DownshoreDrift

Putting Away the Sunday School Jesus

Russel Moore has a good review of the movie Where the Wild Things Are. He says that the problem with it is not that it is too wild or dark, but that it is not wild enough and is not as good as the book because it does not properly deal with the existence of evil. He says that Christians are upset by the movie and are saying that it is not appropriate for kids because it is too scary, but Moore says that it is not scary enough. Evil is real and kids know it and they want something done about it. I haven't read the book or seen the movie, so I can't really comment on that, but there is something that he said that I think is important that we can all reflect upon. He compares what was done with the book to what we do with the Bible for children by saying:

Too many of our Bible study curricula for children declaw the Bible, excising all the snakes and dragons and wildness. We reduce the Bible to a set of ethical guidelines and a text on how gentle and kind Jesus is. The problem is, our kids know there are monsters out there. God put that awareness in them. They’re looking for a sheep-herding dragon-slayer, the One who can put all the wild things under His feet.

A couple of months ago a few of us went to hear Alan Hirsch in Mobile, Alabama and he said the same thing. He was talking about our different false images of Jesus and how they keep us from encountering the true Jesus. One of the images that he took on was the Sunday School Jesus. This Jesus is sugary sweet and is not a threat to anyone. He calls all the little children to come to him and he is just an overall nice guy. He was crucified for being a nice guy and if we believe in him, we can be really nice people too. The church is nice and everyone is nice. I think that it is wonderful to be nice, but that is a very incomplete version of who Jesus is. Yet, we do this with many of our Bible stories that we adapt for children.

A lady (who works with children) spoke up and opposed what Hirsch was saying. She said that it was important to have Bible stories for children and that many of them, like Daniel and the Lion's Den, were appropriate for children. Hirsch was not against telling children Bible stories, but he said that we needed to be careful to not sanitize everything so that the real story is lost. I agree.

Let's look at what REALLY happened in some of the Bible stories that we reserve for children:

• Adam and Eve? No, we don't tell that story too often. They are naked.
• Noah's Ark:  Usually a nice story about animals going two by two onto a big boat. It even has a rainbow! But, we often leave out the fact that the entire human race (save one family) along with every other animal drowned and died a horrible death. I'm not saying that you have to go into great detail here, but you can't leave out God's judgment on sin and stay true to the story.
• Joseph's Coat of Many Colors: Joseph was betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery. Kind of scary.
• The Parting of the Red Sea (Exodus): The first born in Egypt died and the whole Egyptian army drowned.
• Giving of the Ten Commandments: 3,000 people were killed by Levites wielding swords after the Golden Calf incident (more than died in 9/11).
• David and Goliath: David cut off Goliath's head and held it up for everyone to see. Kind of gory.
• Daniel and the Lion's Den: Daniel was saved because he trusted God, but his false accusers were thrown into the Lion's Den along with their wives and children and they were dead before they hit the floor. The Lions were hungry.

It goes on and on. Even the birth of Jesus was attended to by filthy shepherds and pagan astrologers and was accompanied by the slaughter of all of boys under two years old in and around Bethlehem. The Bible is not exactly a book for kids, at least the way that we think about what a proper book for kids is. It is filled with violence, death, and human struggle. Sin is real, as is suffering, disappointment, rejection, and loss. When we sanitize it, we strip judgment, pain, and death out of Scripture and we learn to not fear God. We see God as the one who makes everything better all the time. It is wonderful that we provide comfort and safety for children, but should we do so by creating a false understanding? Does the fact that we have done this with children for the past couple of generations have anything to do with lack of fear of God that we currently have as adults? Or, the unbiblical views of God that affect us so deeply? Perhaps.

Hear me: I am not saying that we should fill our Bible stories for children with blood, gore, and horror. But, I am saying that we need to find ways to tell the stories as realistically as possible so that our children can see that evil is real, that God judges sin, and that Jesus' coming meant something more than he was nice and kind. We do not do our children or ourselves favors when we sanitize everything to the point that we make a baby nursery out of scenes from the almost total extermination of life on the planet because of judgment over vile sin (Noah's Ark) and we fail to consider what we are doing and the story that we are telling.  Without understanding, at least on some level, judgment for sin, it is impossible to understand and appreciate the redemption that we have in Jesus. 

As best we can, we need to read and tell the stories of the Bible rightly. Do our children need to hear everything when they are 4 years old? No. But, they need to hear that God is good and holy and that sin has consequences and that there is evil in the world, but God delivers us and protects us when cry out to Him. These were the stories that the Hebrew people told their children and these stories inspired courage and confidence in their God. May we do the same.

 

We Aren't Supposed to Invite Jesus Into Our Life

Yesterday, I was talking with our Sunday School class about the big picture Redemption Story that God has initiated and how, by His grace, we are called up into that. We were looking at the narratives in Genesis and how God was the main character and how Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph only gain significance because God called them to be a part of His story. Then we talked about how we often get that backwards. What I mean is, we say things like, "I invited Jesus into my life," and "I'm making God a part of MY life." I don't dispute that God is interested in our lives and that he knows how many hairs we have on our head and that the Holy Spirit comes to live within us and all that, but I really don't think that it is accurate to say that we invite Jesus into OUR life as though he becomes a part of our life, like he is a decoration that we hang on the wall or something. I know that people mean something biblical by what they are saying but it's like we're saying that we invited Jesus into our house and we ask him to sit over there in a special chair just for guests and we'll get him something to eat in a minute, but we kind of hope that he doesn't stay too long so that we can get back to watching our favorite TV show that he probably wouldn't like much anyway.  I don't think it works that way and I'm not saying that we mean things exactly that way when we say that we invited Jesus into our life, but that is how it sounds, and how something sounds is more important than we like to think it is.

In reality, God has invited us into His life, which is a much better proposition, I think. We are partakers of the Divine Nature and we are adopted into His family. Yes, He comes to live within us, but I really don't think that He would be very much at home in my life as it is. My life tends to be a mess. If God moved into my life, He would start rearranging the furniture and telling me to put away my clothes and get more organized. Well, I guess that God does do that, but at whatever level that He does come into our life, He completely changes things. He doesn't just hang out and help us accomplish our own goals so that we have high self esteem. Rather, He completely takes over. Still, I think that it is better to look at it another way as though we are being brought into God's life so that there is no confusion as to who is in charge. 

God is gracious enough to call me into His life and He sent His Son Jesus so that I might be reconciled to God. God is not reconciling Himself to me as I am. God isn't going to become like me. He has made a way for me to become like Him, which is much better by far. I'm not talking about the Incarnation here. Yes, Jesus put on flesh and became sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God, but Christ isn't dying for sins again and He certainly isn't becoming sin again so that He can enter into my life. He has already done all of that. Now, He brings me into His life. Colossians 3 tells us that Christ is my life and that my life is now hidden with Christ in God. I know that Colossians 1:27 says, "Christ in you," but I think that that means something a bit different than the effect of saying that I have invited Jesus into my life.  Are we meaning that we invite Jesus into our life and we are completely transformed? If so, we are not far from the truth. But, if we see Jesus as an add-on to our lives or as a means to a happy life, then we have problems.

And, that really is the biggest problem I have with saying that I invited Jesus into my life (other than the fact that it isn't really a biblical concept - where do we see people "inviting Jesus into their life" in the Bible?). It is far better, I think, that we have been called to participate in God's life and that we have become characters in God's story than it is that He becomes a character in our story. It is better to be God-centered than me-centered and that is really what I am getting at. I don't know about you, but my story when I live in my own strength is not that interesting. It involves me being tired a lot, running around like crazy, being selfish, feeling pretty insecure most of the time, and wondering if I am making a difference in the world while I contemplate how to best procrastinate and waste time. But, when I see myself as a character in God's story and I follow God's direction, everything changes. I have purpose. I am not nearly as introspective. I live for God and for others. I spend more time praying about what God's will is than trying to get my own requests answered. My struggles and insecurities take their proper place and bow the knee to Jesus. I learn what it means to say that Jesus is Lord and I get to see what life looks like inside God's Kingdom. It is beautiful.

So, it really is silly for me to say that I am inviting Jesus into my life. Don't get me wrong. I am not denying the Christ lives within me. I am not denying that the Holy Spirit has taken up residency within me. But, at that point, it isn't really my life anymore, is it? I belong to Him. "I am crucificed with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me" Gal. 2:20. It is better for me to understand that He has extended great mercy to me by adopting me into His family and bringing me from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom I have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Col. 1:13-14). I have significance because His story is much better than mine (He is God, after all), yet He calls me to participate in His story with Him. What mercy.  What amazing grace.

At the end of the day, if I am the one in charge, then it is my life. If God is in charge, then it is God's life. I don't invite Jesus in to my kingdom, but instead, I enter into His kingdom by faith. That's the essence of what I am saying and even though it might appear to be semantics, I think that it is an important distinction to make, even if we are just trying to clarify things.

The Heavens Declare the Glory of God: Pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope

I am completely mesmerized by the pictures that the Hubble Space Telescope keeps sending back to us. We see a universe in motion that is more vast than we can possibly comprehend - and more beautiful. God is an artist and His creativity knows no bounds. Take a look at this one:

I saw where they were calling this a space butterfly. Basically, streams of gas are being shot out from a dying star for billions of miles and Hubble captured it. What beauty. In the vastness of space, God is painting a picture. This has been going on for aeons, but we are only just now able to see it.

Hubble has been sending back many amazing pictures of the beauty and vastness of the universe. Just seeing these pictures causes me to think about how small we are, how unfathomably large the universe is, and how much God loves us to do all that He has done for us. Amazing (click on the picture below for a bigger view).

The beauty and diversity of God's creation is beyond my comprehension. The heavens truly declare the glory of God. How can we not praise Him?  How can we not see?

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It is always shocking to meet life where we thought we were alone. "Look out!" we cry, "it's alive". And therefore this is the very point at which so many draw back - I would have done so myself if I could - and proceed no further with Christianity. An 'impersonal God' - well and good. A subjective God of beauty, truth and goodness, inside our heads - better still. A formless life-force surging through us, a vast power which we can tap - best of all. But God Himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps approaching at an infinite speed, the hunter, king, husband - that is quite another matter. There comes a moment when the children who have been playing at burglars hush suddenly: was that a real footstep in the hall? There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion ('Man's search for God!') suddenly draw back. Supposing we really found Him? We never meant it to come to that! Worse still, supposing He had found us?

C.S. Lewis ~ from Miracles.

Look Not Only To Your Own Interests . . .

Philippians 2:4 says that. We are to look not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others. Do Christians take that seriously? I mean, I know that we are often kind and generous and we help people, but do we really go around looking after the interests of others?

What would happen if we did that?

What would happen if when we went to church, we didn't think about ourselves, but instead, we thought about how we could look after the interests of others?

What if we saw our neighborhoods and cities that way?

What if we saw those different from us that way? How can we look after the interests of those who are not just like us and don't make us feel comfortable?

Is Jesus serious about the whole sacrificial love thing? I mean, surely he just meant that He would love us that way and we would just get to be happy, right? No, He actually does call us to love extravagantly, not getting anything in return, laying our very lives down.

How does this view of looking after the interests of others apply to the public school kids in your community? The poor? Those without fathers? Those who cannot find work? Those who have quit trying? The rejected? The sinners? The cast-out?  What does it mean to look not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others when we decide to move to a "better" neighborhood because our old neighborhood is "transitioning?"

I could keep going, I guess.

I am just coming to the point where I am amazed at how much of the Bible's teaching I just never thought much about or took that seriously. I mean, I see words on a page and I believe them, but I often fail to think about their implications for all of life. These words in Phil. 2:4 have massive implications for ALL of life if we will believe them and obey them.

How would the world be changed if Christians just started obeying Phil. 2:4? 

Consumer Christianity and Its Discontents

Over the past year or so, I have become convinced that the greatest enemy to the Christian faith and biblical Christianity in the West, and especially America, is the philosophy of consumerism, which basically states that personal happiness can be attained through the acquisition of goods, experiences, or a particular lifestyle.  Bombarded by goods, services, brands, commercials, and incessant advertising, we believe ignorance like "you are what you wear," "clothes make the man," that there is a "right" side of the tracks, and that our identity can be purchased by acquiring items of status based on a particular brand name or celebrity endorsement. This philosophy has crept into every area of life as we have succumbed to the idea of commodification of relationships and even religious experiences in that we use people and even God to satisfy our personal desires. When we no longer find immediate gratification, we move on to something else that promises to satisfy. Everything in our life (even God) becomes a means to an end of our own personal pursuit of happiness and self-fulfillment). Of course, these views have always been present in the human condition (i.e., selfishness and sin), but only recently have we built an entire economy and way of life on the proliferation of consumption. Only recently have Evangelical churches grown based on the whims of the consumer class and their preference and choice for religious goods and services that meet their "felt needs."

Scot McKnight on the Gospel of the Kingdom

I am working on a new believer's study for our church that starts with the Kingdom of God. Instead of starting with us, I am trying to start with God and show where we fit into God's overall plan. I have been studying the Kingdom of God for a couple of years now and cannot believe that I've missed what Jesus was saying. Instead of seeing everything through the lense of systematic theology, I've begun to deal directly with Jesus' words and the rest of the words of Scripture and let them shape me and my understanding of theology. It has been more than refreshing. I am seeing things differently as the Bible comes alive.

At any rate, Scot McKnight is nailing it on the Kingdom of God, God's will in the world, and the role of the church in carrying out God's will. He says this:

What I am is someone who has, by reading the Bible, learned more and more that the church is the center of God's work and that the church ought to live out the grand vision God has for oneness, holiness, justice, grace, peace and love.

What would happen if we took that seriously?

Check out McKnight's posts on this. At the very least, He gets you thinking. I would say, though, that while McKnight starts first with the community that God is forming in Christ, I still think that the individual and the salvation of the individual is integral to the establishment of the community. McKnight believes this as well, but for the sake of deconstructing Individualism as a barrier to our understanding of Church, he starts with the community.

The excerpts below are direct quotes from McKnight.

Kingdom Gospel 1

Encountering Jesus' kingdom gospel not only makes us think, but it makes us think we just might have gotten lots of things wrong. It makes us rethink how we are reading the Bible. It makes us think about what the gospel itself is. It also makes us back up to the elements of the Story - creation, cracked Eikons, covenant community, Christ, and consummation - and see which of these elements are the focus of Jesus' own preaching.

Kingdom Gospel 2

Luke's Gospel, like the rest of the Bible, focuses on the covenant community of faith instead of on an individual's relationship with God. If you read Luke together with Acts you see that what Luke wants to tell us is that the transition from Israel to the Church is now complete and the work of God in the covenant community is alive and well.  The community - and here is how Luke defines the "problem" that flows out of the Story of Genesis 3--11 - is out of sorts. The community that confronts Jesus in Luke's Gospel is blanketed with social injustice, Israel's bondage to Rome, economic injustice and the like. Into this world Luke writes his wiki-story and says that Jesus formed a community, which we call the church, where those things are to end - right now.

Kingdom Gospel 3

[F]rom 1996 until now, as a result of teaching college students and listening to both their sharp critique of the church and, at the same time, listening to their lack of interest in attending local churches, I learned something else: the gospel we are preaching is so individualistic, so tied into getting the individual into heaven, that the church has become an afterthought for many Christians today. The current generation of young Christians is now living out, so I believe, the gospel my generation preached to them - the individualistic gospel. This gospel is deconstructing the church, making the church little more than a Sunday morning option for those who want to follow Jesus. Do you realize how far this church-as-option is from what we see in Luke's wiki-story of the Story? For Luke, the church isn't an option; it's the main stage.

Kingdom Gospel 4

What was the problem according to John? If Kingdom is the answer, what is the problem?  Here it is again: the solution is a spiritual and social resolution to a spiritual and social problem. Israelites had turned at one another's throats and John calls them to care for one another, to live in a community the way God wants them to live. Repentance is more than feeling bad about your sins, though it involves that. For John, repentance looks real: sharing extra possessions to take care of those in need, collecting a just tax, and ending the abusive use of power. When we talk about repentance today - the kind of repentance that leads to baptisms - the kind of repentance that leads to salvation, do we say "share your possessions, don't extort, be satisfied with your pay?" or do we have other things in mind? I think we will nearly all admit that we have other things in mind.

Kingdom Gospel 5

If this solution Luke tells us sounds strange to you, I ask you to read this passage (Luke 4:18-19) again. It's in your Bible and in mine. Mary's and Zechariah's and John's stories differ from Jesus' but only slightly. Jesus carries on their vision to announce that the kingdom he is setting in motion is a kingdom that will undo injustices, establish justices, and create a society where God's will is done. The gospel is about church formation before it is about personal formation.

Kingdom Gospel 6

So far so good: kingdom means community formation through commitment to Jesus. That community brings justice and it ends every form of oppression. Jesus' kingdom vision will mean a total spiritual and social make-over for Israel. With everything now in place, Jesus takes an about turn, faces his disciples, tells them they've got a blurred vision of what God is actually doing, and creates an entirely new vision for what kingdom means. Kingdom, formerly connected with triumph, will now be connected to cross.

Kingdom Gospel 7

When Pentecost happens, a cross-shaped kingdom community emerges. If we treat Luke-Acts as the wiki-story that it is, then we will read the first few chapters of Acts as the continuation of the story that began in Luke 1 and 2 with Mary and Zechariah and John the Baptist. And we will read it as a continuation of Jesus' first sermon, his Beatitudes, his answer to John, and his anticipation of the cross. So, now here are the words of Luke and I hope you read them slowly enough to pick up on all of Luke's resonances with the previous passages because Luke lets it all converge right here: the community Mary wanted and Jesus announced arrived with Pentecost.

The Gospel is Irrelevant

I started thinking along these lines this evening when I saw a blog post sharing a similar title. The author went a different direction than I did, but I still wanted to give him credit for getting me thinking along these lines. 

The Gospel is the "good news" that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners by becoming sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21).  We have all sinned and have fallen short of God's glory - everyone one of us (Rom. 3:23). Because of this, we are separated from a holy God and there is no way that we can get to Him. The penalty for sin is actually death (Rom. 6:23). God loved us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die in our place so that God's righteous judgment against sin would be carried out, but also so that Jesus could take our place. He was punished for our sin and we were given His righteousness so that we could go free and be reconciled to God. All of this happens by faith in Jesus. We confess our sins to God, believe in Christ as our Savior, turn from our sins, and accept God's forgiveness. We then live for God and not ourselves. The gospel is the good news of what Jesus has done for us. We just respond in faith and repentance.

Through the gospel, Jesus also conquered death, Hell, the powers of evil, and began the work of reconciling the world to Himself. We are saved from judgment and hell through the gospel, but we also live by the power of faith in the gospel - the finished work of Christ - every day of our lives.

But, for some, the gospel is irrelevant.  It is irrelevant if

• You trust in your own strength and ability to live a good life and be acceptable to God on that basis.
• You believe that there are things in this world that will satisfy you more than God will. All acts of sin are ultimately a declaration that that act of sin is more satisfying than God is. Do we really think that our sin can satisfy us more than God? Unfortunately, yes. That is why we choose it. And, this is called idolatry, by the way.
• You think that Jesus is not enough - you need something besides Christ.
• You want to live to please yourself instead of God and others.
• You believe that there are steps that you can take that will ensure personal fulfillment or satisfaction apart from dependence on Christ alone.
• You are full of pride, spiritual or otherwise.
• You are full of unbelief that God does what He says He will do.
• You think that there are other options for salvation and satisfaction in this life and the life to come.
• You care too much about what others think of you. You live to gain praise from this world.
• Your identity is in superficial things - what you wear, how you look, your wealth, status, friends, or experiences.
• You think that you can manage God and keep Him on a leash to do your bidding, so to speak. You will have no use for the gospel.
• You think that there are things that you must do to earn God's favor.

There are probably a lot more people that I could mention who have no use for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are fit only for this world and not for God. But, this is why Christians need to fully embrace Christ and live differently from the world and hold out the word of life to those who are perishing so that they might hear and believe. I am not saying that we must engage in monastic withdrawal here. I am talking about living according to another truth - a higher truth. We cannot live as the world does and expect God to bless it or expect to draw people to Christ that way. What does light have in common with darkness? We must put aside the values of this world (power, greed, status, lust, grasping, pride, etc.) and crucify our own sinful nature so that we can manifest Christ. We must live "upside-down" from what the world tells us. Only then will the gospel truly be lived out through us as we incarnate Christ through proclamation and our lives.

1 Corinthians 1:18 says, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."  Amen.  God was most glorified when Jesus hung on the cross, suffering and taking the punishment for our sins. He made a way for us to be restored to God. THAT is the glory of God - the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53.  The world does not understand this.  It tells a different story from the gospel. When we think about things the way the world does, the gospel becomes irrelevant to us, even as believers, and we begin to grasp for other things. We lose the power of the Holy Spirit. All of that grasping is futile, though, because God will not share His glory with another.

I am convinced that Christ is all that matters. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:2, "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." Every truth about God flows from the truth about the crucifixion of Christ. The Holy Spirit takes from what belongs to Jesus and makes it known to us (John 16:14).  He is before all things and in Him, all things hold together (Col. 1:17).  If we look anywhere but Jesus for our strength and satisfaction, then the gospel becomes irrelevant to us and we miss out on the power of God (Romans 1:16).

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus and turn away from trust in everything else.

These truths were shared with me over and over again for the past 4 years by a dear friend of mine who unexpectedly passed away today.  He saw something of the Lord that was amazing and shared it with me. He will truly be missed.  I am grateful.

Inoculated Against the Gospel: Toward a Southern (Bible Belt) Missiology, Pt. 4

One of the major issues in faithfully proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ in the South is that so many people think that they know all about it when the really don't have a clue. They've prayed the prayer and gotten the T-shirt.  Last year, I was volunteering at a big ministry event in our city that was giving out food, health care, and other types of services. I was working in the prayer tent and was asking people if I could pray with them before they got their groceries and went home. There was one lady that I started speaking with and she immediately began to show me disdain. She was looking away, rolling her eyes, and making it obvious that she didn't want to talk with me. I was trying to talk with her some about Christ and she would have none of it. Then, I asked her if I could pray for her and she did not want to. I said, "Well, it is obvious that you do not believe in Jesus, but I will be praying for you."  At that point, she perked up, looked at me, and said, "Oh no, I'm a Christian. I go to so-and-so church."  Excuse me?  She had no interest whatsoever in the things of God, thought praying with me was ridiculous, and wanted to get away from me as fast as possible. I would think that it was me, but I had bathed and was being pretty nice to her. Other people had responded much better throughout the day.

It wasn't that she didn't want to talk to me. I didn't have a problem with that. I do not expect unbelievers to always want to engage in discussion about God. But, what shocked me was that she was fine with her behavior until I assumed that she was not a Christian. Of course she was a Christian, she told me!  She attended church. She prayed a prayer. She believed in Jesus (what she believed, I don't know). Isn't that what being a Christian was all about?  Why does behavior need to change? Why do I need to love Jesus? Why do I need to obey God?  If I am forgiven and all is well, then what difference does anything that I think or do make?

I would submit that instead of really giving people Jesus for who He is, we have actually inoculated people against the power of the gospel. We have given them a little of Jesus - just enough to make them think that they have the real thing, but not enough to bring them to repentance. The gospel that we preach is often a means to the end of our personal happiness and a trip to heaven. Jesus is more than that, but we have reduced Him to a religious afterthought. 

The conversation with that woman frightens me. She wasn't just having a bad day. She actually had disdain for any talk about Christ until it appeared to me that she was not a Christian. Being a Christian and going to heaven was far more important to her than following Christ and loving Him. There is something wrong when that happens again and again. What gospel are we preaching? Are we just inoculating people against the real thing?  How do we break through this in people's lives? 

Matt Chandler, a pastor from Dallas, TX speaks about this at this years Desiring God conference. He makes some great points about the need to separate the gospel from the religion that we so often proclaim and believe. Check it out.

  

The Full Meaning of Holiness - It Might Be Different From What You Think

What do you think about when you hear the word, holiness? Obviously, it means to be separate; to be set apart. But, when I think about holiness, invariably, I think about it from a religious perspective. In other words, I think about holiness as the characteristic that I am to achieve if God is going to be pleased with me. I think about what I need to put on if I am to enter into God’s presence, since God is holy. My religious upbringing has taught me to think about what I am to abstain from and what my life is supposed to look like. The whole, “don’t drink, chew, or go with girls that do,” perspective creeps in.  Often, when I hear about holiness, I look for a rock to crawl under because my first thoughts, if I am honest, point out how I am not holy.  The word itself condemns me and I am undone. Attempts at holiness, however successful I might be in overcoming sin, putting off old behavior, or acting a certain way, always fall short because there is always a new definition of holiness that I am not living up to. I am always falling short of what someone proclaims as “holy.”

                                                       

I think that we have done the word a great disservice, however. We know that God is holy and we declare Him as such. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty” we sing along with the angels and the multitude from Revelation. God is holy. We know that much. But, what does it mean?  Then, you add in that we are to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:47) and without holiness no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14), and we are all undone.

                                                       

So, what do we do to reconcile all of this?  How are we to be holy?  Some, have retreated to the monastery.  They have built walls around themselves and have completely withdrawn from the world. Their view of holiness is shown by what they are against and by what they disagree with. They focus on the “putting off” of Ephesians 4:22-24 and show their holiness through outward things. Others, focus on justification and God’s grace and the imputed righteousness that comes from faith in Christ.  They often do not make it around to actually living like Christ, but that is okay. They aren’t perfect, just forgiven. Both of these views miss the bigger picture of what God’s holiness really is.

                                                                     

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship tells Martin Luther’s journey to true holiness, and I think that it is a story that bears repeating.  He says,

                                                       

When the Reformation came, the providence of God raised Martin Luther to restore the gospel of pure, costly grace. Luther passed through the cloister; he was a monk, and all this was part of the divine plan. Luther had left all to follow Christ on the path of absolute obedience. He had renounced the world in order to live the Christian life. He had learnt obedience to Christ and to his Church, because only he who is obedient can believe. The call to the cloister demanded of Luther the complete surrender of his life. But God shattered all his hopes. He showed him through the Scriptures that the following of Christ is not the achievement or merit of a select few, but the divine command to all Christians without distinction. Monasticism had transformed the humble work of discipleship into the meritorious activity of the saints, and the self-renunciation of discipleship into the flagrant spiritual self-assertion of the “religious.”  The world had crept into the very heart of the monastic life, and was once more making havoc. The monk’s attempt to flee from the world turned out to be a subtle form of love for the world. The bottom having thus been knocked out of the religious life, Luther laid hold upon grace. Just as the whole world of monasticism was crashing about him in ruins, he saw God in Christ stretching forth his hand to save. He grasped that hand in faith, believing that “after all, nothing we can do is of any avail, however good a life we live.” The grace which gave itself to him was a costly grace, and it shattered his whole existence. Once more he must leave his nets and follow. The first time was when he entered the monastery, when he had left everything behind except his pious self. This time even that was taken from him. He obeyed the call, not through any merit of his own, but simply through the grace of God. Luther did not hear the word: “Of course you have sinned, but now everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are and enjoy the consolations of forgiveness.” No, Luther had to leave the cloister and go back to the world, not because the world in itself was good and holy, but because even the cloister was only a part of the world.

                                                                              

Luther’s return from the cloister to the world was the worst blow the world had suffered since the days of early Christianity. The renunciation he made when he became a monk was child’s play compared with that which he had to make when he returned to the world. Now came the frontal assault. The only way to follow Jesus was by living in the world. Hitherto the Christian life had been the achievement of a few choice spirits under the exceptionally favourable conditions of monasticism; now it is a duty laid on every Christian living in the world. The commandment of Jesus must be accorded perfect obedience in one’s daily vocation of life. The conflict between the life of the Christian and the life of the world was thus thrown into the sharpest possible relief. It was a hand-to-hand conflict between the Christian and the world.

                                                                    

Because the monastery was a place that Luther had retreated to justify himself and protect himself from the contaminating evils of the world, it actually became a part of the world system. Everything that sets itself up against the knowledge of God is a part of the world system, even if it looks really good on the outside. Luther could only be justified through faith in what Christ had already done for him and he only came to a point of faith in Christ when he quit believing in himself.

                                                                                  

But, here is what really strikes me about all of this:  For Luther, and for us as well, holiness was not found in the monastery. It was found in engaging the world as an emissary of Christ. When he tried to separate himself from the world through withdrawing, he just demonstrated the world’s ways of self-justification. But, when he died to himself, renounced the world’s ways, and engaged the world for the sake of Christ, he was acting in accordance with holiness. It is all upside down from what we thought, isn’t it?  The reason for this is because Christ is holy.  Only Christ makes us holy and we are declared righteous only by faith in Jesus. But, that righteousness plays out in and transforms our lives when we are conformed to the image of Christ in our thinking and our behavior. We reflect the image of Christ when we become like Him.  What did Jesus do?  How did he act?  Who did he care about? What moved him with compassion?  Holiness is not just a state of declared righteousness that comes from faith, but the outworking of that holiness involves doing what Jesus did.  Caring for the sick, the leper, the persecuted, and the downtrodden is holy. Rescuing the sinner is holy.  Proclaiming justice to the nations is holy. Dining with tax collectors and prostitutes to show them the Kingdom of God is holy. Forgiving others is holy. Loving your enemies is holy.  Everything that looks like Jesus is holy.  Holiness is not just putting off certain behaviors.  It is that, depending on what those behaviors are, but more than that, it is thinking about things differently and putting on the character of Christ. Humbling yourself before others and serving them is a holy act.  We could go on and on. Holiness is not just a state of denial of certain things, it is action that demonstrates the in-breaking Kingdom of God.  Holiness means that we live according to the "Otherness" of God apart and separate from this world system.  It is a positive action, not just a negative renunciation.

                                                                                                                               

We need more holiness in our churches.  We need to put off the old life and see the world differently.  Correspondingly, we need to put on the new life, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph. 4:22-24).  Our evangelicalism became destructive when it promoted a life that affirmed withdrawal from the world for the sake of its truncated conception of holiness. Jesus did not withdraw from the world. He engaged the world and brought healing and redemption as He did the will of the Father in all respects. THAT is holiness and that is what God wants from us.

                                                                                   

Instead of feeling condemned by the concept of holiness because I know that I do not measure up to someone’s artificial standard, I now see holiness as being the outworking of God’s character and life in every area.  To see the beauty of holiness in a primarily negative (i.e. what we put off) sense is surely an abomination and it is entirely incomplete.  But, to see holiness the way that Jesus demonstrates and to know that we have been called to be like Him is amazing, creative, beautiful, and life affirming!  It is something that causes me to want to be holy and to violently pursue Christ and lose myself in obedience to Him as He brings restoration to the world!

The Weakness of a Privatized, Individualistic Gospel: Moving Toward a Southern Missiology , Part 2

In my last post, I asked readers what they thought a missiology for the South might look like.  I appreciate the comments, Mike, Bob, Les, and Rick. I was hoping for a little more discussion, but, let's face it, I'm not talking about the latest political brouhaha amongst Southern Baptists or anything exciting like that. I'm just talking about the future of the church in the South over the next generation. Relatively meaningless, I know.  :)

At any rate, as I have been researching the theological weaknesses behind the evils of racism and segregation in the Southern Baptist South of the 1950's and 60's and how those weaknesses continue to affect us today (all for a book that I am trying to write), I have stumbled across an unexpected culprit that has caused me to raise my eyebrows a bit. In my reading, interviewing, studying, and praying, I have come to believe that a major reason that people could fill churches all across the South on Sunday and then treat others horribly just because of the color of their skin without feeling conviction was because of the gospel that was preached and believed. If your view of the "gospel" is that it is mostly a set of propositions that you agree with so that you can go to heaven when you die (i.e., eternal life) and salvation cannot be lost no matter what you do, then the commands of Scripture about loving others will be ignored when they bump up against a culture that ultimately gives you your identity, especially when that culture tells you that the "other" is inferior to you. What is there to fear? You're going to heaven. Of course, fear came in when you committed really bad sins like drinking alcohol, dancing, or broke any sexual taboos. So, belief and lifestyle were connected on some issues but not others, even though those other issues were just as biblical, if not moreso in some cases. This hypocrisy became a major theological problem and it is still embedded in the "gospel" we preach and the theology that we believe. We've never dealt with it adequately. We still face a theological separation between belief and behavior because we desire and offer heaven without the cross. Unfortunately, this separation has weakened our churches to the point of impotence when it comes to standing against the world. This weak, cheap gospel of personal, individualistic salvation without discipleship is what allowed Southerners to be racists while they filled Southern Baptist churches.  It is what allowed the Lutheran church in Germany to turn away from the Nazi brutalities toward the Jews and even accept them as necessary. It is also what allows us today to say that we believe one thing and live a completely different way and feel no shame or conviction.  Isn't hypocrisy a great part of what the baby boomers rebelled against in the 60's? Didn't the church have a stake in that regarding how we treated others while claiming to follow Christ?  

David Fitch in The Great Giveaway says, 

In our doctrine of salvation then, evangelicals must avoid commoditizing salvation into an individualist consumerist transaction, something we have been prone to. There is a reason why it sounds intrusive to ask a stranger the question "Do you know Jesus as personal savior?" We have privatized the relationship with Jesus so as to make him into a gnosticized faith that seems isolated from everyday life. We must un-privatize our faith in Christ and reconnect our relationship with God through Christ to a way of life that we can invite people into and a movement of God in history. Then we can ask, "Do you have a place where you can ask questions about life?" "Do you know a story that can make sense of your life?" When we do this, we focus away from scaring people out of hell to inviting people into a compelling way of life. We realize that making salvation about being saved from hell irrespective of being saved to new life cheapens it into a piece of individualist knowledge, bordering on Gnositicism, that does not take root in embodied lives.

In postmodernity, truth is about character. Religious truth can no longer be relegated to the realm of private feeling or preference. This is because modern science, which pushed it there originally, no longer reigns supreme. Truth is in the living. Any evangelism therefore that separates one's renewed legal status before God from the new life we have in Christ strips the gospel of its power for a postmodern evangelism. For the postmodern world, justification cannot be separated from sanctification and sanctification cannot be separated from a living people of God. The basis for a compelling Christian account of salvation in postmodernity is a changed life among a living community of Christ. (58-59).

Developing a Missiology for the Bible Belt (the South)

I have been thinking a little about this lately. What does a proper missiology look like in the Bible Belt? Missiology is basically defined as the study of the mandate, message, and mission of the church as it relates to and proclaims the gospel among varying cultures, tribes, peoples, and nations.  Church attendance and participation is falling in the South. Churches are dying. Less people are claiming to be Christian every year. It seems that many in the South have been innoculated against the real gospel because they have just had a taste and they think that what they have experienced is all that there is. Southern Baptist leaders are calling for a Great Commission Resurgence, but much of the rhetoric so far has been a call to try harder and do more evangelism. Considering that fact that the church is having less and less influence in the South and the South is a fairly distinct culture in the United States, what would an appropriate missiology look like for this part of the country?  How do we make full-blown disciples of Christ in a Southern context?

Some questions come to mind:

• Do Christians in the South see our own land as a mission field? Are we aware of our own culture and the barriers and bridges to the gospel that exist in the South? What is unique about the South and it's culture, both good and bad?
• Do we understand the gospel and how to relate the gospel to this culture in a way that produces disciples of Christ and not just cultural Christians?
• How has the gospel that has been preached in the South been different from the gospel preached elsewhere and what were the causes/effects of that difference?
• How has the history of the South affected the churches and the message?
• What affect has the division caused by the sin of racism had on the abiltiy of the church (both white and black) to reach the South for Christ?  How can we address that both theologically and practically? What would it take to begin to see multicultural missional churches spring up all over the South?
• What role have the twin idols of personal preference and consumerism had on the church and the spread of the gospel in the South?
• What does cultural Christianity look like in the South and how has the church fallen captive to it? What have the results been?
• How will the church in the South pass on a vital faith to future generations and reach the native population of this land with the gospel in the future, especially with the widening gap between the Biblical church and culture?

I am surprised that this is not being talked about in our Southern Baptist seminaries or Bible colleges. It seems that our theologians and missiologists do little actual thinking in regard to our current context and how the church is to propel the gospel forward right here at home. I am afraid that the church in the South (the SBC in particular) is facing some difficult days. Are we even thinking about it? Are we giving thought to what it might take to reach a new generation? Are we exegeting our own culture?  In a short amount of time, relatively speaking, we are going to see a great exodus from our churches as the generation that is keeping them open begins to die off. With the South holding the largest concentration of Southern Baptists, what does this mean for our national presence and global missions?

I am convinced that God is speaking to us if we will but listen. There is always hope for a people that truly turns to Him. We must first look within at our own hearts and strengthen what remains. Then, we must come to understand what the gospel really is and what it is actually saying about God, humanity, sin, and redemption. We must take a look at the church and our mission. We must discern critically the culture in which we live. We need to learn to think like missionaries and join God where He is working. It isn't impossible. But, the question remains: have be so bought in to the lies of our culture that we are unable to extricate ourselves from its grip and speak prophetically to it? 

So I ask you: What would a missiology for the South that makes true disciples of Christ and plants missional churches look like?  What would we need to change? 

Baptist Identity and the Witness of the Church, pt. 1

Last Friday I posted an essay that was asking questions about the Baptist position on closed vs. open communion.  Based on the evidence that I have seen, I am leaning toward an open position, which would mean that we should share communion with anyone who has professed faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior, even if their baptism is different from ours. I am still questioning this however, because there is an argument for both positions. But, that is where I am leaning. Fortunately for me, if I end up in this position, there are many Southern Baptists who would agree with me and their numbers are growing. Some estimate that a majority, or at least a healthy minority of SBC churches, practice open communion among believers in Christ. 

A comment on that post got me thinking, though. It was by Robin Foster, a pastor from Oklahoma who is an advocate of a theological position called Baptist Identity. Robin has a sincere love for Christ and I have known him for a couple of years now. But, I can't help but take his comments to their logical conclusion and wonder what effect they would have. He says:

Which View of Communion Best Reflects Our Spiritual Unity In Christ?

Over the past few months, there has been a great deal of debate in the Baptist Blogosphere on the issue of Communion. Who can take Communion in Baptist churches? What does the Baptist Faith & Message (BF&M) say about this? Concerning Baptism, it says,

Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord's Supper.

Of course, for Baptists, this means that baptism by immersion is a prerequisite to church membership and to partaking of the Lord's Supper.  This would be the view of Close or Closed Communion. Open Communion would declare that any confessing believer in Jesus Christ can take Communion in a Baptist church, although they would not be allowed to join the church until they were baptized by immersion. The more that I study Scripture, the more that I am leaning to the open position, although I am very willing to be persuaded to the "close" or "closed" position. I have written this post to present my questions and emerging position on this subject and to ask for input from others. 

The Folly of Christless, Gospel-less Preaching

I have told my church on many occasions to "beware of teachings." The Christian, Evangelical world is full of "teachings" that are full of good things, but do not point to Christ. Jesus is not needed for these teachings to be true or have merit. Paul said that he only preached Christ and him crucified. That means that everything that the Apostle Paul taught flowed from the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It should be the same with us, lest we be taken captive by humanistic, empty idolatry.

Matt Chandler is a young pastor from The Village Church (http://hv.thevillagechurch.net/) in Texas that I have learned to appreciate over the last couple of years since I first heard a clip from him on Steve McCoy's blog. Even though I have only heard him a time or two, he left an impact on me when I did. Now I know why: he lives and preaches to exalt Christ alone. Amen to that!  Here is a video of him at the Desiring God pastor's conference.  Michael Spencer (iMonk) posted this and I had to link to it here. Read Michael's post and the resulting comments for some more good commentary on this and watch the video and tell me what you think:

Life and Death in the ER

This is a powerful clip from the TV show, ER, that I read about in Michael Horton's Christless Christianity. A man who was a former police officer and was responsible for the death of an innocent man is asking for answers about sin, forgiveness, death, and eternity from a chaplain who has no answers for him.  She does not speak to him about truth, but instead, about his perspective on living and getting rid of guilt by refocusing. She has no answers - only questions and statements like "I think it's up to each one of us to figure out what God wants."

Powerful video.  If you were in this situation, what would you say to this person?  How would you tell him how to find forgiveness?  What good does her "inclusive spirituality" do in a situation like this?  We have the gospel of Jesus Christ and it is the only message that can save sinners. Romans 3:21-26 talks about this man's concerns as it addresses sin, righteousness, faith, forgiveness, and judgment. People need real hope, not nice platitudes that do nothing for us. What are your thoughts about this? What would you say to him? What would you say to her? 

Our Identity In Christ

I have been really thinking about spiritual formation over the past several months and how we can be formed into the image of Christ. The Church's main job is to make disciples of Jesus. We often focus most heavily on everything else and we leave the disciplemaking to parachurch organizations if we think about it at all. But, God wants each of us to reflect Christ.  This starts with knowing who God is and knowing our identity in Christ.  If we know who Jesus is and who He has made us to be, we have the start that we need in living for Him. Who we are dictates how we act. We must be transformed by the renewing of our minds and we must live from the life of Christ within us, not from our own resources.

Here is a list of verses that deal with our identity in Christ that I found HERE. Read over them and ask God to help you live from the reality that He provides us. This is also helpful to use in discipling others.

 The Word of God Says in Jesus Christ...

I am faithful (Ephesians 1:1)

I am God's child (John 1:12)

I have been justified (Romans 5:1)

I am Christ's friend (John 15:15)

I belong to God (1 Corinthians 6:20)

I am a member of Christ's Body (1 Corinthians 12:27)

I am assured all things work together for good (Romans 8:28)

I have been established, anointed and sealed by God (2 Corinthians 1:21-22)

I am confident that God will perfect the work He has begun in me (Philippians 1:6)

I am a citizen of heaven (Philippians 3:20)

I am hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3)

I have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7)

I am born of God and the evil one cannot touch me (1 John 5:18)

I am blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3)

I am chosen before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4, 11)

I am holy and blameless (Ephesians 1:4)

I am adopted as his child (Ephesians 1:5)

I am given God's glorious grace lavishly and without restriction (Ephesians 1:5,8)

I am in Him (Ephesians 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:30)

I have redemption (Ephesians 1:8)

I am forgiven (Ephesians 1:8; Colossians 1:14)

I have purpose (Ephesians 1:9 & 3:11)

I have hope (Ephesians 1:12)

I am included (Ephesians 1:13)

I am sealed with the promised Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13)

I am a saint (Ephesians 1:18)

I am salt and light of the earth (Matfthew 5:13-14)

I have been chosen and God desires me to bear fruit (John 15:1,5)

I am a personal witness of Jesus Christ (Acts 1:8)

I am God's coworker (2 Corinthians 6:1)

I am a minister of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:17-20)

I am alive with Christ (Ephesians 2:5)

I am raised up with Christ (Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 2:12)

I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6)

I have been shown the incomparable riches of God's grace (Ephesians 2:7)

God has expressed His kindness to me (Ephesians 2:7)

I am God's workmanship (Ephesians 2:10)

I have been brought near to God through Christ's blood (Ephesians 2:13)

I have peace (Ephesians 2:14)

I have access to the Father (Ephesians 2:18)

I am a member of God's household (Ephesians 2:19)

I am secure (Ephesians 2:20)

I am a holy temple (Ephesians 2:21; 1 Corinthians 6:19)

I am a dwelling for the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:22)

I share in the promise of Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:6)

God's power works through me (Ephesians 3:7)

I can approach God with freedom and confidence (Ephesians 3:12)

I know there is a purpose for my sufferings (Ephesians 3:13)

I can grasp how wide, long, high and deep Christ's love is (Ephesians 3:18)

I am completed by God (Ephesians 3:19)

I can bring glory to God (Ephesians 3:21)

I have been called (Ephesians 4:1; 2 Timothy 1:9)

I can be humble, gentle, patient and lovingly tolerant of others (Ephesians 4:2)

I can mature spiritually (Ephesians 4:15)

I can be certain of God's truths and the lifestyle which He has called me to (Ephesians 4:17)

I can have a new attitude and a new lifestyle (Ephesians 4:21-32)

I can be kind and compassionate to others (Ephesians 4:32)

I can forgive others (Ephesians 4:32)

I am a light to others, and can exhibit goodness, righteousness and truth (Ephesians 5:8-9)

I can understand what God's will is (Ephesians 5:17)

I can give thanks for everything (Ephesians 5:20)

I don't have to always have my own agenda (Ephesians 5:21)

I can honor God through marriage (Ephesians 5:22-33)

I can parent my children with composure (Ephesians 6:4)

I can be strong (Ephesians 6:10)

I have God's power (Ephesians 6:10)

I can stand firm in the day of evil (Ephesians 6:13)

I am dead to sin (Romans 1:12)

I am not alone (Hebrews 13:5)

I am growing (Colossians 2:7)

I am His disciple (John 13:15)

I am prayed for by Jesus Christ (John 17:20-23)

I am united with other believers (John 17:20-23)

I am not in want (Philippians 4:19)

I possess the mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2:16)

I am promised eternal life (John 6:47)

I am promised a full life (John 10:10)

I am victorious (I John 5:4)

My heart and mind is protected with God's peace (Philippians 4:7)

I am chosen and dearly loved (Colossians 3:12)

I am blameless (I Corinthians 1:8)

I am set free (Romans 8:2; John 8:32)

I am crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20)

I am a light in the world (Matthew 5:14)

I am more than a conqueror (Romans 8:37)

I am the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21)

I am safe (I John 5:18)

I am part of God's kingdom (Revelation 1:6)

I am healed from sin (I Peter 2:24)

I am no longer condemned (Romans 8:1, 2)

I am not helpless (Philippians 4:13)

I am overcoming (I John 4:4)

I am persevering (Philippians 3:14)

I am protected (John 10:28)

I am born again (I Peter 1:23)

I am a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)

I am delivered (Colossians 1:13)

I am redeemed from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13)

I am qualified to share in His inheritance (Colossians 1:12)

I am victorious (1 Corinthians 15:57)

Here is another good teaching on this subject if you want to go deeper.

Christian Political Engagement as Witness and Apologetic

I've obviously been thinking a lot about politics lately, as have most Americans. I've continually made the statement that Christians are to be prophetic on issues instead of being political. We are to live from the ethic of the Kingdom of God rather than the power plays of the kingdoms of men. Being prophetic is about adhering to the truth while being political is about grasping for worldly power, something that is forbidden to Christians. That does not meant that we should not be engaged in politics. Political activity is only the way that human beings govern themselves and establish an ordered society. Christians should most definitely be involved in that. But, we should always involve ourselves in the political process on the basis of truth instead of on the basis of ideology or party affiliation. If we lean toward worldy ideology without being tied to the truth of Scripture, we end up sacrificing truth for political expediency and we become nothing more than a special interest group attempting to get our own way. It all becomes very selfish and unchristian.

That is why I brought up the issues with Sarah Palin over the past few days. I am not rejecting her as a candidate or as a person. I am a conservative, so you can probably figure out which way I will end up going in this election. But, it is important to praise the good in our candidates while also sticking to our convictions on the issues that matter to us. Sarah Palin and her husband both work very long hours and they have 5 children. She has a newborn with Down's Syndrome. Her 17 year old daughter is 5 months pregnant. I would imagine that her husband will quit his job if they move to Washington, so he will obviously be around with the children and that is a good thing. I bring all of this up because we've never had a female candidate for our highest offices who was a mother of young children. What we say about that has everything to do with the message on the family that we have been proclaiming for 3 decades now. We can't just jettison that message because we have a chance to have access to the White House and get conservative justices elected to the Supreme Court.

If Sarah Palin Were a Liberal Democrat . . .

What would be the reaction of conservative, Evangelical Republicans? Or, Republicans in general? That is the question that is lingering in my mind this morning and I believe that the answer has a great deal to do with the public witness of of the evangelical church in America.

Over the past 20 years or so, I have witnessed evangelical leaders, preachers, and conservative Republicans use instances of working, career pursuing mothers and unwed teen pregnancy as examples of family and moral breakdown in our country. Liberal Democrats were regularly attacked for their views on these issues (see Dan Quayle and Murphy Brown in 1992). I found myself in agreement with the principles espoused by the Right, but uncomfortable with the way that these issues were used in regard to party politics. I am ardently Pro-Life and believe that sex should wait until marriage. I believe that a parent's first priority is to their children over their career and I believe that it is best if the mother can stay home with the kids, although I fully understand that that is not always possible financially. I also would not put that on anyone in a legalistic way because people are free to make their own decisions on this issue. That is my opinion and I would not judge anyone for choosing a different course, as long as their children were taken care of.

When Sarah Palin was first announced, I thought it was a good choice.  I greatly respect the work of governors and I did not see the experience issue as being a concern. I also did not think that the fact that she was a woman or a mother of 5, even an infant with Down's Syndrome, would disqualify her. But, I did wonder how she would manage all of these challenges and how conservative evangelicals would view this, because I have always heard a different message from them regarding motherhood and raising children. Then, when it was revealed that Palin's 17 year old daughter was 5 months pregnant, I expected there to be some type of statement about the dangers of teen sex and/or the need for parents to be attentive to their children and "focus on the family." That is what we've heard for the past 20-30 years from evangelicals, right?  I have been surprised.

From a CNN article entitled Evangelicals Rally Behind Palin After Pregnancy News, this is the response of some of Conservative and Evangelical leaders:

Racial Diversity a Gospel Imperative: Thoughts From the Willow Creek Leadership Summit

Why don't Southern Baptists have conferences like this???  A group of about 10 of us are attending the Willow Creek Leadership Summit at a satellite location here in Montgomery. It has been really good so far, with excellent sessions led by Bill Hybels, Gary Haugen of the International Justice Mission (who said, "Leadership that matters to God involves issues that matter to God"), Wendy Kopp of Teach for America, John Burke of Gateway Community Church, and Bill George. All of the speakers were excellent and very challenging. They gave great foundations for leadership in the church and the world and told amazing stories of risk and adventure in creating new realities. The theme this year seems to be focusing on the issue of justice and social issues.

Probably the most poignant speaker of the day for me was Efrem Smith of  The Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis.  He spoke on the need for a racially diverse, multicultural church witness in America. Here are the notes that I took from his talk:

• The church should be a solution to the racial divide in our country, not a part of the problem.
• Culture should be engaged for Kingdom purposes, not necessarily fully embraced
• We live in a multi-cultural, technological, innovative, multi-racial, multi-ethnic, connected, global world.
• The more diverse that we as a nation get, the more divided we become. We are in need of leaders who will engage this world to bring about peace and prosperity to show that there is a God who brings hope, healing, justice, and transformation.
• 30 years ago, 1 in 100 children born in America were born of a mixed race. Today, it is 1 in 19. The next generation will not be under the rigid racial distinctions of the past.
• We must lead and be prophetic in a multicultural world.
• A leader in this world must be invaded by God to lead multiculturally and multiethnically.
• 1 John 4:7 - Love one another - In order to lead in a multicultural world, we must be a beloved leader. You become this way when you allow yourself to be taken by God and His purposes.
• We must be connected to God so that people can see God through us.
• It is not about qualification to lead multiculturally, it is about being picked up by God and being carried along by His purposes.
• When we have been filled by God, we will address issues of race, class, and ethnicity around the world. Does the church have an answer? Yes!
• If the church really wants to transform where the pain is, we will invest in and plant churches in the inner city and find dwelling places where the hurting people are.
• We must be able to confess where we've gotten in wrong.
• The reason why we've had racial and ethic storms in this world is because man's desire for comfort has come in conflict with God's desire for reconciliation and healing.
• What if we confronted the reasons for why churches are ethnically and racially divided and addressed those reasons? Our primary identity is not racial. We should not have white churches and black churches in cities that are racially and ethnically diverse. The church should represent the community and consist of all people. This is what the Gospel commands. Along these lines Smith says,

"The Church must wrestle with what it means to equip the saints to advance the Kingdom of God in an ever-increasing multi-ethnic and multicultural world. In order for this to happen, pastors and ministry leaders must begin by seeing reconciliation as theology and Christian formation. Reconciliation must be seen as spiritual discipline on the same level as prayer, fasting, and stewardship. One of the major issues with which we still struggle in the body of Christ is racial segregation. There still exists a belief among many church leaders that a homogenous church model is the best for church development and growth. Within an ever-increasing multi-ethnic and multicultural society, when sociologists want to prove that there is yet a racial divide, many look no further than the church to make this point."

Efrem Smith went on to say that the only proper response to a multi-cultural society is a multi-cultural church. I agree. Raffi Shahinian left a comment on my post from the other day on this issue pointing me to a post that he had written on the subject. Raffi said that the church has always had a problem with racial and cultural divisions. That is why Paul talked about it so much. But, the point was that they were not allowed to stay in those divisions. Paul prophetically called them out of their inward focus to a broader reality of the diverse Body of Christ. Raffi says that a great deal of Paul's writings dealt directly with this issue of prejudice between differing groups based on race, culture, background, and ethnicity. Romans should be read in this context because we are all equally sinners and justified by faith - whether Jew or Gentile. This is why Romans 1-8 sets up the rest of the letter in calling Jews and Gentiles (who are both reconciled to God the same way) to love one another and accept on another. Galatians deals with this, as does Ephesians, Colossians, 1 Corinthians, etc. It goes on and on. I have never thought about it that way, but he is right.  The Gospel is made up of both vertical reconciliation (between us and God) as well as horizontal reconciliation (between man and man).  For the Church not to display this in a racially divided land is to not display a holistic Gospel witness.

Here are thoughts from Efrem after he spoke at the Summit:

Compassion and mercy ministries lead to engaging in justice advocacy.  That is worth thinking about.

God continues to speak to me on this issue. I am working on a book on this subject with the Montgomery story as a background. I have come to believe that reconciliation is a gospel issue - it is not a preference issue. Our churches must deal with this to be able to effectively proclaim the gospel to the mission field of America. If we do not, any claim to be serious about reaching our country is just words.

UPDATE:  This is a great post on the detrimental nature of silence on the racial issue in our churches. Pretending like it is not a problem, or like if it ever was a problem it was dealt with in the past, is not a helpful take on the current issue within the church.   

The Righteousness of Christ

I write a lot about social justice issues, missions, and reforming culture. But, it is only possible for the Christian to engage in any of that because we have first and foremost been set free from our sin, death, Satan, and Hell by the blood of Jesus and His sacrifice and victory on the Cross and through His resurrection. Because "it is finished" we no longer need to make striving for our own righteousness before God our all consuming focus. We are free to serve God and others!  We can entrust ourselves to God and truly believe that we are righteous with the imputed righteousness of Christ! What a great salvation!

I first ran across Dr. Rod Rosenbladt a few years ago when a friend of mine passed me a little booklet called Christ Alone. It was gold. I happened to see a link to a Dr. Rosenbladt mp3 on The Gospel for those Broken By the Church. I have not listened to this yet, but a couple of excerpts are printed that I found helpful:

If the Ten Commandments were not impossible enough, the preaching of Christian behavior, of Christian ethics, of Christian living, can drive a Christian into despairing unbelief. Not happy unbelief. Tragic, despairing, sad unbelief. (It is not unlike the [unhappy] Christian equivalent of "Jack Mormons" - those who finally admit to themselves and others that they can't live up to the demands of this non-Christian cult's laws, and excuse themselves from the whole sheebang.) A diet of this stuff from pulpit, from curriculum, from a Christian reading list, can do a work on a Christian that is (at least over the long haul) "faith destroying."

He goes on: