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Branding & PR vs. The Way of Jesus

Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

As I prepare for Lent, I’m struck this morning by Jesus’ admonition in Luke 8:56.  Having entered a house of mourners, and raised a little girl from the dead, he orders everyone not to tell anyone what happened.  This is one of those little bits of the Bible that is either overlooked or explained away.  When I read it though, I wonder if Jesus is trying to warn me, and others who do things in his name, of the dangers inherent when good things start happening in ministry.  Rather than blow our horn, capitalize on our momentum, develop our brand, I wonder if we’re to be more covert.

The dangers of our age, and the dangers of marketing in general as it relates to faith, is that Jesus will become just another commodity, the best product every for your health, well being and happiness.  And of course, an equally great danger is that we’ll substitute the centrality of our particular church, denomination, youth work, non-profit, or NGO, for the centrality of Christ.  Do this and we run the risk of not making Christ followers at all, but instead making followers of Paul, Apollos, Cephas – following the leader rather than the one to whom the leader allegedly points.  Such misguided loyalty is dangerous at best, idolatrous at worst, but so saturated (in Christian circles) with God language, as to be nearly unavoidable.  If this kind of idolatry is the wood, I sometimes wonder if all our podcasts, apps, facebook pages (and likes), isn’t the gas we’re pouring on the fire.

Of course, there’s another side to this problem.  We’re also called to spread the word, to go into all the world and make disciples.  If Paul’s any indication, he utilized every means of communicating the gospel at his disposal during his ministry, including big ships, cultural literacy which helped him communicate more effectively, copious writing of letters that he asked be circulated among wide audiences, and more.

Utilizing these tools makes sense.  After all, he was called, just like you and I, to go into all the world and make disciples.  He chose to do this through whatever means available, I believe, because he understood that ultimately the issues wasn’t the tools used for communicating, but whether or not his work had its origin in God’s spirit. This, in the end, is what matters the most.

I can flee to the desert in the name of holiness, but in reality just be feeding the longings my flesh has to get out of all the complexities of community, a growing church, and the inevitably clashing demands of working with lots of people.  The fleeing can be framed as spiritual, but it’s really disobedience.

I can run ads, create phone apps, write blogs like this one, books, do and a PR campaign, all in the name of “making disciples of every nation”.  It can look like holy ambition to some, but in reality not be holy at all.  To other outsiders it can look unholy, like selfish pride, and be exactly what God wants.  In the end, it’s all about whether this stuff grows out from desire to follow God or from our desire for greatness.  The one thing I do know is that no action stems from both desires at the same time.

I certainly can’t know the motives of other ministries or personalities when it comes to this kind of thing, and thankfully, I’ve been told not to worry about them anyway.  Paul though, says in I Corinthians 4 that he doesn’t even “judge himself”, which is his way of saying that he seeks to live in Christ, allowing God access to his conscience as a means of directing his life and ministry.

I’m convinced that we’re called to do the same.  Sometimes this will lead to withdrawal into the wilderness, and eschew all publicity like these guys. (though even they have a web site)  Other times God will expand our ministry and affirm our use of tools to do so.  The important thing, I think, is to acknowledge both withdrawal from publicity, and use of publicity as legitimate or dangerous, depending on whether it’s God’s plan for our particular situation.

The crux though, is to acknowledge how easily our own human ambitions, either for a wide influence, or more meaningful work, or just a cabin in woods, can muck up the clear waters of guidance.  One of the values of Lent is our intentional withdrawal, with Jesus, into the wilderness, so that he can show us the way forward because I can promise you that there’ll be times when His way runs counter to mine, and if I’m not listening to Christ, I’ll miss the turnoff and end up “on my own”, either in the wilderness when I’m called to the big deal, or in the midst of a big deal which has more the marks of my own making, than of the simplicity, gentleness, and joyful life that is Christ.

O Lord Christ….

You are the light of the world truly, but also the light for each of us on our particular paths.  Sometimes we long for more, whether it be money, fame, influence, or ‘meaning’ in our work.  Sometimes we want to run away from it all.  May this Lenten season enable us to hear your voice with greater clarity, so that our yes’s, or no’s, and our silent waiting are all bathed in the peace of knowing that we’re in your will.  And we will thank you for the fruit of peace that comes only when our ambitions are aligned with yours.

Amen…

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Love Ingredients: Truth, Grace, Proportion

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

“full of grace and truth” John 1:14

“Who can pull that off?” is the question I ask with all the urgency I can muster because I’m more convinced than ever that this is perhaps the only possible solid foundation upon which genuine intimacy can be built.  Look at any relationship where love continues to ripen and deepen, year after year, and you’ll find that the couple has managed to express both truth and grace.  But there’s more.  The couple has also found a way express these elements at the right time, and in the right proportion. Tools, without a sense of proportion or propriety, can be destructive.  I may need a cutting tool, but if the object to be trimmed is my fingernails and my tool is a chain saw, the results can be bloody painful. Here’s what I mean:

Too Much Truth: “I’m just being honest” is perhaps one of the most dangerous phrases in the English language.  It’s usually the preface to some truth that will, in the end, benefit the truth teller much more than the truth receiver.  In the name of honesty, we run the risk of inflicting great damage.  For all of us, it’s not just a matter of delivering the truth.  It’s matter of learning to deliver the timely word “in season”, which means that it’s possible to say the right thing, in the wrong way, at the wrong time, and do terrible damage.

This is my complaint, sometimes, with honest people.  They leave a trail of damaged relationships in their wake because they haven’t learned the wisdom of staying quiet.  In contrast, consider Jesus:  He chose disciples that he knew had tempers, doubts, petty jealousies, selfish ambitions and, at times, slow minds.  Still, he chose them.  And, rather than offering a pre-emptive assessment of all their strengths and weaknesses, he created an environment where, over time, the light of revelation would expose those areas in need of transformation.

In other words, Jesus didn’t (and still doesn’t) feel the need to change every element of personality in a single day or week.  When someone makes me and my transformation (God knows I need it), their personal mission, and major relational focus, I promise you that I’ll find a way to build a wall and prevent you from entering in.  As a result, that someone is shut out and frustrated, and my weaknesses  remain unchecked.  This is using a chain saw instead of nail clippers.  After 32 years of marriage, I’m convinced that one of the greatest gifts my wife and I are able to offer each other is timely, proprotional truth – offered in a way that’s tailored to favor maximum receptivity on the part of the other.  This way of loving is rooted in the belief that while truth is needed, truth that’s not received is of no value whatsoever, and so truth needs proportion and timeliness, both of which require wisdom and grace.

Too much grace:  Ah, but too much grace is damaging too.  Drugs that are good for moderating inflammation can also kill you, if served up in too high a dose.  There are people in this world who are terrified of either speaking or receiving hard truth.  They flatter in the name of grace, but what they’re offering isn’t grace at all, it’s just plain dishonesty.  They overlook deep failures and character flaws, refusing to bring issues into the light for fear of what might unfold if the status quo is upset.  Counselors call it “enabling”.  Because of it, spouses stay in abusive relationships.   Addictions go unchallenged, even by the addicts closest so called friends.

Grace in proper proportion provides space and time for transformation, and a place of safety for confession.  Too much grace provides space, not for transformation, but for hiding.

Too much truth seems to presume that the time is always now, and the messenger is always us.

Too much grace seems to presume that the time is never now, and the messenger is always someone else.

We could nit-pick here and argue whether too much grace is really grace at all, or too much truth is really truth.  But that would miss the point, which is to say that unless we know when to encourage and when to confront, when to speak and when to be silent, when to say the hard thing, and when to let the hard thing go – we’ll make a mess of our relationships.  Messes are made by people on both sides of this problem, of course, and each of us would be wise to consider how we need to recalibrate our proportions for each relationship and situation.

Having said that, I’ll observe that I’m more concerned than ever with the fallout I’m seeing from situations where truth is used as a chainsaw.  I really don’t care if you can quote chapter and verse about why you’re right and I’m wrong, unless I know that you love me, and I’ll know that you love me because the chapter and verse truth has been delivered (to switch analogies) as an IV drip, in a place of safety and nurture, rather than by sticking my head in a bucket of truth and holding me under, waterboard style.

Sure; I know that I need to receive truth from all sources.  I need to recognize my tendency to shoot the messenger when I don’t want to hear the hard word.  But if we could all respond perfectly to truth when it’s delivered, we wouldn’t need a savior.   That we do need one reminds us that we’re flawed, and as flawed people we need to remember that truth and grace, in just the right proportion for a particular moment or relationship, is what God calls us to pursue.

My valentine’s evening will be spent with someone who knows me better than any person on the planet – knows my doubts, failures, shame, pain, fear.  That I know she loves me anyway is why, when she has the hard word to deliver, I will, in the end, listen and respond.  This truth and grace in proportion thing is, I believe, not only an important conversation; it’s the very reason I need Jesus.  After all, He’s the one who gets this right, and it will be by living in intimacy with that I’ll learn how to do it too.

What do you think?  More truth? More grace? Just right?

 

 

 

 

 

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Ready, Set, Lent. Why it matters – more than ever.

Wednesday, February 8th, 2012

“And early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.” Mark 1:35

I’m ready for Lent.

Because Lent is a time of “retreating into the wilderness with Jesus”, I say bring it on.

I’m embarrassed by what Christianity is becoming in the west:

Individualism is touted, at the expense of deeply committed community, through rap and poetry about love for Jesus, but hatred for religion, failing to mention that in spite of the church’s colossal failures over the centuries, it has been the church working together, rather than “spiritual individuals”, that’s ended slavery, cared for the poor and marginalized, advocated for justice, strengthened marriages, and fanned the flames of the renaissance which allowed art and science to flourish.

Authoritarianism in the church is debated, with the primary voices seeming to advocate for either no accountability whatsoever, or total control.  It’s a great debate.  It generates lots of conversation on the internet.  It elevates dysfunction to the limelight.  And it distracts people, I fear, from reading their Bibles, praying, loving their neighbors, and enjoying intimacy with Jesus.

We Christians seem to spend more time online not liking each other, than encouraging each other by talking about the matchless beauty of Christ and His reign.  Christians are hurling doctrinal grenades at one another, with more explosive charges than I’ve noticed in the past.  Again, we seem to love this because of the readership generated by controversy.  Sure, we need to have conversations about what constitutes orthodoxy, and whether gay marriage is a good or bad idea, and the merits of Reformed and/or Anabaptist theology, so please don’t misread.  We need these conversations. It’s the proportion of these conversations that bothers me.  We’re saturated in the side show to such an extent that the primacy of loving Jesus and one’s neighbor is lost in the screaming.

My best preparation for Lent is the super bowl.  After all, the super bowl is ultimately a game of football.  But increasingly, the football game is sort of a side show, a post script, to the ads, the halftime show, the parties, the food, the blogs about the ads, the blogs about the halftime show, the 3 day pregame show on TV with all the heart wrenching stories, and back stories, and human interest stories, the post-game show, the parade, and of course, the finger.

Really?  It’s as if the teams are incidental.  The game is lost in the billion dollar carnival.  Those of us who genuinely enjoy pass patterns and blocking schemes would much rather watch a good high school or Division II college game in October because their pursuits are closer to the real deal.   The super bowl reminds me of how easily we’re distracted from the game.

This winter, the evangelical world has felt a bit like the super bowl.  Saturated with glamor, hot shots, pot shots, back stories, in-fighting, trash talking, and uber-advertising (you should see my senior pastor “inbox”), I’m sick of it all — and praying about how to meet Jesus in the wilderness for forty days as a way of purging my soul from all that causes unbelievers to post the bumper sticker:  “Jesus save me – from your followers”

I’ll be writing throughout Lent – from my encounters with Christ in creation, and the Bible, and people.  I won’t be writing about church politics, or American politics, or hot controversial topics like sexual ethics, gay marriage, global warming, church growth, the glories or evils of Neo-Calvinism, or any other conversation generating topic.  For Lent, I’m fasting from writing about anything other Christ: where I’m meeting Him and what He’s teaching me.

But I’m taking a break from both theological, political, controversy and church leadership topics, so that, after Easter, I’ll be able to engage again with a less cynical and jaded spirit.   I want to have some good conversations about gay marriage, presidential politics, sexual ethics, church health, consumerism in Christianity, and hope to write about these things throughout the spring.  But not now.  I’m heading, metaphorically, to the desert with Jesus.  I encourage you to do the same thing… or something similar.

 

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All Poverty is Relational: What does that mean?

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

I’m riding my bike to work on a frosty morning this winter when I encounter a couple, dressed in poverty, arguing intensely on a street corner.  Their words do violence to each other until he finally storms away, hurt and raging, while she’s left crying, waiting for the light to the change.  Both of them are dressed poorly; tattered sweatshirts (hood up on this cold morning), inadequate shoes, denim.  They have bags, small backpacks.

As we go our different ways, I ponder the reality that my children have places they could go, if needed, in order to find shelter.  They have us, their parents, with extra rooms, heat, and gobs of love.  They have very good friends.  They have access to connections that can be of great value if/when they need to look for work.  They are, in other words, well connected – not with the super rich and powerful, but with people who love them fiercely.

I wondered as I saw the couple; to whom will she turn in the midst of this, another setback, in her life?  Where will he be going as they part?  I was reminded of a phrase I heard for the first time years ago, as the ministry of Agros was gearing up:  All poverty is relational.  Years later, after countless conversations on the subject, wide reading (including the especially helpful, “When Helping Hurts”), and a trip to Rwanda and Uganda, I think I’m starting to understand.

Scratch around the culture of poverty, and you’ll find sea of broken relationships, rooted in all sorts of maladies ranging from prodigal like rebellion to victims of abuse, whether physical, emotional, sexual, or all the above.  Though not the same, it reminds me of those national geographic specials, where a weak member of the herd is driven to isolation by the wolves where, cut off from his/her protective culture, he/she becomes a victim.

World Relief is the group with which our church works in Rwanda, and they are addressing the relational bankruptcy head on as they create church partnerships between the west and developing nations in order to build a foundation of relationship.  This same commitment permeates their in-country work as they create youth groups to address ethical issues, savings clubs for adults (which became a form of insurance, investment, and financial education all rolled into one), and HIV/AIDS groups that build relational support and provide a base for economic empowerment. Everything, it seems, begins with relationship.

In this political year, I fear that a commitment to strong relational networks is the elephant that should be in the room but isn’t.  It’s the conversation we should be having, but aren’t.  As we speak of unemployment, the arguments seem to broadly fall into the categories of continue to print or borrow money for infrastructure projects, or deregulate industries and lower their taxes in hopes that purer capitalism will fix what ails us.  Absent, or sorely lacking, is the discussion about how vital it is that families function well, and how functional families and solid relational networks are endangered species.  A few sociologists have been talking about this problem for over a decade, as far back as the famous, “Bowling Alone” book.  But it’s a fringe conversation in today’s political environment.

I’m increasingly convinced that this subject is overlooked because this is the hardest subject of all.  Sin is, at the core, a severing of relationship.  In a culture where the very notion of sin is dismissed as archaic, fundamentalist hogwash, it’s no surprise that we’re largely ignoring all the isolating forces.  We’ll hear speeches about the economy for the next six months until we’re sick of the subject.

As for me, I’m sensing that the patriotic thing to do might have less to do with shopping, and more to do with nurturing environments where relationships can thrive.  Strengthen marriages.  Cross social barriers to bless and serve.  Teach parents how to love their children.  Show people how sexuality must be tied to strong covenant relationships if its to be the blessing God intends.  This is why I’m preparing to teach a series on relationships this spring.

It’s easy to blame poverty on the system, like the left does.  It’s easy to blame poverty on the laziness of people, like the right does.  It’s harder, much harder, to listen, build relationships, and serve, creating a context of love and safety where transformation can occur.   That takes time.  That’s messy.  And that is a big part of what it means to be church – not the Sunday show – but the building of community.

 

 

 

 

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The Challenges of Wealth and the Call of Christ

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

David Brooks recent NY Times article entitled “The Great Divorce” speaks of what is becoming on of the largest issues of our day, not just because it’s an election year, but because it’s a real issue.  Brooks reveals the dramatic shifts in American culture between 1963 and the present, noting that, while there’s always been a gap between wealth and poverty, in previous eras that gap wasn’t accompanied by a behavior gap.  Brooks writes, “income gaps did not lead to big behavior gaps. Roughly 98 percent of men between the ages of 30 and 49 were in the labor force, upper class and lower class alike. Only about 3 percent of white kids were born outside of marriage. The rates were similar, upper class and lower class.”

Those days are long gone.  Now, the gap between wealth and poverty is accompanied by staggering behavior gaps, so large that he posits what we really have are tribes: An upper crust of 20%, and a bottom 30% mired not only in poverty, but in dysfunction.  He notes, “Roughly 7 percent of the white kids in the upper tribe are born out of wedlock, compared with roughly 45 percent of the kids in the lower tribe. In the upper tribe, nearly every man aged 30 to 49 is in the labor force. In the lower tribe, men in their prime working ages have been steadily dropping out of the labor force, in good times and bad.  People in the lower tribe are much less likely to get married, less likely to go to church, less likely to be active in their communities, more likely to watch TV excessively.”

The political right offers a strategy to correct this wrong, including the removal of the child tax credit which last year kept 1.3 million children out of poverty, while preserving Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy, and running on a platform of even more tax cuts for the rich.  The left, meanwhile, is busy blaming the 1% for all the social woes of America.  These conversations, as Brooks rightly points out, aren’t unimportant – but they’re  distractions.

But Brooks’ article also runs the risk of being a distraction, especially if read through the eyes of faith, because all we hear about are the dangers of poverty, not the dangers of wealth.  Why is it that Jesus says that it’s terribly difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom? There are several reasons, but there’s one worth considering in light of Brooks’ article.

Wealth paves the wide road to isolation. I’ve written about this in my book O2: Breathing New Life into Faith, but it bears repeating.  There are no middle seats in first class.  In a wealthy household, everyone has their own bedroom and if there’s even more wealth, their own phone, computer, TV, bathroom, car.  The really wealthy have all this stuff protected from the outside world by living in community with gates, to keep out the rest of the world.  We’re buying freedom from the untidy necessity of relating to others.  Contrast this with the limited options to isolate where chronic poverty is in place; tiny houses, shared room, limited resources.

The gap between these two worlds is gigantic.  There’s a wall between them:  the poor can’t cross over, and the rich don’t want to.  As a result, both cultures become entrenched, and in their self-referential communities, weaknesses are free to grow unchecked, which means that those in poverty often lack role models for those qualities that will enable the cycle to be broken.  The wealthy lack role models too, in the realm of simplicity, humility, brokenness, dependency.  The truth is we all need each other. If only there were a way to break down the dividing wall….

That, of course, is where the gospel comes in, as Paul articulates in Ephesians 2 and Galatians 3:28.  Christ came with the express purpose of obliterating social barriers. It’s clear though, that this doesn’t just happen.  We need a vision for it, and we need to take clear to steps so that we live into that vision.  The vision for it comes from God’s vision that His kingdom will be a powerful reconciling alternative to the prevailing culture wars, divisions, and walls, that are so entrenched in our fallen world.  We must see that God is taking history towards the bringing together of rich and poor, slave and free, male and female.  Tragically, this vision has been given a backseat to our fixation on sin management, and hell avoidance, as we pursue our own “personal relationship with Christ” who expects us to “accept Jesus as our personal savior” (language conspicuously missing from the Bible).  We desperately need a kingdom vision!

It’s not enough, though, to see this vision as God’s preferred future, and then passively wait for it to happen.  Instead, we need to live into the reality of this vision now by taking Jesus up on his exhortation to cross barriers, just as he did by becoming a man, so that we might break down walls and build community.

Being part of a church that has ministries which cross barriers is a start (and there are many), but don’t confuse cheering for those who cross barriers, with actually crossing them.  The parable of the virgins with their oil is telling us that my lamp isn’t lit because my church has a ministry that builds relationships across social divides.  My lamp is lit only if, and when, I cross social divides.  Writing a check is easier – but it’s not what Jesus wants; not ultimately.  So however you do it, take a step.  Engage a homeless person in conversation, praying for eyes to see and ears to hear, because those who see and hear will discover Jesus right there in the conversation.  Cross barriers.  Swim upstream against the isolating power of wealth and use it instead to bless and serve, but not just by giving cash, because in the end, as so many people rightly say, all poverty is relational.  Simply embracing that definition will break down dividing walls, as we approach each other, not in hierarchy or anger, but in mutual brokenness; together; at the foot of the cross.

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When you don’t like your job

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

YouTube Preview ImageIt’s common theme these days, a point of conversation among people in every age group, from ‘just out of college’ to those near retirement.  “I hate my job”, or “I can’t wait to do something different”, or “I’m counting the days…”  It’s a subject worthy of book, because the reality is that there’s a time to stay, and a time to leave, and that the real challenge is knowing what time it is.  Leave prematurely, and you’ll fan the flames of discontent that should instead be quenched, creating a raging fire that will scorch your soul.  Stay too long, out of fear or lack of initiative, and your soul is also at risk – of atrophy.  So, what time is it; time to stay or time to go? Here are some principles to consider when feeling stuck in the maze of job dissatisfaction:

It’s called work for a reason. That there was work given to Adam, even before the fall in Genesis 3, shows us that work is intended by God to be life giving and part of who we are.  That there’s a curse attached to it in Genesis 3 means that work, in a fallen world, will have thorns and hence blood; not just rose petals.

I’m not sure many of us believe that.  In our positions of global privilege, with the luxury of choice, an increasing mantra that I hear is, “I want to make a difference”, which is code for, “I want a job that is energizing, frees my butt from a desk, and my waist from a tool belt, and enables me to tap into my creativity and things that energize me.

My response:  “and you want someone to pick up your garbage, because public health makes a difference.  You want someone to write your code, because you seem to enjoy using your computer, which also makes a difference.  You want someone to pick your fruit and coffee beans, deliver your food, work at Costco so you can buy stuff cheap, make sure people are paying their taxes so we don’t degenerate into anarchy - just not you.”

It’s vital that we recognize the dangerous roots of this thinking:

Dualism-  Industrialization has surely created numerous challenges on the meaningful employment front.  Having said that, it’s also true that we Christians have gotten this mighty wrong, no matter how much we say we haven’t.  We still believe that it’s a higher calling to be a pastor, or to work for New Horizons, or to start a non-profit, than it is to do people’s taxes, or pick up people’s garbage, or put new roofs on houses.  I’m not sure why the hierarchy exists, but to the extent we’ve not pushed back against this by honoring service jobs, manufacturing, and white collar business as ‘equally holy’, we’ve run the risk of diminishing people’s sense of calling and identity, implying that someday they too might “make a difference”, when they’re able to work for a non-profit, or a church.  Shame on us.  It’s all holy… every square inch.

Freedom – We live in the land of multiple choice.  As one writer says:  “In America we’ve long celebrated the right of an individual to shape his or her own life.  It is part of our DNA”   Even a cursory reading of the Bible, reveals that though such freedom might be the American way, it is decidedly not God’s way.  Paul calls himself a “prisoner of the Lord” and by that he means that his life has been directed down some paths “not of his own choosing”.  He didn’t choose to minister to Gentiles, or prefer it.  He didn’t choose to be imprisoned, or prefer it.  Peter?  The same.  Jeremiah?  The same.  Moses?  The same.

Our rich heritage of endless freedom and choice runs the risk of creating a paralysis when we find ourselves in even metaphorical prisons, never mind literal ones.  We’re certain that our ‘real life’ is yet ahead of us, because this thing on my plate just now isn’t something I’d ever have chosen.  God’s answer, at least in my life has often been:  “I know you wouldn’t choose it – but broccoli is good for you”.  J.I. Packer declares that the freedom Jesus brings isn’t the freedom of endless choice; it’s freedom from the tyranny of pleasing ourselves.  If you attend the church I lead, come this Sunday and watch King George VI embrace the crown as King of England, and you’ll know what I mean.

Comparison – The grass does, almost always, look greener.  I love the tiny cars in Europe, wear an Austrian hat, and have even pondered wool knickers for climbing – all retro European.  My friend who lives in the Alps?  He listens to John Denver and Vince Gill, likes cowboy hats and Land Rovers.  We’re both infatuated with the “other” culture.  The same piece of our nature often looks at someone else’s job and is convinced theirs must be easier, or at the very least, more meaningful.  I know people look at my job that way at times.  But yesterday started at 6AM and and ended at 10:30, pure work, right through lunch.  Today will be roughly the same, and tomorrow.  I’ve been around enough to know that whatever it is that’s glittering on the other side of the fence won’t make me happier – the happiness thing starts now, here, or it doesn’t start at all.

I’ve worked cleaning up a sports arena, in a warehouse, in a steel factory, on a construction site as basically a donkey, as a draftsman, as a musician in orchestras, and in churches ranging in size from a house church to 3000. I’ve led – and I’ve followed.  Here’s my conclusion:  There’s green grass everywhere – and weeds.

Jim Elliot said, “Wherever you are, be all there.” That’s some of the best advice I’ve ever read, and most of the people I love from history learned to apply it in situations they would never have chosen, finding the priceless gold of contentment and fruitfulness as a result.

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Young Young Adult Exodus from the Faith – and what to do about it (II)

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

doubt, pluralism, and sexuality: three big barriers to faith for young adults

Last week I posted some thoughts about a recent survey by George Barna, which offers insight into the reasons people between 18 and 30 are leaving the faith.  I addressed the first three reasons in that post, which could be summarized as: 1) churches are overprotective  2) the experience of God and spirituality offered in churches seems shallow and 3) churches come across as antagonistic towards science.

This post looks at the final three complaints, along with some closing thoughts at the end.

#4 – Young People’s church experiences related to sexuality are often simplistic, judgmental.  There are several forces contributing to the sexual divide between the church and most young people.  Simplistic answers are perhaps at the top of the list.  Abstinence is upheld as the gold standard with reasons that are often shallow or wrong.  Churches who simply say “God said it.  I believe it.  That settles it.” while they quote some verses about sexual purity are doing more harm than good.  For starters, they’re elevating ‘proof texting’ as a legitimate means of build ethics.  By the same method, we’ve justified colonialism, genocide, slavery, violence, and much more.  We’d better give young people more to work with than that.  The good news is that there is more than that – way more.  Here’s a favorite book of mine for starters, whose thesis is that sexuality isn’t a private matter, because it affects the whole community (as any church who has dealt with the break-ups of live in lovers who had every intention of marrying well knows).  The same book reinforces the point that fear of pregnancy, and “you’ll feel guilty” are terrible reasons to invite abstinence.  Give terrible reasons – lose credibility.  It happens every time.

Second, the church needs to lighten up a bit, not on its ethical standards, but on its treatment of people with questions and struggles.  I say this because this is the way it is in the Bible.  Judah slept with his daughter in law, thinking she was a prostitute.  David slept with his neighbor’s wife, and killed the husband to cover up her pregnancy.  Abraham gave his wife away, allowing her to sleep with a king.  Jacob made a mess of things and ended up with four wives.  And these were the good guys! Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not suggesting we wink at failure and let it go.  I’m suggesting that we realize sexuality has always been a giant struggle, even before the internet was invented.  Let’s address it the way we address everything:  with grace, and truth.  When people fail and struggle, they should be able to walk the journey with other believers.  But the church’s elevation of sexual sin has the affect of elevating shaming, rather than inviting dialogue and confession.  In short, we look more like the Pharisees in John 8, than we look like Jesus because we stone people for falling short in the realm of sexuality.  You can confess credit card debt, or bitterness, or laziness, or greed in your small group.  But your struggles with sexuality remain under the covers, for fear of rejection.  It’s time to change that.

#5 – They wrestle with the exclusive nature of Christianity.  The earth is small these days, and as a result, everyone knows that there are courageous Muslims, and evil Muslims.  There are abusive Catholic priests and good ones.  There are arrogant pastors, and servants of Christ.  In a pluralistic world, young people aren’t content to believe that those who say “Lord Lord” to Jesus will enter the kingdom of heaven.  They’re right to be skeptical, because Jesus was skeptical too. The gospel isn’t some sort of mantra you’re supposed to recite so that God will accept you.  They get that.  But they’re also wondering about what it actually does mean to believe.

We need to provide fences, and room for conversations.  The fence, if we’re take the Bible seriously at all, is that Jesus is central figure of history, the door through which all who will know God must walk.  We also know though, from the same Bible, that God is well able to apply the work of Christ to those who respond to God’s revelation by faith, even if they’ve never heard the name of Christ.  That’s how Abraham was saved, according to Romans 4.  What does this mean?  It means that God is able to apply the work of Christ to any response of faith.  What does that mean?  That’s where the dialogue comes in.  This isn’t some sort of mindless liberalism.  Rather, it’s the declaration that God saves, through Christ, who God saves.  We’re released from our presumptive judgments, and freed up to invite everyone to Jesus.

#6 – The church feels unfriendly to those who doubt. This is because we’ve come to view the Bible as a textbook or legal brief, rather than a collection of stories, recorded through the ages so that humanity might understand the character of God and trajectory of history.  Because these stories are written in cultural contexts, there are stories of polygamy, genocide, slavery, the mistreatment of women, and more.  The church has done a good job of ignoring all these elephants in the room, but with all the elephants in the room, there’s no space for people with questions.   In addition, let’s remember Abarham’s doubts, David’s struggles with God’s goodness and fairness, not to mention the dozens of others who were people of faith, yet had the courage to question.

I’ve found that the questions are, far from threatening or distracting, hugely valuable.  We face them, hold them, let them ripen, sometimes for years, as we continue to wrestle with what it means to live faithfully.  Of course, this kind of liberty is best enjoyed on a foundation of certitude regarding Christ.  That certitude is offered us, both through the testimony of history, and the Bible’s own declaration that Jesus is the fullest revelation of the character of God.  Armed with that security, we’re free to ask tough questions, and as those questions ripen over the years, the answers we find have a clarifying affect, enabling us to see the beauty of the gospel and God’s reign with greater clarity than had we ignored them.

This is why we need to create space for questions.  When we do, I know from experience, that such space will be filled with young people, because the reality is that young people are eager to live meaningful lives, and our present pattens of hollow consumerism, where even sexuality has been reduced to a commodity, simply aren’t cutting it.

 

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Six Reasons Youth Leave the Faith: …and what to do about it (I)

Friday, January 13th, 2012

The Barna group has recently released a book entitled, “You Lost Me”, and this article offers a succinct summary of six main reasons that young people are leaving the church.  I’m grateful that church I lead in Seattle is generally swimming upstream against this trend.  We’ve grown from around 300 people to 2500 over the past 15 years and most of our growth has come as people between 18-30 have found our church, some of them returning to church life after a ‘vacation’, either from the faith or from the institutional aspects of it.

Established churches can effectively reach emerging generations for Christ.  Indeed, they need to do so, not for the sake of their institution, but for the sake of the kingdom and the hearts of those millions wandering aimlessly through the maze of individualistic consumerism that has come to characterize life in the prosperous west.  Imagine a generation of vibrant, creative, adaptable, curious youth who have grasped the good news message the God’s reign has begun through Christ, and are intent on making that reign visible?  They’ll enjoy the blessings of their commitment, and will rise up to bless the world.

Why doesn’t this happen?  Barna’s survey results mention six reasons, which I state here, along my own thoughts about what churches must do in order to vaporize these critiques, providing instead, an environment that invites people into the good news of God’s better story:

1. Churches seem overprotective. One student notes that churches “demonize everything outside the church”.  A generation that has unprecedented access to all facets of culture will reject any paradigms that call them to isolate and withdraw.  Jesus’ advocates that His followers be “in” the world.  If they’re to be “in” it but not “of” it, then they’ll need to learn skills of discernment, which means trying to understand what God is saying through cultural artifacts, by recognizing that humanity’s longings for meaning, beauty, intimacy, justice, and more are actually longings for God.  Instead of labeling culture ‘evil’, why not watch movies and discuss them, or play music and show how the lyrics speak of longings for love, or the despair of materialism, or the emptiness of violence.  There’s plenty in culture that points to God, if we’re willing to look at it.  I use lyrics from bands, movie clips, and references to sport in my teaching – not constantly, but enough to create an environment that encourages discernment rather than separation, and enjoyment rather than fear.

2. Their experience of  Christianity is shallow. “Church is boring” or “not relevant to my career” or “Church doesn’t teach the Bible enough” or “God seems absent from church”.  Ouch!  I understand that the church runs the risk of crass consumerism if we simply try to make church “exciting”.  However, “exciting” is merely a byproduct of:

Compelling Worship – Music style isn’t a moral issue.  It’s a language.  If you want to reach emerging generations, you need to be willing to speak their musical language, at least part of the time.

Christ at the center - Paul’s concern about people being seduced away from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ should be every church’s concern too.  To the extent that our paradigm becomes filling programs with people, rather than filling people with Christ, we’ll declare that our real mission is to create institutional loyalty.  That’s not only the wrong mission – it’s a mission that’s doomed to failure.  If you’re McDonald’s, creating brand loyalty is fine.  If you’re a church, that kind of mentality is the kiss of death.  Young people know when you’re real goal is creating institutional loyalty, no matter what your mission statement reads.  Calling people to Christ certainly means calling people to community, but we need to be careful not confuse institutional loyalty with community commitment.  The former is born out of consumerism and branding, the latter out of a passionate love for Christ, who is encountered not only through His word, but through relationships.

3.  Churches come across as antagonistic to science. When young people are taught that belief in anything other than a very young earth is tantamount to abandonment of the faith, we’re setting them up for a later fork in the road.  Eventually, most of them will encounter an avalanche of evidence that the earth is old (and discoveries surrounding the human genome over the past decades only serve to further reinforce this assessment).  In light of what they’ve learned in church, they’ll be forced to choose:  faith or science?

It’s a choice they should never have been forced to make.  Sound Bible teaching, from an early age, will enable people to understand that God’s point in offering the creation narrative to us is to show us God’s character, man’s high calling as image bearer, and the glory of God’s abundant provision for humanity.  I’ve preached about this here, and this book will also prove itself to be a valuable resource.

Taken together, these three critiques paint a picture of a church that is afraid:  afraid of culture, afraid of losing members, afraid of intellectual engagement and questions.  Jesus’ word to us though, numerous times, is this: Do not be afraid!   Stated positively, Jesus says this:  Abide in me and you’ll bear much fruit.  To the extent that we abide in Christ, confident expectation that Christ will bear fruit can displace our fear.  Such hope is what emerging generations are seeking – isn’t it high time they began seeking it in the church?

I welcome your thoughts!

coming Monday – the other three reasons, which have to do with sexuality, pluralism, and freedom to doubt.  See you then!

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Co-illumination: Preaching from the text of life

Friday, January 6th, 2012

This Sunday, I’ll be starting a new series at our church entitled, “Every Square Inch:  Blessing the World through Culture Reading and Vocation”.  In this series I’ll be preaching from the book of life, a book that’s declaring eternal truth, every day, all around us.  In spite of this constant revelation, the reality is that our hearts and minds are so fragmented that we usually don’t hear what God is saying to us through culture.  We’re grown up believing that God’s truth is found in the Bible, and then there’s the rest of life which is neutral at best, or so filled with lust, greed, duplicity, oppression, and competition, that the best thing we can do is stare at the ground and muddle through ’til next Sunday, when we can once again be reminded that there’s a better world coming as soon as we die.

This mind set is, to put it as tactfully as possible, rubbish.  It’s rooted in the Gnostic dualism, but has nothing to do with authentic faith.  It was Abraham Kuyper who said, “There is not one square inch of the entire creation about which Jesus Christ does not cry out, “This is mine.  This belongs to me” – Abraham Kuyper.  The cultures we’ve created in this world exist because of longings inside us – longings for beauty, intimacy, triumph, justice, celebration, and hope.   The question we need to ask is “Where did these longings come from” because these longings set us apart from the animal kingdom.  Having food and shelter, it seems that we’re not content to simply sit around eating, sleeping, and copulating so as to propagate the species.  Instead, we create art and political systems, we teach, invent games and play them, games where there’s a winner and a loser.

The misguided will simply label all this as “the world” and get on with another round of Bible study to shore up their spiritual immunities in order that they might remain unstained.  What’s wrong with this picture is that it fails to take into account the reality that all these cultural creations have come into existence precisely because we’re created in God’s image.  Instead of vilifying or tolerating culture, we should be celebrating culture, always asking the question, “What does this ____ (movie, sport, song, painting, profession, city council meeting) tell us about God’s character?”  What happens when we embark on this paradigm shift?

All of life becomes a source of revelation.  This brings integration to our lives, so that we go through each day looking to the wisdom of God’s spirit to guide us into all truth.  Of course, this requires discernment, and the lens of scripture will need to inform our ‘culture reading’.  Of course culture reading is open to misinterpretation.  This, though, is true of Bible study as well.

We become part of world, rather than isolated.  For too long, the church has functioned almost wholly in a paradigm that views culture as an adversary.  Surely there are adversarial components and we, whose primary citizenship belongs to kingdom of Christ, are called to critique oppression, injustice, and the systems that further them.  But it’s also true that, if we take a cue from Paul, we’re called to look for signs of grace in every piece of culture, even when wandering a hillside filled with idols.  We’ll see that which disturbs and distresses, and we’ll also see that which points to eternity.  I’m envisioning Christians who have permission to live fully in the culture, as those who will carry the light of Christ into every corner of the city.

We become bridge builders.  Again, taking our cue from Paul in Acts 16, we realize that Paul had a knack for beginning his message by finding a common starting point.  “Men of Athens, I observe that you are religious in every way”.  This is a far cry from the all too common starting points of our day:  “You’re a heartbeat from hell.  Accept Jesus as your savior.”  Or, “Your sinful lifestyle is destroying America – stop it, and become a Christian”, or “God loves you but hates everything you do.”  These absurd opening lines only give fuel to the fires of gospel rejection that permeate American culture.  How about reframing the gospel as good news that fulfills our deepest longings?  If we take that approach, then it doesn’t take long to realize that film, art, music, sport, and many professions, give voice to those longings.

It’s high time we learn how to become readers of culture.  So, for the next several weeks, I’ll be preaching from the Bible AND the book of culture, as we consider sport, art, teaching, surgery, business, a film, and a mid-life career change to show how our culture and longings point to what is true in the gospel.

What do you think?  Will preaching from the text of life, and using the Bible to bring clarity to it work?  What are the good elements in this?  What are the dangers?  I welcome your thoughts.

These sermons will be available as vodcasts sometime later this winter, and when they are, I’ll let you know.  In the meantime, the audio will, as always, be available for download through itunes, and our website.

 

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Hope for the New Year: Let’s get beyond “NO”

Monday, January 2nd, 2012

The church has been weak on saying YES for decades

If history tells us one thing, it’s that humans are good at saying NO to systems that don’t work.  If our species were a single body, we’d have an excellent immune system.  When oppressive regimes arise, it’s only a matter of time until they collapse.  The weight of their own corruption weakens them until an uprising from the masses leads to regime change.  The toppling of empires is nearly always welcomed with fanfare.  We like burning flags, and effigies, and toppling statues.  There’s usually a band, and some guns going off, maybe some dancing and kissing.

The only thing missing, often, is “the next step”.  But of course, that’s where things get dicey.  It’s one thing to throw parties celebrating the end of something terrible.  But if you’re not careful, the vacuum left by a collapsed Mubarak regime may be filled by a police state that brutalizes women.  Or, the people dancing on the Czar’s grave might soon find themselves frostbitten in a Siberian Gulag for thought crimes.  Or, the end of the Wiemar Republic might be celebrated as a new beginning without realizing that it’s the new beginning of darkness that would plunge the whole world into a nearly two decades of death and despair.

We’re good at saying NO.  Without a YES to fill the vacuum though, history tells us that the hole left by casting off the bonds of the oppressor will just be filled with even tighter bonds, even heavier yokes.  So if, in the coming year, you don’t see me celebrating wildly every time something that’s not working is cast aside, you’ll know why:  I’m interested in the end of the story. That’s why we need to get beyond no, to get beyond our capacity to say “this isn’t working”.  We need to cast vision for the “Yes” of this world, and there’s nobody better suited to do that than Christ followers.

This principle has at least two vital applications that I pray we’ll keep in mind during 2012

1. It’s an election year, and as such we’re going to hear mountains of poo shoveled at us about how wicked, dysfunctional, greedy, corrupt, incompetent, oppressive, and destructive the other candidate is.  Politicians know that we like NO, that it’s in us to criticize, vilify, disdain, and destroy.  Please remember that, though we’ve destroyed countless oppressive regimes over the centuries, we also destroyed Jesus in the exact same way!  I’m convinced that our capacity for creating self righteous moral high ground and hating enemies is the real drug to which we’re addicted, and know this: we partake at our peril.  It appears that neither Bush nor Obama are the antichrist after all.  I pray that we’ll be careful with our sweeping judgements because implied in the them is that the real problem is the president, or the party controlling congress, when a bigger view of history would tell us otherwise.  The big view reveals that we’re stuck, no matter who’s in power, in a quick sand of corporate interests, fear, and greed.  Changing parties is a little like rearranging the chairs, until the fear, greed, and propensity to corruption are addressed by a newer, bigger vision.

2. The church has become NO experts as well, and I say this to our shame.  I have friends who work in theater in New York who tell me that they don’t tell their friends that they’re Christians, because the word Christian has, in its street definition, come to mean this:  anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-democrat.  Never mind your views of any of those three issues – if your stance on those issues define the word Christian, something has gone desperately wrong with our message.

In the name of Christ, I pray that we’ll embody the message of Christ, and that message was actually pretty straightforward. “Change the way you live so that it aligns with God’s good reign.  This is the good new of the Kingdom”    That’s my paraphrase of Matthew 4:23, and it’s the message Jesus brought over and over and over.  What if the church had a reputation for representing the good reign of God.  If they did, then we’d be known for our humility, hospitality, love for our enemies, capacity for generosity and service (especially to the poor and marginalized), and irrepressible joy.  We be known as a healing and reconciling force in the world.

Instead we’re known as anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-democrat – as if this were the high trinity of our faith.  It’s as if the church believes that be saying NO, NO, NO – all will be well.  Again, I’m not writing to debate any of those three points (not in this post anyway).  I’m writing to declare that if we realize how we’re perceived by our world, and hold that up against Jesus reputation in the world (remember his title “friend of sinners”), I’d say we have more than a messaging problem – we have an utter misrepresentation of the gospel.

That’s why, in 2012, I want to do all I can to call the church to become artisans of hope. I’ve written a book about this (which was just given an award by Christianity Today).  I’ll be teaching about it in our church in the coming month.  And I’m working on re-ordering my personal priorities so that there’s a compelling vision to the Christian life that’s larger than the woefully inadequate NO. Unless we fill the void with the hope and vision of God’s good reign, the vacuum will be filled with religious noise and bickering, and that’s something our weary world doesn’t need at all.

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