No longer a professional

Sitting outside early this morning listening to the final drops of rain make their splattering noises on the leaves of the ash tree that guards my back yard, this thought knocked on the door, seeking entrance into my queue of musings: I am no longer a professional. This may not make sense to those of you who have never made your living doing church work, so I will try and explain. In vocational ministry, you have two sometimes conflicting needs; your faith and your salary. Both serve important purposes, but when one is dependent on the other, they can create a little cognitive dissonance. I raised my own finances through individual donors and interested churches for 18 years. We all were taught to say that we are trusting God for our needs, but it wasn’t always that easy, especially when you know that God is providing through people who may not be too happy with the directional risk you feel strongly about needing to take the ministry. If I decide we need to go that direction, and my salary donors don’t like the idea, what will I choose? Do I lean toward keeping people happy, or do I forge ahead with what seems to be the right thing? Such is the dilemma of the professional, one that I don’t experience right now. This is more of the freedom my soul clamors for. Faith and salary are much easier for me to maintain now that they are not dependent on each other. I still believe I am dependent on the Hand of God and His grace to provide my daily bread. I can gladly receive blessing and good fortune without having to hide what I really believe and am actually wrestling with concerning my faith. This is where I pity the pastor who has to stand in front of a congregation upon whom he is dependent for tithes and offerings. He can’t really be honest about his thoughts on prayer, especially when he is launching into a 5 week suppository preaching series on the Present Power of Purposeful People in Prayer.

Living Backward

My, how habits quickly form. I’ve had a laptop computer for a few months and when it went down last week, I then realized its impact on my routine. I usually log in first thing in the morning and do my writing then, but not having it available has left me silent on my blog. This has me asking if its a good thing or not, this dependence on machinery and technology. To live and work and interact in our culture today does require certain components like a phone or a car. I find myself daydreaming often about living a simpler life. Usually it starts out with "wouldn’t it be nice if..." I think this is a pretty common reaction for any generation. It seems to be human nature when we get to a certain point in life, it becomes more appealing to look backward than to look forward. Is there a reason why are we so inclined to reminisce? Could it be this is just another form of grief? And don't we grieve when we feel loss? Maybe it’s a loss of innocence or loss of time or energy. The old days may seem more pure or wholesome or honest, and we yearn for that. I’m not sure that’s a bad thing, but it can become one if we are not careful. I always come back to this advice in Ecclesiastes: "Do not say, 'Why were the old days better than these?' For it is not wise to ask such questions." It’s not wise because we don’t live backwards. Hope always lies ahead, not behind us. We don’t hope for what we see or have seen. We hope for what is unseen. Without hope, we are dead. Dead men have no future. Better days lie ahead because there will be men and women like yourself who will hope for them. You will invite the next generation to go forward with you because you have a place to go. Don’t get stuck in the past. Remember it with fondness, but also remember that it is never to be our destination.

Branding the Church

Since we are starting a new business soon, I’ve been reading up on marketing and the act of creating a recognizable brand, which is known as “branding,” Similar to a rancher putting a mark on the hip of his cattle, branding a business helps it stand out from another herd. Branding is an identifier. One way a brand is created is by the use of catch phrases, or by-lines, that summarize the product or business. Coke is identified as “The Real Thing.” McDonald’s changes theirs from time to time, lately it seems like they want me to know that “I’m lovin’ it.” I even remember back when I was a kid, the fuel additive, STP, was known as “The Racers Edge.” The catch phrase attempts to connect the product to the consumer, by making the brand seem like something worth having. Coke thinks you value authenticity, so you would probably want The Real Thing. Nike thinks you will buy into the discipline it takes to get good at a sport, so it tells you to Just Do It. You get the picture The Church As We Know It plays the same the same branding game by using its own by-lines. Here’s a few I’ve come across recently:

• A church of Broken People
• A bunch of messed up folks, so you’ll feel right at home.
• Not perfect, just forgiven.

I get the idea of trying to connect with people who have needs, but at some point doesn’t this kind of marketing break down? In the attempts to build a bridge between church and culture, does it help to say that the only difference between you and me is that I’m forgiven? It may inspire you, but it leaves me a little flat. I’ve got my weaknesses like the next guy, but I certainly don’t want to stay there. I don’t want my Achilles heel to be my identity. I want to be different. I want to grow and change. I want to leave that old stuff behind and live free. Can I do that among a bunch of people who boast about being messed up? The Church As We Know It needs to be aware of this focus. If it is to live by marketing, it must be willing to die by that same marketing. Branding itself as a Not Perfect, Just Forgiven will only lead to a church with no visible differences from its culture. At some point, who wants be a part of a group of people whose forgiveness doesn’t really lead to anything?

QSL

One of my earliest memories of my dad was sitting in his lap while he communicated to others via shortwave, also known as ham radio. He had a wall full of gear, among it was a SWAN transceiver over which he could talk around the world. It was his generation’s form of the World Wide Web. Old school hams would use morse code, of which he was one, and able to utilize this skill in the Army. He could very accurately transmit and receive the short and long tones, which to my young ears were called dits and dahs. I would mimic the sounds coming over the airwaves out in the garage for hours, according to my mom. DaDaDaDitDitDaDitDitDa. Over and over again, imitating my dad’s tapping on the key. Every once in a while he would get a postcard in the mail from a fellow ham radio enthusiast with whom he had made contact. The card was known as a QSL, which in the lingo of their world, it was an indication of receipt of transmission. When you made contact with someone, you could request a QSL, and guys like my dad would collect these postcards that had their call letters. (Dad’s was WA5JSE. The JSE stood for “Jesus saves everyone”) The cards might come from anywhere in the country, sometimes from around the world. Seems like I remember among them were Alaska and South American. I thought that was way cool. My kids don’t think this story is such a big deal and understandably so. It’s nothing to them to contact someone in Alaska or South America. Their world is smaller. They don’t get postal mail anymore. They are not as fascinated as I am in our ability to communicate around the world in an instant. I, on the other hand, am always amazed to think that when I publish this or any blog post, it becomes instantly accessible to anyone with a computer hooked into the Internet from anywhere around the globe. Such is the generation gap. So if you would humor me a bit, allow me to go back to my childhood and relive the fond days of my dad and bringing in from the mailbox those QSL cards, If you read this blog, could you simply leave a comment stating your city and state, and country if outside the US? I would greatly appreciate it. Over and Out.

The Disease of Comparison

Those of us afflicted with the Disease of Comparison know the effects it has within. See, the soul is just like any other part of the body when it hurts; it demands relief. The headache begs an aspirin; the heart looks to contempt. When you feel like a nobody, you have two options available to relieve that pain. You can use contempt on yourself or you can use it on other people. Either is an attempt to try and feel better. It’s ironic that both are equally destructive. What does this have to do with anything? With all the change that is occurring in the Church As We Know It, naturally what comes with it is comparison. Take Emergent Guy for example. Let’s say he doesn’t fit in with MegaChurch Guy and what he is doing. Emergent Guy finds himself feeling marginalized and left out and doesn’t know where to turn. This is where contempt comes in. Emergent Guy has the option of pouring contempt on himself or upon MegaChurch Guy, the one with whom he compares himself. Since he doesn’t know what to do with the pain of feeling like an outsider, he may beat himself up for not being a better person, assuming he is to blame. He buys the line, “If God feels far off, guess who moved?” thinking he must be the problem. It’s easier to feel bad and guilty that to risk doing something legitimate about how he feels. His other option is to turn his contempt outward, toward MegaChurch Guy, making him the problem. He immediately feels better as he passes judgement on all the money and people MegaChurch guy has show up at his deal. He condemns their work, calling it shallow or soft on real issues. I’ve used both pain relievers in my day. I’ve been from one extreme to the other. I’ve felt contempt for my own work and I’ve had plenty of bad things to say about others. I wish I could take back the number of times I bad mouthed other collegiate ministries. I now see I did so because my soul was not healthy. Comparison is a sad disease. It stunts growth; it keeps one very small. It limits potential. I’m finding that its only effective tonic is joy. A happy heart is good medicine. Its only downside is that it is in short supply and often very hard to find. When my spirit is inebriated on joy, comparison seems a million miles away.

That !@#$ Dalmatian

The megachurch had their big Easter show Sunday and was reported to have 6000 people show up. I would be lying to you if I told you I wasn’t jealous. Competition and comparison was something that ate at me like a nest of termites in the walls of an old house. I knew they were in there, hidden out of sight to the visitor, but occasionally if I’d lean in close enough, I could hear their destructive movement and gnawing. I don’t know how prevalent competition and comparison really are, because they are two issues not easily discussed among colleagues. Who do you talk about your problem of comparing yourself to the performance of other pastors? Certainly not with the guy you compare yourself to. That’s kinda like a guy asking a girl to forgive him for his lust problem. What’s she supposed to do about it? The counsel I was given over the years all seemed to center around a core belief that results don’t matter, which is usually the source of comparison. The little guy looks at his labor and holds it up against what the big guy is doing. Then the little guy is supposed to simply say it doesn’t matter. I’m just not that spiritual. It does matter what I do. It does matter what fruit I bear. It does matter to what I have to show for my labor. So why does ChristianMan try and talk me out of it? In order to pay my way through seminary, I worked as a gardener for some rich people near our school. I had one lady give me pretty much carte blanche over her yard. I could plant whatever flowers I thought looked good for the season. She even gave me her credit card to purchase the necessary plant material. It was a good gig. Until the day the Dalmatian showed up. Her goofball husband bought an equally deficient puppy for her for Christmas. To cut to the chase, the !@# dog proceeded to tear up everything I ever did in the yard and garden. It frustrated me to no end. I told her “Sheri, you can either have a dog or a garden, not both,” but she didn’t heed my advice. Her reply was to just go buy and plant more. But part of what I loved about the job was to look back on my work and admire its beauty. I took pride in what I did in making her house look well kept, and in doing so, making her very pleased. The dog thwarted this desire, and the job was never the same. I continued to serve her, but the joy was gone. But if that was a ministry job, I would be told that I shouldn’t care whether or not the dog digs up my work. I’d be chided with a statement like, “It’s not about you.” I would be made to feel guilty for taking pride in what I accomplished. So what am I to do with the longing to have my best to offer? How do you turn that off? Even the successful guy can’t revel in his work. I would be willing to bet that at the big megachurch show this weekend, the 6000 sets of ears heard some kind of downplay of all the work that went into getting to that point. I’m not ready to act like results don’t matter. I just don’t want those results to rule over me.

Easter Morning

Up early as usual on this Easter Sunday, my day off. Sleeping in means getting up at 5 instead of 4:30am. I love the mornings, and always have. I was a bit of an oddball in college. I went to bed by 11pm often, while that was just about the point most guys in Sager Hall seemed to be getting ready for their day, or rather, night. Stillness always leads me to my innermost thoughts, which is probably why I seek it so often. I can’t get to those places with a lot of mental clutter scattered around, which comes in the form of noise and other demands. Sometimes I wish I was more like the guys in college who seemed to need chaos in order to thrive, since its much easier to create and maintain that kind of environment, but for some reason I think better in tidy places, thus my love of the early morning hour. Today’s quietness in the house with a fresh pressed cup of Dark Kenyan roast led me to think over many past Easter Sundays, where by now at this time of hour I would be in full gear, getting ready for leadership of multiple services, helping the band feel confident and prepared, praying over the needs of people who would enter in and experience our presentation. We all have our recognizable voices that speak so loudly in our mind, regardless of the decibel level of other kind of activity, but being this still brings about a sort of democratic process, and lets the littler, and most times, most important voices be heard. One of those voices this morning said, “You miss that, don’t you?” Instead of being rude and dismissing the statement, I chose to ask for clarification, and here was the answer. “You miss the feeling of importance. You liked that rush of having to come through, of having to deliver in the clutch. By this, you mattered. Unlike many who would rather die than get up in front of a 900 pairs of staring eyes, you felt alive in front of the crowd.” After the small voice spoke, I waited and waited. I kept waiting, but my expected follow-up never came. I expected shame. My knee jerk reaction was to brace for a condemning voice of shame for enjoying those past days of leadership. I just assumed the voice in my head was giving me a lead in for a good spanking. But it never happened. The voice just went away. And such is the nature of Quiet. If I turn the volume of silence up loud enough, it’s all I hear. And now at this early hour on Easter Sunday, I’ve already attended my sunrise service. I’ve already heard the sermon, and am ready to enjoy my day of rest. Happy Easter.

"It’s not about the building"

The big megachurch in town has built a massive new auditorium structure just in time for Easter, so we’re hearing a lot about it. We got the usual bulk mailing piece designated to our zip code that had the catchy graphics and title of the sermon series that tries to get you to think that church is full of messed up people like yourself and so you’ll feel right at home. (Not really inspiring to me, but that’s another post.) I know quite a few people who go to this megachurch and it’s funny to hear how people justify such a large outlay of cash for an auditorium that will be used in its capacity maybe one day a week. Some of my friends are conflicted, but won’t come right out and admit it. Most that are leaning to the side of thinking it’s a good idea inevitably slide this little caveat into the conversation: “It’s not about the building, you know?” Why does ChurchGuy feel the need to continually justify what he is doing for the sake of the gospel? I somehow don’t picture Giovannino de Dolci repeating over and over again, “It’s not about the building, you know?” while he oversaw the construction of the Sistine Chapel. Why do we look at the ceiling of his building and what Michelangelo painted there and have a different response than walking into a 10 million dollar state of the art sound and lighting, media communications, plasma TV-walled wonderland? One we label as a masterpiece and the other judged as a waste of money. My point is not whether or not the megachurch should keep building something bigger and better, I’m intrigued by the need to constantly justify doing so. Worship leaders are notorious for this same rationalization. Their phrase “It’s not about me” is used ad nauseum. Why do we need songs to remind us over and over again that it’s not about me, unless I have a problem with it being about me? If ChurchGuy needs to keep reminding me that it’s not about the building, its going to make me think that the building really is causing some internal strife. We are planning to open a restaurant this spring. To do so I had to leave my vocational ministry job, which didn’t pay much or have many benefits. I now face the possibility of making quite a bit more money than before. But wouldn’t you feel suspicious of me if I constantly reminded you that this business venture is “not about the money?” The reason I don’t feel the need to justify my change is that I don’t feel guilty, so I don’t really even think about it. Plus I don’t assume you are looking at me and judging my decision to change careers. And if you are, that’s a You-problem. God, bless the megachurch this weekend, and the poor tormented folks who are still trying to reconcile the need for their new building. Amen.

Joy

I’m currently pondering this question concerning the phrase; the joy of the Lord is my strength. Is there really any other kind? I feel like I have been told for years that there is a difference, and have just assumed that being joyful in the Lord was some kind of state one should attain by “appropriation” of some sort of right formula of scripture memory, self denial and church attendance. I’m not doing much of any right now and am feeling more filled with joy than any time I can remember. Is my happiness the wrong type? I’d like to think that if “all truth is God’s truth,” then all joy should also be the Lord’s. If the rain falls on the just and the unjust, then does it matter if that rainfall is a gentle spring shower or a punishing deluge? Both experience it, regardless of any kind of relationship with God. So if listening to the rain, or watching a sunset (or any other form of beauty) makes me, a person of faith, and an atheist happy, is that joy somehow different for him than it is me? Same with the birth of a baby, or a sweet reunion, or a moving song, or a fascinating meal, or a long walk with a dear friend. Is this joy the Lord’s, too? I place the blame on my confusion of my past way of thinking. I used to try and divide everything into a sacred/secular category. You had your Christian friends, and then you had the ones you were trying to witness to. There was “Christian” music, and then there was “secular.” No matter if one was nicer and more kind, or technically and artistically better than the other. The former was somehow sanctioned, while the latter was not. Today I worry less about these little categories, because now that I see they were created to try and limit me and keep me safe. Thanks for your concern, Whoever Led Me to Think This Way, but I find that I now trust in bigger parameters to keep me in check. I’m moving on now. Beginning my day with faith, hope and love seems to lead me to better places.

Happy

Every person has this in common; we all want to be happy. It’s the pathway we each choose to find that destination that differs broadly. This is a hard pill for many to swallow, especially for many church-goers and people of faith. Happiness, by some, is equivalent with being shallow or superficial or not living in the real world. Do you know someone who is genuinely happy? Probably not many of us do. The reason being happy is so hard to accept as legitimate is because our happiness is being assaulted every single day of our lives. Tragedy strikes us on every front. Our world is broken, and pain and sorrow often stand waiting for us at the edge of the bed as we rise. Many of us, survival is our first thought. “How will I make it through the day?” Take mountain climber Aron Ralston for example. Survival instinct led him to cut off his hand after four days of being pinned under a boulder. I watched an interview with him and heard the responses of a sample of viewers to the story. Some thought he was courageous, most thought he was an idiot for getting himself in such a dangerous situation in the first place. Regardless, I’m impressed with his choice. Instead of resigning, giving up and rolling over to die, he was willing to exchange the loss of his hand for more days to be alive and enjoy life. When it got difficult, he didn’t quit. Grief, sorrow, illness, pain and cutting off your hand are not what we wake up in the morning looking to find. These things find us. But we must contend with them if we are to take our joy seriously. It is far too easy to let the circumstances lead us to stay in the dark. The phrase, the joy of the Lord is your strength, must be taken as seriously today as in the days of Nehemiah. The effect is simple. The more we are familiar with joy, the more we want to experience it. Similar to our vacations in Colorado, the reason we love going back year after year is this; we have a wonderful time there. You may find yourself stuck in the wilderness and far from the joy of the Lord, but keep listening for its invitation back.

Will be capable of saying no to recognition.

I was at a worship conference years ago and chose the workshop titled, “Submitting your song.” As an inspiring young song writer, I thought maybe this might help me get some of my work noticed. The guy leading the seminar was from a company who discovered the song “Heart of Worship” by Matt Redman. He was very proud of this song and proceeded to tell us the story of how it was written. The church Mr. Redman was leading at the time was encountering a season of sloth in its approach to worship. The leadership began to detect this and decided the proper response in addressing it was to remove music from their times of worship, to sit quietly together and simply allow the Spirit to move in their midst. It was reported that an incredible time of renewal came upon their congregation. The line from the lyric, “I’ll bring you more than a song…” reflects that time. Seminar Guy encouraged questions from us in attendance, so I asked him if there was ever a time when they found an awesome song like that, but decided to leave it alone because it was too sacred to be thrust upon the masses. He had no idea what I was asking. I tried to clarify by exploring the notion of allowing a song to stay where it was born and letting it live out its useful days there, instead of seeing it as the next big thing and recording and selling the life out of it. My bottom line question was, “Have you ever found a great song you knew would sell, but did not bring yourself to try and get that song noticed?” “No.” Next question. I may just be judgmental, but there is something in me that wanted to hear the guy say yes, followed by a number of examples of how their company let an incredible song be. But instead it was more about finding the next big hit. Suddenly, getting a song noticed lost some of its luster. What was becoming of my motive for song writing? Was it to bless the people I was leading, or was it to make a name for myself? I’ll admit it’s a pretty good buzz to hear someone sing your stuff. I’m not sure I have the maturity to handle too much of that kind of success. Which bring me to my point, that the Worship Leader of the Church of the Future will not be seduced by popularity, recognition or fame. But instead will have the ability to say no to all of it, even if it means not allowing a song to be noticed. Instead, he or she is able to keep it as an intimate and sacred expression for the flock.

Will become a psalmist

The worship leader in the Church of the Future will understand the importance of putting his or her congregational experiences into words. King David did this for his people, and it was such an important part of cultural life, it became canonized. Every expression of church needs to identify the people with a gift of writing and allow them to chronicle it's journey. The ability to look back over personal history gives perspective, reminds us of where we have been and how faith has grown as a result. God constantly put this one word in front of His people; Remember. Psalms don’t necessarily need to be music. Some of David’s works might have been publicly sung, and are noted, for the choir director, but we don’t use them in the same manner today. Don’t make writing music a requirement. First encourage writing. This is one of the cool things about the blog world. The Internet has given everyone a voice, despite whether or not they have anything good to say. An aspiring psalmist doesn’t need to wait around on someone to give permission. She can just write. If it’s good, others will eventually find out. So if you’re reading this and think you might be able to fill this role, but are not currently writing, I ask “Why not?” Don’t wait for someone to give you permission or a position before you start. Write first for you.

Must express worship outside the realm of music.

How many times have you heard, or even said yourself, that worship is not about singing songs? I once heard a guy speak at a leaders conference about worship, going on and on about how it’s more than a song, more than a band, more than music. He spoke passionately to this group of young leaders about being aware that God wants more than just singing. He ended his time by saying we were going to worship together. I was intrigued by what we would do after such a talk. We sang. I was so disappointed. Here was a leader of leaders, expounding on the need to understand that worship is more than a song, and yet when it came time to “worship,” we did the same old thing. We sang songs. The Worship Leader of the Future will take seriously the need to lead people to express worship outside the realm of music. Worship Music has become a product, and a commodity and I believe there needs to be a shift away from that. I’m not saying that music is wrong or has no place in the expression of worship. It will always be a part of our devotion toward God. Music lets us say things that mere words alone would not. But if we are going to seriously proclaim that worship is more than a song, we’ve got to be willing and able to back that up through leadership. King David questioned his ability to offer praise from the grave. Only living beings respond. Dead ones don’t. No life. No Worship. If The Worship Leader of the Future will put his/her effort toward awakening hearts to fully and deeply experience Life to the Full, maybe then worship will be a more common, everyday occurrence, music or not.

Must learn to lead people, not music

What I observe in the worship movement over the last 20 years is that worship has become a product and not an expression. Worship music is a viable economic genre in the music industry. If you have a good voice and can play an instrument, and are a decent person, you can probably make a name for yourself if you get the right breaks. Notice I said nothing about leading people. All one has to do is lead music. The problem enters when you want to do music that your congregation or audience doesn’t want to sing. This is when you find out what kind of leader you are. Will you simply be a dispenser of religious goods and services via the songs you choose, or will you have the savvy to recognize and go to task against a consumptive spirit that demands to be fed? I got started leading music in front of people around 1990. The praise band thing was very new. Not many in my circle were aware of the shift that was occurring. They just thought I was hip and innovative. I didn’t have the spine to say I was following someone else’s lead. We took lots of risks in those days. We took some heat for it at times, but for the most part people followed where we led them. We used lots of different styles of music and other expressions of awe and gratitude. It was a great experience. But as time went on, something odd started to happen. It was not new any longer. The rise of the worship rock star caused people to want to sing his songs. It became more difficult to lead locally with intimate expressions that flowed from our own congregational life. The public wanted what was on the CD, not what was on the leader’s heart. It was at this point nearly three years ago, when I witnessed people evaluating a so-called worship experience. You could have exchange the word “food” for “worship” and get the same result. I didn’t like this….Too much…Too long…. Not familiar…I want…I like…I prefer…etc, etc. etc. I knew if I were to keep doing what I was doing, I was in for a long, uphill climb. It became clear that the next leg of the journey would fall to the leader who can lead people out of this consumptive mode. I determined I was not up for the task within that world. I decided to step out and take a different path. It’s been that long since I picked up my guitar. Not out of self-pity, but rather out of deference. Is worship more than songs, more than my instrument, more than my position on stage in front of people? Is it more than CD’s and concerts and bands and cool personalities? I plan to find out.

The Worship Leader of the Future

As a person who held a position in the Church As We Know It for several years as Worship Leader, I offer my thoughts on a few things the person in that role needs to consider if he or she is serious about moving forward and not stagnating. My next posts will cover these ideas The Worship Leader of the Future… …Must learn to lead people, not worship. …Must express worship outside of the realm of music …Will become a psalmist …Will have the courage to say no to recognition.

Led by Ordinary People

Have you ever heard the phrase, “Perception is reality”? This was a new one to me, heard on the radio recently. It was used to describe baseball player Barry Bonds alleged steroid use. People form an opinion about Barry Bonds, not because they have accurate, truthful information about it, but rather based on how they perceive the situation. This is why lawyers and politicians rely on spin doctors to position their story in a way that the public will receive it the way they want. Our culture will grow continually suspect of information they receive. Who can you believe anymore? Network news? Cable news? Talk radio? Internet bloggers? These sources all spin their stories according to an agenda. If I want to know how the war in Iraq is doing, who do I believe? At any point during the day I can find conflicting reports, one says it’s going well; the other says it’s a lost cause. So who do I believe when I want to know the condition of the Church As We Know It? Media will tell me one thing. Denominational leaders will tell me another. The Emergent Guy has his opinion. So does the Purpose Driven guy. GodMen think they’ve got the answer, as does the numerous Christian authors who are pissed at the church but not at Jesus. The answer? I’m not really sure, but I do think I see a result. More and more ordinary people like you and me will realize that it doesn’t really matter what everyone else thinks. The average, everyday, ordinary guy will find that the experts don’t really have all the answers and that what really matters is how he lives his life each day. Once this shift occurs, men will stop feeling like they have to rely on the Church As We Know It to validate their visions. They will act upon what they believe needs to be done, not upon what is perceived as the common, acceptable way of doing ministry. More and more men will take hold of leadership of the Church of the Future and stop waiting around for someone to validate and affirm their manhood.

Less Polarizing II

Anger is everywhere I look. The guy that flipped me off in the parking lot waiting on someone to back out of a parking space. The Christian talk show host railing against the Democrats. The lady in line at Target yelling at her kids. I’m not sure why, but I have started watching for anger in our culture and I am amazed at what I see. Why are we so angry as a society? What’s driving all this madness? Whenever I see a puzzling, intriguing or uncomfortable behavior in someone else, I try and remember Jesus’ words and look for that very behavior in my own life. It’s a whole lot easier to study that way, because I can ask myself questions all day long, where as Mr. Drive-By-Finger guy left before I could ask him what the hell his problem was. What makes me angry? Usually it’s when I have been thwarted in some way. I want something and can’t have it, so I get mad. I would guess it’s the same for you, too. It doesn’t matter if its sleep, respect or the remote. If we don’t get it, an irritation develops; one that can easily lead to anger. What helps ease the emotion is if we have an advocate for our desire. A simple act of saying “I’m sorry” can quench the fires of many angry hearts. But in our culture, who stands for us? We are mostly alone. We are left to fend for ourselves. So if anger is provoked internally by me not getting my way, is this the same reason for anger in the Church As We Know It? Is your pastor or favorite bible teacher angry? Are your deacons angry? Are key leaders in your church angry? Maybe it’s because they are not getting their way. Years ago, The Church As We Knew It walked in close step with a common morality among the people our culture. Local governments liked the influence of churches because it helped them do their job and vice versa. Why do you think there were no alcohol sales on Sunday? But over time, those rules became irrelevant, and so was the Church. The Church isn’t getting its way, and many of its leaders are pissed. But if I am going to ever hope for sweeping change, I must firmly grasp the fact that change always begins with me, then with us. I will never see any kind of transformation if I try to start with you, and fail to include how I need to change in order to be a part of the solution. Polarity won’t win this kind of battle.

Less Polarizing

The Church of the Future is going to have to reckon with certain issues if it is going to have anything to do with the redemptive work of which it claims it is a part. A big one is what it will do concerning homosexuality. I’m not implying that it needs to decide if it is right or wrong. What I am saying is that the Church of the Future will need to know how to contend with the issue, because it’s not going away anytime soon. If you are a sports fan and listen to talk radio like I do, you probably heard the week-long topic of discussion of John Amaechi and Tim Hardaway. For those out of the loop, Haradway, a former NBA player, made some very strong, hateful comments toward Amaechi, after he announced he was gay. Amaechi wrote a book about his NBA career and what it was like being a homosexual in the sport. Hardaway in these words said, “I hate gay people.” One of the myriad of talking personalities during the week commented on how statements like these only serve to further the cause of the person being attacked. Amaechi comes out looking better and sells more books, while Hardaway creates a stain on his image that probably won’t ever buff out. This is a deeply polarizing issue for the Church As We Know It. But I propose that the Church of the Future not take an “us versus them” stance. Like it or not, the condition is going to be with us for a while. It will only continue to gain mainstream support, and the Church As We Know will either be backed into a corner by it, or it will learn how to be kind, compassionate and gracious, thereby proving its faith is something worth having. In the faith tradition I grew up in, there seemed to be an unwritten rule that to have compassion on someone who disagrees with your morals is to somehow compromise your own personal morality. One guy I knew wouldn’t give any help to street people because he said it wouldn’t do any good, and that it was probably their wrong choices that got them into that situation, so to give them money would just reinforce those poor decisions. He could use the Bible to reinforce his position, too.

More Free II

As parents, we want to do a good job raising our kids. It’s very easy to set boundaries and rules for children to follow. They need structure and guidelines to help their progress toward maturity. But as my wife and I have found, there is a continual relaxing of those very rules as a child gets older. The reason being we want them to make their own decisions. We have not succeeded as parents if by age 18 we are still telling our kids what to wear and what to do. The Church of the Future will need to understand and embrace this idea as it interacts with its surrounding culture. There is no longer any kind of common morality between the Church as We Know It and our society at large. If playing by the rules is the starting point for the conversation, the Church as We Know It is not going to find many people with which to speak. Instead, the Church of the Future will have the ability to walk along side and wait, just as in the story of the Prodigal Son. I call it the “Eat until you’re hungry” approach. The son was clamoring for his freedom, and the father willingly gave it to him, and even saw fit to fund it as we. The father knew that there was no way the son would ever understand how good he had it until he set him free to do whatever he pleased. He sent him out to get his fill, to eat and eat and eat until he got hungry. His freedom led to an epiphany; his life is going nowhere. And it took unbridled freedom for him to find that out. Freedom to do ill as well as freedom to change. The Church of the Future will adopt this kind of fatherly role. Instead of being frantic that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, it will stand secure in what it believes without trying to force or manipulate others to change, but instead being ready to love, willing to forgive, and thus proving the faith it holds dear.

More Free

Freedom should not be that hard to understand, but trying to explain the spiritual concept sometimes seems harder than trying to describe the doctrine of the Trinity. Freedom is freedom. Period. It means you have permission to do whatever you desire. If you’re not free to do wrong as well as right, then it’s not freedom. When the Law was given to the Israelites, it was just like any other law; it provided civil and social order. It served as means to direct cultural life and set apart those who kept it from the rest of the world. It kept the people distinct. But Jesus died to free us from that restriction. No longer does the person of faith need a set of rules to make him or her look and act different. A new conscience coupled with a new relationship is sufficient. Love is now to be the distinguishing factor. But somewhere along the line, the Church As We Know It has looked to morality as the badge of honor. If the Spirit is here now to help us determine right and wrong and how to judge between the two, why are we so quick to run to a set of guidelines, or six easy steps, or seven promises to govern our behavior? In most ChristianMan gatherings I’ve been in, the common answer to overcoming sexual temptation has often been behavioral. The way we were taught to avoid it was to be in an accountability group, memorize Romans 6, 7 and 8, avoid tempting situations and now a current one, unplug your computer. It may have temporarily adjusted the behavior, but did it really address the real question of the man’s heart? Freedom does not mean just avoiding certain actions. I believe it means those actions no longer hold any power. Is the alcoholic really free if he can’t be around alcohol? Is the guy addicted to porn walking in liberty if he needs to have someone check his history file? So why does the Church As We Know It give men behavioral answers and tell us we can’t really expect to be free? Morality is an important thing, but morality is not the starting point of the life of faith. Look at the first family of faith; Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were a bunch of liars, cheats, polygamists. Study their behavior sometime and try and explain their morality to your kids. What they did possess is faith, which is something the Son of Man is very interested in.