You'll See Better if You Step Outside

  It's been four years since I was booted from the religious empire of the institutional church, and I marvel every day about the difference it has made in my life.  The sense of freedom and well-being that I feel now is like nothing I knew before.  I feel like scales have fallen off my eyes as well.

  I'm an outsider now, and I feel like I can see better; there's more light out here away from the shadows of contrived doctrines and orthodoxies.  I am living now in wide open spaces with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness... and a whole lot of grace.

  I have left legalism and judgementalism back there in the shadow of the steeple, along with obligation and guilt.  I am traveling a road with an infinite stretch of freedom on the horizon in a land where there are no clouds of dictated doctrine and tedious traditions blocking the sun.  Ah, rest and relaxation, just what the Doctor ordered!

  There is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)... and who have made it outside the church!

  My sister and brother-in-law went ahead of me and told me it would be like this, but I didn't believe them.  I stayed and stayed longer and longer, trying to change the old wineskins from within.  But Jesus was right;  He said it couldn't be done (Matt. 9:17), but I didn't believe him.  I kept trying to bring some balance to an off-balance system.  I persisted in attempting to moderate the extremism, mitigate the dogmatism, and truthify the evangelical platform, but I couldn't ultimately make much difference.

  And not only were my spiritual eyes sensing a pervading darkness there, but then my nose started to take notice.  My sniffer became more sensitive as the years passed and the traditions prevailed.  I started smelling doctrinal dung everywhere.

•   I smelled it on Sunday morning when the pastor spoke on tithing, a practice that is certainly Biblical...  it's just not Christian.  And it is absolutely not obligatory as he seemed to indicate.
•   The smell was there at the holiness camp meeting when the evangelist delivered the required dissertation on the holy life and it became evident that he didn't have a good grasp of this very nebulous doctrine... or hadn't yet realized it himself.
•   I smelled something fishy every time a seminar speaker got going on the structure of the hierarchy and "God-ordained authority" within the church, another late-coming idea stretched to infinite levels of rank and echelon by licensed theological extrapolators (always male).
•   And the odor grew worse during every election year when the right-wing Republican pastor got going on which candidate was God's choice to lead God's country for the next four years.  Yep, God's choice always seemed to stand in direct contradiction to Jesus' teachings on peace and loving our enemies - although he loved unborn babies.
•   And the poop seemed pervasive when the lovers of God and of their neighbors in the assembly started expressing their condemnation for gays and lesbians whom they had never met... while blindly persisting in their own indulgences that are banned in the scriptures, like gossip and lying and divorce and overeating.  What hypocrisy.

  But that's only the beginning.  There are much deeper fundamental problems with the institution of the church.  Let me paint with broader strokes:

  Practically and philosophically speaking, every believer is positioned at a certain spot on a continuum that ranges from Grace to Law, and the evangelical church is far over on the side of Law.  I ceased to be a conservative evangelical many  years ago while I was reading the book of Galatians (long before Rob Bell came along).

Where are you on the Grace - Law Continuum?

  Paul's first letter to the churches is a challenge to the never-ending inclination that humans have toward wanting to earn their salvation.  He claims that it is for freedom from the law that Jesus came (Gal 5:1).  He says the law never saved anybody (Gal 2:16).  He states that the entire law is summed up in a single command: Love your neighbor (Gal 5:14).  He says we are saved by Grace, not by good behavior (Eph 2:5-8).  Then he asserts that those who are led by the Spirit are not under law (Gal 5:18).
   If we are living in the book of Galatians then there are no rules but the law of love.  No obligations, no expectations, no have-to's, no long list of required moral behaviors.  And as a result, no guilt and no condemnation.  We are free to live without feeling that anybody is looking over our shoulders with demands and expectations.  Not even the pastor.  Not even God, actually.
  Yet much of the environment in the church is all about expected behavior.  It is about law.  This is a serious and widespread foundational flaw in the church.
  Pastors in this realm manifest schizoid behaviors on this matter, preaching grace on the first Sunday of the month and law on the other three.  Or, more often, they start out a sermon on grace at point one and move to law for points two and three... followed by the altar call.
  And I think I know where this comes from.  Paul himself - and Peter and James and John and a bunch of other NT writers - had trouble themselves with grace versus law.  So when you study the New Testament you see that Jesus replaced the Old Testament (and the entire legalistic culture that came with it) with redemption and freedom, and Paul understands this when he is writing to the Galatians and the Romans.  But later, when he is writing to the Corinthians and others, he has to pull back because they have carried their freedom too far and have ruined their testimony, so he gives them boundaries.  He summarizes this dynamic in I Cor.6:12 when he states, "Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial."   And pretty soon, when you start qualifying grace with: "Yeah, but what about this and what about that?", the law prevails.
  It's a difficult tightrope to walk.  Law versus grace, and humans are inclined toward law.
  I have concluded that everything in the New Testament needs to be read and understood through the filter of Christ and the cross.  
  So when Paul says gays will not inherit the kingdom of God (I Cor 6:9), we must immediately filter his comment with the grace of the cross and the forgiveness of Christ.  Apparently all that one needs to be part of God's kingdom is to believe in Jesus (Romans 10:9).  Like every other sinner, gays are forgiven and need not worry about their place in the kingdom; their sin is no more special than the sin of the bigot, the self-righteous hypocrite and the typical American going after the American dream without regard for the poor next door -  since the greedy are included in the same list as the gays (I Cor 6:9-10).  "For there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:23-24).  According to this verse, all have sinned, and all have been saved.  It seems that the evangelical world is forever stuck in Romans 3:23 - the fallen-ness of mankind - and never finishes the sentence: Romans 3:24 - the restored-ness of mankind.
  A Christo-centric dynamic should be present throughout biblical interpretation and Christian practice and ought to permeate the whole of Christian culture.  Christianity must be about the grace of Christ.
  The work of Jesus is freedom, and the work of the law and legalism is bondage.  And how we tap into grace and law affects every scripture we study and every way we live our lives every day.  Will we live in freedom or oppression?  Most people within the church will live in oppression to some extent, based on what they hear from their leaders who generally have more to say about righteous living - through living up to a host of noble expectations - than they do about living in grace and freedom.  Shoot, it's hard to speak on grace and love every Sunday and never challenge your listeners to behave better.  But the product of the gospel of self-improvement is self-righteousness and imagined self-redemption and it flies in the face of the cross.

  Okay, I realize I have made some grand generalizations in this post, so just let me say that nobody has this figured out.  And those who say they do are not to be listened to or trusted.  The Bible is full of apparently contradictive stuff like I have touched on above, and we all must choose what we will focus on.  We must prioritize.
  Some will put a high value on 10 commandments in the Old Testament, while ignoring the other 604 similar commandments in the same scriptures - and the New Testament words stating that the old laws no longer apply.
  Some will put the 5 references on homosexuality at the top while ignoring the 50-60 teachings condemning adultery - and the 600 verses on helping the poor.
  Some will place a high value on Paul's directives to the troubled churches at Corinth and thus put limits on what women may do in the church, while ignoring the counter-cultural gestures that both Jesus and Paul implemented lifting women from cultural oppression.
  Again, I am barely scratching the surface when it comes to the inconsistencies of the religious empire.  Jesus said not to judge (Matt. 7:1), but judgement, rather than grace,  has become the  banner under which Christians march to war.

  The church is a man-made institution that works great good and great evil in the world, depending on who - or what doctrine - is in charge in a given time and place.

  All right, this is getting too long.  Anyway, though I didn't do it voluntarily, it turns out that the easiest way for me to free myself from the pervading darkness within the religious system was to exit to the light of day - where, as it turns out, the air is fresh too, but with a rather strong aroma of redemption.

  When you step outside you can see the truth better.  And you can breathe better too, because there's nobody here piling the unholy crap higher and deeper every Sunday morning.
  With the help of the Holy Spirit and the Word - and in the company of open-minded friends - think for yourselves, folks!

  I know this is provocative stuff for a lot of my friends and family.  Thank you for reading with an open mind!  I believe in Jesus.

  

Fans, Followers, and Fanatics

  Jesus had several kinds of people following him when he was on the earth:  There were thousands who came to believe in him, there were 120 who followed him around the countryside during his ministry, and there were twelve apostles who were part of an inner circle, committed to his cause... eventually to the point of martyrdom.

  Today these three groups still exist:

• 1. Jesus Fans:  There are approximately two billion believers in the world today, people who self-identify as believing in Jesus or who say they are Christians.  They don't necessarily go to church or read the Bible or pray.  They may have been simply born under a Christian "flag" - into a family or country that is mostly Christian.  Or they believe in Jesus but, because of their location in the world, they don't have access to a church or a Bible.  They are like the thousands who listened to Jesus' sermons and believed, but did not follow him from town to town.
• 2. Jesus Followers:  Perhaps one in ten believers is a follower, someone who is devoted to following the teachings of Christ and testifying to his gospel.  They seek to apply his truths to their lives on a daily basis.  They often are church-goers, and read the Bible and pray.  They are the modern counterparts to the 120 followers.
• 3. Jesus Fanatics:  Perhaps one in a hundred could be called a modern day apostle of Christ.  These people are full-timers who live and work within the framework of the Christian empire.  Pastors and missionaries - those who have made it their life's work - are examples of Fanatics.
• Martyrs are not a separate, more devoted group; they can come from any of the groups above, depending on the circumstances.  That is, even a Fan can be martyred if he or she is in the wrong place at the wrong time.  (Further, even non-believers can be mistakenly martyred as Christians if they happen to be in a mostly Christian neighborhood that is being persecuted.  This has happened many times in the Sudan and other dangerous places where ethnic Christianity is under attack.)

    Okay, so if you believe in Jesus, into which of these three groups do you fall?  The Fan, the Follower, or the Fanatic?  Take a minute to place yourself in the appropriate group.  And then I will surprise you with my next paragraph.

My Next Paragraph:

  IT DOESN'T MATTER WHICH GROUP YOU ARE IN.  You may be more spiritual if you are a Follower than if you are a Fan, but you are essential to God's kingdom, whichever kind of believer you are.  And here's the thing:  Despite what you have heard all your life at church, you should not necessarily strive to be in a more committed group than you currently are.  Not everyone will be a Fanatic.  Some will only be Fans.    

  The Bible says that we (all three kinds of us) are like living stones being built up into a spiritual house.(I Pet. 2:5)  Each stone is just as important as the others; together they all make the house strong.  Jesus is the Cornerstone, but their is no other ranking of the stones, no hierarchy that makes one stone more important than another.  The wall of the house will not necessarily be stronger if all of the stones are Followers or Fanatics.

  Remember this the next time someone challenges you to be more spiritual, to read your Bible more or pray more or give more money to the cause.  Remember this when your pastor makes you feel that you are not as spiritual if you do not attend that Saturday morning prayer breakfast (at 6:30 am!) or teach that Sunday School class - or vote a certain way in the next political election.

  I realize that this is a radical departure from what you have probably heard for most of your life in Christian circles.  Every pastor wants to inspire his constituents to move from Fan to Follower or Fanatic in Ten Easy Steps over the next Forty Days... or forty years.

  But for the most part, it simply doesn't happen, not two thousand years ago in Jesus' day, and not in our day.  And it shouldn't.  Because it takes all kinds of stones to build a spiritual house where God can dwell.  

  You should have confidence in the redeeming work of Christ on the cross for you.  We are saved by faith, not by performance, lest anyone boast. (Gal. 2:8)  Beyond that, let God's Holy Spirit be the one to prompt you to pick up the Bible and read it or study it - if He wants you to.  Let Him invite you to be more spiritual by praying for and loving your unbelieving next door neighbor - if He wants you to.  If the Lord wants you to move from one group to the next - and back again - let Him speak to you about it, and obey Him if it seems like the right thing to do.  Spiritual growth should be prompted and timed by the Lord, not by your professional Sunday cheerleader.

  Don't let anyone heap guilt on you for not being a Follower or a Fanatic.  The ratio of Fans to Fanatics is just about the same today as it was back in Jesus' day.  I guess that's about the way it should be.  I have lived for over 60 years and have never seen the ratio change much.  

  Now a word to pastors.  Spiritual appetite should be the motivator in your church, because it is initiated by God.  "No one can come to me unless the Father draws him." (John 6:44). Your Bible classes and prayer meetings should be populated only by those who have a curiosity or a desire to attend.  No one should ever feel compelled to attend out of obligation or guilt.  People should give to the church if they want to, not because you have compelled them to do so out of some contrived sense of responsibility.  Though you yearn for your people to pursue a deeper relationship with the Lord, you cannot force it.  They will be ready to move to the next level IF and when God says so.  So relax.  Let go and let God.  There are no real gains that come out of guilt or condemnation anyway, so those are tools you should never implement.

  One more thing, pastor.  It may be in your job description that you devote a certain number of hours to Bible study and prayer every week - and it's essential for the construction of your next sermon, but you should not expect a Fan or a Follower to do the same.  People will seek greater depth as the Lord naturally draws them to himself, and according to His timetable, not yours.

  It takes all kinds to build a Kingdom.  Or to build a spiritual house.  Everybody is important, regardless of spiritual depth or devotion.  Whether you are a Fan, a Follower, or a Fanatic you are needed and loved by God.  Just the way you are!

 Oh, and for the Faithless who don't fit one of these categories, you are loved by God as well, and bring glory to Him simply by existing.  Thank you for being!

The Greatest of These Is... Guilt?

  It's been said that guilt is not a good motivator.  But that hasn't stopped the church from dishing out unhealthy doses of it every week.  In the most common setting, I think it is usually an unfortunate by-product of the noble efforts of every well-meaning spiritual cheerleader, from pastors to Sunday School teachers to summer youth camp speakers.  But in the worst case scenario it is piled on intentionally to elicit desired behaviors, from tithing to daily devotions to regular church attendance - to taking a turn in the church nursery.

  A young friend stopped over a couple of days ago for a visit and he got talking about the previous twelve years of spiritual defeat that he had experienced starting at age 14 when a youth leader challenged everyone to sign on to a 30-day Adventure that would include a daily quiet time of Bible reading, prayer, and journalling.  He never got past day 4, and if you missed a day you had to start over, so he dreaded each Sunday's meeting when the successful few would be awarded a pop tart or a music CD while he received a challenge to start over and do better.  He never did better, and he's had trouble motivating himself to read the Bible ever since.

  Obviously, his mentor didn't mean to cause him a lifetime of defeat; it was just a nasty consequence of an under-developed and adolescent spiritual appetite found wanting in a zealous spiritual environment.  He lately reviewed one of his journals from those days and found several entries that ended with a sleepy scribble off the edge of the page where he had fallen asleep while journalling.  Defeat after defeat.  Guilt.

  I think this guilt that so widely pervades the realm of Christian experience is a result of a works-based gospel.  Salvation is supposed to bring freedom, but then it is followed by this burden of holiness.  Though intended to be an encouragement toward a closer relationship with God, the Sunday sermon ends up being a challenge for us to pull ourselves up by our own boot straps - in five easy steps that spell an acronym.

  I think the church needs a reboot to a grace-based gospel.  An author and online pastor, John Fischer, says that "When you get close to God you don't become more spiritual, you become more loving."  Love is the outgrowth of our own gracious redemption.

  The true test of spirituality is not in your quiet time or your devotional life, it is in your loving behavior.  Jesus said the greatest commandment was to love the Lord, and He never mentioned it without connecting the second greatest commandment, to love your neighbor.  The apostle Paul even consolidated them, skipping the first and going directly to the second when he said, "The ENTIRE law is summed up in ONE command, love your neighbor as yourself."(Gal. 5:14)  He somehow left out daily devotions and a whole bunch of other stuff.

  I've often asserted that the first commandment is fulfilled through the second.  In other words, we demonstrate our love for God by loving our fellowman.  We may develop a closer relationship with the Lord through Bible reading and prayer, but we carry it out by expressing the love of Christ to others.

  The fruit of a dedicated life may not be in how many Bible verses we can quote, but in how many of our friends and neighbors are having a better life because of us.

  So being spiritual can be as simple as carrying the groceries in for the neighbor lady.  But if you miss that opportunity, don't feel guilty about it; you might get to help another time; there are a million ways to express the love of God in the world.  

  Don't let me or any preacher guilt you into anything - not even about being more loving.  If you are more loving next week, that will be good.  And if you are not, your salvation is not in danger.  God still loves you.  You can't be bad enough for God to stop loving you, so relax.  And if you want to read the Bible, do it.  And if not, don't.  You're not any farther away from heaven when there is dust on your Bible.  Not only that, but you would probably be much more spiritual if you'd spend your tithe on new tires for your poor neighbor's car than to give it to the church.

  "For we are saved by grace through faith... it is the gift of God, not of works (behavior) lest anyone should boast."(Eph.2:8-9)  Augustine once said, "Love God... then do as you please."  I would adjust that to say, "Demonstrate your love for God by loving your neighbor... and then do as you please."  So there's no long list of things you must do to be more holy, only the law of love.

  The next time your spiritual coach makes you feel defeated or guilty, go out and buy your own pop tarts.  You will always deserve it.  And then if you want to be spiritual, share them with some other undeserving soul.

  "Now these three remain: faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love." (I Cor. 13:13)  According to this, our love is even greater than our faith in God.  Wow.

  What makes you feel guilty or defeated in your spiritual walk?  Where does this guilt come from, and how can you stop it?

  

Born Losers

  Being born again means being born to lose.  If you want to be like Jesus.  Because Jesus was a loser.  Much to the disappointment of his followers, He did not come to set up an earthly kingdom.  American Christians seem to be generally unaware of this.  Being born and raised in a free country, we have become accustomed to having rights.  But followers of Christ have no rights.  Jesus gave up his rights to save the souls of mankind.  Should we do otherwise?

  Yesterday I viewed an online video that showed a bunch of Christian teenagers who are being rallied to "take back America" by pushing back on the anti-bullying campaign* that was launched by gay activists who were alarmed at the number of young gays lately committing suicide as a result of being bullied.  I think these young Christians are doing exactly what Jesus would NOT do.  Jesus clearly stated that his Kingdom would not be an earthly kingdom but a kingdom that resides in the hearts of men (Acts 17:24).

  The essential message of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount is capsulized in the Golden Rule: "Treat others the way you would like to be treated.... Don't resist an evil person.... Love your enemies".  Now which of our rights was he defending?

  Jesus was executed after a mock trial in the middle of the night followed by a beating, a whipping, ridicule and being spat upon.  Then the crucifixion.  And he didn't say anything to defend himself.  Not a bit of push back.  Do you want to be like Christ?  Then why are you fighting back against the evil in our world except by prayer and love?  "Overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:21)

  "But this is supposed to be a Christian nation."  Wrong.  This is not supposed to be a Christian nation, but a nation that provides freedom of religion - for people of all faiths, not just Christians.  What gives us the idea that non-Christians should abide by our rules or that we should win our nation for Christ?  We are to make disciples, yes, but not make a Christian nation.  Jesus never gave us that commandment.

  I have often said that if every believer in America would simply love his neighbor like Jesus said to, we would win the world in a short time.  But my wife disagrees.  She reminded me that, just like 2000 years ago, Jesus is not about an earthly kingdom - not in Israel then, and not in America now.  He is about his followers really following him.  Yes, we should love as Jesus loved, but no, we should not expect to "take back America" for God by this means or any other.

  Read me clearly: Jesus does not care whether or not America is a Christian nation.  He cares whether you and I, as his followers, are loving our neighbors - and our enemies. - as he showed us in his teachings, in his life, and on the cross.

  American Christianity is a long way from what Jesus intended.  If we would all spend as much time on actually living and loving as Christ followers as we do promoting our favorite Christian political agenda, we could really make a difference in our neighborhood and all across the nation.

  Love everybody, not just your Christian friends. Be the Good Samaritan - without first checking to see if the person is gay or lesbian.  Love, especially if the victim is gay or lesbian.  True followers of Christ should be the first ones to sign anti-bullying legislation, and they should be the last ones to bully gays or others who don't live up to their holy standards.  That's what Jesus would do -  If he was into political activism at all, which of course, he is not.

  Look how far away from Christ's teachings we have gotten:

• Jesus was a friend of sinners and hung out with them.  We go out of our way to avoid them and condemn them.
• Jesus befriended outcasts, adulterers and other sexually immoral folks and treated them with respect.  We avoid them and call them names.
• Jesus taught submission to the government.  We speak all manner of evil about our president and politicians, even those who have given testimony as Christians but who do not have the same political stance as we.
• Jesus had a liberal (generous) approach to the poor.  We are conservative and resist helping the underprivileged and under-skilled, saying they should "just get a job".  New Testament believers shared their wealth with their needy friends so that "There were no needy persons among them."(Acts 4:14)  We demonize any program that advocates sharing the wealth.
• Jesus was persecuted.  We push back when criticized and stand up for our "rights".
• Jesus taught peaceful non-resistance, saying "Turn the other cheek."  We support war and violence.
• Jesus was "salt and light" out in the community every day.  We huddle in our sanctuaries, worshipping the Lord - and our freedom - while criticizing the ungodly and the unlovely and taking great care to keep separate from the world.

We know how to be real followers of Christ if we can just make ourselves do it.  Many are doing it, but it takes rethinking our way of life in small ways every day:

• Under-the-radar generosity:  Going through the drive-through at McDonald's, my pastor friend pays for his meal  - and for the folks in the car behind him.  He does it often.
• Going into a cafe, my friend pays for his coffee and donut with a twenty, then refuses the change, asking that it be applied to the next several customers.
• Realizing that gays do not choose to be gay any more than heterosexuals choose their orientation, my friend treats them the same as anybody else - but sometimes goes out of his way to support their businesses since they've been boycotted by others.
• Generous tipping, especially on Sundays.  My brother used to be a waiter at Red Lobster.  He hated the Sunday shift because the after-church crowd were the worst tippers, sometimes leaving only a gospel tract with some stupid "tip" on it for him (I guess there isn't much left after giving a tithe to the church).  Upon learning this, everyone in my family became generous tippers.  Especially on Sundays.
• Whenever he goes jogging, my friend picks up the empty beer cans that his neighbors have thrown out of their car windows the night before. He calls himself the neighborhood environmentalist.  He knows at least one of the neighbors who discards the empties but never confronts him about it insisting it's important to be on good terms with the neighbors.
• The economic downturn has caused a corresponding upturn in the number of thrift stores and food panties which are popping up everywhere, evidence that generous people are responding to the need in practical and compassionate ways.
• And a thousand more Christ-like actions and attitudes that happen every day by those who really seek to follow Jesus.

  Notice I didn't list any political actions on this list of how to be like Christ?  That's because I believe we do the name of Jesus a disservice with much of the Christianizing we attempt in American political action.  For the most part, American politics is nothing like Christ.  I'm not saying political action is wrong for a believer; I'm saying it is often harmful to the true cause of Christ.  Jesus was apolitical.  His Kingdom was not of this world.  I think that if things get worse for Christians in America we will have no one to blame but ourselves and our own hateful and ungodly behavior.  We have turned the Good News into the bad news.

  Don't attempt to take back America for Christ.  Just return to Christ-like living yourself, in your neighborhood and your community.  Be nice.  To everybody.  Even the neighborhood bullies.

   "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ, who gave up his rights by taking the very nature of a servant, even being obedient to the cross." (Phil.2: 7-8)

  Be like Christ, be a lover and a loser. 

  What loving, losing deeds have you noticed among your friends?

  * Here's the irony (hypocrisy) of this whole push-back on the anti-bullying campaign: The backstory is that gay youths were being bullied at school (some by so-called Christian kids who thought it was their responsibility to "witness" to the gays, letting them know it was an abomination to God and they were going to hell).  Several of the gays couldn't take it anymore and killed themselves.  To stop the suicides, gay activists started a campaign to let the gay kids know that "It gets better".  They maintained that school is not the real world and life would improve after graduation.  At a seminar of one of these "It gets better" rallies, the moderator launched a tirade at the Christians, who left the room saying they were being bullied.  And they were.  They were being bullied by the anti-bullying spokesman, who blamed them for bullying the gays in the first place.
  Now the gist of this new campaign is that the Christians are not going to take it anymore.  They're going to resist the bullying of the anti-bullying campaign so they can continue to bully gays.  For the sake of Christ, of course. 
  When I communicated with the leader of this campaign asking him what practical steps the program would implement for role-modeling the nature of Christ in the face of persecution, he responded with sarcastic derision, saying the whole thing wasn't about being Christ-like.  He was pretty mean about it.
  Yeah, he sort of bullied me. I think it's part of his strategy to take back America for Jesus.

Disclaimer:  To my wonderful conservative readers, please don't be offended at my blunt commentary.  I realize my views are in the minority among American Christians, but after all, it's my opinion posted on my blog.  I hope you'll stay with me for the next post; I think it will be a very encouraging one.  Feel free to make a level-headed comment below.  Love ya!

Hypocrites-R-Us

  I'm a hypocrite.  And so are you.  If it's about performance, everyone who says he's a Christian is a hypocrite to the extent that he does not obey all of the commands of the scriptures.  And there are a lot of them.  The Old Testament laws were so extensive and so impossible to keep that only a few people were ever able to do it and not for long.  Then Jesus came and made it worse for us by preaching more impossibilities: "Sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor."(Luke 12:33)  Who does that?  "If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out."(Mark 9:47)  I know lots of guys whose eyes have caused them to sin, but I don't know anybody who obeyed the Lord at this point (and I'm not suggesting it now).

  A few days ago a friend of mine shared this quote on Facebook: "HYPOCRITES: Blaming every law abiding gun owner for the deaths of children, while supporting abortion."  I immediately commented, "We are all hypocrites" and then deleted it without typing the rest of my response: "Hypocrites: People who say they are Pro-Life and then support the killing of enemies in far away places (or coming through the bathroom window), forgetting that Jesus said to "Love your enemies."(Matthew 5:43-48)  Did anybody here support the killing of Osama bin Laden?  Jesus said, "Do not resist an evil person."(Matt.5:39)  Sorry, that makes you a hypocrite.  We all like to select the scriptural commands that we will observe, and then ignore the ones we don't like.

  And we vote that way in national elections too, those of us who still vote.  Democrats are inclined to help the poor through social programs, and Jesus likes that (the New Testament Church practiced a form of sanctified socialism).  But they support the killing of unborn children.  Republicans won't help the poor, but they want to protect the unborn.  Both parties love to kill terrorists - who go directly to hell when killed, since they have no knowledge of Christ - even though both the Old and the New Testaments forbid murder.  It's easier to kill terrorists than to convert them; war is easier than missions - despite the Great Commission.(Matt:28:19)

  There are hundreds of points at which we are all in non-compliance with the commands of scripture.  And that's why we need a Savior.  There are over six hundred commandments in the Old Testament Law, most of which we are completely unaware, let alone trying to obey them (ie: If you wear a garment of blended fabric, you are breaking the Law).  And the New Testament is full of orders which we don't fulfill.
  "Our righteousness is as filthy rags"(Isaiah 64:6) and that's why we need the cross.  Because we have no chance without the cross.  There is no way on earth that we can behave well enough, be righteous enough, keep all the rules or always vote for the right guy in every election.  But that doesn't seem to stop us from trying.

  The cross doesn't seem to be enough.  There is this everlasting legalistic duty that we all feel that we must perform, this elusive perfection to which God calls us (along with our local preacher who calls us to do better every Sunday morning).  If we can't live up to God's standard, why do we keep trying?  We have a Savior, so why keep attempting self-righteousness?

  So this is one of the great hypocrisies of Christianity:  We claim that salvation is free to all, based on belief in Jesus (John 3:16) and that it's all about what Christ has done for us on the cross.  But then we live and act and preach as though we must earn our salvation through good behavior and righteous living.  And if somebody doesn't behave well enough or supports the wrong political platform, we take away his salvation.

  So which is it?  Galatians 2:8 says we are saved by grace through faith, not of works (behavior) lest anyone boast.  The whole point of the cross is that none of us can behave well enough to earn our salvation.  If self-righteousness were possible, why did God need to send us a Savior?

  I think the biggest hypocrisy of which anyone is guilty is judging, another point at which we are disobedient to Christ who said, "Do not judge."(Matt:7:1)  The reason I think the Lord prohibited this is that judging makes us god.  Can a Democrat be a Christian?  Only God knows.  Is a Marine who kills an enemy soldier going to go to heaven?  Only God knows.  Is a gay who believes in Jesus really a Christian?  I don't know, and neither do you.  Is an overweight believer really saved?  If not, 60% of Christians in America are out of luck, as the Bible prohibits overeating and in fact says you should put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony. (Proverbs 23:2)

  Because we are not God and because we are all guilty, we should stop judging.  Our only job as believers is to love.  We may be tough on sin in our own lives, but it is not our job to be tough on anyone else.  That's God's job.  We should just trust in the grace of God for our own salvation and for the salvation of everybody else.  We are not God; we should stop acting like it.  As an acquaintance and exiled pastor, Anthony Ferrell, says, "Judging is the very essence of gracelessness and goes counter to the grain of the Cross."

  And I need to stop letting inflammatory Facebook posts get the best of me, dang it!  At least this time I had the sense to move my arguments from Facebook to my own blog.

  Do you believe there's any need to earn salvation through Godly behavior?  If someone doesn't behave in a Christian manner or support the right party, are they still saved?  If you deny Christ by not "sharing" that cheesy Facebook status, will He really deny you in heaven?

Quit Planting Churches!

(This is Part 2 in a pair of posts: See Part 1, "The Church is a Com-bus".)
  
Sorry to be so negative.  I'm not really a dissenter most of the time, and I wonder about the irony of my continuing to be the troublesome elbow in the ribs of the church when I am not even a part of that world anymore.  I guess this unwelcome prophetic gift is my thorn in the flesh for now, and I feel sorry for Jeremiah, who was probably a really nice guy but was called upon by God to confront wrongdoing in the leadership and 2-1/2 millennia later is still known as the Weeping Prophet.  Poor fellow.

Church Planting is a Waste

  Anyway, today I feel called upon to state that church planting is a waste of time and valuable resources in a culture that is slowly abandoning the institution of the church.  In our local town of 1,200 people there are ten churches within a 2-mile radius, and they are all slowly shrinking except for one.  That one is the new one which was just started less than two years ago and which immediately filled up with all of the already-believers who were bored with their old churches.  Or maybe they were just excited to be a part of the next new thing and came over to help get it off to a good start.  Nonetheless, there are now more empty seats in the other nine churches, most of which are not even half full now.

  And the "new" church is nothing new at all.  It has already banned the misfits from the worship band and reprimanded the wannabe youth volunteers, and effectively ex-communicated some of its participants who asked too many questions about the nature of God in the Old Testament.  So this new church is a clone of every other conservative church in the neighborhood and perpetuates the popular views of the church as judgmental, critical, and exclusive.  It only makes sense, as the contributors to this new work all came from old works and brought their baggage with them.

  It must really piss off the visionary young men who are the most likely ones to want to plant a new church.  They are full of energy and excitement and aspire to win the lost and reach the world for Christ.  And then they see their new sanctuary fill up with the already-found religious vagrants who used to attend the church down the block.

  And in a year or two they take a critical look at what they have created and discover that there are no new believers and they have not made any difference in the world except to cannibalize* the other churches nearby, and they realize their "new" work is not new at all.  Although it probably has the best worship team in town, and there is something to be said for that.  And if numbers are a measure of success, then they are more successful than the other churches in town.

  I have a young friend who tried to be on the worship team of that new church. Rick has an idea now that we should reverse the trend and start consolidating.  We should close most of the churches in town and all meet at the high school gym on Sundays.  I mean, we all have a common belief in Jesus, right?  We could save a lot of resources that are spread out all over town in so many disintegrating buildings and properties, and we could save hundreds of thousands of dollars on pastoral salaries.

  Of course, the pastors would all have to quit their jobs and buy into this thing to make it happen.  Of course.  And the denominations that own those properties would have to relinquish  their properties and abandon their unique sectarian doctrines.  Right, that'll happen.  And the holiness camp will get along with the Calvinist camp and charismatic camp.  Uh-huh.

  Okay, look.  I'm not so naive as to think that anything like that will ever happen (and neither is Rick).  Here's what is naive:  The retiring president of my former denomination just posted his last editorial in the denominational newsletter saying, "I believe... it will take 100,000 new congregations to re-evangelize America...  Every church was once a church plant, and every church - in its life time - needs to plant multiple churches."**

  This man has not been paying attention.  Every denomination in America is declining.  And it wasn't churches that evangelized America in the first place, it was traveling evangelists.  Sinners who need evangelizing don't come inside churches, so there is little correlation between church planting and evangelizing.

  The only movement that is growing is the house church movement and the exodus out of the religious institutions.  America will not be re-evangelized until God initiates the next revival, and the signs are all contraindicative at the present time.

What to do:

  So that leaves only a few options for the would-be church planter:

1. Change your goals:  If you must plant a church, realize you will not be evangelizing or winning new believers but working with old ones.  And they will bring their old ways with them.  You will be like every other church in town, and you will make enemies in those other churches from which will come your constituents.  A new church plant simply starts the music for the next round of musical chairs where the believers all get up and march around to the next "new" chair.  You have to be okay with that, because your church plant will be no exception to this rule.
2. Change your mind:  Don't plant a church.  Stay where you are and keep pouring into the old wineskin.  Of course, you will still be serving the Body, not the Lost.  You'll keep feeding the already full, and you'll have little or no impact in the community.  You'll have to be okay with that.
3. Change hemispheres:  Become a missionary.  While there is no movement going on in America right now, there are thousands coming to faith in Christ every day in China and Africa.  You could win souls to your heart's content.  This will require radical changes in your life, and only a few rare souls are up to the challenge.
4. Change your direction:  Start a house church.  Again, you'll be working with believers but in a more organic way and without the stigmas attached to church, and you'll have a better chance of impacting your neighborhood.  To do this best maybe you should go cold turkey and quit going to regular church.  If so, study what's happening in the world by reading some of the books I've listed in the right sidebar of this blog, especially, unChristian, by David Kinnaman, the head of the Barna Group.  It's a real eye-opener.
5. Change your life:  Be like Bob; quit going to church and enter a whole new lifestyle of Being the Church.  Read and study the Bible from a new vantage point that precludes organizations and includes only Jesus.  Hang out with non-believers with no agenda but to love them and make friends of them.  This requires the most foundational changes in your faith and your approach to life as a follower of Christ, and you will probably have to start by entering an extended sabbatical - a time alone or with a few like-hearted pilgrims when you must first de-construct your former institutionalized life.  I predict you'll never go back.

    Okay, then.  I may have discouraged some potential church planters, but at least I've listed some alternatives which may save you a lifetime of frustration and disillusionment in a post-church culture where church planting doesn't work and is the wrong thing for you to do with your life.

  Love me for it.

* My brother, Gerald Sims, gets credit for the concept of the cannibal church and is writing a book about it.
** The Missionary Church Today magazine, spring 2013, Vol.46, No 1, page 3, Dr. Bill Hossler, President.  For their general conference this summer The Missionary Church has scheduled Alan Hirsch, co-author of The Shaping of Things to Come, which blows up the conventional ways of doing things.  I think they could have a tiger by the tail, but they're sure to ignore everything Mr. Hirsch says and keep holding on to their irrelevant traditions.  Sorry, but they won't let go the old wineskins.
  
  
  

The Church is a "Com-Bus"

  It's been four years since my church blew up and I was unceremoniously dismissed from the place I had served for forty years as youth director, worship leader, trustee, and missions director, among other things.  I had most recently served on the board of directors by virtue of my position as Elder of Missions and Evangelism when the new pastor told me, "Maybe it would be better if you didn't come at all; you're seen as a divisive person here." (yes, I'm actually quoting him).  I've got to hand it to him; it takes balls to actually ask a life-long leader in your church to quit coming.  He and the other leaders - right up to the district superintendent - had become fed-up with my constant challenges of the status quo.  I guess I should be happy - at least I didn't suffer the same fate as John the Baptist (actually, I am happy; I might still be there if I hadn't been asked to leave).

  One of my challenges to the system surrounded the inability or unwillingness of the church to get down and get dirty with the lost in our neighborhood and around the world.  We existed only to perpetuate our own comfort and our traditions.  We were all about protecting our way of life inside the four walls of the church and our denomination.

  I had seen a vision of what we were, and it was a rather unsettling picture.  I had actually awakened one morning and, still half asleep, an image was brightly projected on the screen of my mind, along with a knowledge of what it meant.  The picture I saw was what I later named the Com-Bus.  It was a large machine moving slowly through a wheat field, and the main chassis of the beast was a large combine, a harvester with a huge cutting head at the front, but there were two things unique about this machine.

  First of all, the cutting bars and the rakes were not moving; they were either shut off or disconnected so that, though the machine was moving over the ground, there was nothing being harvested.  The grain was just being flattened by the large wheels of the monster.

  The second odd thing about this harvesting machine was that the grain hopper behind the cab had been replaced with a bus body so that there were actually seats for several dozen riders.  Not only that, but as I looked closer, I could see that in fact the bus was full of people, but they were not just riding, they were worshipping.  There was a worship leader standing at the front and singing, and the whole crowd were singing along with hands raised and so entranced by the worship that none of them even glanced out the windows.

  If they had looked, they might have seen what I could see as a bystander: The rear emergency door was open and some of their participants - mostly high school graduates, I think - were carefully jumping from that exit and wandering away across the field, never to return to the vehicle again, so the crowd on the bus was slowly shrinking.

  This is where my vision ended and my troubles at church began.  Well, not really; I had been in trouble before for being the annoying elbow in the ribs that tries to awaken others to unpleasant hypocrisies of the system (We come from a long line that includes Martin Luther and a few other dissenters who are mostly all dead now).

  Now the most surprising thing that happened to me in the year following my vision, was that my wife and I, along with 150 other travelers, were also evacuated from the rear emergency door of that colossal machine.  And it wasn't a drill.

  So in the last five years since seeing this vision, I have changed locations and become an outsider, and my view of the realities is from a different perspective.  Mind you, nothing has changed about the church since I've left, nor is there any deviation in the obvious analogies about the huge harvesting machine that has transformed into a self-contained worshipping machine that was actually crushing the ripening grain onto the ground as it lumbered ahead.  And like most graduating seniors, I'm glad I'm on the outside now and do not intend to return.

  I am standing in the field with the other outsiders - both believers and nonbelievers - and have discovered that we really look very much like each other.  Like wheat and tares, I guess, and that's how the Lord said it will be until the end.  I have lately hung out with Mormons, former Catholics and Episcopalians, gays, atheists and "nones"* and have been able to spread the love of God in a less oppositional way than I ever did while functioning within the religious system.  It's a slow process, but more personal and authentic than before.  And more effective.

  I don't know how much longer the institutional Com-Bus will keep rumbling along.  The slow decline of organized religion in America is well documented, but I'm sure it will be around for a long time and still serves a valid purpose to insiders, I guess.  Gene Edwards, in his book Beyond Radical, says the decline started at the Reformation almost 500 years ago and that it will not be complete for another 300 years.  Sorry, I couldn't wait that long.

  The Great Commission has two parts: 1) Reach the Lost, and 2) Teach the Found.  The American church believes in both parts and preaches both parts, but only carries out Part Two.  This is partially because Part One can't be done from inside the walls like it could sixty years ago, and the church, for the most part, will not venture outside the walls.  In a gesture of wishful thinking - or delusion, every church marquee reads, "Everybody Welcome" to a world that passes by every day but will not come inside.

  And there's the rub:  The world will not come inside, and the church will not go outside.

  I guess it's up to outsiders to do the job.  For one thing, we are uninhibited by restrictive policies and denominational doctrines and hellish hierarchies and negative stigmas .  People aren't afraid of you when your only agenda is love.  Lots more could be written on that.  Later.

  Have a great day.  And be real.  And don't be afraid to challenge the status quo; it's not like you'll lose your head over it, although you could lose your comfortable religious world as you now know it.

* "Nones" are those mostly younger Americans who, when polled about religious affiliations, will check the box for "none".  They now make up 20% of the population.  The church will not/cannot reach them.