The Need for Focus

Below you'll find the final question taken from a recent Newsweek interview with N. T. Wright (you may click the title of this post to read the entire article). I especially found the highlighted text compelling:

At the Lambeth meeting this summer, the subject of gay unions and gay clergy will top the agenda. What do you think will happen?

I think it's going to be messy. It's already messy. It's not clear quite what the Lambeth Conference could say, let alone is likely to say, that will make things more sharply focused, more wholesome. My hope is—and I know this is [the Archbishop of Canterbury] Rowan Williams's hope—that the Lambeth Conference, by starting as a retreat, will set the tone of prayer, of humility, of listening to one another. Whether that will be allowed to happen, I don't know. This is the task we have been set at the moment, and we have to address it. At the same time, I wish we could prioritize so that we were actually talking about issues of global justice and debt remission and global warming and so on. I mean, there's something very bizarre about the rich arguing about sex while the poor are clamoring for justice.

I am by no means suggesting that the church ought to be silent on the issue of gay unions or the chastity of clergy. I simply agree with N.T. Wright when he implicitly suggests that when these issues dominate the dialogue we lose something. Granted, when a critical mass of unorthodox voices call for a departure from biblical morality the church must give address, it only saddens me that our energy must be diverted from other equally pressing issues.

Can We Learn from Starbucks?

A recent AP release tells how Starbucks has opened a suggestion-box website where loyal customers can share their ideas on how the company can revive it's lagging sales. Writes the AP,

"Most brands do not put out a welcome mat for feedback," said Pete Blackshaw, executive vice president of strategic services for the market research firm Nielsen Online. "Generally feedback is viewed as a cost of doing business rather than an opportunity. Starbucks is saying this is an opportunity." (Click the title of this post for the full article)

The phrase in that paragraph that most caught my attention was "Generally feedback is viewed as a cost of doing business rather than an opportunity" and I wondered, "Where would we best align the church in America, if this question were asked of us? Do we see feedback as a "cost" or as an "opportunity"? I'm thinking especially of conservative evangelicals, of which I'm a part. Certainly, on the one hand, we can never change or manipulate our "product" a.k.a. the Gospel of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, isn't it wise to listen to the audience to whom we are speaking?

Many, if asked, would conclude that Starbucks is in the "coffee business", and there's truth to to that, no doubt; but the larger picture is this: more than coffee-business, Starbucks is in the "people business".

I think they're wise to be listening... I think we're wise to listen as well.

A Pattern Prayer for Everyday Living

O God, our Father, we remember at this time... how the eternal Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

We thank you that Jesus took our human body upon him, so that we can never again dare to despise or neglect or misuse the body, since you made it your dwelling place.

We thank you that Jesus did a day's work like any working-man, that he knew the problem of living together in a family, that he knew the frustration and irritation of serving the public, that he had to earn a living, and to face all the wearing routine of everyday work and life and living, and so clothed each common task with glory.

We thank you that he shared in all happy social occasions, that he was a home at weddings and at dinners and at festivals in the homes of simple ordinary people like ourselves. Grant that we may ever remember that in his unseen risen presence he is a guest in every home.

We thank you that he knew what friendship means, that he had his own circle of men whom he wanted to be with him, that he knew too what it means to be let down, to suffer from disloyalty and from the failure of love.

We thank you that he too had to bear unfair criticism, prejudiced opposition, malicious and deliberate misunderstanding.

We thank you that whatever happens to us, he has been there before, and that, because he himself has gone through things, he is able to help those who are going through them.

Help us never to forget that he knows life, because he lived life, and that he is with us at all times to enable us to live victoriously.

This we ask for you love's sake. Amen

From "Prayers for the Christian Year" by William Barclay

Becoming Whole

Over the past 10 months, two of the pastors on staff at our church have helped me grow and mature in my heart and faith like never before. A key component to that grow has stemmed from a small group we’ve met in that has centered around a book written by Peter Scazzero titled, “The Emotionally Healthy Church”. In it Scazzero argues that behavior often emerges out of feeling. That, in effect, the reason behind broken behavior is emotional wounds, usually from the past. The author suggests that when a person exhibits a behavior that is offensive, we need to look past the behavior and search for the wound from which it emerges. In effect, behavior is the symptom of a deeper spiritual and emotional problem, but not the real problem itself; it is the fruit of the tree, but not the root of it; the presenting problem, but not the true heart issue. Too often, Scazzero argues, the church has focused solely on the “what” while neglecting the “why” behind it. We preach against sin in all of its countless outward manifestations—anger, envy, jealousy, drugs, alcohol, sex addiction, laziness, etc, etc… but never really get to the heart of the matter, which is the question, “WHY? Why does this problem exist?”

All we ask of a convert to the Christian faith is that they adhere to a right belief system (orthodoxy) and that they exhibit clean outward living (orthopraxy) but we seldom address the deep issues of the heart. What we get in the end is examples such as…

A dynamic, gifted speaker for God in public and an unloving spouse or parent a home.

A church board member or pastor who never says "I was wrong" or "Sorry."

A believer who memorizes entire books of the NT and still remains unaware of deep depression and anger that gets directed at other people.

A Christian who fasts and prays several days a week for years as a spiritual discipline but who remains constantly critical of others, justifying it as a gift of discernment.

The high-control small-group leader who cannot tolerate different points of view.

The 35 year old husband busily serving in the church, unaware of his wife's loneliness at home.

The Sunday school teacher struggling with feelings of bitterness and resent toward the pastor but afraid to say anything.

Two intercessors who use prayer meetings to escape from the painful reality of their marriages.

The people in your small group who are are never transparent about their struggles or difficulties.

Maybe it’s just a lot of psychological mumbo-jumbo… maybe it has no place in the church. I’m not writing to argue its validity. I’m only here to tell you it has been healing in my life.

So, this past Sunday I preached in the evening service and, with the encouragement of these pastor-friends, I felt led to share my own testimony of emotional healing and spiritual growth… and was I ever nervous!

Nervous because I’ve done a fantastic job of clothing myself with the right illusion about who I am and what I’m all about. Sharing my true testimony, my true heart-story, meant that it would be necessary to take off the illusion and stand before the people of God naked, vulnerable, exposed.

But this is a part of my journey in holiness… embracing honesty, truth, reality… taking off the mask and being real.

So I told them about my home life and my childhood… the absent father I’ve never known, the abuse, the neglect, the abandonment, the betrayal that all took place in my home. I told them about the twelve schools and seventeen places I lived before I turned 18, the nine states and multiple cities I lived in… all of which became the constant changing of faces in my life… the continual death of relationship after relationship.

I told them about the feelings that emerged in my heart from these life events… feelings of rejection, abandonment, disappointment, doubt, distrust and fear. And I told them how those feelings grew into deep, hardened beliefs and behaviors that have remained with me to this day.

And in the end, I shared with them how God has been healing my heart from these pains from the past. It was a beautiful event… a good moment… a real testimony, given by a mighty God. Perhaps I’ll elaborate more on this blog… perhaps not, we’ll just have to see.

The Evolution of the Soul

I was just looking over this blog... something I once took such pride in regularly updating and posting on... and the thought occurred to me... "What's changed? Where am I?" It's like I've been MIA for the past 12 months.

And I truly have been. I've been taken into a spiritual captivity. God has been retraining and retooling my life this past year. Today, when I look my heart and soul in the mirror, I see a different person, one I never imagined would begin to emerge. Much has changed in my life over the course of the last 10 to 12 months. New church, new responsibilities, new home, new community, new job for Kathy, new schools for the boys... But what has changed most of all is me...

So, how have I changed? Or better said, "How am I changing?"

1. I have found a better source of significance in my life and am pursuing it.
2. I have begun to assess and grieve over my past.
3. I am beginning to know myself (who I am and why I am they way I am) and perhaps for the first time I am beginning to have compassion and love for myself.
4. I am giving up on my harsh criticism and judgment of the church... I'm going to begin to love her.
5. I am committing myself to Jesus (I know, it sounds like a good thing for a pastor to do, doesn't it?)
6. I am, perhaps for the first time, truly beginning now to prioritize my life.

So, out of dozens of possible declarations that might best summarize the changes that have been taking place in me... I think those six may best describe things.

Maybe I'll write a series of posts in the coming weeks over these six topics. Not for you, my few readers... I never began blogging for any of you... but for me. Blogging is writing... and writing is an art and a discipline, one I've been neglecting during these months of upheaval and restructure in my heart and life... perhaps I'm ready to begin again?

Are Christians Too Sheltered and Too Political?

Here's a couple chapter summaries from the book "UnChristian" released this past fall by the Barna Research Group

Christians are—"Sheltered"

“Outsiders think Christianity is out of tune with the real-world choices, challenges, and lifestyles they face. Only one-fifth of young outsiders believe that an active faith helps people live a better, more fulfilling life.” (122)

Kinnaman uses adjectives and phrases such as: “old-fashioned, out of touch, confusing, antiquated, a religion of rules and standards, disconnected from the supernatural, predictable, boring, unlikely to boost intellect, stifles curiosity, brain-dead, (people) living in their own world, not speaking on the same level, a privileged club, a Christian bubble, aloof, insulated, devoid of spiritual vibrancy, parochial, small-minded, and ignorant” to describe how outsider perceive Christians and their faith. These are the findings taken from the recent study conducted by the Barna Research Group.

Furthermore, outsiders describe believers as “disconnected from the young world” implying that we do not understand youth culture today. Perhaps we it is true, Kinnaman share multiple examples of how the world is different for young people today than what it was even twenty years ago.

Of special interest to Kinnaman is the perception by young intellectuals and marginalized groups of society that Christians are especially uninvolved and unaware. Though it is never clearly stated it seems to be implied in the writing that unless you are a white middle-class American you are likely to feel ignored by Christians as a whole.

After establishing through statistical research the many ways outsiders consider believers to be cut off and sheltered from the real world, Kinnaman spends extensive time in this chapter proposing ways in which we as believers can re-engage with the world and meet them on their own turf.

Christians are—"Too Political"

Christians are often perceived by outsiders as being “motivated by a political agenda” and this perception too is negative. In this chapter, as in others, Kinnaman first provides ample research and statistics that reveal how young outsiders perceive Christians and then interprets the data.

His primary conclusion seem to be that 1) Christians should engage in politics; 2) Christian are often associated with the Republican Party, but in reality they actually make a diverse political demographic; 3) Political allegiances are shifting, in that younger evangelicals are increasingly siding with the Democratic Party; 4) It is not political involvement that troubles outsiders, but Christian attitudes of pride, arrogance and moral superiority that disturb them.

Thoughts on Life and Living

"Christ has not called us to defend Him... He has called us to demonstrate him and proclaim Him." Joseph Sizoo

"Good fences don't make for good (sharing). People sense a fence. Many a fence has become a wall. You can build a wall keeping you out of people's lives, a wall keeping them out of your fellowship, and sometimes even keeping them out of the Kingdom. Whether your wall was built to harbor your personal inhibitions, to ease your fear of exposing your deep-seated attitudes, or to hide the frustrations from your inner tensions, if you fail share you fail to reach.

Walls may be constructed of professional verbiage, theological terms, philosophical intricacies of thought, striving for literary or social sophistication, or the frantic back-slappings of the would be social comedian. There may be a studied aloofness, a kind of stupid, stumbling naivete, a sweeping, suave finesse, or dead-serious somberness that is not reflected in life. Dare to be your genuine self and then share it.

The people yearn for you to share yourself. Do it gladly. "The son of man came not to be ministered to, but to minister and to give--to give his life" "God so loved the world that He gave" Love so deeply that you give. Give gladly. Give yourself. All of yourself. Gladly."

Ralph Lewis, Persuasive Preaching Today