Reflecting on the Ecclesia National Gathering: a Sermon

Today I preached the sermon time at Dwell with the intention of imparting some of my experiences this week from the Ecclesia National Gathering in DC. I figured I’d share a bit of the manuscript here. Keep in mind that it’s a tad out of context, and I hope to provide more context on the conference this week.

The sermon text was Acts 12:18-end, the story of the vindication of the real King of the Jews over the sham Herod Agrippa. It’s also the story of a powerful praying church, through whom “the word of God continued to spread and flourish” against all odds.

Here it is:

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Let me turn on that note to my experience at the conference this week. Because it was, in many ways, an experience of the word of God continuing to flourish all around me, and within me. And I want to impart some of that to all of you, because the word of God is flourishing and will continue to flourish here, too.

Let me pause on that word “flourish” for a second. The second day of the conference, which is kind of a marathon with sessions from 8am to 10pm, ended with a powerful time of ministry. The director of Ecclesia, Chris Backert, got up with a word from God for the leaders in the room, and it hit me like a ton of bricks.

He heard the Spirit saying that many of us had gone through difficult seasons, seasons that are kind of like a death, and that God is desiring to bring us back to life. I have experienced a season like that during the last year, and I heard the Spirit beginning to speak to me directly. The word that came to me was this: “I breathe into you, and in doing so I give you permission to come back to life. I affirm you. I am with you. Nothing will harm you. And now you are free to breathe life into others. Don’t consider the former things, the things of old. I’m doing a new thing. Don’t be afraid to move out – just MOVE. I am with you, I am with you, I am with you.”

Then Chris got back up and read these verses from 1 Corinthians 15: “For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

Dwell, receive that as a word from God for you, and watch it flourish in you, among you, and through you.

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This flourishing word was preceded earlier in the day by a message from Don Coleman. Don is an African American pastor in urban Richmond, VA, who does a lot of justice work through the Christian Community Development Association, which was started by John Perkins. At any rate, Don’s also brought a flourishing word, that ended with this exhortation to all of us: RAISE THE BAR OF HOPE IN YOUR CITIES.

He said it in the context of justice work, that people tend to settle for lesser forms of justice than what God desires. That the church has an opportunity to go above and beyond what other organizations do. That we can raise the bar of hope.

But think of it as a general exhortation, too. What does it mean for us to become a people, day in and day out, who give witness to a kind of hope that our friends and neighbors simply cannot comprehend? What does it mean for us to raise the bar for what our city thinks is possible in the area of hope? What does it mean for us to carry ourselves in such a way that we are known for our hope in true and total life and purpose and fulfillment?

Why are we settling for less than that?

Dwell, let’s raise the bar of hope in our city. Let’s start today and tomorrow and the day after that. Let’s sink our teeth into the word of God which gives us hope that Jesus is building his church, setting up his kingdom, and restoring everything – and that he’s restoring each and every one of us. And let’s put that hope on display.

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On days 2 and 3, we heard from the main guest speaker AJ Swoboda. AJ pastors a church in Portland, OR called Theophilus Church, and wrote a book called Messy. He described his church planting journey, and it was incredibly similar to Dwell’s, even down to a surprisingly encouraging article that they received from the alternative press in Portland.

The specifics of the article were a bit different, though. They had two journalists visit their church who were atheists writing a series of reviews on churches in the pacific northwest. AJ compared this to a Vegan reviewing a steakhouse. And he was totally freaked out by what they might write.

In their gatherings at Theophilus, the children sometimes come out and serve communion. They did that on the night that the atheist journalists came, and one of them took communion from a little girl named Ava. In the article, the journalist said this: “I came forward and I partook of the God that I didn’t believe in, but as I looked in Ava’s face, it was the most profound religious experience I’ve ever had.”

The word of God continued to spread and flourish. What might he do in our gatherings this year?

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Perhaps the highlight of the conference for me were the conversations I had with two pastors from a church called Kairos in LA. JR Woodward is the lead pastor, and he and I hit it off really well. In a session that JR led, he spoke about creating a missional culture in our churches, and he honed in on two main things.

First, he said that all of our thinking and practice has to be reoriented around God’s mission. God is a missional God. We have to move from a theology of mission to a missional theology. All theology is mission. All church is mission. The Scripture is a missional text.

And second, he said that this takes shape in the 5 equipping gifts being released in the church to create this missional culture. Those 5 gifts are apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher, and we’ve been talking a lot about that this year. In fact, we are going to be kicking something off in a week or so that will probably be the most important step we’ve taken in some time in continuing to create this missional culture through the 5 gifts.

The point is, the word coming through foundational leaders, equippers, is going to release you into your sacred calling for God’s mission. Your vocation. The word of God is going to flourish in you, and among you, and through you.

Just wait.

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On day 1, we got to hear from one of my theological and pastoral heroes, a guy named David Fitch. And all I can say is, Dave is different. He’s a crazy Canadian living in Chicago who is absolutely convinced of the message God has called him to bring to the church. He speaks with authority. And he is humble, all at the same time. It’s a rare combination and gift.

The flourishing word he brought is the perfect one to bring us to the Table. He began by saying that there is no difference between vertical reconciliation – reconciliation with God – and horizontal reconciliation – reconciliation with each other in the local church community. God decries any worship that takes place in the midst of unreconciled relationships.

And then he said, “We westerners have bad habits. We have separated justification from God’s justice in the world. We’ve extracted justice as a concept and we do it from a distance so that it doesn’t actually change anything about us. It just makes us feel better about ourselves.”

And he went on to show that the place where these bad habits can change is the Table. The Eucharist. Communion. That it’s here that we learn that we are actually called and inducted into the righteousness of God in the world. The justice of God. The reconciliation of God. That it must become real with us, and then spill out through our lives in the world.

Then the word of God will spread and flourish.

Let’s go to the Table.