Tag: faith

I ran across this artice today

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/21/funeral.motorcyclists.ap/index.html

I was blown away to see this amazing and heroic group of bikers step up to the plate to protect the famlies of fallen soldiers, but also sickened by what was demanding their protection. It seems Westboro Baptist Church and it’s members have determined that God is using IED’s in Iraq to kill soldiers “because they fought for a country that embraces homosexuals.” Members of this church feel that God wants them to protest at the funerals of fallen soldiers in an attempt to force America to turn it’s ways in it’s acceptance of homosexuality.
One of there members of Westboro Baptist Chruch is quoted in the article as saying, “The scriptures are crystal clear that when God sets out to punish a nation, it is with the sword. An IED is just a broken-up sword.”

As a follower of Jesus, I am saddened and sickened by this utter and total misrepresentation of the God of the Bible. And I am sorry for those familes who have lost a child, a borther, a husband, a father, only to be treated with insensitivity and disrespect by some who claim to do it in the name of God.

Is it in God that we discover adventure or in adventure that we discover God?

I have been reading “A New Kind of Christian” by Brian MacLaren. If you’re not familiar with the work, it is a fictional conversation between a pastor and his daughter’s soccer coach about the changing face of the world from modernism to post-modernism and that transition’s impact on the Christian faith. The book reflects (and in many ways summarizes) a larger conversation in church leadership circles about what post-modern Christianity might look like and what our role as Christ-followers is in it all. It is a good book and I would recommend it for any follower of Christ who finds the current American expression of the ancient Christian faith uncomfortable and even incomplete.

In the book, much time is spent in a discussion about our approach to theology – the failures of our current methods as well as the beginning of a new approach. It’s interesting stuff.

Just before I got to this section of the book, I had this discussion in real life with a pastor friend of mine. We talked of the differences between the conservative evangelical Christianity we had been raised (and trained in) and new emerging theological perspectives from emerging church leaders around the globe.

Our conversation focused on the question of theology. After my suggestion that modern Christianity possibly approaches theology with a set of assumptions (mainly the need to fit the whole of biblical theology into a nice/neat systematic package) that possibly we miss some true perspectives of the creator. I also suggested that we probably need to approach the training of Christian leaders differtently as well. My friend listened patiently to my rants (I appreciate it more than he knows) and then calmly asked a difficult question (I am paraphrasing), “So if you don’t think we are getting it right when it comes to ministry training, what do you think it should (will) look like in the future.” It’s a great question and asking good questions is one of the reasons I so appreciate this friend of mine.

I had to think about that one. I will admit, I tend to be a bettter deconstructionist than a futurist, but so is the case for most of us who have found ourslelves engrossed in the discussion of “what could/should be”. It’s easier for me to tell you how the way we do things isn’t right, but very hard for me to give you some solutions to improve/reform it. I am working on this.

My answer went something like this, “I think that we have to move from a early-ministry-career training posture (a learn all you need to know for the first 10 years and then spend the next 40 others teaching that very info without change or question) to a lifelong-learning posture (one that is seen as a journey that will never end and is embraced with a healthy dose of humility). While I am not sure how to structure this type of learning (and maybe that’s just the point!). I think it’s important that we humbly each try to seek God through his revealed word (the Bible), through what theologians call general revelation (the natural world around us that communicates and explains pieces of the Creator), and through (some of you will not like this one!) our experiences of God himself. And we will do ourselves a favor if we embark on this journey in community with others doing the same – rather than with an individualized approach.

The interesting thing is these answers to my friend’s question seemed intuitive. I had no frame of reference, no written material I had read to support my answer, I just tried to answer the question based on my evolving understanding of God in my life/experience. I was pretty fearful (as I often am!) that I had dumped a load of crap on the table that was illogical and irrelevant at best.

Then I recently read the chapter in “A New Kind of Christian” where the two main characters have an almost identical discussion. The solutions that they mentioned were very similar to my thoughts/suggestions. That learning needed to be approached from a more humble stance and with a lifelong-learning posture. And that seminaries need to evolve in their mentalities/styles/approaches to be successful and relevant in the future.

You might check this book out – it’s extremely interesting. What do you think about new approaches to theology? Are our current approaches irrelevant to a new post-modern world, having been formed seemingly in a very modern void?

– Z

Tonight I went to a local Bible study not affiliated with any local church – just a random bunch of spiritual misfits, alienated from the church, yet more than ever desiring Jesus. I loved it. We hung out – I was the new guy and felt amazingly invited into the group. We opened the Book, read it together, and talked about it. We discussed the ins and outs of our prespectives, our hearts longing, our struggles, and our misunderstandings of God and our relationships with him. It was good stuff! The big issue that seems to “emerge” was one of our attitude as a Christ-follower – is it healthy to live out a posture of viewing oursleves as “scum” who constanly blow it and are so mcuh less than God intends or as a journeying people who, while far off the destination, are getting there regularly and can posture ourselves more as God’s redeemed (and still need to be redeemed) people. Basically do we take a negative attitude toward our lack of faithfulness and plentitude of failure or do we embrace God’s grace, do our best day after day, and embrace God’s continuing “revolution” in our lives? I was (and am) a proponent of a balance of both – a evaluative life of admission, confession, and then moving on mixed with a healthy dose of the confidence we receive when we embrace the grace of a loving and merciful God.

This question means everything to our existence as Christ-followers. It’s clear that God’s design is for his followers to exist in community together – the church at it’s core is this. What makes the church “church” more than anything else is it’s collective nature – (we would never assume that one Christ-followers fulfills this “church” distinction. The church is very much is the gathering of Christ-followers. But the important question is this: What are they gathering for? In other words, attempting to look through the divine lenses of God’s vision, what was his vision for the church. What role was this gathering of Christ-followers meant to play that nothing else or no one else could play in the grand story of God?

I have been taught that the answer to this question is worship. God’s desire is that his creation worship him, thus the purpose of the church is to be the gathering of Christ-folloers for worship. It sounds good doesn’t it. After all, is there any grander purpose in the universe than the worship of God? Absolutely not! But does that mean that we can assume that worship is the reason God set-up His church in earth?

Here’s where I have struggled recently on this one: Wasn’t worship happening by the people of Israel in the pre-church era? Obviously it was. So if God had worshipers on earth before the church was initiated at Pentecost, if worship was indeed happening already, would he really create a different distinct organism with the purpose of worship? I don’t think so.

I want to suggest that quite possibly God’s design for the church was a different one – one of mission. In God’s epic story of providing for this world’s redemption, he had a vision the church being a vehicle – a vehicle of transmitting the good news of His kingdom. As Jesus came and went from this earth it’s seems to be clear that God’s intention was to redeem the world through the spilled blood of Jesus, but also that Jesus himself was not going to be the primary communicator of this redemption – Christ’s followers would be. God has left us in charge of the dissemination of His story – we are now stewards of the gospel like Paul says of himself in 1 Corinthians 4:1.

So here’s what this means:

1.) Evangelism isn’t one of many purposes of the church. It instead is the primary purpose and function of the church that all other purposes should be filtered through.

2.) Preaching, collective worship, service, and other functions of the church should be seen and thought about through this grander purpose of mission.

3.) Evangelism isn’t an activity of the church – it is an identity of the church. (We do evangelism vs. We are missional)

4.) The Church isn’t as much about worship services as it is the expression of Christ-followers joining together and joining God is his global and historical objective – the redemption of the world to His Genesis vision for it. This in turn leads to worship both as an expression of obedience through mission but also as the end result of that mission (people meeting God).

These are just some of my humble thoughts/observations and I could be way off base, althought my intuition says otherwise. What do you think the purpose of the church is?

I am an idealist. I used to fight it, but I’ve accepted it now. I am proud of that label. Sure I might be a bit overzealous and oversimplify some complexities of modern life and culture, but I’m okay with that. This idealism may send me into riskier situations and may very well cost many a sleepless night and much money. This alone prevents many at-the-core-idealists to remain closeted. But I can’t see those risks – or at least, I don’t see those risks. The upside is too much more exciting, too much more important. All I can think of is this, in a world that tends to kill dreams with an overdose of reality, don’t we need some idealists? Don’t wee need some people who are upbeat and focused on what could be, what should be?

I think we need many more of these people. I can’t see any other way to live, think, act, and breathe anymore. I know too much about God’s Kingdom and it’s very real presence here and now on this planet we call earth. God’s Kingdom is very much here and very much at work. In fact it IS the ultimate reality. Jesus taught us so much about it. Most of what he revealed to us in the scriptures turned the rules and way of normal earthy living on its head. It was radically different. My belief is this – If we subscribe to that Kingdom (if we are a part of it in Jesus) then we too much begin to live by it’s way of life. The way of Jesus. A way not motivated by personal gain, but rather by the ability to be a blessing to the livers of others. A way that in which the Spirit of God rules rather than the spirit of men. A way in which love rules and humilty makes heroes. A way in which the servant is king. It is a radically different way of living.

This leads me to believe that in at least one area of life, we can be confident idealists in – that God desires to see his Kingdom embraced by more and more of his created people. I am convinced that our pursuits that purely seek God desire in this – they will succeed, even if that success is altogether of a different kind than we imagine – a truth we must comes to terms with.

So here’s my fellow Kingdom idealists who share with me the passion to see God Kingdom way of live (the way of Jesus) become more evident in the lives of their communities.