Expectations, Agenda, and Just Being A Christian

Chaplain Mike over at Internet Monk digs through the archives to find what he's been wanting to say.  His post is about agenda identification, and how he comes to the conclusion that it's OK to just be a Christian.

In my circles, very rarely did I hear the full-blown “God told me to do this” account that was more prevalent in charismatic or pentecostal churches. Still, that was the impression, even in our more theologically conservative groups. Whether it was defining a preaching series, implementing an element of worship that the pastor thought the church should practice, organizing an outreach program, expanding staff, building new facilities, using a certain method of teaching or training in the educational program or youth group, or designing the way the church should be overseen by its leaders, these ministers had a way of making it sound like these were directives from God himself. And the corollary to that, of course, was – if you are a truly dedicated, committed Christian, you will participate. 

Over and over again, I watched as the pastor’s agenda became the church’s agenda, because the pastor was able to persuade people that it was God’s agenda.

As some of the readers of this blog know, I am a fan of the San Francisco Giants baseball team.  Their colors are orange and black.  A promotion the team has put forth over the last several years in known as "Orange Friday."  Each Friday home game, the Giants wear orange jerseys and the fans are encouraged to wear orange articles of clothing or accessories.  Bright orange Afros, painted faces, you name it. 

While a good number of fans take part in this, many, like me, are content to dress just the way I would at any other game.  And even though I'm not much of a fan of these type of fads, I am content with thousands of other fans wearing orange.  Even though it is an official promotion, my lack of participation doesn't provoke others to wonder why I'm not participating in the way they are.  I've never been asked why, nor have I felt the expectation to wear orange.

Can the same be said of how our churches view our participation?  What if I use some other book on child rearing?  Or maybe none at all?  What if I never listen to sermons of the pastor's favorite preacher?  What if I want to have my kids with me in the service as opposed to in Sunday school?  What if I prefer to invite other people over to my house for lunch instead of signing up for the church program that places people on a list to come over to my house for lunch?  Is it OK to just be a Christian?  I hope so.

Faith That Transcends Efficiency

So you're moving into a new place.  You're also a good cook.  You don't have the finances to hire professional movers, so you do what many others do: you get a dozen or so friends and maybe a U-Haul or bunch of pickup trucks and have a moving party.  Once all the boxes and furniture are moved into your new place, you do what is culturally acceptable: you feed your help.  So you prepare a nice home-cooked meal in your new kitchen.  Right?
Of course not.  All your kitchen stuff is still in boxes, yet to be unpacked.  Your kitchen efficiency is zero.  So you order pizza!

It is only after all the boxes are unpacked and things put away that any efficiency begins to take shape.  Then you need to get used to your new place, where to store supplies, etc.  So it is with the rest of life.  The first and last days of work at a job are the least efficient.  You're an important player that will make or break the company to the tune of millions, but your first day is a tour by an HR rep showing you where the paper clips and post-it notes are.  Infants are notoriously inefficient on a family and don't start contributing until well later in life.  A new software program contains an untold number of bugs until they are fished out by its users.  A new pair of shoes hurts your feet until broken in.  You get the picture I'm trying to paint here.

Our religion demands efficiency from us.  Training our children, redeeming the time, practicing righteousness.  Maturity vs. being tossed to and fro like children.  But the world has been changing.  People are having large portions of their lives torn down to be rebuilt from scratch.  Many areas of their lives simultaneously.  Major inefficiency is the result.  For now.  For these people, will there be a faith that transcends all the inefficiency?  Will their lives result in a glorious rebuilding with a new efficiency, or will they result in failure?  Time will tell, but I'm willing to wager that both will happen in large numbers.

What Would Jesus Drive?

Occasionally I hear or read the question, "What would Jesus drive?" as if there were a certain type of car he would drive if he were living in our society today.  I think the answer is fairly simple.  Jesus said, "Lo, I will be with you, even to the end of the age."  He also said he would send us his spirit.  He also said that those who did/didn't do things to the least of his were doing it to him.  He told Saul of Tarsus that he was persecuting him.

So with all this, and the freedom we have in Christ, plus using wisdom in how we live, wouldn't it stand to reason that Jesus would drive whatever any of his followers would drive?  Except for an SUV, that is.

If Iron Sharpens Iron, Then Why Is The Reformed Drawer So Full Of Dull, Rusty Knives?

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Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17

A good surgeon will use only the sharpest of knives. Why? It's because the sharper the knife, the cleaner the cut it makes. And the cleaner the cut, the closer the two sides match each other. The closer the two sides match each other, the easier it is for them to come together again in the healing process. Dull knives and chain saws make for hack jobs; the ripping up of flesh so that the two sides don't match each other. Healing is made much more difficult if not impossible. The word of God is spoken of as sharper than any two edged sword.

The irony of many Christians who hold to "doctrinal purity," and require the strictest adherence to doctrinal minutiae for fellowship, church membership, ministry leadership or pastoral candidacy is that they don't seem to understand how iron sharpens iron. I can't tell you how many times I've heard Ephesians 4:3, "being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace", interpreted as, "you must agree with every doctrinal position of the elders/church/by-laws, etc." Disagreement in any form can be shunned.

But iron sharpens iron precisely because each piece is rough. They grate against each other and the friction caused by the imperfections is what eliminates the imperfections, resulting in a sharp knife or sword. When surgery is needed, success results. When roughness in beliefs is disallowed, and everybody in a particular group is required to believe the same exact thing, no sharpening can occur. The result is, ironically, the exact thing that is not allowed. What the doctrinal purists who distance themselves from others who disagree are in effect saying, is, "I will not be sharpened by another piece of iron." And so they exist as drawers full of dull, rusty knives. When surgery is needed, a hack job results, and the one in need of surgery is not healed, but rather wounded even more.

Re-posted from 09-19-06

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I'm part Irish, I'm wearing green, my favorite beer is Guinness Stout and I am a Christian. With St. Patrick using the shamrock, according to tradition, to explain the Trinity to the king of Ireland, all these things go together for a good holiday to celebrate. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Building Trust By Trusting

John Armstrong posts at his blog about a business strategy based on trust, as written about by CEO Dov Seidman. Simply put, you build trust by extending it to others. Several examples from the business world are given, and Armstrong concludes that Christians should be doing the same thing in the church.

I've been involved in numerous jobs and church ministries where things were run in a top-down fashion by a micro manager of affairs. Trust in such a situation is the hardest thing to gain, and even doing the right thing can be an item of rebuke if it lands outside the leader's guidelines. Allowing people to make something better by using their own gifts and talents (these don't need to be known by us initially) can be the most rewarding thing for all parties involved. Jesus sent his disciples out on their own and the results were astonishing. He even left us here to accomplish his will. Shouldn't we at least trust each other the way he trusts us?

Doing What You Desire In The Lord

I was reading a very short post on Pulpit Magazine by John MacArthur about the decision making process of the Christian. He boils it down to three factors. First, if it is prohibited by Scripture, don't do it. Second, you need wisdom. Third, consider your own desires.

In short, if it's okay to do, then do it if you desire. I agree with this, and don't think I hear it enough from conservative leaders that doing what you want, if it's not wrong, is what God uses to advance his kingdom. But in real life there's a catch...

What is prohibited by Scripture or dictated against by wisdom is a great debate within Christianity. Coming to your own conclusions may irk quite a few people and gain their judgment against you. Laundry lists of sins not actually prohibited by the bible make an impact upon people that can be very negative, and liberty is lost.

I've never heard a legalist describe himself as such, have you?

Remember The Joy? What Happened to the Spark?

I've heard numerous times from people, and often from sermons, "Remember the joy you experienced upon your conversion to Christ? Remember how you could hardly contain yourself, and you had to go out and tell everybody you knew about your new faith? Remember how you witnessed the gospel to everybody? How you couldn't stop praising God? How you couldn't stop reading your bible? What happened since then? What happened to that spark? You need to have that spark renewed in your life."

It is amazing how many people take this view of converting to Christ. To them, it's as if this is the only way it does ever happen. But for me, it didn't happen anything like this at all. Far from it. My conversion was one of much confusion. Fear. I heard the gospel, yes, and realized the need to repent from my sins, but I saw God as a figure of terror, not so much as a loving Father. I was terrified to tell others about my experience. My first group of religious leaders were legalists and they really twisted the meaning of Christianity. I heard about Christianity for years, then my conversion didn't happen in a single moment, but somewhere within a period of eight or nine months.

One troublesome thing for me is in just how often people have a narrow idea of what Christianity, and all of its smaller pieces, looks like for other people. I think next time I hear something like this, I'll try to inform the one who is speaking that life isn't like his/her expectations.

Can A Christian Be A Bartender?

Most Christians I know believe that Christians are allowed by the bible to drink alcohol. But can a Christian be a bartender? Own a brewery? A winery? A distillery? Some people who think a Christian can drink tend to shy away from believing these other things. Why?

It's quite okay to go to a bar, order a beer, sit and drink it, play the juke box, but to pour the stuff is questionable. Some might object out of fear that such a person would only be helping people with their vices. But with Christians supposedly holding to higher standards of morality, I would think that these people would rather have Christians in those positions than non-Christians. They would have a larger influence against drunkenness and vice, according to their own theology. Why not be salt and light from behind the bar as opposed to just in the lounge?

Seasons of Life

"There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven..." Ecclesiastes 3:1

My family is going through what I'll call a distinct season of life. We have added three children to our household in the last four years or so. We are so busy with family stuff that other areas of life like church are placed in a different category of importance. We have trouble making all the church meetings and functions like we used to. Most of the mid-week bible studies we can attend aren't able to accommodate our children, and we can't afford baby sitters to do this. We're mostly home bodies these last few years. We don't hang out with the same people anymore and if we do, it isn't at the same places.

Most other families we talk to share the same experience. It's a phase - or season - of life. As a Christian, I did completely different things before I was married. Then after marriage, we did different things yet. Then after having children, different things yet. Others tell us that it will change yet again after our children grow older.

It is difficult for me to get this, but I know I shouldn't judge my spirituality - or "walk" - by my past experiences. Seasons change every few months, and they do in life as well.

Halloween and Christian Conscience

The annual debate in Christianity over Halloween is here again. There are scores of articles on the internet claiming that Halloween is a holiday with pagan roots, devil worship and the like, and should be avoided by Christians at all costs. All kinds of historical data is presented. There are also articles claiming that Halloween has always been a distinctly Christian holiday in which Christians should participate. All kinds of historical data is presented. Regardless, the whole debate is complex.

But this probably goes to show that there is no clear cut answer to whether a Christian should participate. Is a child putting on a mask and asking for candy a distinct act of devil worship? One article I read a few years ago traced the wearing of costumes back to the biblical idea that the devil and his angels were defeated at the cross. A little kid with a sheet over his head and saying, "boo", isn't going to scare anybody. Which is exactly the point. The principalities and powers were disarmed. They no longer have any power, and masquerading as a defeated demon can show Christ's triumph.

I now tend to look at Halloween from this last view. I was taught, from the first Christian circles I was in, that all of Halloween was necessarily evil. I was frightened by the idea of little children ringing my doorbell. So I hid in darkness and acted like nobody was home. My next Christian group was also frightened by Halloween, and they created an alternate activity safely within the four walls of the church. But I now see each of these as the opposite of freedom.

If somebody wants to refrain from Halloween as a matter of conscience, they can do so. But to place the limits of their own consciences on others and make a claim of sin is an attempt to stifle the very liberty of others for whom Christ died.

Growing In Faith - Figurative and Literal

Read this very good short piece from Society VS. Rarely have I seen our faith explained in such a realistic way. Our faith is a very concrete thing.

Sixteen Biblical Ways To Acquire A Wife

Variations of this list are posted all over the internet, and for various reasons. Some are from atheists mocking the bible, some are for fun, while others are for making a point against the tyranny of imposing your personal beliefs upon others based on your own understanding of "what is biblical." It should be pointed out that none of these ways to get a wife are explicitly deemed by the bible to be "unbiblical." The list I chose has fifteen ways, and you can view it here.

And the sixteenth way? Mine. I'll post it at a later date.

Taking Things for Granted

Quite often Christians are warned against taking things for granted, as if such a thing were a sin or at least a problem. But what about taking things for granted that have been granted to us? Occasionally, I hear warnings against taking our salvation for granted. But God has granted it to me. So, if I take it for granted, is it a problem or a sin? What, is God going to take it back from me? If I take it for granted, then I know that I don't have to toil in perfectionism in order to keep it, and this is good.

So, we should only refuse to take things for granted that haven't to our knowledge been granted to us.

Biblical Anarchy

Go to the ant, O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise, which, having no chief, officer or ruler, prepares her food in the summer, and gathers her provision in the harvest. Proverbs 6:6-8

Four things are small on the earth, but they are exceedingly wise:...The locusts have no king, yet all of them go out in ranks. Proverbs 30:24, 27

The Chapter Division Heresy and Colossians 3

"Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth." - Colossians 3:1-2 (NASB)

I've heard it numerous times during preaching or teaching that chapter and verse divisions in the Bible were not in the original text, but put there by men as a way to help us in various ways, such as an address system for easy reference, or for dividing long passages into ideas. These artificial divisions could be a problem and we should look out for taking things out of context as a result of using these divisions. I can't think of a chapter division changing the meaning of the text more than Colossians 3.

"If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, 'Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!' (which all refer to things destined to perish with use) - in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence." - Colossians 2:20-23 (NASB)

Colossians 3 taken out of the context of the end of chapter 2 is used by many people to say the exact opposite of the meaning of the text. The hyper-spiritual among us will see other Christians engaging in certain activities, eating or drinking certain things, and mis-apply chapter 3. "Hey, if you're a Christian, why are you watching sports? Or why are you eating at a nice restaurant or drinking alcoholic beverages? Why are you so involved in growing things in your garden or raising animals? You should be setting your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. So we shouldn't be involved with these things."

But to the one who partakes of something - and gives thanks - is setting his mind on things above. Christ is Lord of all things, and that's where the thanksgiving is directed. The hyper-spiritual Christian, on the other hand, is very consumed with the activities that his brother is involved in - sports, leisure, alcohol, physical things - the things of the earth. His hyper-spirituality leads him to conclude that Christians shouldn't handle, taste or touch these "earthly" things, which is the very conclusion that chapter 2 forbids! So he plods along in life, convinced of his spiritual superiority, but only maintains an appearance of wisdom in his self-made religion and misjudges where others' minds are set.

Fools For Jesus

Mrs. Scott and I were watching a reality TV show where the one "voted off the show" was a Christian. She was shown reading her bible when others thought she should have been doing something productive, disobeying superiors out of conscience and like things. In the post-termination interview, she claimed hopefulness in drawing other players closer to God because she was there. I don't want to judge her faith or motives because in such a highly (over)produced reality TV show, much of the truth is probably lying on the editing room floor. But she was made to look like what I perceive as the stereotypical evangelical. And this stereotype is self-made within evangelicalism.

Much of the evangelical mindset is not so much in you being a Christian as it is in letting others know that you are a Christian. Via external, superficial, visible things. Even if it means acting like a fool to do so. I pointed this out to my wife, and she replied that her best friend, who is a staunch unbeliever, has this very thing as her number one complaint about Christianity. We seem to talk the talk, but can't walk the walk. I've heard this also from some of my non-Christian friends. They point to blatant dishonesty in Christian's motives. Things like bait-and-switch. Christians inviting them over to dinner or to their church choir's Christmas performance, only to find out it was a sleazy sales pitch style crusade aimed at evangelizing the heathen that just walked in the door - them. Or the recent flaps about Southern Baptist conventions where attendees fail to tip waitresses at nearby restaurants, or use billfold gospel tracts with a phony $20 bill printed on the front. You know, "the gospel is more valuable to your eternity than my tip is to feeding your kids."

A few years ago we attended a bible study full of otherwise strong, mature, intelligent Christians. One evening, the topic broke out about "witnessing" at work. It went around the room, and everybody chimed in about their witnessing. I was shocked (but not really surprised, because that's how I learned Christianity too) at some of the methods. Some people created passwords for accounts that were bible verse addresses, to witness to the computer geeks or managers or other workers who had access to those accounts, because they were forced to type the password! Login: AcmeCorp. Password: john316. Whoa! What a witness for Christ! Some wore jewelry shaped like a cross. Some pasted bible verses on their monitors, just so everybody would know. One guy, who worked on a construction site, boasted that his ministry was to crank the Christian radio station at full blast so everybody could hear the gospel every day all day long. "We got two lesbians who live next door, and I make sure they can hear Pastor Joe at 10am!"

When the apostle Paul said we are "fools for Christ", he meant that our living life with the hope of the resurrection to eternal life would seem foolish to the world. He didn't mean that we should act like fools.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I'm part Irish, I'm wearing green, my favorite beer is Guinness Stout and I am a Christian. With St. Patrick using the shamrock, according to tradition, to explain the Trinity to the king of Ireland, all these things go together for a good holiday to celebrate. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Christian Conferences and Retreats

I was inspired to write this by Bruce's link to Dan Edelen at Cerulean Sanctum. I have much experience with Christian conferences and retreats. I'll focus on retreats. Our church has many retreats during the year. The family retreat, men's retreat, women's retreat, leadership retreat, college retreat, youth group retreat, etc. When I was single, these retreats were automatic to me. Now that I have a family, not so. We decided this year to not go to any of the retreats. Finances and a baby on the way were the main villains. Yet I still received a number of reactions bordering on shock.

For me, retreats have always been a "hope" for some kind of spiritual experience. That's because it's promised. What I get instead is sharing a "cabin" with ten snoring elephants. There are always some slobs who I need to share a toilet with while somebody else is in the shower using the last of the hot water. I have stage fright, so my body shuts down and I get constipated for the entire time. Motel 6 is roughing it for me, and I need porcelain and four sound-proof walls. The food is always tragic, and it sits in my gut for days. The food doesn't say much for Christians loving one another. I can't sleep. I'm up all night in a funk. All I can think about is when the next time I'll take a regular crap. There's always six two-hour teaching sessions from some pastor or seminarian from somewhere. Not much time for relaxing and enjoying time with others. It takes all week back at work to recover. So how far do we have to push personal sacrifice again?

Slavery and Your Credit Rating

"The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower becomes the lender's slave." Proverbs 22:7

Here we see the wisdom of Solomon. The borrower becomes a slave to the lender. In today's economy, one's credit rating (a.k.a. credit score) is simply one's slave rating. Your credit score doesn't tell how much of a slave you are, you're already a slave. It simply tells how good a slave you are. Pay back all your borrowing on time, with lots of borrowing!, and your score will be high. Others will look at you. The higher the score, the more likely you are to be a good slave to them. They like slavery.