I am enjoying this season of The Office, but I must admit that I am looking forward to the 3-hour season premier of Lost this spring. A couple of my friends and I were talking about the show and rehashing the storyline, and it made me start thinking about the appeal of the show. Even though a couple of seasons have been far inferior to the first one, my friends and I all agreed that we couldn’t give up on watching the show now because we have invested too much into it. In fact, I would go as far as to say that there is a cultish following of the show, and I am completely caught up in it. Last year I registered on some weird Dharma website that kept sending me junk e-mails, and they started freaking me out a little bit so I requested to be removed from the list. But in this cultural phenomenon known as Lost, what is it that is causing so many people to get sucked into this quasi-Sci-Fi plot?
I think that it is the fact that Lost is the definition of a postmodern show. There are deeply “spiritual” or “supernatural” things that go on with the characters on the island, but none of it is exactly orthodox when it comes to faith. There is also the element that the audience is not aware of the full story going on, and we are only getting pieces of it episode by episode. This is a distinguishing characteristic of postmodernity, in that the majority of postmoderns do not feel connected to a story that is larger than their own lives (it is called a loss of metanarrative). But the thing that I think that is most telling why people are so intrigued by the show is the battle between good and evil is distinctly postmodern.
The show has a cast of characters that are dynamic and “round” individuals. I overheard some people a couple of months ago talking about the show, and one guys said, “I hate Jack. He’s so self-righteous.” Only in a culture as jaded as ours would a show’s primary “hero” be as unimpressive as Jack Shepherd. Sure he’s a spinal surgeon, he’s good looking (so I hear), and he’s decisive, but he’s also an alcoholic, narcissistic, noncommittal, and schizophrenic at times. The person we should all be cheering for is not innately good or evil. He is a conglomerate of both the best and worst of humanity.
But this doesn’t stop with Jack. Benjamin Linus, the show’s main antagonist (by the way, Michael Emerson is doing one of the best acting jobs on TV in this role), has qualities that evoke empathy from the audience at times. I find it hard to hate him like I do other villains in movies and TV shows. His childhood makes you feel sorry for his upbringing, and I am still not 100% sure he’s the true “bad guy” in the show. After 4 seasons, the audience still does not know what or who the evil force is, but that does not mean the show has lacked in drama or nerve-racking moments.
All of this is characteristic of what is going on in Christianity today. One of my favorite emergent church authors to pick on is Brian McLaren because I think he is nearsighted in his doctrine, and he is too bold when it comes to pushing postmodernity into Christianity. The root of my major complaints with him is that he rarely filters out society in an attempt to redeem it; rather, he usually slurps up our current cultural climate and tries to make Christianity fit into that box. In his book called The Story We Find Ourselves In, the character that represents the postmodern culture named Neo (pointing towards his neoorthodox theology) discusses the issue of evil and the person of Satan. He says, “You know, if you go back into the most ancient parts of the Old Testament, there is no concept of Satan. That idea comes along much later. It seems to have been borrowed from the Zoroastrians, actually. Maybe it’s no sin to think of Satan as a metaphor—a horribly real metaphor for a terribly real force in the universe, mind you.” (Pg. 145) Does this metaphorical force sound a little similar to the forces at work on Lost? And my other question is, if Satan is merely a metaphorical evil force, then what makes God anything more than a symbolic good force?
What is it about the world today that makes us doubt that anyone or anything can be purely evil or purely good? It concerns me when people justify Adolf Hitler because of his upbringing or mental conditions, but not because I think Hitler is the embodiment of all things evil, but that I think that this is a roundabout way of denying pure evil and unsullied good. I personally believe there is an embodiment of evil and he has a name: Satan. This word makes most people in society cringe, and I think that it is only a matter of a few years that people will cringe when God is mentioned. We are all much more comfortable with donating a couple of bucks towards AIDS relief rather than dealing with the cause of the disease in the first place. We all want children to have clean water, but we do not want to square with the reason that poverty exists in this fallen world. In spite of this growing trend in culture, we cannot escape the fact that we are drawn to the drama that unfolds between good and evil as humans. This is because we all know in the depths of our being that there is an originator of all things good and beautiful; there is also a being that started all things evil and rebellious. Until you come to grips with this reality, chances are you will feel a little lost.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Politically Correct Me by Brady
This campaign season has been a little too much for me to handle. Both presidential candidates have spent more time and money on this campaign than any other before. They also have had their every move covered by the media. But in the midst of constantly waiting for one of them to slip up, it has become apparent how politically correct our culture has become. We all made fun of China during the Olympics for not allowing the press to report certain issues, but we have instituted our own form of censorship. For example, Larry King asked John McCain if he feels like he has gotten a fair shake from the press, and he answered yes. You could see on his face that he was only saying that so a firestorm was not started 6 days before the election. Barack Obama also was forced last night to tout Bill and Hilary Clinton last night in front of a crowd in Florida even though he blasted her in the primaries. This, however, is not just a political issue, but it has also become a religious one as well.
One of my students a couple of years ago told me a story about when he went to a mall in Dallas around Christmas time and was on a crowded elevator with a mixture of holiday shoppers. There was the inevitable awkwardness of being in close quarters for 30 seconds with complete strangers and standing in complete silence. There is not enough time to start a conversation, but there is just enough time to make you start sweating due to the discomfort in the cabin. In the elevator was a group of thuggish looking guys, and one of them spoke up. He broke the silence by saying, “How’s everyone doing?” Everybody remained silent and stared at the floor feeling the tension of the situation. Not to be denied, the ringleader presses on. What he asks next throws everyone for a loop. He asks, “Y’all go to church?” Again, no response from the crowd, but he and his friends don’t really care that they are breaking all sorts of social rules of political correctness.
This guy and his friends were breaking all sorts of social etiquette rules that are unspoken in today’s world. Rule #1: Do not step into an elevator if you are going to cause people to give up personal space. Rule #2: If you do break rule number one, do not talk on the elevator. Just stand silently until you reach the desired floor. Rule #3: Do not under any circumstance discuss matters of faith in public, especially to complete strangers.
I have not even mentioned the fact that most people had already pre-judged this group of “gangsters” before they opened their mouths. But, the ringleader pressed through the thick air and said something incredible just as the group reached their destination. He said, “I just want y’all to know that God loves you, and you should think about going to church sometime. Merry Christmas.”
This situation, which really happened at a local mall, challenges me personally in so many ways. There are rules which we all follow which can be best described as being “politically correct.” Caucasian, not white; Portly, not fat; Vertically challenged, not short; Mentally challenged, not retarded. I could go on even further, but even my typing of certain examples would raise red flags for some of you. The point is that our society is drowning in a sea of political correctness and we are producing more posers than ever before. People are pulled off of TV for racial or sexual comments all of the time (which they rightly should be), but rappers sing about some of the worst stuff imaginable and no one does a thing to stop them.
The truth is that most Christians are being muzzled by the fear of political correctness. I am not a big proponent of the bullhorn preacher (for all of you Rob Bell disciples out there), but I am also not going to say that he or she does not have an important role to play. To be honest, I hide far too often behind the statement: “It’s not my style.” But in a culture where Sesame Street has hurt people’s feelings, it might be time for a dose of reality. The problem is not people using certain politically incorrect words in public, but it is the mentality behind it. In an age where Christians are usually portrayed as dummies unless they are talking about global warming, it might be time to forget worrying about being politically correct in the sense of American politics.
As one of my professors always says, being a Christian is making a political statement between heaven and earth where you stand. I believe that we are to be more concerned with being Kingdom Citizens than American Citizens. The politics that really matter are not between red or blue, but light and darkness. The more you read Jesus and Paul, the less they seem to fit our mold of political correctness. I think the whole point is that you may start becoming less concerned with being politically correct and more concern with being spiritually correct. Watch less of Fox News or CNN and actually learn the names of the 12 disciples. I am not suggesting that anyone should make racial or sexual degrading comments (if that’s what you heard, you do not read very well), but I am saying that you may think about calling someone out who is living in sin or sharing with a non-believer why you follow Christ.
Just as the guys broke every mold we have created, I pray that we begin to live in such a way where the love of God confronts people enough to shock them out of their comfort zones which are protected by a fence of political correctness. I pray that I say or do something in the next week that someone feels the need to politically correct me.
One of my students a couple of years ago told me a story about when he went to a mall in Dallas around Christmas time and was on a crowded elevator with a mixture of holiday shoppers. There was the inevitable awkwardness of being in close quarters for 30 seconds with complete strangers and standing in complete silence. There is not enough time to start a conversation, but there is just enough time to make you start sweating due to the discomfort in the cabin. In the elevator was a group of thuggish looking guys, and one of them spoke up. He broke the silence by saying, “How’s everyone doing?” Everybody remained silent and stared at the floor feeling the tension of the situation. Not to be denied, the ringleader presses on. What he asks next throws everyone for a loop. He asks, “Y’all go to church?” Again, no response from the crowd, but he and his friends don’t really care that they are breaking all sorts of social rules of political correctness.
This guy and his friends were breaking all sorts of social etiquette rules that are unspoken in today’s world. Rule #1: Do not step into an elevator if you are going to cause people to give up personal space. Rule #2: If you do break rule number one, do not talk on the elevator. Just stand silently until you reach the desired floor. Rule #3: Do not under any circumstance discuss matters of faith in public, especially to complete strangers.
I have not even mentioned the fact that most people had already pre-judged this group of “gangsters” before they opened their mouths. But, the ringleader pressed through the thick air and said something incredible just as the group reached their destination. He said, “I just want y’all to know that God loves you, and you should think about going to church sometime. Merry Christmas.”
This situation, which really happened at a local mall, challenges me personally in so many ways. There are rules which we all follow which can be best described as being “politically correct.” Caucasian, not white; Portly, not fat; Vertically challenged, not short; Mentally challenged, not retarded. I could go on even further, but even my typing of certain examples would raise red flags for some of you. The point is that our society is drowning in a sea of political correctness and we are producing more posers than ever before. People are pulled off of TV for racial or sexual comments all of the time (which they rightly should be), but rappers sing about some of the worst stuff imaginable and no one does a thing to stop them.
The truth is that most Christians are being muzzled by the fear of political correctness. I am not a big proponent of the bullhorn preacher (for all of you Rob Bell disciples out there), but I am also not going to say that he or she does not have an important role to play. To be honest, I hide far too often behind the statement: “It’s not my style.” But in a culture where Sesame Street has hurt people’s feelings, it might be time for a dose of reality. The problem is not people using certain politically incorrect words in public, but it is the mentality behind it. In an age where Christians are usually portrayed as dummies unless they are talking about global warming, it might be time to forget worrying about being politically correct in the sense of American politics.
As one of my professors always says, being a Christian is making a political statement between heaven and earth where you stand. I believe that we are to be more concerned with being Kingdom Citizens than American Citizens. The politics that really matter are not between red or blue, but light and darkness. The more you read Jesus and Paul, the less they seem to fit our mold of political correctness. I think the whole point is that you may start becoming less concerned with being politically correct and more concern with being spiritually correct. Watch less of Fox News or CNN and actually learn the names of the 12 disciples. I am not suggesting that anyone should make racial or sexual degrading comments (if that’s what you heard, you do not read very well), but I am saying that you may think about calling someone out who is living in sin or sharing with a non-believer why you follow Christ.
Just as the guys broke every mold we have created, I pray that we begin to live in such a way where the love of God confronts people enough to shock them out of their comfort zones which are protected by a fence of political correctness. I pray that I say or do something in the next week that someone feels the need to politically correct me.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Are You Emergent? by Brady
“You might be an emergent Christian: if you listen to U2, Moby, and Johnny Cash’s Hurt (sometimes in church), use sermon illustrations from The Sopranos, drink lattes in the afternoon and Guinness in the evenings, and always use a Mac; if your reading list consists primarily of Stanley Hauerwas, Henri Nouwen, N.T. Wright, Stan Grenz, Dallas Willard, Brennan Manning, Jim Wallis, Frederick Buechner, David Bosch, John Howard Yoder, Wendell Berry, Nancy Murphy, John Franke, Walter Winks and Lesslie Newbigin (not to mention McLaren, Pagitt, Bell, etc.) and your sparring partners include D.A. Carson, John Calvin, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Wayne Grudem; if your idea of quintessential Christian discipleship is Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, or Desmond Tutu; if you don’t like George W. Bush or institutions or big business or capitalism or Left Behind Christianity; if your political concerns are poverty, AIDS, imperialism, war-mongering, CEO salaries, consumerism, global warming, racism, and oppression and not so much abortion and gay marriage; if you are into bohemian, goth, rave, or indie; if you talk about they myth of redemptive violence and the myth of certainty; if you lie awake at night having nightmares about all the ways modernism has ruined your life; if you love the Bible as a beautiful, inspiring collection of works that lead us into the mystery of God but is not inerrant; if you search for truth but aren’t sure it can be found; if you’ve ever been to a church with prayer labyrinths, candles, Play-Doh, chalk-drawings, couches, or beanbags (your youth group doesn’t count); if you loathe words like linear, propositional, rational, machine, and hierarchy and use words like ancient-future, jazz, mosaic, matrix, missional, vintage, and dance; if you grew up in a very conservative Christian home that in retrospect seems legalistic, naïve, and rigid; if you support women in all levels of ministry, prioritize urban over suburban, and like your theology narrative instead of systematic; if you disbelieve in any sacred-secular divide; if you want to be the church and not just go to church; if you long for a community that is relational, tribal, and primal like a river or a garden; if you believe doctrine gets in the way of an interactive relationship with Jesus; if you believe who goes to hell is no one’s business and no one may be there anyway; if you believe salvation has a little to do with atoning for guilt and a lot to do with bringing the whole creation back into shalom with its Maker; if you believe following Jesus is not believing the right things but living the right way; if it really bugs you when people talk about going to heaven instead of heaven coming to us; if you disdain monological, didactic preaching; if you use the word “story” in all your propositions about postmodernism—if all or most of this tortuously long sentence describes you, then you might be an emergent Christian.”
-from Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be) by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck
-from Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be) by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Love God and Love Others and... by Brady
Yesterday I was involved in a conversation about what it means to be a disciple. First we said that a disciple is someone who knows and believes certain things. Quickly we saw that this in itself could not be the sum of what it means to be a disciple. If you simply believe correct doctrine about Jesus without any action, you can hardly called be a disciple of Christ. So we added that a disciple is someone who also does certain things in addition to knowing correct things about Christ. But what we came to in the end is a “yeah, but” answer.
In Mark 12:28-34, Jesus is answering a series of “test” questions from religious leaders in Jerusalem. They are trying to put him on the spot and get him in trouble. He is approached by a scribe and is asked the most important question anyone could ask God. This is how the story unfolds: “One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.”
What is odd to me is that Jesus reduces a life of faith down to only two things: Love God and Love Others. He is basically the first person to combine the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18 that says to love others. But even when this religious leader agrees with Jesus and affirms his answer, Jesus still tells him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” This was the “yeah, but” that we threw in yesterday in what it means to be a disciple. Yes you need to know certain things about God and love him, and yes you need to love others and do things for them. But, you cannot say that is all there is to this life of faith. It is much deeper than that. If there is not a dynamic relationship, then you are just going through the motions and are not actually a disciple at all.
The best way I can describe this is from an illustration my senior pastor used yesterday. I am married to Becca and we have been married for just over a year now. But what is it that makes me married to her? Is it that I believe that we are married? No, because Becca’s mom and dad love her, yet are not married to her. So, is it that I perform certain functions that would result in us being married? Just because we share an apartment, bank account, and bed does not mean that we are now qualified to be married. There is something more that makes us married, and I would argue that this other ingredient is hesed. It is a steadfast covenant, a commitment to never leave or forsake one another. It is the promise to be there through thick and thin. And it is that we love each other and share a bank account. So to be a true disciple, you must believe certain things and do certain things. But this will only get you close to the kingdom of God. What will get you in the kingdom is a steadfast love and dynamic, covenant relationship with the Creator and his created beings.
In Mark 12:28-34, Jesus is answering a series of “test” questions from religious leaders in Jerusalem. They are trying to put him on the spot and get him in trouble. He is approached by a scribe and is asked the most important question anyone could ask God. This is how the story unfolds: “One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.”
What is odd to me is that Jesus reduces a life of faith down to only two things: Love God and Love Others. He is basically the first person to combine the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18 that says to love others. But even when this religious leader agrees with Jesus and affirms his answer, Jesus still tells him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” This was the “yeah, but” that we threw in yesterday in what it means to be a disciple. Yes you need to know certain things about God and love him, and yes you need to love others and do things for them. But, you cannot say that is all there is to this life of faith. It is much deeper than that. If there is not a dynamic relationship, then you are just going through the motions and are not actually a disciple at all.
The best way I can describe this is from an illustration my senior pastor used yesterday. I am married to Becca and we have been married for just over a year now. But what is it that makes me married to her? Is it that I believe that we are married? No, because Becca’s mom and dad love her, yet are not married to her. So, is it that I perform certain functions that would result in us being married? Just because we share an apartment, bank account, and bed does not mean that we are now qualified to be married. There is something more that makes us married, and I would argue that this other ingredient is hesed. It is a steadfast covenant, a commitment to never leave or forsake one another. It is the promise to be there through thick and thin. And it is that we love each other and share a bank account. So to be a true disciple, you must believe certain things and do certain things. But this will only get you close to the kingdom of God. What will get you in the kingdom is a steadfast love and dynamic, covenant relationship with the Creator and his created beings.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Vertically Challenged by Brady
Oswald Chambers once wrote, “If I am devoted solely to the cause of humanity, I will soon be exhausted and come to the point where my love will waver and stumble.” In this election season, I keep hearing which party is more devoted to the causes that benefit humanity. Whether it is healthcare, energy, climate control, abortion, or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, each party is asserting that they care more about humans than the other party does.
An instrumental part to the word hesed is that the vertical relationship we can have with God ultimately affects our horizontal relationship with others. But what I see many people in my generation doing is glossing over the vertical components of this word. In an attempt to “fix” the Christianity our parents have passed on to us, we have forgotten that you cannot love horizontally adequately without the vertical changing our lives. So we march forward building social institutions that are going to change the world and create heaven on earth, only to invoke the name of God when it can advance our cause. This is the reason I believe you see organizations such as Invisible Children blowing up in popularity and church attendance shrinking at alarming rates. Is it possible that our attempts to correct our horizontal image, we have become vertically challenged?
I think it is humorous that my generation believes it will eradicate hunger, disease, and war, yet it obsessed and paralyzed by consumption, acquisition, and greed. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach would say this is due to our lack of development on the vertical side of life. He says, “Incurable insecurity, Prozac, and Paxil are the rewards for a generation that has learned to define its very being through material and professional success—productivity—rather than through being G-d’s children, whose value is immutable and immeasurable. No wonder then that we thirst endlessly for more money, bigger homes, faster cars—anything to obviate the inner feeling of worthlessness that haunts us at every turn. Since we have failed to develop vertically by acquiring more depth and sublimity, we compensate by increasing horizontally, through acquisition and consumption.”
Not only do we struggle with vanity in the material sense, but also by believing that we can change the world. We can cure all diseases. We can solve all political conflict. We can reverse climate change. Yes we can! To me, there is nothing more vain or self-absorbed than the idea that an institution or human willpower can solve the world’s problems. No wonder there is no room for the doctrine of sin, depravity, and a need for forgiveness in popular Christianity today. If you look around, the majority of the popular and well known preachers are famous for either preaching self-help formulas peppered with verses from Psalms and Proverbs or social remedies camped in selective stories from the Gospels.
My pastor told a story a few weeks ago that I thought drove home this point really well. It was about a pastor of a small congregation who had a wealthy rancher who would attend his church every once and a while. One day, the pastor went out to this man’s ranch to visit him and got a tour of his land. They drove all over the property and the rancher bragged endlessly about his commodities. As they reached the top of a hill on the land and parked the vehicle, and the pastor confessed that he has been worried about how the rancher is doing. The pastor and rancher both stepped, and the rancher said, “Pastor, look around you in all four cardinal directions.” The pastor went along with him and followed his instructions. He went on, “No matter where you look, I own land as far as you can see. I would say I am doing pretty well.” The pastor thought for a moment and said, “I am not worried about how you are doing in this direction,” as he pointed around horizontally. He continued, “I am worried about how you are doing in this direction,” raising his hand and pointing towards heaven.
When you are growing and maturing physically, it is important to grow both horizontally and vertically. If you only grow vertically, you will be rail thin and not capable of normal physical activities. If you only grow horizontally, you will become overweight and not able to function properly either. And if you don’t grow at all, you will eventually die. My hope is that my generation does not becoming vertically challenged while attempting to save the world.
An instrumental part to the word hesed is that the vertical relationship we can have with God ultimately affects our horizontal relationship with others. But what I see many people in my generation doing is glossing over the vertical components of this word. In an attempt to “fix” the Christianity our parents have passed on to us, we have forgotten that you cannot love horizontally adequately without the vertical changing our lives. So we march forward building social institutions that are going to change the world and create heaven on earth, only to invoke the name of God when it can advance our cause. This is the reason I believe you see organizations such as Invisible Children blowing up in popularity and church attendance shrinking at alarming rates. Is it possible that our attempts to correct our horizontal image, we have become vertically challenged?
I think it is humorous that my generation believes it will eradicate hunger, disease, and war, yet it obsessed and paralyzed by consumption, acquisition, and greed. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach would say this is due to our lack of development on the vertical side of life. He says, “Incurable insecurity, Prozac, and Paxil are the rewards for a generation that has learned to define its very being through material and professional success—productivity—rather than through being G-d’s children, whose value is immutable and immeasurable. No wonder then that we thirst endlessly for more money, bigger homes, faster cars—anything to obviate the inner feeling of worthlessness that haunts us at every turn. Since we have failed to develop vertically by acquiring more depth and sublimity, we compensate by increasing horizontally, through acquisition and consumption.”
Not only do we struggle with vanity in the material sense, but also by believing that we can change the world. We can cure all diseases. We can solve all political conflict. We can reverse climate change. Yes we can! To me, there is nothing more vain or self-absorbed than the idea that an institution or human willpower can solve the world’s problems. No wonder there is no room for the doctrine of sin, depravity, and a need for forgiveness in popular Christianity today. If you look around, the majority of the popular and well known preachers are famous for either preaching self-help formulas peppered with verses from Psalms and Proverbs or social remedies camped in selective stories from the Gospels.
My pastor told a story a few weeks ago that I thought drove home this point really well. It was about a pastor of a small congregation who had a wealthy rancher who would attend his church every once and a while. One day, the pastor went out to this man’s ranch to visit him and got a tour of his land. They drove all over the property and the rancher bragged endlessly about his commodities. As they reached the top of a hill on the land and parked the vehicle, and the pastor confessed that he has been worried about how the rancher is doing. The pastor and rancher both stepped, and the rancher said, “Pastor, look around you in all four cardinal directions.” The pastor went along with him and followed his instructions. He went on, “No matter where you look, I own land as far as you can see. I would say I am doing pretty well.” The pastor thought for a moment and said, “I am not worried about how you are doing in this direction,” as he pointed around horizontally. He continued, “I am worried about how you are doing in this direction,” raising his hand and pointing towards heaven.
When you are growing and maturing physically, it is important to grow both horizontally and vertically. If you only grow vertically, you will be rail thin and not capable of normal physical activities. If you only grow horizontally, you will become overweight and not able to function properly either. And if you don’t grow at all, you will eventually die. My hope is that my generation does not becoming vertically challenged while attempting to save the world.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Purpose Driven Gospel by Clint
I recognize that I am probably one of the last confessing Christians on earth who has not read The Purpose Driven Life or The Purpose Driven Church. Especially considering I am a pastor, that is especially terrible. Apparently, Rick Warren has sold over 83 billion copies of each. I’m just joking- I made that number up, but he has sold a lot of copies of both books. I began thumbing through The Purpose Driven Church a week ago. The church I am pastoring is looking at starting small group ministries. In addition to that, we are a relatively new church, and we are looking to define our mission and purpose. The main point that Warren keeps hitting on in defining a church’s purpose is that it needs to be short (a sentence or two), it needs to capture the heart of your ideals, and it needs to be just vague enough that there is room to imagine and innovate. Using these guidelines, a church can define a statement that is motivating and easy to remember.
In studying the Gospel, I see that Jesus is the originator of this tactic of which Warren teaches. When posed with difficult questions, such as “how can I inherit eternal life,” or, “which is the greatest commandment,” Jesus often gives memorable and relatively simple answers. For instance, a brilliant scholar in the law who was also a Pharisee asked Jesus the question, “which is the greatest commandment.” The man who asks was one that debated all aspects of the Old Testament all day long. He knew rules upon rules upon rules. He certainly expected a long monologue from Jesus that was complicated and wordy. However, Jesus responded simply with, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Everyone must have left that encounter with those words ringing in their ears. After all, they only had two commandments to remember. After that, everything would just fall into place. One of the beautiful things about Jesus is that he came to fulfill the law and prophecies of an infinite God, but he made it simple. If we do these two things, we are fulfilling the greatest of God’s command.
We forget this, though, and we make things very complicated. We set off on personal conquests and vendettas. We get sidetracked by new philosophies and trendy teachings. We get enamored with cultural arguments. Of course, there is right and wrong, and we are not to live as the world lives, but what happens when you really focus on those two commands? I think the Spirit leads you in finding purity, seeking righteousness, finding wisdom, and striving after the ultimate prize- following Jesus to eternal life.
In studying the Gospel, I see that Jesus is the originator of this tactic of which Warren teaches. When posed with difficult questions, such as “how can I inherit eternal life,” or, “which is the greatest commandment,” Jesus often gives memorable and relatively simple answers. For instance, a brilliant scholar in the law who was also a Pharisee asked Jesus the question, “which is the greatest commandment.” The man who asks was one that debated all aspects of the Old Testament all day long. He knew rules upon rules upon rules. He certainly expected a long monologue from Jesus that was complicated and wordy. However, Jesus responded simply with, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Everyone must have left that encounter with those words ringing in their ears. After all, they only had two commandments to remember. After that, everything would just fall into place. One of the beautiful things about Jesus is that he came to fulfill the law and prophecies of an infinite God, but he made it simple. If we do these two things, we are fulfilling the greatest of God’s command.
We forget this, though, and we make things very complicated. We set off on personal conquests and vendettas. We get sidetracked by new philosophies and trendy teachings. We get enamored with cultural arguments. Of course, there is right and wrong, and we are not to live as the world lives, but what happens when you really focus on those two commands? I think the Spirit leads you in finding purity, seeking righteousness, finding wisdom, and striving after the ultimate prize- following Jesus to eternal life.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Hesed Now T-shirts
We are excited to now have official Hesed Now t-shirts available to you with our new logo on it. The logo has arrows that span the globe pointing both vertically and horizontally (i.e. "Becoming Vertically Horizontal"). The best news is that these shirts are only FIVE American dollars (even with a slumping economy). If they need to be shipped, then we will ship it at cost, and not a penny more. We only have adult sizes available at the moment (S, M, L, XL). There are five color combinations to choose from and you can check them out on our t-shirt page. So think of it this way: you can buy five different shirts for the amount you get other t-shirts in stores. Please support Hesed Now by purchasing a few for family and friends. We are trying to use these as a way to promote our site as well as to promote hesed. You can order a shirt by emailing info@hesednow.com or by writing to our address at Hesed Now Ministries, PO Box 23164, Waco, TX 76702. Thanks in advance for the support!
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Unsung Heroes by Brady
Have you noticed that all of the recent superhero movies lately are different from the ones 20 and 30 years ago? New movies like Hancock and Hellboy 2 have the protagonist being slightly less than our memories of Christopher Reeve as Superman. Even the new Spiderman and Batman movies seem to be darker and have the main character always doing deep soul searching, wondering if they should continue fighting evil. I think this phenomenon is happening in more places than our local theater though; I believe it is because we continually ruin the reputation of any who might be able to achieve this status. There is also a blurring line on who the actual hero is and who the villain is. The students we work with are in desperate need of a few heroes, and I truly believe the ones that have the power to play this role are the people they live with. In this day and age, if you are involved in your kid’s life, working hard to provide for their needs and teaching them the truths about God, then you are doing something truly heroic by not settling for mediocrity. There is a real enemy and an actual struggle, and it is one that needs a heroic effort from you. Rest assured that your work is being watched, and your consistency in the daily grind makes all the difference in the world.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
False Prophets by Clint
Lately I’ve been fascinated with false prophets. I am aware of the fact that’s a strange way to start a blog, but it’s something that has been troubling me lately. In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus states, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.’” (Matt. 7:21-23) This text is a startling text. It is one of those scary texts in scripture in which you read it and say, “uh-oh.” How can I know God, or how can God know me, when He doesn’t even know those who are prophesying, exorcising, and using His name? Like most, I have never cast out a demon, and I haven’t ever really tried my hand at prophesying, either.
Lately, I’ve come across some videos on the internet of certain preachers and evangelists doing some pretty crazy things. One video had a man baptizing people in the name of the Father, Son, and ‘Bam!’ I don’t know what ‘Bam’ is, and the video was very strange and unbiblical. The sad part is, many treat such leaders as true prophets and true voices of God strictly because of their charisma and showiness. Such leaders are certainly invoking the name of God in everything they do, but is God truly present in their activities? Psychologists would tell you that the sense of belonging and the power of suggestion can drive people to do all sorts of things. Furthermore, emotional experiences can captivate people and convince people of all sorts of things. False leaders prey on such manipulation. Certainly faith is emotional, and beautiful worship comes from a passionate heart, but faith is rooted in obedience and truth. Paul writes, “Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.” (2 Cor. 9:13, emphasis mine) When Christ teaches the disciples how to pray in the Lord’s Prayer, the emphasis of the prayer is God’s will. Jesus was faithful to pray in God’s will, even in facing death. In the Lord’s Prayer, we see that God’s will is for us to need Him. We need His forgiveness, and His daily bread. Being obedient to God is following His law through Jesus Christ AND being dependent on Him. God is not to be portrayed as a name or being that we use so we can do things for our glory.
Have you ever known a “name-dropper?” You know, the guy or girl that insists he or she is really close with someone popular or well known. They always drop the name and say, “Yeah, we’re really close.” Or, “Yeah, we used to hang out almost every day.” I get the image of high school freshman claiming they hang out with the star senior quarterback in the summer. The thing is, the quarterback might not even know the freshman’s name. So when Jesus says, “I never knew you,” what does that mean? It means that a person can do all sorts of things in His name, and a person can claim to have His blessing and His power, but it doesn’t mean He knows that person. In examining the gospels, you get a clear picture of the people that Jesus knows. He knows people who clearly need Him. He knows people that are honest about their brokenness. He knows those who are humble before Him and do not seek Him for earthly power and prestige. He knows the hurting, the sick, the weary, the broken, the honest, the thief on the cross next to him. And yes, Jesus does know those who prophesy and do great things in His name, but He knows them as they come before Him in need of grace. And those who do things in His name with their own gain in mind while manipulating the faith and hope of others, they are just name dropping for popularity.
Lately, I’ve come across some videos on the internet of certain preachers and evangelists doing some pretty crazy things. One video had a man baptizing people in the name of the Father, Son, and ‘Bam!’ I don’t know what ‘Bam’ is, and the video was very strange and unbiblical. The sad part is, many treat such leaders as true prophets and true voices of God strictly because of their charisma and showiness. Such leaders are certainly invoking the name of God in everything they do, but is God truly present in their activities? Psychologists would tell you that the sense of belonging and the power of suggestion can drive people to do all sorts of things. Furthermore, emotional experiences can captivate people and convince people of all sorts of things. False leaders prey on such manipulation. Certainly faith is emotional, and beautiful worship comes from a passionate heart, but faith is rooted in obedience and truth. Paul writes, “Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.” (2 Cor. 9:13, emphasis mine) When Christ teaches the disciples how to pray in the Lord’s Prayer, the emphasis of the prayer is God’s will. Jesus was faithful to pray in God’s will, even in facing death. In the Lord’s Prayer, we see that God’s will is for us to need Him. We need His forgiveness, and His daily bread. Being obedient to God is following His law through Jesus Christ AND being dependent on Him. God is not to be portrayed as a name or being that we use so we can do things for our glory.
Have you ever known a “name-dropper?” You know, the guy or girl that insists he or she is really close with someone popular or well known. They always drop the name and say, “Yeah, we’re really close.” Or, “Yeah, we used to hang out almost every day.” I get the image of high school freshman claiming they hang out with the star senior quarterback in the summer. The thing is, the quarterback might not even know the freshman’s name. So when Jesus says, “I never knew you,” what does that mean? It means that a person can do all sorts of things in His name, and a person can claim to have His blessing and His power, but it doesn’t mean He knows that person. In examining the gospels, you get a clear picture of the people that Jesus knows. He knows people who clearly need Him. He knows people that are honest about their brokenness. He knows those who are humble before Him and do not seek Him for earthly power and prestige. He knows the hurting, the sick, the weary, the broken, the honest, the thief on the cross next to him. And yes, Jesus does know those who prophesy and do great things in His name, but He knows them as they come before Him in need of grace. And those who do things in His name with their own gain in mind while manipulating the faith and hope of others, they are just name dropping for popularity.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Wake Up! by Brady
“Sleeping is giving in, no matter what the time is. Sleeping is giving in, so lift those heavy eyelids.” These are the lyrics to a song by a band named Arcade Fire. What in the world is this band trying to say? Let’s suppose that you are one of the lucky ones that gets to live the average 27,058 days (or 74.1 years) on earth, that you will spend 8117 of those days (or around 22.2 years) sleeping. To be honest, I am one of the world’s worst when it comes to sleeping in. I love sleeping so much that I would probably choose to sleep 12 hours a day if I could. But recently I’ve started to realize that this affinity for sleep may be an escape route built into my life that I need battle. I’m beginning to think that, no matter how much I need and love it, sleep actually might be a tool of the enemy.
Paul Valery, a French poet/philosopher, once said, “The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.” But maybe the problem with most people today is that we have lost our ability to dream while we are awake. I’m not sure if it is because we do not believe that we can make a difference anymore or if it is because we are all gradually losing our belief in a transcendent God, but we all are guilty of attempting to numb ourselves to the world’s pain around us. All I need to point to is America’s obsession with one of its favorite pastimes: golf. Ronald Sider points out that it would take $27 billion spent over eight years to prevent 30 million people from becoming infected with HIV/AIDS. This figure is far less than what we spend per year on golf alone. I have seen far too many people become absolutely obsessed with hitting a straight shot on lush grass because they can forget all of their problems while they’re out on the course. While I play golf every once and a while, how many people do you know that play recreationally and don’t let it dominate the majority of their thoughts and time?
Another way I believe that we are “sleeping in” is by the amount of time spent watching TV. The average American spends 4 hours a day (108,232 hours or 12.4 years of your life) wasting time watching TV. Again, while I do not believe TV is the “demon box,” how sickening is it to lose 12 years of your life to inactivity in front of a lifeless screen! We will spend time at work or school thinking about who the bachelor is going to give a rose to (and then not even date after the show is over), but we won’t let the thought that over half of the world lives on less than $2 a day enter our minds. How can this be?
There is an age old question that asks, “What do you give the person who has everything?” In a society where our poor are actually rich comparatively, the answer is “any mindless entertainment which will numb me to the surrounding world.” In “The Broken American Male,” Rabbi Shmuley Boteach says, “The absence of intimate relationship and an inspiring institutional structure explains why deadening ourselves to life has become the all-American pastime, embraced by all strata of society. We’re just not very happy with ourselves or with our lives, so we choose various forms of escape, the drugs of choice being TV, movies, alcohol, marijuana, the Internet, pornography, impulse purchases, and celebrity gossip.” (pg. 61)
As a society, I believe we are all collectively at a crossroad. We are a point which Zechariah reached when he said, “Then the angel who had been talking with me returned and woke me, as though I had been asleep.” (Zechariah 4:1) As a nation, we are the person on the reality TV show about to eat our own feces so someone else can benefit from our stupidity for 5 minutes of entertainment. Someone needs to snap us out of our idiotic ways and we need to wake up so we can see what is happening in the world around us.
The Bible provides us a different worldview, a greater reality to live in, and calls us to live life to its fullest. In Ephesians 5:14, Paul says, “for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said, “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”” He is saying that if you take the risk to get out of your spiritual bed, Christ will help you live out this deeper reality. Or maybe Jesus and the Bible are too archaic for you; in that case, Arcade Fire says it this way: “People try and hide the light underneath the covers.” So awake, O sleeper; this is your wake up call. It’s time to get out of bed so that you can start dreaming.
Paul Valery, a French poet/philosopher, once said, “The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.” But maybe the problem with most people today is that we have lost our ability to dream while we are awake. I’m not sure if it is because we do not believe that we can make a difference anymore or if it is because we are all gradually losing our belief in a transcendent God, but we all are guilty of attempting to numb ourselves to the world’s pain around us. All I need to point to is America’s obsession with one of its favorite pastimes: golf. Ronald Sider points out that it would take $27 billion spent over eight years to prevent 30 million people from becoming infected with HIV/AIDS. This figure is far less than what we spend per year on golf alone. I have seen far too many people become absolutely obsessed with hitting a straight shot on lush grass because they can forget all of their problems while they’re out on the course. While I play golf every once and a while, how many people do you know that play recreationally and don’t let it dominate the majority of their thoughts and time?
Another way I believe that we are “sleeping in” is by the amount of time spent watching TV. The average American spends 4 hours a day (108,232 hours or 12.4 years of your life) wasting time watching TV. Again, while I do not believe TV is the “demon box,” how sickening is it to lose 12 years of your life to inactivity in front of a lifeless screen! We will spend time at work or school thinking about who the bachelor is going to give a rose to (and then not even date after the show is over), but we won’t let the thought that over half of the world lives on less than $2 a day enter our minds. How can this be?
There is an age old question that asks, “What do you give the person who has everything?” In a society where our poor are actually rich comparatively, the answer is “any mindless entertainment which will numb me to the surrounding world.” In “The Broken American Male,” Rabbi Shmuley Boteach says, “The absence of intimate relationship and an inspiring institutional structure explains why deadening ourselves to life has become the all-American pastime, embraced by all strata of society. We’re just not very happy with ourselves or with our lives, so we choose various forms of escape, the drugs of choice being TV, movies, alcohol, marijuana, the Internet, pornography, impulse purchases, and celebrity gossip.” (pg. 61)
As a society, I believe we are all collectively at a crossroad. We are a point which Zechariah reached when he said, “Then the angel who had been talking with me returned and woke me, as though I had been asleep.” (Zechariah 4:1) As a nation, we are the person on the reality TV show about to eat our own feces so someone else can benefit from our stupidity for 5 minutes of entertainment. Someone needs to snap us out of our idiotic ways and we need to wake up so we can see what is happening in the world around us.
The Bible provides us a different worldview, a greater reality to live in, and calls us to live life to its fullest. In Ephesians 5:14, Paul says, “for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said, “Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”” He is saying that if you take the risk to get out of your spiritual bed, Christ will help you live out this deeper reality. Or maybe Jesus and the Bible are too archaic for you; in that case, Arcade Fire says it this way: “People try and hide the light underneath the covers.” So awake, O sleeper; this is your wake up call. It’s time to get out of bed so that you can start dreaming.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Emerging or Diverging? by Brady
I’ve got to admit that the new Mac commercials are a brilliant piece of marketing. Apple® is doing such a good job at this that their computer sales are actually up 54% from this time last year. The commercials feature a young, scruffy, quasi-Emo guy and a nerdy, overweight, middle aged man. Of course the young guy represents the Mac and the old guy represents the PC. One of my favorites is the newest one with the support group that contains four other nerds and the one that begins to repeat, “I’m pleased to report that I’ve been error free for nearly a week.” What Apple® has done is market to a younger, hipper audience of trendsetters and it has translated into success across the board.
If you are involved in church life at all right now, I think another commercial could be made with the same characters but having them representing “Traditional Christianity” and the “Emerging Church.” Right now, the Emerging Church is led by people such as Rob Bell, Brian McLaren, Tony Jones and Erwin McManus who have a “Hipper-Than-Thou” attitude and are in touch with the cultural climate. What the Emerging churches are doing, at least the one I have had extensive involvement with, is defining their churches by what they are not instead of what they are. Most leaders and members of these churches would say that they have been scarred by “Traditional Christianity.” Christian bookstores, church structures, and even the “fruits of the Spirit” are made fun of as disgusting to these new trendsetting churches.
The problem I am growing to see with the theology being put out by this movement and taught in these churches is that they are overcorrecting problems and diverging from orthodox Christianity in many cases. C.S. Lewis was quoted once saying that Christians are like drunks, who get up from one ditch only to fall into another ditch on the other side of the road. I believe this is happening once again as the pendulum begins to swing back the other way in Christian practice and thought.
For instance, Rob Bell says in Velvet Elvis that he believes, “I affirm the truth anywhere in any religious system, in any worldview. If it's true, it belongs to God.” This sounds cool and was actually appealing to me personally for a while until I examined this train of thought rationally. Roger Olson explains better than I could why this is incorrect and actually damaging. He says in The Mosaic of Christian Belief, “If “Christianity” is compatible with any and every truth claim, it is meaningless. It would then be indistinguishable from, say, Buddhism or atheism. Truly it would be chaotic, shapeless and devoid of identity.” So, while saving enough money to build a house in order to not incur debt is a good principle and a Muslim practice, it does not need to have Christianity’s stamp on it for you to practice it.
What tends to happen with guys like Rob Bell, Doug Pagitt and Brian McLaren is that they use the argument that “blank” word never appears in the Bible. I have either read or heard both of these men say that the words “personal relationship,” “spirituality,” “second coming,” “Trinity” and “eternity” as a timeless state are not in the Bible. (Side note: neither does the word “recycling.” While I am going “green” more and more daily by downsizing to a car that gets 34 mpg and recycling, I can do this in the name of being a responsible citizen and human rather than because God commanded it in Genesis. It’s just funny that they will throw out the second coming or eternal life, but say that the Bible tells you to recycle. See my blog called “Changing of the Guard” for more on this topic. Side note is now over.) In fact, it has gotten so bad that one Emerging Church leader reportedly called the Trinity B.S. This is what happens when Scripture is not the lens through which you gauge experience, reason, and tradition. What I fear is that the Emerging Church is actually a Diverging Church. This is no more obvious than in McLaren’s book title called Everything Must Change. Really ? Everything? And just listen to other titles by Emerging authors: The New Christians, A New Kind of Christian, and A Christianity Worth Believing. That sounds a little drastic and more than slightly arrogant to believe that in 2000 years of Christian history, our forefathers and foremothers have screwed up everything.
So the question becomes, what do I do as a Christian who wants to stay sound biblically and traditionally while also being relevant to the current cultural climate? I’m not talented enough to be like Paul, “all things to all people.” So I guess the only other option is to be the dorky PC guy from the Apple® commercial because I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater while also being a compromising letdown to the fundamentalists on the other side. Or maybe there is a group of Christians who will rise up that will continue to follow orthodox Christianity while reaching the world around them with the love of God. I believe the guiding principle of people like this will be what a mentor of mine told me once: “It is better for your ministry to be warm instead of cool.” Is that what you believe?
If you are involved in church life at all right now, I think another commercial could be made with the same characters but having them representing “Traditional Christianity” and the “Emerging Church.” Right now, the Emerging Church is led by people such as Rob Bell, Brian McLaren, Tony Jones and Erwin McManus who have a “Hipper-Than-Thou” attitude and are in touch with the cultural climate. What the Emerging churches are doing, at least the one I have had extensive involvement with, is defining their churches by what they are not instead of what they are. Most leaders and members of these churches would say that they have been scarred by “Traditional Christianity.” Christian bookstores, church structures, and even the “fruits of the Spirit” are made fun of as disgusting to these new trendsetting churches.
The problem I am growing to see with the theology being put out by this movement and taught in these churches is that they are overcorrecting problems and diverging from orthodox Christianity in many cases. C.S. Lewis was quoted once saying that Christians are like drunks, who get up from one ditch only to fall into another ditch on the other side of the road. I believe this is happening once again as the pendulum begins to swing back the other way in Christian practice and thought.
For instance, Rob Bell says in Velvet Elvis that he believes, “I affirm the truth anywhere in any religious system, in any worldview. If it's true, it belongs to God.” This sounds cool and was actually appealing to me personally for a while until I examined this train of thought rationally. Roger Olson explains better than I could why this is incorrect and actually damaging. He says in The Mosaic of Christian Belief, “If “Christianity” is compatible with any and every truth claim, it is meaningless. It would then be indistinguishable from, say, Buddhism or atheism. Truly it would be chaotic, shapeless and devoid of identity.” So, while saving enough money to build a house in order to not incur debt is a good principle and a Muslim practice, it does not need to have Christianity’s stamp on it for you to practice it.
What tends to happen with guys like Rob Bell, Doug Pagitt and Brian McLaren is that they use the argument that “blank” word never appears in the Bible. I have either read or heard both of these men say that the words “personal relationship,” “spirituality,” “second coming,” “Trinity” and “eternity” as a timeless state are not in the Bible. (Side note: neither does the word “recycling.” While I am going “green” more and more daily by downsizing to a car that gets 34 mpg and recycling, I can do this in the name of being a responsible citizen and human rather than because God commanded it in Genesis. It’s just funny that they will throw out the second coming or eternal life, but say that the Bible tells you to recycle. See my blog called “Changing of the Guard” for more on this topic. Side note is now over.) In fact, it has gotten so bad that one Emerging Church leader reportedly called the Trinity B.S. This is what happens when Scripture is not the lens through which you gauge experience, reason, and tradition. What I fear is that the Emerging Church is actually a Diverging Church. This is no more obvious than in McLaren’s book title called Everything Must Change. Really ? Everything? And just listen to other titles by Emerging authors: The New Christians, A New Kind of Christian, and A Christianity Worth Believing. That sounds a little drastic and more than slightly arrogant to believe that in 2000 years of Christian history, our forefathers and foremothers have screwed up everything.
So the question becomes, what do I do as a Christian who wants to stay sound biblically and traditionally while also being relevant to the current cultural climate? I’m not talented enough to be like Paul, “all things to all people.” So I guess the only other option is to be the dorky PC guy from the Apple® commercial because I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater while also being a compromising letdown to the fundamentalists on the other side. Or maybe there is a group of Christians who will rise up that will continue to follow orthodox Christianity while reaching the world around them with the love of God. I believe the guiding principle of people like this will be what a mentor of mine told me once: “It is better for your ministry to be warm instead of cool.” Is that what you believe?
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Heaven on Earth? by Brady
There are things I have to do as a minister that are just part of the cross I must bear, and one of them is living in Waco, Texas. My brother and sister-in-law live in Vail, Colorado, and my sister and brother-in-law live in Laguna Beach, California. I am actually visiting my family in Vail as I write and looking at some of the most gorgeous mountains in the entire world. The reason Becca and I are up here is to see our new niece who is now two months old. All around me is incredible scenery and loving family. Signs of new life in creation and my niece are capturing most of our waking moments. But in the midst of these incredible moments, I can’t help but let my mind wonder to the idea of heaven on earth.
In many Christian circles, especially amongst “Emerging theologians” such as Brian McLaren and Rob Bell, there seems to be a push to promote the idea that we as Christians are called to bring heaven to earth. While I fully understand their motives and completely affirm not checking out and watching the world go to hell in a hand basket, I still cannot get beyond the problems which arise out of this “progressive” line of thought. N.T. Wright sums up this belief system when he says that heaven is “a further dimension of our world, not a place far removed at one extreme of our world. It is all around us, glimpsed in a mystery in every Eucharist and every act of generous human love.” (Following Jesus) Wright goes on to say that we are reminded of it when we see beauty in God’s created order.
So is this idea of heaven on earth correct? Is heaven achievable and capable of being found on earth by embracing beauty and doing acts of love? As incredibly beautiful the scenery is here and as much as I would love to spend every moment connecting deeply with family and friends in community, the reality of the world still seems to me that we will never be able to achieve heaven on earth. I cannot simply believe heaven is earth without wars, violence, and sin. I know that I, personally, am too easily dissatisfied with the world as it is even when I am experiencing little “pieces of heaven on earth.” You may believe that this is due to my sinful nature, but I tend to follow C.S. Lewis’ line of thinking that we long for something more because we were created for something better. Lewis says, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” He goes on to say, “These things - the beauty, the memory of our own past - are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited . . . Here, then, is the desire, still wandering and uncertain of its object and still largely unable to see that object in the direction where it really lies . . . Heaven is, by definition, outside our experience, but all intelligible descriptions must be of things within our experience. The scriptural picture of heaven is therefore just as symbolical as the picture which our desire, unaided, invents for itself . . .” (The Weight of Glory, emphasis mine)
Heaven on earth also seems to be a ludicrous idea because of the depravity of our own lives. I believe that wars will not cease on this side of eternity because we cannot even stop warring against our own selves. Even if we stop sabotaging our own personal, spiritual and emotional lives, a disease called cancer can set in that pits our physical body against itself. The bottom line is that humans have been attempting to play God since the fall of creation. We see this today in how we create video game worlds, are attempting to clone animals and humans, and also believing that we can actually create heaven on earth. The beauty of the cross is that there is nothing we can do about our own salvation. Our redemption comes solely through God initiating relationship with us.
The Bible lays out a clear description of what heaven will be like in sections such as Isaiah 11 or 65. These passages show a total DNA change of both humans and animals. The wolf and the lamb will coexist and children will be able to crawl amongst poisonous snakes. Babies, like my niece, will no longer cry for no other reason aside from a deep dissatisfaction that is inborn at conception. The only way I see this happening is by Christ’s return, from somewhere where we are currently not inhabiting, and making all things new. The only way I believe heaven can and will be achieved in my life is by Christ’s return or my death, whichever comes first. Maybe I am checking out by saying this; perhaps I am just partaking in oppressive religion by hoping for a future kingdom that is not here and now. But I will let Paul’s words in Romans 8 be my hope concerning this subject. “And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. 25 But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)” (Romans 8:23-25, NLT, emphasis mine)
In many Christian circles, especially amongst “Emerging theologians” such as Brian McLaren and Rob Bell, there seems to be a push to promote the idea that we as Christians are called to bring heaven to earth. While I fully understand their motives and completely affirm not checking out and watching the world go to hell in a hand basket, I still cannot get beyond the problems which arise out of this “progressive” line of thought. N.T. Wright sums up this belief system when he says that heaven is “a further dimension of our world, not a place far removed at one extreme of our world. It is all around us, glimpsed in a mystery in every Eucharist and every act of generous human love.” (Following Jesus) Wright goes on to say that we are reminded of it when we see beauty in God’s created order.
So is this idea of heaven on earth correct? Is heaven achievable and capable of being found on earth by embracing beauty and doing acts of love? As incredibly beautiful the scenery is here and as much as I would love to spend every moment connecting deeply with family and friends in community, the reality of the world still seems to me that we will never be able to achieve heaven on earth. I cannot simply believe heaven is earth without wars, violence, and sin. I know that I, personally, am too easily dissatisfied with the world as it is even when I am experiencing little “pieces of heaven on earth.” You may believe that this is due to my sinful nature, but I tend to follow C.S. Lewis’ line of thinking that we long for something more because we were created for something better. Lewis says, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” He goes on to say, “These things - the beauty, the memory of our own past - are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited . . . Here, then, is the desire, still wandering and uncertain of its object and still largely unable to see that object in the direction where it really lies . . . Heaven is, by definition, outside our experience, but all intelligible descriptions must be of things within our experience. The scriptural picture of heaven is therefore just as symbolical as the picture which our desire, unaided, invents for itself . . .” (The Weight of Glory, emphasis mine)
Heaven on earth also seems to be a ludicrous idea because of the depravity of our own lives. I believe that wars will not cease on this side of eternity because we cannot even stop warring against our own selves. Even if we stop sabotaging our own personal, spiritual and emotional lives, a disease called cancer can set in that pits our physical body against itself. The bottom line is that humans have been attempting to play God since the fall of creation. We see this today in how we create video game worlds, are attempting to clone animals and humans, and also believing that we can actually create heaven on earth. The beauty of the cross is that there is nothing we can do about our own salvation. Our redemption comes solely through God initiating relationship with us.
The Bible lays out a clear description of what heaven will be like in sections such as Isaiah 11 or 65. These passages show a total DNA change of both humans and animals. The wolf and the lamb will coexist and children will be able to crawl amongst poisonous snakes. Babies, like my niece, will no longer cry for no other reason aside from a deep dissatisfaction that is inborn at conception. The only way I see this happening is by Christ’s return, from somewhere where we are currently not inhabiting, and making all things new. The only way I believe heaven can and will be achieved in my life is by Christ’s return or my death, whichever comes first. Maybe I am checking out by saying this; perhaps I am just partaking in oppressive religion by hoping for a future kingdom that is not here and now. But I will let Paul’s words in Romans 8 be my hope concerning this subject. “And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. 25 But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)” (Romans 8:23-25, NLT, emphasis mine)
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Heavy is the Head that Wears the Crown by Clint
I often try and imagine what the world will look like in a given number of years. For instance, where will we be in 25 years? How different will our world look from how it looks now? Back in 1983- no one could have imagined the impact of the internet, nano-technology, 9/11, and the war in Iraq. These were things that just couldn’t be predicted, or at least the magnitude of the impact of these things could not be predicted. So, as much as we know now, and as best we try, 2033 is going to look different from our best predictions. Kind of scary isn’t it? It’s even more scary thinking about 2033 in terms of where our culture will sit in relation to faith. One cannot help but notice that the place of faith at the American table and certainly the European table is getting pushed farther down the row. Is it possible that soon we will find ourselves at the kids table, while other philosophies and world views sit at the adult table?
Brian McLaren, in his book Everything Must Change, draws the world into two categories. He splits the world into the colonizers and the colonized. The colonizers encompass most of Europe and the people of the world who have directly benefited from the European colonization of other lands. The colonized are those who have lost land and power and sovereignty to the control of the colonizers. The colonizers brought the Christian faith to the new lands, along with abuse, disease and guns. Up until recently, the colonizers represented the majority of the Christian faith. However, recently, the numbers of growth in Christian faith is marked by the group which would be labeled colonized. Christianity is growing rapidly in places such as Africa, places in which people have had little power and no ability to colonize others. On the other hand, the impact and influence of Christianity is shrinking in the places of the colonizers. In most of Europe, Christianity is rapidly shrinking. Thus, the nations with the power to colonize seem to be turning from faith, as the ones who had no choice but to receive visitors looking to find gold, fertile land, and other resources are receiving faith in great numbers. The face of belief is changing.
In the Coldplay song, “Viva la Vida,” Chris Martin’s lyrics appeal to the vainglorious nature of power. His words speak to castles made of pillars of salt and sand, he even asks, “Who would want to be King?” Earlier he expresses the view of one who had the power of a king. “Seas would rise when I gave the word, now I sweep alone, sweep the streets I used to own.” In this humiliation, though, he expresses strength. In this loss of power, he finds power. This is a beautifully true expression of real power. Christ shows the truth in this. As Paul expresses in Philippians,
Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Where has our humility gone? Should it be surprising that faith is exploding in nations in which people are humbled by daily needs? Is it really shocking that people are turning to Christ in places where they have been trampled on and humbled? And in our culture, we feel entitled to everything- material and behavioral. So, as we imagine what the world will look like into the future, know that faith will still be alive and well. Christ promises that even the gates of hell will not prevail over the church (Matt 16:18). But, unless the current course here is changed, the church may be thriving in a place a little farther from home.
Brian McLaren, in his book Everything Must Change, draws the world into two categories. He splits the world into the colonizers and the colonized. The colonizers encompass most of Europe and the people of the world who have directly benefited from the European colonization of other lands. The colonized are those who have lost land and power and sovereignty to the control of the colonizers. The colonizers brought the Christian faith to the new lands, along with abuse, disease and guns. Up until recently, the colonizers represented the majority of the Christian faith. However, recently, the numbers of growth in Christian faith is marked by the group which would be labeled colonized. Christianity is growing rapidly in places such as Africa, places in which people have had little power and no ability to colonize others. On the other hand, the impact and influence of Christianity is shrinking in the places of the colonizers. In most of Europe, Christianity is rapidly shrinking. Thus, the nations with the power to colonize seem to be turning from faith, as the ones who had no choice but to receive visitors looking to find gold, fertile land, and other resources are receiving faith in great numbers. The face of belief is changing.
In the Coldplay song, “Viva la Vida,” Chris Martin’s lyrics appeal to the vainglorious nature of power. His words speak to castles made of pillars of salt and sand, he even asks, “Who would want to be King?” Earlier he expresses the view of one who had the power of a king. “Seas would rise when I gave the word, now I sweep alone, sweep the streets I used to own.” In this humiliation, though, he expresses strength. In this loss of power, he finds power. This is a beautifully true expression of real power. Christ shows the truth in this. As Paul expresses in Philippians,
Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Where has our humility gone? Should it be surprising that faith is exploding in nations in which people are humbled by daily needs? Is it really shocking that people are turning to Christ in places where they have been trampled on and humbled? And in our culture, we feel entitled to everything- material and behavioral. So, as we imagine what the world will look like into the future, know that faith will still be alive and well. Christ promises that even the gates of hell will not prevail over the church (Matt 16:18). But, unless the current course here is changed, the church may be thriving in a place a little farther from home.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Drive for Show, Putt for Dough by Clint
I have been attempting to play golf lately. I emphasize the “attempting” aspect of my golf playing. I think I’m struggling because I am so used to a baseball swing, and that just doesn’t carry over to the golf club. Don’t worry; I’m not going to continue boring you with the issues of my golf swing. In my recent golf obsession, however, I have noticed interesting things about people who play golf, which probably translates over to people in general. Golf people are all about looking the part. It’s not okay to go out to the course, even if you’re not very good, in just any old attire. You really need the right golf shoes and the right Nike Dry-Fit golf shirt. And don’t forget the glove. You have to have the left hand glove. I don’t feel comfortable with the glove for two reasons.
1) because I’m not good enough for it to be making any sort of difference, and 2) I can’t wear just one glove without feeling a tad bit like Michael Jackson circa 1985. I’m sorry but I’m either wearing two gloves or no gloves- who wears just one sock, for instance? After the shoes, shirts, and glove(s), comes the clubs. I got an Intech driver for my birthday, and I ordered a set of used Callaway irons of Ebay. I like my clubs, but they aren’t up to par with everybody else’s. First off, every year you need to get a new driver which is always larger than last year’s and is starting to look more and more like a metal detector. Also, there are always new irons and putters to get as well. Toss in a professional looking golf bag, towels, tees, and Pro V1 golf balls and you’re good to go. But chances are, with all this, most of the people out on the course can’t honestly break 95, maybe even 100.
Surfers and skaters have a great term for people who look the part but don’t have the chops. These people are “posers.” As a kid, the last thing you wanted to be was a poser. It was shameful to look like you were good and weren’t. Golf is a sport where basically everyone is a poser. Almost everybody wants to look better than they are. There are certainly exceptions (Do a youtube search for John Daly playing golf shirtless and shoeless—it is simply amazing. He looks like he has no business even working at the course and yet he has won the British Open). But if you go out to the local public course or country club, you will see a plethora of posers.
Jesus had no tolerance for posers. He had no tolerance for people who lived as though they were completely different from what was in their heart. Jesus expresses this when he says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34, NRSV). Jesus expresses that in denying ourselves, we actually find truth. Attempting to save ourselves on our own accord often leads us to posing as something different from what we are. In saving ourselves, we avoid honest community. By honest community, I mean opening up and confessing our troubles and sins with others. We avoid this kind of community which is a real journey, and we hide things within ourselves which is covered up with the perfect exterior. We might be double bogeying every hole, but at least we look like Tiger Woods. The loneliest people in the world are those who look like light on the outside yet live with darkness on the inside. It’s like turning the porch light on, but leaving all the lights off in the house.
True community begins when we break down the barriers of self aggrandizing. True community and a true healthy walk begin by denying our instincts to pose and becoming humble before God. “And all of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble’” (1 Peter 5:5, NRSV). Out on the golf course, you don’t want to be the guy or gal with the best equipment but with the worst game. You don’t want to be that guy or gal with the right expressions and right responses but with little faith and little light.
1) because I’m not good enough for it to be making any sort of difference, and 2) I can’t wear just one glove without feeling a tad bit like Michael Jackson circa 1985. I’m sorry but I’m either wearing two gloves or no gloves- who wears just one sock, for instance? After the shoes, shirts, and glove(s), comes the clubs. I got an Intech driver for my birthday, and I ordered a set of used Callaway irons of Ebay. I like my clubs, but they aren’t up to par with everybody else’s. First off, every year you need to get a new driver which is always larger than last year’s and is starting to look more and more like a metal detector. Also, there are always new irons and putters to get as well. Toss in a professional looking golf bag, towels, tees, and Pro V1 golf balls and you’re good to go. But chances are, with all this, most of the people out on the course can’t honestly break 95, maybe even 100.
Surfers and skaters have a great term for people who look the part but don’t have the chops. These people are “posers.” As a kid, the last thing you wanted to be was a poser. It was shameful to look like you were good and weren’t. Golf is a sport where basically everyone is a poser. Almost everybody wants to look better than they are. There are certainly exceptions (Do a youtube search for John Daly playing golf shirtless and shoeless—it is simply amazing. He looks like he has no business even working at the course and yet he has won the British Open). But if you go out to the local public course or country club, you will see a plethora of posers.
Jesus had no tolerance for posers. He had no tolerance for people who lived as though they were completely different from what was in their heart. Jesus expresses this when he says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34, NRSV). Jesus expresses that in denying ourselves, we actually find truth. Attempting to save ourselves on our own accord often leads us to posing as something different from what we are. In saving ourselves, we avoid honest community. By honest community, I mean opening up and confessing our troubles and sins with others. We avoid this kind of community which is a real journey, and we hide things within ourselves which is covered up with the perfect exterior. We might be double bogeying every hole, but at least we look like Tiger Woods. The loneliest people in the world are those who look like light on the outside yet live with darkness on the inside. It’s like turning the porch light on, but leaving all the lights off in the house.
True community begins when we break down the barriers of self aggrandizing. True community and a true healthy walk begin by denying our instincts to pose and becoming humble before God. “And all of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble’” (1 Peter 5:5, NRSV). Out on the golf course, you don’t want to be the guy or gal with the best equipment but with the worst game. You don’t want to be that guy or gal with the right expressions and right responses but with little faith and little light.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Jesus Loves Strippers
For the last couple of months, we have been praying about what Hesed Now should do as a practical ministry . Yes, we have materials, a podcast, and have helped a lot of churches with resources, but we have really prayed hard about having a practical and tangible way of showing hesed to those around us. In comes Brett and Emily Mills who have a ministry called Jesus Said Love. They are worship leaders who live in Waco, but they also have a ministry to strippers. Instead of building a well in Africa (which is obviously good), we have chosen to support this ministry because it is local and it reaches one of the major "unreached people groups" within the borders of our own country. So, some practical ways you can support Hesed Now and this outreach ministry is to buy the "Jesus Said Love" or "Jesus Loves Strippers" (you'll get some looks with this one) shirts. You can also support Hesed Now by donating to their ministry, because this will be a ministry we will support in the coming months. If you want to know more about this ministry, watch the video on our blog or go to www.jesussaidlove.com. And don't forget to check out the shirts on our t-shirt page.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Oprah's Doctor on Theology by Brady
A few weeks ago my wife tricked me into doing something I thoroughly despise: watching Oprah. It was an episode with all males in the audience and she gave over her stage for the first time to “America’s Doctor,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, who I think is a frequent guest on her show. I thought it was interesting that she would give her stage over to a doctor, which I have written about before doctors being the new priests in white robes instead of black ones. But that is not what I found fascinating in the show. Towards the middle of the program, Dr. Oz said something along the lines of, “We have the knowledge to cure almost all diseases, but it takes a transfer into daily life.” What he was implying is that if you would eat healthy, exercise daily, get enough rest consistently, not smoke, and get regular checkups, that we would live longer lives and be able to curb the onset of almost all diseases in the world today.
What he was essentially saying is that you can have all of the knowledge in the world, but unless there is a change in your life, it won’t matter a bit. Now I must admit I am a fan of people getting properly trained and educated before they become working professionals. I think it is funny that we would never go to see a doctor that did not complete their entire training process, but we will get spiritual direction and diagnoses from anyone and everyone. My vocation is especially guilty of putting undertrained and undereducated people in charge of a group of people without batting an eye. Some of these cases are ok when people are leading small groups or other areas such as these. I would compare this to your mom being able to take care of you when you are sick as a child or when you fall down and get hurt. What you would not do though is want a parent performing major surgery or even regular checkups on their kids. This is the same in ministry.
In fact, I read a book for class the other day that was debating whether you should pay a minister more nor not based on the level of degree which they have completed. The book concluded that you should not, and I was losing my mind about it. Only in ministry would an organization not pay more based on a degree when you are trained in so many essential areas during seminary. So as you can see, I am obviously a fan of edu-ma-cation.
But with that being stated, there is a tendency in our Information Age that says knowledge is the answer. The internet has revolutionized the way we see our world around us. Suddenly everyone is an expert on every subject. It is pretty annoying to sit in class with laptops when a professor mentions something in passing, a student Googles it and then corrects the professor. Education and knowledge, as useful as it can be, without values seems rather to make man a more clever devil. But hopefully the Postmodern era will prove yet again that we cannot fix the mess we’re in with more of anything produced by man.
The Modern era brought a hope that technology would eventually progress to a point where we could achieve our own return the Garden of Eden. But we all watched I-Robot and had our dreams shattered of this idea. But now it seems that the Postmodern era is putting the emphasis which was once on technology, now more on education. “If we can just educate about AIDS, then we can get rid of it.” I would say American’s are pretty educated and yet we still have thousands of people every year who are new carriers of the horrible disease.
I am all for making the world a better place and actually working to see this happen. I 100% affirm a holistic view of salvation that says the complete person must be redeemed by Christ, as opposed to handing out a 4-spiritual laws and my duty is done type of salvation. But even with that, I cannot fully buy into humans being the redeemers of this world. This teaching is popular with a lot of the popular Postmodern preachers, and yet I have a hard time seeing how it fits biblically. So I’m in a weird spot of not being happy when natural disasters kill thousands of people because it is a sign of the end times, but also not being able to square with the fact that God’s kingdom will be established on earth in this age.
In fact, I will take this even a step further. I am not certain that if every person in the world became a Christian that all of the world’s problems would be solved. The reason I say this is that I go to school with all Christians, and that place is far from heaven. I say that because I myself often do not respond to situations in a way that fits with my beliefs as a Christian. This pervading hope that screams if we can just make everyone “believe” what we believe then our mission is accomplished. But as Dr. Oz has told us, you can memorize all of the Bible verses you want or explain theology with the best of them, but if there is not a transformation happening in your life then it is all meaningless. The brutal truth is that the Gospel is incredibly simple in theory, and ridiculously hard in practice. I say that if every person gets transformed by Christ, then his kingdom will finally come to this earth.
What he was essentially saying is that you can have all of the knowledge in the world, but unless there is a change in your life, it won’t matter a bit. Now I must admit I am a fan of people getting properly trained and educated before they become working professionals. I think it is funny that we would never go to see a doctor that did not complete their entire training process, but we will get spiritual direction and diagnoses from anyone and everyone. My vocation is especially guilty of putting undertrained and undereducated people in charge of a group of people without batting an eye. Some of these cases are ok when people are leading small groups or other areas such as these. I would compare this to your mom being able to take care of you when you are sick as a child or when you fall down and get hurt. What you would not do though is want a parent performing major surgery or even regular checkups on their kids. This is the same in ministry.
In fact, I read a book for class the other day that was debating whether you should pay a minister more nor not based on the level of degree which they have completed. The book concluded that you should not, and I was losing my mind about it. Only in ministry would an organization not pay more based on a degree when you are trained in so many essential areas during seminary. So as you can see, I am obviously a fan of edu-ma-cation.
But with that being stated, there is a tendency in our Information Age that says knowledge is the answer. The internet has revolutionized the way we see our world around us. Suddenly everyone is an expert on every subject. It is pretty annoying to sit in class with laptops when a professor mentions something in passing, a student Googles it and then corrects the professor. Education and knowledge, as useful as it can be, without values seems rather to make man a more clever devil. But hopefully the Postmodern era will prove yet again that we cannot fix the mess we’re in with more of anything produced by man.
The Modern era brought a hope that technology would eventually progress to a point where we could achieve our own return the Garden of Eden. But we all watched I-Robot and had our dreams shattered of this idea. But now it seems that the Postmodern era is putting the emphasis which was once on technology, now more on education. “If we can just educate about AIDS, then we can get rid of it.” I would say American’s are pretty educated and yet we still have thousands of people every year who are new carriers of the horrible disease.
I am all for making the world a better place and actually working to see this happen. I 100% affirm a holistic view of salvation that says the complete person must be redeemed by Christ, as opposed to handing out a 4-spiritual laws and my duty is done type of salvation. But even with that, I cannot fully buy into humans being the redeemers of this world. This teaching is popular with a lot of the popular Postmodern preachers, and yet I have a hard time seeing how it fits biblically. So I’m in a weird spot of not being happy when natural disasters kill thousands of people because it is a sign of the end times, but also not being able to square with the fact that God’s kingdom will be established on earth in this age.
In fact, I will take this even a step further. I am not certain that if every person in the world became a Christian that all of the world’s problems would be solved. The reason I say this is that I go to school with all Christians, and that place is far from heaven. I say that because I myself often do not respond to situations in a way that fits with my beliefs as a Christian. This pervading hope that screams if we can just make everyone “believe” what we believe then our mission is accomplished. But as Dr. Oz has told us, you can memorize all of the Bible verses you want or explain theology with the best of them, but if there is not a transformation happening in your life then it is all meaningless. The brutal truth is that the Gospel is incredibly simple in theory, and ridiculously hard in practice. I say that if every person gets transformed by Christ, then his kingdom will finally come to this earth.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Religious or Spiritual? by Clint
The other day, I overheard a guy having a conversation with a girl (I was not eavesdropping, they were just talking loud!). It was fairly obvious that he was trying to impress her. He kept talking about how he was spiritual but not religious. He didn’t go into much detail about what this meant, but he kept saying it, thinking that it would certainly intrigue the young lady he was attempting to charm. I thought a little bit about what he was trying to get across by saying that, and I also contemplated the fact that I’ve heard that expression before; it seems to be almost a buzzword in our society. Everyone wants to be spiritual and forego the religious aspects. In a way, I understand this. Often, religion is viewed only in a negative sense: Bigoted, intolerant, authoritarian, and sometimes even hateful. People’s minds often drift to those unappealing adjectives upon hearing the word “religious.” But my problem with saying, “I am spiritual but not religious” is that it is such a nebulous comment. Anyone can pronounce themselves as spiritual. Spiritual in our 21st century context can be any of these things: artistic, poetic, quiet, introspective, yoga-practicing, emotional, green-tea drinking, etc… Certainly I do not have an issue with any of these things (Yahoo says green tea is good for your complexion), however are they really spiritual?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Christian theologian during the time of WWII. He wrote about a costly faith, a faith that involved truly following Christ even at a high cost. He practiced what he preached, as he was executed by the Nazi regime at the end of the war for his involvement in an attempt to overthrow Hitler. While he could have left the country and taught theology in New York, he stayed in Germany to suffer with the people and preach against the hatred of the Nazis. One of Bonhoeffer’s more interesting theological assertions was one of a “religionless Christianity.” In this, he spoke that following Christ goes way beyond the safer man-made boundaries of religiosity. In these man-made boundaries, he found people hiding behind an easily defined legalism, a system of piety which boiled faith down to rules of life which would most likely never really cost anyone anything truly valuable. He called believers to go beyond these safe boundaries and enter into a suffering world, carrying the gospel of Christ, and taking the risks of entering into challenging relationships. He did not view this as a loophole for living a hedonistic lifestyle, though. The spirituality of living out the teachings of Christ in a hurting world would not mesh with a sinful, worldly lifestyle. But, the point is that faith and discipleship goes so far beyond just religion and attempts to make people think you’re not naughty but nice. Bonhoeffer seemed to support this idea of “I’m spiritual but not religious,” but the context for spirituality was completely Christ-centered. There is no other spirituality but through the Holy Spirit and through discipleship in Christ.
In examining Jesus’ life, he had aspects of one who was religious. He observed Jewish holidays (John 13) and he spent time in the temple (Luke 2:41-49). However, he was not satisfied with religion, but he pointed to something greater. He pointed to true spirituality which rests in two focuses in life: Love God and love your neighbor. In this, everything hangs in the balance (Matthew 22:36-40). Jesus did not come to earth to just start a new religion. Jesus Christ came to teach and show the one truth of God. He came to bid those to follow him and live a life of spirituality, a life in relationship with God through discipleship and faith in Christ. I guess its ok to be spiritual and not religious, but this is only possible in Christ Jesus and in Christian fellowship. And any proclaimed spirituality outside of Christ is actually just an empty religion.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Christian theologian during the time of WWII. He wrote about a costly faith, a faith that involved truly following Christ even at a high cost. He practiced what he preached, as he was executed by the Nazi regime at the end of the war for his involvement in an attempt to overthrow Hitler. While he could have left the country and taught theology in New York, he stayed in Germany to suffer with the people and preach against the hatred of the Nazis. One of Bonhoeffer’s more interesting theological assertions was one of a “religionless Christianity.” In this, he spoke that following Christ goes way beyond the safer man-made boundaries of religiosity. In these man-made boundaries, he found people hiding behind an easily defined legalism, a system of piety which boiled faith down to rules of life which would most likely never really cost anyone anything truly valuable. He called believers to go beyond these safe boundaries and enter into a suffering world, carrying the gospel of Christ, and taking the risks of entering into challenging relationships. He did not view this as a loophole for living a hedonistic lifestyle, though. The spirituality of living out the teachings of Christ in a hurting world would not mesh with a sinful, worldly lifestyle. But, the point is that faith and discipleship goes so far beyond just religion and attempts to make people think you’re not naughty but nice. Bonhoeffer seemed to support this idea of “I’m spiritual but not religious,” but the context for spirituality was completely Christ-centered. There is no other spirituality but through the Holy Spirit and through discipleship in Christ.
In examining Jesus’ life, he had aspects of one who was religious. He observed Jewish holidays (John 13) and he spent time in the temple (Luke 2:41-49). However, he was not satisfied with religion, but he pointed to something greater. He pointed to true spirituality which rests in two focuses in life: Love God and love your neighbor. In this, everything hangs in the balance (Matthew 22:36-40). Jesus did not come to earth to just start a new religion. Jesus Christ came to teach and show the one truth of God. He came to bid those to follow him and live a life of spirituality, a life in relationship with God through discipleship and faith in Christ. I guess its ok to be spiritual and not religious, but this is only possible in Christ Jesus and in Christian fellowship. And any proclaimed spirituality outside of Christ is actually just an empty religion.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Face the Music by Brady
Last night Becca and I rented a movie called ‘August Rush’ which stars Freddie Highmore, Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Terrence Howard, and Robin Williams. It is a modern fairy tale movie about a kid who is following music that only he hears to find his birth parents. I am not usually a huge fan of sappy flicks, but this one is really good. This movie is a great testament to faith and the way a fundamental belief in something can change the world. It epitomizes the life of a Christ-follower in a modern context because Evan Taylor (played by Highmore) is a child prodigy who is constantly “hearing music” and chasing dreams which are not altogether realistic. He is a little odd and is always picked on by kids in his half-way house. In fact, I must admit I would have probably wanted to beat up a kid like him during my younger years.Evan says at one point about the music he hears, “It's like someone's calling out to me, only some of us can hear it.” Wizard (played by Williams) replies, “Only some of us are listening.” Those of us that live the life of faith in Christ are constantly faced with realists who claim they found the tomb of Christ or that a biblical worldview is not relevant today. We feel something calling out to us, but it is like we are the only ones who can hear it. We also have this deep desire to be found and known by something too. Later in the movie, Wizard is trying to give Evan a new stage name and asks for his input. He says, “If you could choose any name in the world. Any! What would you want to be? Come on, kid. Any.” Evan says, “Found.”
This Easter season, I challenge you to turn (another word for repent) and face the music. Think about the possibilities if Christ did in fact rise from the dead. Think about how much this would change the world you live in, the shift that would break your current tunnel vision and expand your possibilities. Think about the deep reality you could live within even though those around you can’t hear the music. It’s as Evan says, “The music is all around you, all you have to do is listen.” The music is calling out to you and me on Resurrection Sunday, will you turn and face it and choose to chase it no matter the cost? This is important because “You got to love music more than you love food. More than life. More than yourself.”
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Do You Like What You Worship? by Brady
Last week I was given some “constructive criticism” by one of my leaders at church about the way I preach and how it is perceived. Apparently something I said in the last couple of months struck a chord with a student or two, and they think my teaching is too much of hell, fire, and brimstone. A secret about all pastors and preachers is that we all want to be liked, and liked by everyone. So I won’t pretend this just rolled off of me, but I really am content with this kid’s analysis after reflecting on the last few months.
One thing I realized is that I have yet to use the word hell, Satan, or preach a sermon on judgment to the youth group. If you were to sum up my messages in the first few weeks, they could be categorized as messages of change more than anything. I believe it is time that Christians actually practice their faith, realize their spiritual life is more than a church service once or twice a week, and truly attempt to follow Jesus of Nazareth. But that just might be the problem with my message.
This may sound harsh, but I truly believe that many Christians today would not even like Jesus if they actually met him, much less choose to follow and worship him. Jesus to most people is nothing more than a teddy bear who is incapable of saving them from much of anything aside from a stock market crash or having to park further away in the parking lot. I believe Jesus came preaching a message of change which led him to ultimately get crucified.
David Kinnaman has authored a book that every Christian should read called unChristian. After 3 years of careful analysis of the culture today, Kinnaman and the Barna Group draw many conclusions about the state of the Church in America. One part of the book talks about the culture today creating God in their own image rather than vice versa. He says, “Some Christians respond to outsiders’ negativity by promoting a less offensive faith. The unpopular parts of Christian teaching are omitted or deemphasized. They hijack the image of Jesus by portraying him as an open-minded, big-hearted, and never-offended-anyone moral teacher. That is an entirely wrong idea of Jesus.” (Pg. 32-33)
This comes from a man who is hardly a fundamentalist. In fact, the entire book is about the failures of the church today and how we need to reform the church structure so that we can reach a new generation which is influenced by relativism and pluralism. The main problem is, we are more in the business of self-help, feel good messages than truthful teachings these days. I am sure I sound like a black and white fundamentalist, but if you cannot preach about living a life worthy of the call of Christ, then we live in a watered down Christian society. Kinnaman even goes onto to say, “The church desperately needs more people who facilitate a deeper, more authentic vision of the Christian faith in our pluralistic, sophisticated culture.” (pg. 16)
The truth is, I am not sure if I would have liked Jesus’ teachings, personality, or demands all of the time if I lived in the 1st Century. I am sure he would have stepped on my toes many times, and would have made me angry with his words at times. After sorting through some of this, I still boil down my faith to the core belief that my only hope lies in a 1st Century Galilean carpenter. For better or worse, I’m with the guy who told his followers they must eat his flesh and was perfectly secure with his message that he even challenged the 12 disciples to leave with the crowd (John 6). I’m with the guy who brought a whip into the biggest church around and caused chaos (John 2). I’m with the guy who referred to a Gentile woman as a dog (Matthew 15). In fact, I actually like Jesus more because of these stories, because he challenges me to decide who really is Lord in my life. What I’m not sure about is if this is the same Jesus most Christians would say they like, much less admit they worship.
One thing I realized is that I have yet to use the word hell, Satan, or preach a sermon on judgment to the youth group. If you were to sum up my messages in the first few weeks, they could be categorized as messages of change more than anything. I believe it is time that Christians actually practice their faith, realize their spiritual life is more than a church service once or twice a week, and truly attempt to follow Jesus of Nazareth. But that just might be the problem with my message.
This may sound harsh, but I truly believe that many Christians today would not even like Jesus if they actually met him, much less choose to follow and worship him. Jesus to most people is nothing more than a teddy bear who is incapable of saving them from much of anything aside from a stock market crash or having to park further away in the parking lot. I believe Jesus came preaching a message of change which led him to ultimately get crucified.
David Kinnaman has authored a book that every Christian should read called unChristian. After 3 years of careful analysis of the culture today, Kinnaman and the Barna Group draw many conclusions about the state of the Church in America. One part of the book talks about the culture today creating God in their own image rather than vice versa. He says, “Some Christians respond to outsiders’ negativity by promoting a less offensive faith. The unpopular parts of Christian teaching are omitted or deemphasized. They hijack the image of Jesus by portraying him as an open-minded, big-hearted, and never-offended-anyone moral teacher. That is an entirely wrong idea of Jesus.” (Pg. 32-33)
This comes from a man who is hardly a fundamentalist. In fact, the entire book is about the failures of the church today and how we need to reform the church structure so that we can reach a new generation which is influenced by relativism and pluralism. The main problem is, we are more in the business of self-help, feel good messages than truthful teachings these days. I am sure I sound like a black and white fundamentalist, but if you cannot preach about living a life worthy of the call of Christ, then we live in a watered down Christian society. Kinnaman even goes onto to say, “The church desperately needs more people who facilitate a deeper, more authentic vision of the Christian faith in our pluralistic, sophisticated culture.” (pg. 16)
The truth is, I am not sure if I would have liked Jesus’ teachings, personality, or demands all of the time if I lived in the 1st Century. I am sure he would have stepped on my toes many times, and would have made me angry with his words at times. After sorting through some of this, I still boil down my faith to the core belief that my only hope lies in a 1st Century Galilean carpenter. For better or worse, I’m with the guy who told his followers they must eat his flesh and was perfectly secure with his message that he even challenged the 12 disciples to leave with the crowd (John 6). I’m with the guy who brought a whip into the biggest church around and caused chaos (John 2). I’m with the guy who referred to a Gentile woman as a dog (Matthew 15). In fact, I actually like Jesus more because of these stories, because he challenges me to decide who really is Lord in my life. What I’m not sure about is if this is the same Jesus most Christians would say they like, much less admit they worship.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Glad You're Back by Clint
In preparing for the Easter season services for the church where I pastor, I came upon an interesting text that I had forgotten about. It happened as I was re-reading through the accounts leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion and the accounts of his resurrection in the Gospels. At the very end of Matthew, chapter 28, verse 17 says, “When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.” Wow. The very ones that saw Jesus crucified and then saw him raised from the dead are looking right at him but still doubting! They got to see, talk to, touch, and eat with the resurrected Lord, and yet some of them doubt. Do you think they expressed their doubt to Jesus’ face? Or, did they wait and discuss their skepticism after being alone with the other disciples? And how many doubted? The text doesn’t tell us. Faith is not easy, and the resurrection is a difficult concept. I was having lunch with Brady, and we were talking about the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead by Jesus. This happened as a sign of Jesus’ power and coming resurrection. Our conversation turned to the response of those who knew Lazarus before he had died. They probably were a little scared of post-death Lazarus and maybe even a little reluctant to be alone with the guy. After all, he had been dead. Where do you even start in conversation? “Hey man, glad you’re back.” And there is no way that Lazarus was the same person after coming back. “Lazarus, ever since you died and came back, you haven’t been the same guy we used to know.” Surely they were frightened by Lazarus’ return, and Jesus’ return must have had the same affect. If the very disciples that saw him raised from the dead doubted, then we can be sure that even for them the idea of someone defeating death is hard to grasp. Often times, faith is expected to be easy. It’s not. Many would like to believe it is, but the disciples are there watching these events, struggling with the meaning of it all. But the importance of Jesus’ resurrection cannot be ignored or taken for granted. The Apostle Paul says in I Corinthians 15:14, “and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain.” Our faith in God hinges on this belief in the resurrection. Believing resurrection is difficult and faith is difficult, but this is a good thing. Do you really want to put your faith and life and belief into a God that only does regular, everyday, boring things? Do you really want to follow and worship a Savior that made everything easy and overly predictable? The fact is that in Christ’s resurrection, we see that there is eternal life. In this, there is glory and perfect truth. The challenge of faith is the beauty of faith. The difficulty of these things is where its substance resides. Our finite minds are so programmed to stop at death. We are so limited to thinking in the realm of mortality; we must be reminded that what God has prepared beyond death will truly be glorious beyond measure.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Pray For Their Troops by Brady
How Christianity relates to matters of the “state” has been a longstanding debate within the church. I would hope you have suffered long and hard over the idea of what it means to be a citizen of Heaven and an American citizen. The earliest Christians certainly struggled over this same topic. You have Jesus’ famous phrase saying “Give Caesar what is Caesar’s and God what is God’s.” You also have Paul who says we should subject ourselves to the laws of the land. N.T. Wright has actually done a lot of work to show how the Gospels may actually have been extremely subversive towards the Roman Empire. You even have Revelation which when reading it in its proper context appears to be against Rome as well. So overall, how we live in the world while not becoming consumed by the world is not new in any way, shape or form.
The more I think about the direction of the church lately, I think we are having an identity crisis and are trying to figure out who we actually are as the Body of Christ. We had a pastor running for president and a debate on whether it would be ok to vote for a Mormon. We also hear that if (fill in the blank) gets elected, the whole world is going to end. The overwhelming state of mind in America is fear when it comes to politics today. Commercials prey on our fears (side note: this goes way beyond politics, just see any insurance commercial) and exploit our doubt.
The more I think about the direction of the church lately, I think we are having an identity crisis and are trying to figure out who we actually are as the Body of Christ. We had a pastor running for president and a debate on whether it would be ok to vote for a Mormon. We also hear that if (fill in the blank) gets elected, the whole world is going to end. The overwhelming state of mind in America is fear when it comes to politics today. Commercials prey on our fears (side note: this goes way beyond politics, just see any insurance commercial) and exploit our doubt.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Bigger Than Basketball by Clint
The night before last, I was crushed. I couldn’t believe what I heard on the radio. Now is a good time to mention that I am a huge Baylor basketball fan, especially this season. I can’t exactly explain it, but for various reasons, I am really emotionally attached to this year’s team. I have watched or listened to almost every game this year. By the way, when you listen to an entire regular season men’s college basketball game on the radio, it either qualifies you as a dork or a die-hard fan. I hope I fall into the latter category. Anyways, the last two games have been devastating. We lose in the most heartbreaking ways- I’ve coined the term, Bear-ly losing. It’s not just tough losses, they’re losses that come down to the final seconds and games that we are right in position to win. The loss last night against Oklahoma was too much to handle after coming back against UT one game earlier to only throw the game away. I won’t go into all the details with the Oklahoma game, but it involves overtime, winning by four with fifteen seconds, and missed free throws. As mad as I was, I thought about the game, the season, and the past few years for Baylor men’s basketball, and I got a little needed perspective.
You probably remember the events that happened to the Baylor men’s basketball team in the summer of ’03. There was a tragic murder and a terrible scandal. The entire program had blood on its hands, as the coach and others were part of a cover up to make the victim, Patrick Dennehy, look like a drug dealer. The head coach was fired and banned from coaching in the NCAA until 2015 (He will certainly never coach in college again). Baylor’s athletic director resigned, and the school rightly imposed harsh sanctions on its own program along with the sanctions levied by the NCAA. Our program was as good as over. Realistically, it would take over ten years even to start to compete in the Big 12. The whole events were utterly tragic, and it was another black eye on a school that desires to promote Christian values and ethics.
Two days ago, I read an article about the resurgence of the Baylor men’s basketball program. The article spoke to the miraculous turn around of the program. We have competed and even beat top 25-ranked teams this year, and are in the top 6 of teams in the Big 12. The rebuilding process was one of sacrifice and hope. When Scott Drew came to coach the team, people told him he had lost his mind. When Aaron Bruce left Australia to come play for Baylor, his friends did their best to convince him not to go. They both explained why they came to Baylor. Their responses were the same. “I wanted to be part of something bigger than basketball.” And they certainly have been. Along with them, Coach Drew has had great success recruiting, and Baylor has a bright future. But even more than recruiting success and winning games, they have blessed one person more than they might ever know. Brian Brazabon, the stepfather of Patrick Dennehy, watches every game he can. He still has his son’s old jersey and he roots his heart out for Baylor as one of the only BU fans in Nevada where he lives and works. The success and sacrifice of those in the Baylor program have given him a chance to cheer for something and a chance to replay precious memories of his son.
We often forget we are part of something bigger than the work we do, the hobbies we are good at, and the people we know. We sell ourselves short and say, “Well I’m just ….” One of my favorite stories in scripture is when Peter is restored by Jesus after Jesus’ resurrection. Peter probably looked at himself as a lowly fisherman who had betrayed his friend and failed as a disciple. Yet Jesus tells him that he will feed and care for the flock, meaning he would lead those in the early Christian church. Jesus tells Peter that he will be part of something bigger than he could ever imagine. Peter must have been scared, and he must have known the road would be extremely difficult. But he wanted to be part of something bigger. In faith, if you realize you can be part of what Jesus is doing in the world, if you believe that faith can still move, you can be part of something bigger than you even know. Believe in that, and take steps of faith for the Lord.
You probably remember the events that happened to the Baylor men’s basketball team in the summer of ’03. There was a tragic murder and a terrible scandal. The entire program had blood on its hands, as the coach and others were part of a cover up to make the victim, Patrick Dennehy, look like a drug dealer. The head coach was fired and banned from coaching in the NCAA until 2015 (He will certainly never coach in college again). Baylor’s athletic director resigned, and the school rightly imposed harsh sanctions on its own program along with the sanctions levied by the NCAA. Our program was as good as over. Realistically, it would take over ten years even to start to compete in the Big 12. The whole events were utterly tragic, and it was another black eye on a school that desires to promote Christian values and ethics.
Two days ago, I read an article about the resurgence of the Baylor men’s basketball program. The article spoke to the miraculous turn around of the program. We have competed and even beat top 25-ranked teams this year, and are in the top 6 of teams in the Big 12. The rebuilding process was one of sacrifice and hope. When Scott Drew came to coach the team, people told him he had lost his mind. When Aaron Bruce left Australia to come play for Baylor, his friends did their best to convince him not to go. They both explained why they came to Baylor. Their responses were the same. “I wanted to be part of something bigger than basketball.” And they certainly have been. Along with them, Coach Drew has had great success recruiting, and Baylor has a bright future. But even more than recruiting success and winning games, they have blessed one person more than they might ever know. Brian Brazabon, the stepfather of Patrick Dennehy, watches every game he can. He still has his son’s old jersey and he roots his heart out for Baylor as one of the only BU fans in Nevada where he lives and works. The success and sacrifice of those in the Baylor program have given him a chance to cheer for something and a chance to replay precious memories of his son.
We often forget we are part of something bigger than the work we do, the hobbies we are good at, and the people we know. We sell ourselves short and say, “Well I’m just ….” One of my favorite stories in scripture is when Peter is restored by Jesus after Jesus’ resurrection. Peter probably looked at himself as a lowly fisherman who had betrayed his friend and failed as a disciple. Yet Jesus tells him that he will feed and care for the flock, meaning he would lead those in the early Christian church. Jesus tells Peter that he will be part of something bigger than he could ever imagine. Peter must have been scared, and he must have known the road would be extremely difficult. But he wanted to be part of something bigger. In faith, if you realize you can be part of what Jesus is doing in the world, if you believe that faith can still move, you can be part of something bigger than you even know. Believe in that, and take steps of faith for the Lord.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
The Schizophrenic Church by Brady
Few people who have worked on a seminary degree would argue against the fact that it is one of the hardest things to accomplish. The hardest part of seminary is that it lasts so long (a 93 hour Masters degree) and is grueling physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I would say, without trying to be overdramatic, that I live with a tension within me most days. Maybe I should “let go and let God,” but the truth is that it is hard to wrestle with the tough questions in Christianity while also dealing with the day to day grind of balancing family, school, work, and social life. I do not think it is seminary students alone that live with this tension I am talking about, because I think it is a societal issue present in many people today.
We are in the midst of a dramatic paradigm shift within our civilization today. We are moving from the Enlightenment way of thinking called Modernism to a Post-Enlightenment age called Postmodernism. But anytime a massive shift like this takes place, it is never quick and easy. Within our faith, we have people who are operating fully on the Modern paradigm, those who are attempting to function fully on the Postmodern paradigm, and the rest of us being pulled between the two. This pulling actually creates great stress on individuals as well as institutions. David Bosch says in Transforming Mission, “This (shift) produces a kind of theological schizophrenia, which we just have to put up with while at the same time groping our way toward greater clarity. Scholars in all disciplines are overtaxed, and yet there is no way in which we can evade the demands made on us.” (p. 188)
One place this change in paradigms is particularly stretching is the Christian Church. Bosch goes on to say, “the Christian church in general and the Christian mission in particular are today confronted with issues they have never even dreamt of and which are crying out for responses that are both relevant to the times and in harmony with the essence of the Christian faith.” This is the stress I feel spiritually in my ministry. How can I be relevant to the world while remaining true to Christ? Another way to put it is “What does Jerusalem have to do with Waco?”
Maybe you are unlike me and do not feel this tension or maybe have not even heard of Postmodernism. All I can say to that is you are either operating on the old paradigm, live in a community sheltered from the outside world (which is not always a bad thing), or are ticking a lot of people off and you don’t care or aren’t aware of it. But either way, the shift is happening with or without you, and it is your job to make yourself aware of the culture you are living in. You may be wondering, why in the world would I want to live with this spiritual tension in my life? The answer is simple.
First, you are called to be a follower of Christ in one of the most important times in Christian history. I truly believe that the Christian Church, especially in the West, is on the ropes like it has not been in hundreds, if not thousands, of years. But there is another reason as well. Living with tension can create something beautiful for the world to ultimately be a better place to live. If you like listening to music, how good would a guitar sound if the strings were not full of tension? Maybe you’re an avid tennis player, so how well would your racket serve you if the strings were not wound tight with stress? Girls, you are the biggest fans of stress because diamonds ultimately would not be produced unless they were put under high pressure and heat naturally by the earth. My point is, stress can either kill you or produce something great. This is where we stand as the Church today.
Some sources today say Christianity has over 38,000 denominations and I would say each one believes they have the full revelation from God. This Church must decide what it will be to the next generation. Whatever it decides, there is one fact that remains: A single individual that lived in Israel in the first century has utterly turned this world upside down with the Good News he brought to us. During this time of change and uncertainty, my prayer is that we rest firmly in this reality.
We are in the midst of a dramatic paradigm shift within our civilization today. We are moving from the Enlightenment way of thinking called Modernism to a Post-Enlightenment age called Postmodernism. But anytime a massive shift like this takes place, it is never quick and easy. Within our faith, we have people who are operating fully on the Modern paradigm, those who are attempting to function fully on the Postmodern paradigm, and the rest of us being pulled between the two. This pulling actually creates great stress on individuals as well as institutions. David Bosch says in Transforming Mission, “This (shift) produces a kind of theological schizophrenia, which we just have to put up with while at the same time groping our way toward greater clarity. Scholars in all disciplines are overtaxed, and yet there is no way in which we can evade the demands made on us.” (p. 188)
One place this change in paradigms is particularly stretching is the Christian Church. Bosch goes on to say, “the Christian church in general and the Christian mission in particular are today confronted with issues they have never even dreamt of and which are crying out for responses that are both relevant to the times and in harmony with the essence of the Christian faith.” This is the stress I feel spiritually in my ministry. How can I be relevant to the world while remaining true to Christ? Another way to put it is “What does Jerusalem have to do with Waco?”
Maybe you are unlike me and do not feel this tension or maybe have not even heard of Postmodernism. All I can say to that is you are either operating on the old paradigm, live in a community sheltered from the outside world (which is not always a bad thing), or are ticking a lot of people off and you don’t care or aren’t aware of it. But either way, the shift is happening with or without you, and it is your job to make yourself aware of the culture you are living in. You may be wondering, why in the world would I want to live with this spiritual tension in my life? The answer is simple.
First, you are called to be a follower of Christ in one of the most important times in Christian history. I truly believe that the Christian Church, especially in the West, is on the ropes like it has not been in hundreds, if not thousands, of years. But there is another reason as well. Living with tension can create something beautiful for the world to ultimately be a better place to live. If you like listening to music, how good would a guitar sound if the strings were not full of tension? Maybe you’re an avid tennis player, so how well would your racket serve you if the strings were not wound tight with stress? Girls, you are the biggest fans of stress because diamonds ultimately would not be produced unless they were put under high pressure and heat naturally by the earth. My point is, stress can either kill you or produce something great. This is where we stand as the Church today.
Some sources today say Christianity has over 38,000 denominations and I would say each one believes they have the full revelation from God. This Church must decide what it will be to the next generation. Whatever it decides, there is one fact that remains: A single individual that lived in Israel in the first century has utterly turned this world upside down with the Good News he brought to us. During this time of change and uncertainty, my prayer is that we rest firmly in this reality.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Pit-iful Experiences by Clint
About two weeks ago, I went to the Foo Fighter’s concert in Dallas at the America Airlines Center. The show was awesome, and I was fortunate enough to land tickets in The Pit. The Pit is the area right in front of the stage on the floor. It’s usually really claustrophobic and hot, but it is a really fun way to see a show. I don’t think they officially call it the pit anymore, though. A few years ago I went to a concert and on my ticket it said, The Pit. This time, on my ticket it just said “Floor.” I was a little disappointed to be honest. Labeling it The Pit kind of encapsulates the experience. I guess they changed the terminology because “pit” just has so many negative connotations. I guess it’s too grungy a term to put on the ticket stub. Besides using it as a label for concert seating, I can’t think of any positive things relating to a pit. Some of the ladies reading this might say Brad Pitt, but that doesn’t count. Pits just aren’t good things. It makes you think of expressions like “bottomless pit.”
I meet with the youth at my church on Wednesday night, and I was trying to relate to them the story of Joseph. I think the point that hit home the most with them was Joseph’s experience of being thrown into a pit by his brothers. It connected with them because we’ve all been in personal pits. We’ve all had moments where we feel like we are at the bottom. We feel as though we are in a place where there is no getting out of. Before being tossed into the pit, Joseph was on top of the world. He was young, had a great relationship with his father, and he was even having dreams of being powerful and successful. Things took a sour turn, however, when Joseph tells his brothers his dream of them bowing down to him. Being the baby of the family may make you a bit spoiled and naïve, but he should have known better than to tell his older brothers about his dream. Some dreams you just keep to yourself, and this was one of those. So one moment Joseph is on top of the world, and the next he is down in a hole, betrayed by his own family.
Something that jumps out at me in this story is that the brothers were going to kill Joseph first and then throw him in the well. They were going to use the well as a grave. They don’t end up killing Joseph, but they still throw him into what would have been his grave. Joseph, in essence, was buried alive. How often do people say things like, “My life is over!” Or, “I’m done for.” It is easy to pronounce ourselves dead when there is still so much living to do, and so much that can happen. Joseph could have easily thought that he was done for. All his plans, his hopes, and his dreams (remember his dreams from Gen. 37:5-9) surely were at the bottom of that well with him, never to get out. It’s hard enough to look forward from ground level, it’s near impossible to do so from the bottom of a hole. Why didn’t God keep him out of that well? Why did Joseph have those dreams that got him into trouble? God, though, was with Joseph at the bottom of the well. God was still working in the life of Joseph. Even when the situation went from bad to worse, as Joseph was taken out of the well to be sold as a slave to Gypsies, God was still working in him. As you may know, Joseph went on to be a great leader in Egypt. He was reunited with his brothers, and he played a major role in the narrative of his people. When life lands you in a pit (and like Joseph, it may even be the work of those close to you), know that God still won’t abandon you. But there aren’t always promises of an easy escape. Some people battle pits their whole life. But the hope is that God can work good out of pit experiences. In faith, no pit has to be a bottomless one. Don’t pronounce things to be over before they are. God is a God of Hesed, meaning He is loyal and merciful. A good parent doesn’t over-protect their child from every scrape, bump, bruise, and hardship. A good parent, though, offers support and concern in those times. God is a good and gracious Father. He won’t abandon you in a pit when you call to Him.
I meet with the youth at my church on Wednesday night, and I was trying to relate to them the story of Joseph. I think the point that hit home the most with them was Joseph’s experience of being thrown into a pit by his brothers. It connected with them because we’ve all been in personal pits. We’ve all had moments where we feel like we are at the bottom. We feel as though we are in a place where there is no getting out of. Before being tossed into the pit, Joseph was on top of the world. He was young, had a great relationship with his father, and he was even having dreams of being powerful and successful. Things took a sour turn, however, when Joseph tells his brothers his dream of them bowing down to him. Being the baby of the family may make you a bit spoiled and naïve, but he should have known better than to tell his older brothers about his dream. Some dreams you just keep to yourself, and this was one of those. So one moment Joseph is on top of the world, and the next he is down in a hole, betrayed by his own family.
Something that jumps out at me in this story is that the brothers were going to kill Joseph first and then throw him in the well. They were going to use the well as a grave. They don’t end up killing Joseph, but they still throw him into what would have been his grave. Joseph, in essence, was buried alive. How often do people say things like, “My life is over!” Or, “I’m done for.” It is easy to pronounce ourselves dead when there is still so much living to do, and so much that can happen. Joseph could have easily thought that he was done for. All his plans, his hopes, and his dreams (remember his dreams from Gen. 37:5-9) surely were at the bottom of that well with him, never to get out. It’s hard enough to look forward from ground level, it’s near impossible to do so from the bottom of a hole. Why didn’t God keep him out of that well? Why did Joseph have those dreams that got him into trouble? God, though, was with Joseph at the bottom of the well. God was still working in the life of Joseph. Even when the situation went from bad to worse, as Joseph was taken out of the well to be sold as a slave to Gypsies, God was still working in him. As you may know, Joseph went on to be a great leader in Egypt. He was reunited with his brothers, and he played a major role in the narrative of his people. When life lands you in a pit (and like Joseph, it may even be the work of those close to you), know that God still won’t abandon you. But there aren’t always promises of an easy escape. Some people battle pits their whole life. But the hope is that God can work good out of pit experiences. In faith, no pit has to be a bottomless one. Don’t pronounce things to be over before they are. God is a God of Hesed, meaning He is loyal and merciful. A good parent doesn’t over-protect their child from every scrape, bump, bruise, and hardship. A good parent, though, offers support and concern in those times. God is a good and gracious Father. He won’t abandon you in a pit when you call to Him.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Even More On Hesed by Brady
I have been talking recently about the importance not only believing the right thing, but also doing the right thing when it comes to being a disciple. In my last blog, I talked about how Western Christianity puts more stress on orthodoxy (right belief) than orthopraxy (right practice). I wanted to take an example a little further than I used last time in order to get us thinking about hesed and what it means to become vertically horizontal.
I suggested last time that most people choose their church and decide if they like a preacher based on their orthodoxy rather than examining their orthopraxy. In fact, the majority of churchgoers often wonder what exactly it is that their pastor does during the normal work week. To add to this, our education system has trained us that we must learn by sitting and listening, and that this practice will somehow change the way we interact with the world around us. The only field I can see that does an above average job of continually breaking down this paradigm is science. At least students are forced to dissect actual animals and complete chemistry experiments in order to better understand the study of science.
The funny thing is that we have allowed the Western way of learning to greatly influence how we do church. We turn following Christ into a passive activity such as listening to a sermon and then feel like we are magically further along the road of becoming a better follower/disciple of Christ. I am not sure that you can “disciple” someone in a Sunday School room. Don’t get me wrong, I love preaching and teaching and it is how I make my living, but this cannot be the sum of the Christian life. Jesus was a Rabbi and he used common rabbinical techniques in order to teach about the kingdom of God. He taught in parables and on the streets where all of the action was. Today, it is culturally unacceptable to teach on the streets where people actually live. These types of preachers are seen as condemning and seem to have a social disorder.
But Jesus taught on the streets to the common, everyday person and he used genius techniques in order to get his point across. Even his teaching was the embodiment of hesed, perfectly blending the horizontal and vertical. He used ordinary and tangible examples in his parables when he preached. In fact, the illustrations he would use would sometimes be so “earthly” that the people would get confused on what the heck a seed has to do with God (see Matthew 13:1-23). Another example is the famous parable known as “The Good Samaritan,” when Jesus left the crowd baffled with a normal, universal story about what it means to be an actual child of God (see Luke 10:25-37). In fact, Jesus ends the parable in Luke 10:36-37 by using the Greek version of hesed, which is eleos. ““Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him eleos.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.””
The truth is that you should judge a preacher on their orthodoxy and what they believe. In fact, I believe that the more technology plays a dominant role in our lives, the harder it is to maintain the attention of the congregation. This means we preachers are going to have to use more creative methods to teach the proper orthodoxy in coming years. But, I have a suggestion for you before you choose a new church, buy a Christian book, or watch a preacher on TBN: Find out if they live out their faith daily! Too many prominent pastors are getting busted living lifestyles that no more reflect Jesus than I reflect Tom Brady on the football field. The reason these “pastorpreneurs” can have thousands upon thousands of people reading their books and listening to their sermons and then get busted embezzling money, doing drugs, or having an affair is because we don’t take the time to check out their faith in action. In some cases, we would rather not know if they live their faith out as long as we can benefit from their teaching.
Is it possible that we have put too much emphasis on our vertical relationship with God that we have reached an unhealthy balance when it comes to faith and practice? Is it possible to be spiritual but not be right with God? When do we reach the point that we have checked out on those around us in the name of “serving God”? It is probably when we reach the point that Jesus describes in Matthew 23. “Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. “The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer…Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’” (Matthew 23:1-3; 6-7 from The Message) We must decide if the state of the Western Church is maintaining a proper balance when it comes to the call of embodying hesed. May we all become Hesed Now.
I suggested last time that most people choose their church and decide if they like a preacher based on their orthodoxy rather than examining their orthopraxy. In fact, the majority of churchgoers often wonder what exactly it is that their pastor does during the normal work week. To add to this, our education system has trained us that we must learn by sitting and listening, and that this practice will somehow change the way we interact with the world around us. The only field I can see that does an above average job of continually breaking down this paradigm is science. At least students are forced to dissect actual animals and complete chemistry experiments in order to better understand the study of science.
The funny thing is that we have allowed the Western way of learning to greatly influence how we do church. We turn following Christ into a passive activity such as listening to a sermon and then feel like we are magically further along the road of becoming a better follower/disciple of Christ. I am not sure that you can “disciple” someone in a Sunday School room. Don’t get me wrong, I love preaching and teaching and it is how I make my living, but this cannot be the sum of the Christian life. Jesus was a Rabbi and he used common rabbinical techniques in order to teach about the kingdom of God. He taught in parables and on the streets where all of the action was. Today, it is culturally unacceptable to teach on the streets where people actually live. These types of preachers are seen as condemning and seem to have a social disorder.
But Jesus taught on the streets to the common, everyday person and he used genius techniques in order to get his point across. Even his teaching was the embodiment of hesed, perfectly blending the horizontal and vertical. He used ordinary and tangible examples in his parables when he preached. In fact, the illustrations he would use would sometimes be so “earthly” that the people would get confused on what the heck a seed has to do with God (see Matthew 13:1-23). Another example is the famous parable known as “The Good Samaritan,” when Jesus left the crowd baffled with a normal, universal story about what it means to be an actual child of God (see Luke 10:25-37). In fact, Jesus ends the parable in Luke 10:36-37 by using the Greek version of hesed, which is eleos. ““Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him eleos.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.””
The truth is that you should judge a preacher on their orthodoxy and what they believe. In fact, I believe that the more technology plays a dominant role in our lives, the harder it is to maintain the attention of the congregation. This means we preachers are going to have to use more creative methods to teach the proper orthodoxy in coming years. But, I have a suggestion for you before you choose a new church, buy a Christian book, or watch a preacher on TBN: Find out if they live out their faith daily! Too many prominent pastors are getting busted living lifestyles that no more reflect Jesus than I reflect Tom Brady on the football field. The reason these “pastorpreneurs” can have thousands upon thousands of people reading their books and listening to their sermons and then get busted embezzling money, doing drugs, or having an affair is because we don’t take the time to check out their faith in action. In some cases, we would rather not know if they live their faith out as long as we can benefit from their teaching.
Is it possible that we have put too much emphasis on our vertical relationship with God that we have reached an unhealthy balance when it comes to faith and practice? Is it possible to be spiritual but not be right with God? When do we reach the point that we have checked out on those around us in the name of “serving God”? It is probably when we reach the point that Jesus describes in Matthew 23. “Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. “The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer…Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’” (Matthew 23:1-3; 6-7 from The Message) We must decide if the state of the Western Church is maintaining a proper balance when it comes to the call of embodying hesed. May we all become Hesed Now.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
An Atheist and A Flood by Clint
I have no business immersing myself in the world of Psychology. I know little to nothing about the field; however, I was a psych major at Baylor, so I do feel entitled enough to read Psychology Today magazine occasionally. Some of it’s outside my interest –or maybe just over my head- but a lot of it is really fascinating. In the recent issue there was an article entitled, “Atheist in the Pulpit.” Naturally, being in ministry, I grabbed the magazine and flipped right to the article, very curious as to what the article would say. As I read, I found the account of a minister who had been struggling with his belief as he continued to preach, pastor, and comfort people in the hospital. He finally got to the point where he renounced his faith, and now he is in “recovery” from religion. In reading his words, his loss of faith was a slow process. I could tell that it began with his loss of touch with God. You’re probably saying, “Good work Sherlock. Of course that how loss of faith begins!” But I couldn’t stop thinking about how the former minister talked of the way that this loss of faith crept up on him. He was even still preaching every Sunday after he had personally renounced his faith. He expressed that all of this happened over an extended time, though, and it started with his loss of passion in relation to God. It is easy to fall into the trap of going through all the motions with the programmed form of a robot. It’s like muscle memory: I had a baseball coach tell me that if you do the same thing 20 times, 20 times a day for 20 days, your muscles will store that action and you can do it without even thinking about it. And going through that form may look good, and you may think you’ve got it down pat. In worship, however, getting into a pattern of always just going through the motions isn’t good enough for God. God wants spontaneity. God wants heart. God wants true passion and loyalty. Think about it in terms of relationship- if you did something nice or seemingly heartfelt for your significant other, and they asked, “What is this for!?” How would it go over if you replied, “We are in a relationship. I am supposed to do little things to make it seem like I care. I got this idea from a commercial.” That would probably land you back into the dating world, and with that level of sensitivity, good luck! But being perfectly honest, how easy is it to pass off our relationship with God by going through motions.
Back to the preaching Atheist- he lost touch, and he started going through the motions. A relationship just cannot survive without the true heart behind it, especially a relationship with God who is pure love. So, when God tells the Israelites that he is sick of their burnt offerings (Hos. 6:6), he is telling them that the robotic stuff just isn’t working. In Genesis, Noah makes an offering to God after the flood, and the aroma is pleasing to God. After landing on dry ground after all the trauma and devastation, I’m sure Noah’s offering was passionate and honest. The flood account has been on my mind lately because I feel like there is trauma and devastation all around us now in 2008. It is difficult to read the paper or watch the news. Few things are more chaotic and uncontrollable than a flood. Things seem pretty messy and uncontainable right now, kind of like a flood. In all that, don’t become jaded. Don’t become a worship robot just going through the motions. Show God Hesed- covenant loyalty. Show the people around you Hesed- mercy. Amongst the floods in your life, let your offering to God be fragrant.
Back to the preaching Atheist- he lost touch, and he started going through the motions. A relationship just cannot survive without the true heart behind it, especially a relationship with God who is pure love. So, when God tells the Israelites that he is sick of their burnt offerings (Hos. 6:6), he is telling them that the robotic stuff just isn’t working. In Genesis, Noah makes an offering to God after the flood, and the aroma is pleasing to God. After landing on dry ground after all the trauma and devastation, I’m sure Noah’s offering was passionate and honest. The flood account has been on my mind lately because I feel like there is trauma and devastation all around us now in 2008. It is difficult to read the paper or watch the news. Few things are more chaotic and uncontrollable than a flood. Things seem pretty messy and uncontainable right now, kind of like a flood. In all that, don’t become jaded. Don’t become a worship robot just going through the motions. Show God Hesed- covenant loyalty. Show the people around you Hesed- mercy. Amongst the floods in your life, let your offering to God be fragrant.
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