What's Wrong With The Church?

This is one of those loaded questions. It's the kind that if I go out to the street and start asking people, I might not like what I hear. Not because I would necessarily disagree with what I would hear - there might actually be some really insightful comments - but because I might agree.

One comment I hear from time to time is this: "The Church is made up of hypocrites!" And you know what? It's true. Everyone who darkens the doorway, everyone who takes up space on a pew, everyone who stands up and sings God's praises - all are hypocrites - including the person who levels the accusation toward the Church while waving their own self-righteous finger from across the street. Yep, we're all hypocrites - including me. And it's not hard to understand why. It just takes some honesty, and some grace - two things which many both inside and outside of the Church often either ignore or forget.

How can I say this?, you might ask; afterall, I work in a church, don't I? Well, yeah, I do, and yeah, I have no problem saying this. Afterall, what is a 'hypocrite' anyhow? Well, I'm not going to run over to my Webster's 2: New Riverside University Dictionary and look up the official definition, but we all know a hypocrite is someone who says one thing, and then does another; they're a person who is inconsistent in the way they believe, live, and talk. And that pretty much describes each and every one of us. That's where the honesty comes in. You and I are hypocrites. How can we not be? No one I know is always, 100% consistent, good or bad. And this is where the grace comes in. We need to forgive each other [hint, hint: as God has already forgiven us in Jesus Christ], and cut each other some slack. We can't keep holding each other's past hypocrisies over one another's heads, waiting for the other to screw up yet again so that we can feel better about ourselves. We need to let God's grace come into us and transform us to be more like Christ Jesus. But here's the caveat: neither should we use grace as an excuse to be even more of a hypocrite than we already are.

Okay, so back to my original question. What's wrong with the Church? We have given ourselves as a Church culture over to hypocrisy, and we don't seem to mind it. Let me just say that what I mean is that we have a lot of people who seem to take for granted that the Church was established by Jesus Christ as new and redeemed community of people who are called to worship the One and True God, and as part of that community, we are to live radical lives that show God is real and at work in our lives. So far no problems. Unfortunately, we have learned to settle for less. And on some level, I put myself in this mix, too. While the pastor is preaching on anything from the Lord's prayer to different aspects of faith, people are merely warming the pews with their bums, lapping up every word from the pulpit, and then walking out, not to darken the door for another seven days. And that leaves me to wonder, "did you hear a blessed thing?"

Okay, so you can sense I'm a little put off by this. I am. But don't confuse my frustration with bitterness. I'm not talking about whacking people over the heads and tossing them out. No, I'm talking about challenging people's understanding of what it means to be the Church. We're called to live beyond ourselves, including the typical Main Line Philadelphia Suburban mindset that is so preoccupied with the Self, high SAT scores for buffy, driving the most expensive luxury car, and making sure biff jr.'s weekly schedule is so over-packed that by the time the best colleges in America accept him, he'll be so burned out that the parties he's been getting drunk at all year won't even be exciting to him anymore. And no, I'm not bitter. How can I be bitter when I know the God of the universe is waiting for His Church to wake up and be that community of redeemed people? But I am frustrated.

So here's at least part of the solution to this problem: take your part in this redeemed community more seriously than your membership at LA Fitness or your child's sports team. Find your small group, where you'll be known and cared for. Find your ministry, where you can exercise your gifts, talents, and abilities for God's glory and the benefit of others. Take your faith and your calling as God's chosen seriously, and stop treating it like something akin to the latest mailer from the local cable monopoly to have three months of reduced cable before it goes back to its ridiculously overpriced cost.

If we, you and me, the Church, could get this part in order, I think we'd shut up a lot of people. And you know what? We might even impress them enough to want to warm the pew next to us. What do you think?

Going without Food

In our [United States] culture today, the idea of going without food is seen as anywhere from worrisome to troubling. The idea that anyone would purposefully and willingly go without food can only be conceived of in the context of some form of medical necessity. God forbid that we, as Americans, would willingly choose to go without a meal. Well, I for one, am generally one of those Americans. After all, my ancestors fought so I would have the freedom to eat three times a day, not to mention snacks here and there. Right?

But what if there were more to life than just eating well each and every day? what if God blessed us with abundance in food so that we would see the hungry of the world with some compassion, and actually be moved to do something for those whose daily diet was far less than our own?

The reason I bring this up is that I have several students and a couple of other adult leaders who are doing something special. As I write this, we're almost four hours into something called the '30 Hour Famine.' Put on by an international aid organization called 'World Vision', the '30 Hour Famine' is a way to both raise money (for projects that will directly benefit children and villages around the 2/3's world) and awareness (yours, mine, and those who give their support of the day-to-day situations faced by so many in the world). We're meeting up with other church youth groups from around the Philly suburbs tonight. We'll worship God together, pray together, talk together, do service projects together, and we'll go hungry together.

I've done this many times, and over the years, I'm always amazed at the reactions of some parents here and there to the idea of their little baby bunnykins missing out on a meal, or the idea that "I could never do that!" But much of that comes from a lack of understanding, both of God, and of going without food for the purposes of God. There are many passages in the Bible where God called people to go without food for a particular period of time, something called 'fasting'. I know some people see that as an Old Testament thing, something Moses and the prophets did. But what do you make of the fact that Jesus did it, too? The best example is from Luke 4, where, filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus headed into the wilderness for the final preparation to the start of His public ministry. Okay, okay, that was for 40 days, and was certainly supernatural. But in the end, I find it an unbiblical and hollow argument to bring God into a discussion against fasting. Even the history of the Christian Church is repleat with teachings and examples of the proper place of fasting in the life of believers. Why, John Wesley is even reported as having said that he wouldn't even ordain a man who wasn't already fasting at least twice a week. Our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters often fast during Lent and other holy observances.

Personally, I wish Protestants did more these days to teach on fasting (as well as other practices of spiritual formation). Fasting, like anything else we do as Christians, isn't going to make us more spiritual. But fasting does do a few things. For one thing, it helps us identify with those who are not as blessed as we are. Secondly, in creating the space for hunger, our hearts and minds are more teachable as to our hunger for God. And third, in the time, and with the money we would have spent on a meal, we can focus that time and the resources for the purposes of God.

Anyhow, as you read this, consider how giving up food can be an opportunity for God to speak to you. Consider how you might experience a different form of freedom that only Christ could fight and die and live again for you to have and know. Consider how going without food for one meal might bring glory to the Heavenly Father.

Testing Your Faith

It's amazing what tests your faith these days. Technology, for instance, is a wonderful and challenging way to test one's faith. And so it is with me. Saturday morning, I received a call on my cell informing me that in the process of regular computer whatnot on my office desktop, my computer "crashed". Now, it's important for everyone to understand, I do not hold the person responsible. First, he's far more computer savvy than I; and second, it was one of his routine check ups, as he's the head of the technology ministry at our church.

But alas and alack, the computer has crashed, and because of someone ongoing spyware or something or other problem, I had not logged off the network for several days. You may or may not understand the severity of my problem. Not only am I not able to work on my computer, the files, documents, and organizing I've done on my desktop over the last week are now threatened with extiction on the same level as the Dodo.

What does this have to do with faith? Good question.

My answer: everything. Why? Because you need to know how I responded - because how I responded (and continue to respond) is something of a direct commentary on my faith in God.

Having been informed Saturday morning, it was far less stressful coming in on Sunday morning, knowing that I was going to have to scrammble. I still had some finishing touches to put on the powerpoint slides for our Preworship. I'll admit it; I was stressed. It was not the way I wanted to start out my Sunday morning.

However, it did make me more attuned for my need for worship. Worship is about focusing on God, giving Him the praise and the glory, of putting my problems in the perspective of eternity. There was part of me that just wanted to sneak upstairs to the Upper Room and crash on a sofa. But those temptations aside, my soul was in need of what only worshipping the One, True God Almighty can offer. My perspective was at least partially restored.

I'm sitting here on a dreary, wet and cold Monday morning, typing on a computer in the church's copy room. Not ideal, one could say. I say, I can't wait for my office computer to get fixed, but until then, Praise the Lord that we have an extra computer that I can jump on until then.

In the mean time, Praise the Lord. For even the testing of one's faith through technological terrors can draw us closer to God. And if that's the result of the testing of our faith, then the test was a success. What do you think?

Mi Familia

My family is a wonderful, living testimony to just how good God really is. I consider the "evolution" of my family, from the time I was born til today. It's pretty amazing that out of my parent's divorcing when I was four, living with my grandparents until I was about 12, and my mom getting remarried to Jabba the Hutt, not to mention all the other details that go with all of that, that I can sit here and say that today, I have a great family. Praise God, I say, because it wasn't possible without Him. I look back on where my family was twenty years ago, and it was dismal. It was out of that heartache, dysfunction, and just plain old pain that I considered killing myself. It was in the midst of all of that crap that I realized that God was real, and that Jesus Christ died for my sins, and my reconciliation and restoration with God. Now, becoming a Christian didn't solve all of life's problems. It didn't end the pain. But God's reaching out to and saving me did change my direction, my focus, and my life. And so almost 20 years later I'm married (almost 11 years!!! :) to Sarah, and we've got three wonderful kids, and it's very good. Not normal. But very good!!! God is good. All the time.

welcome to life is theologia! 

Eagles' Loss

It's a true test of your faith to keep your cool when your favorite team in football is the midst of taking their fans [read: me] on a roller coaster ride. First up, then down, then up, then down... you get the picture. So what's a fan, who also happens to love God with all his heart, mind, strength, and soul to do? So I also just happen to be watching the super bowl with twenty high school and middle school students, as well; and half of them don't seem to be sure that they want to watch the game. That's okay. I love my students. I just don't like it when they think it's okay to block the television just as a play is about to start. But on the day after, I'm over that frustration; for the most part. But it was a real juggling act, keeping my intensity going at the same time trying not to compromise the consistency of my Christian witness [read: integrity vs. hypocrisy] of my faith before my students. On one hand, I had to lovingly holler at several students to sit down, get out of the way, or otherwise, stay out of my view of the game. On the other hand, I had to encourage one student several times not to say stuff, like, "I hope you die!" in reference to Patriots players. Like the Eagles of last night's super bowl, I was probably grossly inconsistent in my application of faith to the situation.

That's what I love about God. He loves me; inconsistencies and all. Not that He excuses my inconsistencies, or, to call it what they really are, my sin. No. But He forgives me. What's His expectation of me? Thanks for asking. He has given me His Holy Spirit, and because of that, He has given me the power to change; the power of repenting has been put within my reach. So I repent. I repent of my overzealousness during the game, whereby I threw napkins at a couple of students for being too loud, or blocking the television on purpose. I repent of my desire to win at the cost of other's dignity or safety. But here's another side of God. He rejoices over things worthy of joy. The game was a good game. The Eagles lost, but they didn't get blown out. For the most part, they played a decent game, and they tried hard. They didn't always play smart, but they played hard. Terrell Owens showed himself to be a courageous player, even racking up an impressive 9 catches for 122 yards [that comes out to an average of 13 yards per catch!]. I rejoiced to see my team score first. I rejoiced to see my team rally to tie the game. I rejoiced to see my team make a come back, and get to the point where all they needed was a field goal to tie. I rejoiced to see Todd Pinkston actually make some great catches, and make some important contributions to the Eagles' effort. I rejoiced to see Greg Lewis make some great catches, too.

The Eagles lost. But I rejoice, because there was stuff to celebrate. God may not care who won last night's super bowl, but He rejoiced because it was a good game.

overnighters

some would suggest that I'm getting too old to keep up with my students, and still do 'overnighters'. I laugh at such suggestions. That is, until I'm up at 4:00 am with students still talking, playing music, and I'm wishing I could crash, even on that nasty, stained none-to-comfortable couch in the Upper Room. But I wouldn't trade it. I love my students. Somehow, I tell myself, spending this time (when I'm not hitting these keys) with them is worth it, and is encouraging them in their faith. Seriously, it is fun hanging out with them. They don't know what to do with me. That's pretty funny. Oh well. I'm not sure I always know what to do with them, either. Soon. The quiet must come soon. Hopefully they'll get the message, too. I can't wait to get home and climb into bed... after 9:00 am. Ugh. But that's why I get paid the big bucks; eh?

what do you think?

do you have any opinion about your life being a living, breathing theology, a statement about who you say God is? if so, what do you say? how do you back it up, justify your thoughts? do you have any thing to support your opinions beyond other opinions, emotions, or personal logic? faith is not opinion. faith is a relationship with the Living God, the Almighty. I want to know this God as much as is possible. how about you?

Life is Theologia

Okay, a strange title for sure, but if you know me, you also know that I think about life in terms of theology. Every thought we have about the decisions we make, the choices we make, all have to do with what we think about God, whether we believe in Him or not. Believing He does exist, and that He calls men and women into relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ, it's not a jump to consider that how we live our lives is a moving testimony to what we believe about God. Obviously this doesn't always bear well for either ourselves or God. But the point is, that all of life is a working out of who God is, and how He wants us to live our lives. Are you still with me? I'll be sharing with you just what I'm learning and experiencing of God in my life. Don't know how often I'll post, but consider this an experiment in progressing personal theologia.