Saying the Amens

The Fireside Room at Hidden Hollows

  Some of our favorite people just left the room, and I felt a loud Amen.  I didn't hear it audibly, but I was aware of it nonetheless.   It was the last meeting of our house church group to be held in this, our house of 40 years.  We are moving out before the next meeting two weeks from now, so a chapter of our lives is drawing to a close.  Amen.
  At the end of every formal gathering of the church there is often a benediction, sometimes in the form of a blessing, and the end of the benediction is punctuated with an "Amen".  It is a stamp of approval, a "so-be-it" that adds affirmation and finality to what just took place.
  So I am experiencing this sweet Amen as our friends drive away from our front door for the last time.  Our own kids drove away years ago and found careers and new friends who turned into spouses in places farther west.  Amen.
  After hosting foster kids for 17 years, we said goodbye to the last of them a few years ago as they waddled out the door dragging their black garbage bags filled with their few belongings.  Amen.
  Five foreign exchange students from Russia, France, Brazil, Costa Rica and Columbia came and went.  Amen.
  Three successful businesses that were headquartered here have recently closed.  Amen.
  Several ministries centered here, from a retreat center to a mini-monastery, have run their course.  Satisfying Amen.
  The "Missions" posters that covered the walls of the fireside room are being distributed to whomever would like them, so the wall is half empty now.  Gratifying Amen.
  The pantry door under the stairs is closed now where the girls used to use the pencil sharpener that was there and then jot a note on the walls and undersides of the stairway:  "I am satan's personal nightmare! Signed, Wendi Lee Sims, June 7, 1992".  Nostalgic Amen.
  Three years ago we were dismissed from our lifelong local congregation where we were made aware that we were no longer welcome.  Our views did not conform, we no longer fit.  Thirty-five years of youth work, missions trips, and worship leading ended unceremoniously.  Gut-wrenching Amen.
  Books, keepsakes, surplus office supplies and well-worn furniture are all being re-assigned to friends and family and the "keepers" put into storage for the next place we might live.  Exhausting Amen.
  This big old house has emptied out and is now too large for two people, especially during the long Michigan winters where living space has to be heated for seven months of the year.  We are hitting the road in a few days, following that wind that I spoke of in an earlier blog (See "The Holy Spirit of Adventure"), so our Amens are not unhappy ones if a bit wistful.
  When we drive away from here we also drive toward the next good destination.  Off to see the world, so to speak, in an old camper, finally pursuing our recent quest to hang out with sinners for awhile, having spent our entire first 60 years hanging out mostly with fellow believers.      Finally being the salt of the earth.
  Before we both have to say life's final Amen, we're going to have some fun in some new places!  All fun is God's fun. (Huh?)
  Amen and amen!
  
  We are excited to be heading toward the next new adventure, and that is helping us to say the necessary Amens to the past.  What Amens have you had to say in life (leave something or draw it to a close), and were they positive or negative experiences?

Deconstructive Bigshots

  It has happened again.  Last week a close pastor friend of mine lost his job to the traditional power brokers on his church board.  He was dismissed because he didn't serve their personal agendas for the church.  So he is done with organized church and will serve the Lord and the local community in more organic Christ-like ways.  This is a pretty ballsy move on his part and a scary one; the abrupt career change prevents most disaffected pastors from doing the same, although there will certainly be many others who will soon follow.
  As I've said before, it seems to me that the demise of organized evangelicalism in America is accelerating; I mean, this makes three Missionary Church pastors in the thumb of Michigan who have recently been ousted by their local boards - with the assent of their district leaders - and who have opted to move outside the fortress but stay in town and serve in more personal, incarnate ways.
  This has provoked a new thought that has just dawned on me as I have been observing the movement close-up, and that is this:  Not only is the empire being deconstructed from the bottom up, it is also inadvertently being dismantled from the top down.  The very methods that protected and perpetuated the empire in the past have become the tools by which it is being undermined.  I'm talking about the hierarchy.
  It used to be that constituents would respect the mandates of congregational and denominational leaders, feeling that they were sinning if they questioned authority.  Similarly, pastors submitted to their superiors, thinking this was the will of God.  Not so anymore.  One of the common characteristics of postmoderns is their innate distrust and disregard for authority.  Leaders who notice this trend will lament this "rebellious spirit"  and preach long and loud against it, but they seem unwilling or incapable of adapting to the new reality in the church.  To their own demise.
  Not only is the church losing ground from the bottom up (more than 90% of high school seniors leave the church within one year of graduation) but the Missionary Church is being dismantled from the top down, by men in ivory towers who allow their most dedicated pastors to crash and burn at the hands of a few power mongers in local fiefdoms.  So the exodus out of the institutional church is being fed by the very leaders who are trying to stop it.  Their penchant for power is biting their own butts.
  The scenarios that have unfolded in my neighborhood recently have been characterized by these self-destructive elements:

• Big money makes you a big shot.  Not only is it the elected position in the organization that gives you power, it is often the people with money who have the most clout.  The local church founders are often the most respected by the district leaders.  After all, if you offend the money holders and they leave or quit giving, it will eventually affect the bottom line - district income and your own salary (the Michigan superintendent makes around $80K per year with benefits, just about twice the national average income).
• Secrecy and confidentiality help maintain power.  Exiled pastors will be sworn to secrecy to protect the hierarchy, while the constituents are told that leaders are keeping confidences in order to "protect the reputation" of the out-going pastor.  They cast a shadow of mystery and innuendo over the pastor, creating suspicion in the people and thus preventing people from questioning their decisions. (Displaced pastors in The Missionary Church in Michigan are routinely asked to sign oaths of silence.  The individual takes a hit for the sake of the institution.)
• Decision-making power is removed from the laity.  The Missionary Church has a congregational form of government, which means that the members get to vote on important decisions.  Well, that's the way it's supposed to be, but in the three cases that I've just cited, the pastors were dismissed without a vote of the people.  The congregational form of church government seems to be inherently incompatible with the teaching of hierarchy and submission to authority.  They are like Siamese twins joined at the hip but in a perpetual fist fight.

  The irony of all this is that the structures which are intended to help maintain and perpetuate the institution are inadvertently swinging a wrecking ball which is relentlessly  tearing it down in a post-modern culture which categorically disregards established authority.
  In my own former church, when the district superintendent swooped in to rescue the assembly from an impending split over a pastor who was being ousted without a vote of the members, his solution was to preach an impassioned sermon on unity and submission to authority.  He obviously was out of touch with the times and the realities of life in the trenches.  The church did split, and the pastor moved outside the institution and is now a leader in a network of house churches.
  And this is one of the reasons that more than 1,500 pastors leave the pastorate every month in America.  The hierarchy of the religious institution is an unwieldy demolition ball that keeps swinging back and smashing its own legs.  Without its feet to stand on, it well inevitably topple.  In fact, just this morning I heard a former Missionary Church constituent predict that the denomination will crumble within the next decade.
  To every pastor in the Missionary Church in Michigan I would say, "Watch your back," and if you're not inclined to submit to the power brokers in your church or in the district, I suggest you be working on a plan for an alternate means of employment so that you too may enjoy the satisfaction and fulfillment of really serving Christ and your neighbors - outside the walls, the way Jesus intended in the first place.

The Emerging Purism

  I think I'm becoming something of a Christian purist, but it's not happening over night.  My friends and I are attempting to peel off the barnacles of dogma and orthodoxy that have attached themselves to the hull of the S.S. Gospel over the centuries, relentlessly slowing the ship until it is almost dead in the water.  We're finding that the underlying vessel is nearly unrecognizable to the religious bystander.  Most everybody knows that there's something there, but it hasn't been seen in years, so nobody even knows what it looks like anymore-- and that's where much of our challenge lies.  What are the true essentials to our faith?

  There's a field of theological thought and practice called "Jesus Only".  This is a long-standing detachment of pilgrims who have long known that the religious system we know today is not the essential faith that God had in mind when the Church began at Pentecost.  150 years ago, the Danish philosopher, Kierkegaard, said, "Christendom has done away with Christianity without quite being aware of it."  For about 1,700 years this ship has been sailing under the flag of Christ while concealing the dozens of other flags to which it maintains allegiances-- flags of politics, denominations, various theologies, traditions, dogmas and so on.

  Okay, so I have badly mixed my metaphors:  Is it flags or barnacles?  Well, I guess it's both. The barnacles might be the traditions and practices which have attached themselves to the gospel but have ended up detracting from it.  The flags are the collusive loyalties to which the church has aligned itself which betray it's true allegiance to the gospel of Christ.

  As an up-and-coming purist believer, here are some of the compromising alliances that I've dislodged and discarded so far:

• Church attendance.      --the purist says, "I am the church... well, part of it anyway."
• Commitment to a local assembly.       --"Now I can be committed to my neighbors."
• Tithing.        --"I live a life of generosity, managing the %100 that belongs to God."       (Some say that tithers are cheating God by approximately %90.)
• Legalism, The Law.    --"The work of Christ is Freedom."     (Gal. 5:1) 
• Alignment with the more Christian Republican party (in the North. Democrats in the South)
• Militarism, nationalism.    --"I am loyal to a greater Kingdom."
• The Sunday uniform of proper apparel (obviously, because I'm not attending)
• The doctrinal registry of who is "in" and who is "out".         --"I leave that up to the Lord."
• Accepted Christian behavior.     --"Love God, and do what you want." -(St Augustine)
• Condemnation of sinners, including gays, divorcees, etc.  --"I follow Jesus' 3rd Great Commandment: 'Do not judge'."
• Hierarchy.       --"As a member of the Body, I am answerable directly to the Head, which is Christ.  There are no ranks or levels in between."
• LIstening to sermons.          --"I don't need to be fed, I need to love.  That's all."
• Contributing to the upkeep of a church building.      --"Starving children need it more."
• The Pastor.                 --"We are all priests and minister to each other."
• Worship time.     --"Life is worship.  Serving the needy is true worship.  Millions of believers the world over never attend a worship service; look at the Chinese."
• Guilt, Condemnation.      --Avoiding legalists, condemning people, and oppressive religious environments has helped liberate. "There is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Romans 8:1

   It's not comprehensive, but it's a pretty long list, isn't it?  That should be a revelation in itself that there is a whole lot of non-essential foreign matter attached to this Ship.  So what's left for the purist believer?  It's the same thing it was at the start, and here it is:

• Love the Lord and your neighbors.  Express it any way you want to.  Be like Jesus, who didn't waste time in the company of the religious when he could be hanging out with the irreligious.

Wow, that's a really short list.  And the true purist will work hard to keep it that way.



The number of purist believers is rapidly growing in America.  How many do you know?

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?

My Big Little Brother, Jerry

  This is a tribute to my younger brother, Jerry Sims, who, though a year-and-a-half younger than me, has sometimes acted more as the protective big brother who steps in to defend me when I get myself in trouble.  When the neighborhood bully is threatening you, it's really nice to have somebody on your side, and Jerry has been that for me - and for others - even though he is by nature a peace lover and a gentle man.

  He did that for me a couple of years ago when I was engaged in a conflict in the local church, a controversy that started out over matters of principle and should have remained so, but which eventually degraded into a personal clash, and, while staying true to my conscience and obedient to the Lord, I came under personal attack.

  When he found out about it, Jerry came alongside of me and stuck up for me, even at the risk of his own reputation and professional advancement as a minister in the Missionary Church.  I loved him for it.

  But I'm not the only one who has been defended by this big brother.  He has also been the champion of every woman who seeks to pursue her God-given gifts and callings as a minister in the Missionary Church.  Jerry recently initiated a resolution that would have changed the constitution of the church to allow women to be senior pastors.  It didn't pass this time around - and he knew the odds were against it in this very conservative denomination, but that didn't stop him from trying.

  I'm reminded that when Jerry presented a eulogy at my dad's funeral a few years ago, he reminded folks of dad's reputation among the superintendents as being a minister who was 20 years ahead of his time.  Jerry pointed out that all of dad's kids were cursed with the same trait.  Not long after that, he proved it true by launching this initiative to give women equal rights in the church.  Though it failed this time, it will probably come up again- in about 20 years- and maybe this next time it will succeed.  Of course, there will be a 40-year disparity by then.

  Another group that has benefitted from Jerry's protective big brother mode are the constituents of the New Hope Missionary Church in Lapeer, Michigan.  The last time I heard Jerry preach was at a Thanksgiving service there, where he spoke on God's grace.  I told him afterwards that I appreciated his engaging demeanor with his congregation; he didn't talk down to his people.  If you've been in the evangelical church for very long you have possibly experienced your share of condemnation and judgement from the pulpit.  Not from Jerry.  The virtual posture he conveys is not one of the face-to-face talking-to with the pointing finger in your face, but rather of the side-by-side arm around the shoulder.  When he speaks of God's grace, he shows you by example, God's grace, even in  times of great personal loss.  That is the posture of a friend and brother, more than simply a member of the clergy.

  Now I want to mention that Friend who sticks closer than a brother, because Jerry wouldn't be who he is if not for that Ultimate Big Brother, Jesus.  To the skeptic or those who simply haven't made up their minds yet about Father God and Big Brother Jesus, if you don't see the evidence in the stars and the galaxies, or in the intricacies of the human body or the animal and plant kingdoms, the next place to look for evidence is in the life of the little Jesus, the people like Jerry, who express the fruit of the spirit and the life of Christ in their everyday lives.  Allowing for human frailties, because nobody is perfect-- I mean, Jerry isn't the pope-- you should be able to see the reality of God in the human expression of Christ, in the Jerrys of the world.  

  And to the believer, I would suggest that if we would quit being so sophomoric, smugly thinking we have all the answers in our evangelical doctrines and theologies, if we could come down to earth, if we could be more like Jerry, the skeptics would be able to see the evidence more clearly.  If you can't be like Christ because He's so far away and seemingly unknowable, then be like Jerry, a Christ-ian, a Jesus in the flesh-- again, keeping in mind that we all have our flaws.

  That's my tribute to my big little brother, Jerry.  If you've never met him, I hope you know someone like him, someone who will be your big brother when you need him, someone who sticks up for you when the bullies of life attack.

  I love you, brother.  Thanks for being there for me. I'll be there for you!

Do you have a big brother type who has defended you in the past?