What does Jesus-Centred really mean? (and catching up)
Hello friends,
It has been.... a minute. Or more.
Today, here's the short version of the "catch up."
For about 3 years, my wife and I had been praying and discerning a 'nudge' which we eventually realized was an invitation to move into a new ministry situation.
In Fall of 2019, I went up to Canada and had an encounter with God as I was crossing the boarder. Didn't know which box to put that in. haha.
During that ongoing season, leading into the pandemic, I was training as a Spiritual Director, writing a book, praying for direction with my ministry role, and being a parent to a young kiddo (now 8!) and a baby kiddo (now 3!).
In the early part of summer of 2020, I was connected to a church in Canada through a mutual friend at Jesus Collective. It was a casual conversation, letting me know about the church and that they would eventually be seeking a new lead pastor.
I waited. Looked at other opportnities. Had several "almosts" that seemed great at the time (perhaps not great for me?).
My book, Echoing Hope released!
I had spinal fusion surgery 10 days later.
Then, believing that we were being called away from Seattle, we put our house up for sale in early summer, 2021.
And then, that church in Canada--which I had almost completely disregarded as a legitimate option--invited me to interview.
After some tough goodbyes, and some logistical chaos trying to get our family across the boarder, we moved to Calgary, Alberta. I'm now the lead pastor of a church called Brentview Baptist Church.
We love it here!
So, that's the Cliff Notes (or Cole's Notes here in Canada) version of our story.
And thus, I've been quiet online in comparison to other seasons.
Jesus-Centred?
On that note, I wanted to start a conversation that has been so liberating for me. I'm going to give you a few brief reflections on what it means to be "Jesus-Centred."
As Christians, it would be difficult to say that we are against putting Jesus in the centre of our lives and churches, but what we mean by that differs.
You can say that you are Jesus-centred, but in reality be centred on your particular ideas about theology and/or the Bible.
You can say that you are Jesus-centred, but spend more time policing the boundaries of who's "in and out," than actually centring on the person of Jesus.
You can say that you are Jesus-centred, but actually be fuzzy on the definition of what that even means, or the ramifications for one's life.
So, we can truly put Jesus at the centre, which means that all other qualifiers of who's "in and out" are tested by one's tragectory towards and relationship to the shared centre. Or, we can define the group (church) with boundaries that are designed to rigidly include a few and exclude many more. Or, we can define the group (church) with little to no shared expectations or centre, so that everyone is "in" with little basis for why you gather in the first place.
Those are some quick reflections on the idea of being committed to a Jesus-centred approch to church and life. But I have to say: this is a nuanced and important conversation.
To this end, I highly recommend a brand new book by Mark D. Baker, Centered-Set Church: Discipleship and Community without Judgmentalism.
Mark does a fabulous job helping us understand what it takes to truly be a God-centred people. It's theologically rich and full of real-world examples of people seeking to live this out. He walks through the 3 main postures towards church that many of us have expereined in church life:
Bounded Churches: "...draw a line that distinguishes insiders from outsiders ... The line generally consists of a list of correct beliefs and certain visible behaviors."
Fuzzy Churches: "Some churches recognize the problematic fruit of line drawing ... [so] they erase the line ... [which] solve one set of problems [rigid religiosity] while creating others [relativism with a sense of little to no identity or call to sacrificial transformation]." [brackets are my inserts for context - Kurt]
Centred Churches: "Unlike fuzzy churches, centered churches can distinguish those who belong to the group from those who do not ... God is the center focus. Therefore, the critical question is, To whom do we offer our worship and allegiance? In Galatians, we might imagine Paul asking centered questions such as "Are you living according to the new creation reality created by God's action through Jesus Christ? Are you trusting God for your security or placing your security in certain rituals and beliefs? In which direction are you heading?" [in other words, Are you heading toward the centre or away from it?]
Being Jesus-centred, being part of a Centered-Set Church, takes a deep committment to the messiness of community life. Nuance. Nuance. Nuance. Empathy. Empathy. Empathy. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. And so much more. But it is the vision of life that we see offered to us thorugh God's victory in Jesus's life, death, resurrection, ascention, and sending of the Spirit.
My opinion: Every church leader and every lay person who wants to grow with Jesus and others would do well to read this book. There are resources being released to help facilitate church dialogue and more.
If we can re-capture the beautiful New Testament vision of a church centred on Jesus, then it changes how we do life together and how we partner with God in the reconciliation of all things.