Challenges and Developments

Yesterday was great. around noon i ran into wei-erh (NAV student pres) as i was typing up a proposal, and arranged a meeting with him at 3pm, then ran into Scott Gaskill who's on staff with the Navs and we talked about the project for a while. he brought up some really good concerns about Shannon's (the staff head at UNI) accountability to God and those who volunteer time and money to provide discipleship, but we were able to make the case that through networking these campus ministries and providing a think tank and an avenue for better cooperation, coordination, and prayer we could be more efficient in targeting those we should be discipling (and we could help the other groups be more efficient in bible study, outreach, or service, whatever their target area is).

he said that he liked the idea, although he figured that Shannon would probably need to participate directly and this would be another meeting for an already stretched leadership. because of these concerns i think we'll try to avoid the terminology of "representatives" and go more for "messengers" who are able to brainstorm in the spirit of their organizations but who don't really have authority with them (the member organizations themselves would still be making the decisions). in any case, it's up to each organization to decide who will go to the meetings, as long as there is one from each.

then at 4pm i met with shannon, and tim the staff leader for intervarsity just happened to walk by, so i ran it by him also. shannon expressed a lot of the same concerns as scott, but was a lot more positive about it. tim also seemed pretty enthusiastic about this idea too. shannon recommended looking up a guy who travels around and specializes in this exact thing, which i think i'll do, and he also suggested looking at the BASIC framework and seeing what i can learn from in that. in any case, even if this thing falls through, at least shannon and tim got to meet each other for the first time.

i also learned today that there usually is a monthly or so meeting of area pasters and heads of ministry, but the role of that meeting isn't defined, there really isn't prayer involved, and those involved come from a very wide range of beliefs (even Universalists) so using that group structure for something like this would be impossible.

Fleshing out the idea

The project took a very concrete step forward today. Last night i talked with wei-erh on the phone (he's the president of the UNI Nav's) and he gave his blessing to continue bringing a project of campus Christian unity forward and to flesh out and write down some of the ideas we had talked about.

he also gave a lot of good concerns as far as theology, leadership, and jurisdiction go and i've been writing down what i feel is the best way to organize a committee to oversee inter-ministry events and projects.

of course, it can't be my best way, it needs to be God's way and so we've been praying about this the whole way through. i just hope the direction we're taking is the one God wants us to take. even if we crash and burn, that'll just show it wasn't God's will yet and i'll have tried, and probably be humbler if not anything else.

as of right now, this project has defined limits, rules of process, and the definition and role of member organizations. i'm still working on what theology should define which organizations participate. and i think so far a general agreement on the Nicene Creed of 381 is a good beginning point. it's hard to separate essential from non-essential doctrine, and even harder to convince whole organizations of this.

i still need to meet with Shannon, the UNI Navs staff leader, and i want to meet with Scott, who's the UNI staff member on the committee that runs BASIC, an already existing inter-organization weekly worship ministry (and the largest gathering of Christians weekly on campus). we might even be able to run this whole thing through the BASIC framework and connections, but just in case God doesn't want to be limited by that, i think we need to move in that direction slowly (if at all).

later, once the rough draft is approved by wei-erh, i'll post it up so you can see what we've decided on structurally.

Update on Campus Ministries

Today i was able to put together a list of all the campus ministries, their contact info, and size (in membership). If we have time, tyler and i will visit each one to establish a little contact and let them know what we're about. after that, we hope to organize a committee with one or two representatives from each organization that will work together to plan events, coordinate ministries and outreach, service projects, and coordinate funds (that go to the intergroup events). that might not get off the ground until the fall, but we're going to pitch the idea to each organization as we go along.

To see the updated list as to which ministries we've visited, go here, it should be at the bottom of the page.

anyway, here's the list of all the ministries at UNI (that we know of so far):

Campus Crusade for Christ (60 members)
Catholic Student Association (350 members)
College Hill Lutheran Student Fellowship (30 members)
Intervarsity Christian Fellowship (30 members)
IMPACT
Lampost Student Organization
Lutheran Student Center (50 members)
Nazareth Lutheran Campus Ministry
Presbyterian Campus Connections
Revolution Ministries
The Navigators (200 members)
The River
UNI Campus Episcopalians (15 members)
Wesley Foundation

Total # Organizations: 15
Total members: 735 (approx.)

Oh for the love of Pete

i just spent like an hour trying to figure out where Campus Crusade for Christ meets, and i just found out the UNI Catholic Student Association just had a meeting from 6:30 - 8:00. and i even skipped class trying to figure all this out.

i think i'm gonna make a list of campus ministries & contact info and whatever meets on tuesday nights (when i have my class) i'll have to let Tyler visit alone.

i don't want to do that, since we should both be there AND as far as i know that makes at least 3 organizations i won't be able to visit (including Navs).

UPDATE: so this was pretty neet. i just got done writing this blog in the computer lab on campus, when i suddenly heard worship music. and i was all like "what the heck?" so i looked nextdoor and that's where they were meeting! if i hadn't gone to write my frustration down, i never would've found it (God's pretty good at getting me frustrated so i wind up places on time).

Part II:Community Churches

here's the list of denominations (& families of denominations) we accepted, based on the their adherence to the Nicene Creed, or its principle:

Baptists (all)
Communal (some) - Jesus People USA
Eastern Orthodox (all)
European Free-Church (some) - Mennonites
Holiness (all)
Indep. Fundementalists (some) - Plymouth Brethren
Interdenominational (all) - Vineyard
Lutheran (all)
Messianic (all)
Non-Denominational (all)
Oriental Orthodox (all)
Pentecostal (some) - Assemblies of God
Pietist - Methodist - Westlyan (all)
Reformed - Presbyterian (some) - Presbyterian (USA)
Western Liturgical (all)

Here are the groups we didn't accept, based on their rejection of the Nicene Creed or its necessity or principle:

Adventist (some) - Jehovah's Witness
Christian Science - Metaphysical (all)
Communal (some) - Twin Oaks
European Free - Church (some) - Quakers (indiv. congregations)
Latter-Day Saints (all)
Liberal (Unitarian Universalists, etc.) (all)
Pentecostal (some) - United Pentecostal Church, Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Bible Way Fellowship
Spiritualist, Psychic, & New Age (all)

Here are the groups that we are still trying to figure out, or need more research on:

Adventists (some) - 7th Day Adventists
Adventists (some) - British Israelism
Assyrian Orthodox (all)
Indep. Fundementalists (some) - Fundementalists
Restorationist - Churches of Christ, Disciples of Christ
Reformed - Presbyterian (some) - United Church of Christ
Pentecostal - Four Square, Open Bible

Here are the churches/communities we've celebrated the Eucharist with so far:

Nov. 13, 2005 - The Navigators - Tyler & Ivan's Discipleship Group, Cedar Falls IA
Dec. 4, 2005 - Interdenominational - Heartland Vineyard, Waterloo IA
Jan. 15, 2006 - Western Liturgical (Anglican Communion - ECUSA) - St. Luke's Episcople Church, Cedar Falls IA
Jan. 29, 2006 - Lutheran (ELCA) - St. John's American Lutheran Church, Cedar Falls IA
Feb. 5, 2006 - Methodist - Peitists - First United Methodist Church, Cedar Falls IA
Feb. 12, 2006 - Baptist (General Conference) - Prairie Lakes Church, Cedar Falls IA
Apr. 1, 2006 - 24/7 Prayer Movement - International House of Prayer (IHOP - KC)
Apr. 2, 2006 - Baptist (GARBC) - Cedar Heights Baptist Church, Cedar Falls IA
May 6, 2007 - Congregational (NACCC) - First Congregational, Marshalltown IA

Here are the churches/communities we've worshipped with so far:

Jan. 22, 2006 - Cedar Falls United Church of Christ (Christian Unity Service - cong. participated: St. Timothy United Methodist, First United Methodist, Cedar Falls Mennonite)
Feb. 5, 2006 - Prarie Lakes Church
2006 - St. Patrick Catholic Church (Roman Catholic) Cedar Falls, IA
2007 - St. Mary & St. Athanasius Coptic Orthodox Church (Oriental Orthodox) Northridge, CA
2009 - St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral (Eastern Orthodox) Los Angeles, CA

Here are the campus ministries we've visited so far:

Jan. 23, 2006 - UNI Intervarsity
Jan. 24, 2006 - UNI Campus for Christ
Feb. 21, 2006 - UNI Navigators

For more information on how we chose which communities to visit and on the background of this project, go here.

Part I: UNI Campus Ministries

last night we began visiting the different campus ministries. Since tyler and i are student leaders with the UNI Navigators, we want to get Shannon's (the staff leader on campus) approval before we go any further, even though we've gotten a lot of positive support. i'd also like to get my local pastor's say on it too.

anyway, last night we visited Intervarsity and talked a little with their President, Chris (who's also a good buddy of tyler and me, and he's tyler's roommate) and told him and the group what we were doing, why we were doing it, and what we hoped to achieve (short term and long term). they were way welcoming, and we worshipped together, then a staff guy for the area spoke about the outreach strategy on UNI's campus, then we had cake (which was way good). they're focus is almost exclusively on dorm outreach (which is good, 'cause somebody needs to be committed to that), while the Navigators are really devoted to Discipleship (their motto is "to know Christ and make Him known"). i was also struck by how much smaller they were than the Navs. that's not a bad thing at all, i just didn't know we were the largest group on campus.

i hear there are around 15 separate groups ministering on or around Campus, and if we have time we want to hit 'em all. after we meet with these groups, we'll let the Nav leadership know what we found, what we talked about, and what the groups are working on. then we hope to organize some interorganizational service projects, retreats, and outreach programs. right now on campus we already have BASIC, which is the weekly worship in Lang Hall which is by far the largest gathering of Christians on campus and is also put on by different organizations, and we also have The Main Event, which takes place every year in the fall for three days where there is large group worship (2 or 3,000 people), then there are 4 hour and a half long periods for workshops, small group bible studies, and a large group speaker (usually focusing on missions).

our ultimate goal is not necessarily to combine all the groups into one large super-organization, but to help each group recognize all the others as legitimate members of the Body of Christ, and to recognize that while one is focused on Social Justice, another on local service, another on worship, another on outreach and sharing the Gospel, and another on Discipleship, they are all arms and legs of Christ, doing His work as He guides us.

So tonight we're going to visit Campus Crusade for Christ, and tomorrow we hope to go to Revolution, which is a worship service/bible study held at a local coffee shop by the same name.

Progress

ok, so here's the deal. so far we've had Communion with three communities and attended one service dedicated to Unity in the Church. the three so far represent the Eposcopal (and Anglican) Communion, the Interdenominational Tradition (Vineyard denomination), and a small discipleship group meeting on UNI's campus (sort of the house church tradition).

the Unity service was representative of two Methodist congregations, a Mennonite congregation, and a United Church of Christ congregation (plus our little delegation of 2). the other person who's doing this project with me is named Tyler.

while we got plenty of encouragement for this from local pastors, i still want one to give us authority to represent their church in this, so that while we have the weight of two disciples carrying this out, i still want the backing of accepted authority within the Church.

in the next couple of posts, i'll give a complete list of accepted, rejected, or questionable denominations. for guidelines as to what churches are accepted in this project, see the last post. also, as far as open or closed communion is concerned, if the church practices open communion, then we'll gladly participate, but if they are closed, then we're not going to "steal" communion. we'll have to go through whatever authority is over that congregation and get permission that way. if we try to steal it, it kinda defeats the whole purpose of signifying existing unity. in any case, this means we'll probably come into contact with a lot of different church authorities in different denominations.

The Background for the Project

Beginning Steps Toward Unity

some of you might be asking, what the heck is all this about? well, a few months ago (about the time i got back from Turkey), somethin' really began to bother me. i had been to a few different churches, but seeing the churches in Turkey and some of the challenges they faced showed me the importance of unity in Christ and how these churches, while each had different focusii and tactics had to rely on each other and their fellowship to survive.

this got me thinking about the American church and how we have over 1,000 denominations in this country, many of whom compete for members amongst themselves (instead of going out to the unreached), or claim that their way of doing things is the only way. Others even go so far as to say that their church is the one, true Church (some Southern Baptist congregations, Mormons, Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and even the Assyrian Church), and that salvation can only be found within those churches.

so i began to think to myself, over and over again Paul talks about Christ as being the head of the Church, and we are the arms, legs, fingers, toes and all in all, we make up the Body. He directs and leads and pulls us together, while He also uses us to do His work. Paul also says that a foot has no right to say to a hand "i don't need you" and the same goes for the other way around.

even Jesus himself prays toward the end of John's Gospel, right before He goes to His death, that all his disciples would remain one as He and the Father are one. He also told his disciples to love one another, and by that sign others would know that they were Jesus' disciples. i began to think about the seriousness of this and what should be done about it. i'm just a small guy in the big scheme of things, and don't necessarily have a lot of authority in the Church. but i still felt that the command Christ gave was given to all of us, and shouldn't just be entrusted to the hands of a few. after all, real unity is among all the members, not just some.

The Calling

so then i began to wonder, "what should the first step be?" and i realized that when Christ gave his command of unity to his disciples, it was at His last supper. And when Paul repeatedly instructs the Corinthian church on unity in the Body, he also repeatedly brings up the practice of celebrating communion (or the Eucharist). so i thought this would be a good place to start.

after a lot of prayer and the advice of pastors and other followers of Christ, i decided that a good first step would be to share in Communion those who are truly in Christ's Body, as a sign of my personal commitment to unity. now, i don't want this to be confused as being seen as a tool toward unity, because really it isn't. Communion is a sign of existing unity, and so i had to look at my heart and see whether i really was in unity with my brothers and sisters.

ever since i went to Africa & Honduras and worked with the homeless in Colorado, God began to work a change in me. he showed me that what i was to give was not condescending pity or to see myself as doing any good work for God, but instead to see myself as one of them. to see myself as homeless and poor, and so i became a person who was struggling to get through the same muck in life as they were, and that we were pushing on together. so i asked God to help me apply this to the rest of the Church.

i realized that when we seperate ourselves from others, we dehumanize them in our own eyes. in the extreme, this can be seen whenever somebody kills another person. in order to kill, you have to make them your enemy, someone who has traded their humanity for whatever cause or action you don't believe in, and since they have traded that humanity, you feel justified to kill. the same can be said of the heart. when we hate, Jesus says that we kill the person in our own hearts and so are guilty of murder. to do that we dehumanize them. to divide ourselves from other Christians, we must first feel they've traded their salvation and even their humanity that binds them to us, and so we are justified in separating ourselves.

A Legacy of Separation

so the first step for me was to look at where the Church went wrong. i read the writings of ancient Church fathers (i'm still working on this. i'm trying to read the available writings of the Apostles who were the first bishops in the Pentarchy and then read the writings of their first three successors), i had visited some of the Holy sites of Christendom (in Turkey and Germany), and i read the creeds and histories of different denominations. soon i was able to group denominations into specific families and found that 15 major denominations existed in the US. then, i found that the proto-orthodox Church had remained mostly unified until sometime after the 2nd Ecumenical Council. Before this time, divisions found in the Church could be decided based on scripture written in the Old Testament, or by the Apostles (and Paul), or could be judged by those who were still living and knew the Apostles personally. A direct and consistent line of thought could therefore be traced in the first 200 years of the early Church.

But around 300 AD, after years of persecution and the continuing growth of Christianity, Christians for the first time found themselves in political favor. Rome, under Constantine, quickly adopted Christianity, and while other religions were tolerated for a time, Christianity spread even more rapidly, but with an emphasis on numbers of "converts" and not on raising up disciples. not only this, the system of "conversion" was not set up based on the principle of faith in Christ, but on the principle that a good Roman calls himself a Christian, and one who doesn't is a traitor to Rome (and in their minds, to Christ as they were both seen as the same thing). soon more and more divisions began to appear and we have better records of the Church as a whole trying to combat these "heresies" (whether they were or weren't, that is to be addressed in a different post). Ecumenical councils were formed, in which all the established Bishops were expected to attend and decide the overall doctrine of the Church. The first two were held as a unified body of about 150 bishops and struck down the heresy of Arianism, adopted the Nicene creed, and prohibited any further changes to the creed (325 AD). After looking into scripture in regards to this creed, and based on what the Apostolic Fathers wrote, i decided that this creed and the Council's decisions were valid and soundly based.

After this, though, the Church began to investigate more and more into sticky theological issues that aren't necessarily written in clear terms in Scripture or the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, and so the divisions began to increase while justified opposition could often be found on both sides. As Church became more entwined with Politics, power, land, and gold caught the eye of Church leaders more and more. Eventually, as tribes began to split the Roman Empire in two, the leaders of the Church were also seen as leaders of the State and so what was good for the State was seen as good for the Church. So East and West began to politically and spiritually separate. the East had already experienced break-ups in the establishment of the Coptic Pope in Egypt and the Oriental Orthodox Church and with the Assyrian Church after the 3rd ecumenical council.

in 1054 the Roman Catholic Pope decided to declare complete primacy (altering the original role of the pope as a tie breaker in ecumenical decisions) and broke the agreement reached in the 2nd ecumenical council by adding to the Nicene creed that the Spirit flowed from the Father and the Son (instead of just the father). While an unclear theological issue anyway, this was only amplified by the political and cultural estrangement and Pope Leo IX and Patriarch Michael I excommunicated each other. This was called the First Great Schism or the East - West Schism. After this, everything went downhill. This only encouraged future division, when after 75 years of the Pope being seated in Avignon, France, Pope Gregory XI moved the Papacy back to Rome in 1378 and soon died. This caused rebellious cardinals to set up a series of Antipopes back in Avignon, and there have even been times in Catholic history where three or four Popes reigned simultaneously (and this isn't including Coptic or Assyrian Popes that were operating in the East). This period was called the Second Great Schism or the Western Schism.

In the West, King Henry VIII declared himself head of the Church in England 500 years after the First Great Schism, and about this time Luther and Calvin each started reformations which led to further break-ups in the Church. When the British colonies declared independence from England, this encouraged splinter groups to move to America, which prized their individuality and taught it as almost essential to their doctrine. The Methodists broke from the Church of England (The Anglican Church) when they could no longer declare loyalty to the king and over differences with the Episcopal Church, and more groups broke from the individualistic Anabaptist movements (Baptists, Mennonites, Quakers), which had also separated from other Calvinist movements (Reformed-Presbyterian). Finally, the Lutherans founded a strong movement in the Midwest, and soon had a split of their own resulting in the Missouri-Synod and the ELCA.

Current Action Toward Unity

that brings us to today. we now have over 1,000 denominations, many of whom refuse to see themselves as arms or legs, instead saying they are the whole body. since the Church was greatly influenced by politics and questionable doctrine after the first 2 ecumenical councils, i decided that the Nicene Creed (of 381) and Scripture (as detailed by the long accepted 27 books of the New Testament, together with the Old Testament) agreed apon by the Orthodox Church was still a good measure for essential doctrine, and as a basis to begin an investigation of Unity.

after deciding this, i looked to each of the major families of denominations (there are about 15), and chose representatives of each. from these, i looked at their creeds, doctrine, and practice and if it didn't mesh with the Nicene Creed or scripture, i decided that i cannot consider myself in unity with them, but if they did, then i would consider them as part of the Church. now, as a warning, i can't use this same basis to judge the individual character of adherents or believers. God is the only one who decides that. while i can scrutinize over written doctrine, i can't do the same for hearts, and so i acknowledged that when it came to Communion, any who claimed to be disciples, and who weren't rebelliously (and in full self-knowledge) disobeying Jesus' commands or refusing to admit to shortcomings, would be considered as a brother or sister in Christ. whether they truly were or weren't can only be judged in their own hearts and by God. this is why, when it comes to individuals approaching Communion, God states through Paul that those who approach with impure motives or with an unclean heart only eat and drink judgement onto themselves (judgement which is to be dealt out by God and not the Church).

anyway, once i came up with a list of churches who hold to these basic principles (Nicene Creed & Scripture) i decided to share in the Eucharist in each, to show my spiritual bond to each as a member in the body of Christ, and in the hope of raising awareness of the importance of unity and our personal responsibility to that. To gain weight to this, and because Jesus says where one or two are gathered in His name there He also is, and because whenever He sent people out, He sent them at least by twos, i prayed about this with another brother in Christ who agreed to do this with me.

So this post will be a record of our actions in the hope that the Eucharist will be the embodiment of the solidarity and existing unity (because there is either One body of Christ, or no body; there can't be many) between the members, and that our dialogue with pastors and members of churches along the way will help to bring about stronger unity within the Church. Eventually, we have the hope of taking this further and visiting the important collective holy sites of Christendom (some controlled by both Eastern and Western churches), including the major cities of the Pentarchy, the burial places of the Apostles, the Lutheran reformation sites (already visited), the New and Old Testament sites in Israel, and the New Testament sites in Turkey (already visited).