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 Hope

How do we develop hope? Here are some activities may help:

Being Thankful

“In everything give thanks,” Paul wrote “For this is God’s will.” (1 Thess. 5:18) This isn’t a suggestion but a command.  He does not say to give thanks if we feel grateful, but to give thanks whether we feel anything like gratitude or not.  It is wonderful if our heart can be involved, but it is not necessary. In time our heart will catch up with the rest of us, and we may feel something like gratitude, but it isn’t necessary. Give thanks anyway.

Thankfulness helps to orient our mind towards ultimate purpose and destination.  It is an acknowledgement that is or can be part of God’s great satisfaction. Thanksgiving lifts us out of the tyranny of the moment and helps us see the vistas around us 

In the novel The Hobbit Bilbo Baggins his friends are stuck for weeks in a dark, foreboding forest.  Despairing of their predicament, they send Bilbo to climb one of the highest trees and look around.  Once above the treetops he feels fresh air and sunlight again and is greatly encourage.  More importantly, he sees their destination, the Lonely Mountain, is not far away. 

Thanksgiving gives us a glimpse above the treetops. We may be stuck in the muck of today, but it reminds us that we are actually making progress. Thanksgiving is the assurance of our souls that we are holding to the right course. 

We thank God for small blessings in the middle of major disasters.  Terminally ill patients can sometimes be filled with hope, not of a long life, but of seeing a loved one again, going to a graduation, or feeling a sea breeze. Small thanksgivings can be ours in big disasters.  The discipline of thankfulness reminds us of our many blessings.

We thank God for big blessings in the middle of minor disasters. When we are late for work,  our car breaks down, or we are caught in a rainstorm,  we can easily forget that life for us is actually pretty good. When we feel bad about something we forgot to do, we forget that God has redeemed us and still loves us, wholly and completely. Giving thanks for big blessings helps us deal with small disasters. 

Affirmation

Affirmation is the practice of self-reminding.  We sometimes forget who we are and where we are going.  The daily practice of affirmation helps us remember this. 

Affirmation is not magic. Reciting to ourselves “I am a good person” does not really make us a good person if we are not.  No, affirmations must first all be the truth to have power. 

A good affirmation is based on our position in Christ. It is a statement of how Christ thinks of us, and what He can do with us. It is not a statement of our own abilities, but of His 

Here is an example of an affirmation I have written and used for years.

“Today, I will remember that I am forgiven

“Today I will remember my worth in God's eyes.

“Today I will remember to give others my honesty and friendship

“Today I will remember that I am already loved enough

“Today I will remember that I can do all things through Christ

“Today I will remember the shortness of life and to live inthis moment

“Today I will remember to be thankful for all things

“Today I will remember that I can trust Him

“And in trusting, hope, and in hoping, know

“And in knowing, rejoice.”

A good way of writing an affirmation for yourself is a “beloved covenant” described in Trevor Hudson’s book Discovering our Spiritual Identity:

 Sit down in a quiet place and recall your favorite verses from the Bible.  If you aren’t familiar with the Bible and are just starting out reading it, just thumb through and write down a few promises.  Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to verses that stand out to you.  After you have a few verses,  read them over and over slowly.  Don’t look for things to do or to pray for—look for what God says about you, and His relationship to you.  Take these verses and write them down.  Then go back over them for about ten minutes a day for a few days.  Let these statements sink into your soul. You will find that it really helps to build confidence and hope to know just what God thinks of you.

Patience

We usually think of patience as a gift, but it really more of a choice. It’s knowing the reasons for hurry, but choosing to ignore them-- a hundred times a day, if necessary. 

I may be in a hurry to get home, but I choose to slow down and be safe instead of speeding up, because I know that home will be there when I arrive.  I want to buy a new car, but I choose instead to save my money, because I believe in the future I can afford it. I think that school is too hard, but I choose to do my homework, because I hope to graduate one day. I make these choices because of hope for the future. By choosing to say “no” to my immediate impulses, I am expressing my hope of future reward. 

Do not confuse impatient feelings with impatient actions. We can still be patient even when we feel impatient. Worry is resistible, and the act of resisting it is what we mean by patience. In time, the feelings of impatience will give way to peace, but it will not happen until we choose to be patient.

Use your Imaginations

Sit down, and make a list with three columns on it.  Label the first  “1year from now”,  the next “3 years from now” and the third “10 years from now.”

Now, close your eyes and use your imagination. Picture yourself one year in the future, with God in absolute control of your life and your situation.  What would your life be like in the best possible future with God in control, at these three points in the future?  Don’t focus on what your occupation will be, whether you have accomplished your occupational goals.  Don’t imagine a life without enemies, struggles or opposition, but instead concentrate more on who you will be inside,  and what your attitudes and inner realities will be.  Not so much what your will be doing at this time but who you will be inside.  Then pray over the lists and save them. Look back over them from time to time as you approach the future.

Hope is faith for the future.  In order to have hope future, we must see God there.  This requires a sanctified imagination. We need to have an image of our future selves with God in control, and what our lives would be like if we were.

A pessimist envisions the future and sees all the things that can go wrong. This is useful, since we all know that things can go wrong and it is good to be prepared. But pessimism alone cannot motivate us to do anything good. The more we imagine bad things happening to us,  the more we are that our negative imaginings will actually happen.

An optimist envisions the future and sees what can go right.   Hope arises from these positive imaginings. But we must be careful where our positive imaginings take us. If we divorce our hopes from our faith they are just wishful thinking. Our hope must come from God, and His power to change us.  If we just hope to be a better, kinder person without being a more Godly person, there is no real reason to believe we will succeed.  If we see ourselves conquering our present calamities and we do not see God in charge and getting all the glory, then our real hope is not in Him but in ourselves.

Real hope is not imagining a future without problems, but imagining a future with God’s sufficiency. It is unrealistic to think we can live in a sinful world and find everything easy and uncomplicated. But it is realistic to imagine that in the future we may be better equipped to cope, when we pursue a deeper relationship with God. 

Circumstances are guaranteed to change for us, but the relationship we have with God, who is the provider of all things can get stronger with every passing day. With His help, we will better be able to cope with life changes because we learn to trust Him daily,  The struggles of today will make us more able to trust Him in the future.

We cannot change the world, but we can change ourselves.  In changing ourselves we learn to better  cope with the world. 

the Virtues of Hope

“Everything that is done in this world is done by hope.” Martin Luther

On a certain day each week, the convenience store in my neighborhood has a line stretching almost out the door as the lottery tickets for the lottery go on sale.  Never mind that the chances of winning are only slightly better than being hit by a meteor, the hope of sudden riches keeps them coming back.

Lotteries run on hope, but not realistic ones.  If a person had real hope for a win, they would sell everything they owned to buy tickets. Their hope is just a happy fantasy. Real hope demands the surrender of our souls.

Christian existence is a hopeful religion.  Our faith is not based on one hope, but on three: 

First, the ultimate hope of heaven.  The heavenly hope is that we will attain heaven in the next life.   If we lose our lives in this world, we have a new life in the next.  This hope has sustained martyrs and missionaries for centuries.

Second, the hope that the world may be improved.  This hope has spurred social renewal wherever the Gospel has gone. This hope keeps Christians active in evangelism and social change.

Third, the hope that we may become more like Jesus. It is the one that is most essential to spiritual growth—not the perfection of the world, but that we may attain a greater resemblance to Christ.    Our hope is for peace and assurance. for an inner life so strong that neither poverty or prosperity matters, not or the absence of personal problems, but for the ability to survive and thrive.  We place our faith in Christ in order that we might become like Christ, sharing in his Divine personality and nature.

 The Bible puts it this way:

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! . . .  Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.” 1 John 3:1-3

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Rom 8:29

The goal of the Christian life is to be Christ-like, not in one area of our lives, but in all of them. 

What does a hopeful person look like?  He or she will exhibit four characteristics—perseverance, patience, planning, and flexibility.

Perseverance is the ability to keep on course, no matter what. A persevering person does not expect instant gratification, but is willing to continue without seeing results for a long period of time, in expectation of future benefits.

Consider the perseverance of a fisherman.  He may make cast after case with his bait, waiting for a big fish.  He may be out for days without the slightest nibble. Or consider perseverance of a salesperson.  She makes one cold call after another, getting yelled at, cussed out and hung up on countless times.  But when she makes a sale, it is worth the effort. Or consider the perseverance of a bodybuilder.  Day after day he strains his body to the breaking point. All he gets for his efforts are sore muscles.  Only after weeks of effort does he start to notice significant changes. Anything worth accomplishing only happens through frustration and discomfort. 

Patience is passive perseverance. It’s not what we do, but what de don’t do for the sake of accomplishment.  We feel we must do something, anything, but wisdom says wait for God’s voice.  We have hope that God will give us discernment and direction.  We are often tempted to jump at anything, but patience shows us the right time.

How do we discern when to wait, when to leap, and when to stay the course?   It isn’t easy. Patience is not waiting forever, but waiting on the Lord.  We must be attuned to hear His voice and His will. While we wait, we pray and be attentive, learning to recognize His voice when He calls, and keeping always before us the hope of God’s promise.   

Planning. While we wait, we plan.  Here we must make two distinctions about planning

First of all, planning isn’t worrying.  Worry approaches the future fearfully, anticipating all the bad things that can go wrong.  Planning is approaches the future hopefully, anticipating  how things may go right. Worry look at problems in big pieces, dreading how hard the whole task will be. Planning looks at the future in small segments. It doesn’t focus on the top of the mountain, but on what handholds and footholds we might try in the next few feet, and where we might attach our ropes. 

Flexibility. No plan ever goes smoothly. Nothing goes exactly as planned. Plans are always tentative, subject to God’s higher plan for us. Our plans need contingency plans, in case we need to go another way.  But they all should lead to our ultimate goal--conformity to the image of Christ.

We must not invest too heavily in our own correctness.  We are certain to be wrong at times, so we had better be prepared to change courses.  An inflexible person approaches his target like a bullet.  Once he is committed, there is no changing course, he will either hit or miss.  Most of them time, inflexible people miss their target. But a flexible person approaches target like a predator drone, guided intelligently to change course and make correction in her flight.  She has a much higher chance of hitting.  A flexible person bent on conformity to Christ’s image cannot miss in the end, since he or she has a distant target, and cannot help but come nearer to it at every moment.   

The hope of a Christian is certain, but the steps to that hope are uncertain. We need to keep our eyes on the hope, and not get bogged down in the details. Just keep moving towards our ultimate goal, which is to be like Christ. 

How do you maintain you hope?  What keeps you persevering.

I would love to hear from you, about how you maintain hope in your life. 

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.

Exploring the Matrix: The Disciplines of Submission

In the last posting we looked at the third point on the faith matrix, submission. Submission is the necessary surrendering of ourselves to our central point of faith, which for a Christian is God.  It is the essence of all worship and all moral action.

Submission is necessary in any society.  When the doctor gives us a prescription, it is usually up to us to take it.  When a policeman tells us to stop, we stop.  When we read in a peer reviewed journal that global warming is a fact or that cigarettes cause cancer, we accept this because we have faith in their authority. For us, the argument is ended, and we accept. That is submission. 

For a Christian, God is our final word. If we submit to God, and we believe the the Bible is the Word of God, when whatever the Word of God says is fact to us.  End of story. If the Bible tells us that it is a sin to steal, then we do not steal. If the Bible tells us to love our neighbor, then we love our neighbor.  Submission is the acceptance without proof of a previously accepted authority.

This is not as easy as it sounds. Our struggles with morality attests to this. If everyone who believed that cigarettes were bad for you stopped smoking, the tobacco industry would go out of business.  Both the weight loss and fast food industries are based on the idea that just being told overeating is bad for us won’t stop us from overeating.  Submission is something we must work at daily.

Paul writes in Romans 12: “1 appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

It is hard to give a dead sacrifice to God, but our bodies are a living sacrifice. That means that no matter how often we give our bodies to God, they still tend to crawl off the altar.  We need to daily submit ourselves to God.  Jesus says in Matthew 16: 24 “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”  Taking up the cross is a daily act of submission, a willingness to sacrifice ourselves over and over to the object of our faith.  This is much more challenging than a single, dramatic conversion experience. It is a habit of submission that challenges us daily.

The way we accomplish daily  submission is thought practicing the disciplines of submission.   These include silence and solitude, fasting, Sabbath, percentage giving, and chastity, along with others.   Let’s talk about these individually.

Solitude and silence.   The first command a dog learns in obedience training is “sit.”  Dog trainers do this because they understand that dogs must first get still to hear and obey their masters.  When a dog is distracted, they cannot hear our voices.  Excessive action blinds us to the voice of God.  An overactive, agitated, or worried mind cannot hear God’s voice. If we are fretting over our circumstances or attempting to multitask our spirituality, we cannot hear God’s voice.  That is why we need to follow Jesus’ example and find places to withdraw and meditate.

I am an overactive person.  Those who know me best have suggested that I may have attention deficit disorder, though it has never been formally diagnosed. I do know that there have been times in my life when anxiety and hyperactivity have gotten the better of me.  In one such time, a counselor asked me to sit still and think of nothing for five minutes. It was the longest five minutes of my life! Silencing my brain for even three minutes was too much for me.  Since then, I have learned the value of meditation and centering prayer, which helps my overactive mind to be still, in order that I might hear God’s voice.

Fasting.  Fasting is fully or partially refraining from something that I regard as necessary to my life or wellbeing.  

Much has been written about fasting is either magical or legalistic. Sometimes people advocate fasting as a means of forcing God’s hand in our favor—a hunger strike against God. Others teach it as a requirement or law. It is neither.  Fasting is a regular spiritual activity aimed at learning self-mastery and submission.

As anyone who has ever gone on a diet can testify, sugary foods and carb-loaded delicacies are addictive. So is caffeine, nicotine, many other substance. When asked to give them up even for a short time, our bodies go into rebellion. 

Fasting gives us a means to gain victory over our addictions. Once our appetites are mastered, the greatest barrier to soul liberation is gone.

Addictions to television, games, texting, and web surfing may be more helpful today as fasting from food. We all are addicted to something. Fasting is the key to self-discovery.  you never know how much you are enslaved to something until you give it up for a time. When we voluntarily deny ourselves food, or any other needful thing, we are choosing instead to trust God. 

Sabbath.  Sabbath is taking on day—one twenty-four hour period—for rest and recreation.  Its origins go back to Genesis 2, where God rested after six days of labor creating the universe. The purpose of God’s rest was not because He was tired, but to allow his creation to grow on its own without His interference.

Our reasons for keeping a Sabbath are much the same. It teaches us that the universe is capable of running without us.  If we think our job cannot run without our constant upkeep,  then we are probably doing them wrong.  Sabbaths give times for the works we do to grow.

Sabbaths also give us time to enjoy God and His works.  Recreation is not idle amusement, but it provides us an opportunity to step back from ordinary things and see how it all relates to God. 

Unlike God, we do get tired. We need to rest.  Constant effort warps our perspective and interferes with our ability to work at peak effectiveness. Without Sabbaths, we work more but get less accomplished. Sabbaths are necessary to effectively keep working. 

Peter Scazzero likens the Sabbath to snow days when we were children. When it snowed so hard that people could not get to work, they stayed home and relaxed, drank hot chocolate, and built snowmen.  Sabbaths are like getting snow days once a week. It refreshes the mind, body, and spirit. 

Percentage giving (tithing).  Tithing is the discipline of submission in money.  Tithing refers to a tenth of our income.  The percentage of giving, however is not as important as the priority. Tithing is giving from the top¸ that is, the first part of our income, not the last. Tithing is the commitment of our first resources to God.  Finances are one of the places where most of us have the greatest struggles making God our ultimate concern.   That is why it is important to make giving to God’s work the highest priority.

Christians talk of trusting God, but they are often the most anxious people on earth.  We worry about money, health, our children—just about everything   Rather than seeing it as lack of trust, we have almost made a sacrament out of caution. Our anxiety over money often prevails over our faith, and we turn off the spigot of generosity through fear of the future. Tithing excludes all that, forcing us to trust God. 

Tithing is not a path to riches, unless We mean the riches of learning how little we need.  It isn’t for gaining worldly wealth through some magical means by “investing” in God’s favor.  Instead, it is a way of breaking free from our money addition. 

Chastity. Chastity is the sexual equivalent of fasting. How could God have created sex as such a pleasurable experience, then restrict it to be used only within the context of marriage?  Because sex is one of the ways we learn submission. Denying ourselves such an obviously pleasurable act causes us to learn mastery over our bodies.

Chastity isn’t just for some people. It is something everyone must deal with.  Unmarried people deny themselves sex until marriage.  Married  people deny themselves sex outside of marriage.  Though most of us will experience It, we all must learn to say “no” at some time, and keep it within a proper order.  

 Many people today claim that chastity is impossible. Sexual desire, they say, cannot be tamed.  We don’t have to look far to see that this isn’t true.  Catholic priests and nuns choose to remain celibate for life, although there are some who break that vow, the majority don’t.  Until recently, most men and women did not have sex before marriage, though there were always many who did. Most men and women stay faithful within marriage, only a minority stray. 

Sexual feelings are not the problem—it is lack of sexual control. Sexual pleasure has become for many an ultimate concern, more important than relationships, vows, or health.  We know that sexual promiscuity is destructive, but we do it anyway. 

Sexual urges have many benefits, but the most neglected benefit is developing submission and self-control. In resisting sex, with all its appeal, we learn to submit to something higher than our appetites. 

Submission is following God. When Jesus gathered His disciples, he first said “follow Me.” He did not discuss what he was going to do with them.  When He ascended into heaven,  he told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came. Then they would get their marching orders. 

As we think about submission, we need ask ourselves some important questions.

Can I sit in solitude and silence, waiting for God to lead me, and not act on impulse?

Is God my only final authority?

Do I trust God even when I do not understand?

Am I willing to say "no" to my appetites and desire, when God asks me to?

Do I practice a life of self-discipline and self-control for God’s sake?

Let me know your thoughts.  I would love to hear from you.  Here are some questions to stimulate discussion.

1.     Which is easier—to submit to God or to submit to earthly authority?

2.     Is humility taught in churches today?  How important is humility to you? 

3.     What is the hardest place to practice submission—in eating, money, sexual habits, or following God’s guidance? 

Exploring the Matrix; Submission, part 1

View the YouTube video on submission here.
Without discipline, we cannot be disciples.

The disciplines of the Christian life include  prayer, Bible study, journaling, meditation, praise, confession, forgiveness, silence, solitude, Sabbath, tithing, simplicity, celebration, and giving thanks .  No one can perform all the spiritual exercises perfectly, any more than anyone can perform every physical exercise perfectly. But we do what we can, expressing in our bodies the worship in our hearts.  

For a discipline to change us, it cannot be something we do only occasionally.  It must become a regular habit.  Habits effectively transform us through our commitment to do them over and over.  Over time, they make us into better, healthier, and more loving people.

The depth of our relationship with God is mostly determined not by how we think about Him or feel about him, but from out willingness to submit to him by developing godly habit, or exercises. These habits have the power to bring us closer to Him in ways that thinking and feeling do not.  By practicing these habits regularly, they become a means of grace. 

A beautiful illustration of this  is found in the 2009 film The Way. Martin Sheen plays a man whose son died while walking the Way of St. James--a five-hundred-mile pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Though the father is not religious, he decides to honor his son by finishing the walk, carrying his son’s ashes as a way of honoring his memory.  Along the way, he meets other dubious pilgrims--a failed writer looking for inspiration, a man trying to lose weight, and a woman recovering from the emotional trauma. To complete the route, they must stop at every altar along the way. At first, these stops seem trivial to most of them.  But as they progress, they get caught up in the sacred rituals and together they begin to encounter God. The act of walking, praying, and worshiping at the sacred sites become a means of grace.

Such a pilgrimage may seem strange to those raised in Protestant traditions. We tend to look at the rituals of live as “vain repetitions,” but for those who have fully entered into the experience of them, they understand the significance.  Our bodies must worship as our minds and hearts worship.  Action often comes before belief.  We learn to say our prayers before we understand their meaning. We go to church before we understand the sermon. The habits of faith can precede our understanding.  These habits remain, when our doubts cloud our minds and depression clouds our hearts. Habits serve as a final reminder to us of God, when all our reason and emotions fail.  They are signposts left in their lives to point us back to faith.

The first inner action faith requires of us is the act of submission. 

The first meaning of the word “worship” is “to bow the knee.” It is an act of surrender in stillness before the presence of God.  When a dog is being trained the first command the animal learns is “Sit.”  Sitting for a dog means coming to a place of stillness, where it awaits orders.  Submission is a place of stillness before God, where we learn to await His orders. 

This is especially hard for those of us who have been raised in the Western values of action and equality. We want to be out doing something.  We hate the idea of sitting still almost as much as we had the idea of submitting to things we cannot understand. We want results and answers, not silence and stillness.  But if we are to follow God, we must learn to listen to His voice, and wait in silence before him.

Submission is yielding our wills to a person, principle, or truth without question, complaint or manipulation. 

Christ submitted to His Father.  Paul submitted not only to God, but to the earthly authorities that God placed over him, including the Roman government and priestly leadership of Israel. He said, “Follow my example, as I follow Christ.”[1]

In order to grow in submission, we must develop the virtues of submission namely respect, obedience, and  humility.

Respect means having a healthy fear.  I do not hate snakes, but I respect their power enough to stay out of their way.  Proverbs reminds us that the “fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” (Proverbs 1:7)   we cannot know God unless we understand His power. Fear of God is a good thing. God has great power for good or for ill. If I come against Him, that power will be against me. But if I am for Him, that power will break anything that tries to stand in His way.  Once I have a healthy fear of Him, I do not have to fear anything else.

Obedience  is the habit of doing what our master wishes.  This habit is never developed just to God, though.  In order to develop a habit of submission we must also learn to submit to those whom God has placed over us. 

St. Benedict wrote that submission to others is a necessity step in learning submission to God.He taught his monks a twelve-fold path to humility:  

1.       “That we have the fear of God before our eyes at all times.”

2.       “That we desire to do God’s will above our own.”   

3.       “That we submit our individual wills to our Superiors in obedience.” 

4.       “That, we accept hard and distasteful duties when commanded with patience and even temper, and not grow weary or give up.”

5.       “That we do not hide from our Superiors our evil thoughts, but humbly confess them.”

6.       “That we be content, even with the meanest and worst of everything.” 

7.       “We not only say but believe that we are among the most unworthy. 

8.       “We do nothing except what we are charged to do.

9.       “We keep silence unless asked to speak.

10.   “We do not engage in frivolous conduct.

11.   “We speak gently--listening, not shouting.

12.   “ We do not draw attention to ourselves by our actions.”  [2]      

 One of the clearest examples of the benefits of obedience in the Bible is in Genesis 22, when God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac to Him on Mount Moriah.  God did not rescind this order intil Abraham demonstrate his willingness to carry it out.

Few of us will ever face the kind of test like Abrahams, , but sooner or later, we will all face the blind faith test.  We will be asked to follow, even when it makes no sense.  That is when we discover if our obedience is real or a sham. 

Humility is more than just self-deprecation or self-abasement, but being willing to submit our thoughts, attitudes, feelings and actions to another.   It has nothing to do with the way we think about ourselves, but everything to do with the way we view others.  It is laying aside our lives to another as a living sacrifice to God.  To be humble is to realize that the ultimate judge of all we do and are is God. We do not take the measure of ourselves. God is our ultimate judge.

True submission is rooted in desire.  It is a voluntary act of a free person, not the groveling of a slave.  We take pleasure in the pleasure in surrender. To live without submitting to anyone is not freedom but slavery to self.  The “free” soul is not free at all, but caught between worlds, trying to satisfy spirit and flesh, the world and God.

We learn submission through practicing the inner spiritual disciplines.  These include solitude, Sabbath, fasting, and giving, They have no other purpose than to cause us to obey. 

Who am I? is the central question of self-based spirituality.  Christianity and other God-based forms of faith begin with a different question whose am I?  Who owns us? Who controls us? Who delights us, and we in them?  Submission is the purest form of love, not taking away out individuality but making us willing to lay aside our selfhood for the benefit of another.  It is a purposeful emptying of self so that the will of another may fill us.  This is what God calls upon us to do, when we seek to know His submission.  

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[1] 1 Corinthians 11:1

[2] St.  Benedict (2011-04-30).  The Rule of St.  Benedict (Kindle Locations 428-429).  PlanetMonk Books.  Kindle Edition. 

Exploring the Matrix: The Action Balance

The second balance beam in the Christian walk is the balance of witness and submission. It involves the connection of body and spirit.  (for more about the balance beams, go here.)

God reveals Himself to us through physical acts. He gave us physical signs—the sacrifices of animals in the Old Testament, baptism and communion in the New, promising to reveal himself through physical acts to His creatures. He entered our world by taking on flesh.  When He demonstrated His love bodily in the crucifixion. He healed physical ailments and performed miracles.  Through these means He demonstrated that what we do with our bodies matters to our souls.  Physical actions cause us to come closer to God or push us away from Him.

The church calls physical actions that strengthen our relationship to God the means of grace. These include baptism, the Lord’s Supper, anointing with oil and the laying on of hands. Acts of love--such as visiting the sick, praying for the lost, and helping the needy--are also means of grace.  Fixing a flat tire for a stranded motorist, a kind touch on a grieving shoulder, or a well-timed word of comfort also convey God’s grace to others. Deciding to go to church instead of to the store or the golf course are acts of grace as well.

A disciple duplicates the actions of a master.  A coach runs his team through hours of physical practice. A dancing master does the same for her dancers.  Musicians follow their master, repeating continually the scales, methods, and pieces that made her great.  Martial arts students follow the discipline of their sensei.   In every area of life being a disciple means physical training. Faith is the same; following Jesus means bodily action. 

Willard gives this example.

“Think of certain young people who idolize an outstanding baseball player.   They want nothing better than to pitch or run or hit as well as their idol.   So what do they do?  When they are playing in a baseball game, they all try to behave exactly as their favorite baseball player does.   .    .  The buy the same shoes he wears, the same glove he uses, the same bat.

“Will they succeed in performing like the star, though? .  .  .  The star performer himself didn’t achieve his excellence by trying to behave a certain way only during the game.   Instead, he chose an overall life of preparation of mind and body, pouring all his energies into that total preparation, to provide a foundation in the body’s automatic responses and strength for his conscious efforts during a game.”[1]

 “Being the Son of God clearly did not relieve him of the necessity of a life of preparation that was mainly spent out of the public eye.   .  .  The secret of the easy yoke involves living as he lived in the entirety of his life—adopting His overall lifestyle.”[2]

In Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster writes:

“The inner righteousness we seek is not something which can be poured on our hearts.   God has ordained the disciplines of the spiritual life as a means by which we place ourselves where He can bless us.”[3]

All physical acts start in the mind as an inner choice. When the alarm goes off, we choose whether to get up or to turn it off and roll over in bed.  When the clock says noon, we must choose whether or not to eat. It takes mental energy and will to make choices about behavior.  So God has provided us with an inner mechanism that governs our actions and saves us from the burden of making constant decisions.  This mechanism is called habit.  Habits enable us to choose certain behaviors automatically. Once they are formed, we do things without thinking, freeing up our minds for more important functions and for multitasking.  Habits govern most of what we think and do every day. 

A large part of our spiritual lives are governed by habits as well.  Our morning ritual of devotions, our weekly habit of corporate worship, prayer before meals or at bedtime are not something we think about doing—we just do them.  Fasting, giving, forgiving, witnessing,  helping,  and even silence are habits that lead us closer to God.  Responding in anger to sleights,  overeating,  drug or alcohol use, timidity, worry, timidity, and fear are also habitual responses. 

In order to experience the means of grace, we must learn to master our habits,  both positive and negative.  For most of us, this the hardest part of our walk with God.  Can we learn to master the habits that master us?  Can we make our habits work for us instead of against us? 

Christ has a kingdom--it is wherever He rules.  We have a kingdom, too—it is wherever we are the masters of our own souls. Before we can surrender what we have to Christ, we must possess what He has given us.  Before we can make our souls His, we first must make them ours. 

Habits are means of maintaining our faith on a daily basis are the way we keep a continual commitment to God. The early church understood that, and established a regular system of rituals which continually kept them in contact with and in submission to God.  The inner disciplines of prayer, study, and worship, keep us close to God throughout the day.  St. James wrote “faith without works is dead.”[4]  Inward faith without outward behavior quickly disappears.

In the next several articles, we will be discussing how to balance two kinds of habits—those that help us maintain stillness and attention before God, and those that lead to act in the world on God’s behalf.  These two groups of habits we are calling Submission and Witness.

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[1] Dallas Willard The Spirit of the Disciplines, (HarperSanFrancisco) 1988, pp.  3-4. 

[2] ^{Ibid, p.  6.} 

[3] Richard Foster The Celebration of Discipline (Harper One, New York) 1978, p.  7.  

[4] James 2:20

How People Change Faiths

Our "faith matrix" is either formed by nurture or conversion. Nurture means we learn it from our parents, our religious culture, childhood rituals, and the stories we learn from childhood. We never question our faith, since it is deeply ingrained in who we are.
The child  is taught the faith of his or her parents, but only when their parents teach it.  Parents teach by word, deed, and example.  Through their influence they  overcome the voices of the world around them. A faith that is consistently taught becomes stronger as we grow older, deepening into a lifelong sustaining faith.
But when the faith does not grow or if it is inconsistent, then will often fail us later on. When this happens, we don't actually “lose” faith, but we change the ultimate concern of our faith to something else.  When our old faith fails, and we find another.  This is  conversion-- the move from one ultimate concern to something else. If we don't have faith in something, we can't function in the world.  Faith isn't an option for us, since we all need faith to survive.

But the move from one faith to another is rarely quick or easy.  It takes time to fully  shift from an old faith to  new ones. People flirt with a new locus of faith, before they adopt it. We may exist for a time, caught between one faith system and another,   But eventually, we commit ourselves to one or the other.  Elijah asked the Israelites “how long will you hop between two branches?” This the limbo between worlds as we seek a new direction.
 The process of change begins with disillusionment. Disillusionment isn't always a bad thing, but the beginning of change as we give up our old illusions. Christians call it conviction of sin.  We grow weary of a dual citizenship in heaven and earth, and admit that what we known, felt or did is wrong, and needs to be changed.  Disillusionment is necessary if we  seek to have a pure and undivided heart.
Disillusionment leads to searching.  We look for new answers.  We read books with different perspectives.  We build new friendships.  We try on new ideas seeking a new ground to stand upon.
Watching a person's progress at this time is like watching a spider moving between two twigs on a tree.  One by one, they let go of their old faith as they find security in the new. They do not simply jump from one faith system to  another, but gradually adopt one as they put away another.
This is the time of our greatest vulnerability. If a crisis hits our life, we may be torn in two,  because we do not stand on solid ground.
Sometimes, people get stuck between two faiths, without fully committing to either.  I think of people who have told me they were Christian Buddhists,  Christian Muslims, and even Christian atheists.    They seem unaware of the inconsistencies between these belief systems. What they fail to recognize that taking a stand for many faiths at the same time means that they make themselves their one true faith.  We alone become the judges of these faiths. We cannot serve two masters,  rather we seek to make these faith systems serve us,  picking and choosing the parts that suit us.  we are seeking to make God bend to us, not we bend to God.  If we are the judges of God, then we are own true god, or ultimate concern.  Our true God is what we serve--He does not serve us. .
True searching leads to confession.  This is when we finally admit to ourselves and others what our true faith is.  We make a choice, and stick with it. 
This happens not immediately but after a long process of small changes.  Like a spider moving first one leg, then another to a new branch,  our lives move one segment at a time from one faith to the next.
There are eight dimensions of our soul that need to line up in order to have a true and solid faith. These are,   (1)what we base our knowledge upon, (2) where we look for emotional fulfillment (3) what we submit ourselves to in self-discipline and habit (4) How we act in the world (5) the source of our self-identity (6) the community to which we perceive ourselves belonging (7) the tradition and heritage we embrace as our spiritual genealogy, and (8)  the source of our future hope.
Every change in any one of these is a move towards our faith or away from it. This move happens in small increments. When a new Christian moves towards Christ, they first move on wobbly legs. They wonder whether it is all real.  Christian fellowship seems forced.  At first, the things they read in the Bible may make no sense.  That is because the new matrix is not yet formed. In time,  the elements of Christian life and behavior become part of us as we live in a new reality. 
When a person leaves the faith,  they move the same way, first dropping Christian fellowship,  dropping out of church,  growing cold to the passions of faith that they once enjoyed. At first, they revel in their newfound freedom,  being free of those old "legalistic" restraints that they felt their faith imposed. They become critics of other Christians and complain about their judgmentalism and hypocrisy without realizing that in doing so they have become hypocritical and judgmental. They insist that the no longer need the "old myths and stories" to worship God, and feel superior to those who believe.  They throw off traditions they never understood,  and begin to see themselves as higher and more sophisticated to simple believer.    They do not realize that they are adopting a new god,  a god of self,  and are in the process of enthroning themselves above the heaven.  It all feels natural and right,  and they dismiss any feeling of discomfort as  just "old hang-ups that need to be exorcised.  Without themselves knowing it, they are slipping from a believing state to an unbelieving state.
It is important that whatever our faith may be, that it lines up together. Whatever we do, we should do it with our whole heart.
We need to look at ourselves--does our walk and our talk match?  Are we building habits based on our central core beliefs, or are we divided.
The pursuit of faith and faith formation is learning to line up our lives with our ultimate concern, which for a Christian means with the image  of Christ.

Where are you in the process of faith formation?  Are you changing, or are your growing deeper and more committed?   What do you perceive as your true and ultimate  concern?