Magnets or Viruses?

DISCLAIMER: As you know, I've been wrestling with some parts of my faith lately. So if you get offended by something I write, at least I warned you....

What kind of Christianity infected the Roman world 2000 years ago? What kind of Christianity produced martyrs? What kind of Christianity was it that spread like wildfire?

I start with those questions because recently I've realized that the kind of Christianity I've been around for 25+ years hasn't changed a city, much less overtaken an empire. I'm not throwing stones, I'm just trying to figure out how I can be more like the Christians that were seen as radical in their faith and love.

I think I've found something that may point to a problem....As I observe today's church, we seem to think that we are called to be magnets, attracting sinners to us. I heard a pastor a week ago state that if we would just open the doors to the church, people will come to hear the "Word" preached. Another situation: A friend of mine's church isn't growing, but is spending millions on a bigger building-thinking that lots of people will start coming to their church to see a bigger building. Others believe if their music would change styles, or if their dress code were a bit different, then more people would come. The root problem isn't the gimmick or trick, it's the idea that if we do something different and wait, then we will magically attract more people who don't have God, but now are suddenly attracted to Him.

This is a mindset that has infected the western Church in a deadly way. Not with words, but through our actions we show that we believe the world should come to us. And we don't really think that we should be out in the world as salt and light (unless our jobs force us to interact with the unbelievers).

If you disagree with my previous statement, then I may offend you with the next one. We now have modern day Christians pulling their kids out of public schools and putting them in Christian schools. And then we pull Christian teachers out of the public schools to teach them. Why are we so shocked when the public school system goes downhill and is full of problems and violence? The ones who were called to be salt and light in the world have abandoned them to learn behind walls together with those who think just like them. Instead of 20-30 kids in a public school, learning to be salt and light, we take them all out and stick them in a room with other salty lights. Neither salt nor light does anything to preserve or reveal when it's around other salt and light. I'm not vilifying Christian education, I'm just using it as an example of us forgetting the commandment to be IN the world. Not away from the world with a bunch of others who are just like us, but IN it and not of it. INfecting it.

The reason I'm frustrated by some of these things is because I'm finding these things in me. I expect just to attend church weekly, read my bible, pray, and probably vote Republican…..and most of my church will think that I am a model Christian. But I'm discovering that this kind of Christianity isn't what Jesus preached or practiced….and this kind of faith certainly wouldn't change the world.

The faith I read about is dangerous and infecting. Jesus uses words like "go out" and "send forth". IT seems to be more like a virus than a magnet. The world isn't necessarily attracted to our version of Christianity in the west. We aren't really magnetizing very many….that's why many churches aren't growing, but shrinking. And why some of them are doing more sheep trading than anything else.

We have, like the movie "Gladiator", decided that the action and the battle is for the few, and the rest of us are bound to be observers in the faith, destined to come each week to the auditoriums of our churches, sitting and watching that one man in the front fight the good fight.. As long as we come faithfully and give some money, things seem to be fine. But deep down inside you and I both long for so much more than this. Jesus didn't die for this type of faith. This isn't anything radical, and doesn't seem to be the abundant life that He spoke of.

But the life Jesus often spoke of, we gloss over or ignore. Yes it is abundant. But it's also full of sacrifice and suffering. Bringing justice to those who have been wronged, and hope to the hopeless. But we don't have any true aspect of sacrifice or suffering in our faith, and instead of discovering what it means to pick up a cross or die daily, we make our faith as safe as possible. But the irony is that those we look up to, those who we see as icons, usually are the ones who didn't play it safe. The Hudson Taylors, Mother Teresas, Billy Grahams, etc.

What if Mother Teresa was a magnet instead of a virus-what would Calcutta, India look like today? Do you think you would have ever heard of a nun who stayed in her hometown and opened up another church? She was dangerous because she wasn't afraid to infect the world with her love, the love of Christ. She chose to be out in the world, as a virus infects other cells. Once people came in contact with her, they too were infected. And millions of lives were affected by her love for others.

It's time we as a body asked ourselves some difficult questions. Will we play it safe and become magnets? Will we hang out the rest of our life with others just like us, or will we go out and infect the world with the love of Jesus? Will we invade or will we wait?

What A Pastor Said About the New Style of Worship

Extract from an American Paper objecting to new trends in church music.

“There are several reasons for opposing it. One, it’s too new. Two, it’s often worldly, even blasphemous. The new Christian music is not as pleasant as the more established style. Because there are so many new songs, you can’t learn them all. It puts too much emphasis on instrumental music rather than godly lyrics. This new music creates disturbances making people act indecently and disorderly. The preceding generation got along without it. It’s a money making scam and some of these new music upstarts are lewd and loose.”

Who said this? A pastor attacking Isaac Watts, writer of ‘When I survey,’ in 1723!

Kudos to Tim Hughes' Blog for this quote......

Sacrifice

Disclaimer: I have been rocked to the core lately after reading "This Beautiful Mess" by Rick McKinley and "Irresistable Revolution" by Shane Claiborne. This has led to some pretty strong stuff coming to the surface. I'm still wrestling with it and working through it. So you'll find some of that "edge" in my next few blogs....don't worry. When I say "we" I really mean me. So here goes.....

I was talking with a good friend a while back about sacrifice. Mostly it was about how I lie to myself and think that by giving a couple bucks to a homeless guy is some sort of sacrifice on my part. But that's a whole different blog…..

His response was poignant-sacrifice only happens when the byproduct of you doing the action is that it prevents you from getting or accomplishing something you wanted to do yourself. For example, it doesn't really cost me anything to give a homeless guy a few dollars-when I go to a restaurant and spend $20 on myself without blinking. But I will rationalize and think more about the 5 I give him than I will about the 20 I spend on me. Why? Because true sacrifice only happens when we are required to be unselfish and set aside our own interests for the good of the many. Let me give you a few comparisons…..

Who sacrifices more: The person who supports the war in Iraq, or the mother whose son is a soldier fighting there right now?
Who sacrifices more: The person who claims global warming is an epidemic while flying private jets and driving SUV's and living in 10,000 square foot houses; or the person who believes that it's a problem, so they sell their truck to buy a smaller car?

It doesn't seem like a sacrifice unless something is on the line-unless something has to change. It costs the war supporter nothing-it could cost the mother her son. It costs the celebrity or savvy politician nothing to claim global warming is a problem; it costs the other person a "standard of living."

I guess one of the reasons I'm bothered is because we live in a society that thinks that we can solve problems by throwing money at them. And we don't ever think that we have to sacrifice to change the world around us. Which is easier? To drop 5 bucks in the salvation army bucket at Christmas time, or to get in our car and go to the Salvation Army downtown and build a relationship with someone in need? One takes sacrifice, the other doesn't.

For too long I have been a Christian that doesn't sacrifice, which to be honest with you, is quite hypocritical. Self-denial and loving others more than myself are the central elements of my faith, but you can't tell sometimes by my actions or by my checkbook. Even tithing isn't sacrificial. Sacrificial is selling my goods and giving it to the poor-the Acts type of sacrifice. Writing a check once a month to support a kid in Africa for most of us isn't a sacrifice. But not eating out for a month and sending that one hundred dollars (or more) to feed his whole family for a month? We might even call that a sacrifice, even though we still wouldn't miss a meal. But we know there are homeless going hungry in the streets, so do we pray for our brothers and sisters in the streets while fasting because of their plight? I think that's more along the lines of what Christ intended….for our hearts to be actively involved in the poor and the hurting.

At some point in our faith, we (read: I) as Christians need to step up and sacrifice. We need to put feet to our faith. I fear that the impotence of Western Christianity lies in the fact that we are practicing a form of godliness but denying the power. We say that we are Christ-followers without doing our part to fulfill that one part of the Lord's Prayer, remember? Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth (just as it's done in heaven). We are called to bring His kingdom and love to the earth-at least to the parts we touch each day.

We probably wouldn't need to ask Christians to hand out tracts on the street corners of our country if the millions of people who claim to follow Christ were constantly living examples of sacrifice. People don't see us living or loving like Christ, so our faith is no longer attractive to them. When the rest of the world sees a Christian nation living in houses that look like mansions and driving cars that cost more than they make in a decade, do you think they admire us? Do they want to follow Christ too? Or do they see a materialistic culture that is caught up in pleasing themselves?

Jesus said that the world would know that we are His disciples by our love for one another. Love demands a sacrifice. Love IS sacrifice. That's how we know Jesus loved us-because He laid down His life for our sins. How are we really doing at "loving one another?" And by one another, let's assume that we aren't talking about loving other Christians. Let's assume that it's "the least of these." Jesus' own words in Matthew 25. Do we love? Do we sacrifice?

I fear that I haven't loved or sacrificed like Christ, and now I need to change.