by Rebekah Simon-Peter | Jan 17, 2018
In this series, Quantum Leaps of Faith for the New Year, I am introducing 5 norm-breaking leaps of faith that Jesus invites you to take. If you accept the invitation, it will move you from discipleship to apostleship; from being a mere follower of Jesus to an inspired leader like Jesus. No quantum leap of faith is quite like leap #2: Be Empowered Like Jesus. This leap of faith invites you to humbly accept Jesus’ power and to use it. The prospect is both daunting and thrilling, seemingly heretical and deeply biblical.
I find it interesting that while Christianity centralizes authority—for instance, only the properly ordained may consecrate bread and cup and only the highly vetted may lead—Jesus himself shared his own authority generously, even carelessly, with his unskilled followers. From Peter to Judas, and dozens of other unnamed followers, Jesus invests in each and every one—sharing his knowledge, power and authority with them. While the church insists on centralizing authority; Jesus insists on giving it away. Before Jesus even really knows these fellows well—at least from what we can tell in the Gospels—he calls 12 guys to be both disciples or followers; and apostles or agents of his. That means he’s going to teach them everything he knows about manifesting the Kingdom including healing people and casting out demons. Then he’s going to send them out, invested with his authority, to do these very things. Mark 3:13-19 spells it out:
“And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder);Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot,and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.”
That was then, you say, this is now. It’s no different today. Jesus’ power is there for you. He insists on freely giving it away; he has to. Otherwise, his vision of the Kingdom cannot continue to become reality. Just like a carpenter would never expect you to build a house without a hammer, nails, a drill, sheetrock and the like, Jesus doesn’t expect you to manifest the kingdom without his power.
Here’s the scoop, friend. Jesus is calling you, yes you, to be empowered like him. He wants to invest in you, authorize you, and send you out to manifest the kingdom—to heal the sick, to cast out demons, and to generally live an incredibly abundant and empowered life. The good news is that you don’t have to do it perfectly, or even under your own steam. With Jesus’ empowerment comes equipping. Here are three spiritual tools you’ll need to be a miracle-making wonder of grace and empowerment: being a YES in life, accepting authority, and following divine promptings.
Let’s take a closer look at each tool.
- Be a YES. Jesus won’t force you to accept abundance, or power, or the next assignment. You always have the right of refusal. Jesus won’t force his will or his blessings on anyone. But make no mistake—you can go through your whole life and ministry refusing the power and agency of Jesus, while pretending you are saying yes. “Sure, Jesus,” you say, “I want to follow you. But, please don’t ask me to do or say or receive or preach that. ” (Fill in the blank.) Saying “no” leads to maddening frustration, self-victimization, and burn out. Saying yes leads to thrilling unknowns, and a life of blessing and abundance. You get to choose.
- Accept authority. Like most folks, you are probably highly skilled at de-authorizing your own thoughts, belief, and knowledge. How many times have I clamped down on myself, thinking: “I can’t do/say that; I’ll look like a fool!” Accepting authority means accepting the inner freedom and power and guidance to know what you know, believe what you believe, say what you are led to say, and do what you are prompted to do. If you have spent any time at all developing a relationship with God through prayer, meditation, scripture reading, journaling, stepwork or practicing spiritual disciplines, then accepting authority is doing what comes next. Accepting authority doesn’t necessarily imply getting ordained or holding a certain position. It simply means learning to trust your inner wisdom and to discern divine promptings within.
- Follow the Promptings. Some years ago, I was studying the spiritual discipline of the laying on of hands and prayer. Ethelmae came through the line after worship one Sunday and told me about an aching tooth. I felt the Spirit prompt me: Put your hands on her and pray! “What?” I protested silently, “Right here in the greeting line? There are a bunch of people behind her. I’ll look like a fool!” “It’s okay,” the sure and steady voice prompted me. “Do it.” My elbows locked in at my side, I half-heartedly raised my hands up. Yes, it was as awkward as it sounds. I finally gave up pretending I wasn’t laying hands on her, released my elbows from my sides, and let my hand float up to her jaw, while asking, “Is it okay if I touch you here and pray for you?” “Yes,” she said, expecting no less from her pastor. She closed her eyes as I prayed. “Gracious God, please heal Ethelmae, and bring wholeness to her body. Amen.” She thanked me and moved on. Later she told me that she felt a pop when I prayed, and the pain went away; she was healed.
Your place in the kingdom may be hands on healing, or it may be casting out demons of sexism or racism. Whatever your divine calling, the basic tools are the same. As you use these 3 tools, you will experience a shift in consciousness. You will come to know yourself as an apostle—an empowered agent living out your divine calling. You will surrender the idea that you’re not good enough, perfect enough, or whatever enough for this Power to work through you. Instead, you will become willing to say yes to the promptings. You will release the belief that only Jesus has the ability to make miracles happen, and embrace the power he longs for you to exercise. You will stop sitting on the sidelines of life, wishing things were different. Or you’ll stop trying run life by yourself. Instead, you will know a new sense of belonging and purpose. You will be a conduit of blessing, an apostle of hope.
Being Empowered Like Jesus is good preparation for the 3rd quantum of leap of faith: Be Accountable Like Jesus. Watch for it next week.
by Rebekah Simon-Peter | Jan 10, 2018
Last week, I introduced 5 quantum leaps of faith that Jesus invites each one of us to take. Each of these leaps of faith is grounded in the Bible and exemplified by Jesus himself. This week, let’s look at Quantum Leap #1: Be Fruitful and Multiply Like Jesus.
In Genesis, God commands the first humans to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. In this Quantum Leap #1, however, I’m not talking about making babies. I’m talking about replicating Kingdom leadership. There is more to following Jesus than emulating the spiritual principles he taught. We are also called to multiply ourselves as leaders by passing on our Kingdom vision and values to the people we lead.
I call this replication a quantum leap because it is so outside the norm of what we consider possible, do-able, or even desirable. I work with a variety of church leaders around the country. In congregations large and small, leaders fall into the trap of thinking that leadership means, “I have to do it all.” They think they have to write and preach all the sermons, teach all the classes, fix all the fights, do all the ministry, counsel all the sick, bury all the dead, visit all the ailing, and lead the charge on every outreach initiative of the church. This is hard to say, but somebody has to: Doing it all is not Christ-like, and it’s not leadership; it’s fear-based, over-functioning. We fear that people won’t like us or respect us if we don’t do it all. We fear that no one will pick up the slack if we delegate, or that they’ll screw things up. We fear that we’ll let God down if we aren’t superhuman. These fears lead to over-functioning.
Jesus himself, in case you hadn’t noticed, didn’t do everything. Yes, he brought Lazarus and a 12-year-old girl back from the dead, healed a wide variety of people, and died on a cross. However, when it came to the day-to-day ministry of executing the vision of the Kingdom, he delegated. He taught others how to do what he did and handed ministry off to them. Even those activities we most associate with Jesus—healing the sick, casting out demons, and proclaiming the Kingdom—were carried out by others.
As leaders, we aim to grow our churches, to make disciples. That’s good as far as it goes. But if we’re not going on to make apostles out of these disciples, we stop short of fully embodying Christ-likeness. Jesus didn’t just make followers; he made leaders. He empowered his disciples to be miracle-working healers, priests and prophets in their own right by commissioning them as apostles. We know of 12 officially commissioned apostles. But Jesus didn’t stop with them. He deputized at least 72 others to act on his behalf and enact the vision of the Kingdom. “After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.” He told them to heal the sick and to proclaim the Kingdom. Clearly, Jesus didn’t do everything himself.
When you think about it, if Jesus had insisted on doing everything, the vision of the Kingdom would have been crucified with him. Instead, 2.1 billion people now check the box “Christian.” Likewise, if we insist on doing everything, the vision will move, retire or die with us, even as the church continues to decline. In the meantime, the stress will all but kill us. Doing it all ourselves translates into not enough down time, not enough family time, not enough rest time; and definitely not enough vacation time. It also means we stunt the growth of the Kingdom by not sharing power and authority with those who wish to grow.
How do you do that, you ask, when no one seems to want to do anything? Here are three strategies for being fruitful and multiplying like Jesus:
- Develop a community-based vision that is worth investing in. Let it be big enough, bold enough and impactful enough that your brightest, most committed people would want to be involved. Rev. Ralph had the idea of ending hunger in his county by coordinating the hunger relief efforts already at work to make sure no child group was left out. He preached about it, prayed about it, and gathered people. The vision garnered tremendous interest.
- Invest intentional time and energy in your most promising leaders by sharing the vision with them. When Rev. Ralph began to gain traction, he gathered a vision team around him. This inside circle bought in to the vision with excitement; they began to generate ideas and interest among other church folks, growing the number of people involved.
- Demonstrate leadership and invite shadows. Invite your top people to join you in leadership meetings and activities, so they get the inside scoop. Rev. Ralph let them watch him at work and they learned to imitate his actions. He taught them the biblical and theological underpinnings of his work; mentored them in how to preach, pray and act on behalf of the vision. Then, he set them loose to expand the scope of his work.
Jesus didn’t stop with making disciples. He was fruitful and multiplied; he went on to empower apostles to carry his message, speak his words and enact his deeds. They took the quantum leap with Jesus. We can too. Let this be the year you stop doing everything on your own.
Creating a Culture of Renewal is designed to empower you to both Dream like Jesus™ and execute the vision like Jesus so all the work doesn’t fall back on your shoulders. Please contact us about our Early Bird Rates and see if it’s right for you.
by Rebekah Simon-Peter | Jan 2, 2018
A new year brings fresh opportunities for spiritual growth. I want to start this year by offering you 5 quantum leaps of faith for 2018. Each one
of these inspiring leaps will challenge your notion of what’s doable. If you take them, they’ll shift your perspective and re-define what’s possible. So, if you’re ready to move up from being a disciple to an apostle, this series is for you. If you’re ready to catapult from followership to Jesus-style leadership, then READ ON.
In this blog, I introduce the 5 quantum leaps of faith that Jesus invites each one of us to take. They’re grounded in the Bible and exemplified by Jesus himself. Over the next 5 weeks, we’ll take a closer look at them in turn. We’ll see how they can re-shape your ministry and the fruit you bear. For now, let’s take a look at them, and then pray.
Leap 1: Be Fruitful and Multiply Like Jesus. There’s more to following Jesus than emulating the spiritual principles he taught. We are also called to multiply ourselves as leaders by passing on our Kingdom vision and values to the people we lead.
Leap 2: Be Empowered Like Jesus. We are not to be hearers of good news only, but doers as well. Jesus authorized his followers again and again to do the very things he did. Discover how to receive his authorization and put it into effect.
Leap 3: Be Accountable Like Jesus. Jesus was accountable to the one he called Father for fulfilling his call. He was rewarded mightily. We too are called to live fully into the gifts we have received and to bear much fruit! Practice owning your own giftedness and being accountable for living into your potential.
Leap 4: Believe Like Jesus. How did Jesus’ followers do all that he did? The answer may surprise you. They had to have the faith he did. Explore what Jesus believed and how we can stretch our faith to believe those things as well.
Leap 5: Love Like Jesus. Jesus’ love transformed the world. Where did it come from and how did he do it? Discover the source of Jesus’ love and how to share it with others.
Dear God, I believe I’m ready to move up in your teaching. I sense myself getting prepared to make some big leaps. Open my eyes and my heart. Most especially, dear God, pry open my mind and loosen my limited perceptions. Ready me for the blessings of quantum spirituality in 2018. Amen!
As you know, God hears and answers our prayers. I would love to hear how your prayers are getting answered. Email me @
Re*****@***************er.com with news of your answered prayers, or even your questions.
Happy New Year! Here’s to a year of quantum leaps for us all.
by Rebekah Simon-Peter | Dec 18, 2017
If you are a last-minute leader, you’re not alone. You’re not the only one putting finishing touches on a worship service, sermon, play, piece of music, bulletin or outreach effort. In fact, you can be forgiven for thinking your timing is right in line with the theme of the season. With no room at the inn, Mary and Joseph are ill-prepared for Mary to comfortably give birth to Jesus. Much of Jesus’ early life, too, is spent on the fly avoiding Herod.
As Biblical as being last-minute may be, there’s a cost for today’s church leader. We are in danger of missing the very spiritual qualities we are preparing to share with others.
Last-minute activity, done under pressure, activates the release of adrenaline. Once adrenaline is released, it gives us a heart-pounding rush, energizing the system. There’s a feel-good component to that. At the same time, it shuts down the part of the brain that is tuned in to mood. And it messes with the heart’s rhythms, creating discordance instead of coherence. The ragged heart beat that results disconnects us from the people we love, unable to relax or connect in meaningful ways.
I remember one Christmas Eve in particular, where I had been scurrying around like the proverbial chicken with my head cut off. I had successfully managed one urgent matter, calmed down two anxious people, and counseled three lonely people. I felt very useful, but strangely empty. When all was said and done, I had many things I could check off the to-do list, but I had no sense of peace in my soul.
Here’s the thing: there will always be last-minute things we cannot control. There’s something about Christmas that seems to bring the unexpected to the forefront. At the same time, there are many things we can control. For instance, there are no surprises about when Christmas comes. Christmas Eve comes like clockwork on December 24. Christmas Day falls reliably on December 25. Advent is always the four weeks leading up to Christmas. We can plan for these holidays, folks.
Here are some last-minute recommendations for the last-minute leader.
First, congratulations on managing all the things that need your attention at this time of year; good job! Give yourself some love; this is not an easy calling.
Second, consider all the people you will be serving this Christmas. It may well be the highlight of your year—a full sanctuary, new people coming in, beautiful music, people who know the stories and the words. Pray for these folks in joyful anticipation. Bless them. Open your heart to them.
Third, spend some time between Christmas and New Year relaxing. Get away for at least a little bit. Give attention to your own spirit, your own family, and your own well-being. Play and rest. During this time, I like to reflect on the wins and losses of the previous year, to count my blessings, and write out my celebrations. Once Christmas is over, spend time on this most important of activities. It will help you set the stage for a powerful 2018.
Fourth, don’t wait til Fall 2018 to look up the dates of Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas and New Year. Map them out now. Think through the timing of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Watch Night services, and surrounding Sundays. Make note of the lectionary readings. Begin to collect stories and let your imagination connect with the scriptures. Put your notes where you can easily find them next year. And then, breathe deep. After all, Lent is coming.
by Rebekah Simon-Peter | Dec 14, 2017
Christmas wasn’t always part of the Christian experience. There’s no record that Jesus or his disciples or the early church celebrated 
Christmas at all. In fact, the first Christmas or Christ Mass wasn’t celebrated until the 4th century. It’s likely Jesus wasn’t even born in the winter. Rather, it’s thought that December 25 was chosen as a day to celebrate his birth because it coincided with a pre-existing pagan festival. That would make it easy for non-Christians to add a new layer of meaning to their old celebrations. That happens in the history of religion.
The interesting thing though is that December 25 wasn’t just the date of a pagan festival. It also coincides, in a way, with a festival that Jesus did actually celebrate.
Like Jews of his time, Jesus celebrated the Feast of Dedication which occurs on the 25th of Kislev, a month in the Jewish calendar that most closely approximates December. “At that time,” the Gospel according to John relates, “the Feast of Dedication took place in Jerusalem; it was winter. Jesus was walking in the Temple in the portico of Solomon. Tell us,” the Jews said, “if you are the Messiah.” Their comments were fitting, for the Feast of Dedication marked the last time a deliverer had arisen to save them from oppression. It was past time for another; the Roman experience was a cruel one indeed.
The Feast of Dedication commemorates the re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem after its utter desecration at the brutal hands of Antiochus Epiphanes about 170 years BC. Today, that feast is known by its Hebrew name, Chanukah. Although Chanukah only gets a line or two in the New Testament, it actually plays a huge role in the birth of Jesus.
To explain, we have to go back in history over three hundred years before the birth of Christ. Alexander the Great ruled the ancient world around the Eastern Mediterranean. After conquering the Persian Empire, Greek culture, or Hellenism, spread like wildfire. The Jews living in Israel quickly found themselves surrounded by it and then almost swallowed up by it. Hellenism was to the ancient world what Western culture is to the modern world. Just as you can find a McDonald’s in just about every corner of the world, not to mention American pop music, blue jeans, TV re-runs, Western style Christianity, and the English language, so in that day, you could find Greek culture, religion, and language permeating every other culture of the world. Needless to say, it wasn’t all good, especially for those in the minority, like the Jews. It put their whole distinctive way of life at risk.
After Alexander died, his empire eventually fell into the hands of one Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Epiphanes means “face of God,” but a more apt description was the moniker the Jews gave him: “Epimanes” or “crazy man.” He was the Hitler of the intertestamental period. Like Hitler, he was obsessed with wiping out the Jewish people. He began with the slaughter of the citizens of Jerusalem and the desecration of the Temple. Alfred Edersheim explains what happened in his book, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah:
“All sacrifices, the service of the Temple, and the observance of the Sabbath and of feast days were prohibited; the Temple at Jerusalem was dedicated to Jupiter Olympus (a Greek god); the Torah was searched for and destroyed; the Jews forced to take part in heathen rites; in short, every insult was heaped on the religion of the Jews, and its every trace was to be swept away.”
Bottom line: Antiochus was bent on genocide. The final straw was the slaughter of a pig on the sacrificial altar in the Temple. Definitely not kosher. This occurred on the 25th of Kislev, the month that generally corresponds to our December.
A Jewish deliverer rose up whose name was Mattathias. Even though they were outnumbered and overpowered, under his leadership the Jewish people began a campaign of guerilla warfare against Antiochus and his Syrian armies to reclaim the Temple. Mattathias died fighting, but his five sons carried on, including one whose name you might know: Judah Maccabee. He led the fighting till the Temple could be purified and its services restored.
Exactly three years after its desecration, the Temple was rededicated. This also took place on the 25th of Kislev, about 165 years before the nativity of Christ. If Antiochus had carried out his plan, there would have been no Mary, no Joseph, and no Jesus. There would have been no Messiah of Israel, no Savior of the World. Bottom line: without Chanukah, there would be no Christmas. Jesus owed his life to Chanukah. In a sense, we owe our faith to it.
In the midst of this Advent Season, let us remember the minor Jewish holiday that celebrates freedom of religion and which makes possible the major Christian one. Let’s do like Jesus did and re-dedicate ourselves to freedom of religious expression, and to the freedom to dedicate ourselves to God.
Adapted from “Christmas through Jewish Eyes”, by Rebekah Simon-Peter.
by Rebekah Simon-Peter | Nov 28, 2017
The bad boy culture is alive and well. We see it in real life: prominent men who sexually harass women and get away with it; home grown terrorists who blow up buildings; shooters and mass murderers who kill with impunity. We see it on the silver screen: anti-heroes abound, armed with superpowers, deadly weapons and ill intent. Sometimes the heroes that take them down are almost indistinguishable from the anti-heroes.
I used to think: “What is wrong with those men?” Thinking of my grounded, compassionate, spiritual husband, I would breathe a sigh of relief: “Boy, am I glad I got a good one.” Implied in my thought process was that, like an invisible cancer, something was mysteriously wrong with those particular individuals.
Turns out it’s not that simple. We may all play a role in creating the bad boy culture. And, like any culture we’ve had a part in making, we can have a hand in re-making it, too. That’s especially true for the church.
What’s at the root of the bad boy culture? Niobe Way, a developmental psychologist at New York University, believes that the problem is the way boys are raised. She writes about it in her book, Deep Secrets: Boys’ Friendships and the Crisis of Connection.
“We essentially raise boys in a culture that asks them to disconnect from their core humanity,” Way said in a recent radio interview, “which is their desire for relationships and all sorts of things the boys articulate that they want.” She goes on to say that the larger culture reinforces that disconnect by looking askance at boys that are too emotional and relational. We give them the message that they are not real men.
Our societal expectations then lead to a culture “that accepts lonely and aggressive boys, and ultimately puts them in positions of power.” These lonely and aggressive boys not only commit sexual assault, but all kinds of violence. Most telling was this insight of hers: “We look at mass violence and we’re all writing articles about mass violence. Then we have a rapist and we’re all writing articles about rape. The we have an article about police violence and we’re focused on police violence, without understanding there’s a common root across these problems. If you raise boys to go against their nature, some of them will grow up and act crazy.”
So, what are we to do about these boys who grow up and act crazy? In the church, there is much we can do. We are an intergenerational intersection of spirituality and morality, belief and meaning. We regularly interpret both ancient wisdom and contemporary culture in order to derive enduring meaning. Ours is a perfect location to address and re-make the kind of culture we raise boys, and girls, in.
Here are some things we in the church can do.
- Turn up the volume. Right now, we are in the phase of naming and seeing the bad boy culture. So, turn up the volume. If girls and women, (as well as boys and men) have been violated, encourage them to give voice to their experiences. It takes courage, strength, and self-respect to speak truth to power in the bad boy culture. Especially if the males in question are in positions of personal or professional power.
- Involve men proactively. Women are often victims of the bad boy culture. But men have a large say in it. So, involve men proactively. Challenge men to call each other out. It’s one thing for women to say what happened to them. It’s another thing altogether for men to say no to male behavior that threatens the common good. Men, draw attention to it before it escalates.
- Befriend lonely and aggressive boys. Men especially, take these guys under your wing, reach out to them, and help them find a place of meaning in the larger society. In my community, there is a popular program run by a local church called Pop in the Shop where older men mentor at risk youth in the art of car repair.
- Re-interpret God gone rogue. Look afresh at passages from the Bible that seem to reinforce or uphold a bad boy culture. Bring a new interpretive lens to texts like these, especially when they relate to God going rogue: God deciding to drown all of creation in a flood, or wiping out the Tower of Babel, or condoning killing off other tribes, or proclaiming exile on his people. Be sure to distinguish the historical and religious context of the story, instead of preaching as if ancient societal norms and ours were exactly the same. The same goes for dealing with apocalyptic passages in the New Testament. Remember your hermeneutics classes, as well as the ins and outs of historical, literary and textual criticism. Not sure how? Consult modern and post-modern commentaries for help with this.
There are no easy answers here. But Niobe Way’s insights can point us in a direction worth exploring.
The conversation about who and what women can be has changed dramatically over the years. For the better. We have so many options about how we work, play, love, marry, live and lead. We can be stay at home moms, or president of the United States. We can sit on the Supreme Court bench or preach from the pulpit. We can marry or be single, we can have kids or not, we can work or not. We can even choose to be sex objects if we like.
The time has come to expand the conversation for boys and men. It’s time to open up new options for friendship and relatedness, for caring and connection, for meaning and masculinity. And we can do it without shaming or looking askance at boys who choose non-traditional ways of expressing their masculinity.
After all, Jesus had 12 close male friends. He didn’t go it alone. Our boys shouldn’t have to either.
