Stephen, the Warrior Wannabee

  In the two years since he graduated from high school, Stephen has sailed around the world!  I'm not kidding, he really has, along with 400 other shipmates. And not only that, but he is moving to Nepal next and plans to stay there awhile.


  While on a photo shoot at the historical re-enactments at Bay City, Michigan, last September, I met some of the company that Stephen had been camping with while he was in high school.  They were a French and Indian War group dressed in red coats, and they had traveled as far away as New York state to participate in war re-enactments on some of the historic battlefields.  They attended several sites every summer, camping in old-fashion canvas tents, sleeping on cots, and cooking in iron kettles on a campfire.

  
But the follow-up story on Stephen is that right after graduating from high school, he took off to volunteer for a humanitarian organization, serving a two-year stint as a cook in the galley of the Logos Hope, a huge ship that is the world's largest floating bookstore.  He embarked when the ship was in the port of Trinidad in the Caribbean and stayed on to visit ports from West Africa to the Canary Islands, through the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal to Dubai, India, and Sri Lanka.  At every port the crew sold or gave away thousands of books and educational materials and held seminars on board.  Steve often accompanied groups who went on shore to conduct clinics or improve run-down schools, homes and churches.

  At his high school graduation people were predicting that Stephen would go a long way in life.  Little did they know that he would do it within two years.  And yes, he's leaving for Nepal presently, apparently  to wage a very real war on oppression and ignorance - he's not playing soldier this time around - there's  somebody in need of a young humanitarian  there, so he's on his way.  I wonder if he'll be camping in a canvas tent over there and cooking on a campfire.  I can't wait to write his next backstory when he returns, whenever that is; he apparently hasn't set a date for coming back home to Michigan again.


  Do you know someone who has followed God to the ends of the earth?

Signs of Decline

  A couple of days ago I was conversing with a young pastor about the Life Cycle of a Church that has been described by author Alan Hirsch* and others.  According to Hirsch, it seems that in what he calls the adolescent stage when a church is young, it is populated by visionaries and pioneers whose focus is on people.  During the middle stage the church's focus is administration, so it needs administrative pastors.  And during the declining stage, the higher value is put on structure, so doctrines and programs and policies and properties are given a greater priority than people.
  This young pastor with whom I was talking was thinking about his future ministry direction, so it was important for him to look at his own gifts and inclinations and then pursue the sort of ministry that would accommodate him, be it pioneering a new plant, administrating a mature church, or nursing a dying one.
  Not long after our conversation it occurred to me that I have observed signs of a church in decline, and I really do mean actual signs, as in, printed notices that are posted on church walls.  My epiphany was that churches that have their policies posted for all to see are churches that are likely in the declining stages of their life cycles, since their focus is on structures.  Remember, declining churches put high value on policies, doctrines, and properties rather than on people.
  At my former congregation I have noticed these signs posted on walls:

• "Youth and children under 18 are not allowed to sit in the balcony unless supervised by a parent."  Posted at the foot of the stairs to the balcony.
• "Your Mom does not work here-  Please wash your own dishes."  Posted in the church kitchen.
• "Children, please do not operate the window blinds."  Posted next to every window in the fellowship hall.
• "If you open a window, make sure to close it before leaving the room."  Posted next to every window in the fellowship hall.
• Parents, do not allow your children to play on the wheelchair ramp."  Posted on the railing of the ramp.
• "Do not take coffee or drinks out of the fellowship hall."  Placed at the exit to the fellowship hall.
• And here's my favorite, a sign that was posted in the men's room of a church in a neighboring town: "Gentlemen, please stand closer to the urinal, and flush twice."

  These signs do not make the church a user-friendly place where people feel safe and accepted.  Rather, they make people feel nervous that they may do something wrong and be reprimanded for it.  They indicate a higher value placed on the property than they do on people,  an obvious sign that a church has moved into it's declining stages.


  Hmm, maybe I'll write the book on the actual Signs of Decline in churches, and make a lot of money.  I will need your help though:
  What signs have you seen posted in your church?  What do you think the subliminal message was that people got from that sign?  Welcoming or threatening?


*The Shaping of Things to Come", Alan Hirsch & Michael Frost, 2003

Meanness Theory

  I have a theory about why good Christians so often exhibit mean behavior.  This belief rises out of my own experience, so if you've never been treated rudely by fellow believers, this may seem foreign to you, although if you stay around church long enough you're likely to gain a similar understanding through your own experiences.
  Three years ago I was unceremoniously dismissed from the congregation where I had been a lifelong volunteer in the departments of youth, missions, evangelism, worship and administration.  My fellow administrators and leaders had finally run out of patience with my dissenting views and let me know that I no longer fit.  Diversity is given high value in most institutions, from universities to business and industry, but not in the church.  The church values uniformity.  It's called unity, but really it means that members belong if they think, behave, dress, and vote the same.  That's uniformity.
  But what really surprised and startled me at the time, was the meanness with which my colleagues shared their criticisms of my counterparts and me, and their willingness to trash lifelong friendships in order to maintain their positions.  I've had three years to mull this over, and based on what I know of those good folks and their behaviors, I've concluded there are several factors that can contribute to one's meanness quotient.  Here are some of them:

•   Strong belief in and adherence to the doctrine of Hierarchy.  Organization is essential to any institution, and the larger the institution, the more complex the organizational structure.  Denominations and congregations are institutions, and must have structure.  The problem comes when those structures are spiritualized and  some believers are given authority over other believers, a phenomenon which was not permitted by Jesus (Luke 22:26).  There's an endemic belief among church leaders that once they have been appointed or elected to a position within the church, they are suddenly and automatically endowed with God-ordained spiritual authority.  Wrong. Spiritual authority is only automatic when we function in the spirit of Christ, and friends, the practice of some believers lording it over others is anti-Christ.
•   Strong belief in the importance of the Institution over the Individual.  In the middle of a conflict three years ago I heard district leaders publicly state that "no one person is as important as the church as a whole."  I couldn't believe my ears.  The statement was absolutely backwards.  The individuals are all members of the Body of Christ - the Church Universal - which was created by God at the Cross and commissioned at Pentecost.  Each part of Christ's Body is more valuable and essential than a man-made organization, congregation or denomination.  Leaders have become willing to trash people in order to save institutions.  This is wrong.  Jesus didn't die on the cross to save organizations, he came to save individuals.
•   Strong belief in the Submission of Women.  Untold millions of earth's population have been harmed by this destructive doctrine that has been extracted from very specific and unique texts and then universally applied.  Huge meanness factor here.
•   Judgmental spirit.  Though Jesus was known as a friend of sinners, most of us are not.  We live and move in sanctified circles with fellow believers and never engage with our sinful neighbors.  In our activist efforts to "take back America" for the Lord, we alienate gays, pacifists, atheists, and those who've had abortions.  Yet Jesus did the exact opposite, befriending the sexually immoral and criticizing the self-righteous.  Hmm, it looks as though we are not on Jesus' side after all.

  Our beliefs dictate our behaviors, don't they?  So if our behaviors are wrong, our beliefs must be wrong too.  If our doctrinal positions are causing us to be mean to people, perhaps we should be re-thinking our beliefs.
  A quick comparison of today's religious culture with the religious culture of Jesus' time will reveal that they are very much the same.  Two thousand years ago Jesus decried the self-righteous, hypocritical, judgmental ways of the Pharisees.  I believe he would hold a similar view of a similar religious culture today.  I call upon so-called spiritual leaders of today to make your "attitude the same as that of Christ Jesus, who took on the very nature of a servant."(Phil.2:5-6) There is no rank in the Body of Christ.  So be nice, serve your brothers and sisters and your sinning neighbors all the same.
 
  Have you ever been a victim of Christian meanness?  Do you think it was a product of doctrinal beliefs or did it have some other cause?