The Elephant in the Room

This is the second in a series of "rants" about the state of the evangelical church today.

The “the elephant in the room” of the evangelical church is this--In spite of sincere efforts to convert the culture to our side, we have managed to alienate most of it.  This group includes a sizable number of our own children, friends, and neighbors. We are focused on converting the culture, but at the moment the culture seems to be doing a far better job of converting us. 
I’ve been an evangelical for roughly half a century. My experience has encompassed Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and Salvation Army churches. I cannot tell you how many sermons and articles I have read about the need to tell others about the Gospel. Even so, there is far less practice of Christian virtues among evangelical Christians than there were fifty years ago.  The moral, ethical and spiritual teachings of the church have much less impact on the way people live today, in and out of the church. It does not take a prophet to foretell a future of evangelical churches if these trends continue. Millennials are the least religious generation in American history, and the ones coming after them will be even less interested, if this trend continues. 
The elephant in the room is this—that modern evangelicalism is still about five miles wide, but it is only about an inch deep.  Most people in church leadership acknowledge this, but there is great debate as to what to do about it.
Speaking of elephants, do you remember the old story about the four blind men who stumble across an elephant on the road?  Each one touches a different part of the beast and comes to a different conclusion.  One blind man touches the ear and thinks it is a banana leaf; another touches the leg, and thinks it is a palm tree; a third touches the tail and thinks it’s a rope, and the fourth, touches the side and thinks it is a house.   Each one, seeing part of the beast comes to a logical conclusion it’s nature, but none of them see the whole.
Let me suggest that when it comes to the shallowness of modern evangelical Christianity, we fall into the same kind of trap. Each of us, coming at the problem with our preconceptions and perceptual biases, recognize the need for change in the church, but none of us see the whole picture.  We see a part of the elephant, but not the whole.
One tradition within the modern evangelical church examines the head of the elephant and concludes that there isn’t much there.  They perceive the problem to be the modern Christian mind.   They look at the theology of the modern evangelical church and see it as woefully inadequate.  In appealing to the broadest possible common denominator of people, we have dumbed down Christianity to the point where it loses all appeal to people above junior high school level. 
Mark Noll once writes that the problem with the evangelical mind is that there isn’t much of an evangelical mind.  For more than a hundred years, evangelicals have not been known for the depth of their intellectual thought.  Most evangelicals know very little about the faith or history of the church beyond the basics. Many hunger for the greater intellectual depth. This I believe is the reason for the growth in interest in Calvinism, Puritanism, the early church Fathers, and even Thomas Aquinas. There is a growing hunger for a deeper grounding in the rigorous thinking of older generations.
Another tradition touches the heart of the elephant and finds it barely beating. These are the pietists, Pentecostals, and charismatics. They aren’t worried much worried about the mind as they are the passion of the church. The evangelical church concerns itself with doctrinal conversion and skips heart conversion.  The Holy Spirit has been replaced by business-school planning techniques.  The church talks endlessly about developing leaders but hardly at all about following the leadership of the Spirit.  Modern evangelicalism has bought into a practical deism that says God gave us commandments but left us alone for us to come up with our own practical plans on a daily basis.  We have no faith in a real, living Christ who can lead us day by day by the power of the Spirit. We would rather trust in our own planning an cleverness than to rely on a daily leadership and power of the Spirit.
We know God through His word. But His Word was given two thousand years ago. We fail to recognize the living presence of God in our lives right now. 
A third tradition stumbles upon the trunk of our elephant—the practical, working part of the animal—and realized it is weak.  They conclude that there is too much talk and not enough action. They conclude that evangelicalism has concentrated more on souls the souls of people, but neglected the poor and needy.  Our outward lack of human concern seems to be the problem.  Not only that, but evangelicals have failed to recognize that their own lifestyles are heavy on consumerism and consumption and short on simplicity and sacrifice. If we are not willing to live like Jesus, we will never be able to attract people to Jesus.
The fourth tradition stumbles on the elephant and notices that its feet are not rooted in the ground. If our desire to be contemporary and new,  we have lost sight of the importance of history and tradition.
One valid criticism of the modern megachurch movement is that megachurches frequently do not last for more than one generation. That is because they are usually based on the personality and initial vision of their founders. Once the church leadership passes, there is nothing to sustain it.
Traditional churches are no nearly so personality-driven. They are rooted and grounded in the past, freeing them from the tyranny of the present.  They are like oak trees instead of flowers. Flowers are prettier, more attractive and fast-growing, but they don’t usually last for more than a season. Oak trees last for a long, long time.
I once asked a class of students to trace their church historically back to Christ and the apostles.  One student wrote that Christ founded the church and passed it on to the apostles.  Then the true church was lost for nineteen hundred years until her pastor came along and rediscovered it.  I wanted to ask her if that meant that Luther, Calvin, Francis of Assisi,  Mother Theresa and Billy Graham were all going to Hell.  I fear would be.
People seek connections with something larger than themselves, that will last for more than a generation. That is why a growing stream of believers are leaving evangelical for Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican. Traditional Reformed and Messianic Jewish groups.  There is a longing in many evangelicals to connect with something classic and timeless, that was not invented yesterday.
Regarding these four traditions, it is not my intention to condemn or criticize them, any more than it is to criticize those who are not part of any of them.   But the elephant in the room remains, and each of these four traditions has correctly discerned a part of the problem. I am just not convinced though that any of them see the whole picture, any more than I claim I do myself.  The shallowness of modern evangelicalism is not in one area of life but affects the head, heart, actions, and traditions.
Maybe it’s time to stop thinking about evangelicalism as a culture that is complete in itself, but as a piece of a larger mosaic called the Body of Christ, which includes many perspectives and approaches. In our day,  it is not one part of the church that is threatened by secularism but all of it.
The elephant in the room is this—that we have forsaken the imitation of Christ, and made Christ into an imitation of ourselves.  We have not focused upon the totality of life built around Him and made our own interests primary in our lives.
The process of sanctification or theosis is the process of becoming like Christ in every way, in our head, heart, hands, and habits.  It isn’t a question of where we have failed be like Jesus, but whether we are seeking to succeed. We will never be perfect, nor should we expect to be. But that doesn’t mean we should stop seeking to be like Him in all ways. If we lose sight of Jesus and just focus on our own failings, we will continue to do them over and over again. But if we keep our eyes on the totality of Christ, we are in a better place to become more like Him in every way. 
This blog, the Faith Matrix, has been making the case that we need a balanced approach to the Christian life cannot just grow in one place--we must grow at all.  We need to study pray, work, and seek the wisdom of the past. Instead of emphasizing our distinctive, it is time to start learning from one another, if we ever see the whole of what it means to follow Christ. 

Give me your feedback.  Do you agree or disagree?  I love to hear your feedback.   Also, if you like this blog, share it with your friends, and subscribe.

Breaking Out of the Evangelical "Three-Step"

(Note:  this is the first of a series of 'rants' regarding the state of the church today. My intention is not to be critical of all the good Christians and churches who are working hard to present the Kingdom, but to express some heartfelt concerns about the direction of American Christianity in general.  I claim no infallibility--in fact I am sure I am wrong somewhere.  Neither do I claim these 'rants' to be balanced.  I merely offer my perspective.  Others may see things differently,  and they may very well be right as well.  I only merely offer my thoughts to provoke conversation.)

Ever since I was a teenager, I have self-identified as an “evangelical” Christian.  While people use the word “evangelical” in different ways, for me it means taking the Bible seriously as God’s Word and taking seriously the task of telling the world about Jesus.

Evangelicalism is more than just a statement of belief--it’s a culture in which I feel at home.  I’ve lived in that culture for a half century. It’s my spiritual home town and I’m comfortable here. 

Living inside a culture makes it hard to view it objectively because so much of what we think and feel comes from our environment.  We are unaware of our perceptual bias.  We cannot imagine other ways of looking at being Christian besides that of our own experience. But if we take seriously the Biblical teaching that we are all sinners, then we must believe that our evangelical world isn’t perfect. The world around us certainly sees our faults, even if we don’t.  If we wish to present the Gospel creditably, we must believe that even the evangelical tradition has its problems.

George Marsden’s book Fundamentalism and American Culture makes an astute observation about the fundamentalist/evangelical culture. He points out that it is a religion based on a never-ending campaign. We are good at crusading for salvation and various social causes.  But we have been historically unsuccessful holding ground. There have been tremendous revivals which have brought thousands to faith in Jesus, yet many of those converts disappear when the fires of revival die down.

But if we look at the two-thousand-year history of Christianity, short-lived revivals were not the norm.  People who were converted stayed converted. In the first three hundred years of the faith. The Roman Empire was converted to Christ despite fierce persecution.  Puritans and the Lutherans transformed the face of Europe.

Even so, American evangelicals are rapidly losing ground.  We are seeing a whole generation  turning against us rapidly—not because they have not heard the Gospel, but because they have not seen its benefits. Maybe it’s time we asked ourselves why.

The problem isn’t Jesus—it’s us. There’s something missing in our interpretation of the Gospel. 

One of the most quoted verses in evangelicalism is the Great Commission--Matthew 28;18-20, “Go into the world and make disciples of all people, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded.”  We are good at keeping part of this commandment, but not the rest.   We have gone into all the world.  There’s still more to be done here, of course, but there are now Bible-believing churches on every continent and in nearly every country.  Now, much of our effort is aimed not at spreading the Gospel where it has never gone, but trying to reclaim parts of the world where the Gospel was once widely known but has been waning for years. Places like South Korea, Latin America, and Africa are now sending missionaries to us. We are still good about bringing people to the edge of discipleship. We still teach people to pray, read the Bible, share the Gospel and give to Christian causes.  Christian churches talk incessantly about the need to bring their friends and neighbors to church.

We enfold them into the organizational church. We sell them Christian T shirts, bumper stickers, music, and a wide variety of simple “Bible” studies which tell them how to be better fathers, mothers, workers, etc.  Most of what these “Bible” studies give is advice that is not very different from what they would could get from non-Christian experts, but with illustrative material from the Good Book.

We still stress the need to “witness” to others.  Witnessing is usually defined as being a nice person, inviting friends to church and telling them about Jesus. When we are successful in our efforts those people are then enfolded back into our churches. 

Over and over we dance the evangelical three-step—1) win them to Jesus, 2) give them basic training, and 3) send them out to win others.  “Discipleship” is defined as a short-term process or rudimentary training, culminating in training in stewardship and evangelism. Winning others to Jesus is seen at the sole work and purpose of our belief, and getting people into the church is our goal.  Then, if our churches are attractive and entertaining enough to keep people coming back, and if the cost of discipleship is not presented as being too high, they may keep coming back, and the three-stage process can be repeated many times before people start to tire of it.

Eventually though, people do get tired of it, and start to fall away.  We hardly notice at first, since new people keep coming. One by one, the old converts drop out, and we hardly see them.  People come in but are not permanently changed. They still do not forgive their enemies, love their neighbors, or turn the other cheek. They are what they always were, but now they are doing it with a Christian label.  The longer the dance keeps up the more they tire of dancing, and the harder it is to get others to join in.  Christianity, which is supposed to be lifechanging, becomes a multilevel marketing scheme guaranteeing salvation for the next life without bringing about lasting change in this one.  Eventually, society gets wise to it and stops responding.

The Great Commission is true, but we never finish it.  The last part of the Great Commission says, “Teach them to observe everything I have commanded you.”  The Great Commission doesn’t end with conversion and baptism--it begins there. After that, we begin the process of learning to do what Jesus commanded in every area of life.

Winning the world to Jesus isn’t all the Great Commission says—it’s not even the main point. The Great Commission is about establishing God’s Kingdom on earth by living like Jesus told us and having an ongoing day by day walk with Jesus. If everyone found out how to go to heaven but did not change on earth, the Great Commission would still not be fulfilled.  Letting people think it’s okay to hate others, ignore the hurting, stay unforgiving and live basically selfish lives because God forgives us is not the purpose of discipleship. 

The kingdom of God is wherever God rules. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we pray for His kingdom to come on earth.  Whenever we in our lives submit to the rulership of God, the kingdom has come to us individually.  When we commit to being under God’s tutelage and seek to live like Him, we are in His Kingdom of God today. 

The problem with the way we are presenting the Gospel, is that we’re selling condos in an unfinished building.  We invite people to dine on meals of undercooked food. We are inviting people to join us in living a life we’ve barely tried ourselves.  It’s good to invite people to know Jesus, but all the while we should be seeking to know Him better ourselves. The Kingdom of God needs to be completed in us by learning to obey all that He commanded. We must complete the Great Commission in ourselves by learning to obey what He commands, if we are to produce lasting fruit.

Discipleship isn’t something we do for a few weeks or even years, but it is a lifetime pursuit. It isn’t just something we do to prepare people for membership and service, but for a lifetime of being formed into Christ’s image.

 The process of discipleship is first laying aside our past ways of thinking and feeling, as well as our sins and habits.   The second part of the process is becoming one with Christ in our wills, thoughts, feelings, and behavior—imitating Him in all things.   We evangelicals tend to measure progress by how much we have laid aside of our old life, instead of how much we have put on of our new life in Christ.  We focus on transforming everyone and everything else around us while the one mission field over which we have absolute control—our own inner lives—goes unevangelized. We win the world—we just don’t win ourselves. To help others, we must complete the Kingdom in ourselves.

Being a witness is not something we do, but something we are. When we are like Jesus, then we are a witness.  People who look at us, see our sins more than they see Jesus. We are not world changers or conquerors, but empty vessels unless we are transformed by the Spirit. 

Here are some questions we need to ask ourselves and our church.

Ø  Do we really “take no thought for tomorrow” or do we worry about the future?

Ø  Do we love our enemies, and pray for the welfare of those who don’t like us?

Ø  Are we committed to being like Jesus, or comfortable in our own hidden sins and hypocrisies?

Ø  Do “abide in His love”, knowing that God likes and knows us personally?

Ø  Do we have empathy for our neighbors, or do we ignore them?

Ø  Can we trust in God when we don’t have all the answers?

Ø  If we don’t experience God’s unconditional love in our souls, how do we expect to give it to our non-Christian neighbors?

What do you think?  Are evangelical churches strong enough in teaching us to observe what Jesus commanded?  Are churches too shallow in what they teach?  Let me know what you think, and join us here for the follow-up blog in a few days.

If you like this blog, please share it and subscribe to this blog.  There are more “rants” on the way. 

The disciplines of Heritage

Here are four ways we can get reconnected with our spiritual heritage—

Know the roots,

Taste the fruits,

Understand the teachings, and

Try the rituals.  

Know the roots 

Evangelicals are fond of saying that “faith has no grandchildren.”  While it is true of individual churches, it is not true of the church at large. What God started in Christ will not end because of our incompetency or neglect. Their work will stand until Christ returns, and on into eternity afterwards.  

Each generation of Christians brings a new perspective. The early church relied on the Holy Spirit and on the authority of the living apostles. The ancient and medieval churches, developed habits of devotion still practiced today.  The Sixteenth Century gave us thinkers and theologians who took us back to the essentials--Christ alone, Scripture alone, Faith alone, Grace alone, for God’s glory alone.  Eighteenth Century pietism challenged the overly scholastic heirs of the Reformers to experience God with their heart.  Writers like Blaise Pascal and Jonathan Edwards put the heart and the head together. Puritans emphasized separation from the world and a whole-life commitment. Moravians, Anabaptists, and Methodists emphasized Christian community.  The Holiness, Pentecostal, and Charismatic movements cherished the warmth of the Spirit.  Millerites, Adventists, and Dispensationalists gloried in the Second Coming, while the Salvationist and Missionary movements emphasized societal and personal change. Every branch of the tree of faith has some dynamic and useful aspect to contribute to the whole. 

Start exploring the Christian heritage by discovering your own spiritual roots. Many times people criticize the differences between these groups as if being different was necessarily wrong.  But it’s not the differences that are bad, but the intolerance and hatred of people who see things differently, plus the prideful assertion that only our denomination is right that divides the church.  We can enjoy our distinctives without being intolerant of everyone else.

Our roots are worth preserving.  Each branch of our faith preserves a portion of the whole.  If one segment of the church is lost, we are diminished, and a piece of Christ is missing.

Taste the Fruits

What are the positive fruits of our tradition? Baptists are known for their upbeat worship and doctrinal simplicity.  Presbyterians emphasize education and the majesty of God. Methodists have a tradition of transformational social action. Pentecostals are known for their enthusiasm and the reliance on the Spirit. Lutherans emphasize grace and the sacraments. Catholics are marked by their elegant and elaborate worship and their emphasis on humility.  Every tradition of the church has aspects that all Christians may admire. 

We know, or think we know, our tradition only through the experience of our own home church.  This is like saying we know our country because we know our own back yard. Our heritage is larger and richer than we can possibly imagine.  Our own experience is extremely limited. Until we study the fruit of our faith tradition, we cannot fully comprehend it.

After we have tasted the fruit of our own tree, we should sample some of the fruit of others.  It is a sad mistake to think we can understand the whole of Christianity from our own limited perspective. Being a Presbyterian does not mean we cannot enjoy a Baptist revival or a Catholic cantata.  Other Christian traditions are not competitors—they are companions on our journey to spiritual maturity. 

Many recent authors have recently written the positive nature of Christian diversity.  Books such as Kenneth Boa’s Conformed to His Image and Longing for God: Seven Paths to Christian Devotion by Richard Foster and Gayle Beebe have explored the rich, historical landscape of the multi-traditional church. We can enrich ourselves from the Puritan writers, the early Methodist classes, as well as the ancient traditions of lectio divina and the daily office.  All lift up Christ, and each explores a different aspect of Him.  The more places we look, the more ways we learn to tune our hearts to God.    

Understand the Teachings                                                                                                                                                              

Of course, we should try to understand what our church actually believes.

All attempts to explain God ae really only metaphors. They are our attempts to explain the unexplainable.

 Most of the time, when comparing what churches believe, we focus on our differences.  This is unfortunate.  A more interesting study is to look at how traditions approach expressing the same truths.  The Westminster Confession of the Presbyterians and the Second Helvetic Confession of the Dutch Reformed are similar, but not the same. The Eastern and Western branches of the church expressed the Trinity differently.   On issues where we disagree--such as baptism, church government, and predestination—there is much to be learned from both sides.  Debates over doctrine have been going on for centuries, and much careful thought has gone into all sides of these issues.  It is unlikely we could come up with any arguments that have not been suggested before. But reading the arguments helps us to understand the awesomeness of God and His Scriptures.   

God gave us scholars and teachers who debated, challenged, speculated, and questioned, discarding bad ideas and keeping good ones, seeking always for the truth, to give us a firm grounding in what it true.  We are free to doubt, disagree and speculate, also, but we must understand with whom we disagree.

Try the rituals                                                                              

Ritual is history lived out in practice. It is our way of remembering what should never be forgotten.

Not long ago, I attended for the first time a high Lutheran service.  When I entered the sanctuary, I was surprised to find the baptism font in the center aisle.  As people entered the sanctuary, the made the sign of the cross with their hands on their forehead.  At first, I was put off by this, but I came to realize what they were saying.  They were not being baptized multiple times but signifying that everything we do is covered by the grace, expressed in that original baptism.  Each time they entered, they celebrated that grace.  It was not the way I had seen it before, but it made sense, and it was beautiful.

Don’t be fooled by pseudo-knowledge passed down from uninformed laypeople. When visiting a new church, don’t assume you understand what people mean by it.  Take the time to read what the church says about itself, and hear their own reasons in their own words.  Don’t go by hearsay, but discover the meaning from informed people within that tradition.  You can accept or reject is, just make sure you properly understand it before you do.

Rituals speak to us when words do not.  A dying man asks for communion or baptism.  We child learns to fold hands in prayer and bow his head before he learns to speak.  People go to church even when they are too deaf to understand a word.  It is the actions themselves that preach louder than the words. 

Rituals remind us of God’s continual presence.  It is not necessary to do them all, but neither is it necessary to perform all physical exercise to keep in shape. We choose to perform the rituals which most closely remind us of God’s power and goodness.

Here are some questions to get you started thinking about your heritage:

Do I know the faith traditions of my parents and my grandparents?

Can I trace the history of my church back, without skipping large parts of that history?

Do I know what makes my church tradition different from others?

Can I accept other traditions of the church, without judgment or feeling compelled to point out why they are wrong?

What can I point to in my church tradition that makes me proud to be part of it?

What’s your faith tradition?  What do you like about it? What have you learned from the traditions of others?  What would you like to know about your own faith tradition, or from others? 

I’d love to hear what touches you in your own faith background.  Write a comment below. 

The virtues of heritage

Once it took a trip to Israel and stayed at the famous Seven Arches Hotel on the Mount of Olives.  The Seven Arches is the place where most of the panoramic pictures of Israel was taken. It is just feet away from Bethpage, the beginning of the Palm Sunday road.
What a place it is!  There is the temple mound before you, and Mount Zion. There are the walls of Jerusalem rebuilt by Saladin the Turk along the foundations of the original walls. The Garden of Gethsemane in the valley below, and a little sign pointing down into the vast white sea of tombs in the great cemetery by the Eastern gate.  The sign says ‘the tombs of Haggai and Zechariah.”  The enormous sense of the ages long past is in that place as you are taken up in the realization of your own smallness and insignificance in time.  I have never been to the Grand Canyon but it must be a similar experience. You see your own place in the great scheme of creation there. But standing on that mountain in Israel, you cannot help but be overwhelmed by your place in the great scheme of creation, the heritage of Biblical history.
But what is history to us?  If we don’t have the eyes to see it, it is nothing.  A lizard crawling on that same spot would feel nothing but a hunger for its next meal. But God gave us the ability to appreciate what has come before us, and what will come to pass. This gives us the ability to appreciate what God has done, is doing and will do. 
But this sense has to be developed, just like every other sense.  To learn from history we must develop the virtues of heritage, so we can sharpen our connection with the past.  These virtues include memory, honor, and fidelity.
Memory is the second virtue of heritage. We need to remember the past.  The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 143:5 
“I remember the days of long ago;
I meditate on all your works
And consider what your hands have done.” 
Deuteronomy 32:7 says:
“Remember the days of old;
Consider the generations long past.
Ask your father and he will tell you,
Your elders and they will explain to you”
Our modern church suffers from a kind of Spiritual Alzheimer’s, which can be almost as devastating to the soul as the real thing. To have memory is to have wisdom. We are told in Proverb repeatedly to remember the voices of the past. 
Listen, my son, to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching.
They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.
Prov 1:8-9
My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart,
for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity.
Prov 3:1-2
Listen, my sons, to a father's instruction; pay attention and gain understanding.
I give you sound learning, so do not forsake my teaching.
When I was a boy in my father's house, still tender,
and an only child of my mother, he taught me and said,
"Lay hold of my words with all your heart; keep my commands and you will live. 
Prov 4:1-4
Listen, my son, accept what I say, and the years of your life will be many.
Prov 4:10
This small sampling of verses is enough to show how important memory was to the writer of Proverbs.  Listening to our heritage gives us the gift of wisdom, prosperity, success, and a long life. 
“Do not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your forefathers.” Proverbs 22:28. Once removed, it’s almost impossible to reset. We cannot fully appreciate why that boundary was there in the first place until it is gone.
Honor is a recognition of the debt we owe people of the past.  A person may be dead but that doesn’t mean we owe them nothing. We still need to see that their work is carried forward.  The fifth commandment states “Honor your father and your mother, that your days be long upon the earth.” This commandment is considered the foundation for all human social relationships.   The Westminster Shorter Catechism elaborates by saying that included is this command is “preserving the honor, and performing the duties, belonging to everyone in their several places and relations, as superiors, inferiors, or equals.”
Honoring the past means submitting in love to the wishes and desires of those who have gone before, whether they are dead or alive.  Honor to the past does not mean we should slavishly copy the past. Sometimes it is imperative that we go against the wishes of our ancestors, as they found it necessary to go against the wishes of their own. Honoring them does not mean slavish obedience but respect and love. 
The Hebrew word for “honor” is "kebed", which means “weighty.”  To honor our ancestors is to place weight on their wishes.  Honoring our historical roots gives us the wisdom to face our current challenges.  Our parents left what wisdom they could behind, to show us how to survive.  To place no value on the wisdom of ancestral tradition hurts ourselves.  We must remember that we will someday be ancestors to others, and we will want to leave some of our own traditions behind, too. 

Fidelity goes beyond honor and memory. It is being faithful where we are placed. In Matthew 10:11, Jesus gave His disciples some unusual travel instructions.  "Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave.”
 But what if, while we are staying at a home, someone gives us a better offer?  What if the family down the street offers you a bigger room and better meals?  Why not just leave them and go where the house is bigger and the food better?
That’s where fidelity comes in.  To change houses is to insult our host. If we were led to stay with one hose, don’t change until there is a clear calling of God to go elsewhere.
St Benedict, in his rule for monks, called this stability. When a monk entered holy orders, he stayed at the house where he was called unless sent out for mission work. There was no reason to change location until God called them elsewhere. They stayed loyal to that one house.
Loyalty is a precious commodity in our world.  Most people change careers two or three times in a lifetime. They change churches several times. We even change spouses! 
But in our constantly changing lives, we miss the value of a deep, long-term relationship with the same people over time.  After many changes, we lose all sense of history. We become like the lizard on a rock in the Holy Land, who can only see what is before him, missing the grandeur of God’s working through the ages.  
Don’t ignore your heritage. Go deep in it.  In the next blog, we’ll talk about how.

Do you think that heritage is undervalued or overvalued in the church?  What purpose does heritage serve in the church.  I'd love to hear from you. Let me know what you think.

The Disciplines of Being in Community

The disciplines of Community

In my section of the country, sports is huge. Sports pennants fly from antennae flagpole, team logos show up on lawn ornaments. I’ve even seen coffins with Tiger paws on them! 

Fandom is a form of self-definition.  It is part of who people say they are.  “I’m a Panther’s fan,” or “My team is the Bulldogs.”  They see themselves as belonging to a community of fans, and feel obliged to publicly declare it by going to games and flying the flags.    

Faith identity is similar.  To grow in faith, we must find means to regularly connect to our community of faith.  Here are a few regular practices than can help us keep our faith connection.

The first is public worship.  Psalm 122 begins “I was glad when they said to me “Let us go up to the House of the Lord.’” Our joy does not only in worship, but with being with fellow worshippers.  There’s joy in being with other who share our faith. Their faith builds ours.  Heb. 10:24-25 reminds us, “let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.”

Public worship recreates on earth the reality of heaven, where the saints gather around God’s throne. If our main preoccupation there will be worship, it should be part of our life on earth.

Public worship isn’t about liking the music or the pastor, nor is it about the energy level of the room. An crowd can be swept away by emotion and still be wrong, like a Nazi rally or a lynch mob. Neither should we assume that a quiet, boring service is without God.  Stillness is a true and integral part of worship.  The real focus of worship is God, not professionalism or excitement.  “Worship” is about declaring God’s worth. Any worship which focuses mainly on ourselves, our feelings, of our desires doesn’t do Him justice. Any worship that lifts Him up is pleasing to Him.

A woman once left our church to join an exciting new church down the road.  She gushingly described it to me “They’re so much more alive there!”

I was a bit perturbed by this, so I asked her. “Have you ever seen a sponge?”

  “Of course,” she said warily.

“A sponge is an animal, just like a cheetah or a bird.  Both the sponge and the cheetah are equally alive. If God delights in both in both, why can’t He equally delight in churches that seem different?  It’s the Spirit within, not how we see them that makes us alive in Christ.”

True public worship isn’t about the show, but the condition of our hearts.  We can worship in any congregation if we remember that we are there to honor God. 

The second is congregation participation.  Public worship is only one part of what it means to be in community. For the rest, we are going to need a smaller group. 

Community requires mutual sharing.  It cannot be done by staring at a jumbotron screen in a megachurch, at a priest in a cathedral, or the back of our fellow worshippers’ heads.  We must meet face to face.  For this we need a congregation, not a crowd. A congregation is where each person contributes something, where we share affection, concerns, gifts, and problems. 

If the only time we meet with other Christians is to listen to professional musicians and speakers, we miss something fundamental.  We need to have be actively involved in other peoples’ lives--and the more different, the better.

The tragedy of modern church is that they have become institutional ghettoes where people gather with people who are just like themselves.  In ancient times Christians of all kinds met together—rich and poor, young and old. Young people were taught by the old, who were a visible example before them.  Old people were helped and encouraged by the young, who energized them with their excitement for life. 

The modern church is divided into groups by age, class, race, and temperament. We have allowed the church to be run by professionals, not by ordinary Christians. Most of the time, these groups have little to do and less to say to each other.  Young people are not encouraged to speak to old, nor will old people give ground to the needs of the young. The only communities we participate in are the same communities that would exist with or without Christ—fellowships of socially compatible people who may as well have interchangeable heads and bodies. 

In the original Christian communities, people with diverse backgrounds and talents shared what they had.  All contributions were welcomed.  All opinions were valued.  All people’s needs were mutually respected.  They bonded together through mutual love of Christ, not social connections.   

We don’t have to wait for our congregation to become more diverse--we can start by simply showing up to events where people gather who aren’t like us.  We can pray for all our congregation, not just our friends. We can go to nurseries and nursing homes; help in youth groups and soup kitchens--even more we can simply talk to one another with love and respect

We can volunteer—but not because we are needed.  We volunteer to be with others.  Even if we have nothing to contribute (which is hardly ever the case) we still need to be in community. A community is more than just a work team—it’s a necessary part of living.

The third is cultivation of soul friendships.  Soul friendships are people with whom w share our souls.  Soul friendships are necessary both for ourselves and to help others in their spiritual journeys.  They are also missing in an overwhelming number of Christians’ lives.

David Benner writes:

“The principle reason friendship is so undervalued is probably that too few people have ever experience a significant, enduring friendship.  All but the hermit have acquaintances.  But typically such relationships involve no more than a passing connection. . . The coin of friendship has been continuously devalued by being applied to those lesser forms of friendship.

“Relationships between acquaintances involve little of the intimacy, trust commitment, and loyalty of real friendships.  Friendships may grow out of these more casual relationships but are not the same. . .

“Friendship is one of God’s special gifts to humans. Remarkably, friendship is one of the terms God uses to describe the relationship He desires with us. Friendship is therefore no ordinary relationship.  We cheapen it when we reduce it to mere acquaintanceship.”[1]

Larry Crabb goes even further: 

“Churches . . . have become as dangerous to the health of our soul as porn shops.  People leave both superficially titillated and deeply numbed.  Religious events can be as irrelevant to real life as cocktail parties at country clubs .  .  .

 “Most people tuck their soul out of sight and try desperately to ignore that something is missing they can’t supply. We speak few words that come out of an honest look at our soul, and few words that are spoken to us that inspire the courage to take an honest look that give us the hope and painful authenticity would lead us to real life.”[2]

Finding a soul friend is easy--we simply listen to them rather than talking about ourselves.  Then we share our stories, sharing honestly our thoughts, dreams, hopes and desires. In this way, we develop a soul-to-soul bond that may endure a lifetime.

Finding a friend may seem hard, but that’s mostly because of the limitations our culture imposes.  We think that soul friends are people with whom we have things in common.  Not only is this untrue, it’s also limiting and degrading. A friend doesn’t have to look like us, think like us, or share our age, gender or education. What make a friend is the mutual bond of trust we share.      

A fourth is forgiveness and reconciliation Unkind words, misunderstandings, little suspicion and minor slights collect in a community like plaque in our arteries unless we periodically purge them through forgiveness.  But when we let go of them , we experience the free flowing of love of the community.

Forgiveness is not pretending there was no injury, but a choice not to seek redress or revenge.  Forgiveness is letting go of the past so we can go on living in the present.

Reconciliation is a restored relationship. For this to occur, there has to be a recognition that someone has been hurt.  Both the hurter and the hurt should sit down and discuss it, bringing the pain out into the open. Hopefully, both sides can agree to forgive past transgressions and time will do the rest.  A mutual desire for community will in time overcome our hurt for past wrongs.

Reconciliation always takes longer and is harder than forgiveness.  Sometimes, reconciliation isn’t possible to restore the same level of trust. Nevertheless, it should be attempted, for the sake of the greater community and our own well-being. Having a friend is better than losing a friend; nothing is accomplished through continued animosity. Division within Christ’s body are destructive, and deprive us of the benefits of community. That is why it is always in our best interest to make peace.

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[1][1] David Benner Sacred Companions: The Gift of Spiritual Friendship and Direction,  IVP books, Downer’s Grove, Ill., 2002,  pp. 61-62.

[2] Larry Crabb Soul Talk, Integrity Publishers, Nasshville, Tenn.,  2003,  pp. 16-17

The limits of Self-awareness

The limits of self awareness are better shown than told.   Pay attention to these three pictures.

Self awareness does not do us much good without God awareness.  When we obsessively pull up our roots to examine them.  we turn our face from the Son, the source of all our strength.
Examine yourself regularly. But in the meantime, keep your face turned towards the light of the Son.

Exploring the Matrix: The limits of Submission

Submission has its limits.  

We should be careful to not confuse submission to God with knowledge of God.  Authority is only one aspect of a whole relationship to Him.

We are not slaves, but sons and daughters to God, loved by Him for our own sake and through the sacrifice of Christ.  Submission is a gift we give to God freely out of love, not a payment demanded before He will deal with us.   If we submit purely out of fear of retribution, then we are His slaves, not his sons and daughters.  our relationship is tainted by coercion. It is hard to love someone who forces His love upon us by demands of utter obedience. 

Jesus said in John 15: 15 "No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you."  Jesus did not come to enslave us but to empower us.  

Submitting to God does not mean submitting to everyone who claims to speak for God.  Many sects, cults, and movements began because some leader claimed an authority from God they had not received and did not possess, convincing others that questioning their leadership was questioning God.   Christians should be cautious against abusive leaders who demand unquestioned obedience. 
In some churches and ministries followers are told "Touch not God's anointed."  This is a way of saying that everything a leader does is perfect, and should never be questioned.  Christians should be well advised to avoid such groups and to leave them if they are already involved. 

David Johnson And Jeff Van Vonderen gives this definition of spiritual abuse in Their book The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse,  page 20. "Spiritual abuse is the mistreatment of a person who is in need of help support or greater spiritual empowerment,  with the result of weakening undermining or decreasing that person's spiritual empowerment."  Their book is a helpful one for anyone who believes they are in an abusive relationship with a church or church leader.

Money, sex and power have always been abused within organized religion.  The most dangerous of the three is the abuse of power. Most churches and church leaders are loving, God-fearing people who recognize their own fallibility and welcome constructive criticism, but there are a few who want nothing more than to exert power over the lives of others. They may rationalize this desires by believing can make the world better by doing it, but they fail to see is that power abused is mostly what is wrong with the world.    

In Tolkien’s novel The Lord of the Rings, a magic ring symbolizes worldly power.  Anyone in possession of the ring acquires great power, but  is corrupted by its spell.  It cannot be used for good because any good person becomes evil by wielding it.  Tolkien wrote his book after having endured two world wars.  He had seen the effect that power had on those who sought to remake the world by force. 

We must not give to our leaders a ring of power by granting them an authority in our lives they ought not possess. When we do not think or act for ourselves, but expect our leaders to do all the thinking for us, we should not be surprised when they abuse our trust. 

Authority belongs to God.   To insist on other’s submission is to take the place of God.    God is the only person who deserves our unquestioned obedience.  Submission is no excuse for not thinking or doing for ourselves.   

Question for further thought:

What is the difference between being an authority and being authoritarian?  How do you tell true authority from authoritarianism?

Exploring the Matrix: Knowledge, part 1

Exploring the Matrix:  The Perception Axis—Knowledge, part 1

"From a drop of water.  .  .  a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other.  So all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a single link of it.”[1]  Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Scarlet

The connection between faith and knowledge may seem obvious, but not to everyone. Existentialists and Postmodernists reject the idea of objective truth, since we are so trapped within our cultural worldview that if “real” truth exists at all, it is unknowable.  Hyperreal religions argue that faith can exist without truth, and that our commitment to a narrative is all that matters.

Reality does matter. There’s a story told about when the Christian apologist Francis Schaeffer sat in the home of an existentialist discussing philosophy. The existentialist argued that they could never fully communicate, since each person’s perception of reality is different.  Schaeffer interrupted him and asked if he could have a cup of tea. The man graciously poured him some.  Between sips, Schaeffer declared ‘Now, sir, we are communicating.”  Our interaction in the real proves there is a common ground of truth.

Faith must stand up to reality. That’s why we must use our minds to fully believe. 

Christians have often justly been accused of mental laziness.  Mark Noll described well the evangelical church:

The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.  An extraordinary range of virtues is found among the sprawling throngs of evangelical Protestants in North America, including great sacrifice in spreading the message of salvation in Jesus Christ, open-hearted generosity to the needy, heroic personal exertion on behalf of troubled individuals, and the unheralded sustenance of countless churches and parachurch communities.  Notwithstanding all their other virtues, however, American evangelicals are not  exemplary for their thinking, and they have not been so for several generations.[2]

This mental lassitude comes from our overindulgence and lack of mental exercise.  We gorge ourselves on useless information, without digesting it, until we cannot tell what is trustworthy and important.

Critical thinking is hard but important work. It yields three kinds of fruit-- knowledge of God,  self, and  the world around us.

Knowledge of God comes through study of the Scriptures.  Not everyone is gifted in study, but all of us can apply ourselves more diligently to reading and studying for ourselves.  The more time we spend in the Bible, the more we will understand its meaning. 

Knowledge of self comes from our own objective self-assessment.  We must have a clear, well-defined set of personal values based on good judgment and careful thought. With these virtues in place, we are able to let reason guide us even in tough situations.

Knowledge of the world around us yields an understanding of the times.  1 Chronicles 12:32 says “The men of Issachar. . .  understood the times and knew what Israel should do.” Understanding the times is necessary for success. 

Study may be hard work, but can also be fun work.  In Habits of the Mind, James Sire gives this definition of a Christian intellectual:

“An intellectual is one who loves ideas, is dedicated to developing them, criticizing them, clarifying them, turning them over and over, seeing their implications, stacking them atop one another, arranging them, sitting silent while new ones pop up and old ones seem to rearrange themselves, playing with them, punning them with their terminology, laughing at them, watching them clash, picking up the pieces, starting over, judging them, withholding judgment about them, changing them, bringing them into contact with their counterparts in other systems of thought, inviting them to dine and have a ball, but also suiting them for service in workaday life—

--A Christian intellectual is all of the above to the glory of God.” [3]

Children have a natural love of learning. The instinctively want to use their minds to learn and grow. Just as a person cannot be happy without some physical exercise, so we cannot be happy without exercising our minds.  Whenever we discourage thinking and exploration, we cut ourselves off from the greatest characteristic of our nature that makes us the most like God-our capacity to understand the world around us.

Doubt is not the enemy of faith—it is faith’s ally. Questioning makes faith stronger not weaker. In  order to get stronger in our intellectual understanding of God, ourselves, and the universe, we need to develop four cardinal virtues of the mind.  They are:

1.  Curiosity.  Thinking believers are not content to be generally correct about the truth.  Curiosity should never be suppressed. We should never fear learning the truth.  Truth can only help us in the end. 

2.  Humility. Thinking believers listen when other people talk, and pay attention to new ideas. They realize that truth is larger and of greater importance than proving our own opinions.

3.  Persistence.  Knowledge is not an easy quest; anyone who has suffered through college or graduate school knows this. But the rewards are worth it, if we continue to seek the truth. 

4.  Clarity.  Whatever we know, we should strive to express clearly.  A knowledgeable person does not just work at knowing, he also works at expressing knowledge.  A person, who cannot explain clearly what they believe, is not as smart as they think.  We must work just as hard at putting knowledge in simple language as we do as discovering it. 

 

Why is the study of theology important to people of faith? Is it possible to think Biblically without thinking theologically?  What is the difference between being intellectual and intellectualism?  Is it easy to tell the difference?  How can you tell a real intellectual from one who simply acts like one?

Write what you think about it in the comments below.   

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[1] Sir Arthur Conan Doyle A Study in Scarlet Electronic Text Library, University of Virginia Library, 1995, http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/DoyScar.html, p.  16. 

[2] Mark Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, p.   3. 

[3]James Sire, Habits of the Min        d (Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, Ill) 2000, p.  27-28.

A Shaky Foundation

My house has a problem.
It was built as part of a planned development of eight-three homes.  The developers were in a rush to build,  so they skimped on the foundation. Before a foundation was laid, the ground should have been pounded solid before the concrete blocks were put in place. This was not done, so now cracks appear in the wall and doors and windows stick.  the longer it goes without fixing the foundation, the worse these cracks become.
Foundations don't sell houses.  Vinyl siding, landscaping, front doors and hardwood floors sell houses.  People react to flash and elegance. They usually don't see the problems with a foundation until it is too late.
What some developer did with our house, most of us do with our lives. We focus on  the visible, "showy" parts, but neglect the foundation.  We want to impress the world with our beauty,  strength and creativity--and it works at first. But as time goes by our flaws become apparent to everyone.
This is what Jesus means at the end of Matthew 7 24-27
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.  And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
When we build our lives on a good  foundation it lasts. When we build a show cover over a bad foundation, it will eventually collapse. It isn't the floors or the doors or the windows, but the foundation that makes or breaks a life.
Mother Theresa once said that if you want to change the world, go home and attend to your family. Jesus said that if we are faithful in a few things, we may be rulers over many.   It's not the big projects we undertake in the world, but the little things we do in our tiny sphere of influence that makes the difference. 
The church in America institutionally has chosen to focus on the big things--evangelism, social reform,  building megachurches, and world missions.  This is great, if the foundation is in place, but it isn't.  There is a deep groaning today from within the Body of Christ, an ache that something is seriously wrong.  Cracks are showing in the walls of the church.  People visit and go away with a queasy feeling of vague disappointment.  The music is good, the preaching is great, but something isn't there. 
Within the church, we feel it, too. We know that somehow we are not so much professing Christians as professional Christians. We follow Christ professionally, but inside we are not followers.  We are employees of Christ,  but we do not know him.
We tell ourselves that our neglect of an  inner relationship to God is perfectly normal. We may even argue that it's an moral necessity. Why take time from an busy schedule of serving God to pursue an inner life of prayer? Why struggle with our inner thoughts,  when there is so much sickness in others?  We excuse our feelings of distance from God as the natural result of being so publicly active for Him.  We do not realize how much we resemble those builders who failed to look after a foundation, because they were in such a hurry to put up all those showy doors, floors and walls.
Now, we are seeing the results of this. Institutional churches are collapsing as the veneer of faith which we esteemed so highly crumbles. Christianity in America has great looking walls but no foundation.  We don't really believe what we say we believe and do not seek what we say we seek.
We have ignored the building of our own faith matrix to impress others with our showy success. Now our neglect comes back to bite us.
 The true foundation of our lives is faith--our ultimate concern.  It's more than just belief, but a  basis for all our thoughts,  feelings, and habits.  If we neglect Christ as our ultimate concern, then the  institutions we build will not survive.
What does it mean to build on God as a foundation? 
It doesn't mean to just mean to follow as set of godly rules, like the Ten Commandment.  That would be like having a house with strong crossbeams and braces, but still built on sand.  Strong crossbeams and floor joists will probably keep you together longer if your house is washed away in a flood, but it won't keep you forever. It isn't just God's foundation but God as a foundation that keeps us together.  It is building on an awareness of Him being alive and real.
Smith and Lundquist  in their book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers  coined a phrase that describes the commonly held view of God among many Christians--Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. This the idea that God gave us moral principles to follow that will help us with our lives, but nevertheless has little to do with us personally.  It sees the Bible (and in some cases nature) as an instruction book which gives us good advice  but does not require any personal connection with the writer.  It is religion reduced to "click bait.""Six principles God wants you to know about marriage." "Five principles that will make you happy." or "Six habits of an effective leader."  The principles are there and work up to a point, but ultimately it is moral structure to help us achieve our therapeutic needs, not connect us to an eternal, transcendent Deity.  They could be practiced by anyone of any faith and are not unique or different to ours.  There is nothing uniquely Christian about them, and they do not answer the basic question--what am I here for?
To press the metaphor of a house, we can talk about a three-step process of building our lives.
Foundation comes first--which is our ultimate purpose in life. The eight aspects of the faith matrix, previously discussed are how we connect to our central concern. For a Christian this is God, revealed in Christ.  It is not only to practice faith in Jesus but the faith of Jesus, who said his ultimate concern was "to do the will of My Father."  (John 8:28)  He found His ultimate concern in His earthly life by staying centered in the presence of His father.
How do we stay connected with God's Presence?  We can reflect at the end of the day on when and where that day did we felt close to God.  If it has been weeks or months without some sense of the Divine presence, we need to find out why.  Our foundation may be shifting.  We should not flippantly dismiss this lack of feeling by saying it doesn't matter.  It does matter whether we feel His Presence or not.  If we don't we need to find out why. The message of the Bible, both Old and New Testament is that God wants to have a personal relationship with us, and wants us to be with Him. If we have no sense or desire for His presence, then something is seriously wrong.
We build on the foundation of faith with the habits of the heart.  These are the spiritual practices that are like pillars which joists and frame to the house, joining eternal purpose with everyday life. These include for the Christian worship, prayer, fasting,  meditation, Scripture meditation, and intercession.  Then comes the horizontal habits of our lives,  like the joists and frame, which link us together with others.  These habits include soul conversations,  fellowship, forgiveness,  tolerance, and love.  These connect Christian with Christian, and strengthen us in mutual faith.
Outreach, justice, and social concern are also part of who we are as Christians, and are important. But these grow out of our inner life--the cannot substitute for it.  As important as our ministry in the world may be, it can and does easily become a way of hiding the fact that we can't get along with our churches or families.
I once met a college student who was an outspoken anti-war protestor. He told me that he was protesting because he loved love others and therefore hated all wars.  But he also disclosed that he  hated his parents and his family, who he thought didn't understand him. It was soon revealed that his   protest was not an act of love at all, but a way of escaping the obligation of caring for his parents. If he loved the world in general, he felt free from his obligation to love his own family.
Many churches and social movements get started this way. Instead of investing our love in the imperfect world  around us, we invest in an imperfect world that doesn't yet exist, and may never exist. We are like a contractor who can't build a straight wall, so hides his mistakes under the best vinyl siding.
Don't try to change the world before you make your part of the world livable. Invest time and effort into building a good foundation.   Build your faith matrix, and you will have something to give the world.
Good habits and value grow outward, like rings on a tree.  First we love God, then we love ourselves, our family, our fellow Christian, and finally our neighbor. Each level depends on the strength of what the one beneath it.
These articles are intended to lead us to the foundation of our faith, which is in God through Christ.
As we look at the ways we discover Him, we also discover the ways we can reveal Him to the world.


How strong is your foundation? How do you stay connected with it?  Do you find that is it easy to hide a shaky foundation from the world with religious or social activity?

Write a comment below, and let me hear from you.