Christians Ain't That Great

Spoke with a friend last night who informed me some common friends of ours are splitting up. This was a couple I had really admired. I admired them for their faith and their lifestyle of faith which looked so different and more engaging than most Christians I can recall knowing.

My friend and I continued talking about how surprised Christians are to discover things like divorce happen to even them. We are almost blindsided more by the fact it is even POSSIBLE for Christian couples to get to a point where divorce happens.

I began to think further on WHY that is.

I think it has something to do with the fact that Christians forget that they hold themselves to a higher...er...a DIFFERENT moral standard, but that far from makes them morally superior.

There is a common perception among Christians, false though it may be, that becoming a Christian brings them innate morality that exceeds that of non-Christians.

It is for this reason a common frustration non-Christians have with Christians is that "they think they are better than everyone else." We absolutely do!

Now matter how many 'Not Perfect; Just Forgiven' bumperstickers you put on your car, we cannot overlook the fact we have come to be convinced we are innately more moral than those without Christ.

Granted, we are a new creation, but we are not a perfect creation. We are still a new creation living in the same humanity that is prone to temptation, sin, and failure. All the more reason to stand firm in our faith, yes! But all the more reason to remember the commonality of fallen humanity we still share with Christian and non-Christian alike.

All the more reason God's mercy and grace should become more of our presentation.

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LISTENING TO: "Only By The Night" by Kings of Leon

Too Much Too Little

My time in Scripture this morning has been quite rich and yet poor. It has been quite telling of my heart and a challenge, once again, to my way of living. Here are a few notes from my time.

EXODOUS 35:4-29
Everyone's heart who was willing, gave. There is a question of my heart and my WILLINGNESS to give of my plenty and my skills and talents. The question is less about whether I will DO it and more about whether my HEART actually desires to.

2 CORINTHIANS 8:1-15
This may be the strongest point at which my heart was truly stricken. There is a great focus on generosity, but I cannot get past verses 13-15:

"but it is a question of a fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be fair balance. As it is written, 'The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little."

I cannot argue with the bluntness of scripture here as it relates to my considerable plenty compared to the poverty of the world. It is also a personal affront to how I spend my money. What am I wearing, and where does it come from? Is it made and traded in fair ways or in ways which more than demean but actually oppress the poor? What about the coffee I drink? The money I spend reflects my value or devalue of the poor and of God's command on my heart.

"The one with much did not have too much, and the one with little did not have too little."

PHILIPPIANS 4:10-23
vs 11-12: "Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little and I know what it is to have plenty."

As a child of single mom who had to live and raise her boys for a portion of life with food stamps and welfare, I also know what it is to have little, and I know what it is now to have plenty, but the question really is, "Have I LEARNED to be content in WHATEVER I have?"

LISTENING TO: "Hold Time" by M. Ward

Generational Apostasy

This is a magazine article that was to be but will not...so before it disappears, I thought I'd post it here...

Hurtful church management caused a dissipation of the prominent ministry for college and young adults for which I was once on staff. My closest friends worked on staff with me, and they were dynamic ministry leaders. Upon the dissolve of the successful ministry, nearly all of them left never to reconnect again to a church body.

Granted, they had been burned badly by a poorly mishandled and hurtful process, but my heart breaks with the conversations to follow. There have been frequent references to their ‘reevaluation’ of the faith they have held for many years. These were the passionate and successful leaders for a demographic few churches understand how to reach.

Apostasy is at its most rampant in our culture today. Countless college students and young professionals walk away from their faith if they ever had it at all. Irrespective of our culture’s shift in this direction, we desire to live our life with others, but our desires are increasingly unmet in a culture, which grows more and more isolated.

With inclusive terminology, Hebrews 10:19-25 reminds us that Christians are NOT individuals; we are part of a community, a Church, a family, a group. We cannot be alone. We connect with God together. We hold unswervingly to the hope we profess.

The writer warns against apostasy, which is the deliberate departure from anything you have believed. Afraid they will walk away, he does not incite them to fight a solitary battle but a rallying hold to the hope they have always known.

The primary reason college students and young adults walk away from their faith is because they isolate themselves from the “us” of Hebrews and attempt to go it alone. We have to ask ourselves if it matters to us? This apostasy among college students is a result of our isolation.

What is more, we cannot allow people to isolate themselves. This has to mean more than talking to the lonesome person on a given Sunday. It means we recognize when someone has not been around for a while, and it concerns us. There is a constant ebb and flow to college and young adult ministry. You may float at about 60 people each night you gather, but you will generally see 1-5 first-time visitors each week. Are we concerned?

We are to ‘spur one another on’ and ‘not to give up meeting together as some are in the practice of doing’. The word ‘spur’ implies a sense of incitement and provoking. The challenge not to give up meeting together is not to forsake or abandon meeting together. The writer knows danger when he sees it, because when people walk away from connection with others, they almost inevitably walk away from faith.

The Church is in persecution in Hebrews, and these clusters of believers met together regularly exciting each other to keep hold of their faith and not to give up. Even in persecution they stood together to encourage one another to hold on to their faith. These were small groups, which grow more and more important in our church culture today, but they must begin to be recognized as utterly vital. It is time we begin recognizing the isolation of our culture for the critical faith pandemic it is. It cannot be okay to watch individuals isolate themselves from our communities, churches, and small groups.

Countless college students and young adults are walking away from their faith in your city because they are not connected to a group of people who care about them enough to spur them on, saying, “Please do not give up!”

My heart breaks at this reality, and it is my hope we would all begin to share this concern.

LISTENING TO: "Casually Smashed to Pieces" by The Six Parts Seven

Third Servant Church

The Church is full of third person servants. When you read the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, you typically realize that everything we have been given is a gift. We should use those things to further the kingdom. We commonly think about our gifts, talents, abilities, and our money. We wonder what we could do to better use those gifts to further the kingdom of Christ. We commonly remember that we are called to be effective ministers of the gospel with the things we have been given, but there are other things we have been given than resources alone.

Our God has given us hope, grace, mercy, and an outstanding love. We have been given these phenomenal gifts, and our common response to the parable is to think of our abilities, our talents, our money that, yes, IS God's. We tend to overlook other gifts like hope, mercy, grace, salvation, love. We have been entrusted with those as well, and the question is the same. What do we do with those gifts?

When I look at those gifts, I see an American church nearly full of third servants. We have hoarded those things in ourselves. Every Sunday we come and bury those things in the field of our common services. We talk about those things with people who already believe what we believe.

We have not taken many risks to invest those gifts for a larger return. It IS a risk to invest, but the first 2 servants take those risks and find blessing and return on those investments.

They also come to see that there are so many opportunities to expand the kingdom with the gifts we have of hope, mercy, grace, love, salvation.

The only way to expand the kingdom and become one of the first two servants is to take those things OUT of the burial ground of our walls and invest them in areas outside of our comfort. There are risks of fear, awkwardness, etc. But the return on those risks are incredible.

LISTENING TO: "Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings" by Counting Crows

Inner Watchfulness

Ozzie Chambers speaks of an "inner watchfulness" I am not entirely sure I am in frequent possession of. This may be a reference to the mind of Christ you read about in 1 Corinthians 2. Jesus had a solid sense of intimate purpose because of the Spirit within. He lived from that intimate connection he had with his Father in heaven.

Though He had every right to live of Himself, he continually pointed his life and heart and Spirit to its rightful place: submitted to His Father's direction, will, and Spirit.

That meant a very intentional and continual inner watchfulness to always focus and point his spirit to and on God his Father.

I need a much more intentional inner watchfulness.

LISTENING TO: "Youth Novel" by Lykke Li

Sticks Out

Without looking, which stories in the gospels stick out to you as they have influenced your life the most? It is an interestingly telling question and approach to the gospels. The book I am reading asked the reader to think about it. I like the question because it reveals a few things. Of course it tells of your largest influences, but I think further, it also tells of which stories you remember well enough you could retell the story with adequacy and passion due to it's influence on you.

It is also telling of your strongest image of Jesus, and thus, of God. It may not be the only image, but it is likely your most prominant and relational image of God.

Without looking, the prodigal son pops out immediately. Then comes Mary and Martha, the adulterous woman, and then the cross.

A few questions: What might these stories reveal about my prominant image of God?

Why does the cross NOT come first? Shouldn't it?

Without looking, which gospel stories stick out to you as the most influential on you?

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Currently Reading: "Praying with Francis of Assisi" by Stoutzenberger

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

The only privilege is no privilege: why young adults are losing faith

Francis of Assisi was called to a few specific things, with one of which is something I have felt the touch of God on my life. It is recorded that Francis had heard God speak to him the words: "Francis, do you not see that my house is falling down? Repair it!"

Upon that call, Francis began a lifestyle of poverty, charity, and acceptance. He had seen the house of God being torn down by its becoming rich and thus complacent.

I found myself strongly connected with this part of Francis' life and calling. Granted, I still have a lot to learn from his lifestyle of poverty and relentless charity, but his specific call toward the church resonates within me.

There is a similar moment in my life when God spoke into my life through another person at a moment, which would truly change my life from that moment forward. I had grown frustrated with the American Church for a slew of reasons. As I studied the gospels more, I saw less and less reflection of them in the realities of the Church today.

Like many young adults today, I walked away from it. I had not lost my faith in Jesus Christ or my God. I had lost faith in his bride, the Church. I watched as the American Church became more complacent, incredibly unloving, disrespectful, and disgustingly rich. So with draining faith in the church, I left.

I left for 4 and a half years of college while I was pursuing my ministry degree. I had not really figured out what I was doing getting a degree for a career in a place I had disowned.

Regardless of having given up, God grabbed hold of me my 5th year of college through a statement from one person.

"PC, don't you think if you are this passionate about these things, you are one who most needs to be a part of it?"

There is a generation of people, many I speak with daily, who are losing faith in droves. A large majority of those are not losing faith in Jesus or their God of childhood. At the root of it is a loss of faith in the American Church, which has grown increasingly rich and privileged.

Francis of Assisi once said that privilege implies power and powerlessness, haves and have nots, nobility and commoners, and that the only privilege was in in having no privileges.

The Church has grown richer, more complacent, and entitled. They grow more indignant, disrespectful and horribly unloving. In that loss of faith, countless young adults are walking away.

Here is my charge to all those who are walking away and giving up:

Yes! The American Church is falling down. The bride of Jesus in America is dirty and broken...

but is still his bride...worthy of love and it is a house in need of repair.

Will you become a part of change or will you sit idly by as it continues to be torn down?

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LISTENING TO: "Crane Wife" by The Decemberists