On this day in 1517, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Saxony (now Saschen-Anhalt, Germany).  In the past 490 years, Luther’s actions have been a lightning rod for continuing discussions about the transformation of the Church of Jesus Christ. 

Reformation Day is also the Eve of All Saints, the day upon which we celebrate the faithfulness of all who have died in Christ - as well, of course, of God’s faithfulness in leading them through trials and temptations, danger, famine and sword. 

These two coincident celebrations, I believe, juxtapose two issues that the Church must examine these days.  The church is obligated to a continuous pattern of transformation into the likeness of Christ - an aspect of which is perpetually adapting to be and become the interface between the Gospel and the Culture.  Echoing the words of the Reformers, we are to be Semper Reformanda - always reforming, always transforming.  At the same time, we must, amidst the necessary deconstruction and restructuring, mark, remember and celebrate all of those places in which God has been at work in the life of the Church - even those times where good has come about in spite of the Church.

The Church of Jesus Christ must awaken its passion for Transformation, or it will die.  As a part of that Transformation process, we must note those Saints - those bright lights who shine out in an otherwise mediocre picture.  We must never forget them - for they are the ones who have, in faithfulness, handed the Faith down to us.  Without them, we would have nothing.  These Saints were passionate about becoming like Christ: as we must be.  The celebration of All Saints and Reformation Day must be held together - as without either we die. 

Let us reawaken our passion for Transformation - Semper Reformanda - as we follow in the example of Christ demonstrated to us by the Saints who have gone before.

Grace and Peace

One of the most natural ways of involving people in something new is what we now call “viral marketing.”  It starts when someone sees/hears/reads/experiences something they find interesting, and they pass it along to their friends and acquaintences. 

This is, essentially, the way evangelism is supposed to work.  But we make it too heavy-handed.  Instead of passing something interesting along - something of mutual interest, or something of mutual value - we often try to pass along something we don’t quite understand or find valuable but can’t explain or something we find obligatory to righteousness. 

In our Web 2.0 world, we must reappropriate the viral marketing models for telling the Good News of Jesus Christ.  Viral mandates authenticity.  It mandates passing along something of interest or value - even if that interest or value is passing. 

How might we do this?

Hi folks:

Ok, so it’s been a while since I’ve done blogging here at M Squared T.  There’s all sorts of reasons why I stopped - abruptly - among which was a total lack of time.  Another good reason was that my brain was so fried after my normal daily stuff I wasn’t able to produce the kind of content worth reading here.  So I’ve spared you all a lot of drivel.  Thank me later. 

But for now I think I’m going to get back into this blogging thing again: probably more stuff on professional life as a church pastor leading a traditional congregation through a transformation process to becoming missional.  Seems like that’s worth writing about.  But this isn’t going to be a peculiarly professional blog - it’s going to be me, whatever that looks like. 

Grace and Peace -

+Matt