somebody I think we're going well I got asked to speak at Promise Keepers you know I was rising and I went to the Pentagon I spoke to the Pentagon and then I could have been evangelical contender I I think maybe I would I got on Christianity today I could have a huge Church things were going well and then God started showing me some things that totally derailed the whole thing and so here I am mr. nobody but he what happened was I just began to see some things it started actually in the late 80s you know I was the evangelical standard evangelical and everyone was getting involved the moral majority and we're gonna take America back for God and things are gonna be Christian again I never figure out when those good old Christian days were but somewhere in the past for a Christian nation so we're supposed to jump on board with that and it wasn't so much the positions they held that concerned me but it was a flavour of the thing there's something like this this conquest feel and and and demonizing the opponents and stuff and I I was uncomfortable that I was supposed to be part of it people were you know trying to get me on board with that but I just felt awkward with it and I noticed that like how come I don't fit and then the in the 90s number of things happen that kind of moved me it further in that direction I shared this in the book myth the Christian nation so some of you probably have heard this before but one one big event was I was at this huge huge church with this huge news fourth 4th of July celebration and they had confidence they had sessions throughout the day and then this evening service was gonna climax to the whole thing and I was doing one of those little sessions but stuck around for the plenary session in the evening and they had this worship service which was already kind of concerning me because they would go back and forth between singing patriotic songs and then worship songs and they kind would bleed into each other god bless america we worship You Jesus and and it was I thought that was so strange they had a giant cross in the front which is wonderful but right next to it was an equally giant flag and then at the the whole thing came to a pinnacle when when they had this giant screen with a giant face this giant guy a real well-known Christian military a guy giving the speech talking about how God God's hand was on this country and on our military during the first Gulf War and proof of that was that there's no casualties he said of course there was no American casualties there were other casualties but they didn't register and and as he's talking the music gets more and more majestic and then there's a flag behind him kind of waving in the wind and and it's Christian doing as he's talking about God's hand on this country and and and finally he gives this you know final god bless america and the music's pounding they've flagged in the background and then the flag fades away and and in he fades away and then there's a silhouette of three crosses on a hill and then there then this will be a way for fighter jets came down and then they split over the cross crosses but and then there was a freeze frame and then came to word god bless america and the crowd went crazy I mean it was the cat calls people were weeping you know they're so moved by this experience and I was weeping too but not because I was moved by it I was I was just appalled that that fighter jets and the cross could be fused together in one scene and no one feel any tension about that in fact to be celebrating that killing machines mixed with the Messiah who gave his life for his enemies and no one notice that and and there's such a like a retinic quality of this like yeah you know but Jesus on our side and I wondered I just seen this documentary about the Taliban and how they're smashing all these Buddhist artifacts in Afghanistan at this point and and at what point they were all shooting their guns in the air and hollering you know a lot of stuff and I wondered how is this different from that except that we've got a different tribal God a different warrior God but the same concept and it was very disturbing to me so that I was beginning to like notice some things I hadn't noticed before and then throughout the 90s I started reading the wrong people Jaco Lal and Aunty right but mainly I started reading scripture differently it's very gonna notice some things that hadn't noticed before and and the clearer I got I started to see the kingdom and the clear I got about the kingdom the fogger I got about what it has to do with Church which is kind of awkward to feel the pastor of a church I began to see for example that Jesus isn't just one of the revelations of God I can have read it like that I think that's all most people read it yeah the whole Bible right we're evangelicals believe in the whole Bible so so you take everything there and you and it's sort of you know that's your picture of God and so we had a smorgasbord picture of God a montage yes there's the the the Jesus part but then there's a gentle sidle part and all the rest and you just kind of blur it all together and that's what you worship as God but I began to notice that that's not the way the New Testament deals with Jesus hebrews 1 he just jumped out at me where he says yeah God spoke in the past in different ways in various portions but in these last days he's spoken through his own son who is the radiance of God's glory the shininess of God's shininess when God shines it looks like Jesus and he's the exact representation of God's very essence who post Ossus is the word he uses and so I began to see that Jesus isn't part of what God's like he's not just the nice part of God in one revelation among others he is the culmination of all revelation he is the quintessential definitive absolute unqualified revelation of God so God is Jesus like all the way down to his very essence God is love first John says the first John it also says here's how we know what love is Jesus Christ gave his life for us also we should give our life for one another so God is cross-like love cruciform love self sacrificial love all the way down and they'll begin to change everything that's when I started getting uninvited to places I've been uninvited in more places I think most people ever get invited to is this but yeah I just begin see God is beautiful God it's really beautiful and then I I began to notice some things like faith and begin to understand the biblical idea of faith the Covenant the concept of faith and how different that is from belief and then begin to notice how I had been in the church at large has believed ISM where if you just give intellectual assent to certain things well then you're on the inside that's your ticket you just have intellectual assent it's a form of Gnosticism saved by what you know or what you believe you know what are we going to see how faith is is a matter of trusting having trust in another and pledging to be faithful to another it's a holistic concept it's like marriage and I began to notice how faith is a community thing in the New Testament and and the more I woke up to that the more I woke up to how how rather rampant individualism is in the church we all have our little me and Jesus thing going and once while we get together and sing songs but it's an individual affair Bey the New Testaments community it's all shared I used to think that we're all brides of Christ like Jesus was a polygamist no he's a monogamous and and there's only one bride and we become that bride when we joined the brights so by definition to be a follower of Jesus is to be in community which is different than just getting together for any event it's to be sharing life and doing ministry together and and and and holding one other accountable and and serving one another and so I begin to notice the individualism of church and then shortly after that I begin to see salvation different I thought there's most people think it's getting out of hell you know you give intellectual assent Jesus works off this weird deal with a father and that gets you off the hook for you know the afterlife like brian says he becomes the secretary of of afterlife affairs that's pretty much it I began to see how in the New Testament they just wait around for having to come no they speak of salvation in the present tense we were saved were being saved we shall be saving I began to see that salvation is this holistic thing it's it's participating in the very life of God sharing life for the triune God salvation is about him pouring himself into us and his spirit dwelling within us and transforming us from the inside out so by definition salvation is something that makes a difference in your life what are we going to notice was that that with this believe ISM that relegated Jesus to this secretary of the afterlife well there's no ramifications for people's life here now so you believe differently but everything else goes or at least can go pretty much the same as it's always gone and all the polls show that Barna in his poll in 2010 found the 83 percent of Americans identify themselves as Christian when asked by a pollster but when you do further ask further questions about what difference that makes in their life for about 75 percent of those who had yes the answer is no difference at all yeah exact same values as non-christians spend the time the same way as anti-christian spend their money the same way is that Christian it's a form of godliness but has no power as the Apostle Paul says but in the New Testament salvation is about everything it changes now it's it affects our afterlife because it affects now and if you're gonna see how it's about everything it's about our time it's about our money it's about our character it's about our attitude it's about it's about humans about all humans is about society it's about systems about creation it's about animals it's about the cosmos and it's wonderful because God is inviting all of the sin to be dancing with a triune God with the promise that all of that will be restored I saw that as you live out this is what the reign of God is the kingdom of God it's about God reigning over our life here now and you could tell where God's rating over life because to the degree that God reigns over a life the person begins to reflect the life and the love of Jesus Jesus is the incarnation of the kingdom of God I like many people have a ton of different random definitions of the kingdom basically the kingdom would be whatever we like you know you take take your preferences and call it Kingdom but the Bible has a very specific definition of Kingdom because it was very specific - the definition of love and it's about Jesus and it's about the cross and so I began to see that were Kingdom to the degree that we begin to bleed we're in the kingdom to the degree that we we serve we can take on the humility of Jesus Christ and and to the degree that we do that necessarily we will be in tension with every aspect of society that is out of sync with God's character we revolt against the way Jesus did and that's why I like to call the kingdom a bunch of revolutionaries because revolting is inherent in our DNA as we manifest our kingdom the way Jesus did we push back on everything else in society and creation that's contrary to that and so we're going to be a bunch of revolutionaries and makes a difference here now but the way we're evolves I began to see is not the way the world evolves remember both way Jesus did and he did it not by conquering others or imposing his will and others he did it by serving others and ultimately being sacrificed for others I began to see that the way that we are to change the world not by grabbing on to a bunch of power Caesars power and and trying to run it from Todd now that's christened ohm but I began to see that the way we are to change the world is by washing people's feet the way Jesus did people that you know is gonna betray you power power in John 13 says Jesus knowing you'd come from God and that the father put all things into his hands he's omnipotent the question in John 13 is what you do when you're your own if it said well I know its Caesar would do and what fallen humans would do but what Jesus did is he says he'd put a towel around himself and he began to wash the feet the dirty smelly feet of his betraying disciples that's what you do when you have an impotent power so why Paul says that well the world sees the Cross is foolishness and and and and weakness to us the Cross is the power of God and the wisdom of God when God shows off his smarts and when God flexes his omnipotent bicep it looks like him getting crucified on the cross when I began to see that man that is radical that is radical that reframes everything that just turns most people's view of God on his head what kind of omnipotent God does that what kind of wise God does that well the God whose very nature is cruciform love that's what his power looks like and that's what his wisdom looks like and the more I saw this it seems it's like looking one of those magic eye pictures yeah I'm sure most of us have had this experience to some degree especially if you came to this later on where you used to read the Bible one way and Olsson it gets totally reframed screws yeah but it's like one of those magic eye pictures you know where you look at it looks like just stupid wallpaper but if you look at it just right it's a three-dimensional picture starts to rise out well that's basically over a period of 15 years or so what was happening to me and the Bible just begin to see something totally different the kingdom arose the Jesus looking cross Center beautiful wonderful Kingdom began to arise probably the most significant thing in this whole journey that happened to me was I saw that they understood God differently in Salvation differently in faith differently and in the kingdom differently obeying to see the centrality of non-violence enemy loving non-violence as the center of the center there's been the most recent thing last eight nine eight years or so just seeing that this isn't a peripheral thing this is this is this is the center of everything I mean Jesus I had never noticed this before how did I not notice this but Jesus says you know you've heard said eye for an eye tooth for tooth bites they turn the other cheek love your enemies bless those who persecute you do good to those who despitefully use you and when he's saying enemies his Jewish audience is thinking Romans the terrorists have already conquered he says love those enemies and then says that you may be children of your father in heaven causes the Sun to shine on the just and the unjust in the rain to fall and the righteous and the wicked we're to love indiscriminately love without qualification love like the Sun shines love like the rain falls because that's how the Father loves and that we evidence that we are children of the father when we love like that I thought this has been the thing that has got me in the most trouble I in this country you get a lot of pushback on this when you start talking against violence almost a form of religion in our country I was on a radio station one time and it was going pretty good in fact the last radio Christian radio interviews I did I I'll go on secular atheists are wonderful but forget it forget things conservative Christian talk shows man it so it was a callin thing and I gave a little talk it was right when mr. Chris nation came out and that didn't go too bad and that was you know the post was pretty good but then somebody called in and said you said a little earlier that we're supposed to love our enemies bless our enemies are you telling me that you pray for at this point it was during the rock war and and this guy had been a veteran he goes you pray for the people who killed my but my buddy yeah he got blowing up over there and and you have the audacity a pastor an American pastor of a church to be praying from be of a people who killed my buddy I said I'm sorry about your buddy dude but I didn't make this up I'm I'm quoting Jesus here and and that's my that's I think my marching orders from him the guy says well whatever Jesus meant by that he didn't mean this and and and then the host turned on me he goes man you can feel the air getting sucked out of the room when you said that and it is a Christian show what I'm saying well they tell you tell me what Jesus is what Paul meant when he said this but man it was hostile you start you start pushing back on and violence and people get very irritable and so for a while I just I was like a marginal thing maybe an optional thing maybe you know for mature Christians but that but now I'm just seeing that this is the city qua non of the kingdom so I you know when Jesus before Pilate in John 18 I probably ask him you know are you King of the Jews and he says now my kingdoms not of this world and then the proof he gives is this he goes if my kingdom was of this world then my followers would be fighting for my defense that's what you do when you part of the kingdom of the world its premise an aggression but the evidence that this kingdom is not of this world it's the kingdom of God is that the followers refuse to fight Jesus could have said well you know actually one of mine tried that took out a sword cut off the guards here but I showed him how we do warfare in the kingdom by healing the guards here that's how you do warfare in the kingdom and so all of this just ruined me I could have been somebody could have been a contender but God derailed the whole thing and I'm so glad he did I'm so glad he did open eyes and see so that now here's what happened as I and the leadership of the hills Church are going through this kind of evolution it sure doesn't pick up on all of it but in 2004 things came to a head I like many pastors of mega churches were getting an enormous amount of pressure to steer the flock on how to vote how to vote the right way and they would tell you very specifically the right way and I didn't get this personally that much there's some nailing 's but the congregation who watches it listens Christian radio and watches Christian television they were getting this so they were coming to me saying well why aren't you gonna say something you supposed to weigh in here this is an important election you know the middle America's gonna stay a Christian nation depends on this and and all of this and so I finally thought this is a good teaching moment and I went to the board first said I here's what I feel like doing I want to make very clear kind of why we don't have a flag in our church every fourth of July I get this question why we don't sing patriotic m's why we're not endorsing candidates and why we're not celebrating our military and so I thought we need a series that's gonna clarify all this I call it the cross and the sword and the board gave the approval we knew that there'd be a little bit of a cost I know there was quite a bit of a cost but he's laid out the difference between the kingdom of God in the kingdom of the world and spelled out the distinctives I just mentioned here and and just showed why we're not gonna jump on that bandwagon about a thousand people ended up leaving I was about 1/4 of our congregation and there are all the big givers - why is that the case actually 700 left initially and the four-part series that I did but I revisited it on July 4th just to make sure everyone got the point in another 300 left so that's when my board decided I should you know the other all use it you know as a time they had all these church growth seminars and they were saying you should go on the road you have a church shrinking seminar cuz you finally found your gift man and looking back and I could have been more tactful it's never been my strong suit but I'm so glad that that happened I mean it needed heaven it really that's when we became solidified and and and when our vision got solidified and when this happened well New York Times picked it up because a scandal and all that and that got us on the radar screen and then I discovered something beautiful I've been feeling increasingly alienated this whole time it's just felt weird the only church in telling that's preaching this stuff we had people calling the church telling who had relatives in the church saying get out of there it's a cult you know boys the only one who believes this - nonsense I get out and you start to feel like they were called hukum you know I can't find anyone who agrees with me except that guys who wrote books and so what happened was we begin to get calls and emails and texts from all over the world of people saying yes and I then discovered over process of a couple of years that what was happening to me has been happening all over the globe to tons and tons of people and many of them are getting rekt you know they'd get reckless Church and so they start their own thing they house Church and and I I it reminded me of Close Encounters of the Third Kind for those of you who are old enough to remember that movie where these people who get touched by an alien they all have this vision of his plateau and they don't know what it means but they compulsively think about it and draw pictures of it and make their mashed potatoes in the forms of it and do it with clay and it's just they're always making these plateaus and some of them are fortunate to find out what that plot was about it was directions to go to a certain place or you're gonna meet these aliens and I never could figure out why is the close encounter of the Third Kind what's the first and second or fourth I don't know but Close Encounters of the Third Kind and that's what happening people are getting touched with this vision of the kingdom and there's a lot of differences there for sure but they have a commonality it's about a Jesus looking God raising up a Jesus looking people to serve the world in the Jesus kind of way it's beautiful it's happening all over the place it's a it's a movement and and then I discovered the Mennonites I always thought the in Mennonites were just sort of progressive Amish yeah so Kumar but but yeah begin to get invited back to places that was refreshing and just to speak into you know the Mennonite domination other Anabaptist groups and my message I found out that you know here this world is waking up to this this vision of a beautiful kingdom cross like Jesus like Kingdom and and they're looking for a tradition to tap into because no one wants to think that they reinvented Christianity or discovered it for the first time they want to be anchored in tradition but well the rest of the world's waking up to a lot of Mennonites are running away from it a lot of other Baptists run away from it it's they want to become contemporary want to be secret sensitive one of this so they're being patriotic and a whole bunch of other stuff and my message semantics has just been it's been beautiful developing this relationship but it's just been you guys get that whole gig return to your first love get back that Kingdom you got a treasure there you've had a treasure for 500 years cherish it don't ever get used to it get for granted cherish that at the same time you gotta let go of some your cultural stuff because if the world's gonna tap into this tradition most of all doesn't seem four part harmonies you know then God bless four part harmonies you can so have that you just got to also do some some some edgy rock stuff and get used to people coming in guys with dreadlocks down to their knees and tattoos and we don't look typically ethnic Mennonite right just uh and maybe don't preach like typical ethnic Mennonites and where these sessions a older lady came up to me afterwards and says you some Mennonite you act like a million steroids is that good or bad I don't know what it is so there's this beautiful movement going on and and the more I've seen this I mean alright those who podcast we call Padres owners at Woodland Hills Church in the last couple of years it's going to 20,000 people pout it and we're looking at asking the question how can we serve them and build house searches out of them how do we get around this movement and and it facilitate this and as I've seen this mehar t' where I am just felt called to do something to uh I don't know I haven't come together this way this meeting right now I think is so so huge because this is the kind of thing that needs to happen I just be gonna call up people who I knew he had the vision call it Brian hey Brian I'm Greg let's talk I want to do I got you something so call and see what happens and it's been pretty cool but the movements happening it's exciting I feel like we are on the cusp of a Reformation I don't know if still stick was right that every five hundred years this happens on open theists so things can't be too program but if you might be right about this I don't know but it's been 500 years my sense is that with the cusp of this explosion that that you're right said earlier I don't know what the future is going to look like but it will it will look more and more like Jesus as Christendom is crumbling hallelujah Otto Robles rising this grassroots movement of people who are getting a very different different understanding of what Jesus was all about and what Jesus came to do and it's beautiful and I feel so honored to be you know alive when this is happening I I believe in 50 years this thing is gonna make the Reformation for 500 years ago look like a little hiccup I honestly think it's it's it's it's humongous here are I'm gonna end with a few challenges I think we face things we got it we got it we got to confront first thing is is a theological point I knew things happen knew what wins being poured out the old wineskins got to go so people are understandably experimenting with different ways of doing Church and is beautiful and and rethinking a doctor of God and atonement and in all sorts of stuff and that's that that's great my concern I just want to register here is that some might end up throwing out the biblical baby with the christened own bathwater III think it's gonna be imperative that well we'll have different understandings and demonstration that needs to be rethought and a lot of the stuff that that evangelicals have been strapped with I think is gonna go by the wayside some of the epistemological concerns that were inerrancy was rooted in whatever that needs to be rethought but it's imperative I think that this movement always understands that our final authority is going to be Scripture a Christocentric reading of Scripture with Scripture however we understand that that's a non-negotiable we have to deal with we have to interpret it we have to struggle with it because history shows that the minute of movement cuts the tether with biblical Authority well it just gets watered down and becomes something just Christian eise's the latest fad I think so some in the emergent church and now progressive evangelical movement have have gone in that direction you feel free to just reject something because you don't like it in the Bible and that that is the ruin of any movement so holding fast to a high view of the local authority I think is is absolutely imperative a second thing that we confront and is I think the major obstacle to this movement going forward especially here in America is that we are dealing with a people who have to a large degree been immunized to the kingdom the christen dome Christianity cultural Christianity can thing has I mean 83% of people identify with it and they get just enough of the kingdom to believe they have the real kingdom then you get immunized from it I mean you get a flu shot you get just enough flu to trick your body to think that you have the flu and their devotes a defense to it are immunized to the kingdom and so even the words we use can get co-opted you say Jesus you say faith you say community and it gets run through a grid that is christened omen so I think in some respects being a missionary here in America and we are missionaries here in America the old colonial idea is gone this is a post-christian Christendom culture but being a missionary in this context is profoundly difficult this with every reason it's not clear what what's Christian was not Christian I think the best way forward on this folks honestly is not so much having clever arguments although sometimes those are needed or advances in techniques so sometimes those are needed but the best thing we can do to begin to wake folks up who have been immunized to this is simply to live it as we live out Kingdom community you only see the only see a counterfeit when you notice the real as I notice the real kingdom that's what are we going to notice wow there's a whole lot of demonic stuff in our culture that passes as Christian and so we need to be God's billboard I live in this out what does it look like for community to really live like love like serve like think like act like Jesus to be a community that serves and and and cares for the marginalized it cares for those that no one else cares about when when people see that if there's a hunger in the heart they're drawn to it they see it cost them something but that's part of his beauty and so our intentionality I'm not just having the concepts but living that out I think is absolutely crucial as this movement goes forward a third thing that I concern I have something that's on my heart is this a central part of this whole thing as I said earlier will be networking there are a ton of people who are isolated out there communities individuals who are isolated they get this and sometimes it is strange them from their their church but they don't know where to go they don't know what to do they're just there and they're looking to align to something bigger than themselves so a question that we need to be asking is how can we help Network these folks together we begin to bring a thread through all of this now that's different than controlling something that I don't think should ever happen any group or any domination try to get stands around it try to micro define it I think it needs to stay a spirit movement or gut a grassroots movement it's gonna be fuzzy around the edges we got to be okay with that deal with the ambiguity not controlling it but asking the question and this is the question I've been living in where the hills have been living it how can we facilitate this how can we come alongside the co-workers of God to help get people talking to each other and ministering together and serving one another and getting a sense of us a movement that you're blowing to something bigger than yourselves I think by definition if this is a kingdom movement and it is it's got to be intentionally diverse and one of the reasons Jesus died as part of the atonement was to create one new humanity I've proved the walls of hostility have been torn down and that's part of the atonement to not preach that can that make that part of the gospel well you might as well not preach forgiveness of sins you know Jesus died for that too right you can't if he died for it if he spilled blood over it's not a negotiable thing it's a kingdom thing it's got to happen which means we are going to have to be intentional about going out of the comfort zones of our social group which always tend to be homogeneous and and and looking at how do we build bridges with people who are different than us whose cultures different maybe whose language is different color is different because the the in the kingdom of God the diversity the unity and diversity is an inherent good and and whenever things are too homogeneous we've got to be worried about it Jesus didn't die for it for no reason at all he's reversing Babel and so this gotta be a movement that reverses Babel that leads to another point here that thing's gonna be crucial as we go about doing that as with every other area of life but this one in particular can be challenging I think it's vital this is my breakout sessions gonna be about a little advertisement there that that we remember who the enemy is the enemy has never won another Paul said our struggle our battle is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and rulers and the spiritual realm if we're not fighting that enemy we end up fighting each other and we make enemies out of each other in others if we're not fighting the enemy he's playing us against one another he comes to kill steal and destroy and and and so as we go about this in in the the diversity realm but in area every other of the realm as well there'll be mistakes they're gonna be fails when we screw up you know we're falling we're dumb we're stupid and so we step on each other's toes and accidentally spin each other's faces that's going to happen that's the reality of community and as we go through this as we deal with this we always got to remember the other persons not the enemy if it's got flesh and blood it's not someone were to be fighting someone were to be fighting for and to realize that even though we maybe don't see eye to eye we have a common enemy who would love us to to be fighting each other we we have to have an attitude where we refused so they can enemy out of another human being where we refuse to ever not love another human being where we refuse to demonize the other human being we have to have an attitude where we will hope all things believe all things and serve one another as we work through the inevitable conflicts that will happen that although will keep us together and our refusal to hate those who would maybe even see themselves as our enemies our refusal that's how we do warfare against the powers they're trying to play us but we are doing warfare when we love enemies and when we have patience with people who are who have stepped on our toes offended us or whatever love will bind us together and that's our real warfare the final thing that I want to mention is is this new wine is being poured out in its beautiful wine the old wine skins are bursting Kristin dome is is crumbling and while many see that is scary news I think most people in this room see that as good news because it creates space now for for the kingdom to rise but the question a question that we're gonna have to struggle with and some of us are already struggling with is how do we transition how do we transition you know I've got this church here a couple thousand people it's based on attraction Amada love it I preach people show up we have worship it's fine but it's not the kingdom and we've become increased and clear on that how do we use this in order to create kingdom communities that's the question to transition from mega church to small church how do we grow small and not just a number who people's when people show up but in terms of getting people into these kingdom Jesus looking cross like communities encourage those at a number of mega churches are asking this question forge ministry is is kind of consulting with churches to help them begin to do that how do churches transition how do seminaries transition well they'll be a role for seminaries in the future how do we train up raise up educate new church planters in this kingdom movement do we go through the traditional means do we create alternatives do we do a combination of both I don't know I'm just throwing out the problems here denominations you got you got a whole you got a lot of transition to do I just mentioned with the Mennonites you know for folks to feel welcome there you got a hold fast to your kingdom priorities those distinctives we hold very loosely to your culture and and and begin to welcome people who look very different than Mennonites have usually looked and that brother in Christ have usually looked and all the other end of Baptists dominations but folks that's the kingdom that's the kingdom I hope you share with me this vision this excitement about what's going on in this world because you're part of it and I with you just feel very privileged honored to be at the cusp of this beautiful thing that God is doing new wine we're seeing old wineskins let's let it happen god bless you guys

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Keywords: Jesus, Satan, Sin, God, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, Bible, Christian, The Gospel, Truth, Lord, Salvation, The Word, Preaching, Study, Sermon, The Father, Faith, Hope, Love, Apostle, Disciples, Heaven, Hell, Demons, Angels, Prophets, Saints, The Cross, Calvary, Crucified, Born Again, Scripture, Prophecy, Holy, Justification, Sanctification, Regeneration, Soul, Church, The Blood, Prayer, New Covenant, Grace, Christianity, Martyr, Pastor, Messiah, Savior, Atonement, PRAYER, repent, Greg Boyd

Id: 8OtJP8sYZfE

Length: 36min 56sec (2216 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 26 2016