Epic

The Mission to Ten Towns

Mark chapter five chronicles a mission trip to a region called The Decapolis, which means "Ten Towns."  Twelve men piled into a boat with Jesus and made a difficult journey across the stormy Sea of Galilee.

Upon arriving ashore, their greeting party was a demon-possessed man who lived among the tombs and regularly terrified the locals.  With great compassion, Jesus demanded that the demons leave him and enter into a herd of swine which then threw themselves into the sea.  After the herdsmen ran to report what had happened, many of the locals came and pleaded with Jesus to go away and leave them alone.

Honoring their request, the missionaries boarded the boat and began to depart.  The man now freed from his torment begged Jesus to let him enter the clergy by joining them in the boat.  Instead Jesus lovingly commissioned him with an equally important task by saying, "Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how he had mercy on you."  The man embraced his mission, went away, and began proclaiming throughout the Decapolis the story of God's great love for him, and everyone marveled!

Jesus later returned to the Decapolis.  This time, instead of being asked to leave, Mark seven tells us that a great multitude came to him to be healed.  The crowd was utterly astonished, saying, "Everything he does is wonderful.  He even heals those who are deaf and mute."  Many believe that this spiritual awakening began earlier with the simple yet powerful testimony of a man fully alive who once knew nothing but demonic oppression.

This story is a celebration of God's invitation to join Him in His love for the world.  It's a celebration of those who, like the men in the boat, respond and give their lives to the call of vocational ministry.  And it's a celebration of those who bring spiritual awakening to their neighborhoods and cities by proclaiming through the natural rhythm of their daily lives, "What great things Jesus has done!"

When They Don't Believe Right

Every so often I stumble into a conversation on the pastors forum at Pastors.com that leaves me shaking my head in both frustration and disbelief.  Let me tell you about the most recent example. 

Yesterday I visited a thread in which the person initiating the conversation asked, "How are you dealing with the influence that large numbers of people who join themselves to your congregation who love the church environment but resist basic beliefs like the exclusivity of Christ and the coming judgment of God?"

Good question!  After all, if a church is truly being what Christ intended it to be (a beacon of light to help lost people find their way to God) then that church will consistently have people among them who believe wrong things and do not believe right things.

Here is how one fellow pastor responded to his question:  "Make it clear from the pulpit, in membership classes, and in other forms of communications (blogs, church communications, small groups, etc.) And make it clear that if you disagree, then this church is not for you. I know - sounds harsh. But you got to protect your church family and keep everyone on the same page."

I don't know this person.  For all I know he may be a fantastic pastor leading a faith community that makes God smile.  I'll take some time to read his blog soon.  However, when I hear a pastor make this kind of statement, I immediately form these conclusions in my mind about his church:  Everyone attending the church is a "doctrinally correct" person who doesn't rock the boat or ask any uncomfortable questions.  And there must not be any lost people coming to church or participating in the life of the church because they are not really welcome to engage in the faith community until they begin towing the doctrinal line.  I read those responses and picture in my mind a small clan of people isolating themselves from the "dangerous" world outside, hermetically sealed for their protection.

I couldn't resisit posting my thoughts in the thread.  Here is what I said: 

Faith is a journey.  It would be nice if getting people to believe the right things were as easy as teaching Jujitsu to Neo.  You know, you plug a cable into their head and do an instantaneous download.  But that's just not the case.  Salvation and spiritual maturity is a process, not an event followed up with a weekend doctrinal intensive.  I guess the question is, are we willing to walk with folks in the right direction even though they may not yet believe right?  And if so, for how long?

Should we ever just tell them to go away until they start believing the right things? I don't think so...not as long as they're willing to continue walking with us...in the right direction. The comment was made about "protecting the church" but my question is how do you balance "protecting the saved" with "loving the lost?" Seems I remember Jesus talking about the good shepherd leaving the 99 unprotected for the sake of saving the 1 that was lost. To set our focus on "protecting the church" from the wrong beliefs of the lost means that we'll never allow lost people to come and do life with us so we can lead them to the truth.

I believe that some of the sentiments expressed on the forum clearly demonstrate why the church in America is diminishing.  We've set up a system in which we say to the world, "Jesus will save you from hell.  We can tell you how "be saved."  Come to our church faithfully every week, believe what we tell you to believe, do what we tell you to do, don't ask too many questions...epecially ones that may cause us to examine what we believe, and give us large donations when you're here.

I'm thankful that the church where I'm presently on staff is one where people, regardless of where they are in their spiritual journey, are welcome to come and do life with us and hear the truth in a clear and loving way. How else can people wandering in the darkness of deception find their way to the liberating truth of the Kingdom? 

Church Growth Hormone

It's Friday at the office, the Friday of the week between Christmas and New Years.  This has been the week that the few of us who are here have been really wishing we weren't.  I have taken some of this time to catch up on reading some of the blogs I have linked here on mine.  A few minutes ago I ran across an interesting post that I though I'd share with you here.

It is a post called Church Growth Hormone Addict in which the poster is summarizing an article written by Ray Baumann.  Ray seems to be waltzing along with some of the themes I touched on in my last post.  I'll share an excerpt with you here, but it's worth following the link to read the whole thing.

I used to be a Church Growth Hormone addict. For my first eight years in the ministry, I was on a daily diet of books and videos centered around the latest church fads and trends that focused on church growth. I was on the cutting edge of ministry thinking, learning more and more about marketing and the psychology of connecting people. I believed that numbers equaled success...

For pastors, it's the number of people that are sitting in the seats that seems to be the measure of success. This is something, however misguided it may be, that we all strive to obtain. Now, more than ever before, there are numerous books that place emphasis on the subject of church growth and there seems to be a greater desire to be a mega church. This desire then facilitates the thought pattern of, "If I grow the church, I'm doing more for God than the next guy."

Just like the professional athlete on steroids, pastors have been caught taking Church Growth Hormones for growth's sake. Many have seen the fast, "successful" results and have signed on, thus endorsing this dangerous pill. They have improved their performances on Sundays and Wednesdays to attract people. The Church Growth Hormone contains some very ugly ingredients. Let's take a look.

You can read the rest of the article here.

Incarnational Living

Lynn and I just returned from a long weekend in Illinois during which we gathered with families, ate great food, and exchanged gifts with all of these things being expressions of our celebration of the incarnation of God in human flesh. 

During this time away from work and the harried activity of relocating to Columbus I had several moments to think about the days ahead.  I mentioned in my last post that I will be stepping back into a leadership role I held at our church here before our time in Illinois.  What will that look like this time?

When I first stepped into this role back in late 2000 I was called the "Outreach Director."  My job was to build a team of people who would then work together to build an "outreach program" that would create opportunities to get the congregation involved in reaching out to the community to "show them God's love in practical ways."  Every January we would gather as a team for a "planning retreat" during which we would spend a day together to pray, brainstorm, and then assemble a calendar of events for the upcoming year.  As each event drew near we would work hard to recruit people from the congregation to pull off the event.  Though this actually worked pretty well, I don't see this being the pattern for the future.

This passage of scripture forever changed my view of ministry in the spring of 2005:  This is what the Lord Almighty says: "In those days ten men from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and will say, 'Let us go with you because we have heard that God is with you.'"

This prophecy is given to a people who had been beaten down, defeated, disgraced, and were seen as little more than human driftwood.  Yet God was promising them that one day, rather than being the scorn of the nations, they would be the envy of the nations.  Why?  Because God Himself, the only one capable of filling the emptiness of the human heart, would be startlingly real in their midst.  Because they, the Jews, would incarnate the character and nature of God.

Should this not be the case with us?  We who have taken up our cross to follow Christ and have become indwelt by the Holy Spirit should, more than anyone else, be living, breathing incarnations of the person of Christ who is the exact representation of the Father.

I have become convinced that people do not become fully devoted, disciple-making followers of Christ through the excellency of man-made programs.  Churches may grow in number through their professional worship team, their seamless organization chart, their savvy marketing, and their cultural releveance.  But I believe something more powerful is at work when we see a person who has never known God become acquainted with a faith community, become a regular participant in that community, become a believer, and then become a fully-devoted disciple.  I believe that when that progression takes place it is because that person has looked upon a community of Christ-followers, become overwhelmed with the reality of God in their midst, and cried out, "Let me go with you because I have heard, and seen, and felt that God is with you!"

My role here will not be that of a program manager.  My role here will be that of a navigator and fellow voyager toward greater and greater places of intimacy with God and intimacy with others.  It is in those places of horizontal and vertical intimacy that we most clearly come to know God, come to know ourselves and come to understand the unique impact that we alone can have upon the world around us as we incarnate the character and nature of God within the natural rythmns of our lives. 

I will lead others to allow God to fill their hearts and minds with dreams and visions about how they can change their world so that the outreach of this community of believers is natural, organic, and as creative and varied as the individuals who make up the community.

I will lead these incarnational dreamers to form new faith communities in the most unlikely places and in the most unlikely ways throughout the city so that the most unlikely future-disciples experience first-hand the presence of God in their classrooms, offices, hallways, sidewalks, front porches, coffee houses, assembly lines, barracks, shopping malls, cafeterias, and city parks every moment of every day.

My prayer is that multitudes of people in our city will engage in our faith community not because of how well we manage a ministry department, but because of how undeniably real God is in our everyday lives. 

A Friend

Shortly after I arrived in Columbus I almost made a blog post to say that you could anticipate much more frequency in my blogging during this time that I'm alone.  Now that I've gone almost a week without making a post, I'm glad I didn't make that statement.

Thursday night I spent a couple of hours visiting with one of my closest friends from our church here.  We covered several different topics in our conversation ranging from the seemingly "mean" God of the Old Testament to the current cultural trends among 20-somethings.  We spent some time talking about ourselves and what God is doing in our lives and I shared with him some of the things I've been thinking about.

In my last post, Incomplete, I spoke about how God is deepening my understanding of the one-fleshness of my relationship with Lynn.  I've also seen God making some changes in the way I think about being a minister.

For the longest time I was very Pauline in my approach to faith and ministry.  It seems that Paul's approach was very intellectual and strategic as he moved throughout Asia planting churches, raising up leaders, teaching doctrine, showing churches how to deal with conflict, etc.  I have always leaned more to reading the epistles than the Gospels because intellectually I tend to live more in the arena of strategy, leadership, teaching, and holding people accountable.

Beginning several months before my departure from Illinois and in the following months I have sensed that God is calling me to a more Gospel approach to faith and ministry.  Jesus seemed to have a much more simple strategy.  When he saw someone suffering, he alleviated their pain.  When he saw someone whom everyone else hated, he befriended them.  He ate dinner with people whom the religious leaders would never eat dinner with.  When he saw someone committing an egregious sin, he kindly forgave them and encouraged them to choose a better way, the way of life.  He taught his followers to go the extra mile for others, even when the others were not worthy of such effort.  When someone cried out to him, yet expressed their perceived unworthiness of his attention, he not nonly took notice, but he promised they would be together in paradise.

The bottom line of all of this is that Jesus' strategy was to simply...be a friend.  Though he began his mission on earth looking to the distant future when he would make all things new, he lived fully in the moment as a friend to sinners.  His mind and heart wasn't consumed with the development of strategies to make his church successful.  Rather, his mind and heart was consumed with offering himself fully to whomever needed his friendship at the moment.

My prayer for myself is that God will open my heart to more deeply embrace the present moment and that he will open my eyes to more faithfully notice the friendless and suffering around me.  May I become less of a visionary strategist and more of a compassionate friend.

When Good Men Fall

I'm taking a vacation day today.  I got up, showered, packed up my laptop, and headed into town to spend a couple of hours at Panera working on my next assignment for the Christian Writer's Guild.  About halfway here the news segment came on NPR and the lead-in story was about an evangelical leader stepping down from his pastorate and from his role as the president of the National Association of Evangelicals amidst accusations of patronage with a male prostitute.  As I listened to the newscast I thought to myself, "Dear God...not Ted Haggard!"

Once at Panera I quickly plugged in the laptop and checked all the news sources to see what was going on.  It's not good.  The story is that Ted met up with the homosexual prostitute for sex almost monthly over the past three years and did methamphetamine while they were together.  Ted has resigned from his role as pastor of New Life Church and has invited an investigation into the allegations.  This would lead you to think that perhaps he is the victim of a smear campaign because of his vigilant stance against same-sex marriage.  But, the man now leading New Life Church in his stead has reported that Ted has admitted to some of the allegations.

Wow.  Several years ago I was impacted by one of Ted's books, "Primary Purpose."  In the book he tells the story of being led by God to relocate to Colorado Springs and plant a church there during a time when that city was desperately under the control of the occult and other anti-God forces.  I drew a lot of inspiration from reading about his ministry while we were just beginning to take serious steps toward relocating to Carbondale, IL to plant a church in a city that was also deeply under the influence of the occult, Islam, and a radically liberal university.

To hear that this kind of fall (if it indeed turns out to be true) could happen to a man like Ted Haggard reminds me of just how vigilant regular people like me really have to be.  Ted is a good man who loves Christ and is deeply committed to the Kingdom of God.  How could something like this happen to him?  The same way it could happen to any one of us.

"When tempted, no one should say 'God is tempting me.'  For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.  Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death."

It all begins with a perversion of our natural desires.  And our society is absolutely flooded with pictures and sounds representing one agenda; to arouse our desires.  Nearly every television show, most of the commercials, top-40 songs, billboards, window signs, etc. are designed to fill our minds with sexual thoughts.  You can't walk through the mall without walking past the nearly naked woman on the Victoria Secret's window.  For a while, Burger King commercials were emphasizing large breasts more than they were emphasizing their fast food.

I once worked with someone in a ministry setting (who was working toward ordination) with whom I had frequent conversations about her absorption with secular media and how she needed to guard herself.  She didn't get it.  She saw nothing wrong with the intense sexualization found in particular television shows and popular music.  Pastor Ted now understands through first-hand experience how profoundly even the most spiritual among us can be impacted by the subversive culture in which we live.  And when good men (or women) fall, it rattles the souls of the rest of us and plunges the people we want to reach with the Gospel into ever deeper places of distrust and disgust of all things "Christian."

Today Romans 12:2 seems more poignant than ever.  "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

Personal holiness cannot be a casual endeavor.

Priorities

Okay...the results of the poll are in.  Here is how you voted in response to the poll, "Please choose the three answers which you believe to be the top three priorities on which churches should concentrate their time energy and resources."

• 73.1% - Befriending and communicating the gospel to people who are not Christians
• 73.1% - Teaching correct doctrine to Christians
• 50% - Creating and calling people to environments of prayer
• 46.2% - Social activism on behalf of the poor and oppressed
• 23.1% - Creating high quality Sunday morning church services
• 11.5% - Building church attendance and financial giving
• 0% - Political involvement

Thanks for participating everyone.  As I look at these seven priorities, I have some thoughts about how I would number them.

Priority 1:  Creating and calling people to environments of prayer.
I believe this to be our number one priority.  Everything we do must begin with prayer because it is in an atmosphere of hearts united in prayer that we discover how God is moving and how we are to engage in that movement.  Throughout scripture, every great outpouring and manifestation of God's presence was preceeded by prayer.  Christ himself said in John 15 that we can bear no fruit apart from abiding in him.  Prayer is certainly an expression of abiding.  Without preceeding our actions with prayer we run a great risk of setting out on our own with our own agenda in our own strength and an Ishmael is often the result.

Priority 2:  Social activism on behalf of the poor and oppressed.
It is quite clear that God is intimately concerend for the poor and oppressed.  The civic laws of the nation of Israel as given by God through Moses made provision for the care of the poor.  Through the prophet Isaiah God chastised the nation of Israel for atering their religion in such a way that the poor and oppressed were neglected.  In the New Testament, James writes that religion that God considers as authentic has at it's core the compassion and care for widows and orphans.  When we establish as our priority the care of the poor and oppressed we are joining God in work that He's always empowered.

Priority 3:  Befriending and communicating the Gospel to people who are not Christians
God's desire for His Kingdom on earth is that it would be expansive, ultimately embracing the entire world.  Though the entire Bible is a depiction of the missional heart of God, the New Testament shows that missional heart being lived out.  God sent His Son on a mission to reconcile creation to Himself.  Christ sent the Holy Spirit to empower his followers.  The Holy Spirit sends us into the world to carry the message of reconilliation to every tongue, tribe, and nation.  When we stop thinking expansion and shift our focus to education, we disengage from God's mission of bringing His Kingdom to earth.

Priority 4:  Teaching correct doctrine to Christians
This is important.  But I would contend that our teaching of correct doctrine shouldn't serve the singular purpose of making us more theologically intelligent.  The teaching of correct doctring should serve the purpose of equipping the saints to do the work of the ministry.  If Christians never leave the classroom to engage the world, we become puffed up with knowledge, prideful, arrogant, and of no missional value to the world.

Priority 5:  Building church attendance and financial giving
I believe this is a result, an outcome, a fruit of having the first four priorities in place.  True church growth comes as people who did not know Christ become fully devoted followers of Christ; which is the result of prayer empowered missional lives.

Priority 6:  Creating high quality Sunday morning church services
What is your definition of "high quality?"  Some will say that a high quality Sunday morning service means that the band is good enough to get a recording contract, the Powerpoint presentation is enthralling with smooth transitions, there are no typos in the bulletins, the bathrooms are clean, and the coffee is good.  Okay, whatever.  I am of the opinion that church is not about Sunday morning services.  Church is about fully devoted, missional followers of Christ doing life together; sharing meals, singing songs, celebrating, teaching and exhorting one another, changing diapers, playing with children, supporting one another financiallly when there is a need, and embodying the character of God in the way they live their lives.

Priority 7:  Political Involvement
Some Christians tend to believe that we can "turn our nation back to God" by electing the right politicans into office.  Yeah right.  The greatest hope for our nation has nothing to do with who is in Washington or your state capitol.  It has everything to do with the Church of Jesus Christ living Spirit-empowered missional lives in our neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces.  Revival begins in homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces...never the seats of governmental power.

Crickets

Here's the church, here's the steeple.  Open the doors, where are the people? 

Every so often I hear somone lament the emptiness of their church on Sunday morning.  When I was pastoring in Illinois I would, on a monthly basis, sit around with fellow pastors and listen to their stories about declining attendance.  Through much of that 3-year period of time I was able to share stories of growth - nothing on the scale of what some megachurches have experienced - but we grew from 4 people in the beginning to an average attendance of around 50 people two years later.  We struggled at the 50 barrier and after losing a couple of families experienced some decline.  I saw through my own experience the reality of what I'm about to share here; a reality that ultimately led me to step away from pastoring for a season.

When I hear people talk about the emptiness of their church on Sunday mornings, several questions come to mind.

Question one:  Which of the two does your church leadership view to be the most important; drawing a crowd to the church building on Sunday morning or helping lost people throughout the city - wherever they are - find new life in Christ and become passionate disciples?

My own experience and my interaction with other pastors facing the same issues lead me to the conviction that if drawing a crowd to the church building on Sunday mornings to teach them what you know is your primary objective, then you are going to be constantly facing an uphill battle because quite frankly, the vast majority of people in your city don't give a rip about going to a church service.  About 70 to 80 percent of your population is unchurched and they are unchurched for a reason and that reason is that they do not view a weekly church service as being a viable antidote to their emptiness.  Most of them are very spiritual and are longing to find some kind of transcendent meaning in life, but they don't believe that attending a weekly church service will help them find that meaning.

Now, if you answered my question by indicating that the second option is of greatest importance, then I believe that you are on the right track to seeing your building full; not as the primary objective, but as the by-product of being fully engaged in that which Christ is most passionate about, people finding him.

This may surprise you, but the early church of Acts wasn't particularly interested in growing weekly attendance.  They were interested in embodying the Kingdom and introducing their friends and family to the Kingdom.  House churches and temple courts filled up rapidly as a by-product of being more passionate about lost people being found than they were about filling a meeting place.

If you hear more crickets than voices on Sunday morning, may I suggest that you shift your focus away from the Sunday morning event and more intentionally toward connecting in meaningful ways with the 70 or 80 percent of non-church people the other 6 days of the week.  This brings me to my second question.

Question two:  You say that reaching the lost is most important, yet your building is still empty.  What are the meaningful ways through which you are connecting with the lost?

I see and hear this all the time.  Pastors and church people will say, "Oh we want to see lost people saved.  We have an ad in the paper so the unchurched will know where to find us and we all dress casually on Sunday mornings so they'll feel at home when they get here."  Let me say this as delicately as I can.  That's crap.

Running a newspaper ad and dressing casually does not equate to meaningful connections with lost people.  Here's what does:

1.  The people of your church should be living their faith as missional ambassadors of Christ 24/7 not just on Sunday mornings.  The people around them should see that relationship with Christ is the real deal, not just a Sunday morning costume.  If the people of your church are living lives Monday - Saturday that do not reflect what they sing and talk about on Sunday morning then they are not the real deal and are doing nothing more than confirming the non-Christian accusations of hypocrisy.

2.  Your church should be spending more time engaged in sheep-behavior instead of goat-behavior.  What do sheep do?  Jesus makes it pretty clear in Matthew 25 where he said to the sheep, "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.  I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.  I was a stranger and you invited me in.  I needed clothes and you clothed me.  I was sick and you looked after me.  I was in prison and you came to visit me.  In as much as you have done it to the least of one of these, you have done it unto me." 

Goat behavior?  Well, goat behavior is what I see in most empty churches.  They ignore the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, and imprisoned strangers around them.  Oh they'll feed the hungry, as long as they are a church member who just had a baby or surgery.  They'll visit the sick and imprisoned as long as they are faithful Sunday School attendees.  But ask the leadership to focus on showing this care to the strangers throughout the city who need to know the love of Christ and you'll hear, "Well, we don't have the resources for that."

During my three years of church planting I saw both growth and decline.  During the seasons of growth we were very active in the community.  We were doing things like helping people pay for their gas at a local convenience store, serving free coffee and offering free gift wrapping to Christmas shoppers, providing household supplies and clothing to welfare families on a weekly basis, celebrating Christmas by filling our building with impoverished families, serving them a meal, and giving gifts to their children.

A season of decline came as I made the dreadful mistake of allowing my heart to be turned by the opinions of a few and we began to abandon these things and began talking about reducing our care for the poor and focusing on ways to attract people with money.  As one prim & proper leadership family put it while in the process of leaving our church, "This place attracts a lot of misfits."  When I couldn't couldn't continue turning my heart away from the people outside of our church who needed Christ most - the misfits - I walked away.

I am convinced.  Want to see your church filled?  Stop worrying about filling your church.  Begin investing your lives and resources into the lives of the people in your city who need to see your faith up close and personal.  Stop trying to get God to bless what you are doing and begin doing what God has always blessed.

15 Minutes; One Neighbor's Voice

Following is the first response from one of the atheists I converse with regularly.  Listen to his words, feel his heart, consider how we have contributed to the direction of his journey.

Jared (name changed) gets up from his seat and walks to the pulpit. He lays his notes on the podium in front him, clears his throat and says:

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I am 51 years old. I was baptized one Easter Sunday in 1966, in the First Baptist Church in a small city in Mississippi. Later when I was married, I was confirmed in the Episcopal Church, worked faithfully in the church and even served as Junior Warden in one of my parishes. For many years I sat out there where you now sit. My family and I served the church faithfully and fully.

I am no longer a believer and no longer a Christian. People are sometimes dumbfounded how a person of faith could renounce their beliefs and totally walk away from it. I left because the church, or more importantly, the people in the church broke my heart. They broke the hearts of my immediate family members.

Yet I owe them sincere thanks. For if it were not for the cataclysmic event, I might still be caught up in it.

I realized how mean and nasty Christians could be.
I realized how hypocritical they are.
I realized that except for Sundays, the rest of the week they did what they wanted.
I soon came to not want to be around Christians, or be a part of their culture.
I worried what God would think?
Then I wondered if it was all a big lie. If they lie about all the other stuff, perhaps they lied about the Bible. And if the Bible were all one big lie, then maybe it was all one big lie.

So I wiped the slate clean and started over. I looked for evidence of God with logic as my guide. I studied Christian history, and was appalled at what I found. I did not find God.
I found that there was no God. I found a belief system so caught up in the rules and dogma that they refuse to see what is before them. I saw them go to extraordinary lengths to make the Bible sound logical. I don’t believe in hell, but if I did, my idea of it, would be to spend eternity with pompous *** Christians pretending to love one another.

Here is what people like me hate:

1. Christians thinking that they know what is morally right for all humans on the planet.
2. Christians thinking that they are not only obligated, but must obey some higher law and “save” everyone. We equate saving with brainwashing.
3. Christians thinking that they are the elite, and must permeate all parts of our society with things Christian and the rest of us must just suck it up and live with it. Example: School Prayer, Ball Games , Corporate Meetings.
4. That they are so morally elite, that they can legislate moral law and be able to define what is right and wrong. As I write this, it is illegal to buy any item considered “unessential” on Sunday Morning in North Augusta..
5. Committing hate in the name of God. Example: Stating that they are glad sent Hurricane Katrina to destroy New Orleans (forgetting the Christians who also lived there). Use this example for Hypocrisy also.
6. Christians wanting to change what is allowed to be taught in Science. Or even defining Science.
7. Discrimination against not Christian.
8. Knocking on my front door, wanting to share the Gospel.
9. Leaving “tracts” on my front porch.
10. Pretending to love one another, when they really don’t.

My most sincere wish is that they would do what Jesus would do. If they practiced his philosophy of love, the world WOULD BE a better place.

Jared.

atheism

agnosticism

15 Minutes; An Experiment

Christianity has lost its voice in America.  The Ekklesia called out by Jesus Christ to be the salt of the earth and light of the world has grown flavorless as we huddle together in our temples and hide our dim lights under baskets of empty religious activity.  The church of Jesus Christ is having no light and salty impact on American culture.  In fact, many believe (myself included) that Christendom has collapsed resulting in the nearly 100% paganization of Europe with America being only a few years away from that same fate.

I am not saying that the work and mission of Christ has collapsed.  Christ himself promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against his work and mission.  In fact, belief in and devotion to Jesus Christ is exploding in the eastern and southern hemispheres.  Christendom, however, is the Roman/Western religious structure that we have all come to understand as the church.  This religious structure is what I believe has collapsed and most of us don't even realize it.

I believe one of the reason that we have lost our voice to this culture is that we have stopped listening to the voices of the culture.  We've built our temples, assembled our programs, filled our schedules with church activities, and followed our preacher's advice to run away from anything worldly.  Therefore, we no longer have non-Christian friends.  We don't talk to our non-Christian neighbors.  At work we cover our cubicle walls with little crosses and Bible verses and only venture out to use the toilet and to rush home or to our evening Bible study.  We've lost our voice to the culture because we no longer have any idea what non-Christian people are thinking, feeling, and believing.  We cover our eyes, ears, and mouths and sing loudly enough to purposely drown out what non-believers are saying to us.

Do you have any clue whatsoever how the atheist who lives two houses down from you percieves Christianity?  I guarantee you that his perceptions are shaped more by The Simpsons, or Saturday Night Live, or South Park, or the news coverage of Catholic sex scandals than they are shaped by your Christ-like influence on him, on the neighborhood.

We can never hope to play a role in the awakening of a non-believer's soul if we are ignorant to the things they think about and believe.  Thus the reason for this little experiment.

I don't know if it will work, but we'll give it a shot.  I've communicated with the atheist and agnostic community that I dialogue with regularly and have asked them to help us out.  I've said to them, "You have just been invited to stand on the platform of a Christian church and spend 15 minutes communicating to them anything you would like.  What would that be?"

As they post their responses (if any of them take me up on it) I will then post them here for you.  I encourage you to thoughtfully read and consider what they are saying.  Perhaps, by listening to them, you will regain your own voice.