Thinking Differently About God

"In my life, God is always changing the way I think of Him.  I am not saying God Himself is changing, or that my theology is open and I blur the lines on truth; I am only saying I think I know who He is, then I figure out I don't know very much at all....And that's one of the things you notice about Jesus in the Gospels, that He is always going around saying, You have heard it said such and such, but I tell you some other thing.  If you happened to be a person who thought they knew everything about God, Jesus would have been completely annoying."

Don Miller in Searching for God Know What, page 21.

Hey, I'm Right Here!

I consume enough cultural commentary from conservative Christians (I'm a bit "c" happy right now) to begin to get a feel for where they are coming from.  That includes things like commentary on books, movies (like the ones I've read on Million Dollar Baby), ethics, music, and politics, just to name a few. 

When I read most cultural commentary, why do I get the feeling that most Christians are treating the culture as if they are a disobedient son?  We talk about them as if they aren't in the room, as if they can't hear us, and we say how worthless and horrible and wrong they are.  But we know they hear us and we are glad they hear us.  Actually, that's the point. 

I think thoughtful people in the culture realize we are doing this to them (like Green Day in their newest CD, American Idiot).  And they are saying, "Hey, I'm right here!  Stop talking about us as if we aren't in the room.  I'm worth something.  I have feelings.  This is what life is like for me.  Stop looking down your nose at us as the morally superior and smug know-it-all's and try to see the world from my perspective."

In some respect, isn't that what it means for us to be incarnational?  To stand in their shoes?  We don't read about what it means to be a sinner so we can point our fingers at the world and say, "Ha!  Sinner!"  We learn about sin in order to better explain grace and love and joy and peace and hope.  I don't find many conservative Christian cultural commentators who think and talk like that.  I don't think the world reads the things our commentators write and say like the woman at the well, "Listen to this guy who knows me."  Maybe they think, "Don't listen to this guy.  He doesn't know me as well as he thinks he does, and he doesn't think much of me."

God help us, so that when we meet the woman at the well we will tell her about the Savior with compassionate words seasoned with grace instead of leaving quietly and quickly to write our articles about a culture engaged in sex outside of marriage and divorce.

Refrigerators and Redeemers

I recently saw a slide-show mission presentation featuring an isolated people group in Mexico.  I was moved by it and felt the desire to support this work and get the gospel to these people.  Nothing I'm about to say changes my desire, but it does change the way I desire the mission work to be done.

It struck me during this presentation that most mission presentations I have seen (if not all) focus more on the need for Americanization than spiritual need, yet they never say this explicitly.  And usually the spiritual need is couched in physical need.  Something like this: "There are few believers in this group, but just look at how they live!  The tiny church building is leaky, the floors in their houses are dirt, here is how much money they make a year, and they have to salt their meat to preserve the little bit of meat they have because they don't have refrigerators."  Is your heart melting yet?

Do you see the problem?  It's as if, "They need Jesus and don't know Him, and haven't heard of Him," isn't enough for us.  They need to be like us, they need tile floors and ice machines and blue jeans.

My concern isn't over meeting real needs vs. telling the gospel.  I'm not talking about the social gospel vs. the gospel preached.  Biblically speaking, social needs and spiritual needs are very close friends and intertwined.  My concern is that the line between the gospel of consumerism and the gospel of Jesus has been blurred.

Is the biggest problem of these people that they don't know Christ?  Or is it that they don't get to live more like us in the West?  Is their biggest problem their lack of a refrigerator or a Redeemer?  Or better yet, is their lack of a refrigerator really a problem, or just a cultural difference?  I'm afraid our emotional heartstrings and deepest desires in mission are tied too much to our mindset as Americans and not to our redeemed mindset.  And yes, these two mindsets are at odds.

Look in the front of most churches and you will see where most of us stand.  The American Flag is standing right there with the Christian Flag.  We Christians are still too American.  And don't get me wrong.  I'm all for helping with real needs.  What a joy it is to serve others in the name of Jesus!  But we get real needs mixed up with the American lifestyle, and it's no wonder that our churches are full of people deeply in debt and deeply in love with the ways of the world.

What do you think?

Friendly or Friendship?

    "Closed friendships are upsetting initially because they do not offer friendliness to outsiders, but open friendships are far more disruptive because they invite outsiders in.  Life at work, in the neighborhood, at home, in the schoolyard, or among our best companions and allies might go on smoothly and in a friendly way without the intrusion of friendships.  Friendliness is safe and stable, and therefore more common and acceptable than captivating friendships.  Lively friendships form when two or three in the neighborhood or workplace start thinking and seeing things together.  They start talking and become captivated by an idea or vision of what they can do and where they can go together.  They will begin to form a place in the world together that is deeper and richer than it is when each goes about his or her business alone.
    Friends start to do more than just spend time or cooperate at work.  They start to live, struggle, and move forward side by side with the same way of envisioning the future.  Friends conspire.  They plan.  They want to make a difference.  They seek a goal that is beyond each and attainable only together.  Together, they are able to imagine a different kind of world, and together they are able to act in it.  Such friendship can be closed in upon itself or open to any who are captivated by the same journey.  Friendship brings either withdrawal or an offer that will change us.  When friendship brings an offer of hospitality, it is an intrusion upon our safe and smooth-running world."

David Matzko McCarthy in The Good Life, pages 36-37.

Raw Materials

    "This is the church as we have too often practiced it in the modern era.  The world exists as a source of raw materials for the church.  It's okay to tear people out of their neighborhoods as long as we get them into the church more.  It's okay to devalue their 'secular' jobs as long as we get them involved in church work more.  It's okay to withdraw all our energies from the arts and culture 'out there' as long as we have a good choir and nice sanctuary 'in here.'  It's okay because, after all, we're about salvaging individuals from a sinking ship; neighborhoods, economies, cultures, and all but individual human souls will sink, so who cares?  In this way of thinking, we could build more Christians, better Christians, and dynamic Christian communities ... at the expense of the world, not for its good.
    As we enter the postmodern world, we have to ask ourselves some tough questions: Is the world a mountain to be clear-cut and strip-mined for the benefit of the church?  Or is the church a catalyst of blessing for the good of the world?"

Brian McLaren in The Church on the Other Side, page 37.

Revolutionaries

    "The church today should be getting ready and talking about issues of tomorrow and not issues of 20 and 30 years ago, because the church is going to be squeezed in a wringer.  If we found it tough in these last few years, what are we going to do when we are faced with the real changes that are ahead?...
    One of the greatest injustices we do to our young people is to ask them to be conservative.  Christianity is not conservative, but revolutionary.  To be conservative today is to miss the whole point, for conservatism means standing in the flow of the status quo, and the status quo no longer belongs to us...
    If we want to be fair, we must teach the young to be revolutionaries, revolutionaries against the status quo."

Francis Schaeffer in 1970 as quoted in The Church on the Other Side by Brian McLaren, page 16.

Million Dollar Baby

For several weeks now the "controversy" concerning the Clint Eastwood movie Million Dollar Baby (MDB) has been stewing.  The conservative Christians are on the attack more than ever because the Oscars are coming and MDB has been nominated.  I won't give away the reasons for this controversy because I would rather you see the movie with its full effect.  It is truly a very good movie.

For now, let me point you to some reviews by Christians to read after seeing the movie (they all include spoilers). 

I generally don't agree with these guys...

Focus on the Family: PluggedIn
R. Albert Mohler: Crosswalk Weblog
Brian Godawa: Godawa Creative
Kelly Boggs: In Baptist Press

I generally agree with...

Kevin Miller: Relevant Magazine

I really agree with...

Joe Thorn: Words of Grace

I recommend seeing the movie because it deals with real issues of great importance.  It's a "feeling" movie for sure, but it will also make you think about your own life, your view of the world, your understanding of hope and hopelessness, and your understanding of love, redemption, and life.

I think this movie also provides us with a great opportunity as followers of Jesus to learn how to and not to engage the culture.  I think the first four reviews get it wrong on this, and the last two get it right. 

Lighthouse

"For the early Christians, the home was the most natural setting for proclaiming Christ to their families, neighbors, and friends.  The same is true today.  If you and/or your local church are looking for ways to evangelize, opening your home is one of the best methods for reaching the lost.  Most of us, however, are not using our homes as we should to reach our neighbors, friends, and relatives.  Tragically, many of us don't even know our neighbors.  Yet through hospitality, we can meet our neighbors and be a lighthouse in spiritually dark neighborhoods."

Alexander Strauch in The Hospitality Commands, page 22.

The more I read Scripture and think about evangelism in a rapidly changing culture, the more convinced I am that the average Christian needs to look to their living rooms and dining rooms as the key to building relationships. loving and serving their neighbors, and opening doors for redeeming conversations.  I believe it would make a tremendous and lasting impact on our community if there was regular hospitality through our local church, even if some of them are afraid to share the gospel.

What I'm saying is, I think most Christians are afraid they can't answer hard questions.  But I really believe the hard questions are often answered without words when Christians love their neighbors.  Our lives are a testimony to Christ, and they will learn of our convictions and the changes in our lives and families and realize they need to know more.  That is where the larger community of faith in a local church can supplement Christians in helping their friends to know the gospel.

I guess hospitality is the introduction to a community of faith before they meet the whole community.  It's the front line of evangelism in any culture, because relationships are the front line of evangelism.

Writing for a Dollar

"Writers don't make any money at all.  We make about a dollar.  It is terrible.  But then again we don't work either.  We sit around in our underwear until noon then go downstairs and make coffee, fry some eggs, read the paper, read part of a book, smell the book, wonder if perhaps we ourselves should work on our book, smell the book again, throw the book across the room because we are quite jealous that any other person wrote a book, feel terribly guilty about throwing the schmuck's book across the room because we secretly wonder if God in heaven noticed our evil jealousy, or worse, our laziness.  We then lie across the couch facedown and mumble to God to forgive us because we are secretly afraid He is going to dry up all our words because we envied another man's stupid words.  And for this, as I said before, we are paid a dollar.  We are worth so much more."

Donald Miller in Blue Like Jazz, page 187.

Rock the Vote

It's time for a moment of honesty and reality.  I'm better looking than my brother, I could outrun my brother, I would rip his arm off in an arm wrestling contest, and I got better grades than my brother.  But my brother, Scott McCoy, is now the most powerful man in Pontiac, Illinois.  That's right, he is the new mayor of our hometown.  Congratulations Mac.

Evangelunacy

I'm the pastor of a church associated with the Southern Baptist Convention.  For many reasons that's a good thing, but today I'm not too proud of it because I got this from our main press organization, Baptist Press.  It's an article promoting "revival meetings" to reach the younger generations.

I'm sure SBC evangelists think they are trying to get the word out on what they believe is important, but it feels more like they are low on cash and need to put out some pro-evangelist propaganda.  And if it was just propaganda, I wouldn't freak out about it.  But it's much worse than that.

The author (who is the president of an organization of Southern Baptist evangelists) seems to think "revival" meetings are the key to evangelistic success among 9 to 29 year olds, who happen to be coming to Jesus in fewer numbers.  He says, "What is the cure? Hold an old-fashioned revival meeting."  Why? 

"Thirty-three to 50 percent of all baptisms come from revivals and harvest days. Use an evangelist! Ninety-eight percent of the time that a vocational evangelist is used to preach the revival services, someone accepts Christ. If there is adequate preparation for the revival, that figure jumps even higher."

Wow, this guy has God figured out.  Push the right buttons, get the right results.  God is a cosmic vending machine.

The article continues as the evangelist talks about "Homer," his ventriloquist doll, who tells kids not only to accept Jesus into their hearts, but then to raise their hands and come forward during the invitation.  Here is Homer's advice for kids...

"I ask the children not to pray if they are not going to come forward at the end of the revival service. The word "faith" means commitment."

Look, I'm all for a faith that is a living faith, a real and committed faith.  But the invitation system forces faith into an extra-biblical mold.  So now our commitment to Jesus isn't enough.  It's not enough to talk to your parents or pray with your pastor I guess.  Why not just tell the kids the truth: "Little ones, you need to walk up and shake the hand of the funny chubby guy with the doll so he can prop you up as his trophy and notch your name on his belt."

Here's my response to these issues and more in this article: In 2003 the SBC boasted of more than 16 million members while the average attendance of church worship services was less than 6 million.  Could this be because decades of "old-fashioned revival meetings" have produced a lot of empty decisions but very few disciples?  Could this be because we love numbers more than souls?

This is the problem between real revival and "revivalism."  True revival is something God does in the hearts of people that brings real change.  "Revivalism" is a program or event that produces emotionally manipulated decisions through 14 verses of "Just As I Am" led by some guy with a bad comb-over and a peach colored suit. 

Hey, I know some people have probably been genuinely converted through "revival" meetings, The 700 Club, and maybe even through the preaching of false teachers like T.D. Jakes.  I don't mean to discourage these people as they follow Christ.  Stay faithful. 

But we need to call it like it is and reject this kind of evangelism.  We shouldn't reject it because it's "old-fashioned."  We should reject it because it's unbiblical and ultimately turns the culture off to the life-changing gospel.

Programs are not the answer for emerging generations.  People are the answer, people who know Jesus and who love and serve others.  We need to be people who are willing to be transparent and real so that we can have genuine and meaningful relationships where the gospel is not only spoken, but lived out.

Being Me

"Everybody wants to be fancy and new.  Nobody wants to be themselves.  I mean, maybe people want to be themselves, but they want to be different, with different clothes or shorter hair or less fat.  It's a fact.  If there was a guy who just liked being himself and didn't want to be anybody else, that guy would be the most different guy in the world and everybody would want to be him."

Don Miller in Blue Like Jazz, page 29.

If you haven't figured it out yet, this is a very good book.  Read it.

Eisley

After reading a review of Eisley from Relevant Magazine, I went to their website to learn more.  Eisely is a muscial group made up of 5 teenagers, four of them from the same family.  They write and play their own stuff, which really impressed me. 

On their site I watched a couple of videos and read up on the group.  Then I sampled every song on iTunes.  It was enough to convince me to pick up their first full-length CD. 

It's good.  The lead singer has a fairly unique sound, but sounds similar to the lead of Sixpence None the Richer, Leigh Nash.  She sings beautifully and has moments where she turns haunting.  There is a good deal of harmonizing with her sister, which is missing in so much current music.  It's very well done. 

Mostly the sound of Eisley is simple and clean, with a hint of pixie dust.  Recommended.

Eugene Peterson

In the current issue of Christianity Today, which is not even listed on the website yet, includes a Q and A with Eugene Peterson.  I have a lot of thoughts on what he has said.  Here are a couple of quick excerpts.

Christianity Today: Many people assume that spirituality is about becoming emotionally intimate with God.

Eugene Peterson: That's a naive view of spirituality.  What we're talking about is the Christian life.  It's following Jesus.  Spirituality is no different from what we've been doing for two thousand years just by going to church and receiving the sacraments, being baptized, learning to pray, and reading Scriptures rightly.  It's just ordinary stuff.
    This promise of intimacy is both right and wrong.  There is an intimacy with God, but it's like any other intimacy; it's part of the fabric of your life.  In marriage you don't feel intimate most of the time.  Nor with a friend.  Intimacy isn't primarily a mystical emotion.  It's a way of life, a life of openness, honesty, a certain transparency.

I would critique his answer just a bit, but after reading this my respect for Peterson grew immensely.  More...

Christianity Today: Repentance, dying to self, submission--these are not very attractive hooks to draw people into the faith.

Eugene Peterson: I think the minute you put the issue that way you're in trouble.  Because then we join the consumer world, and everything then becomes product designed to give you something.  We don't need something more.  We don't need something better.  We're after life.  We're learning how to live.

One more brief quote pulled out of another answer.

"The minute we start advertising the faith in terms of benefits, we're just exacerbating the self problem.  'With Christ, you're better, stronger, more likeable, you enjoy some ecstasy.'  But it's more self.  Instead, we want to get people bored with themselves so they can start looking at Jesus."

I think Peterson is adding a lot to the emerging conversation of the Church.

Addicted to Me

"The most difficult lie I have ever contended with is this: Life is a story about me....I hear addicts talk about the shakes and panic attacks and the highs and lows of resisting their habit, and to some degree I understand them because I have had habits of my own, but no drug is so powerful as the drug of self.  No rut in the mind is so deep as the one that says I am the world, the world belongs to me, all people are characters in my play.  There is no addiction so powerful as self-addiction."

Don Miller in Blue Like Jazz, page 182.

It might be good for the American Church to repeat this as a weekly mantra for a year and see if we actually start to get it.

Derek Webb

Joe is saying some good stuff lately, and I have the inside track in knowing that some even better stuff is brewing.  I thought it would be good to mention that he discovered a great quote from Derek Webb, one of my favorite singer/songwriters. 

Passionate About Nothing

"I don't think any church has ever been relevant to culture, to the human struggle, unless it believed in Jesus and the power of His gospel.  If the supposed new church believes in trendy music and cool Web pages, then it is not relevant to culture either.  It is just another tool of Satan to get people to be passionate about nothing."

Don Miller in Blue Like Jazz, page 111.

Jesus and Palm Reading

    "The goofy thing about Christian faith is that you believe it and don't believe it at the same time.  It isn't unlike having an imaginary friend.  I believe in Jesus; I believe He is the Son of God, but every time I sit down to explain this to somebody I feel like a palm reader, like somebody who works at a circus or a kid who is always making things up or somebody at a Star Trek convention who hasn't figured out the show isn't real.
    Until.
    When one of my friends becomes a Christian, which happens about every ten years because I am such a sheep about sharing my faith, the experience is euphoric.  I see in their eyes the trueness of the story."

Don Miller in Blue Like Jazz, page 51.

I can't tell you how many times in this book (a little more than halfway right now) I have read some experience Miller has and said, "He's just like me!"   I think Miller is right, all the evidence in the world for the truth of the Bible feels meaningless in comparison to seeing the life-change Jesus brings to someone.  Maybe if we saw that more, we would stop being so picky about our commitment to Christ.

Seven

One of the most incredible feats of any living human has to be everything accomplished through the continuing saga that is Lance Armstrong.  He has now decided to go after Tour de France win number seven.  Incredibly good news for cycling fans and LA fans. 

Arizona Trip - Afterthoughts

Thought it might be nice to make a few random comments and observations about the Arizona trip I took from very early Wednesday through very early Sunday of last week.

1. Going to the desert for golf and being rained out isn't cool.  But man is God sovereign or what???  I needed some of the rain time to work on my sermon.  He is very good.  He gave me family time with dad and uncles I love, and sermon work time, and a chance to see a beautiful part of the ol' US of A where I have never been...all for free.  Thanks to the good ol' boys of McCoy Construction.

2.  When I fly (which I haven't done for 5-6 years) I tend to feel like I'm flying for about a week straight.  I still feel woozy most of the time.  A few more days and I'll get over it.  I enjoy the act of flying, but not what it does to me.

3. Cacti are huge!  Well, some of them.  I didn't expect that at all.  You can see what I mean here.

4. Hanging with my dad and his brothers is a blast, even when they are being knuckle heads.  For example, my uncle Doug asked me without provocation in the car one day, "Steve...so what do you think about cremation?"  Sounds like a good question to ask a pastor, right?  But he asked it while laughing, and so a long list of questions in a form of mockery ensued.  "Steve, what do you think about murder?"  "Steve what do you think about _______."  It was funny.  Sorry Dougie.  Not picking on you.

5. We argued for 10 minutes about what it means to be lost.  The funny thing is, I made up my own definition and told them I got it off an internet site, and they bought it!  Funny.  Also provocative.  Some argued for a definition that means someone is almost never lost!  Curious.  I can feel a blog post on this coming soon...maybe.

6. Golf hurts your hands.  On the 17th hole of the first day I hit a great shot very close to the hole, but in the process I burst a blood vessel in my left thumb.  It still hurts quite a bit.  You focus on things like skill and talent and practice.  But just as crucial are things like callouses (or lack of).  My milky soft pastor hands didn't do me any favors.

7. I realized that I have no desire to play enough golf to be any good anymore.  I have the ability to be a good player again, but I realized on the trip that it would take too much time.  Golf used to occupy most of my time and thought while growing up.  But I'm happy that it occupies so little of my time and thought now.  It's a great game, but it's no longer a passion.

8. Getting to spend time in Phoenix and Scottsdale, and drive through Tempe and Mesa, was great.  (Though some of the time we were "lost" in these places.)  I don't think I value traveling enough.  It's eye opening in a number of ways.  It makes maps into living, breathing places.  It helps me to think about needs in new places.  I should try to travel to new places more.

9. This is the first time I've been away from home for more than a day or two where I haven't felt a pit of loneliness while away from Molly and the kids.  I was really able to enjoy my time.  On the other hand, I felt just as happy to see them and enjoy them when I got home.  It was all good. 

10.  If you have to work while on vacation, it doesn't really feel like a vacation.  My mind is always thinking about what I have to work on, and I need an open schedule to enjoy time away.