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.

Who was Jesus?

I'll be honest... I have no idea how to start this post. That doesn't mean it's going to be a downer, there's just so many places to go with such a question. The short answer is this: I don't know.

I know that to be a Christian means to live with the conviction of who Jesus was and how He lived. But how can we live with that conviction if we fail to grasp who Jesus was and what exactly He did?

Jesus was a Jewish carpenter who thought about his religion in radically different ways; ways that eventually got him killed. He was a man who wept. He was a man who reached out beyond the social stigmas and touched lepers, dined with tax collectors, and spoke with prostitutes, more often than not at the cost of His ritual cleanness and religious reputation. He was a man who spoke with great authority. He was a man who taught in parables in circumstances that most teachers today would cause most teachers today to use the simplest terms possible. He was a man who called all kinds of people to follow him before they even knew who He was. He was a man who challenged those around him to rethink everything they thought they knew about faith, life, and the world around them.

I've called myself a follower of this man for several years now, and yet I can look back and see how often I've totally neglected who Jesus was and how he lived, and at times even spoke against certain aspects of the way I now know that He lived. I also look at myself now and wonder how much of what I do and believe and understand about the world around me in incongruent with who Jesus was and how He lived. I wouldn't say I worry about it, because God's gracious enough to love me in spite of whatever I may believe about Him... but I certainly hope that whatever inconsistency I may have with the life Jesus lived causes as little pain and divide in those who are looking for Jesus in me.

God either has a sense of humor or is a horrible judge of character when choosing who goes into ministry.

The Brain Fart of a Ministry Student

These two weeks have gone by rather quickly, but I suppose I have to choose between quantity and quality when it comes to posting.

One thing that's been on my mind the past few days has been the legitimacy of insight offered by non-Christians about how the Church is doing. Unfortunately, this insight is more often than not rejected as hateful criticism and ill-hearted judgment. Quite the contrary though, I think outsiders are some of the significant and unexpected modern-day prophets God could have possibly utilized in pointing out where the Church has and is falling short. One of these shortcomings is that the Church is more likely to voice opposition than support... We're known for what we're against rather than what we're for.

Take homosexuality for example. A recent national survey showed that 91% of outsiders view Christians as anti-homosexual. It saddens me that the word "tolerance" has become a four-letter word in evangelical circles, and that any mention of the word is often immediately and unknowingly mentally translated into blind acceptance and apathy.

I am probably going to seem very scattered for the next paragraph or so (if I don't already). I think the solution to our problem lies in the way we do evangelism. Recent years have led us to start from the point of our fallen nature. That's why nonbelievers are sinners who have fallen short of God's perfect standard and need to repent and accept Jesus in order to avoid the eternal torment of Hell. The problem with this approach is that we've forgotten a part of our story... our Creation. When we start from our fallenness, we forget that each and every person bears the Image of God, and God originally called us "very good". If we start from the point of Creation, the way we do evangelism looks radically different. There are then no inherently "bad people", and we begin to dine with prostitutes and tax collectors.

If we start from the point of Creation rather than the point of Fallenness, then the way we address issues such as homosexuality also looks radically different. We've been known up until this point for what we're against rather than what we're for. I'm for authentic, affirming, and holy sexuality. (By "holy", I mean "set apart"). I believe God designed this sexuality to take the form of heterosexual, monogamous, committed relationships within the context of a publicly acknowledged marriage. I'm not for anything that falls short of this God-designed form of sexuality, whether it be heterosexual or homosexual. I sympathize with those who struggle with same-sex attraction. I believe homosexuality is a distortion of the gift of sexuality that God has given us, and is reflective of our fallen nature. All sexual sin is especially destructive and cuts to the core of who we are.

That being said, I think we need to approach homosexuality and those who struggle with same-sex attraction with extreme compassion. I can think of nothing more difficult than finding out that my sexuality and affections are a distortion of God's design and that I need to change it. Let's not forget that people who struggle with same-sex attraction are still made in the Image of God and should be treated as such. The church needs to be a refuge for the world, not from the world, and I want people from all walks of life to feel like they're where they belong when they're within the walls of a church, no matter what they've done or struggle with. Something is wrong when the people who need Jesus most feel unwelcome by those claiming to represent Him.

Holy Moment

Yeah, I'm posting at 1:15 in the morning. I just got back from the night of prayer and worship that Josh and Ryan hosted. I'm sitting here trying to find the words to describe it, but how do you describe the experience of encountering the Living God? The music itself was beautifully simple, acoustic, and seemingly unstructured.

It's times like these that I wish my entire body could consist of only one part. I know that sounds weird, but when I hear beautiful music, I wish I was nothing more than an ear so I can experience the music with my entirety... when I'm looking at a sunset or a city scape or a small child playing, I wish I was my entire being was an eye so I could devote my entire self to the beautiful experience. I found myself wanting that tonight.

About half an hour into the music, I was watching this guy named Owen worship. I love Owen, Owen's a weird guy. I mean weird in the sense that I've never known anyone quite like Owen, and I'm sure I never will. He's genuinely caring, always smiling, and has a pure giggle that will escape every now and then during prayer and worship because he's overwhelmed by the goodness of the God he's addressing. Anyways, I was watching Owen lay on the floor worshiping with his eyes closed, just thinking of how much I see Jesus in him. No more than 10 seconds after I just start watching him, he sits straight up, and heads straight over to me. He says "Hey brother, the Spirit's telling me to pray for you."

That moment in time was the first time I truly understood, experienced, and believed in the activity of the Holy Spirit. Of course, I believe in the activity of the Spirit theologically... it's biblical. And I can point to countless times where the Spirit worked and I recognized it in hindsight, but this was the first time I genuinely understood the Holy Spirit and how He works.

I don't know what more to say. Tonight's worship experience was the holiest moment I've experienced at APU hands down, and I look forward to similar events in the future.

Encouraging Notes For A Downer Like Me

I don't know anyone who isn't mildly critical of the institutional church... I'm probably more so than most, admittedly. (Unfortunately, it's been at times to the point that it's entirely distracted me from the purpose of going to/being the church). There's a new book out from the Barna Group (a marketing research firm that actively studies the state of the church and church-goers) called Pagan Christianity.

The book outlines how the majority of practices and traditions of the institutional church are actually pagan traditions and not biblically based. The authors eventually went on to argue that because of these, the institutional church does not, historically or biblically, have the right to exist. I don't know that I would go so far (one probable explanation is that the president of the Barna Group is a Biola graduate. ;-) ). In reading a brief review of the book, I came across a very encouraging quote from Eugene Peterson (again, not sure I entirely agree with it, but it's an interesting analogy).

What other church is there besides institutional? There's nobody who doesn't have problems with the church, because there's sin in the church. But there's no other place to be a Christian except the church. There's sin in the local bank. There's sin in the grocery stores. I really don't understand this naïve criticism of the institution. I really don't get it. Frederick von Hugel said the institution of the church is like the bark on the tree. There's no life in the bark. It's dead wood. But it protects the life of the tree within. And the tree grows and grows. If you take the bark off, it's prone to disease, dehydration, death. So, yes, the church is dead but it protects something alive. And when you try to have a church without bark, it doesn't last long. It disappears, gets sick, and it's prone to all kinds of disease, heresy, and narcissism. (Eugene Peterson)

It's refreshing to hear that people are remembering that the church is protecting and ensuring the well-being of something larger than herself, and that we're not allowing the church to be a strictly self-serving entity.

I love the church for it's potential, and for what it points people toward... not for what it is today.