Epic

Pelosi and the "Friends of God"

Last night Lynn and I watched the HBO documentary "Friends Of God".  If you haven't heard about this, it is a road trip documentary produced by Alexandra Pelosi who is the daughter of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.  Knowing the family name of "Pelosi" I kind of knew what to expect when I turned it on.  As the final credits rolled and I made my way down the hall to the bedroom I muttered to Lynn, "If I wasn't a Christian tonight, after watching that, I wouldn't want to be one tomorrow."

I know there was an unspoken agenda behind the documentary.  Alexandra did do a good job of not revealing her bias (except regarding evolution) but I'm sure that there was some creative editing done in the cutting room to produce a finished product that would cast Christians in a negative light.

Nontheless, It wasn't what I didn't see that bothered me.  It was what I did see.  And what I saw was a sampling of the nations most combative and un-Christ-like "Christians."  Nearly everyone they featured was screaming about the ills of society, picketing, boycotting, marching, doing everything that Pharisees do and none of that which Jesus would actually do were he here in the flesh today.  There was the older gentleman in the pickup truck with "Jesus saves" messages plastered all over it who had a conversation with Alexandra that went something like this:

Old guy:  "You're a winner if you're saved!

Alexandra:  "So would that make me a loser if I'm not?"

Old guy:  "Absolutely...without Jesus you're a great big loser!"

Nice

And then I almost threw up when she interviewed the now-fallen Ted Haggard.  During the interview he and two other young guys were standing outside the church and Ted said something like, "Evangelicals have better sex lives than everyone else."  He then turned to the guys and asked them each how often they had sex with their wives.  With goofy pre-pubescent grins they both said, "Every day!"  Yeah right.  He then asked each of them, "Your wife has an orgasm every single time, right?"  Again they replied, "Absolutely!"  Yeah right.

I guess my biggest frustration with the whole thing was with the ideas that Christian leaders from Jerry Falwell to the Patriot Pastor had about how to see the Kingdom of God come to this nation.  For them it's all about picketing, protesting, politics, and petitions and declarations of "warfare" against the homosexual and abortion agendas in our country.  They spend all of their time screaming at the darkness for being the only thing that darkness can be...dark!  Instead, they should spend their time being that which Jesus told us we could be...light!

Here's a thought.  George Barna estimates that there are about 12 million people in America who are genuine followers of Christ.  How about if we all just put down our megaphones and picket signs, fired up the bar-b-que grill, and invited the neighbor we don't know over to our house for dinner and then began a friendship - a real friendship - with that person.  Through the genuine love of Christ expressed to our neighbors, we 12 million could become 24 million relatively quickly.  How about if we stopped marching against and started serving the people who offend us so deeply.  How about if we gave ourselves to creating environments of kindness, acceptance, and love rather than creating groups of political lobbyists?  If we hate abortion so much (as we should) perhaps we should spend less time marching and more time teaching our daughters how to dress modestly, our sons how to keep their pants on, and then adopting some unwanted children into our families.

I've been trying to find some focus for my early morning time with God.  I've just been skipping around in the Bible and not really praying with direction.  Last night changed that.  I'm going to return to the Gospels and am going to build a study around observing how Jesus responded every time he interacted with someone outside of his circle of disciples.  Should make for an enlightening study.

If you're interested in watching the documentary yourself, it airs again tomorrow (Saturday, January 27th) at 10:00 am on HBO.

Living In Christian Exile

I recently made a post here in which I spoke about how I'm finding that I fit less and less within the boundaries of the typical church world.  I was scanning my blog list over lunch and ran across this post from Gary Means on his blog, Poor In Spirit.  I so clearly resonate with his thoughts here.  Let me share with you an excerpt, and then encourage you to visit his blog to read the post in it's entirety.

I really don't know where I fit anymore. My faith is in a state of liminality, which is a cool word that I just learned on Grace's blog. Liminality is "a period of transition, during which your normal limits to thought, self-understanding, and behavior are relaxed, opening the way to something new."

I have so many concepts in my head, many of which seem to be competing. First there are all the old tapes which tell me that the institutional church is the place where the Body of Christ is able to gather enough resources to make a difference in the lives of individuals, the congregation, and the community. It the place where, in theory at least, we find fellowship, encouragement, edification, inspiration, affirmation, accountability, etc. 'No one can be a Christian apart from community." is a phrase that comes to mind.

But my experience in the institutional church has been mixed at best. The growth I experienced in my faith has been more the result of my own search than anything I found sitting in a pew or Sunday School classroom....

So I don't know where I fit. My theology has been changing over the past few years. And my sense of call is shifting. I am not liberal, although I am starting to lean more that way in some areas. One conservative friend suspects that I am dangerously liberal (my words). However, there are elements of my faith that would definitely be considered conservative by some liberals, even though I don't call myself a conservative. I certainly am not fundamentalist.

This is a journey that many of us seem to be on.  Here's the link to continue reading what Gary has to say.  I'm with you brother!

Emerging Free Methodists

I am an ordained elder with the Free Methodist Church of North America.  Our headquarters publishes a really good magazine called Light & Life.  In the most recent issue a focus is placed on the "emerging church" and how winds of change are occuring across the landscape of Christendom.

I have both praise and caution about the "emergent" movement which I've expressed in another post.  The thing I praise most about the emergent movement is the desire to break out of our religious cocoons and seek to understand and engage the culture for the purpose of showing the person and work of Christ.  My denomination, which has a history of being quite inwardly focused, is understanding and embracing this need.  I'm happy about that.

If you're interested in receiving Light & Life you can go here to subscribe.

Firm Statements

You'll notice a couple of posts down that I took a little survey thing that tagged me as theologically postmodern/emergent.  When I read the description given, it resonated with me.  But being labeled as such also made me a little uncomfortable; partly because I don't like labels, but also partly because there are things being said in the postmodern/emergent conversation with which I disagree.  One such example is the latest book by Spencer Burke called A Heretic's Guide To Eternity.  In this book Spencer (a former minister who left church ministry to begin an online community called theooze) calls himself "a universalist who believes in hell."  He believes that everyone is in good standing with God until they "opt-out" for hell.  There are other such beliefs that he expounds with which I can find no Biblical harmony.  If Spencer Burke is the voice of the emergent/postmodern community, then I cannot be a part of that community.

For the sake of clarity I am going to make some very firm statements about my personal belief system.  Most emergent/postmoderns don't like to make firm statements about much of anything.

First, I affirm the description given on the results of My Theological Identity post.  That description is as follows:  "You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well.  No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue.  Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls.  People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them do this."  This describes me to a tee!

Now, some other statements:

On God and Man...

I believe there is one God who is the Creator of all.  He created man to live forever in perfect fellowship with him, yet in his sovereignty he gave man the freedom to choose whether to remain in that state of perfect fellowship or to choose his own path.  Man chose to reject the perfection offered him and set in motion the downfall of creation and the necessity of redemption, which God, in his omniscience, had already prepared.  That redemption, foreshadowed in the Mosaic law and foretold by the prophets, was the incarnation, sinless life, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  There is no other means of reconcilliation with God than through the sacrifice of Christ and to enjoy that reconcilliation with God one must place their belief in Christ, take up their cross, and follow him.

On Scripture...

Though Jesus Christ is God's revelation of himself to mankind, the scriptures are God's revelation of Jesus Christ to us.  The purpose, incarnation, sinless life, crucifixion, and eventual return of Jesus Christ are the priniciple threads that run through the entirety of scripture from Genesis to Revelation.  It's one story.  The scriptures were given by God, written by man, and are a true revelation given to guide us in lives of holy devotion to God through Christ.

On The Church...

The church universal consists of everyone (both living and dead) who has placed faith in Jesus Christ as the atonement for their sin.  As Christ is no longer physically with us in body, the church was ordained to be the "body" of Christ throughout the world, continuing the work begun by him and his disciples.  The church was ordained to be the missional continuation of that missional work begun by a missional God.  God sent Christ on a mission to reconcile Himself to the world.  Christ sent the Holy Spirit on a mission to empower the church.  The Holy Spirit sent the church on a mission to embody and proclaim reconciliation with God.

What we call the church today has, to a great extent, become a strange amalgam corrupted by the influences of Constantinian/pagan forms, politics, and the Western tendencies of individualism and commercialism.  Heresy is openly interwoven through the fabric of church doctrines and remains largely unchallenged and ignored...even shockingly embraced, resulting in a loss of Spirit-empowered influence upon the society.  For the church to indeed be the hope of the world she was meant to be, a second reformation of epic proportions must....and I believe will...take place in my lifetime.

That's all I have time for right now.  Feel free to post comments if there are other issues you would like me to make firm statements about.

Religion Kills; The Conversation Continues

From a unchurched, self-proclaimed believer in Christ:

The Augusta area is a very religion conscious society. Your blog speaks directly to this phenomena. As I read down to your definition of religion, I recoiled at the thought that our purpose on this earth as God's children is to "appease" Him. I immediately asked google to define the word appease and I held those hits in abeyence pending a retort that would counter this idea. But then I read further and realized that this is exactly what I have been thinking but could not get the point across in the wording that is spoken here.

The protestant faith denominations of Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, etc. are not religions and are not meant to be religions. That's why an interdenominational church fits so many who are so tired of oganized religion loosing its appeal and become dead bodies of artificial and superficial habit. And most people don't even realize that that is what they are doing. They are performing like robots and adhereing to and acting out men's programs. The don't realize it because that is the way their parents and grandparents have done before them and they are trying to be such good little Christians by putting on a show and pacifying themselves into believing that this is the Christian thing to do.

Playing the game of "church" is to go to a service that starts at 11:00 AM and has to out by 11:50 at the very latest because dinners are being cooked in the ovens of the homes of the congregation, or so we can beat the church crowd to the local restraurant to stuff our gluttonous bellies full and hurry home to take a nap on the couch in the afternoon. The people who play this game think that they have pacified (appeased) an angry god waiting to devour them if they don't recite a written prayer that has been prepared for them in advance, ritualize every motion of standing and sitting and being quiet and listening to the speaker handing out a moral lesson. And that lesson cannot be longer than 20 minutes or many will fall asleep in the hushed silence of the congregants around them and dull droning monotone of the speakers artifical pious "voice" spoken from behind the pulpit.

This blogged entry is "Right-on"!!! I am pleased that you have written it or presented it here. I welled up realizing that every word is absolutely true. It very nearly gave me chill bumps while reading it. And the real heartbreaking part of the discussion is that many non-believers and doubters who throw hypocritical religious practices in the faces of Christians, think that the religious part is all that Christianity is and all it stands for.

Anyway.... I was delighted to read it and delighted that you wrote it because I know now that you believe the message being presented.

From an atheist-turned-Christian:

An excellent blog. I tried to say the same thing to (name removed) and failed miserably. I think Chrisitans fail miseably to obey Christ's central commands as you presented. As Christ says everything else flows from that. I would encourage all to read his blog. Food for thought and Food for the soul. If every Christian would follow these two commandments then the world would change for the better. Further, it is up to Christ to manage, tend, and call his flock. When we try to do so we probably do more harm than good.

From a non-Christian:

Have you had some sort of epiphany? Do you see now that it is not Jesus or his message that some are against but the way that some in charge of the church misuse that message for their own means?

What my perception of being a good Christian is, is a lot of times not at all what I see others doing and I am not talking about dancing, cussing or some of the other things that so called religion deems to be for sure one way ticket to Hell. They are preaching about such inane things while promoting much more heinous acts against the message of Jesus and the purpose that I thought he had come here in the first place.

I feel that Christianity in this time is being used by many, including our government to get the people behind anti Christian movements. Sam is onto something with his brainwashing threads.

There is nothing that I have ever heard of in the Bible that says that one cannot think for themselves and determine the difference between right and wrong and follow the right path. Aren't there parts though that tell of people who are ganged up on by others when doing right?

It has all become so twisted up. Isn't there something about the end times being like that, where right is said to be wrong and wrong is said to be right, where there will be decievers who people will believe? Isn't this a good enough reason to keep religion far and apart from government?

Religion Kills; A Conversation

This morning I received an e-mail from someone who read my previous post.  I had hoped that my last post would initiate some conversation as I believe there is much more to be gained through dialogue than through sermonizing.  I believe there are probably many Christians who would share her thoughts, so for the sake of dialogue I'm going to post her e-mail here followed by my response.

A Readers E-mail:

Bill,

I just read your religion kills post.

There is no doubt in my mind that your are a very learned man. I know that you know the Word of GOD very well. I am not in any way saying anything bad about you, at all. I just wanted to point something out to you that I think you missed. I will also hope to hear back from you on your thoughts about my point.

I read what your thought is on "religion and Christianity" and how you feel that isn't what JESUS would have wanted, that JESUS was trying to make it simplier for all....that's my version of it, "in a nut shell".

What you said was somewhat understandable, but I don't believe we are to just be free spirits and do what we believe JESUS wants us to do. There are rules in the Bible that we are to follow, whether either of us like them or do them, they are still rules that GOD has inspired men to write.

Do you want an example of why there are so many religions in this world, why there are so many Christian religions. Well, here is just a quick example......

"At this stage we are building a prayer team and we are praying for 30 missionaries (twenty under age 30 and ten over age 30) to join us in our work here."

That is from your website with what were first your ideas and then became preferences and will so become detailed rules. Twenty under 30 and 10 over 30. Why specify how many and what their age range should be? Do you see what I am getting at. You, yourself, have fallen into the religion game.

What you are seeing as rules for religions, are actually just preferences that people want in their faith, that started out as ideas, good ideas. But, they became part of the religion.

GOD has plenty of rules and we all naturally know what is wrong and what is right, those are GOD's rules.

Anyway, I just wanted to give you a "heads up" that you are falling into the very trap you want to blame other religions for. We must have rules and there will always be preferences because they were first ideas and we all have those.

So, let me know what you think of my thoughts. I sure hope I made sense.

And My Response:

Hi (name delted to protect privacy).

Thanks so much for your thoughts here. I really do believe that there is much more to be gained through dialogue than there is through sermonizing.

I'll be happy to respond to a couple of your thoughts here.

You said the following: "What you said was somewhat understandable, but I don't believe we are to just be free spirits and do what we believe JESUS wants us to do. There are rules in the Bible that we are to follow, whether either of us like them or do them, they are still rules that GOD has inspired men to write."

I would disagree with you here. What Jesus wants us to do is what God wants us to do because Jesus Christ IS God and according to Hebrews 1:3 he is the "radiance of God's glory and the exact respresentation of His being."

I would challenge you to list the "rules" that you refer to in your statement. And then I would challenge you to examine how Jesus addressed those rules by explaining to us that all of the rules (law) is built upon the simplicity of love. In other words, if we are loving God with our whole being and we are loving those around us sacrificially, then we will live according to the rules, but that adherence will emerge out of love, not simply the need to "follow rules." I would then challenge you to examine Paul's writings (particularly to the Galatians) in which he talks about our life with Christ not being about rules but being rooted in grace, faith, and love.

You mentioned that you don't believe we are to just be "free spirits." Again, I would have to disagree. In Galatians 5:1 Paul writes, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

The yoke of slavery he is referring to is religion; attempting to please God through adherence to a set of rules.

In John 8:35 - 37 Jesus contrasts being a slave and being a son. A slave follows the rules to appease the master of the house. A son honors and respects the rules because of his love for the master (his father). He goes on to explain how we who were once slaves have now been received as sons and he says, "If the Son (Jesus, the master of the house) sets you free, you will be free indeed.

We are absolutely to enjoy lives as free spirits; free from the futile attempts to please God through following rules and free to live life as people who are driven by the simplicity of love. If we are truly people of love, we will truly be people of holiness; honoring God with the way we conduct our lives.

And now I'll respond to your observation of my desire for God to bring us 30 missionaries with 20 of them being under the age of 30 and 10 of them being over the age of 30.

My approach here has nothing to do with religious rules or the forming of a new religion. Let me explain.

I believe that God has called me to live as a missionary to my own culture. As such, I believe that the spiritual future of this country rests upon what happens with the generation who are in their 20's today. They will be our spiritual leaders of tomorrow. The 20-somethings (and younger) of today are the largest generation in American history, even larger than the baby boomers. They are also the most spiritually curious and passionate generation alive today. And in our nation's history they are largest generation to ever reject our current forms of church.

My desire for 20 under thirty and 10 over thirty is missiology 101. Indigenous missiology is far more effective than alien missiology. What I mean by that is that twenty-somethings will be most effectively reached by other twenty-somethings. This is a basic missiological truth. A culture is most effectively reached by people who understand and share that culture, rather than by people from outside of the culture.

The 20-something Christians today are incredibly passionate, creative, and uninhibited in their love for Christ and their desire to reach their world. Many believe that it will be the generation in their 20's today whom God will use to bring the third "Great Awakening" to America. And the catalytic event that these young people will spark to bring about that "Great Awakening" will be a second reformation of the church.

So, in praying for God to send us 20 people under thirty and 10 people over thirty to begin this new community of faith I am simply asking God to bring me both the passion of youth and the wisdom of age.

I hope this helps. Feel free to respond. Have a wonderful day!

The Christian...Religion?

I routinely participate in a couple of online forums through which I engage in conversation with several atheists & agnostics (some of them quite enjoyable to chat with).  One day I made the statement that Christianity wasn't a religion, and one such person responded by asking me what I meant by saying that Christianity wasn't a religion.  I then went on to offer her my explanation.  But as I did so, I realized that I was wrong.  Christianity today is indeed a religion.  And as such, I believe that Christianity today is far removed from what Jesus Christ had in mind.  You see, I believe with everything in me that Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, came to dwell among humanity for two primary purposes:  First, to invite us to abandon religion.  And secondly, to make it possible for us to do so.  Let's break it down.

My definition of religion is as follows:  A body of beliefs, practices, and rituals assembled for the purpose of interacting with and appeasing a deity.

The website www.adherents.com compiles data on world religions, and according to the latest statistics there are over 4,200 religions (bodies of beliefs, practices, and rituals assembled for the purpose of interacting with and appeasing a deity) observed throughout the world today.  Christianity (along with all of its thousands of denominational factions) is simply one of 4,200 religious systems practiced by the global community.   A fascinating thought, especially when you understand that Jesus Christ did not come to establish a religion.  He came to set us free from the constraints of religion.

One day a clergyman invited Jesus to his house for dinner.  Jesus chose not to practice the ceremonial washing before beginning the meal.  The clergyman was incensed because this man claiming to be a teacher didn't follow the religious rules.  Jesus then said to him and the other clergymen who were also present, "Woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can barely carry and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them!"

The "burdens" that Jesus is referring to here are the beliefs, practices, and rituals assembled for the purpose of interacting with and appeasing a deity.  There were literally hundreds and hundreds (over 600 I think) of practices and rituals that people were commanded (by the clergymen, not God) to obey in order to keep God happy. 

So if Jesus didn't come to launch a new religion, why did he come?  In his own words, as he quoted from Isaiah 61, Jesus defined his purpose.  "To proclaim that captives (to sin and to religion) will be released, that the blind wil see, that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors, and that the time of God's favor with man has come."

That was what Jesus came to do.  And then he gave us instructions on what we are supposed to do with what he did.  And by the way that Christianity is played out today (especially in America) you would think that Jesus must have assembled a whole new system of beliefs, practices, and rituals for us to do in order to interact with and appease him.  But no.  Jesus instructions to us were quite simple.  Where the religion of his culture held up hundreds of such "laws" Jesus gave us only two:  "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind and with all of your strength.  The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no commandment greater than these."

He then invited us to practice two things, not as religious rituals, but as simply a means to more deeply intertwine ourselves with the eternal epic unfolding around us:  The Lord's Supper, and baptism.

Jesus desire was simply this:  That we would experience God's love, that we would experience loving, life-giving relationships with one another, that we would find ourselves in the pages of the story He is writing, and that we would invite those around us into the story to experience for themselves the love of God and loving, life-giving relationships with one another.

How is it that we have made something so simple into something so complicated as to result in there being today over 20,800 Christian denominations (World Christian Encyclopedia)?  I believe I know how.  We have taken Jesus' message and his work on the cross and turned it into simply one more world religion. 

Don't believe me?  Just listen to the words we use.  Worship SERVICE, Church ATTENDANCE, Christian CONVERTS, Conversion PROSPECTS,  CRUSADE,  Evangelism PROJECT.  We have taken it upon ourselves to assemble a whole collection of practices and rituals to follow to really be a Christian. 

Don't cuss.
Don't smoke.
Don't dance.
Don't drink alcohol.
Don't go to movies.
Go to church every week (twice if you want to really be good).
Read the Bible every day.
Pray every day.
Do your devotions.
Tithe.
Read your Sunday School lesson.
Pay attention during the weekly sermon.
Stand up when you sing.
Sit down and listen.
Stand up to pray.
Close your eyes when you pray (and no peeking).
Fold your hands and hold them in front of you when you pray.
Boycott Disney.
Don't pay any attention to him, he's a Baptist.
Don't listen to her, she's a Methodist.
Stay away from those charismatics.
Don't look too somber in church.
Don't look too happy in church.
And for the love of God, don't piss off the deacons!

Religion divides people.  Religion enslaves people.  Religious fervor kills people.  In his book, The Barbarian Way, Erwin McManus makes the controversial statement, "The greatest enemy to the movement of Jesus Christ is Christianity."  I agree.

I dream of creating and being part of a community of people who are devoted to simply this:  That we would experience God's love, that we would experience loving, life-giving relationships with one another, that we would find ourselves in the pages of the eternal epic that God is writing, and that we would invite those around us into the story to experience for themselves the love of God and loving, life-giving relationships with one another.  In so doing, we can free the world from the grip of religion and experience the abundant life that Jesus lived, died, and rose again to make possible for us.

Interested?  There's plenty of room around this table.

religion

Christianity

Disillusionment

I've recently stumbled upon a book written by Sarah Cunningham entitled, "Dear Church."  From what I've seen of it, I feel sure that it has found a place near the top of my "soon-to-read" list.  I visited her website a few moments ago and found something that I want to share with you.  It resonated with me.  Sarah, if you read this, I hope you don't mind me quoting you here.

A NOTE FROM SARAH:

Disillusioned with the church? Believe me, I know how it feels...and I truly wish I didn't.

I wish I could tell you that every moment of my church involvement was pure euphoria, one spiritual rush after another. High upon high. But there's no Super-Christian fairytale here. My journey is not quite that romantic.

Life is hard. Christian life is no different. It is hard too. That's not to discount Christ--who sources us with truth and leads us toward fullness. But to acknowledge that I'm human and the other people who are teamed with me are human too. And that, sometimes, this makes for one very human church-sized mess.

More than once, I have laid in bed at night physically drained, emotionally wrecked, and relationally torn apart by some painful church experience. I've lost sleep, shed tears, made hard phone calls...and often still felt like I came up empty, short of a solution...and sometimes short of others even acknowledging that there was a problem to begin with.

I've been sad. Not just normal sad. But deep down, in-your-soul sad. The kind of grieving that happens only when you believe SO HARD in the Church, when you invest SO HARD in the Church, and then the very source of hope you so strongly identified with seems to unravel in your hands.

I've been ridiculously disappointed...let down by people I respected in ways that rocked me so hard it was almost embarrassing. I've looked them in the eye, talked to them, felt their hurt, heard their perspectives and walked away with shreds of my heart in my hands.

I've been jaded. Holy cow, you guys, I've been so furious at times. My disillusionment has made me cynical and skeptical--not in the cool, edgy "push-the-envelope" way, but in a way that made me wish I could return to being innocent and idealistic and believing the best of everything and everyone.

Some moments seemed to cost me so much, it lead me back to questioning parts of my worldview. Like the church and its role in it. What does going to church service every Sunday morning really have to do with anything? I would ask.

I could not believe, I mean, I was seriously dumbfounded that Church--a concept that had brought me so many amazing previous experiences--could dig that deep inside of me and then hurt me. It killed from the inside out.

Whew. Sounds terrible and over-exaggerated to those of you who aren't disillusioned, right? But to those of you who are in this phase now...who are frustrated beyond belief with church...you know, don't you? You "get" it.

I almost hate to revisit those times, even for the book's sake or for this website. But I do it for a reason more worthwhile than selling a few books.

I want you to know that, one, you are not alone. And two, more importantly, that if you stumble through this stage--even imperfectly--and keep on interacting with God at whatever level you can, your disillusionment WILL NOT go on forever. The way you feel now will not be all you'll ever know of life and faith. This stage will not forever usurp or delete all the good you've ever felt in the name of Christ and his mission.

You WILL feel hope again.

I won't lie to you. It may hurt for a while still. And even when you pass through it, you will probably encounter other painful experiences in the future. But I'll give away the ending of the book before you ever read it: Jesus is the hope of the world and he told us, the minute he first used the word "church," that evil will not prevail against it.

Outside of any organization or local congregation, you are the church, my friend. And evil will not prevail against you.

I hope this book and this website will breathe fresh air in this difficult stage of your journey. But they alone will not right all your wrongs. What you need now is quality time with patient friends who share the faith, room to sort out your frustrations and ideals before God, space to examine the church and yourself, and honestly...you need some time to pass.

There is a time to mourn. But there will be a time to laugh again. Be blessed, you who mourn, for my God will comfort you. (Matthew 5:4)

Much love,

Sarah

When We All Get To Heaven

Sing the wondrous love of Jesus,
Sing his mercy and his grace.
In the mansions bright and blessed,
He'll prepare for us a place.

When we all get to Heaven,
What a day of Rejoicing that will be!
When we all see Jesus,
We'll sing and shout the victory!

Saturday morning I was sweeping pine needles and small limbs from my back deck; the remnants of a powerful storm that passed through the neighborhood Friday evening.  As I swept I realized that this favorite hymn from my childhood was going through my mind.

When we all get to Heaven.  The genesis of an interesting conversation.  What will we experience when we do get to Heaven?  There are some who sing this song, and with chests puffed out with pride envision the day of final, ultimate vindication; a day on which they can swagger down the streets of gold proudly proclaiming, "See...I was right!"

I don't think any of us will have that experience.  In fact, I think when we do get to Heaven and are no longer "seeing through a glass darkly" we will initially stand jaw agape in stunned silence as we attempt to process the differences between what we expected and what we are now experiencing.  I'm anticipating an epoch-long series of "ah-ha" moments as things that used to make sense in our earthly life no longer do and things that seemed incomprehensible in our earthly life are suddenly stunningly clear.

I believe we will be shocked by the citizenry of Heaven.  As we stroll, or fly, or teleport...whatever the case will be...I believe we will see and meet people that we would never have expected to find there.  And as we see people who in our opinions should never be permitted to enjoy the pleasures of Heaven we will be shown that God's grace is far more outrageous - even scandalous - than we can comprehend.  Jesus mentioned something to the clergymen of his day about the whores and thieves entering the Kingdom before them. I believe we will also be stunned by the absence of those whom we assumed would have a seat of honor at the table.  Though they may have succeeded in duping us with their artificial righteousness, they will be the ones of whom Jesus said, "Many will come in that day saying 'Lord, Lord' but I will say to them, "I never knew you."

When we all get to Heaven I believe we will also be stunned by the disparity between the theologies we held so dear - even died for - and the reality that is before us.  Theology is little more than a man-made systematic method of attempting to study, understand, and explain God and His interaction with His creation.  As I've grown older I've come to understand that every theology is a tapestry interwoven with threads of truth and threads of error.  When we all get to Heaven I believe we will silently ponder the now clear reality of how little we got right and how much we got wrong...and how we allowed arguments over right theology and wrong theology to destroy our earthly unity.

When we all get to Heaven.  Will it be a glorious day of rejoicing?  Absolutely.  I daydream of that coming reality in which I will never again experience pain or suffering or disappointment or sorrow.  I long for that moment when this world around me grows dim and I find myself immersed in an endless expanse of un-created light, experience reunion with those loved ones who have died, and find the final and ultimate completion of who I am in the embrace of the one who died for me.

What am I saying with this post?  Simply this:  That when we all get to Heaven I believe it will be so much more than we can now comprehend and far beyond what can be captured by the words of hymn number 514 in the Baptist hymnal.

Heaven

Divergent Streams

Any reader of my blogs is familiar with the spiritual & ecclesiastical reformation that I've been going through for the past year or so. Throughout this reformation I have found myself strongly drawn into the "Emergent Conversation." From some who know me I've received criticism for seemingly moving away from the "absolute truth" of scripture and for becoming more "postmodern" in my thinking. As I've spent time in this "conversation" over the past months I have an understanding of how someone could fear this theological drift. But I also see more clearly how someone can miss some important points of the conversation. To fully understand what's beginning to happen in this new movement of ministry across America you have to pay attention to what I see as two divergent streams: The Emerging Church & The Emergent Conversation. What began as one stream a few years ago has diverged into two separate channels. I see much beauty and potential in one stream. I see some danger in the other. And unless we have a clear understanding of what is happening in both channels we run the risk of missing the good in one stream through our fear of what is found in the other.

The "emerging church" is made of up churches like Mars Hill in Seattle and Vintage Faith Church in California...and countless other church planting movements. These churches place a strong emphasis on intertwining the ancient truths and practices of our faith into a spiritual life that is holisitic and de-compartmentalized. In other words, there is a deep devotion to Biblical truth. There is a deep respect for our rich heritage; seeing our current place and time as but one thread in a vast tapestry that spans two-thousand years of time and culture. And there is a deep commitment to being more holistic in our approach to spirituality; recognizing that a relationship with Christ is an immersion of our whole life into His way in which no part of our existence remains untouched. In this movement we see the emergence of house churches. We also see a renewal of the practice of communal living. In the "emerging church" movement the idea of Sunday-only Christianity is a strange, offensive anomoly.

And then there is the "Emergent Conversation." I'll refrain from mentioning names of people or names of churches here. I will admit that I find much resonance with what is being said in this conversation, particulary in regards to a greater openness toward people of other religions and lifestyles...for the purpose of loving them into the Kingdom. I believe that what I see in the Emergent Conversation is an openness that is quite similar to that which was demonstrated by Jesus; the friend of sinners. For example, I see churches be-friending gays and lesbians and welcoming them into their gatherings where they can experience the life-changing power of Christ. This is in contrast to more fundamental churches like Westboro Baptist Church that marches in front of gay bars and military funerals holding signs that say "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God For Dead Soldiers."

I see a genuine desire in the Emergent Conversation to open the doors of dialogue between us and those of other religions in which we look for grains of truth in their worldview and then use those grains of truth to point them to Christ - much the same way Paul did in Athens.

But in this stream I also see a tendency that could lead to great theological error. There is a strong tendency toward deconstructionism through which everything that we have embraced as orthodox Christian doctrine through the millenia is broken down and questioned. As a by-product of this some in mainstream Christian denominations are beginning to question things like the deity of Jesus, the exclusivity of salvation through Christ alone (maybe there is salvific value found in other belief systems), etc. This to me is un-settling.

I do believe there is value in examining our beliefs. I make it a practice to dialoge with 4 or 5 atheists and agnostics every day for the sake of sharing the gospel, but also for the purpose of forcing myself to examine why I believe what I believe. Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." I believe we could also say, "The unexamined faith is not worth sharing." But as I see some in the Emergent Conversation asking questions but never settling on answers, I become fearful that there is indeed an emerging acceptance of the postmodern denial of absolute truth.

I will continue to watch and listen with interest to the "Emergent Conversation," but I am fully caught up in the stream of emerging churches that I spoke about first. Christianity is growing everywhere in the world, except in America. In America Islam is the fastest growing religion. I believe that this new stream of emerging churches that carries people into more authentic and holistic spiritual devotion is the stream that will bring genuine revival to our soil.

emerging church