Reflections on Reflections to Reflections on Passion<\/strong><\/p>\n Here are some reflections on the reflections people had to my reflections on Passion.<\/p>\n Handling Sacred Cows<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Voicing critique while also voicing appreciation and approval is tough. It\u2019s tough on the part of the communicator, but just as tough on the part of the hearer. When we listen to something, our first impulse is to categorize it as positive or negative\u2026not a lot of patience for something with a bit of tension. This is ever more the case when the thing being handled is a sacred cow, which Passion\u2014understandably\u2014is. If you\u2019re going to handle a sacred cow, better be ready for the horns. But if you\u2019re willing to be patient, please hear that\u2026<\/p>\n A.) I like Passion. In a delicious twist of irony, just yesterday a student asked me to help him understand how to make the Holy Spirit an actual reality in his life. I asked him where this impulse came from. His answer: I went to Passion and felt compelled to take my faith more seriously. Hooray, Passion! I hope he goes back next year\u2026honestly. And predictably, I received lots of emails and messages from people, sharing stories about how much Passion has meant to them (so if Louie wants some Passion testimonies for next year, tell him I\u2019ve got the goods!!!). That\u2019s great and I believe it and love it, but that doesn\u2019t mean that I can\u2019t also say\u2026<\/p>\n B.) I think Passion could use its platform a bit more responsibly. They can\u2019t squash all the hype and it\u2019s not the worst thing in the world anyways and God will still be on the throne either way, yada, yada. But maybe they (and we) can stop throwing gasoline on the hype, hyping the hype. Maybe they can redirect some of the hype towards faithfulness to a local church. I, for one, find this quite feasible. And I really think that the Passion folks are good folks and probably have this on their radar. Is it a bad thing for us to have it on our radar? Are we\u2014especially pastors\u2014not equally responsible for letting the Passion powers-that-be know we want this to be on their radar? I think we are.<\/p>\n Laissez Faire<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n So there were three primary responses to the post.<\/p>\n 1.) Agree that Passion does some of this and we should address it.<\/p>\n -Obviously I agree.<\/p>\n 2.) Completely disagree, how dare you, sour grapes, raining on parades, cynical, etc.<\/p>\n -Not a lot I can do with this one except to say, if it\u2019s really as sacred as you think, then a little criticism will do it some good. It\u2019ll give you a chance to look under the hood, kick the tires, and feel even better about taking a ride in it. Kind of like biblical criticism: if you got nothing to hide, don\u2019t be afraid to poke and prod a little bit.<\/p>\n 3.) Kind of agree, kind of disagree, but it\u2019s not worth talking about.<\/p>\n -This response\u2014laissez faire\u2014surprised me with its frequency: there\u2019s probably some truth here but it doesn\u2019t really matter, we should just let it ride, it\u2019s a necessary evil, get over it. Reading between the lines a bit, I hear, \u201cLook, we agree consumerism isn\u2019t good, but it does a lot of helpful dirty work in attracting people, so just leave the skeleton in the closet. Besides, talking to Americans about consumerism is like trying to talk to a fish about water\u2026it\u2019s not worth the hassle. Jesus will sort it out.\u201d Truth be told, this is the way I have usually thought about consumerism. Maybe it\u2019s lazy, maybe it\u2019s fatalistic, maybe it\u2019s realistic, but I\u2019m no longer sure it\u2019s responsible. I don\u2019t know what a responsible answer is and think it will vary in each instance, but whatever the case may be, l don\u2019t think laissez faire will cut it.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll let Tim Keller help me out a bit here. I was listening to an interview with him in which he was asked about adapting the gospel and making it relevant at his church, Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City. I\u2019ll paraphrase him:<\/p>\n Do you have to adapt the gospel? Yea, you have to adapt. We adapt our communication of the gospel to the context, but there\u2019s other ways in which I don\u2019t want our church to look like the world. We tried not to be too hip, too political, too anything. It\u2019s needs to feel alien and familiar. If it becomes too familiar, we lose the ability to convert people.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n What stuck with me was Keller\u2019s line about losing the ability to convert people. He didn\u2019t elaborate so I\u2019m left to fill in the gaps a bit and assume he meant something like this. The trappings of consumerism and its cognates are, in some sense, a gospel issue<\/em><\/strong>. They\u2019re not peripheral, not superfluous. They disfigure our humanity and are something the gospel intends to convert<\/em><\/strong> us from.<\/p>\n If this is so\u2014and I think it is\u2014then a \u201cgospel\u201d laced with consumerism simply lacks the ability to convert us thoroughly enough. We don\u2019t need to be converted from people who don\u2019t know consumerism is bad and are addicted to it to people who do know consumerism is bad but are still addicted to it. We need to no longer be addicted to it, and thus need the Christian community to be a place where this conviction is made incarnate. Switching around the mental furniture won\u2019t do if we\u2019re not willing to switch around the actual furniture.<\/p>\n Why Pick on Passion?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n As plenty of people have pointed out, if we really want to have this conversation, Passion certainly isn\u2019t the only guilty party. All of our hands will be a little dirty. So why pick on Passion? Well first off, because Passion can take it. It\u2019s not going anywhere and Louie won\u2019t read this and then retreat to a dark room to suck his thumb and assume the fetal position.<\/p>\n Second, I mentioned Passion because Passion is so influential\u2014and if you don\u2019t think Passion is that influential, my hunch is you don\u2019t work with college students. If we can have the consumerism\/hyper-spirituality conversation about Passion, I think we\u2019ll begin having it about some other things. Where does the conversation stop? I don\u2019t know, but that\u2019s a poor reason not to start. Passion seemed like an obvious choice to me. Consider it a compliment!<\/p>\n