Companions,
Yesterday, a tweet from Rick Warren started making the rounds-- a splash, or maybe a cannonball splash. It genuinely was there, though it's since been deleted by Rick.
Here's the tweet as it was:
I challenge any church in America to match the spiritual maturity, godliness & commitment of any 500 members of Saddleback
Now, as you might suspect, those 140 or less characters generated a lot of excitement in the Twittersphere and subsequently the blogosphere.
Here's just a small sample.
If you go to
Rick Warren's Twitter Feed page, you'll notice he's still sort of responding to yesterday's kerfuffle, though, as previously noted, the original tweet is no longer there.
I have no interest in the kerfuffle. I also have no interest in bashing my brother in Christ.
I happen to think there was something deeply right in what he offered-- something that can and should challenge us and all of our congregations.
I mean really, shouldn't we seek to outdo each other in showing love? Aren't we admonished in scripture and by Wesley to run the race and indeed work for just these things in our own lives and the lives of the communities we are part of?
There's another tweet, from today, that says boatloads about how he could make this "challenge" now.
"For 30 yrs our plan was to turn spectators into participators, consumers to contributors, an audience into an army. It worked!"
30 years. Yes, that was his plan-- a plan for a long-haul commitment (30 years so far) to leadership among the same people in the same place so that the mounting results could be what he challenged the rest of us to match-- "spiritual maturity, godliness and commitment."
And so those who were spectators could become participants, those who were consumers could become contributors, and those who were an audience could get out there and turn the world upside down.
In other words, so those who were lost could be found, and those who were found could find others with good news, embodied good news, of God's kingdom made known in Jesus Christ.
Sounds like Methodism to me!
Any takers?
Peace in Christ,
Taylor Burton-Edwards
