y el fin, o parte tres

I should not pretend to know Spanish. It's insulting to everyone who does. In any case, I hope y'all are ready for round 3, the end, which is much, much shorter, and ultimately the point of all of this. Thanks for bearing with me. And, just to reiterate, I don't consider this definitive, or an either/or kind of deal. I'm just making observations. Feel free to be critical of specific points, or the whole deal. But, let's discuss those differences and figure out what's preference and what's biblical. Cool

Alternative model: Basically, read the New Testament. That’s what it would look like. To put it more practically, a group of followers of Christ spend time with each other, help each other, love each other (so that the world knows they’re His disciples – John 13:35) all week, and once a week, come together and celebrate that life and talk about what God’s doing and share their struggles and their successes. Someone teaches – teaches, which implies a lot less preparation, and a lot more interaction than preaching. They pray, and fellowship (which means an openness, an honesty, an encouragement and a sharing of burdens – not a ‘fun food and fellowship’ deal), and break bread. The pastor is respected and loved as a brother, and while he spends time dealing with the church, that time is spent equipping people, discipling people so that they can do the work, so that they can build effective relationships with those around them. The pastor is a member of the community, not some alien super-spiritual mystic, and probably has some sort of ‘normal’ job. The group meets in an area that’s visible to the community, maybe a home or an office of a community member, and it costs little, if anything to meet there, so the tithe can go to ministering to those in need. Each of the people views him/herself as vitally involved in the group, engaging in the work, and spends time building up the others’ and meeting their needs, discipling and being discipled, while also making special efforts to demonstrate love beyond what the world can explain to nonbelievers.

That’s the vision, in a nutshell. Again, I refer you to the New Testament, especially John 17, and Acts-Jude. I am so sorry that this was so long, but I don’t feel like I could have tackled this complex a subject in any shorter of a space.

READ 1st John Now.

Part Dos

My problems with the above (I guess they’re actually below). Not that any structure is perfect. Not that people who go to church are bad people. Not at all. Please accept these as observations on how the structural model falls short of what it could be. This is long; I will put these in bullet form for clearer organization, and attempt objectivity, not including personal experiences but rather general trends.

Pastors and the clergy:

· While church staff should be facilitating the involvement of the lay person, in effect, pastors are expected to do the work. Meaning the body becomes a body of paralysis, with only one limb moving. One limb can’t move without the rest of the body.

· The above pressure burns out pastors. Pastors, I firmly believe, have some of the most stressful careers and highest burnout rates.

· Furthermore, since people aren’t involved in the church, and their main point of contact with the church is the weekly service, people view the pastors’ job as producing an event each week. When the service isn’t entertaining enough, trouble brews, and the pastor may be thrown out.

· Since pastors are professionals, leaving a church means moving, thereby uprooting your family, often with significant financial consequences.

Church building and services:

· Many of these problems arise from basic conceptualization of space. Whereas the early church met in public spaces where the world could see them, and in each other’s houses, today we meet in church buildings. Not only does this mean that a huge portion of tithes goes to building upkeep, but it generates the mentality of segmentation. We ‘do church’ in a specific place, and then we get back to our lives, whereas if meetings were, for instance in our homes, it would be an integrated, organic activity

· In auditoriums, we sit shoulder to shoulder, and look ahead and are entertained. We don’t have to interact with each other, we don’t learn from each other, we don’t share with each other, because meetings aren’t about interaction.

· I agree that music is a great way to worship, but in the Bible, there are soo many more ways to worship God. Dancing, silence, enjoying nature, etc. And yet we have “worship,” as if you can schedule it, which inevitably means three to five songs.

· These three to five songs are points of enormous contention. Rock’n’roll is from the devil, say the old folks. We’ll never reach the world with your ancient hymns, say the young ones. Neither of which are values statements, but preference statements. Repeat after me: church, meetings, life isn’t about preferences. It’s about how God can best be glorified, and I don’t think it’s by fighting over petty items like song style.

· The church “program” makes meetings/services a formula. There’s not even any room for God to move, or for people to discuss what’s going on in their lives.

· Sermons take hours and hours of preparation every week, drawing on the already-stretched time of pastors. And since they’re not interactive, and they’re so commonly perceived of as boring, they have little impact most of the time.

Use of church funds

· Dollars go to buildings and the newest technology to stay “relevant.” The only way to be relevant to people is to “Go, therefore, into all the world, baptizing and making disciples.” In other words, the only way to be relevant to today’s generation is to get into real relationships with them, thereby making Jesus real. It has very little to do with using a Powerpoint presentation.

· Tithes, rather than in Acts, going to feeding the hungry, go to... any number of other things.

Church programs

· At the heart of it, no program is inherently bad. But programs are self-perpetuating. People’s method of involvement isn’t building relationships, but fulfilling a time commitment. Then, manpower and time and funds are consumed with perpetuating an activity, often when it’s not even achieving a particular end.

· Because we have programs, we again segment our faith from the rest of our lives by ‘doing our time,’ thereby earning us the ‘right’ to do what we want with the rest of our time. Not the best attitude. Key example: outreach events inviting people in. Bringing people in isn’t bad, again, but our orders aren’t to cling together for everything we’re worth, forming a human chain to grab that next person so we can retreat back to home base. I like the football huddle model. We talk about what happened, what we’re going to do, and we support each other as we go out ‘on the field’ to accomplish our goals, then at regular intervals, we come back to build each other up again. Outreach is relational, not programmable. Yet programs somehow provide an excuse that we’re performing our duty.

· Rarely do these programs include anything with the poor, and if they do, they’re almost definitely providing material help, which is awesome, but again, I think we should look at Jesus’ methods, and he spent time with the poor, not on a schedule, but as a lifestyle.

General issues

· Since there are so many local congregations, everybody has multiple choices of where they will attend. Then, rather than working through issues, people just leave and take there problems elsewhere.

· I guess it would be efficient just to say it: the current model breeds drama. Drama, often outright conflict that is neither productive nor biblical. God condemns gossip and contention quite emphatically, yet we find ourselves in a system of preferences and power-brokering. And maybe that’s inherent to anything involving multiple humans, but maybe, since we’re not engaging each other, since we’re not being honest with each other, it’s easy to disrespect the needs of other people. Maybe if we were real like the Church in Acts, a body that relied on each other for survival, we would be a little less likely to stab each other in the back.

· Summary: the current church model discourages honesty and real relationships, replacing them with institutionally-mediated interactions that are segmented from the rest of life. We come, we smile, we sing, we listen, and we leave, and no one’s changed, and a lot of people have a lot of hurts that are left to fester.

Musings on Church, Pt 1

Rachel and I had a talk - mostly me ranting, about church. The church. What's good, what's bad, what it could be. I said I would post about it, but I started it in a word document, and it's 3 pgs long. So here's part 1. Please, please, read critically. Send comments, things you agree and disagree with.

I’ve been meaning to write this for a long time; it’s been on my mind a lot, I’ve had numerous, very lengthy discussions around it, and I’m very much personally interested in the subject: the church.

I could rant and rave all night about what’s wrong with churches and people today, but ultimately, I do believe in the church as the body, the means of action, for Jesus. I believe firmly in the potential and power of an international network of people following Jesus. The church, as the earthly remnant of Jesus’ ministry, has the potential to be an unbelievably beautiful expression of God's love for the world, or a reminder to the world why they don't follow Him..

In the interests of conciseness, let me define the church model of today, then outline the faults I see, and then briefly describe what I see as an alternative. None of these are original thoughts, or very few of them, but I think it’s very worth discussing.

Church today: church staff employed to do the work of the local church; pastors are employed at the will of the church members, and are considered ‘professional’ Christians; church business is carried out in the context of a church building; Christians, with many local church options in every community, have the option of leaving a church when they feel it’s no longer ‘a good fit.’ Church services are once a week, usually Sunday morning, consist of ‘announcements,’ augmented a bulletin with an announced program, music of one of several varieties (often a point of contention), the pastor preaches, mingling occurs, and the people disperse. Church ministries are carried out through programs like Sunday School, prayer chains, maybe an ‘outreach ministry,’ a missions group or funding program, kids program, youth group, maybe a food or clothing pantry, and church library. Outreach usually involves special events, inviting people to hear a speaker or band or go to a conference. Cool.

Pt 2 coming soon...

A Question

So I have no enlightening story or wise words. All I have is a question. What is Satan's main goal in this world? What is he after in our lives and how does he try to destroy what is beautiful every single day? Just something to think about and meditate on.

Jon is a wise man

So last week, Jon posted about how it's important to see every encounter with another person as a way to show love. And at the time, as I do with most things, I thought, wow that's great, and posted my comment, and went on with my life. Until it hit me, in an independent event, that I'm treating this whole deal like it can be managed through special events - time to show love, let's go to the nursing home!- kind of deal. But Jon is soooo right. Love is a state of being. For anyone who took Spanish, it's ser, not estar. I think. Maybe I shouldn't use Spanish analogies.
But the point is, Jon's totally right. This kind of hit home a couple of days ago when I was thinking about my life as compared to the writings of Mother Teresa (amazing), and then was strengthened by this conversation I had in Walmart with my cashier. Nothing deep at all, but I had a real, naturally-flowing conversation with her, just about who both of us are. I'll probably never see her again, but I could make a really busy, probably not-so-enjoyable shift just a little bit better because I saw her as a person. That's cool. Cost to me? No costs, just a satisfied feeling and a smile on my way out of the local branch of the Evil Empire.
It's the little things that count, yall.

contributor make-up

so yay! i know how to blog now! so yeah- in summary of all the comments previously made, i just want to say "right on". i love the ideas coming out and that you are sharing- they are all amazing and most of them i have thought about myself- and i am glad to know im not alone in thinking them.

so i guess this is something that has been at the forefront of my mind that i have shared with each of you individually, but here it is again, and i have rewritten it now about 5 times, but its still kinda hazy- so try to work with me.
i keep coming back in my mind to how i was a year ago, and i do this because i feel at that juncture, i was like how a lot of people are now, and yeah, thats a big generalization and judgement call that could be wrong, but from talking with people, thats what i have gathered. anyway, what that was was someone who was pretty hungry for a Christianity fellowship that was wasnt overwhelming, or that made me feel like i was the ultimate sinner going straight to hell. and shane talked about it in his book- its what the world really wants and needs. thats why denison has proven so amazing, because i could ease into christianity without gimicks and the "dumbing down" and watered down version of faith. i got something real instead, which i pray in thanks for everyday.
but i go back to my year ago self and wonder how many other people are just on the brink of finding something as neat as i found, but might just need a hand, or even a push. even more, i wonder about the things we assume in people, and in turn, the things we miss. within our day to day relationships, even those we consider "strong in faith", how many people are really feeling fullfilled and satisfied? being a person who is intimidated ( i know i say that word a lot, but i think its a big problem), its easy to go along with the motions and make it seem like everything is under control, even if it isnt. so yeah, i guess i have just been keeping that in mind that keeping up strong relations even with people you think have it "figured out" is sweet. just look at us and the different perspectives we have brought together. so yeah- random rant to start out the blogging career- and i will try to clarify a lil more in later blogs.
i know we all say this - but i love you both and i am so grateful everyday that God has put you guys in my life. keep on living that love that i love about you (sense?)

Sunday's Journal Entry

This is more or less exactly, word for word, what I was writing about on Sunday by myself. I don't have a scanner and my writing can be a little scary to read; thus, I type it out.

7/1/07
We all live in giant mansions. We don't realize that the very way we live is sin. We hide inside of TV shows, video games - the alternate worlds that these provide give us an escape from the good we could be doing in this world. They let us avoid getting out of our comfort zones and let us avoid those things people and situations that would make us feel guilty for how we live. Especially people though. We don't want to be around people whose very lives are proof that our decadence is sinful and wrong. My generation also hides inside of drunkeness and the stories that come from it. A whole culture has developed from parties and getting hammered. It's false, and creating a miniature fake world where adventure has become what crazy things we did while we were drunk. That's not adventure. Adventure is doing something crazy that God has asked us to do, and trusting Him the whole way through.
I am scared for the millions of people around the world who are trapped within that culture. Drama with friends or boyfriends and girlfriends makes this mini world seem more real, but it's not. There is no need to hook up and have sex to make you feel beautiful or more of a man. There is emptiness in this lifestyle that keeps getting temporarily filled by more sex, more beer, more vodka, more parties, getting high just one more time... it's all temporary bliss and requires a constant suppley to maintain a feeling of happiness that prevents guilt from seeping in.
Guilt is normally bad, but is sometimes the only way, or only signal that we need to change our ways. The culture today doesn't want to stop and think about who they are and who they're becoming. When they do think about it, bitterness and pessimism cloud their thoughts and make them lose all hope for the world, diving them into the culture I've been describing. It sucks.
Jesus provides us with a bridge into the real world, so that we can live a real life and make real lasting change in the world - Life and Life to the Full. When we allow the Holy Spirit to guide our lives, we have the power to do incredible things in this world. If we don't fear the unknown, the different, the awkward (and yes, so many of us fear the awkward), then Jesus will make our lives the most real and full that they can possibly be. Thanks be to God.

"Torches Together"

As you may know, mewithoutYou is one of my favorite bands, for a lot of reasons, not least of which is their innate weirdness. However, they also have some amazing things to say lyrically, as well. "Torches Together" describes, rather poetically, exactly what we're trying to do. I've added in some Bible references in italics so you can see how closely Aaron Weiss (songwriter, lead singer) has paraphrased Jesus' words:

Why burn poor and lonely?
Under a bowl, or under a lampshade,
aven.
or on the shelf beside the bed
Matthew 5:15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.
Instead they put it on its stand, and it
gives light to everyone in the house.
16In the same way, let your light shine before men,
that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven
where at night you lay turning like a door on its hinges
(first on your left side, then on your right side,
then your left side again).
Why burn poor and lonely?
Tell all the stones we're gonna make a building.
We'll be cut into shape, and set into place
I Peter 2:5you also, like living
stones, are being built into a
spiritual house to be a holy priesthood,
offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God through Jesus Christ.

or if you'd rather be a window,
I'll gladly be the frame.
Reflecting any kind words,
we'll let in all the blame
(and ruin our reputation all the same)
So never mind our plan making.
We'll start living!
Anyway, aren't you unbearably sad?
Then why burn so poor and lonely?

We'll be like torches!
We'll be like torches!
We'll be like torches!
Oh, we'll be torches together, torches together!
We'll be like torches!
We'll be like torches
with whatever respect our tattered dignity demands.
Torches together, hand in hand.

Why pluck one string?
What good is just one note?
Oh, one string sounds fine I guess, and we were once 'one notes'.
We were lonely wheat, quietly ground into grain
(What light and momentary pain!)
So why this safe distance, this curious look?
Why tear out single pages when you can throw away the book?
Why pluck one string when you can strum the guitar?
Strum the guitar!
With no beginning, with no end
Take down a guitar and strum the guitar!
Strum the guitar if you're afraid,
And I'm afraid and everyone's afraid
and everyone knows it, but we don't have to be afraid anymore.

You played the flute but no one was dancing,
You sang a sad song and none of us cried.
 Matthew 11:17" 'We played the flute for you, 
      and you did not dance; 
   we sang a dirge 
      and you did not mourn.'