The Worst Day of their Lives

Day 6575 is the worst day of their lives. It is the day the Church in America turns on them.

It's not intentional...the Church doesn't even know it's doing it...but it happens nonetheless.

It is the day where helpless children become villainous adults.

Day 6575...also known as the 18th birthday.

You see, the Church in America has a passion for helping kids in need...kids who experience poverty and all that goes with it. We hurt for the children whose parents don't care. We cry out for the abused, the rejected, the forgotten. As Christians, we develop programs to take them in and show them love.

When they misbehave--say something inappropriate, break something carelessly, disobey our requests...we understand, because after all, THEY'VE NEVER BEEN TAUGHT.

They're just poor children who can't help that they've been born to lazy, undisciplined, barbaric parents (or so the story goes...). Those poor, unfortunate children...

Until Day 6575.

At that point those children, whose vices were previously so understood and justified, become adults and, as such, the object of wrath for the Evangelical Right.

Far too often, I hear "Christians" spew political venom aimed at the adults in poverty who are a "drag on our precious economy." They are attacked for taking health care and taxpayer money all without contributing their fair share. They are accused of having the same opportunities as everyone else, but merely choosing not to take advantage of them...likely because they are selfish, lazy, and (of course) Democrats.

Day 6574: "You poor kids with no one to love and teach you!"

Day 6575: "You lazy adults need to get your act together or suffer the consequences!"

What a difference a day makes.

To all my neighbors about to turn 18... may we never forget who you are.

Let's just call it "X-mas"

I'm preparing myself for the inevitable forthcoming "Christmas vs. X-mas vs. Happy Holidays" debates where Christians at large begin to hyperventilate over the fact that the pagan joystealers of the world are trying to take Christ out of Christmas.

Well, I've got news for you. He's been left behind long before now.

You see, as Christians we take up arms this time of the year with proclamations of "REMEMBER THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!!!" Which inevitably leads to the inclusion of manger scenes in our home decorating, perhaps a lack of the jolly guy in our montage, a Christmas Eve church service, and a not-to-be-forgotten reading of the Christmas story before we engage in our wild frenzy of present opening.

But the problem is that we are just adding a little bit of Jesus to a holiday that we have turned into something that mocks what Jesus stood for. Every year Americans spend $450 Billion dollars on Christmas shopping!!! All this while much of the world remains in poverty, fighting issues such as lack of sustainable food and water--issues that can be greatly impacted with just a fraction of the resources that we spend on Christmas presents.

I understand that the point of giving presents has been to remind ourselves that Jesus was the greatest gift--and we say things like, "It is better to give than receive." But if that's true, that giving is the enjoyable part, then it doesn't really matter who we give to. And if so, shouldn't we give to those that have the most need? Isn't that what Jesus would want us to do? Isn't that what Jesus DID?

For us, in our consumerism, to act in a way that so directly flies in the face of so much of Jesus' life and teachings, and yet complain that people are taking Christ out of Christmas merely by changing the name, or even insinuating that we are "REMEMBERING THE REASON FOR THE SEASON" by merely retelling the story, is laughable...like celebrating MLK day in segregated church services or commemorating Earth Day with a sale on Hummers.

This year, let's either change our habits and traditions to really reflect the priorities of Christ, or let's just go ahead and call it "X-mas".

P.S. Here is a video that my friend Lisa first posted that speaks well to this issue:

On Facebook and Prayer

(a follow-up to my lesson from Sunday 11/1/09)

I've always struggled with prayer, not in a for or against type way, but in a "this-is-extremely-awkward-slash-boring-slash-I'm-gonna-go-crazy" type way.

But lately, I've been experiencing some refreshment in this area, largely thanks to Facebook.

Facebook - the spiritual development tool (sort of)

I remember the first time I opened Facebook after signing up...there was that intimidating box at the top asking, "What's on your mind" I sat, cracked my knuckles and began to type..."Ryan is..." Nothing. I had nothing! So I sat and thought. 5 minutes...10 minutes...What was on my mind, anyway?!

I think I probably came up with something lame like, "Ryan is wanting Taco Bell for dinner," but it was the beginning of something for me--actually figuring out what was on my mind and heart and expressing it.

You see I'm a guy, and I have trouble stepping back and even considering what might be going on inside of me, whether I'm being asked by the Facebook box, or by my wife. The truth is, for most of my life, I just didn't know what was on my mind until after it (often accidentally) came shooting out of my mouth.

But now, a year or two into this Facebook thing, I can more readily come up with status updates..."Ryan is pumped about the Fire game this weekend!", "Ryan is frustrated with my girls always being sick", "Ryan thinks he's too selfish most of the time"...

Granted, their mostly still simplistic and shallow, but I'm much more aware of who I am and what's on my mind.

And you know what, I enjoy sharing that with others. I love posting a status, or a note, or a comment and seeing that little red flag go up in the bottom corner notifying me that someone I care about has interacted with me. It's great knowing that I am going through life with friends--not alone.

Prayer is the next logical step. I used to think it only a religious ceremony between a myself and a distant God. What I have come to find out is that God was not the one that was distant, I was.

Now, my prayer is much more interactive with God, bite sized chunks...status updates, if you will. I almost pretend I that as I share what's on my mind with others, that I'm tagging God as well...waiting for his comment.

So, yeah, Facebook has refreshed my prayer life. Who knew?!

The Village of (disappearing) Evil

The problem of evil is one of the most difficult issues to wrestle with for any religion that claims a single, all-powerful, all-good God.  The issue can be summed up in one question, “If God is all good and all powerful, how can evil exist in our world (wouldn’t he have to do something about it?!)?”

Lately, though I have heard a (slightly) different question.  Some people believe that certain amounts of evil are necessary in our world, so that we have the ability to choose (and the freedom to choose beats the heck out of being robots).  Many that believe this still feel this way—

“I understand that some evil needs to exist, but why doesn’t God at least step in a little bit more on the REALLY BAD things like (child murders, genocide, etc.)?” aka “Why doesn’t God draw a line somewhere?”

My weird path to thought...

I love M Night Shyamalan movies…at least before he fell in love with himself and started making flat out weird stuff.  I loved the old-school Shyamalan, trick ending stuff…particularly The Village.  If you haven’t seen it, don’t, because I’m about to ruin it for you.

The whole movie is about a Pioneer-style community that some people made together in the wilderness somewhere, apart from the modern world around them.  The kids that were raised there knew nothing of the outside world with all of its problems.  All they knew was the world they were presented with, and its problems.

My thought is this…

As  we look at the world around us, we see extreme forms of evil and cry out for God to at least draw a line somewhere—to stop the worst kinds of evil from existing.  But what would that look like –for God to really step in and stop extreme evil in our world?

Well, first of all, after eliminating the ability to act in those evil ways (such as genocide)  he would have to completely remove our ability to imagine those types of evil.  After all, it would be a strange feeling to be able to contemplate evil, but never really be able to act on it (for reasons we would never know).  It would be like this big invisible wall that we couldn’t cross, but could see the other side.  No, for God to draw a line somewhere, he would have to completely remove our ability to imagine it.

What a great world that would be--where things like genocide and child torture not only don’t happen, but can’t even be imagined!!

But would it be that great?  After all, if we couldn’t imagine those things existing, we wouldn’t know we were freed from them!  Something else would be at the helm of the “worst evil” we could imagine and we would be begging God to “draw a line” against such blatant evil.

So my question is…

How do we know that we aren’t living in a world like The Village, uncertain of another reality we can’t even imagine?

How do we know that God (in his love) hasn't already drawn lines to protect our world from worse evils than we could ever evin imagine?  If he had, we wouldn't even know it...we would be sheltered from it.

My (temporary) Conclusion...

The problem of evil still stands as a difficult one that I will probably wrestle with until I die…only my faith allows me to continue without my questions in this area answered—Why does evil exist at all in the presence of a loving, all-powerful God?

However, what we cannot do is ask God to draw lines, eliminating the worst evils while still giving us the freedom to make choices…after all, how can we be so sure that He hasn’t already done this?  

Homosexuality and the Amish

Now that I have your attention, let me set the stage.

I have been thinking through and wrestling quite a bit with the issue of homosexuality lately (as it pertains to following Christ), mostly because this is an issue that people I care about are dealing with. Lately I have come to some conclusions that have surprised myself. But first let me give you some background.

1) I have and still do believe that the Bible (including the NT) speaks against practicing homosexuality (in contrast to just experiencing homosexual attractions).

2) I believed (and still do) John 14:15 – “If you love me, obey my commandments”…concluding that anyone who intentionally and consistently lives in a planned state of rebellion to Christ’s commands cannot be someone who also loves Christ. As such, living in an intentional state of sin, likely entails eternity separated from the God rebelled against.

3) My PAST CONCLUSION was: Anyone who intentionally lives a practicing homosexual lifestyle (intentionally) cannot love God.

ON THIS POINT I NOW WAIVER. Here’s how I got there:

I have heard the stories of people living practicing homosexual lifestyles who are genuinely non-rebellious people toward God and, instead, quite humble. They feel comfortable in their practice as they have authentically sought out scripture and honestly interpret the NT passages as cultural—not out of their rebellion, but in their honest pursuit of truth. I disagree with their interpretation, but it got me thinking.

My past position (#3) would leave me believing that someone who did not know they were living in a state of disobedience toward God in a certain area would certainly be judged to be the same as those intentionally "living in sin". Let’s hope that’s not the case.

You see, MY practice of my faith is shaped by MY interpretations of the Bible, including which commands were culture-specific and which were universal. I don’t believe I need to wear head coverings when I pray, nor does my wife need to grow her hair really long. My wife wears makeup, and women speak out loud in our church. All of these practices were commanded or forbidden in the New Testament, and yet I practice them anyway.

What if I’m wrong? What if God REALLY DOES want all of us to wear head coverings when we pray? And women to keep their mouths shut at church? I don’t believe so, but what if I’m wrong? If I’m wrong, then I am WILLINGLY AND INTENTIONALLY living in disobedience to God’s commands. In fact, I may have had an orthodox or jewish or Mennonite friend warn me that those passages weren’t culture-specific, and I may have ignored them.

AM I RISKING ETERNAL SEPARATION FROM GOD? I hope not.

My point is this: If we draw lines that say that anyone who continues to live in contrast to God’s commands (whether they are truly aware or not) are automatically in rebellion, we have a lot to be worried about. If this is the position we take, WE BEST ALL BECOME AMISH. You cannot be too safe!

Or imagine a contrast, where God doesn’t just look at the Black and White world of actions, but truly looks at the heart. Who is being rebellious and who is just a little confused? Can He do that? Do you believe he can?

This verse certainly shows us that God looks at the heart more than the actions:

Matthew 9:13

¹³Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

Beyond God’s ability to look at heart over actions is our ability to interpret correctly. I think James simplifies our responsibility in that well…the problem comes when we are aware of our sin and rebellious in it:

James 4:17

¹⁷Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.

So yes, I believe that practicing homosexuality is against the desires of God. But I will NO LONGER make JUDGMENTS about one’s ETERNAL CONDITION based on actions, but leave it to God to judge the heart.

Can a practicing homosexual enter the Kingdom of Heaven? I would guess that they can (unless they are suppressing personal conviction from the Holy Spirit in doing so). You may disagree with me, and that’s alright with me.

But if you believe there’s NO chance, you’d better be picking out your favorite suspenders and buggy rims now, just to be on the safe side.

Reversing the Reformation

I grew up in the world of Evangelical Christianity…and were we ever glad that we weren’t Catholic! Don’t get me wrong, there wasn’t personal hatred toward Catholics, just complete disdain for the Catholic Church—it was stuffy, ritualistic, arrogant, and missed the point on much theology.

So call me confused when I graduated Bethel College and began seeing many young adults leave the world of Evangelical Christianity and align themselves more with the Catholic Church. How could this be? This is the church of excommunication, Papal authority, and *gasp* a view of salvation that includes the necessity to live it out. What did they see?

Over time, I have begun to understand…

You see, while we were over in our corner, hating on the Catholic church, they kept plugging away. We fought to enlighten people to the pitfalls of Catholicism, they kept serving the poor. We kept begging that people get theologically correct, they kept being the church.

As a result, the Evangelical Church, overtime, became known as an argumentative, divisive, political entity, while the Catholic church once again became just the Catholic Church—and that was greatly appealing.

You see, while we were drawing walls, the Catholic church began asserting the position in the Catechism that we all are brothers in the faith:

817 In fact, "in this one and only Church of God from its very beginnings there arose certain rifts, which the Apostle strongly censures as damnable. But in subsequent centuries much more serious dissensions appeared and large communities became separated from full communion with the Catholic Church - for which, often enough, men of both sides were to blame." The ruptures that wound the unity of Christ's Body - here we must distinguish heresy, apostasy, and schism - do not occur without human sin:

Where there are sins, there are also divisions, schisms, heresies, and disputes. Where there is virtue, however, there also are harmony and unity, from which arise the one heart and one soul of all believers.

818 "However, one cannot charge with the sin of the separation those who at present are born into these communities [that resulted from such separation] and in them are brought up in the faith of Christ, and the Catholic Church accepts them with respect and affection as brothers . . . . All who have been justified by faith in Baptism are incorporated into Christ; they therefore have a right to be called Christians, and with good reason are accepted as brothers in the Lord by the children of the Catholic Church."

…and people find that kind of unity appealing. For all of the faults that I grew up thinking the Catholic Church had, perhaps our rejection of them was equally harmful. In fact perhaps even more in that it distracted us from the mission we were called to.

So let me confess now that I repent. I still don’t agree on many theological issues, but I find myself experiencing a reversal of the separation that originated in the reformation. Let’s drop denominational walls and adopt the spirit of brotherhood the Catholic Church has put forth. Let’s reunite as the Church and see what God can do through a Church that is truly catholic. May our communities never be the same!

Take Me To Your Leader

Who leads?  The person with their name on the sign?  The person with the POSITION of responsibility? 

This is the question I have been pondering lately with regards to the Church.  Who is leading the Church, specifically the Evangelical Church? Is it the guy that runs the Evangelical Association, the Haggard replacer?  Is it famous pastors like Hybels, Warren, Rob Bell?

To find the leader(s), I think we need to look at who is most responsible for any changes in direction or communication.  Who is most influential on what we say?  Who is most influential on what we do?

My first conclusion I came to for who is leading Evangelical America is Rush Limbaugh.  After all, more Evangelical Christians I talk to spend more time listening to and quoting Rush than anyone else.  He clearly has developed a following and clearly shapes both the action and talking points of Evangelical Christians—which is ironic, because I don’t think he would even label himself as an Evangelical Christian.

But then I began to realize that Evangelical Christianity is being led even more powerfully by someone(something) that even Rush is being led by.  The almighty dollar?  Perhaps that too, but something different.

The Missionary Church, of which I am licensed by is in the process of developing a document that they will (pending vote) have all pastors sign annually.  In this document, they have collected their core theological affirmation, and sprinkled in a couple of hot topic items as well.  In one section, labeled “The GOSPEL alone addresses our deepest human need”, the document addresses the fall of man and the need for redemption…along with our other deepest human needs of resisting abortion and our need for heterosexuality.

Now don’t get me wrong, I agree with both of those points, theologically, but it seems very strange that in a document of timeless theological statements we are seeking to sprinkle in two hot-topic issues of our day.  Isn’t all sin problematic?  How do we pick which sins to single out? 

The answer is (obviously) because these two issues are parts of the “Liberal agenda” of our day. 

Which brings me to my point.  We, as Evangelical Christians, have been reduced to a reactionary state against whatever the liberal agenda puts forth.  We wait, see what they bring up that we disagree with, and then we fight it. 

Therefore, THE TRUE LEADERS OF EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS, the ones who determine what we communicate and what we do, ARE NOT EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS AT ALL, BUT THOSE “WE OPPOSE”.

Here’s the problem with that…my sister, Erin is a Public Relations professional.  She teaches her clients to develop a message and communicate that message clearly regardless of what the interviewers may ask, or what distractions are taking place around you.  You cannot let someone else hijack your vision and communication.  STAY ON COURSE! 

The consequence of getting off topic, ever so slightly?  You may lose your identity and people will get confused as to who you truly are and what you stand for.

That is my fear for Christians today.  We have lost sight of our ability to present a message of the Gospel of Grace, and instead become led into discussions of whatever comes along.  PEOPLE NO LONGER KNOW WHAT WE ARE ABOUT, JUST WHAT WE ARE AGAINST.

In our (often benevolent) attempts to fight these moral battles, we have lost sight of our true Leader, our True Commission, and crippled our ability to accurately represent the love of Christ in our world.

Let’s pick a new leader!  Perhaps even the one in our name.