Renovating Holiness: Discovering the Values of Holiness [Grant Zweigle]

This is the first full essay submitted to the Renovating Holiness Project.

Grant Zweigle pastored in Kansas City, MO; Seattle, WA; and currently in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Grant and his wife Aisling are relocating to Manila, Philippines with their two boys in 2015. Grant is completing a Doctor of Ministry at Nazarene Theological Seminary. 

  My grandmother lived in a German Mennonite Brethren community in Southern Russia as a young girl. When her parents immigrated to Canada they made their new home in a German Mennonite Brethren community in Yarrow, British Columbia. My grandmother learned some English in school, but spoke German at home and in church. Her family maintained their cultural distinctiveness in their new home, even as they adapted to a new way of life in Canada.

  My mother spoke some German in home and in church, but English was her first language. Her parents brought her up in the German Mennonite way, but as a young adult she forged her own way and more fully embraced the life and culture of Canada than her parents did.  

  My mother never spoke German to me. When I was 2, my Canadian mom and American dad moved to the United States. I am culturally an American and an English speaker. I tried studying German in high school and college, but it didn’t stick. I’ve always known my ancestry is German Mennonite with a Canadian flavour, but it didn’t seem to have much bearing in my everyday life.

  Eight and a half years ago, I moved back to Canada to pastor First Church of the Nazarene in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Since coming back to Canada, I’ve been able to spend more time with my grandmother who is now 95. When I visit my grandmother, she shares stories with me about her childhood in Southern Russia; about why and how her family came to Canada; and about the joys and struggles of making a new life in a new land.

  Over the course of her lifetime, my grandmother has learned to adapt to the cultural changes taking place around her. Some of these changes were forced upon her, but some she willingly embraced. As I’ve listened to her stories, I’ve discovered that many of the values that are dear to my grandmother are dear to me as well. Some of these values transcend culture. These include hospitality, generosity, stewardship, courage, diligence, faith, hope and love. As a dad, I now want to instil these values into my two boys. I like to take my boys to visit their great-grandmother so they can hear her stories and be inspired by the values that have shaped our family.

  Our spiritual grandparents and great-grandparents in the Church of the Nazarene had to adapt to cultural changes taking place around them. Some of these changes were forced upon them, while others they willingly embraced. As the spiritual grandchildren of these holiness pioneers, we would do well to listen to their stories, and in doing so we might discover values that we can embrace and pass on as well. 

     Vancouver First Church of the Nazarene is a traditional Nazarene church in the midst of a rapidly changing urban context. Many of the core members of our church are of that generation of spiritual grandparents who lived a life of holiness in the midst of changing and challenging circumstances. 

Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry

This epic tale of the West won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986.  It is a sweeping drama of rugged western life, human ambition, injustice, poverty, struggle, redemption, love, joy, and relationships.  All of this heavy material is joyfully lightened by the outstanding wit McMurtry wields through the wry main character: Gus McCrae.
Two retired Texas Rangers decide to form the first cattle ranch in Montana.  The novel is the story of their journey northward and all the people this journey involves.  McMurtry beautifully sidesteps the plot to develop each main character's backstory in full-chapter flashbacks.  This rich character development weaves a thick fabric of intense human drama for the subsequent plot developments.

At first I thought the theme was the ultimate poison of ambition.  As in: ambition will destroy everyone around it.
Then, it had no theme.  I thought it was simply an outstanding story depicting the beauty, danger, and difficulty of the old American west and the humans who lived there.
Finally, today, with some help from wikipedia, I picked up on what I think is the true theme, cleverly disguised in a mangled latin phrase on an old wooden sign in the story: "We are changed by the lives around us."  For the many, many intriguing characters who inhabit this story, life has surprising ways of wrapping back around on itself.  Our actions influence those around us.  Our stories intertwine.  Both our good choices and our bad choices make a difference for those we love, and even for those we barely know.
That's a message worth a good story, and all the better if the story itself is exceptional.  At some point, I want to go back and watch the TV miniseries again, too.

Revolution: The Story of the Early Church 30-47 AD - by Gene Edwards

I'm still not sure what I think about this book.
It came recommended by some of the 3DM leaders.  It's a narrative account of the beginning of Christianity - up to the sending of Barnabas and Paul - which Gene Edwards reckons to be 17 years in time.
And that is one of my biggest questions with the book.  How does he get his figures?  He estimates huge time lapses in the book of Acts, much longer than any estimates I've read anywhere else.  Yet, he gives no supporting evidence - arrgg.
On the positive side, Edwards hammers home several points worth emphasizing.
Leadership and spiritual depth take time to develop.  In the modern western world, we tend to hurry our leaders along and expect instant results.  It seems that the ancient Hebrew-Christians were much more content to allow a significant incubation period.  This has the ring of authentic health and wholeness.
"Church-life" is critical to healthy Christianity, but please, please do not confuse this with 21st century churches.  The "church-life" of the early Church was a deep, raw, generous, honest, Spirit-filled community of believers who spoke the truth in love and shared freely with all who had need.  It is the absolute best of all the various forms of community we have experienced.  According to Edwards, without this authentic "church-life" almost nothing of value can happen in Christianity - especially not the formation of genuinely called and equipped leaders.
The leadership of the Spirit is far more important than the best leadership of humans.  The Church started and grew in unexpected ways and at unexpected times.  If humans planned it, the process would have been far more logical and far less successful.
Another, radically challenging bit was an insight right in the first chapter that Jesus was probably resurrected at the same time as the priest celebrated the "first fruits" ceremony in the Jerusalem temple.  If this is true, that is a profound insight, especially since Jesus is called "the first fruits from the dead" ( 1 Corinthians 15:20).

On the downside, Edwards tends to overstate his case (true to form for all radical reformers).  In the midst of his semi-fictional narrative of the early church, he makes radical statements about the 21st century church.  We have NO true apostles.  We have NO true "church-life" happening anywhere.  Etc, etc.
Edwards piques my interest.  I'm not sure I buy everything he's saying, but he's challenging my ideas of the timeframes and procedures of the early church.  I'd like to know his sources, and I need to spend more time thinking on his ideas.  But I'm interested, and I guess that counts as a success for him at this point.

Boone Grove Celebrates Graduates’ Diverse Achievement and Service to Others

As friends and family gathered for the 124th annual Boone Grove High School commencement ceremony, the band established the festive mood with several special songs.

In her welcoming address, class President Paige Kraushaar paused for a moment of silence for Alyssa Salapski, “the angel of the senior class,” who lost her battle with leukemia in their sophomore year. Kraushaar also reminisced, “Porter Lakes Elementary and Boone Grove Elementary kids didn’t actually like each other on our first day of middle school. But now most of us have a best friend from the other school.”

Next, the senior choir sang “Carry On Wayward Son,” accompanied by Jacob Williams on acoustic guitar.

Guest speaker Kathy Sherman was with these students on their first day of sixth grade. “It has been a wonderful experience to watch the class of 2013 mature from children to young adults,” she said. “It has been an honor to be part of your lives.” ...

Continue reading this story at The Times.

Hebron High Class Basks in Shared Good Times

Being together since kindergarden has helped Hebron High School graduates bond, said Rick Cheek, the school's band director.

“They’re a tight-knit group," he said. "They’re always hanging out together. We always hate to see the senior class go.”

Class President Aaron Plomann shared the sentiment in his welcoming address to the 124th commencement:

 “I can’t think of any other place I’d rather graduate.”

Allison Lewis, co-salutatorian, expressed the students’ thanks “for everyone who works at our school from the cafeteria workers to the janitors, the faculty and the coaches. We wouldn’t be graduating without you.”

Continue reading this story at The Times.  

Book Review: "The Client" by John Grisham

The Client reads fast and rips your heart out slow.  A couple of kids in a trailer park stumble upon a mob lawyer just as he's about to commit suicide.  Out of a mixture of curiosity and compassion, they get sucked into the mess.  One boy ends up learning where a certain celebrity body is buried.  Then, the lawyer bites a bullet from his own gun.
The rest of the story is the kid trying to find a way out of the mess he stumbled into without harming his family in the process.  He is being chased by the mob and the Feds, and he is a poignant mixture of crafty and helpless, cunning and innocent.
In addition to its sheer enjoyment value,  The Client offers a beautiful little glimpse into the lives of an underprivileged family.  They are simply struggling to survive amid tragically difficult circumstances, yet they maintain steady love and grace for each other.  That's one of the things I love about Grisham.  He can deliver a profound message without the reader ever being aware that a sermon lies between the lines of the narrative.  Well done, sir.  Well done.

100 Things I Love About Korea: #64 - The Thunder-Farting Daughter-In-Law

The Thunder-Farting Daughter-in-Law is a traditional Korean story.  I have this beautifully illustrated in a children's book.  Needless to say, this is absolutely going to be one of the few books I mail home.

The story begins with EunMi, living together with her husband JunSeok and her father in law MinTaek. The father-in-law notices that EunMi doesn’t seem comfortable around him. She always has a sour look on her face, and she moves awkwardly. So he complains to his son, “Why is EunMi always so grumpy and grim?”
JunSeok laughs and says, “Oh, don’t worry about EunMi. She just has these incredible, horrible farts, so she’s holding it in around you.”
So the old man goes to EunMi and tells her to relax and let her true self out. She tells the old man to brace himself, and she lets out a fart that rocks the house. The old man is shocked, and he says, “Dang girl! You sure can fart! You’ve got something special there.”
Well, things seem to go on as usual for a while, with the addition of the occasional roof shaking fart. Then, a group of merchants travels through their area. EunMi meets them under a persimmon tree. The merchants are looking longingly at the lush persimmons, but they are all out of reach. EunMi offers to get them down for the merchants, and everyone laughs. So EunMi says, “Will you give me all of the silk on that donkey if I can get you all of the persimmons?” The lead merchant takes her bet. He thinks there is no way possible that this mild little lady can scale the tree and get all of the persimmons.
--- And here comes the best part of the story! --- Next, EunMi turns away from the merchants and points her rumpus up in the air at the persimmon tree and lets out a gigantic thunder-fart. The wind and sound from her nuclear fart shake the tree so hard that every last persimmon falls to the ground, and EunMi walks away with the donkey load of silk.
Back at home the husband and father-in-law are overjoyed, for they are now very wealthy. They slap each other on the back and say, “Boy aren’t we lucky to have a thunder-farting woman in our house! We’re sure glad she isn’t holding it in anymore!”

To see how I used this amazing story in a sermon, click here.  

Faithfully Doubting God - Psalm 22

Most of the time, we think of faith and doubts as polar opposites.  We think of faith and doubt on a single spectrum.  We think that if we have more doubt, we have less faith, and if we have less doubt, we have more faith.

<----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->

Doubt                                          Faith

But that’s not what the Bible teaches.  The Bible’s perspective on doubt and faith is more like the father with a sick child who said to Jesus: “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).  Belief and unbelief are all mixed together - like overlapping ovals.  We have all these doubts of different shapes and sizes, but they can be enveloped by an even larger circle of faith.  Having doubts does not mean we don’t have faith.  Doubts can actually enlarge and enrich our faith.  True faith is not being doubt-free.  True faith is taking the leap to trust God even while the doubts are there screaming that we shouldn’t.  True faith is moving forward to follow Jesus - even if it means carrying a backpack full of doubts along the way.

Sometimes, we let our doubts drive us away from God and away from God’s people.  We can get very ashamed of our doubts.   We think, “If I was a real Christian, I wouldn’t feel like this.  If I really trusted God, I wouldn’t have these doubts.”  And so we end up hiding our true selves from other people at church and even from God in prayer.  We only say the nice things.  We only pray the nice prayers.  We stuff our doubts down.  We try to shoo them out the window of our souls.  

Here’s the thing about doubt and pain and fear.  It’s part of us.  It will always be part of us as long as we live in this broken world.  If we don’t bring God our pain and fear and doubt, then we are leaving a huge part of us in the back room of our souls.  If we don’t bring our church and our friends our pain and fear and doubt, then we are hiding huge parts of ourselves and preventing deep relationship from ever happening.  

We (as a church) and we (as Christians) have to find healthier ways of dealing with pain and doubt.  Thankfully, we have Psalm 22.  This is probably the single most famous “lament” or “doubting” Psalm in the Bible.  Listen for how it mixes together doubt and faith.  

1  My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?   Why are you so far away when I groan for help?

Story of Change - Mark Groleau

Sometimes, a little time and a few good conversations make a big difference in someone's life.  Here is the story of my friend Mark, who found his way back to Christ while in Korea, and just graduated from seminary.

It was the spring of 2006. I was living in Korea, teaching English as a Second Language. Recently, I had registered for a Teachers’ Diploma Program at a university in Brisbane, Australia; it was slated to begin in the fall of the same year. My wife, Naomi, had applied to the same school for an MBA program. Our five-year plan was set. She would go into business, and I would fulfill my dreams of becoming a high school teacher at a public school in Canada. But our plan was about to change.
I grew up in a suburb of Ottawa, my family’s house backing onto a pasture where horses grazed and strawberries grew wild in summer. Even on the hottest of days, I couldn’t wear shorts; even when my sister rode her bike with me on the dirt track near our house or we went swimming, she wasn’t allowed to wear pants. These were just two of the “standards” on which salvation depended. They were not rules set by my parents, but by our pastor. They were the rules I grew up with, because one Sunday morning just before my third birthday, my father had taken me along to check out a tiny new church that had started up near our house. His decision to become a member would shape the rest of my life.
By the age of twenty, I had graduated from the one-room-schoolhouse-style church school that each child of the church was mandated to attend, and I was an undergrad student in the University of Ottawa’s English Literature program. Weekdays were spent reading Chaucer, Shakespeare, and literary criticism in the library; weekends were spent preaching and leading music in the sanctuary. As my time between school and church became increasingly divided, so did my mind. I began to question the legalism and the doctrine that had become my way of life; when I asked the pastor and other leaders for answers that might justify some of the more dogmatic claims, I found that there were none. One fateful Sunday morning, much like the one that  had  determined the trajectory of my life eighteen years earlier, I met my father at the door in my pajamas. I told my family I would no longer be attending church.
Four years later would find me graduated from university, teaching in Korea, and attacking Christianity on every level I could conjure up. But there was a Canadian girl. And an American pastor. Both Christians who would not let me go ...


To keep reading Mark's story, click here.

You can check out some of his sermons at: http://markgroleau.com/.