A cry for community

This world is simply out of its mind.  We rail against the minutia of “mini-aggressions” but seem not to worry at all about the millions of humans on the path to eternal damnation.  There are those who would tear down the historical symbols of the past because they were defending something that was perceived in the now to be wrong and yet we praise those who do not honor our country and its flag by not standing at a football game. I think the world is just losing it.

At issue is that life is not about the past, or symbols, or seeming inequity, or healthcare for all, or the rich getting richer.  Life must be more than that.  It is not about a lack of caring.  We care about it all. Never-the-less, we just care too much about the wrong things.

Listen carefully.  You may hear the muffled cry in the cacophony and din of all the things that would silence the call.  It is almost a whimpering in the night.  There is a call.  But that call is not for justice.  That call is not for the accumulation of things.  That call is not political, or religious, or which side to take.  The little voice within you that is being ignored in all the turmoil and judgmental actions, is simply a call for someone to care.  Someone to take a moment and listen to you.  It is a call for human intimacy.

There must be more than just being right.  There must be more than believing like all your friends believe.  All these things, all these wants are really tied up in simply wanting to be part.  A part of something more than self.  It is a call to community.  There is an inner need to be a part.  There is something within that cries out in the darkness of turmoil.

If a society wanted to change into anarchy how would you do it? First fragment family life.  Take our families and break them up with divorce, create single parent homes, find so many things to do that you don’t have time to do anything together.

Second, cut your roots.  Move to a place where you work in one place and live in another.  And make that commute so long that you don’t have time for your basic family unit.  They are probably not at home anyway; you know soccer, hanging out with friends, church, education.

Third, find something that takes your complete attention and requires no interaction.  The slavery of the screen.  Televisions with over 500  channels, phones that you can instantly know what your BFF had for lunch, computers that simply suck up every extra moment of the day to view the latest YouTube video of a horse with pink athletic shoes and a pink ribbon holding his ears singing the latest mindless, and meaningless song.

Let’s find a cause which gives us something to be against. Let us not be for anything just be against something else.  Become a Republicrat so I can condemn the Librsocialsts.  Let us not try to get anything done, just block everyone else.

It is no wonder that in the High Priestly prayer of Jesus in John 17 that the reoccurring petition is for relationship, for one being touching another.

Trials and our response

No one likes being tested.  No one likes being on trial.  No one likes discipline. But they happen.  It happens.  There is no one immune to them.  They just happen.  We have no control over them.  But for a Christian they must be seen as a “woe is me moments.”   Our response makes all the difference.

First of all , one way of responding to these unwanted events in you life is to REBEL.  I will fight back.  I will put all my strength into a response that is characterized by anger, deceit, vengeance all filled with an attitude of pay back.

The second way to respond is to simply REJECT.  You can push back from the situation and cloister yourself way from it all.  Dig a hole in the sand and stick your head in. You can simply pretend it does not exist.  But it does not go away.

The next response can well be characterized as RESIGN.  You believe that nay response is futile.  You shout to God “I give up, I am powerless.”  You lay down in the gutter and let the garbage of live cover you and drive you to the sewer.  In a way, it is a move forward from the other previous two responses because you are acknowledging your inability to meet the challenge on your own. But in there is little hope.

In my opinion the best response to trials is REJOICE.  This may sound a little strange.  You might well thing that is simply impossible.  Quoting Jesus, “God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things about you (Matthew 5).”  God is still God and he has a blessing for you.

This does not mean to slather your problems with a sugar coating.  It is looking intently at that situation with clarity and reality and say, “I choose to accept this situation as a situation which God can work.”

It turns a prison to a palace.

It turns an heartache into a heart throb.

It turns a trial into a triumph.

It is the best choice.

What do you think?  Leave a comment.

A fundamental concern

I am open to change, I may not like everything that change brings, but I am willing to give it a chance.  I know that I have written on this subject before but here I go again.  It is about the new music in the church.  To me they all sound the same.  And I really don’t get the seemingly lack of theology.  I am old school.  If it is in the hymnal then it is what we should be singing.  But it just isn’t so.

I would fully suppose that the great hymns of the church were considered as out of the main stream when they were first introduced. I can imagine a congregation of devout and staid parishioners singing “It is well with my soul” for the first time and wondering if was a little out there.  Today’s music may well be tomorrow’s hymns.  Never-the-less, that does not quench the fire I have for “I stand amazed in the presence of the Nazarene” or “Victory in Jesus”.

There are two reasons for including a good old anthem of the church once and while.

First is the desire of the people to sing things familiar and now evoke great memories of revivals and spiritual victories. It is what the staid and true folk has heard are used to. To disregard or discount that desire is saying to them we simply do not have any concern about you.  Your preferences are not the current paths that the worship team has chosen. While these foundational songs of the past may not be easy to sing and some may not readily fit into the music being used in a contemporary setting, there is still a place for them.  Love calls for an effort to include some of these “Hymns” into the even the most energetic contemporary music genre.

The second reason is these pieces have passed the test of time. They’ve been used in the church for hundreds of years, surviving because there is something special about them. Disregarding that group of hymns means throwing out gold. Twenty years from now, the contemporary music will go through the slow and imperceptible winnowing process. Some songs I sang as contemporary music twenty years ago were not good enough to stimulate worship.  They no longer met the requirement of catching people’s hearts. Not all the Gaither music back then will ever be song in a hundred years if the Lord does not come back first.

Whoever plans the music for your church needs to plan for the very best.  That plan needs to include all the people.  It is a constant art for finding the right note for the right moment. Some may well be a hundred years old or the newest praiseworthy song from Hillsong. We must try for what helps all the people in the congregation to worship. It’s not an easy task, but it’s fundamental concern; for the life of the church, the whole church.

Needed Change

Sometimes we just don’t like what is happening around us.  Politics seems more and more accusatory and petty. While gas prices seem stable the price of watermelon is up. Our cars are being made more comfortable yet the streets we drive them on are full of pot holes and ruts. I am trying to reduce my weight, but lately the digital scale will not change.  We want worship in the church to be a glorious and splendiferous experience but it doesn’t quite reach the edge of heaven on earth.

So, what are we looking for?  Do our cultural standards dictate our perception of how we should then live?  In Mark 8:27 there is a question posed by Jesus.  “Who do the people say I am?”

In response, they reported back what the crowd was saying.  They wanted to provide the cultural answer.  There was no condemnation, they didn’t want to offend their Rabbi. “A prophet, Eliljah, John the Baptizer.”

“But Jesus then asked, “And you— what are you saying about me? Who am I?”

Tough question for anyone.  Primarily because the response shapes everything else you do, everything else you believe, and everything else you are.  There is little excuse for snap decisions.  There is great importance in your response.  The answer you give will change how you react to the external. The world will be seen differently, politics become less important, our day to day existence becomes more in focus.  No snap decisions, no snap answers allowed here.

Everything becomes God’s business not our own.  And despite all our travail, we can’t change God.  You can’t change God’s will.  You can’t change God’s plan.  But you can change God’s methodology by working in and through you, instead of around you. You can change you.

Before a man can do things, there must be things he will not do.

Everything attempted is always at the expense of something else.  All effort requires sacrifice of something.  If you would lose weight, you must give up eating a whole banana cream pie.  Life is about trading one thing for another.  It is in the comparison that we have trouble.  What one thing is worth compared to the other.  Is the newest phone worth giving up part of my vast wealth?  Is wearing shorts to church worth the strange looks I would receive?

On the other hand, there are things we would just like to eliminate.  These things have no worth at all but we hold on to them because it would be painful to let go.  The last time I went to the local dump, I was amazed by the sheer magnitude of things be thrown away.  Some of it was simply disgusting due to its odoriferous aroma. I saw furniture, bricks, toys, and books.  All were unceremoniously cast off.  If I had the gumption I could fill a large truck with my own cast offs.  So why do we hold on to things?  Things that have no worth.  Things that just take up space.

I think it must do with disgust.  We must reach a place where the worth of simplicity outweighs the pile of junk.  If we are willing to put up with the stench around us, there is no motivation to do something.  Before a man can do things, there must be things he will not do. (MENCIUS)  The problem arises when we think time will make a difference.  I don’t need to do it right now, I well might need this extra computer cable someday.

Our society is like that.  Always expecting things to change in time.  The next election will take care of Washington.  The next technological breakthrough will solve all my communication issues.  The next scientific breakthrough will solve all environmental issues.  The next pay raise will put us over the edge to financial security. If I just wait long enough it will all work out.

But it is just a big lie.  Time does not change anything.  Time often makes things worse. We must rid ourselves of the rubbish in our lives and go on to the great simplicity.

Let go and let God.

Comments?

The CHURCH as a business?

I have seen and lived two worlds: the world of church and the world of business.  The disturbing point is when a church starts to act like a business.  This hybrid diminishes the Godly center for the external edge.  Pastors start to act like Chief Executive Officers marketing Jesus as a product. The Bible uses many colorful words to describe the church. It’s a family, a body, a fellowship, a holy people, a flock, and more.  However, it is never described as a business.

It’s not that there are no business aspects to leading a local church or denomination. Much like a family is better off when we manage our money and time more effectively, most pastors would serve Jesus, their church and their families better if we used good business principles to manage our time, energy and resources more efficiently, too.  But using wise business principles is not the same as running a church as though it was a business.

There are many things and/or attitudes that are simply wrong.

  1. A business is always about customers and sales. In too many churches, we tell our “guests” to sit back, relax and enjoy the service”, to be consumers of the heavenly juice that will be provided on que and in four-four time.  We provide the best coffee, the perfect temperature, the songs are on key, the sermon never exceeds the allotted time, and the pews are always padded.  There is little to challenge or, (heaven forbid) make our customers uncomfortable by talking about repentance and sin. While there’s a lot of finger-pointing at the rise of a consumer culture in new, seeker-friendly churches, the customer model happens in churches of all types. Big and small, old-school and new-school, high and low liturgy, denominational and nondenominational. Church members are not supposed to be passive customers. We’re supposed to be active participants in the ministry of the church.
  2. A business has a leadership hierarchy. Either the Pastor is the Chief Executive Officer with all its responsibilities and authority, or the Church Board wields this big stick. If the he pastor is seen and acts like he is the owner or manager, the membership feels restrained in doing anything without the CEO’s permission. When the pastor acts like they own the church, church members will either push back, give in, or leave.
    Conversely, if it is the board that is the ultimate business owner it is just as problematic. That form of church governing isn’t wrong (the church I pastor requires congregational approval for big decisions), but when it’s abused – as any good thing can be – the church members become more like passive investors demanding a return for their money. Board membership becomes more important than actual servanthood, pastors are afraid to take a potentially unpopular stand, and actual ministry grinds to a halt under the heavy hand of procedures and pettiness.
    Either extreme business model there is no expectation or encouragement to think outside of the stated and codified business statement. The result? Burnt out pastors and shallow members.
  3. A business is accountable only to shareholders. In every church, there is a special group of default members.  Those in this group could well be classified as shareholders.  They have been in the church since it began, they have paid their dues, they have served in every capacity possible, they have their own pew, and are the first to disapprove of any behavior that is not what they perceive to be within the norm.  They seem to hold sway over all.  Their displeasure is felt both in the offering plate and gossip. “Why does the (fill in the blank) do it my way?”
  4. Perhaps the biggest problem with these three skewed visions of the church is how we treat (or ignore) Jesus. If anyone in the church is acting like a boss, they’re crowding out the place where Jesus should be Lord. And when church members act like customers, they’re missing out on the extraordinary joy of serving Jesus.  Prayer is more important than process.  Servanthood in more important that bi-laws.  Faith is more important than fidelity to fragile feelings.

Businesses have employees and customers. The church has family members. Businesses have bosses. The church has a Lord. A head. A savior. And a king.

Comments?

FOMO

We can easily become overwhelmed by a world that is most concerned about image.  A new term for it is FOMO.  Fear of missing out.  With this social malady comes the distraction of constant demand for more.  There is a craving of putting on a good front: a projection of a successful self.  More entertainment, more screens, more experiences, more of everything is touted as the solution to FOMO.  This solution is worse than the illness.  The external view point by definition is on the outside.  It does nothing for the inside.  The group of people that are hardest to minister to are those who seem to have their act together.  On the outside they seem to have it all but they live in poverty of the inner life.

But scratch the surface and you realized there is still pain.  FOMO can never be satisfied primarily because it is all external.  FOMO comes from inside and our culture is one of externals.  There is little in our world that offers much to build the cry of the inner life.

The continuance, strength, peace, depth and wisdom that flows from God is the only answer.  It is the inside that is crying out.  It is the inside that needs.  It is the inside that requires something.  And that something is an inner depth of God in us.

What do you think?  Leave a comment.

Church Attendance Pt2

There are segments of our Western culture that are flourishing.  Technology seems to ingrained into every part of what we call life today.  The world seems to be saying it can provide you everything you need.  “I can provide all things at a click of a mouse or a tap on the screen.”  It is a beautiful place that we have made.  You don’t have to go to the Grand Canyon to feel the awe, you can get virtual glasses and the latest program.  You can buy all that is needed to lead a full and exciting life.  If you are lonely just log on to Facebook,  if you are hungry call up UBER to deliver a gourmet meal in less than an hour.  A world of products are just a click away.  Special industries have popped up to provide vacations, amazing experiences, and gastronomic delights.  Entertainment can provide an endless supply of music, music, live sports and the latest shoot-em-up gaming experience.  There seems to be a constant hum in the air.  But it is so much driven by individualism.

It is about my experience, my location, my food, my dog, my witticism, and my life.  Happiness and stimulation without commitment.  It may not be George Orwell’s new world, but the outcome is the same.  Dull automatons marching to the glare of a screen plastered to your face.

This new found freedom is at the expense of something else.  One writer called it the vanishing of institutions.  If we can be ourselves, if we can life our lives in constant self gratification and self forfillment, what do we need with institutions?  What do we need with the Church?

The Church is our beliefs and ethics in the flesh. The Church is a bringing down from heaven the life of God to become a operating on earth.  There is a shared set of beliefs that the whole agrees and defines itself.  The Church exists to pass along our beliefs.  The Church exists as a place to turn our beliefs into action, in real behaviors, to educate.  It is more than a broadcast message hoping some would friend it.  It is not about information it is about values.

Values, including love, forgiveness, self sacrifice, the greater good, hope, acceptance and service, must be passed on.  And the passing from one generation to the next is one of the reasons the Church exists and will continue to exist.  When the Church stops passing on values and changes to a broadcast mode of information, then it fails.  Broadcasting of information without values becomes part of the hum and will die with all pet rock and the VCR.

Yes I go to Church.  It is an act of faithfulness to a value system.  Oh I love the old hymns and a well crafted sermon is a delight to my ears. Never-the-less, when you get down to it, it is more about legacy, it is more about passing something along.  It is about endurance of life.  It is about community.  It is about being a part of something that is more than elections across a screen.

What do you think?  Leave me a comment.

Flash Mob Church

You may have not noticed but there is something happening in the Church.  There has been successive waves of growth and wane.  Waves of people coming in the door staying just long enough to figure it all out and then move on to the next congregation.  I don’t know what they are looking for, I do not know what would keep them long term, or for that matter do I even desire them to stay longer.  You see they are what I call locusts.  They fly in, sometimes in great clouds, to land and partake of the feast.  There is great excitement about these new numbers.  Energy is spent to make them comfortable, liked and accepted.  Some of them proudly proclaimed how much they loved our church and they attended only sporadically at times, they saw themselves as a part.  Some saw attendance as a once a month thing, others a little more.  However, when the time comes for them to fly away there is no warning, they are just not there anymore.  As suddenly they appeared out of the dark, they simply disappeared.  No amount of email and visitor cards stopped their vanishing.

Oh there are those who are there all the time; never wavering, steady, resolute.  I used to say, “saved, justified, sanctified and petrified.”  Never-the-less why has this phenomenon happening?  Why has the Church become more of a Flash-mob experience?  If an individual church has two-hundred members, but only one-hundred is ever there at one time, what does that say about our new church culture?  The church becomes like a roller coaster. Has it always been that way, or has something changed?

I think it is not the preaching or even the preacher.  It is not the musicians or ever the type of music.  It is not the thousand hours of video work put into the presentation of the week splattered up on the white boarded front of the church.  It is that our culture has changed.  Changed from a Church oriented, family empowered, God designed culture to one of emphasis on the individual.  The individual who can determine what they like.  The individual that sets the boundaries.  There are no moral absolutes.  We have to be tolerant to everyone’s feelings and “specialness”. We want the new younger crowd to be welcome and comfortable.  To draw them out of the world to a God that fills them with awe and wonder.  But the church seems at times more like a “Me generation” rally than worship of God.

The church attendance roller coaster is simply a response to change from THEE to me.

What do you think.  Leave a comment.

 

 

 

 

Church Attendance

When I went to my denominations educational institution were I was required to attend chapel.  I went to school at night so each evening between classes all the prospective preachers would hike down the little hill to First Church.  It was conveniently on the same campus.  It was not an option.  If you did not go it would be noted in your permanent record.  With enough checks you were put on probation and ultimately you would not be allowed to graduate.

The thought of my outward religiosity as some criteria for my spirituality troubles me.  And this concept has plagued me as I finally graduated and became a Pastor.  At every service I would take mental notes as to who was there and who was absent without leave.  Thank God I have overcome this terrible judgmental attitude in my life.

I don’t think God keeps a gradebook and checks every time you or I miss a church service.  The problem is that sometimes the establishment, sometimes called the church, does not quite look at it that way. Church attendance is seen as a mandatory thing.  “You can’t have good and Godly Christians staying away from the gracious open doors of the church.”  Though Christianity purports to operate under the auspices of grace, love and freedom, there seems to be a hint of Torah-caliber parameters to be upheld.

“We can’t have our congregation out during the summer for vacation.”

“The building will fall down and the lights not glow if we let our board members take some family time off.”

Here the institution called the church seems to have taken something so beautiful, so wonderful, so life giving, so filled with awe (Worship) and found a way to grade and monitor people’s performance.

So how exactly do you go to Church? “Because you just have to.”  Some churches even have little cards that every person or family in a pew has to fill in every service just to keep count.

There are two directions of inspection going on.  There is first an assessment of my spirituality. I see the sly glances by the pious attempting to determine if I am holding my head at the right angle, placing the proper envelope in the plate as it goes by, and I standing when I am told to. And if I am not there filling my spot there is a negative assessment of my commitment and spirituality.  If you miss a couple of meetings, you become bombarded with email and notes asking if you are alright.  Secondly this inspection process can well become reciprocal. Church is also where I could well assess the spirituality of my fellow adherents. This is the part I am most concerned with.  I cannot control or change the assessments of others of me.  But I cannot allow myself to fall into the same behavior.

It does not matter if I am the only one in the pew. It does not matter if Harry Holiness is in his place either.  Worship is what I do and it is not for anyone else.  If I am right with God, if I am in the spirit that God would have me in, then it really doesn’t matter whether I am in my pew or on vacation.  Mandatory church like mandatory chapel was in college is a stupid.  God isn’t keeping score.  God does not have a grade book to keep my attendance.  I am saved by grace and not by what I do.

Now don’t get me wrong here.  Worship with a body of like believers is a wonderful thing.  It can pick you up when you don’t feel like it.  It is a place where we can be with people who know more about you than some family members.  But I am not going to Church just to please others.  I am not going to church to meet some grading criteria.

There is no way to guilt me into it; I have given up guilt with the new life in Christ.

What do you think?  Leave a comment.

The Study of God and Life