Filed under: Book Review, Missional Church, Missional Living | Tags: Christianity, Consumerism, economy, Jesus, redemptive living, SEC
I read this post the other day from Mike King the founder of a youth organization called YouthFront. It really challenged me and caused me to rethink some of my initial judgments of the financial mess and bailout we are in the midst of. He’s blog site is here, but I’ve reposted his post for you convenience. I’d love to hear what you think.
Every Monday I get a memo from Roy H. Williams. It is consistently filled with interesting observations about the world we live in and specifically focuses on marketing and business practices. Williams’ company is called the Wizard Academy.
In 2005, Wizard Academy Press published a book by Greg Farrell called America Robbed Blind. At the time, Farrell was a reporter for USA Today. He reported primarily on Wall Street and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Today Farrell writes for Financial Times. Farrell has won the Jesse Neal Award for investigative reporting and is a graduate of Harvard University. He completed an MBA at Columbia University.
Williams made the following comments in today’s memo. This is very interesting, in light of what is happening right now in Washington, D.C. and Wall Street.
“Greg was America’s only reporter in the courtroom for every minute of the trials of Enron, Worldcom, Tyco and Martha Stewart. As an investigative reporter Greg dug deep, full time, year after year. “Roy, the SEC is being set up to take the fall for a series of financial disasters,” he said. “This whole Enron thing is just the tip of the iceberg.”
“What do you mean?”
“The number of publicly traded companies has grown exponentially in recent years, yet the budget for the SEC had been increased by only a small amount. Think of it this way,” Greg said, “Andy and Barney did a pretty good job patrolling Mayberry, but now they’re being told they have to patrol Los Angeles without any additional help, and without any bullets for their guns.”
Greg went on to explain how Congress keeps the SEC under-funded so that big business can grow unimpeded, unsupervised, and unregulated. If Congress allowed the SEC to do its job, big business would cry, “The government has us handcuffed! We can’t compete with all these government regulations.”
Big companies donate big dollars to congressional candidates. Are you beginning to get the picture?
Page 68 of Greg’s book details the proposal made during the summer of 2000 by Arthur Levitt, chairman of the SEC at the time.
Levitt was absolutely convinced that a financial catastrophe was coming and begged Congress to give him the power to stop it.
“But several big firms whose campaign contributions to lawmakers on Capitol Hill gave them enormous clout, fought the proposal aggressively… Levitt went to extraordinary lengths to show Congress the dangers that lay ahead… But Levitt’s warnings fell on deaf ears. So he took the battle to the states… It was only in November of 2000, when he learned that Congress was threatening to cut the SEC’s budget if the new rule went into effect, that Levitt relented.” – Page 69, America Robbed Blind, (2005)
In essence, Congress told Andy to quit complaining or they would take away his budget to pay Barney.
When the whole Enron thing was over, I asked Greg if he thought anything like that could ever happen again. “You can count on it,” he said, “It’s inevitable. As long as Congress keeps the watchdog starved, muzzled and on a chain, the abuses will multiply. Arthur Levitt begged Congress to empower the SEC and they spanked him for it.”
Enron and his cousins robbed American investors of more than 500 billion dollars. Then on September 18, 2008, after it was learned that Americans would again be left holding the bag for a 700 billion-dollar bank heist, John McCain, a lawmaker on Capitol Hill for the past 26 years, said, “The chairman of the SEC serves at the appointment of the president and in my view, has betrayed the public’s trust. If I were president today, I would fire him.’’
Wow. They’re trying to hang this debacle around the neck of the SEC and use them as the scapegoat, just as Greg said they would. (Hey, if Obama had said it, I’d be equally appalled, so don’t make the mistake of thinking I have a political bias. I don’t.)
Perhaps the greatest tragedy of all is that Greg described exactly how to fix the problem in his book (pages 180-181,) but no one paid attention:
1. Allow the SEC to keep the fees it currently collects from public companies. Self-funding would protect the financial health of the commission from the whims of its Congressional overlords, and allow the SEC to grow at the same rate as the financial markets it polices.
2. Give SEC attorney’s criminal enforcement powers.
3. Give bonuses to successful SEC attorneys. Plaintiff’s lawyers who bring cases against tobacco companies and asbestos manufacturers put years of effort into the cause because if they win, the financial payoff is astronomical. But an SEC lawyer has almost no incentive to take on difficult cases where the commission is outgunned by a public company’s army of lawyers.”
OK, so back to me, a guy trying to run a youth ministry organization that is getting impacted by the events unfolding. When the economy suffers – our donations are effected; prices go up – food costs, insurance, etc. In my 34 years at Youthfront we have seen several of these types of cycles before. They have been challenging; sometimes helping to redefine who we are and what we do in positive ways. This reality doesn’t make this season any easier especially since the scope of this current economic crisis has such huge and global ramifications.
The scripture says, “Greedy people try to get rich quick but don’t realize they’re headed for poverty (Proverbs 28:22, NLT).” It seems to me that a significant part of this bailout effort is focused on trying to protect those who have been greedy. I read about a man yesterday who made $250,000 a year and bought a home worth $2.7 million. He lost his job and is now facing foreclosure hoping this bailout will help him. You’ve got to be kidding. When you buy a home that is worth $2.2 million more than you can afford you should have your head examined and shame on a system that will allow someone to do that. OK, I’ve ranted enough.
So, a society based on greed and consumerism set up a puppet watchdog group to take the fall so all the major players could get rich. No way, I find that so hard to believe!
However, I think the bigger question, is how as followers of Jesus, and a God who calls us to live fully-present today and not worry about tomorrow, do we not only live graciously in these times without getting sucked into the anxiety, but also proclaim and live an alternative?
How do we live generously in a culture that is all about taking care of number one. How do we live redemptively in a system that is suffering the effects of rampant consumption and self-interest? How do we proclaim hope and a future to people that are suffering and in danger of all that gives them security? I don’t have many answers yet, but the communities that can answer these questions and actually live them out will be positioned to graciously respond and accurately reflect God’s heart to our culture. Any ideas?
Filed under: Book Review, Missional Church | Tags: Christianity, God, gospel, Jesus, Missional, Missional Church
Don’t know why this didn’t publish, but I just found it in my draft file.
I’ve been devouring Darrell Guder’s (and others) foundational book, Missional Church:A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America. First published in 1998 this prophetic call for change is both affirming and wrecking many of my ideas and convictions of living as an incarnational community. Two things amaze me. First, is the fact that I am just reading this book now, and second is that, for the most part, this book seems to be completely ignored by most church leaders. I’ve found myself getting so into reading that I actually have to go back and re-read whole sections because there is so much good stuff in here. The writers do a great job of pointing out the fact that the church must be open to change in order to respond not only to the culture surrounding it, but also to what God is doing in that culture. Followers of Jesus must recapture the idea that living as a “church” is not about a building, or offering programs, or even having a weekly time of worship and teaching (as good as those things may or may not be). Following Jesus is, first and foremost, about living together as a sent people: a people on mission to proclaim and demonstrate the in-breaking of the reign (kingdom) of God.
Guder writes (you may have to read this a few times to get the full effect of it):
“It is not hard to see that at many times in the church’s history this central affirmation of good
news [the kingdom of God is at hand] has suffered a pattern of omission or ‘eclipse’. Two tendencies
in the long history of Christendom help to explain this troublesome pattern. First, the church has
tended to separate the news of the reign of God from God’s provision for humanity’s salvation. This
separation has made salvation a private event by dividing ‘my personal salvation’ from the advent of
God’s healing reign over all the world. Second, the church has also tended to envision itself in a
variety of ways unconnected to what must be fundamental for it–its relation to the reign of God.
If it was Jesus’ announcement of the reign of God that first gathered the fledgling church into a
community, and if that church grew and matured around the way that reign found meaning and hope
in His death and resurrection, then the church must always seek its definition with the reign of God
in Jesus as its crucial reference point.”
The question then becomes, what does it mean for a community of God’s people (the local church) to be defined by the fact that “the Kingdom (reign) of God is at hand. How does one as an individual and as part of an intimate community live that out so it is “good news” for the actual community that we live in? I’d love to hear your thoughts and answers, and maybe I’ll post some of mine later.
Filed under: Bible, Institutional Church, Missional Church, Quotes | Tags: Andrew Jones, Christianity, context, contextualization, gospel, Institutional Church, Jesus, John MacArthur, Love, missions
I was planning on posting a book review today, but I read something last night that I figured I should post. Apparently there is an argument going on in some circles of Christianity about the biblical basis of contextualization. For those of us without theology degrees, that basically means sharing the good news of what God is doing and has done in the world in a way that speaks relevantly to the culture you are in. For example, when missionaries originally went into Africa to share the gospel they brought pipe organs to teach people to worship, European clothes for converts, and only instructed people in English. That is not contextualizing the gospel. On the other hand, someone who learns the language, customs, taboos, idioms, and culture of a group of people in order to more effectively share God’s love with them, contextualizes the gospel of God in the new culture.
Here is a part of a post on Andrew Jones blog. I not a regular reader of his, but this one pulled me over to check out his site.
Context. Does it matter?
When John MacArthur reportedly said a few weeks ago at the Shepherds Conference that “contextualization is a curse” and “the apostles went out with a complete disdain for context”
. . . I said nothing.
When his sidekick Phil Johnson followed it up with “Regarding contextualization, Paul did not adapt his message to the values and beliefs of the culture the Athenians lived in”
. . . I went on pilgrimage to my inner monastery and renewed my vow of silence.
When Phil added a few days ago that Paul used NONE of the strategies of postmodern missional ministry [culture, contextualization, conversation, and charitableness]
. . . I stuck my teenage son’s smelly sock down my throat so that i could not speak and then smeared raspberry jam on my keyboard so that i could not blog.
But when a commenter on Phil’s blog responded with “I never thought that ANYONE would see Paul’s evangelism to the Athenians as “contextualisation”!
. . well . . . I could contain myself no longer. The sock popped from my mouth and nearly knocked my ‘Perspectives’ off the bookshelf, and the raspberry jam magically dissolved, presenting me with a bright and shiny set of keys to tap out some response.
A quick recap:
Phil over at Pyromaniacs has a big post called “Paul on Mars Hill: Part 1″. which is worth reading just to see how people can read the same story and come up with opposite conclusions. His second part “Paul in Athens” got posted today and is consistent with his argument.
But I find his argument hard to swallow.
Phil’s says:
“People who are enthralled with style-driven missional strategies almost always single out this famous account. “Paul blended into the culture,” they say. “He adopted the world view and communications style of his hearers. He observed their religion and listened to their beliefs and learned from them before he tried to teach them. And he didn’t step on their toes by refuting what they believed. Instead, he took their idea of the unknown god, embraced that, and used it as the starting point for his message about Christ. And there you have some of the major elements of postmodern missional ministry: culture, contextualization, conversation, and charitableness.” Phil 1:1 (Phil’s first main point, in the first installment of his series)
Well, its true that I do see the need for some cultural sensitivity to both our own culture and the culture to which we are sent.
When some missionaries went to Africa with complete disdain for contextualization, they brought pipe-organs with them so the natives could worship God properly, without their nuances of culture.
When some missionaries went to North America with complete disdain for contextualization, they took away their native dances and forced the converts to learn English so that they could worship God properly, in the correct language, and without their nuances of culture.
Where is Gary Larson when we need him?
WE WERE BLIND TO OUR COLONIAL ABUSE BECAUSE WE WERE BLIND TO THE IMPACT OF OUR OWN CULTURE ON THE GOSPEL WE CARRIED.
For the rest of the rant go here
Andrew ends with this:
BTW – I have a lot [lot lot lot lot . . . LOT] of respect for both John MacArthur and Phil Johnson. Phil and I almost had a cup of coffee together a month ago in London but we had to put it off for another day. Both are godly men who love God and the Scriptures and I look forward to meeting them in person one day.
Bottom line. I believe that the Apostle Paul listened and conversed and looked for the redemptive analogies that would help him convincingly and prophetically shed light on the good news of Christ. The next generation are finding their own mythologies that will influence how they understand concepts of redemption, salvation, blood sacrifice and other theological concepts. They will need eye openers. They already have stored away a few redemptive analogies from the poets and writers of their own day and will draw on them to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom. Some of those stories are helpful and some will need to be corrected. But we do need to be aware of them.
And thats why you might find me in the cinema watching Harry Potter.
Honestly I can’t even believe there is an argument.
Isn’t LOVE always contextualized in any relationship? Wether in marriage, parenthood, friendship, or even spirituality?
Oh how I wish (hope? pray?) that followers of Jesus would be know by that (How well we love) instead of for what we are against. Isn’t it time I (we) (they) started living that way?
To quote a remarkable man from Grand Rapids, “LOVE WINS!”
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this whole thing.
Filed under: Bio, Missional Church, Missional Living | Tags: Christianity, God, incarnate, Incarnational Living, Jesus, Love, loving others, Messy people, Missional, serve, Spirituality, toxic people
We all have “those” kind of people in our lives. Wether they are friends, family members, or ex’s, there is always that one person who has made bad choice after bad choice to the point that their lives are in ruin. Many times we label them with words like leeches, losers, or just plain toxic, And if “yours” is like “mine”, then you know that when they call you, their life is in a state of crisis, and more often then not they need some kind of help. To be totally honest, I hate answering those phone calls, I dread returning those messages, and I make excuse after excuse to put it off. Yesterday I got one of those calls…
He needed a ride to get some money or he were going to be kick out of his one room studio. It was an emergency. I had things to do, I had to go to work in a few hours, and I really had no desire to again enter into his life and be confronted with all of the chaos and hurt. I really just wanted to say I was too busy to help.
So, at 8:30 in the morning, I drove downtown to pick him up and hear the whole story. He had gone on a drinking binge (again), got in a fight with his girlfriend, and she left, taking what little they had. This caused a downward spiral into a deeper multi-day drinking binge, and now he was broke, lonely, and on the verge of being homeless. I had already resolved not to allow myself to believe his excuses, or to lend any money, but there was something about the way he kept telling me, “I really f-ed this up”, that made me realize that God was already working here.
I wish I could say that in our brief time together in the car he surrendered to the way of Jesus, miraculously was healed of his alcohol addiction, turned his life around, and found a few thousand dollars on the street. Instead, we found a way to get him enough money to pay this months rent (he even offered gas money to me), and we had a few disjointed conversations about God and His love for all people. He gave me the classic line that he was already on his way to hell, but he didn’t understand why bad things happened to the “good” people he knew. He’d given up on God but he didn’t understand why God had given up on others. Amid his ramblings I tried to share that God did care about him, and that He wanted the best for him, to experience real life. It was in the middle of this that he uttered these words that nearly brought me to tears, “I know that, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”
Wow, are you serious! Really. I didn’t want to be there. I really didn’t have any hope for him, and would have done anything to avoid being there. And yet, in spite of myself, God allowed his love to be incarnated in me! To this hopeless man, I appeared as the love of God. What an honor.
I dropped him of at his apartment, told him I loved him, and that he would be in my prayers, and that was the end of it. I don’t know what will happen next, I don’t even know how much of his story was true. But I do know that God’s love showed up in my car yesterday, without me even really wanting it to, and it got me thinking. How many other people in my life are searching desperately for the love of God, but no one is showing up to revel it to them? How many of us miss out on chances to be Jesus to others because we’re to busy, or because it is too mess?. And how many people are just waiting to be able to say to us,
“I know that God loves me, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”
Filed under: Bible, Missional Living | Tags: Bible Study, Christianity, incarnation, Jesus, Love
In our discussions this past weekend we looked at the beginning of Luke 5. In it, there is a very interesting exchange between Jesus and a man suffering from leprosy. It’s only 4 sentences, but to me it speaks volumes about not only about the character and heart of God, but also His desire for His followers.
While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw
Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me
clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And
immediately the leprosy left him.
“I am willing.”
Think about that. The mystery of the incarnation of Jesus is the fact that the all-powerful, all-present, all-everything good God humbles himself and takes on the form of one of His creations, a human. And here, in a dirty, no-named village, this transcendent and holy God reaches into the human condition at its most rejected and connects with it. In Jewish culture, leprosy was a disease which rendered its victims unclean and ostracized from all of society. Lepers were separated from the “clean” and forced to live outside of the community. If a Jew came in contact with a leper and unfortunately touched him/her then he was rendered unclean and would have to go through purification rituals to re-enter Jewish society. Therefore Jews did everything in their power to avoid contact with lepers.
And then there is Jesus. The incarnation of the grace, love, and power of God who not only is willing to interact with the leper, but actually reaches out and touches him! Jesus becomes unclean. God touches a leper. God loves.
“I am willing”
We still have lepers today. They might be made unclean by their race, their economic status, their sexual preference, their political persuasion, or even the way they look, but each of us are faced with “types” of people we really do not want to have any meaningful contact with. It may be because of our ignorance, our fears, or even our past experiences, but we all carry prejudices that cause us to avoid contact with our own unique “lepers”. Who are your lepers? It’s a natural human response. What types of people do you avoid?
And yet Jesus response remains the same.
“I am willing.”
Jesus reaches into to the hurt, the pain, the mess, and the judgmental attitudes of others, and offers healing and love to all people. As His followers are we called to anything different? Am I willing to reach out and touch the un-loveables in my life? Am I ready to trust the way of Jesus and love others in spite of what others may think?
Am I willing? Are you willing? Are we willing?
What would the world be like if we were?
Filed under: Book Review | Tags: Christianity, Hypocrisy, Missional, Post-Christian, Review, Spirituality
Since one of my resolutions for the New Year was to spend some time reading each day, I expect to finish a few books this year. I figured that this would be a good place to review the books I’m reading as well as hear your thoughts on them. I’m definitely not comfortable as a book critic (in fact I failed that part of English in High School), so please bear with me. I hope these attempts will be of some benefit, but we’ll have to see 
UnChristian (What A New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity…And Why It Matters)
By David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons
In the latest study from Barna Research Group, Kinnaman focuses on what 16-29 year olds feel about Christians from both inside and outside the church. I wish I could call the results surprising but they only serve to verify what many of us already feel. Christianity has a major image problem. The people that should have the market cornered on being known for being loving, forgiving, life-giving revolutionaries are in fact best summed up by words like: hypocritical, anti-homosexual, sheltered, judgmental, too political, and too focused on obtaining converts. Only 16% of those surveyed outside of Christianity have a favorable impression of Christians, and 49% have a bad impression of evangelical Christians. Obviously if an entire generation feels this way about Christianity we have seriously failed in representing the real grace-filled gospel of Jesus.
UnChristian is basically two books. Much of the book is spent on discussing the results of the research which while interesting is some times belabored and repetitive. At the end of each chapter various Christian leaders lend their thoughts to the major issues discussed. This is by far the strongest part of the book. The perspectives offered are diverse and insightful and help to reenforce the challenges and opportunities facing Jesus followers who wish to change these perceptions. In my opinion these dialogues speak to the direct issues of the book, and should have made up more of the finished product. I even found a new author to read, Margaret Feinberg. I have no idea who she is, but her insight and wisdom reveal her as someone to be read and respected.
Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who wonders about the perception problems facing Christianity in the future. It would be especially insightful to those who have not realized the gravity of the challenges facing the church, or who have yet to acknowledge that a serious problem exists. On the other hand readers who either come from these age groups or who have been students of the emerging cultures will find little to surprise them. The research will confirm much, but offers few new insights into how to challenge those perceptions. The book is a fairly quick read, and worth reading if you have the time. The commentaries highlight the opportunities ahead and offer hope to those who wish to repaint the image of Jesus to the world He loves.
Filed under: Bible, Missional Living | Tags: actions, Bible Study, Christianity, Forgiveness, Grace, Jesus, John 8, Love, loving others, non-verbal, posture
Lately, I’ve been thinking through the the concept of posture. By definition posture means “The attitude of the body.” It’s essentially the non-verbals we give off in any situation. As a follower of Jesus, my posture is many times (if not always) more important then what I say. I was reminded of the story in John 8 of the woman caught in adultery:
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court,
they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act.”
“Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?”
They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground.
But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.
When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court.
Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?”
She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either Go From now on sin no more.”
Picture the scene, the woman having just been caught in a very compromising position is brought into the temple courts, most likely with her clothes thrown about her, racked with tears because she knows the penalty for her actions is stoning. She’s thrown to the ground at Jesus’ feet, sobbing, unable to look up from the ground at her accusers, waiting for the stones to fall.
A few things stand out to me. First, obviously, where is the guy? We could jump into that one, but I think it’s enough to say that he is unfairly let off the hook.
Second, is Jesus’ response. Not only does He end up defending her, but it seems so much deeper then that. Look at the posture Jesus takes. He kneels down into the dirt next to the woman. Could he actually be sheltering and protecting her? His very body is made into a covering for her guilt and shame.
I was always hung up on what Jesus wrote in the dirt, seems like an odd time to be doodling or making lists. But from this perspective it makes more sense. What if Jesus was writing a message to the woman who’s eyes were locked on the ground? Could it have said something as simple as “I’m here for you” or “Trust me, I’ll take care of this?”
Jesus takes the position as an advocate for that woman. He’s not so much worried about what she has done and how wrong she is, as He is concerned with her as a person; protecting her, pleading for her, and offering freedom to her.
Wow! Obviously, this has huge ramifications for how followers of Jesus should treat others. Jesus wasn’t condoning her behavior. Nowhere in Scripture does He say “Sleep around, have fun, no big deal,” but He is esteeming her as a person who is loved by God regardless of her mistakes or bad decisions. That is the essence of grace. And that is what Jesus-followers are called to offer the world. Our posture must be one of love and of advocacy. We must be willing to side with the condemned, the voiceless, the “sinners”. Not because we agree with what they have done, but because we know what God has done for them.
Filed under: Bible, Missional Living | Tags: Bible, Christianity, Christians, God, Grace, James 2, Jesus, Judgement, Love, mercy, Post-Christian, Spirituality
This might be beating a dead (or dying) horse, but here goes anyway.
As I was writing in my last post, I want to be known by what I do and what I am for. To often our society stereotypes and categorizes people and beliefs by what they are against: Republicans are against big government, Democrats are against the wealthy, Christians are against homosexuals, and reasonable people should be against any coffee shop with stores on every corner. OK maybe not that last one, but I think you get the point. Perhaps we define ourselves and other by what we are not because its easier to see what we hate in others then in ourselves, and by extension can say “I’ll never be/do that.” Yet the reality is, that all of us, when faced with the right circumstances are capable of the darkest evil. In my reading today I came across this thought in James 2.
“Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!”
Wow, mercy triumphs over judgement. I may be reading too much into that, but is it saying that rather then judging people by what they do or think, we are called to speak and act out of mercy?
And what is the law that gives freedom? As I understand scripture, it’s grace. The new law of Jesus is based on the fact that all of us are offered forgiveness that we do not deserve. That we all blow it and fall way short of what God created us to be. James seems to be reminding followers of Jesus that, as those who have been forgiven solely because of God’s love, we need to treat others the same way. How quickly do I forget. If anyone in the world should be agents of forgiveness, love, and reconciliation, it should be Christians who rest their entire faith and eternity on these things.
Perhaps that is what is bothering me the most. Rather then being know for what we (Christians) are against, we need to stand for what we are for. How much different would our world be, if, when people thought of Christians, they thought of the most loving, forgiving, inclusive, and creative people they knew. Maybe, it’s time for us to reframe our culture’s view of Christians. Maybe it’s time we take a stand for who we are. It can be done, but it can only be done by each of us living it out. What are we waiting for?
Filed under: Book Review, Institutional Church, Missional Church | Tags: Christianity, Faith, irrelevance, Jesus
The last few days I’ve been hit with the fact that for many people in our world today following Jesus is seen as being boring and sheltered. Christians are seen (or maybe the are) as being sheltered, uninterested in the bigger world, and uninterested in people outside of their “clique”. In the latest book I’m reading “UnChristian” by David Kinnaman, he devotes a whole chapter to the fact that one of the dominant perceptions of Christians today is that they are sheltered, According to their research with the Barna Group, “Three-quarters of Mosaics and Busters (those 17-30) outside the church said that present day Christianity could accurately be described as old-fashioned, and seven out of ten believe the faith is out of touch with reality…Two-thirds of young outsiders said the faith is boring, a description embraced by one-quarter of young churchgoers as well. The image of being sheltered means the Christian faith seems dull, flat. and lifeless.” I recently had a conversation with someone I work with who couldn’t believe I was a “Christian” because I sat and had a beer with them and listened to them tell me about their life. To them their was “no f-ing way” that I could be a Christian because I actually took time to hang out with them.
EXCUSE ME!!!!
When did the most revolutionary and exciting message of all time get distilled down into a belief system that was all about being sheltered in our special bubbles completely inoculated from our culture? Is that really what Jesus meant when He said “we are to be in the world but not of it”? How have we as followers of Jesus so missed the revolutionary adventure that even people among us see our lifestyle as boring? When did we go from being shapers and influencers of culture to retreating into the safety of our own special culture? As I experience more and more life outside the walls of the institutional church building I realize just what a huge divide there is between how we as Christians view ourselves and how the world at large view us. Obviously I don’t think most followers of Jesus want to be seen as irrelevant or sheltered, or even think they are perceived that way, but the issue here is all about perception.
I believe that the life of Jesus is the most exciting and life-giving story ever lived. And the opportunity to be a part of it and “in” on what He is continuing to do in this world is an amazing thing that breathes purpose and excitement into even the most mundane activities. I want to be the kind of person who represents Jesus as He is in Scripture. The kind of guy who would hang out with and love those He would hang out with: the people cast out from the religious establishment, the IRS agents, the party animals, and those suffering from AIDS. Not to change the perception of people about who Christians are, but because those are people that God loves! Yet another one of my resolutions for 2008. Please consider joining me, in your own context, in the life giving adventure of loving people like Jesus. Together we can be agents of the Kingdom of God in our workplaces, schools, families, sports teams, and everywhere else He has placed us.
And if your not a follower of Jesus, and view Christians this way, please accept my apology for the way I have misrepresented who Jesus was and is. I’m sorry.
And if you want to talk about it, hit me up at darrin@pneumaproject.org
