Jason Clark's Blog, page 16

Equality As Jesus Revealed It

Excerpted from my book, Leaving and Finding Jesus

When I wrote the book, God Is (Not) In Control, I juxtaposed the broken paradigm of sovereign control with the sovereignty of cruciform love to highlight how the teaching of sovereignty through control has undermined trust and access to intimacy within the church today.

God is love; love is self-giving, others-focused; love is relational. When control is the foundation of a relationship, there is no equality. Without equality, trust cannot exist. Without trust, intimacy becomes impossible. A master-servant hierarchy is a three-foot concrete median theology that cuts us off from knowing oneness and experiencing union.

Equality is God’s idea, revealed perfectly in the incarnation through the Triune relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus revealed equality as fully God and fully human. Greater Love was a walking revelation of equality, and it looked like oneness with Father and Holy Spirit—and with us.

When I write about our equality with God, I write as a created being about my Creator. I am not suggesting equality in the context of measurements. I am not applying that word like a Rich Young Ruler on the road of lack. There are no microscopes powerful enough to make us equal in that paradigm.

Instead, I’m describing equality as Jesus revealed it. It’s not “equals” based on measurements; it has nothing to do with finite thinking or microscopes. I’m writing about an equality revealed by Greater Love laying down His life for His friends. (1)

Self-giving, other-centered love is the birthplace of true equality and is discovered in union.

Jesus included us in this equality when He prayed we would be one, just as He and His Father were one. “And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me…”( 2)

And Jesus revealed the nothing will be impossible power of this equality when He healed that oppressed boy with faith no larger than a mustard seed.

Like the Farmer, Jesus knew the power of seed. He knew measureless love always transforms the soil…

Jesus was a walking revelation of equality as our heavenly Father sees it—self-giving love for His friends, you, and me. And through the cross, Jesus invited us to participate in this equality. He invited us to take up our cross—greater love—and live one with Love, here, now.

Greater love is the truest definition of equality— and it saves us.

The world is hungry for this mountain moving—heaven to earth—equality; where the impossible becomes possible, where friends of God don’t just offer mathematical equations, systematic theology, principles, and disciplines, but also a measureless reconciling love that is powerful and effective and can provide measurable results.

Some might be uncomfortable with my suggestion that God wants equality with us, but when we discover and define equality in the context of Greater love, well, it’s not just possible. It’s the gospel good news, the whole story! There is no separation; we are one and ever awakening to our union!

Jesus prayed that we would be one, that we would know union, and that we would experience the same trust, intimacy, and equality He experienced and shared with our Father and Holy Spirit.

This is the equality of heaven come to earth. It’s about a Love that prefers one another, a love that involves free will, submitted to free will. It’s the equality of husbands and wives submitting one to another because wives and husbands love each other as Christ loved the church. (3) It’s the equality discovered when we lay down our lives.

“Take up your cross and follow me,” Jesus instructed. (4) It was an invitation for us to awaken to oneness with Him, our Father and Holy Spirit—and with each other, just as Jesus modeled.

As we follow Jesus’ example of Greater Love, we will discover true equality, first with God in the form of union and then with each other in the same way.

And all creation waits in eager expectation for this greater love equality to be revealed by sons and daughters, fathers and mothers! All creation longs for racial, cultural, and social equality to be lived out by those in mustard-seed friendships, those who know union and live as expressions of this equality. 5

The whole world is hungry for a church whose prayers are powerful and effective, a people that can speak to a mountain, “Move from here to there,” and nothing will be impossible for us. I’m convinced the world is reconciled through friends living as expressions of greater love equality.

1 John 15:13
2 John 17:21
3 Ephesians 5:22
4 Matthew 16:24
5 Romans 8:19

This article is excerpted from my book, Leaving and Finding Jesus
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Jason Clark is a bestselling storyteller who writes to reveal the transforming kindness of the love of God. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children, Madeleine, Ethan, and Eva. Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… No Omissions

by Jason Clark | March 2, 2023 | Articles, Books, Faith, God Is Not In Control, Hell, Intimacy, Leaving and Finding Jesus, The Fathers Love | 0 Comments

“Finished” means “ended or completed.” I looked it up. Case closed, settled, resolved. No one was overlooked by Christ at the cross—not even Judas. Paul told us, “…in Adam, all die, so in Christ, all will be made alive.”

“All” means, “everyone.” I looked it up.

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Published on April 11, 2023 10:00

CHERITH FEE NORDLING / A PERMANENTLY HUMAN GOSPEL

Cherith Fee Nordling A Permanently Human Gospel

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“The reason you can’t take your own human life seriously is because you’ve never taken my (Christ’s) life seriously.” The incarnation, Jesus as fully human, Jesus and His divinity, grace, cruciform love, leaving Gnosticism, resurrection fearlessness, freedom, and salvation as a human story; in this conversation, Cherith shares a beautiful gospel in which we are discovering how to enter into the life of Jesus!

Please rate, review, share, and subscribe!

For more on Cherith Fee Nordling
The Open Table: www.opentableconference.com
Regent Website: www.regent-college.edu/faculty

Podcast intro and outro music by Wilde Assembly

Derek Turner Follower of Jesus, in love with @sarahjturner, father to @caro.turn & @kaaatters, owner of Milo, pastor @rivercharlotte. Amazed by Grace
www.rivercharlotte.com

Follow Follow Follow Jason Clark is a writer, speaker, and lead communicator at A Family Story ministries. His mission is to encourage sons and daughters to grow sure in the love of an always-good heavenly Father. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children.

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YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… DON KEATHLEY / THE GOSPEL

by A Family Story | February 3, 2021 | Crisis of Identity, Faith, Interview, Intimacy, Leadership, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, The Fathers Love | 34 Comments

Don Keathley touches on the goodness of our Father, Jesus as perfect theology, grace, our union, our identity, how to approach scripture, and the lie of eternal conscious torment.

The post A Hard Teaching? appeared first on A Family Story.

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Published on April 11, 2023 09:38

The End Of Hierarchy In The Church

Excerpted from my book, Leaving and Finding Jesus

“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

Those are the NIV-translated words of Jesus found in John 15:15.

But the Brian Simmons Passion Translation of that verse is my favorite, and I think it’s infinitely more accurate—not based on my academic prowess but on what I know about love.

It reads, “I have never called you ‘servants’… But I call you my most intimate friends….”

There was no master-slave language before the fall, and there is no slave-master language in heaven. The master-slave paradigm is the fruit of the fall, the dualism of good and evil, the result of hierarchy, the cruel and punishing consequence of our Adamic devotion to separation—the transactional approach to a Father who looks away.

Master-slave language is prevalent in Scripture. The book is chock full of the problem of hierarchy and control. But when we read Scripture through the lens of cruciform love and resurrection life, the punishing master-slave paradigm simply highlights the problem Jesus solved.

Hierarchy was the narrative into which The Word incarnated. In this broken narrative, a Triune God engaged with humanity in the revelation of Family so we might awaken to friendship. Jesus walked the planet as such a powerful revelation of union and friendship that those most invested in a master-slave paradigm killed Him for it.

But thankfully, Jesus is what God has always been like, and He “never called us servants!” On a cross, He set us free from the cruel obligation and injustice of masters and slaves. “It is finished,” He said. And it was true before the very beginning and after the very end, because God is reconciling love—regardless of how we relate to Him.

And yet, today, much of the church still insists on relating to God and each other in the hierarchal paradigm of slaves and masters. We insist on making obedience the high-water mark of Christian maturity. We insist the way to eternal life is down that sin-counting road of lack. And we keep producing arrogant Prodigals and self-righteous Older Brothers—rebels, and slaves.

And there’s a word for that type of family culture—dysfunctional.

Healthy families are free of master-slave interactions, but good Lord, if the church isn’t full of this type of hierarchal dysfunction!

There is no transactional hierarchy between The Trinity. There is no separation. Yet, cruel master-slave theology is woven into the very fabric of our retributive thoughts about God. It’s a fallen narrative to which many within the church have built an altar.

Much of the church won’t leave the lie of separation and is obsessed with punishment. Because of this, the gospel message has often been twisted to propagate the master-slave paradigm Jesus set us free from. And then the church often elevates whoever slaves best to a pulpit so they can tell us what God is like.

And that’s gotta stop! Because slaving servants don’t know the plans, thoughts, motivations, or heart of the Master.

He only tells that stuff to friends!

This article is excerpted from my book, Leaving and Finding Jesus
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Jason Clark is a bestselling storyteller who writes to reveal the transforming kindness of the love of God. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children, Madeleine, Ethan, and Eva. Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… We Had Thought He Was the One

by Jason Clark | November 3, 2022 | Articles, Books, Faith, Intimacy, Leadership, Leaving and Finding Jesus, The Fathers Love | 0 Comments

It was also a confession; one every follower of Jesus has or will make at some point in our relationship with God; if we’re being honest. It’s a humble recognition that our certainty can be flawed, our ideology broken, our theology incomplete.

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Published on April 05, 2023 19:58

JONATHAN FOSTER / THEOLOGY OF CONSENT

Jonathan Foster Theology Of Consent

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“Consent is the depth of love…” Jonathan Foster shares about his book, Theology of Consent, where he blends René Girard’s scapegoating theory with open and relational theology. The guys talk about anthropology, mimetic theory, and the nature of love. This is a conversation for those deep in the forest of theopoetics, life, love, the church, and theology.

Please rate, review, share, and subscribe!

For more on Jonathan Foster
Website: www.jonathanfosteronline.com
Twitter: @jonathan_foster
Substack: jonathan_foster
Theology Of Consent: Amazon

Podcast intro and outro music by Wilde Assembly

Derek Turner Follower of Jesus, in love with @sarahjturner, father to @caro.turn & @kaaatters, owner of Milo, pastor @rivercharlotte. Amazed by Grace
www.rivercharlotte.com

Follow Follow Follow Jason Clark is a writer, speaker, and lead communicator at A Family Story ministries. His mission is to encourage sons and daughters to grow sure in the love of an always-good heavenly Father. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children.

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YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… 5Q – THE FIVEFOLD WITH BRANDON KELLY

by A Family Story | September 1, 2022 | Faith, Interview, Leadership, Life, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season three | 0 Comments

Derek and Jason dive into the fivefold (APEST) typology of ministry as articulated in Ephesians 4:1-1 with Brandon Kelly, the co-director at 5Qcollective. APEST stands for the Apostolic, Prophetic, Evangelistic, Shepherding, and Teaching intelligence that Jesus gifted to his body.

The guys discussed the fivefold in connection with the nature of God as non-hierarchal and inclusive, laced throughout creation and culture, reconstituted and perfectly exemplified in the life and ministry of Jesus, embedded into the very foundations of the Church, and subsequently expressed through the lives of the countless saints that make it up.

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Published on April 05, 2023 08:27

ALLEN ARNOLD / THE EDEN OPTION

Allen Arnold The Eden Option

iTunes Spotify Google YouTube “The world is accelerating in the wrong direction. It feels like all we’re doing is trying to fix what’s broken. And it isn’t working. We’re exhausted, overwhelmed, and losing heart. Where is God in all this? Well, he’s living a different story. A story he’s inviting us into.” That’s the back cover introduction to Allen’s new book, The Eden Option. In this conversation, the guys dive in and explore a homeward journey, not to the Eden of the past, but a new Eden discovered in Christ. Union, rest, community, creativity, miracles, and hope, in this podcast Allen shares his journey into trust and maturing faith.

Please rate, review, share, and subscribe!

For more on Allen Arnold
Website: www.withallen.com
Twitter: @TheStoryofWith
The Eden Option: Amazon

Podcast intro and outro music by Wilde Assembly

Derek Turner Follower of Jesus, in love with @sarahjturner, father to @caro.turn & @kaaatters, owner of Milo, pastor @rivercharlotte. Amazed by Grace
www.rivercharlotte.com

Follow Follow Follow Jason Clark is a writer, speaker, and lead communicator at A Family Story ministries. His mission is to encourage sons and daughters to grow sure in the love of an always-good heavenly Father. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children.

Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY BUY NOW!

YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… DAVID TENSEN / YOU ARE NOT ALONE

by A Family Story | May 12, 2021 | Faith, Interview, Intimacy, Leadership, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two | 5 Comments

Trauma, pain, empathy like Jesus, and healing for the oppressed, misunderstood, lost, or broken; in this podcast David Tensen shares how we are loved and not alone. Addressing how shame and condemnation are compounded by religion, the guys talked specifically about abortion and the LGBTQ community with an invitation to love like Jesus, through our union with God and reconciliation.

Read More FELICIA MURRELL / EMPATHY; THE TREASURE OF THE INCARNATION

by A Family Story | January 17, 2023 | Faith, Intimacy, Life, Relationship, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Four, Sin, The Fathers Love, Writing | 1 Comment

“The Spirit said to me, ‘I want you to hand to me everything that you believe to be true about God and let me hand back to you everything that is true.’”

Racism, deconstruction, shame, guilt, certainty, empathy, infinite mercy, grace, healing, and other-centered, self-giving love, in this amazing conversation, Felecia and Jason visit fear and prejudice while leaning into the AND of God’s always present, empathetic, reconciling love.

Read More KRISTIN DU MEZ / JESUS AND JOHN WAYNE

by A Family Story | May 26, 2021 | Faith, Interview, Leadership, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two | 1 Comment

Patriarchy, authoritarian rule, the nature of power and privilege in America and the Church, the deconstruction movement, Christians in politics; in this podcast, Professor and Historian Kristin Du Mez, examines the impact of perhaps the most influential subculture in this country, white evangelicalism. This conversation explores how evangelicals have stepped away from the Jesus of the Gospels, from sacrificial love. “But what was once done, can be undone.”

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Published on March 29, 2023 21:07

The Church and Her Hierarchy of Exclusion

The Church and Her Hierarchy of Exclusion The Infamous Elder's Meeting

Excerpted from my book, Leaving and Finding Jesus

One of the graces on my life is conflict resolution. I can help folks see from Greater Love’s perspective. Several years ago, I had a job that required me to use this ability almost daily. As a Family Pastor, I was often in meetings that had the potential to be heated or where difficult decisions would need to be made.

One afternoon, I received a text from our senior pastor asking me to set aside my evening and join him at our south campus to help my good friend and campus pastor, Mark Appleyard, navigate a sticky issue between a couple of his elders.

I remember calling Karen to give her a heads-up. “Hey, Babe, looks like I’ll be home late tonight. There is a meeting I’ve been asked to attend.”

“What’s it about?”

“Not sure; there’s a conflict with some of Mark’s elders.”

I have attended meetings where difficult topics were discussed—money issues, moral failing, church splits, firings, broken trust in relationships, abuses, and infidelities, and so on; but I have to admit, the issue the elders had with Mark caught me off guard.

Women in ministry!

Honestly, at first, I was almost amused by the absurdity of it. Apparently, during the Sunday service, one of the women on the worship team had prayed with authority and confidence over the microphone from the stage. In response, a couple of the elders had called a meeting.

Now, I sat dumbfounded at a table with Mark, the senior pastor, and three elders, two of whom were outraged. It wasn’t a joke. They were serious and deeply offended by the fact that Mark seemed entirely in support of women praying with confidence and authority through a microphone from any stage. Their indignant outrage was ugly; there was nothing amusing about it.

Suddenly, I became annoyed. I’d given up my evening for this religious bullshit? But I could see both the senior pastor and Mark were in earnest, so I took a deep breath, reminded myself why I’d been asked to be there—conflict resolution—and followed Mom’s childhood instruction. You know it, “If you can’t say anything nice….”

I held my tongue while Mark and the senior pastor steadily and generously challenged the two elders with Scripture highlighting women’s roles in ministry—from Miriam in Exodus and Deborah in Judges to the women who participated with Jesus in ministry. You know, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna. And Salome, the mother of the sons of Zebedee. And Mary, the mother of James and Joseph. (1)

Then, there was that time Jesus, God, the Creator of the Universe, was born of a woman. (2)

Then, there was another time when the resurrected Christ appeared first to a woman. (3)

I held my tongue while the two elders provided their Scriptures, to wit: “…women should be silent in the churches…for they are not permitted to speak, but should remain silent and subordinate.” (4) And, “I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man; she is to keep silent.” (5)

The two elders believed that because their thoughts were biblical, they were somehow true. Of course, they were not. Jesus was far from them. Greater Love was nowhere to be found. And their condescending, self-righteous exclusion of women from ministry was the telltale sign.

Biblically defended hierarchy is always a sign that those searching Scripture are doing so outside of cruciform love. When that happens, it’s not long before such an approach to Scripture leads to the self-righteous justification of broken and abusive systems.

I continued to hold my tongue as the conversation became more intense. Mark wasn’t backing down, and neither were the two elders.

I held my tongue as I looked around the table and realized who was not present. “Six men, including me, had gathered to determine the role of women in our church,” I thought. “Women were being excluded from this very conversation!”

I was beyond annoyed at this point, but I kept holding my tongue…

A Hierarchy Of Exclusion

I sat quietly as the two elders held stubbornly to their biblically based misogyny. They demanded surrender to their cruelly distorted biblical view around the subjugation of women. They wanted the woman who had taught from the stage, and all others, to operate according to their discriminate biblically sourced hierarchy of exclusion.

You know, if Jesus isn’t our hermeneutic, our method of interpretation, if Greater Love isn’t the lens through which we know God and ourselves, we can read the Bible and draw asinine authoritative conclusions, such as “women are less valuable than men.”

And let me be clear. That is so often the heart behind any issue of exclusion, including the exclusion of women from ministry. Exclusion is often hierarchal and dualistic. It positions people as us or them, in or out, for or against.

Exclusion is often the fruit of a retributive, or penal substitutionary atonement, view of the cross—as though the Father looked away, as though Jesus only died to save some, as though Greater Love didn’t reconcile all creation, as though what was lost in Adam wasn’t fully restored in Christ, as though at the cross there was a delineation between Jew or Gentile, black or white, lost or found, sinner or saint, gay or straight, republican or democrat, capitalist or socialist, Christian or Muslim…woman and ministry—as though there is still a veil that separates some from His all-inclusive, measurelessly reconciling love.

Let’s be clear. There is no us or them at the cross, no for or against at the cross, no in or out at the cross. God reconciled all creation at the cross. But to the extent we don’t know and embrace this Truth is to the extent we will participate in hierarchies of exclusion.

These two elders used the Bible to justify their elitist-driven exclusion—control, or subjugation, in its sexist form.

As the conversation grew increasingly tense, I continued to hold my tongue. Finally, Mark turned to me, “Jason, you’ve been quiet. Do you have any thoughts you could add?”

This is when the conflict resolution guy says something generous to create a safe environment to help everyone see the issue from Greater Love’s perspective. Hopefully, the convicting power of Holy Spirit leads the group to repent, come together, and find a resolution. And that’s precisely what I did.

“I’m sorry. I’m not wearing my bra tonight.” I responded.

A few things for clarity: First, had a woman been present, I can’t imagine I’d have given the same response. I wouldn’t have wanted to risk offense. But that was the problem. No women were at the table, just the religious older brother spirit—offense was the point.

Second, Mark and I are still good friends.

Finally, I don’t own a bra.

A brief uneasy pause ensued. Mark smiled, the senior pastor chuckled nervously, and I continued. “Guys, I feel incredibly uncomfortable discussing the role of women in ministry with five other men.”

Mark burst out laughing. He is a good leader and took the reins to clarify further. Essentially, enough was enough. We wouldn’t validate this religious farce any longer. The meeting ended with the two elders’ resignation—given and received. And to this day, Mark likes to tell the story about that time I helped him with an elders’ meeting.

1 Mark 15:40–41 & Luke 8:1–3 & Matthew 27:55–56
2 Galatians 4:4
3 John 20:11
4 1 Corinthians 14:34
5 1 Timothy 2:12

I excerpted this article from my book, Leaving and Finding Jesus
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Jason Clark is a bestselling storyteller who writes to reveal the transforming kindness of the love of God. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children, Madeleine, Ethan, and Eva. Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… AMY SIMMONS & KRISPIN MAYFIELD / Attachment Theory and a Healthy Spirituality

by A Family Story | August 12, 2020 | Faith, Interview, Intimacy, Leadership, Life, Marriage, Parenting, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season One | 2 Comments

The parent-child relationship and our formative years greatly influence how we navigate everything, including our spirituality and faith. Often our theological deconstructions are the fruit of discovering a God with whom we feel loved, secure, and safe; where we move from insecure to secure attachment.

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Published on March 29, 2023 20:55

EDEN JERSAK / A LOVE THAT INCLUDES EVERYONE

Eden Jersak A Love That Includes Everyone

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“My mom exemplified this (The Tree of Life) further every time she invited the “black sheep” of the family to our family Christmas events. That was confusing to me as a child because in my mind, and in our culture, they were most certainly “Out,” yet that never deterred my mom from inviting them to our table.” Eden Jersak.

In this podcast, Pastor Eden shares about our heavenly Father’s grace, love, kindness, and all-inclusive love. The cross, the journey of inclusion, reconciliation, pastoring, and valuing humanity as Jesus does, this conversation is between two relational human beings endeavoring to love well.

Please rate, review, share, and subscribe!

For more on Eden Jersak
Email: edenjersak@gmail.com
Website: www.thebridgeonline.ca

Podcast intro and outro music by Wilde Assembly

Derek Turner Follower of Jesus, in love with @sarahjturner, father to @caro.turn & @kaaatters, owner of Milo, pastor @rivercharlotte. Amazed by Grace
www.rivercharlotte.com

Follow Follow Follow Jason Clark is a writer, speaker, and lead communicator at A Family Story ministries. His mission is to encourage sons and daughters to grow sure in the love of an always-good heavenly Father. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children.

Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY BUY NOW!

YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… THE CROSS with DEREK TURNER & JASON CLARK

by A Family Story | January 6, 2021 | Crisis of Identity, Faith, God Is Not In Control, Intimacy, Leadership, Relationship, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, The Fathers Love | 3 Comments

In this first episode of season two, Jason and new host Derek Turner dive into the wonder of what Jesus revealed about our Father and humanity through the cross and resurrection.

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Published on March 22, 2023 09:33

The Church and Her Inclusively Transformative Nature

The Church And Her Inclusively Transformative Nature

Excerpted from my book, Leaving and Finding Jesus

I love the Church. She raised me. Most of my deepest friendships have been formed in the church. I’ve experienced Her compassion, authenticity, kindness, generosity, wisdom, grace, desire for righteousness, wholeness, and innocence. I’m also thankful for Her various expressions.

I’m not writing about the institution. Rather, I’m writing about the people I’ve known and with whom I’ve grown through the vast expressions of the Church.

I’ve been sensitive with seekers, shook with shakers, kneeled with kneelers, been lowly in high church, taken communion with robed Episcopalians, and fallen to the ground with 3,000 brothers and sisters after John Wimber prayed.

I’ve received benedictions with Catholics and confessed with a priest in Haiti just outside a children’s hospital where he poured out his life for the least of these. (1)

I’ve tasted God’s goodness with the Methodist, raised a song with the Baptist, missionaried with the Alliance and The Assemblies, prayed in tongues with Pentecostals, and cried out in righteous hunger with friends from Kansas City. I’ve become close with friends who are Eastern Orthodox and discovered the riches of the Anabaptists.

I’ve experienced the holiness of God in a home of the underground Church in China, danced with exuberant worshipers in South Africa, fellowshipped with hundreds of Filipinos who walked days to participate in revival, and laughed with loved and cared-for orphans in Nicaragua.

I’ve seen the impact of the church, miracles large and small—more than a book could contain, broken marriages restored, the lonely put in family, the poor made rich, bodies made whole, and hearts, minds, and lives transformed. I’ve seen addicts set free and imaginations restored. I’ve seen the poor receive care, the hungry fed, the widow, and the orphan loved and protected.

I’ve been part of men’s movements that swept the world, challenging us to live lives of character and kindness. I’ve been a part of equality movements for race and gender where faithful women and men of all colors confronted and led us as we repented for participating in prejudice, exclusivity, and hierarchy.

I could write a book on the history of how the Church has tended to every broken and unjust issue in this often cruel and punishing world. And it would barely scratch the surface of the heaven-to-earth impact the Church has had. Throughout history, the Church has been full of good people, friends of God whose lives became generous expressions of Greater Love. The world is infinitely richer because of the Church’s authentic other-centered kindness.

Greater Love is the hope for the world, and the church is God’s expression of it. The Church is God’s idea, and His ideas are always brilliant. The Church is the city on a hill; the light meant to illuminate His reconciliation for all creation.

I love the Church. I wrote this book for Her. And it’s because of my love for the Church that I confront our obsession with separation, our infatuation with retribution, and the hypocrisy of exclusion.

In my twenties, the early days of my deconstruction, long before anyone used that term, those post-Bible College years when I reacted against the cruel and unkind hypocrisies within the institution, I often wondered if a baby was in the bath water. In those early days, I thought the only hope for the Church was Jesus’ return, and I occasionally thought about waiting for Him at home. But those days are so far behind me I hardly remember them.

You see, as I’ve left every Jesus that isn’t reconciling. I’ve also left every idea of church that isn’t built upon the Cornerstone of Greater Love. I’ve left every aspect of the church that practices us or them, in or out, for or against; and when I find I haven’t, I repent.

Like Peter, I am discovering the Church Jesus described when He prayed that we would be one just as He was one with His Father. (2) I am awakening to the inclusive Church Jesus revealed when He told His disciples, “On that day, you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” (3)

There is no hierarchy in the Trinity, only mutual, self-giving love. The last are first, and the first are last because that’s how love works. Love is a circle, an ever-expanding revelation. And when the Church mirrors this Truth, there is no end to transformation.

I love the Church. Her history is rich in reconciliation, but we haven’t even scratched the surface of Her inclusively transformative nature. I see a Church awakening to the never leaving, never forsaking, cruciform love of God, and my heart is that we might repent of any heretic circles within the Church that shut people out—because I’m convinced Greater Love “shows no partiality.”

Jesus in us and through us has “the wit to win!” And we, the Church, are meant to partner with reconciling love to draw bigger circles that take all creation in!

1 Matthew 25:40
2 John 17:21
3 John 14:20

This article is excerpted from my book, Leaving and Finding Jesus
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Jason Clark is a bestselling storyteller who writes to reveal the transforming kindness of the love of God. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children, Madeleine, Ethan, and Eva. Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… LEAVING (& FINDING) JESUS WITH DEREK TURNER & JASON CLARK

by A Family Story | July 14, 2021 | Interview, Intimacy, Life, Popular, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, The Fathers Love | 2 Comments

God’s sovereignty revealed by Jesus through cruciform, self-giving love, the nature of trust, intimacy, and union, and the transforming truth that there is no shadow of turning with God, in this podcast the guys explore Jason’s upcoming book, Leaving (& Finding) Jesus. This conversation juxtaposes an inclusive, reconciling, self-giving, unconditional view of God’s love against an excluding, hierarchal, punishment-focused, conditional view of God’s love.

Read More We Are So Worth The Blood Of Jesus!

by Lloyd Clark | April 8, 2020 | Articles, Faith, Intimacy, Lloyd's Corner, The Fathers Love | 1 Comment

As my friend, Dan Mohler says, “I am so worthy of the blood of Jesus.” He loves me! And it’s never ever had anything to do with my behavior or performance. I am enough! And so are you!

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Published on March 22, 2023 09:24

The Price Is Too Steep

Excerpted from Leaving and Finding Jesus / Chapter Seven: Retribution

For about two weeks after I released the article in which I’d responded to the question, “Can you be saved after you die,” with the answer, “Yes, I sure hope so,” I lived oblivious to the nuclear-sized bomb I’d dropped within our church circles—especially with some of the leadership in our church.

I had no idea how offensive the article was until a pastor friend reached out so we could “catch up” over coffee.

“Do you actually believe you can be saved after you die?” He asked, minutes into our conversation. It was less a question and more an accusation. I sensed what I said next could affect our friendship, so I spoke carefully. “In light of my growing trust in God’s reconciling love, yes…” Then acknowledging my article as the source of his question, I smiled good-naturedly and added, “…I sure hope so.”

He nodded seriously. There was no return smile, just concern and—anger. “He’s offended,” I realized as he gathered himself. Then, to his credit, he confronted me—not from his offense but with a sincere concern for my immediate and, quite possibly, eternal well-being.

“Jason, I share your hope, but….” Then he told me the heartbreaking story of how his dad, at age 80, died in a violent car crash. “The car rolled several times, and he died of a broken neck,” he said.

“Jason, my siblings, and I shared the gospel with him for 20 years, and for 20 years, he resisted. He wanted nothing to do with God. To my knowledge, he never accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior before the accident.”

Then, in great anguish, my pastor friend looked at me and said, “But I’m hopeful he’s in heaven—” I began to respond like that orthodox priest who encouraged the boy to pray for Judas. With a deep hope in the reconciling nature of the love of my best friend, Jesus, I earnestly said, “Amen! Me too–”

He waved his hand brusquely to hush me. Then continued with a corrective tone. “I’m hopeful my siblings and I shared enough of the gospel over the years that he knew to cry out to God before he died. We have no reason to believe he would have, but I’m hopeful.”

The cruelty of his statement shook me. As he continued, my heart broke for him.

“I’m hopeful that before he lost control of the car, before it flipped, before his neck broke, he was able to get out a prayer—to cry out to God. And I’m hopeful it was enough.”

My heart grew heavier each time he emphasized the word hope.

“In light of the circumstances, I’m not sure that his prayer would be enough,” he lamented, “But I’m hopeful, you know, that God heard him. I’m hoping he is in heaven. But…”

Then he went on to agonize over the likelihood that his dad was not in heaven.

I was heartsick and disturbed by the theological certainty he placed in the punishing nature of God—a certainty that was clearly crushing him. He was tormented over whether he’d “evangelized” enough. He wondered aloud if a prayer said in the horror of a violent car crash would be enough.

“What am I still lacking?” That was the cruel and punishing road my pastor friend traveled. He seemed to believe God counted his dad’s sins against him—and his dad had come up lacking.

My pastor friend’s pain was real, traumatizing, and tragically unnecessary.

You see, what he described to me wasn’t Christian hope. It was fatalism.

His hope wasn’t placed in the measureless love of Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting people’s sins, rejections, cruelties, confusion, delusions, or capacity to be deceived against them. His “hope” was placed in a heavenly Father who looks away—a punishing god who must bend the knee to my pastor friend’s finite understanding.

Like so many of our Christian leaders today, he gave me the religion of separation. He presented the retributive idea that all humanity is born into Adam, but it takes a specific prayer to get us into Christ. He gave me the religion of transaction, and, like many of our Christian leaders today, he twisted the language of relationship into a contradiction of Greater Love.

My pastor friend approached salvation through the unforgiving nature of time. And for his dad, when it came to God’s reconciling love, time had most likely run out. And this is the point at which a retributive theological belief about God is exposed as perverse.

You see, for my pastor friend’s dad, when it came to God’s reconciling love, time was finite. But when it came to God’s punishment, time is infinite, and his dad was most likely gonna spend an eternity tormented by fire in some place where Greater Love couldn’t reach him.

I felt crushed for my pastor friend and disgusted that he believed this bullshit about our friend Jesus, so I challenged His God lens.

“Bro, you just told me that your faith is in a heavenly Father who likely condemned your earthly father to eternal damnation. Man, the price you are paying to follow a God who punishes is too steep. For you to be a Christian, your dad must suffer an eternity in hell.”

Then I told him about my hope. “I have placed my hope in the belief that God is like Jesus; I have put my hope in the One who came to save men’s lives, not destroy them. (1) My hope is that God is in Christ reconciling your dad to Himself, not counting his rejection or brokenness against him.

While I don’t know what that could mean for your dad, I am convinced this hope is the joy of his, yours, and my salvation; the very joy Jesus set before Him while He endured the cross.” (2)

Then, with deepening faith in the reconciling love of God, I referenced the question he had confronted me with, “Can you be saved after you die? I asked.

And then answered, “Yes, I sure hope so.”

1 Luke 9:56
2 Hebrews 12:2
1 John 17:21

This article is excerpted from my book, Leaving and Finding Jesus
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Jason Clark is a bestselling storyteller who writes to reveal the transforming kindness of the love of God. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children, Madeleine, Ethan, and Eva. Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow Follow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… The Nature of Soap

by Jason Clark | September 25, 2019 | Articles, Faith, Prone To Love | 9 Comments

Next to the toilet was a large barrel filled with clean-ish water. Floating in the water was a big plastic cup. The cup was for both flushing and bathing. Oh, I forgot to note, the toilet room was also the shower.

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Published on March 15, 2023 22:57

TOMMY MILLER / DEATHLESS

Tommy Miller Deathless

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Union, inclusion, sin, grace, sonship, the covenants, a very high view of Jesus and humanity, and biblical immortality, Tommy Miller shares about his new book, Deathless. Tommy is passionate about seeing the local Church equip sons to look like their Father and create atmospheres that look like heaven, and it’s evident in this revelatory conversation.

“Deathless” is a thought-provoking exploration of the concept of biblical immortality, and the guys have a brilliant conversation unpacking this thought.

For Tommy’s FREE CLASS on the Covenants, CLICK HERE and enter the code – NCCFREE

Please rate, review, share, and subscribe!

For more on Tommy Miller
Tommy’s Facebook
Legacy Church Website: www.legacychurchint.org
New Creation Collective’s Facebook

Podcast intro and outro music by Wilde Assembly

Derek Turner Follower of Jesus, in love with @sarahjturner, father to @caro.turn & @kaaatters, owner of Milo, pastor @rivercharlotte. Amazed by Grace
www.rivercharlotte.com

Follow Follow Follow Jason Clark is a writer, speaker, and lead communicator at A Family Story ministries. His mission is to encourage sons and daughters to grow sure in the love of an always-good heavenly Father. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children.

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YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… DALE HOWIE / UNSPOKEN SERMONS ON THE GOOD NEWS OF INCLUSION

by A Family Story | June 23, 2021 | Interview, Intimacy, Life, Prayer, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, The Fathers Love | 3 Comments

Paraphrasing the sermons of George MacDonald, Dale Howie shares his sometimes painful, often beautiful, journey of awakening to the irreducible truth of life discovered in relationship. He speaks to grace, our common Fatherhood, our inclusion in Christ’s life, death and resurrection, our union, and the wonder of our humanity. A humble storyteller and relational theologian, Dale speaks as a father on behalf of Our Father, who loves all His children with a reconciling love.

Read More KATHRYN LYNN CIENIEWICZ / LOVE IS THE LONG GAME

by A Family Story | February 24, 2021 | Crisis of Identity, Interview, Intimacy, Leadership, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two, The Fathers Love | 2 Comments

Salvation, hell, justice, equality, the bible, and the unconditional transformative always good Love of God; in this insightful interview, Kathryn talks about her spiritual deconstruction and the journey of rethinking God. She brilliantly addresses the sin of certainty, newfound feminism, and a Love that casts out all fear.

Read More THE POLAR EXPRESS WITH JASON CLARK

by A Family Story | December 21, 2022 | Art, Dreaming, Faith, Leadership, Life, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season three, Short Story, Untamed, Writing | 0 Comments

“It’s Christmas Eve, and instead of dreaming of the best day of the year, the boy is in his bedroom agonizing over the universal question: Does God…sorry, I mean Santa Claus, really exist?”

In this final podcast of 2022 and season three, Jason shares a story from his first book about the Polar Express, and faith. Whether you’re tired or wide awake, full or empty, lost or found, sick or whole, you are loved by Triune God who walks beside you, will never leave you, and invites you to awaken to His affection and love. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, and goodwill toward men!”

Read More SCOT MCKNIGHT / A CHURCH CALLED TOV

by A Family Story | January 19, 2022 | Faith, Interview, Life, Popular, Prayer, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season three, The Fathers Love | 0 Comments

Co-Author of A Church Called TOV, Scot McKnight talks about his new book written in response to the abuses of power, sexual abuse, and spiritual abuse within the leadership of Willow Creek, Harvest, and sadly churches of all shapes and sizes.

We talked about TOV (which means goodness) and how when we practice empathy, compassion, extending grace, putting people first, telling the truth, promoting justice, and serving others, TOV emerges in the culture and we all become more Christlike.

Read More THERE IS NO “US OR THEM” AT THE CROSS

by A Family Story | September 15, 2022 | Faith, Interview, Leadership, Life, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season three | 3 Comments

This podcast highlights Jason’s book, Leaving and finding Jesus, where he writes about his deconstructing faith journey. The book is Jason’s Emmaus Road discovery of a love that is reconciling all creation; a journey where he’s awakening to a burning heart while leaving every Jesus who won’t lay His life down for His friends.

Read More HE CALLS US FRIENDS WITH BRENT LOKKER & JASON CLARK

by A Family Story | May 12, 2022 | Intimacy, Life, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season three, The Fathers Love | 0 Comments

This conversation with Jason Clark was hosted by Brent Lokker on his youtube channel Vibrant Life. This podcast begins with two dads sharing stories about helping their children encounter God as a loving Father. The guys dive into obedience in the context of union and friendship, learning to trust the unchanging nature of our Father, not as retributive, punishing, or abandoning, but as the tenderhearted one who accepts us, loves us, and is always good!

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Published on March 13, 2023 16:03