Those Postmodernists Are Ruining Everything!

What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this. Emergent/Postmodern 82% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 71% Neo orthodox 71% Modern Liberal 54% Classical Liberal 46% Roman Catholic 39% Charismatic/Pentecostal 29% Reformed Evangelical 25% Fundamentalist 21%

The Day Metaphors Took Over...

I've come to an interesting place where I feel like I've lost the crossroad between theology and spirituality. I was talking to one of my mentors the other day about this and he offered me an interesting metaphor...

Living out your faith is a lot like driving a car. You can drive for 100,000 miles and still know nothing about the car that you drive. The only indicators you have that something is wrong are little red lights, which can easily be missed, and when the whole car dies due to neglect. When something goes wrong and you know nothing about your car, no matter how much you've driven, you're still ultimately at someone else's mercy. Being a student of theology is like learning to be a mechanic. You learn the ins-and-outs of the inner-workings of the car, and not only can you interpret the little red lights, but you can hear the varying sounds of the engine, you can not only sense when something isn't right, but you can diagnose and even correct the problem at times.... The problem is when you forget how to drive in the process of becoming a mechanic.

Another metaphor that has stuck out to me recently is this:

All bread, no water.

Simple, I know. But I feel like, while I've had no shortage of substance, of nuggets to chew on and think about, and the intellectual aspect of my faith is flourishing... There's still no refreshing stream of life. There's no fresh and revitalizing source of Life that is constantly flowing and always available to me. I'm beginning to understand the words that Jesus spoke in a new way, "Man cannot live on bread alone." We always make the distinction between physical bread and spiritual water... but what if the same is true for the distinction between spiritual bread and spiritual water? After going for a while without water, adding more bread will only make your mouth drier.

I don't want to leave this on a downer, because it's not. Every pastor I've talked to has said that going through the frustrations I am and asking the questions I'm asking is an essential part of becoming a pastor. It's encouraging, but sucks at the same time.

Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary: pure and holy, tried and true.

What does it mean to be a sanctuary? A place of safety and refuge. The inmost and holiest part of the Church. What does it mean to ask God to prepare us to be that? I think I'll explore this a little later...

Not a Part of Your Society

I had an interesting youth culture experience on Friday night. I know of no better way to preface it. My adolescent culture & evangelism class required me to "observe adolescents" in their natural environments for a total of four hours. One could easily complete this task by visiting the local Starbucks on a Saturday afternoon or sitting on a bench in the mall for an extended period. For some reason, I felt like the mall kids and Starbucks drinkers are already reached out to enough, why not go some place a bit more marginalized?

I soon found myself at the Showcase Theater; a local venue for adolescents to see their favorite underground heavy metal bands. Before I left, my parents asked me if "bad kids" would be at this concert (I find it ironic telling this part of the story considering that my parents most likely make up half the audience of this blog.) I told them that the kids who would be at the concert would not be "bad", they would just be kids you wouldn't likely run into in a church setting.

Even though I knew the kids at this concert would be perceived as "bad kids" by the greater society, I still don't think that prepared me fully for the night ahead. When I got there, I immediately smelled marijuana lingering in the air, and it only grew stronger as I walked toward the theater. There was a line of kids going around the building waiting to get in. I bought my ticket and took my place in line behind a guy who looked about 16 years old. He had dread locks and a black leather vest covered in metal spikes. He had a few patches on his pants as well, representing various bands. (One other guy, about the same age, came up to him and said, "I've never seen anyone else with a Goat Brigade patch, that's f**kin' awesome!") A few minutes later, the same spikey-vested kid turned and faced the wall, and pulled out a small pipe. He proceeded to smoke what was either some heroin or crystal meth.

Once I finally got into the theater, something struck me: this felt like the youth room at the church I'm currently working at. Granted, there were some major differences, but the overall feel was shockingly similar to a room at the church.

The first band came up, and I heard the lead vocalist address the crowd and say what I though was, "Hail Satan!"... It turns out I was right. He then proceeded to invite everyone in th crowd up on stage to have a prayer circle to Satan. What struck me was that these kids who most enthusiastically ran up on stage to join the band members only seemed excited to do so because it was the radical and rebellious thing to do. In a city like Corona, it's a safe bet to say that most of these kids came from conservative Christian households... the rebellion against such a setting would then understandably be to have a prayer circle for Satan.

The band then proceeded to play about six songs, all of which sounded the same and none of which I could hear or understand the words to. They ended with a "thank you" and one last "hail Satan", and the second band took the stage. One interesting thing about the second band, aside from their "musical stylings", was that their second (and most popular song) was called "Not a Part of Your Society". I wish I was able to hear the lyrics of the song and pull some meaning from them, but when they're being screamed through a microphone in much the same manner as the "temper-tantrum" scream of a toddler, it becomes difficult to discern what's being said.

While moshing had been occurring through every performance down in the mosh pit, I noticed during this song that there was one rather pretty girl down the mosh pit. She didn't look like she belonged there, and she was physically rougher than anyone in the pit. This didn't seem to fly right with the regulars, and I watched from a distance as she got a bit roughed up and her backpack torn.

I noticed the smell of the marijuana begin to linger inside the room this time, so after a few minutes I decided to step outside for some fresh air. The next thing I knew, the same girl who was roughed up in the mosh pit was thrown out of the theater by security. The right side of her face was covered in blood after taking a few punches. She was leaning up against the rail no more than a foot away from me, screaming and cussing and demanding to be let back into the club. She was surrounded by her friends, which shocked me - it would seem that associating yourself with this girl might get you thrown out of the theater as well. They didn't seem to care as much about getting themselves kicked out as much as caring about their friend and getting her cleaned up.

All this to say, I spent the evening with a group of kids who would traditionally be called "bad kids". But the thing is, I wasn't in any immediate danger. (Admittedly, I was in a situation where wisdom and discernment needed to be exercised, but I wouldn't say I was ever in a dangerous situation that night.) While I was there, I didn't feel a sudden urge to leave and get out of there... quite the contrary, my heart broke for these kids. As a result, I didn't want to leave; I wanted to be there more. These are the kids who have fallen through the cracks of the church. I know it, those kids know it, the greater society knows it... the only ones who have turned a blind eye to the abandonment of these teenagers is the church.

I want those kids in the church. Not to change them into people they don't want to be, not to conform them into the image of the upper-middle class white American church... but to simply love on them.

How do we show these kids the Jesus who dined with sinners and saved his sharpest criticism for religious leaders?

God wants these kids in the church.
He wants to transform them into the people they were meant to be,
to give them the lives they were meant to live,
to conform them into His image,
and to love them.