The Fame of Anonymity

And Jesus sternly charged [the leper] and sent him away at once, and said to him, 'See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.' But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, to that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people where coming to him from every quarter. Mark 1:43-45

In my life and ministry, I have typically attempted to keep as low a profile as I could.  I have rarely aspired to be anyone of importance.  I have no desire to hold offices.  I even shy away from the thought that people might want to look up to me as a role model or anything like that.  Sure, it's an honor when people encourage their kids to look to me as an example, but what I am saying is that it is not something I aspire toward.

To some extent, I have come to see Jesus in a similar light.  Quite often we find accounts in the Gospels like the one above, where Jesus does some act of kindness or compassion toward someone, and then tells them not to make a big deal out of it.  Over the years, I've heard various reasons given for this.  Some say that He knew the best way to get them to tell others would be to tell them NOT to talk about it, but that hasn't sat right with me, as it makes Jesus out to be intentionally misleading people.  Others say He didn't really mean it, but that would then devalue what Jesus says, which we only do at our peril.

I've rather come to think that Jesus actually didn't want attention drawn to Himself when He would show compassion and care for others.  He didn't want the left hand to know what the right hand was doing, or to have His actions done for the praise of man.  Instead, I have come to see Him much more in the light of what He spoke in Matthew 5, where He said to let your light shine before others, that they may see your good and give glory to the Father for what they have seen.

I have come to deeply believe that, when you do good for others, such as showing care and compassion, and you don't do it to be noticed, that it will get noticed.  Yes, God notices it, and truly, that is all that matters.  Any good that we do should really be done for an audience of One, that of the Father.  Yet, when people realize that you aren't doing good to them simply to show how good you are, they will respect that, and will inevitably let others know that you are one who is trustworthy.  As people who have been the recipients of your care and compassion connect with one another, suddenly what you have done builds.  Again, not so much for your benefit, but that God is glorified through what you have done.  Yet, in the long run, it will cause you to be more noticed, and perhaps even asked to do more, or to show more compassion.  That is what we eventually see with Jesus, just like Mark points out at the end of his first chapter.

So yes, show your care and compassion toward others, and do it abundantly.  Don't do it to be noticed, and don't do it so that others will talk about what a good person you are.  Do it because your Father sees it and rejoices over Christ shining in your life.  But also don't be surprised if you then start to witness what I am calling the Fame of Anonymity. 

Lost and Found

If you don't know that you are lost, can you really be found?

Okay, it's a hypothetical question, one that probably can't fairly be answered.  In Luke 15, Jesus tells three stories about lost things.  One is a lost sheep that the shepherd goes to find, leaving the 99 safe and secure in the pen.  The next is a lost coin, one out of 10 that a woman has, and she sweeps her whole house to find that lost coin, presumably keeping the other 9 in a safe place.  Then, Jesus follows up with the longest story, that which is commonly known as the prodigal son.  A son asks for his inheritance, leaves home, squanders what he was given, comes home, and dad throws a party, to which the older son seems to refuse to be part of. 

Naturally, in these stories, we have a tendency to focus on the lost object, and to identify ourselves with that lost object.  And yet, for people like myself, who were washed in baptism at a very young age and who know no other life than that of being part of God's Church, the question above may speak very appropriately to us: if you don't know that you are lost, can you really be found?

Right away, the first answer has to be, yes, you really can be found.  After all, it is God who rescues us in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection for us, and in God's gifts of grace given to us.  In a sense, that's where the stories I mentioned above come in.  The primary person in each of the stories is not the lost object, nor the ones who were safely kept, but the one who did the searching.  It's the shepherd going out to find the lost sheep.  It's the woman looking for her lost coin.  It's the father who joyfully receives his son into the family of his origin.  The point of the stories is not the lost one, it's the one who finds and receives and celebrates.

Yet, we can lose that sense of being a lost one.  Many, like me, have been "found" for so long that we don't truly comprehend the depth of what it means to be lost.  We have lived our lives knowing that God loves us, that Jesus saved us, that God wants to do good for us.  It seems shocking to suggest otherwise. 

But perhaps that is where most of the people that we encounter daily actually are.  Perhaps they wonder if God is even there, much less if God wants to do good things to them.  They see the hardships of life, and think that God, if He exists, must have it in for them.  They may know the name Jesus, but overall, society points to Jesus more as a good teacher and moral man than Savior, and so they don't know that they have been rescued from the futility that they experience in life.  They see God as waiting with thunderbolts in hand, and if they walk through the door of that church, won't He throw it at them, since only "good" people go there?

In some ways, it's hard for someone like me to relate to someone who truly feels lost and separated from God.  But that's not even the point.  The point is, I also am lost, no matter how much I may not experience it.  My sin, which may not be as bad as theirs from a worldly standpoint, is just as deadly in God's eyes as theirs.  I am truly lost and fear standing before a wrathful God, even if my worst sin is a simple white lie to my wife, or that paper clip I stole from work.

Do you know what a good cure is when we find ourselves not able to relate to those who truly seem to be experiencing that lost sense?  It's to go out there where they are, to see their life without passing judgment on it, to get to know them and care for them, and see where their struggles are.  Not doing it as an outreach, but doing it out of Christian love.  Our hope is that God's Spirit works both in us and in them, growing us in our care and concern for them, and drawing them to their Savior through our interactions with them.

Perhaps that's the answer to the question.  If those who are found don't sense their lostness, perhaps going out and experiencing life with those who are lost will help deepen our faith and appreciation for the lengths our God goes to on our behalf.

Creating Connections

Okay, time to debunk a myth before I really get into my point today, though debunking the myth helps set the stage.  There is this thought out there that people want a friendly church.  Now, to some degree, this is an understandable thing.  Very few people want to go somewhere where the people are unfriendly.  If a person goes to a church and is basically ignored or made to feel a stranger or an inconvenience, then there is a problem.  As God's people, we do want to be friendly toward others.

However, the myth says that people want a friendly church.  Why is this a myth?  Simply being friendly is not enough.  I've encountered people that are friendly at various places such as the DMV, the dentist's office, and a variety of other places.  That doesn't mean that I want to regularly go there and hang out.  Sure, they may be very friendly, but I'm not going to come back just because the people are friendly.

So if it's a myth that people want a friendly church, what is the reality, then?  It's more along these lines.  People don't want a friendly church, they want a church where they can find friends.  Yes, there is a significant difference in that statement.  Friendly means you greet them with a smile, but you don't lose anything if they don't come back.  Being friends means that it matters to you that they are made comfortable, that they know what to expect, and that you want to see them again, repeatedly.  Being friends means you care about them, that you want to get to know them better, and want to spend time with them.

Okay, so we've debunked the myth.  But the thing is, what I've just typed could easily be said about the country club, the fitness center, or any other place that you go to regularly.  The reason we connect with those who make their way into our places of worship and fellowship is not merely to become friends, but to become connected together in Jesus.  We connect as friends, but we connect in the one who has connected us to Himself.  We connect in worship because we are refreshed in the one who is the vine for all of us varied branches.  We connect in fellowship because Jesus sharpens us and strengthens us for His work as we come together, and as we are then sent back out into the community.

Think about that the next time you see someone outside of those 30 that I had you name yesterday.  How can you connect with them as a friend, and as you do that, how do you also see God working to connect them even deeper to the one who is the vine for their branch?  Tomorrow, we'll think a bit about what this might look like.

How Connected Are You, Really?

For a moment, think about your typical time going to worship.  As you get out of the car and walk into the church, who are the people that you notice?  Who are the people that you expect you will spend some time talking with?  Now, let's look at a few other questions, and I encourage you to think about these and really be brutally honest with yourself.  Are there those that you sort of slink around to avoid?  Are there those that you would feel awkward talking with?  Are there those that you hope you don't run into?  (If we are honest with ourselves, we are going to have some of each of those.)

Now, another vein of thinking.  Approximately how many people do you anticipate that, on any given gathering time, you will spend time talking with?  Or, perhaps you can think of it another way.  Who are the individuals that you will spend 75% of your time talking with?  If you are like most people (and chances are, you are!), you will spend a majority of your time conversing with a much smaller group than you might think.  Outside of that group, you aren't really sure what to talk about, or you feel some level of discomfort in talking with them or listening to them.

How connected are you, really?  If you are like the typical person, you have room in your life for about 8-10 really good, close, deep friendships.  You have room in your life for about another 15-20 acquantainces with whom you regularly interact.  If we go with the bigger of those numbers, that means that you may have a group of about 30 people with whom you would regularly interact with when you go to worship.  Yes, there are others outside of that with whom you will interact, but you will likely spend the majority of your time within that group of 30.

So now think back to the answers you had as you read through the first paragraph.  Are they mostly within that group of 30?  Or maybe I could ask it this way.  If you had to list out 45 people that you know within your gathering of the saints, could you readily list them out and say that you know them pretty well?  Chances are, as you get toward the end of that list, you may know the person, but you may not know them well.

How connected are you, really?  We sometimes have an overinflated sense of our influence and role within the body.  The reality may very well be that we aren't as influential as we think we are.  If our gathering is of any appreciable size, we actually may not know more people than we actually do know. 

So what do we do about this?  Well, that's an answer for another blog post.  So tune in tomorrow and we'll start to unpack some of what we can do to be a bit more connected.

What's The Deal With People?

At some point in your life, you've probably wondered something along the lines of that question.  Most likely, it came at some point where another person did something that just baffled you.  You wondered how they could arrive at the conclusion they did, or why they did the action they did.  It didn't make any sense to you, and you really wondered about them.

At heart, it's inevitable that we would think that about every other person.  God did not fashion any of us the same, no matter how closely related we may be.  We never truly will know what the deal is with the other person because they are not us.  And that, in turn, affects how we relate to them.  How do I relate to a person who, at times, does baffling things that make absolutely no sense to us?

This question especially takes on a new relevance when we are in Christ Jesus.  Because God has chosen to interact with the people of this world through His people, we are called to remember that our interactions with others will inevitably affect how others see God when they see us.  If we are rude, if we are jerks, and we say that we carry the name of Jesus, that cannot help but affect how people see God (or, perhaps, God's people).

How do I relate to others?  The reminder that we have is that we are called to be the aroma of Jesus to the people we encounter.  That means that we are Jesus to them.  Martin Luther had a different way of putting it.  He wrote that we are to be "little Christs" to them.  When people see us, the expectation is that they see Jesus within us.  And that's not just to one or two other people.  That is for every person that we encounter, no matter what time of day, where we are, or what we are doing.

I relate to others as a baptized, redeemed child of God in Christ Jesus.  Maybe if we put a reminder of that on us, maybe as a bracelet or something, it would help us remember that when the person cuts us off in traffic, or when our kid does something baffling, or when our neighbor mows their grass during the kids' naptime.  We are to be the aroma of Christ to them. 

YOLO, or YOLF?

Some of you who read the title of this post may know what the first set of initials means.  Others may not.  For those who don't, YOLO is a fairly new acronym that stands for, "You only live once."  It has become the byline for explaning why you do some of the things you do.  For example, someone may go skydiving, and caption it, "YOLO!"  Others may drive a speeding car down a windy mountain road at high speeds with the same caption.  In short, it can be used as a tagline to explain why you may do something risky, or even something that is just plain dumb.

After all, if you only live once, you might as well try to make the most out of it, right?  And if you happen to go out in a blaze of glory, well, at least you went out doing something you loved, or something you wanted to.  Believe me, there is a lot of that kind of thinking out there today.  It becomes the reason for not saving money, for doing careless things, as well as those bucket list kind of things.

But for those of us who approach the world from a biblical point of view, we also recognize that it is not, in fact, "YOLO."  Yes, God only gives us one life to live in this world, where we inhabit a body created by Him that nonetheless also has the taint of sin attached.  However, God also speaks about a new life, one which has its beginnings in us at baptism, and which comes to its full realization in the resurrection of the dead and when we are brought into the eternal kingdom, where death no longer intrudes.

In other words, YOLF!  Only, my acronym here is "You only live forever!"  Sure, that may mean that we can take calculated risks for God as we live our lives in this world, knowing that we have something even better in store ahead of us.  We don't treat this life carelessly; after all, it is still God's gift to us.  But we also remember that we have something better in store for us.

Here's the thing about YOLO.  The center of YOLO is the self.  YOU do what YOU want because it's YOUR life to do with what YOU want.  Do you see the center of that more clearly now?  It becomes fully focused on YOU, the self.  And for those of us who approach this world from a biblical perspective, we know that's not the one God calls for.

Our lives are lived to the glory of God's grace, to honor the name of Jesus, to following the leading and prompting of the Spirit that God has put in us at our baptism.  That life is lived in honor of God, in following His will and design for life.  And we find that the extention of that is a life lived in love for our neighbor.

In other words, our lives find their fulfillment, not in doing whatever we can to get the most out of this life, but in doing what we can to see that others get the most out of this life.  And, as those others do the same thing, they serve us in seeing that we get the most out of this life.  And then, we remember that we get to do this perfectly with God forever when the new life fully comes!  Wow!  That's an incredible thought to consider.  And I don't know about you, but it makes me want to risk for God, not just to please myself more. 

Of Bumper Stickers and Other Things

I get a kick out of bumper stickers sometimes.  Just last night, I was behind a bad driver (in my opinion, of course, notwithstanding the two lanes of traffic he cut across in order to get to the turn lane).  Now, bad drivers irritate me, but I actually found this one amusing.  He had a bumper sticker that said something along the lines of "Tailgating kills."  I can perhaps understand his sentiment, even as I wanted to let him know how I upset I was for his inept driving skills and preparedness.

Other bumper stickers are a lot less likeable in my eyes.  You've probably seen one that says "COEXIST" with the letters replaced by different religious symbols.  I admit that one irritates me.  To think that someone assumes that they have a higher understanding of God than people of faith, and that their view of how the world should be is superior to those who look outside of themselves for guidance truly baffles me.  (I should say I've also seen one of the same design with the word TOLERANCE on it, which again seems to demonstrate that their belief in tolerance is better than anything God could says.)

In one sense, I understand the desire of those who decorate their cars with bumper stickers.  They truly want to demonstrate something that they believe in.  It's admirable, in a way.  And yet, one thing I often find is that it is simply impossible to convey much sense of what you believe by pasting a few words onto a sticker on your bumper.  There is always a much greater depth and context than the mere few words that have to be large enough to be seen.

I've tried over the years to sum up my Christian belief in just a few words.  But I consistently discover that there is no way I can sum up everything that God tells us about Himself that is vital to know in that brief of a way.  No bumper sticker or 140 character display can accurately convey meaning and intent.  At best, it can point to a deeper meaning, with the hope that those reading are encouraged to delve deeper.

At the same time, you can easily overwhelm another if you try to include too much.  (Just imagine a bumper sticker with the Athanasian Creed on it, and if you don't know what that is, I suggest Googling it.)  It's a balance in trying to convey depth and accuracy while striving to be brief enough to keep attention.

That just seems to beg us to work to create community and relationship with others.  Only in that kind of context can we briefly describe certain parts of what God reveals to us about Himself, and at the same time, have the opportunity to go into depth as the situation allows.  And that kind of community is something you have to work at as you live your life.  If you find a way to get it onto a bumper sticker, great.  But community and relationship is always greater than even the most profound of bumper stickers.

Taking Time To Learn

I remember the situation.  A young man had gone through a number of sessions with me.  He had been so excited as he learned about the Christian faith.  He wanted to be involved in the life of God's people.  Word had gotten around that he wanted to be involved, and the church, always in need of people to fill the different roles, asked him if he would take on one of those roles.  He enthusiastically said yes.  He was elected, installed, and hit the ground with his feet spinning like crazy.

However, that burning fire quickly started to get doused.  It became apparent rather quickly that there were just some situations that he was unprepared for in his role.  On top of that, while he knew a few people, he hadn't been part of the group long enough to work his way into their trust circle.  His enthusiasm began to wan.  He started to complain about the lack of encouragement he was receiving.  He felt overwhelmed.

It finally got to the point that the end of his term came up, and he happily relinquished his role.  He became yet another in the countless throng who were part of God's people, but weren't really interested in the different roles which the organization needs filled.  And that was one of my first lessons in "Taking Time To Learn."

One thing I often stress to people who are new to the Christian faith or to a particular congregation is to take a period of at least 6 months to get adjusted and acquainted with God's people, with the way that we do things, and to spend that time really connecting with people.  I have seen it happen far too frequently where someone came in, was very enthusiastic, and either didn't know the needs of God's people at that time, or simply were frustrated when others didn't share their same enthusiasm.  The problem is, the congregation is often far to willing to play along with it.  "We need someone, and they were so excited to do it" is often the rallying cry.  So the congregation plays along in the very thing that ends up hurting.

That's why I often encourage people to take the 6 months or more prior to getting involved.  It allows them to connect with God's people.  They start to learn which things are important, and why they are important.  When they indicate a willingness to participate, it allows for some training, when necessary, and also allows them to be included, to learn the purpose behind the various things that they may be involved in, as well as learning the expectations that come along with those.  And in the end, those are always good things to learn.

I realize that there are those who don't agree with such an approach.  But I would dare argue that, for every person whose fire of enthusiasm burned out by waiting, there were many more who benefited even more from learning God's people, what was happening, and how to be part of what was going on, and they became more deeply involved.  They understood what they were getting into.  As Jesus instructs us, they learned to count the cost of what they were becoming part of, and were able to have a clearer picture of what that cost was.  And in the end, it benefited them, the congregation, but most importantly, God's enduring kingdom in great ways.

So Tell Me About Labor

For those of you who are mothers, no, I am not asking about the process of bringing your children into this world.  While I love hearing stories about such things, that's not the topic for today.  Instead, I want to focus once again on the kind of labor that consists of the work we have to do in this world.

The thing is, I want to argue that we, today, in our North American culture and society, have far too narrowly defined work or, to use my word, labor.  We tend to equate it with our work, or our career.  In fact, we do this at the expense of other roles that we  also "work" at, roles such as being a husband or wife, son or daughter, mother or father, caregiver or provider, brother or sister, and many other such roles.

Over the past several years, I've really had my eyes opened to just how in depth God goes when talking about our labor in these other roles.  God has much more to say about how fathers are to treat their children, for example, than in what men should do in their chosen careers.  He talks a lot more about how we relate to one another as neighbor far more than He ever mentions anything about our career.  And yet, in our skewed view of existence, we tend to place the greater importance on the career, often for the simple (and wrongful) reason that it brings home the money on which we live.

There are all sorts of roads I can go down with that, but suffice it to say, God created us to have labor in this world, but labor far more involved than simply our chosen careers.  And God so often seems to take those other labors far more seriously than He does our career.  Without disparaging our career, it truly does seem like being a good father carries far greater implications than in being a good manager, marketer, etc.

If we were to ask God, so, tell me about labor, it truly seems like He would point us to things that are so often not spectacular, but are instead foundational.  And so it shouldn't surprise us when the chief labors of our lives happen to be those things that we are involved in every single day, always in relation to other people.

Communication

Okay, so what do you think of when you hear the word "communication"?  Do images of telephones leap to your head?  What about conversations with others, in which you relay information on to them?  Do you think of emails, Facebook posts, Twitter feeds, and the like?  Or perhaps you're more inclined to think of TV shows and radio news networks.

For a few moments today, I want to reflect on the actual word itself.  When you look at the word "communication", think of the different words that you know which are related to it, or which share a common root.  Communion.  Commune.  Common.  Communicate.  I'm sure you can come up with a few more than my brief little list here.

What do these words all have in common?  (Notice how I slipped that in?  Nice, eh?)  They all speak about something which connects together.  When you think of communion, you think of gathering together with others.  You come together around a specific purpose, which connects you and unites you to the others in the group.  When you live in a commune, you live with like-minded people, sharing your lives together.  When you have something in common, it is shared among all with some degree of equality.  And when you communicate, you connect with one another by sharing information that becomes common for both of you, thus connecting you together.

Communication is of vital importance to us as human beings.  We simply cannot exist without communication with others.  Still to this day, one of the worst threats to prisoners is solitary confinement.  Nations have banned sensory deprivation as a means of interrogation, a means by which a person is cut off from communication with other people and surroundings.  And how often do you hear about someone who does some of the truly despicable actions we have seen in our lifetimes without hearing that they were alone, or didn't communicate and connect with others?  Most often, we hear that they didn't connect with others a lot, and were loners, or spent a lot of time alone.

Communication is vital to our existence.  Without it, things go wrong.  And we communicate by a variety of means, some of which we'll talk about this week.  Even as I write these words, I'm communicating with a lot of you.  And we'll spend a little time looking at the depth to which communication can go, especially as we think about what God has done for us in Jesus.

Distrust

As we live out our lives, one of the things that I have come to believe is foundational to a healthy life is having those people we can trust in life.  Many of us spend a lot of time searching for those people that we can truly "be ourselves" around.  We want to know that they are safe people, that we can open up to them, and that they won't betray that trust.

Yet, we find ourselves living more and more in a skeptical, jaded world.  In a day and age where everyone has the opportunity for a knee-jerk reaction on Facebook or Twitter or on their blogs, it seems that trust isn't seen as highly as it once was.  We see how untrustworthy so many are around us, and we cannot help but feel the lack of trust that exists around us.  And for many of us, this becomes a personal problem.

What do you do when you don't have someone with whom you can truly trust your life?  You want to have someone with whom you can be open and honest, but it's really hard to develop that kind of relationship with someone.  Spouses continually are breaking trust, as is evidenced in the divorce rate.  Friendships fall apart as gossip enters in, and trust is broken.  And even in churches, relationships that are founded in Christ Jesus are torn apart as confidences are betrayed, and as God's people fail to develop trust among one another.

Satan loves distrust.  He loves to isolate us with the thought that no one else can understand or be trusted with our precious thoughts and lives.  And sadly, he finds an all-too-willing ally in our sinful nature.  There is that part of us that wants to use the juicy thoughts or confidences of others as a way to exalt ourselves, or to draw more attention to ourselves.  And the more we indulge that sin, the greater the distrust that builds up, and the more difficult the task for the Holy Spirit to bring about Christ's reconciliation.

I don't have any easy answers for distrust.  But I do have one thing that I know for sure.  Jesus is not bound by our distrust, nor does He find Himself restricted only to those who truly trust.  Jesus is beyond our trust or distrust, and can work even in the lack of trust or the presence of distrust.  That's because Jesus Himself fully knows who we are, and has overcome both Satan and our sinful nature through His life, death, and resurrection. 

That is why we strive to build up trust, and to fight against the things that cause distrust.  And then, when reason for distrust enters in, we strive for reconciliation, as Christ has reconciled us to God through His death and resurrection.  We strive for confession of sin, and for forgiveness of sin to be granted.  When relationships have been torn, we strive to repair those relationships in God-pleasing ways.  And in all of these things, we give thanks to God for His gracious gift of forgiveness.

A Faith Of Influence

In the years following the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, the Christian faith began to reveal itself as the full will and design of God.  God had spoken to His people of old through the prophets, and finally had spoken by His own Son.  As God's Spirit began to work through His people, the message of Christ and God's hope began to spread.  It didn't take long to push out from its Jewish roots, reaching even the Gentiles.  By the end of the first century, the Christian faith had penetrated to the ends of Europe, into Africa, and on into the east, as well.

By the time the third century rolled around, Christianity had grown greatly.  It was no longer a faith that resided only in the various Jewish synagogues, but was also believed in the households of rulers, and of many of the common people.  In just a couple of hundred of years, it had gone from a group of 11 men sent by God to encompass a whole continent and more.  It no longer was a subversive faith, but had suddenly become the preferred faith.  No longer on the outskirts, now the Christian faith was at the front and center of the Empire.

How did it get to be that way?  During the first couple of centuries AD, this faith had been ignored, and then, at various times, heavily persecuted.  Several rulers had tried their best to stomp it out.  And yet, despite their best efforts, the Christian faith continued to grow.  How was this?  Well, the easiest answer is to say that it is from God, and no one can ever stop anything that is guided and directed by God.  God has promised that His Word will indeed go out, and it will return bearing fruit.

But God's Word also works, not through ruling or dictating, but through influence.  God's Word doesn't attempt to force people to adhere to its guidelines and rules and instructions.  It seeks to change the heart and the soul of those who read it.  God's Spirit works, not to force the believer to simply change the way (s)he lives, but to influence the heart and soul and mind of the believer.

God's Spirit and God's Word work to influence us.  It works to show us the folly and foolishness of trying to do things our way, according to our design and plan.  It shows us how God's design and will works, and what it looks like.  It works to show us the price that God was willing to pay to restore us to Him.  It works to show us Jesus, and to prove God's love in sending a Savior.  It works to change our heart, which then leads to the change in how we live and act.  It doesn't work to change only how we live and act.

Christianity is a faith of influence.  That makes it a very challenging faith and, at the same time, a faith of deep conviction.  When your heart is changed, it simply cannot help but impact the rest of your life.  A mere change of behavior rarely will change the heart, but a change of heart cannot help but impact the rest of life.  And that's how the Christian faith also works.  It doesn't seek to bend people to God's will, but seeks to influence them by God's Word, through God's Spirit, so that they see what God has done for them.

Christianity: A Religion of Influence, Not Authority

"Jesus called them to Him and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and that their great ones exercise authority over them.  It shall not be so among you.  But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."  Matthew 20:25-28

To some degree, we humans strive to have power and authority over others.  It's inherent in each of us.  We want others to do things the way we think or believe that they should be done.  The simplest way to get others to do this is to simply make them do it.  For a parent, it's much easier to tell your child, "Do it because I told you so" than to try to explain why you want them to do something.  And sure, in the short term, the "Do it because I told you" might work.  But after a while, we tend to rebel against those who "force" us to do things.

For many years, the authority of the leaders of the United States have sought to draw their authority based upon what God says.  Maybe it's because a significant portion of the people who settled this country came here to be able to freely express their faith.  Maybe it's because they saw the benefit to aligning society along the lines of God's will and desire and design.  I doubt we could ever find one single reason why they chose to go the route they did, but regardless, they seem to have drawn heavily from God's Word in creating the laws of our land.

In recent years, however, our nation has seen great change.  There are now many in our borders who do not align themselves with the Christian faith.  It's significant that they don't share the same set of core beliefs that shape how we live as people.  And so, when we, as Christians, attempt to "force" our beliefs on them through legislation of the laws of the land, should we be surprised, then, when they rebel against them?  Or, should we be surprised when those whose background is not formed by the word of God begin to pass legislation that differs greatly from what we believe to be God's design and desire?

For a while, it seems as though many Christians thought that they could simply pass more laws that followed God's will and design.  Doing that, they must have reasoned, would lead to change in the hearts and lives of the people of the nation.  And yet, it seems as though the opposite has happened.  Rather than being drawn to God, they have rebelled against the laws that Christians have sought to pass.  They may call it "freedom," but really, what they are striving to get away from is Christians holding authority over their lives and what they can and cannot do.

I believe that there is a reason that Jesus said that His followers are not to "lord" it over others, or even one another.  Jesus recognized that we are all tainted with the stain of original sin.  None of us likes having someone else tell us what to do or not do.  And so, Jesus then suggests another way for His followers.  He calls it serving others.  As we continue these posts, I'm going to expand upon that thought of serving one another, and my goal is to demonstrate that the most powerful way for Christians to seek for others to follow the design and will of God is through influence, not power or authority.  As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Power, Laws, or Influence?

Matthew 20:25-28: "Jesus called them to Him and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and that their great ones exercise authority over them.  It shall not be so among you.  But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."

 When the governing authorities are in disagreement with our beliefs as Christians, how do we work to bring about change?  Well, the popular approach that Christians seem to have followed (at least to my eye) is to try to get more laws passed by our national authorities.  In a way, we want to curb what others do by passing laws.  If I wanted to be a bit more harsh-sounding, I could say that we try to enforce what we believe on others who may not necessarily agree with our beliefs.

But is that the right approach to take?  This really isn't an easy question to answer.  Sure, there is a great deal of benefit to passing laws that echo God's design and desire for life.  In some respects, it's far easier to live in such a society.  It's familiar to us.  Having a society set up in such a way also tends to mean that most of us are thinking the same way.  It's a lot easier to convince someone of the right thing to do if they are already thinking along similar lines as us.

However, when you read the verses above, that almost seems to go against the way that Jesus emphasizes to His followers.  Forcing others to live according to the design that we see is from God is merely that; forcing them.  And not very many of us respond well when we are forced to do something.  We tend to rebel against it.  If we enforce the kind of life that our beliefs call for onto others, we can expect to meet some resistance, especially if they don't think the same way we do, or believe the same things we do. 

Passing more laws to emphasize the Christian way of life will likely not have the outcome that we might desire.  Sure, there are always those who are happy to follow the rules, but there are also many who don't want to follow the rules.  And passing laws, or creating rules, is not the same as creating faith in God's design and desire for life.  (I think this is a very important and very understated point.).  The goal of Christians is not to create a society that lives in accordance with God's laws, but to share the message of God's hope for sinful humanity.

To that end, I suggest a far different approach than working to merely pass laws or force others to live according to our beliefs.  Those still may have some value, and we shouldn't necessarily just give up our efforts to influence the laws of the land.  But I suggest that the Christian faith fits far better when it isn't in "control", but is under the radar, so to speak.  When it's a movement, and not connected to politics.  When it looks more to persuade rather than to rule or govern.  In other words, it seems like Christians would be much better served to work by influence rather than by force or the power of laws.  More on that in future posts.

Are they lenient, or forceful?

Matthew 20:25-28: "Jesus called them to Him and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and that their great ones exercise authority over them.  It shall not be so among you.  But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."

You've probably read those words at least once already in a previous post, if you have been following along.  They are part of the point that I am making overall as we talk about God, country, rules, laws, and how they pertain to things such as the recent Supreme Court non-action on the issue of homosexual marriage.

As I've already stated once, in a perfect world, what God desires and designs, and what rulers desire and design, would be exactly the same.  But we don't live in a perfect world.  Therefore, rulers will see the value in some things that God designed for life, but will not see the value in others.  In the presence of an imperfect, flawed, sinful world, rulers will often simply settle for those things that mostly serve to keep people at peace with one another.

It's great to live in a place where the governing authorities see mostly eye to eye with what God designs and desires.  But what about when those two really fail to see eye to eye?  Well, some of that depends on the particulars at work.  Rulers may be more 'lenient' than God in some things, and Christians would find that they aren't really that imposed upon.  Take, for example, the issue of adultery.  God is pretty precise about the practice of our sexuality.  But rulers tend to be more lenient about it.  Sure, we may wish that it were otherwise, since sometimes leniency is taken as permissiveness, but for the most part, we aren't protesting that our rulers don't set up laws against adultery.  We may wish that they would, but we'd have to admit that enforcing that particular law would be pretty tough to do.

Part of our problem as Christians comes when the governing authorities go to the other side of the coin.  What about when they enforce that people should do things that run contrary to their beliefs?  Much issue has been made in recent years about the Health Care Reform Bill that mandated that everyone make abortion-causing drugs available through their health plans.  Many Christians protested loudly, and rightly.  When the rulers lord it over us to force us to do things that run contrary to our faith, we should speak up.  Granted, we hope to do so in both a faithful and a loving fashion, but at such times, it is appropriate to let the authorities know that they have crossed their lines.

However, we often simply throw up our arms in the air when it comes to the authorities being more lenient than what we want.  In some respects, this kind of situation presents a challenge to us.  How do we work so that people see that God's design is better and more appropriate than that which the authorities may allow?  Do we work toward more laws?  Do we try to find ways to enforce the things our belief system calls for upon others?  Or are there other ways that we go about the task?  More on that one in the next post.

What motivates you?

In life, there are many different things that motivate us.  Let's take, for example, me and my garage.  It needs to be cleaned out a bit.  There are quite a few boxes in there that could be stacked up better, and a few odds and ends that need to have some permanent places found for them.  There are times when I am motivated to go out there and do something about it, but you probably would expect that my motivations differ from time to time.

For instance, last week we had some severe weather moving through.  My motivation for cleaning the garage up was to get my car in there in case of bad weather.  I wanted to protect my car.  But there was another time, earlier in the week, where my wife had said she wanted me to work on it.  So I went out there to take care of some boxes and bins, not so much because I wanted to, but because she wanted it done.  And then, there have been times where I just wanted something to do, so I found myself in the garage.  And yet, another time where I just got tired of having all those boxes sitting out there unorganized.

Different motivations for the same activity.  And now, I want to pull this into the realm of our Christian worship times together (yes, a rather narrow focus, but it's where I want to start).  Different people are motivated to be there when we worship together for different reasons.  When I first became a pastor, I had this idea that everyone came together because we had the right theology, and that was the most important thing to them.  I have since learned that not everyone attends a particular church merely because of the theology that is taught there.  Some people come because it's the church of their childhood.  Others attend because they like the particular structure or style, or it's what they are used to.  Others attend because they like the person who is the pastor.  Others attend because they have friends in the congregation that they like to see, and yet others see it as their duty to God.  And still others come because of some of the programs that the church offers that happen to fit their particular stations and roles in life.

Of course, none of these are the sole motivation for gathering for worship.  People are rarely that one-dimensional.  I would suggest that we find ourselves attending our local gatherings for worship for a mixture of these and other reasons.  Some of them are more "correct" than others.  And yet, if we simply assume that someone is going to attend our congregation only because we have the correct theology, we're either going to be surprised to find that they don't necessarily think that way, or we're going to have a fairly small group that not only believes the right things about God, but gathers for the correct motivations as well.

Don't get me wrong.  I would love for everyone to be motivated purely by the correct theology and the proper understanding of God and His grace.  But I recognize that the motivation for gathering for worship will hardly ever be that cut and dried.  But here's what I see that I can do.  I can properly teach and preach about God.  I can make sure that the words that I say, and the order of worship that is followed, is one that teaches accurately about God and His grace and will.  I may not be able to change people's motivations, but I can make sure that they hear what God says loudly and clearly.  Sure, a few of them may not like what that has to say, and others may embrace it wholeheartedly.  But as I think about the things that I can do which pertain to people's motivation for worshiping together, I know that the only part of that which I have any control over is the words that I speak from God.  And that is no small factor in how I approach my chosen career.

Why did you come back?

I realize that there are some very pressing issues that our country is facing, one in particular which is approaching the level of the Supreme Court.  I do plan on tossing in a couple of pennies worth of thoughts on it, but that will most likely be next week or so.  It's not that I'm avoiding the subject, but that I just hate interuppting my thoughts when I'm on a roll of sorts.

In my last few posts, I've been thinking out loud about what repels or doesn't repel people from places like our church facilities.  As I've been thinking out loud on this, I hope you've seen that I'm slowly working from one side of the coin to the other.  I started off simply looking at what we can do that doesn't turn people away.  Clean facilities and a warm welcome are things that likely won't turn people away, while trash in the corners and stony silence may cause someone to reconsider ever coming back.  Again, as I see it, those are obstacles to hearing the Gospel message that we can do something about, and I firmly believe that we should do something about.  I'll even go so far as to call it sinful if we know those things about ourselves and yet refuse to change.  It's hardly loving to our neighbor to do things that they find offensive and which serve to drive them away, rather than letting the scandal of what God has done in Jesus being the obstacle to their faith.

So let's say that someone enters our place of worship.  Our building and our friendliness don't repel them.  But are those things sufficient to bring them back the following week?  Are they going to come back just because we have a clean building?  I hardly think so.  Something else has to be at work to bring them back.  (Yes, I believe that God's Spirit is at work to bring them back, but I'm looking at the reasons that they are more likely to recognize before they come to see that it was the Spirit's work in their lives.)

When I first entered the ministry, I assumed that everyone went to a particular church to worship for the best of reasons.  I assumed they went because I was teaching the best theology out there.  But in the years of ministry I have under my belt now, I realize that people go where they go for a variety of motivations.  Some regularly attend because it's where their friends are.  Others attend because they like the particular style of worship.  Some attend because they like the pastor, or how he preaches.  And yes, there are some that choose churches because of the content of what they preach.

I would love to assume that everyone who enters the doors of our church do so because they want to hear a very clear message of the true teachings of God.  However, I recognize that most people are here for a variety of reasons.  Sure, part of that may be what the church teaches.  But I know enough to know that a person who has never entered a Christian church before probably isn't attending because they know the true theology of that church.  They probably have far different motivations.  So tomorrow, I'll start to think out loud again about how we encourage them to come back so that they come to see that it is God's Spirit who was the driving force behind their presence in our worshiping community the whole time.

Getting in the Gospel's Way

Over the years, I have read a lot of books and materials that attempt to help congregations be better about reaching out with the Gospel.  I've noticed a bit of a theme to many of them.  They tend to say something along the lines of, 'do this, and people will just naturally begin to come to your church.'  If you go to a local Christian bookstore, many of these kinds of books are located in the section usually labelled "Church Growth."

There have been a large number of churches that have embraced these principles and put them to work in their congregations.  There have likewise been a great number of churches who have claimed that these things are not the Gospel, and might confuse the Gospel with tactics for simply having more people attend. 

As I've reflected on these things, I've come to a couple of conclusions.  You may or may not agree with me, and I'm okay with that.  I happen to be of the mind that walking together as God's people doesn't mean that we see everything exactly the same.

There are things about churches (both the building we call "church" and the gathering of God's people) which can actually serve to deter people from entering and hearing God's Word.  I would be one of the first to admit that if I entered a church that had a lot of junk laying around, I probably wouldn't be all that eager to go back there.  In this case, it's not the Gospel message that is turning me away from hearing.  It's the condition of the building.  That's not God's work in driving me away.  That's something that God's people can do something about.

In a similar way, if I were to enter a church, go to worship, and leave without any of the people there welcoming me, or at least indicating that they are glad that I was with them, I'm probably not going to return there.  Friendliness and a warm welcome are not the Gospel message, but as in the first example, I'm not being driven away by the Gospel message.  I'm being driven away by something that God's people can do something about.

In my mind, I see that a lot of churches can do something in this regard.  There are things that are not the Gospel which drive people away, and God's people can remove those obstacles.  The only obstacle that we should strive for should be the obstacle of what God says.  If we are doing things that serve as obstacles to even the hearing of the Gospel, that's not God's obstacle.  That's ours.  That's something we can remove.  Sure, it may not necessarily mean that they will hear the Gospel message and stay, but if we are the ones who introduce the obstacles to the Gospel, that's our sin that needs to be dealt with.

Changing Culture and Society, Post 4

So far, I've pointed out a couple of things that are unlikely to bring about lasting change to any culture or society.  Merely passing laws and rules, or having a powerful person to enforce change, are ways that may bring about temporary change, but are unlikely to have lasting effects.  In fact, in many ways, taking either of these approaches may actually serve to drive things in a different direction than was originally planned.

So what kind of things will work when we think about bringing lasting and positive change to a particular culture?  I will admit that the approaches I suggest in this entry and in future entries are suggestions, and some may work better in one place than in another.  I will also be speaking rather generally, making use of principles rather than diving into specifics, since in any given case, the same principles may apply, though the specific approaches taken may vary greatly.  So as you read through these, take a look more at the principle involved, and then be creative in your thoughts as to how these might work in your particular venue.

One final thing.  Don't be surprised when many of the things I suggest actually have a biblical backing to them.  I truly do believe that many of these suggestions find their source in how God has chosen to work within our sinful humanity, and may describe how He is actively at work in changing the world through those that He has called and chosen to be His people.

With that being said, one of the first suggestions that I make seems almost too simple to have to point out, but I honestly believe is a step that often gets passed over simply because it does seem too simple and easy.  When thinking about bringing change to any culture or society, one of the most helpful things that can be done is to identify the parts that need to be changed.  Let's take an office culture.  If the situation is one where the workers don't feel respected or heard, and where competition seems to be the norm, there could be a desire to lessen the competitiveness of the culture, while at the same time, trying to increase the respect that the "superiors" have toward the workers.  It may be felt that a  change needs to take place, but if you don't know what exactly it is that needs to be addressed, that could lead to a lot of work in wrong directions, and may even make the situation worse.

In one sense, we can take the same approach to this kind of situation that God has us take when it comes to our confession of our sin to Him, or to another person against whom we have sinned.  Sure, we can say a general, "I'm sorry that I sinned," but that leaves a lot of things unsaid.  Is it something recent or something old that you are talking about?  Is it something that the other person knows is a problem, or is it something that is only bugging the one who is making the confession?  The more specific you can be, the better chance there is to get to the heart of the sin and bring about reconciliation.

So, in the office example above, what is the cultural change that needs to take place?  Is it that one or two workers are trying to get in good with the bosses, and so their competitiveness is spilling over to those around them?  Is this a long-standing problem, or is it something of more recent origin?  Is it a communication issue, or a personality issue?  The more specifically you can identify the origin of the needed change, the better chance you have of addressing the real issue rather than just the symptoms.

I could say much more on this, but this post is already long enough.  We'll pick up a little bit more in the next one.

Changing Culture and Society, Part 3

Okay, so yesterday I stressed that, while laws and rules have their place, they alone will not bring about change to culture or society.  I hope that, as you read through these blog entries, you realize that culture can be practically anything.  At your work or school, there is a particular culture that is unique to that place.  The community you live in is a unique culture.  If you are part of a church, that church has a particular culture that is unique to it, and may be fairly different from that at another church of the same denomination or faith.  My intent is that the word "culture" fits into all of these venues, and even those I didn't mention.

Another thing that likely will not bring about changes to culture or society is having some powerful person come in and force a culture on others.  Same thing if it's not one single individual, but a group of people.  To use an example from my life, I have recently changed churches.  Just because I carry an important title in the new church, I cannot come in and insist on changing everything to be the way that I want it to be.  I can't even get a group of people together who may feel the same way, and then act by force to bring about those changes. 

Why not, you may ask?  Think about how we as humans typically respond when we are told that we have to do something in a particular way.  Even if it's an improvement over what was already being done, there's a part of us that hates being told how we should do it.  True, we might think about it and come to the same conclusion, but when someone else forces us to do it in their own way, we have a tendency to see them as overbearing, and we feel that it's our role to put them in their place.  In fact, we'll often work contrary to what that person who is "in charge" wants, simply to prove that they can't make us do it their way.

Yes, we can see that at work in our nation somewhat.  The thing is, the problem isn't confined to our national leaders.  I have a number of books on my shelves that talk about different ways to bring about changes in particular cultures.  Practically every single one of them speaks against the leader simply walking in and demanding that everyone does it his or her way.  While the authors may give a wide variety of alternative approaches, there must be a reason that they warn against that kind of culture change.  Maybe it's because it has been tried way too often, and hardly ever proven to be effective.

True, such an approach may work in the short term.  A forceful personality can cow other people into submission for a time, out of fear.  The thing is, that tends to build up resentment.  People tend to rebel against authoritarian leaders.  Even if such a change is made, and seems to be taking place, at some point some kind of rebellion and reversal is likely to take place, and may even make things worse than they were.

So merely passing laws and rules isn't the answer.  Having a powerful leader enforce change isn't the answer.  So maybe the question we should be asking is, 'Is this even possible to do?"  I believe it is.  My hope is that we now start turning toward some of the positive ways that can truly bring about changes in culture and society.