Monthy Archive: July 2008
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July 02, 2008

Faith : The problem of ordination

No, I am not talking about the process of making someone a member of the clergy (although there may be applications to that as well). I am instead going back to the original meaning of the word – putting things in order. The word “ordination” comes from the same root as the mathematical term “ordinal”, meaning something’s place within a list, and it where we get words like “subordinate” (someone placed below someone else in a hierarchy).

A while back I read “The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History”, a secular-humanist book looking at why bad things happen around the world. It is essentially a non-religious study on the question of evil. It was a very interesting book and I made several attempts to write a full blog post on it; but it never quite came together. A key part of the author’s thesis was the concept of a “pecking order”.

The idea of a “pecking order” comes from studies done of chickens where it was noticed that every group of chickens ate in a very specific order – there was always one chicken who was the top chicken, then one below them, and so on until you got to the bottom chicken. If you introduced a new chicken into the group they would all fight with each other until it was determined where the new chicken fit into the sequence and then when everyone knew where they belonged things would calm down again until someone saw a new opportunity to change their position.

Speaking in secular terms, the idea of the pecking order can be seen as an accelerant to evolution – by giving reproductive advantage to those who rate higher based on some criteria, you more quickly select for that criterion in the subsequent generations. Faster evolution is itself an advantage, so social creatures would likely evolve such behaviors naturally.

Howard Bloom, who wrote “The Lucifer Principle”, pointed out that chickens are not the only creatures who exhibit this behavior, and that (he claimed) many of the evils of society and history can be blamed on humanity’s drive to put everyone in order and to move themselves as close to the top of the list as they could.

I return to this now because Donald Miller (whose Christian books I have praised recently) also used the analogy of the pecking order to describe the problems of the world, although he attributes it to a different source. In “Looking for God Knows What” he describes how God created humanity to be in relationship with God and to derive our validation from Him. When we became separated from God by Sin, we ended up having to look for our validation elsewhere – in each other; and by doing so we began to position ourselves with respect to each other.

We all needed to know we were valuable, and the only way to get that sense of personal worth was to know we were better than other people. So we began to put each other into an order with some people on top and some at the bottom, and we all began to strive to position ourselves as close to the top as we could get. This is essentially Miller’s picture of the fallen world after Sin – people climbing over each other to reach the top. We have become more civilized in how we do it; but the sense of the pecking order remains central to human interactions.

So two very different authors with different approaches, both came to the same conclusion as to the root of mankind’s problems.

Miller, however, takes it a step farther and provides a solution. Real Christianity (and there are many fakes) reestablishes our relationship with God and thus puts us back into a position where we can get our validation from God as it we were meant to get it. And having received that validation, we can abandon looking at ourselves and others in terms of who is higher and lower on “the list”.

Miller points out that many of Jesus’ actions can be explained by the fact that he did not participate in the pecking order. While most people hesitate associating with those who are lower on the list out of fear that people will lower their estimation of them; Jesus was content to associate with “prostitutes and sinners” because He did not look at the world through the lens of a pecking order. It was not (as some might suppose) that He knew, as God, he was at the top of the list; but that He did not care about the list to begin with.

The challenge then to us as Christians is to allow God to work in our lives to get rid of our pecking-order thinking. I have to admit that thinking about this for the last week I have realized how much I still look for validation from other people and how much I care about being viewed as higher in the social order. There’s still a lot of work God needs to do in me on this.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 04, 2008

Faith : How I Study the Bible, Part 3 - context

How I Study the Bible, Part 3 - Audience

I’m finally getting back to this series. In the first post, I explored the issues of translation. In the second, I explored the need to understand the culture in which the events of the Bible took place. There may be one more post after this; but I am having trouble writing it clearly.

So, if you understand what the words mean and the culture they were written in, can you then say you understand what the original readers of the text would have understood upon reading it? Close, but not quite. To fully understand what they would have heard you have to put yourself into their shoes (or sandals, as the case may be). Who was the author? What was the relationship between the author and the original readers? What were the circumstances under which it was written? I believe that God guided the writing and preservation of the Bible so it would provide value both to the original audience and to us; but the original meaning to the original audience should always guide our present interpretation.

As examples, in Matthew 21:2 Jesus said to his disciples on what would become known as Palm Sunday “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me.” Yet I have yet to attend a Palm Sunday service at which the congregation brought a donkey colt to the meeting. Why not? Obviously that passage is taken as specific instruction for a specific time, not a general commandment to everyone. On the other hand in Luke 22:19, talking about Jesus it says “And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." Almost all Christian traditions continue to practice the ritual breaking of break to remember Jesus’ sacrifice. So why do we believe one of these was a specific command and the other a general one? It is important to ask these kinds of questions as you study the Bible.

This kind of question gets even trickier when you look at Paul’s letters. With the two letters to the Corinthian church, how much of what Paul wrote was specific instructions to a troubled congregation that was having specific problems and how much is advice he would have given to otherwise healthy congregations? Or Paul’s letters to Timothy – what parts are specific instructions to Timothy in the context of his ministry in Ephesus, and how much can be taken as general instruction to all Christians at all times?

Note, I am not saying any parts of the Bible that involve specific instructions can or should be ignored; but they way you apply it to the present day may be different. All scripture is based on fundamental principles which are unchanging. It is important to understand and apply those principles to situations today and not blindly apply the specific advice that was given to someone else may have been in very different circumstances. So studying the Bible is often an exercise in understanding not only what someone said but why they said it, and then applying “the why” and not “the what” to our lives today.

As an example, in 1 Tim 5:23, Paul writes to Timothy: “Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.” So first, from a translation and cultural context point of view (my previous posts in this series), it is clear that they really are talking about fermented wine here and not “grape juice” as some Christians would like. However, Paul is specifically talking about drinking diluted wine – essentially suggesting that Timothy add some wine to the water he was drinking. Why? The practice of drinking diluted wine was fairly common as a means to purify the water - what we would understand now as using the alcohol to kill the germs and parasites. So the real story here is that Timothy was drinking too much of the local water straight and was having intestinal problems because of it, so Paul was suggesting he mix in some wine with it to stay healthy.

So how do we apply this today? Should we all be drinking wine for our health? Perhaps – some studies have found other beneficial effects of wine. However, I think the deeper understanding that can be gained here is that those who are in ministry need to watch their health. I have seen many pastors, missionaries, etc. who have been so focused on their service to God that they neglected taking care of their bodies as they should. Paul was telling Timothy to take the time and effort to eat and drink right so he would stay healthy, which is good advice for all Christians.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 06, 2008

Books : Books 2008/07/07

Current count of books pending to be read: 99
Read four, punted one, purchased none, borrowed one

Yipee! The count of books to be read is down to double digits!

Books finished this week:

Little Brother

by Cory Doctorow

A political statement in novel form. In addition to being a Science Fiction writer, Cory Doctorow is also a cyber-rights (and more generally human-rights) activist as can be seen in his contributions to the excellent blog Boing Boing. He has spoken often against the Patriot Act and how the free flow of information on the internet world-wide is a key guard against tyranny. This book is essentially a synthesis of his two occupations.

The story is about a high school computer hacker who gets picked (with 3 friends, one of which is injured) up in a Department of Homeland Security sweep after a terrorist attack on the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. After being “aggressively interrogated” he is released; but his injured friend has disappeared (the DHS do not acknowledge that they ever had him). So the main character decides to make war on the DHS – and in the process shows the futility of several real-world techniques to find terrorists. While Cory’s own opinion is obvious, he does take time to let his characters explain other points of view as well.

The book is a great read as just a novel. As a political tract, it succeed in both warning against the inevitable abuse of power that comes with many kinds of “security” legislation and showing how it is easy to waste the governments money on techniques that can be spoofed by real terrorists with minimal effort.

Great Giveaway, The: Reclaiming the Mission of the Church from Big Business, Parachurch Organizations, Psychotherapy, Consumer Capitalism, and Other Modern Maladies

by David E. Fitch

The book is about how the Modern Church has yielded much of its historical responsibilities to society at large. I liked his description of the problem very much, although I am less convinced by his solutions. As an example – I agree that much of what passes for “worship” in church is really secular entertainment with Christian words; but I do not agree (at the moment at least) that the solution is to return to liturgical forms of worship. Worth reading if for no other reason than to clarify where you stand on the issues the author raises.

The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations

by Brian Fagan

In the years 800-1200 (roughly) there was a well documented increase in global mean temperatures. This book is a survey of the consequences of those warm years on civilizations around the world – with implications on what kinds of things might happen is our current trend of increased temperatures continues. The book struck me as well researched and presented.

The English Languages

by Tom McArthur

A survey of all of the various forms of “English” spoken around the world and a discussion of where English as a language (or a family of languages) might be headed. Well written.

Physics as Metaphor

by Roger S. Jones

This book was strongly recommended by another book I read and liked, so I really wanted to give it a chance; but I got though about a third of it and skimmed the rest. It is essentially a Zen Buddhist view of Physics. If the world is a product of our minds, then the laws of physics are just metaphors scientists have created to explain ourselves. Yet another attempt to use the idea of an “observer” from the Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum Physics to justify metaphysics.

The one point in the book that I did appreciate is the author’s observation that Science does so well at explaining things because it chooses to describe those things that Science is good at describing. By selecting behaviors that are inherently measurable and ignoring those that are not, Science stacks the deck for its own success. But, the book argues, we should not then assume that Science is good at explaining everything.

Computer Games Played: LotRO
DVDs Watched: AtS S2 D1-3

Next Book: The Myth of a Christian Nation

Posted by Steven at 09:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 07, 2008

Life : A nice little vacation

Last Thursday and Friday were company holidays, so by using only three vacation days I could get nine straight days off – an obvious choice. What’s more, I seem to have made good decisions about how to spend that time.

On Monday and Tuesday, Anne and I took a little mini-vacation up in San Francisco (about 45 minutes North of where we live). We went to a nighttime Cubs/Giants baseball game at AT&T Park and had a great time. I previously had been to a RedSox/Athletics game over at Cisco Park in Oakland (my only other Major League game) and was nonplused; but this was a much more enjoyable experience - a nicer park with better announcing and tastier food. On the way to the game we did some photography, and after it we spent a night in a hotel near fisherman’s wharf. The next day we saw an exhibit of Chihuly glass at the de Young Museum. The whole experience was a wonderful break that felt like a much longer vacation.

Thursday I spent a fair chunk of the day starting to sort through all of the stuff in my storage locker. While Anne had managed to whittle down her stored stuff over the last couple of years, I haven’t spent much time on it until now. My main goal was to reduce the size of my board game collection – identifying a significant subset to sell off; but those boxes were in the back and I spent almost all of my time going through the boxes in front. Managed to empty five boxes into the trash, identified a half box of books to give to the library, and three boxes of games to sell; although I only just started to work on the games when my energy gave out (I own a LOT of games).

The rest of the week was spent doing your basic resting – reading, playing games, watching DVDs, etc. The net effect of it all was that I feel like I had a vacation, I’m rested, and I also got something useful done. A nice little vacation, all in all.

Now today we start the architecture phase of my next big project at work – it’s a good thing I am ready for this.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 09, 2008

Faith : Should church be easy?

The biggest trend in Christian churches in America over the last 20 years has been the desire to create “seeker friendly” church services to attract the “unchurched.” The idea is to create an environment that is comfortable and entertaining so that people who normally wouldn’t go to church would be willing to attend and thus be exposed to the gospel.

The technique has worked – to a point. There are churches in America that have over 20,000 people attending services every weekend. The question is: how many of those people ever move beyond showing up to be entertained? Studies have shown that very few of those people become anything other than passive member of the audience, and many simply stop coming if the church starts to expect more of them. It seems to me that these “seeker friendly” meetings tend to serve as inoculations against Christianity – giving people a small, weakened version of the faith; just enough to make them feel good about themselves and thus make them resistant to the “real thing”.

It doesn’t take being a “Seeker friendly” church to see the effect. I’ve been a part of churches that had Sunday morning services, Sunday evening praise service, Wednesday night prayer meeting, and home groups. We’d see the biggest crowd on Sunday Morning, about half that number on Sunday evening, half again on Wednesday, and perhaps 10% of the Sunday morning crowd going to a home group. This is considered normal, and I have even read books that advocate this as a good thing since it “supports people with a wide variety of commitment levels.”

I have however started to wonder recently if “supporting people with a wide variety of commitment levels” is really part of the mission statement for The Church. Becoming a Christian is a matter of making Jesus your Lord; and is there really a place for people who only want to make Jesus slightly their Lord?

To be clear, I am not talking about Christian maturity here. After nearly 40 years I am still learning new ways I need to submit myself to God – I am still learning what it means for Jesus to be my Lord. The question is a matter of commitment to do whatever God leads them to do at whatever stage of growth and transformation they are at. As an example, a Christian should be spending regular time in prayer and studying their Bible. A new Christian may not yet understand how to pray well or understand everything they read in the Bible, while a mature Christian may accomplish much more in their prayer and studies; but both should be equally committed to doing it. Yet most churches I have been a part of understand and accept that most of the people who show up at Sunday services never study their Bible outside of official church meetings and never pray unless someone in their family is in desperate need.

Nor am I saying that church should not be welcoming to people who are not (yet?) willing to make that kind of commitment. People should be allowed to come, watch, and participate if they want to without anything more being expected of them. My point is that what people should see when they come and watch and participate should make it clear that if they want to become a Christian that it is going to take a real commitment on their part – not to the church; but to Jesus. I think the church needs to do a better job of communicating that becoming a Christian is costly (with benefits that far outweigh those costs); while at the same time welcoming people in our midst who are not yet ready to pay that price. Yet too often we downplay the costs to keep people coming, hoping that eventually they will be willing to make a greater commitment. The problem is that in most churches the people who only show up on Sunday never see examples of what it means to be a committed Christian other than in the person of the "professionals" (pastors, staff, etc) that are paid for their "commitment".

I don’t know what the answer is. The solution for much of the first few centuries of church history was that people had to spend months if not years proving their commitment to Jesus before the church would baptize them and thus formally accept them as part of the church; and this started at a time when people could have their property taken away from them for being a Christian – talk about a costly faith! Yet despite those high barriers, the church grew exponentially though those times. I suspect there is some middle way on this, some way to show "seekers" all of what it means to be a Christian without them feeling they have to make that commitment to stay involved. Certainly promoting Christianity using the soft-sell had just given us a bunch of soft "Christians" with no sense of what it means to make Jesus their Lord.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 11, 2008

Faith : The Myth of a Christian Nation

The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church

by Gregory A. Boyd

I seem to have reached a rich strata in my to-be-read bookshelf. There have been an unusual number of books in the last couple of month that have been added to my "keeper" list (and in some cases prompted me to buy a second copy to lend out) – Books like: "Blue Like Jazz", "The Rest of the Gospel", "Looking for God Knows What", and now "The Myth of a Christian Nation"

I have long been a believer in the separation of church and politics. I have blogged before about my concern about how some segments of the church in America are trying to use the United States government as a means to achieve religious goals. I believe these attempts are at best a waste of resources and at worst harmful to The Church. Last August I saw a piece on CNN about a pastor (Gregory Boyd) who had a significant part of his congregation leave when he expressed the same views from the pulpit. Needless to say I was interested, and bought Boyd's book on the subject.

"The Myth of a Christian Nation" is a well written and argued presentation of the scriptural, theological, and historical reasons why The Church as an institution should stay completely separate from politics, whether "liberal" or "conservative". Boyd makes the case that "kingdoms of the world" and "the kingdom of God" are fundamentally different things and that trying to connect them will always and inevitably do harm to God's cause. He argues that while God supports the existence human governments to keep the peace, protect their citizens, and punish wrong-doers (and acknowledges that some human governments do that better than others), the means by which all human government do their job is by exercising "power over" people – using force or the threat of force (the metaphorical "sword") to compel submission.

Boyd then argues that the Kingdom of God which Christianity is meant to promote is based on a very different mechanism – the application of what he calls exercising "power under" people, expressed through sacrificial love as represented by the cross. It is therefore never possible to succeed in achieving success for God's Kingdom by using human governments because the means of "power over" via the sword can never accomplish that which can only be done by "power under" via the cross. Boyd further argues that whenever we attempt to so this we corrupt God's church, making it no longer a holy thing.

Fundamentally, God is not interested in seeing better governments; he is interested in seeing people be transformed by a relationship with Him regardless of what government exists. The best possible human government that we could create still does nothing to change the human heart. Given that, Boyd says that while Christians should certainly vote as individuals in whatever way they feel will yield a "better government", The Church as an institution should not invest any of it energies in trying to promote laws (conservative or liberal) that they feel are "Christian" since doing so represents a fundamental contradiction of The Church's charter. I agree completely with this stance.

What is more, putting aside the political issues discussed in the book, I like the vision of Christianity Boyd presents. The Church is meant to be the Body of Christ – Jesus' incarnation in the world today. Therefore as a group we are to act like Jesus did – helping those in need, caring for the unloved and outcasts, befriending people regardless of their sins, sacrificing ourselves to help others. He gives a few examples in the book of how real people have responded to issues like gay marriage, abortion, etc. in ways that reflect the Kingdom of God and not an attempt to use a Kingdom of Man to make a country more "godly". The book is well worth reading for its presentation of the faith even if you are uninterested in the church/state issues which are its focus.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 14, 2008

Books : Books 2008/07/14

Current count of books pending to be read: 99
Read one, purchased one

Yes, this is my Monday post – I am throttling back postings for reasons to be explained Wednesday.

Yes, I made no progress this week for many of the same reasons.

Books finished this week:

The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church

by Gregory A. Boyd

See previous review

Computer Games Played: None
DVDs Watched: AtS S2 D4-5

Next Book: Planet Simpsons

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 16, 2008

Life : Busy and Introspective

As of this week I’m switching back to making only three posts a week again – the book post on Monday and (I hope) new essays on Wednesday and Friday. The reason is twofold.

First, this past week I started leading the architecture development for the next phase of my project at work. This is consuming a great deal of my mindshare and what free time I will have is likely to be focused on getting mentally prepared for the next day. Not a great environment for thinking deep thoughts and writing them up for the blog.

Second, I sense a bout of introspection coming on. There are some things that God is challenging me on and I expect to be using yet more of my limited mindshare processing how God is leading me. In the long run, this may provide to be a subject for many blog posts; but in the short term I need to understand things better before I can articulate them. I will make a quick attempt in Friday's post; but what I say now may bear little resemblance to the understanding I have at the end of this process.

Between the two issues, blog posts may be a bit unreliable for the next couple of months. I will try to stick to my (reduces) schedule, but no guarantees.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 18, 2008

Faith : Under conviction

So God has been working to make me aware of what a poor Christian I have been. Yes, I am doctrinally orthodox; and yes, I haven’t committed what most folks would consider big sins. So from the point of view of most churches in America I have been a great Christian. Unfortunately they tend to grade on a curve.

What God has been talking to me about is how many people in the world are hurting, hurting badly – people who need to see in a tangible ways that God loves them and has not abandoned them. In that context God has been showing me how little I am doing to show God’s love to the world. Sure, I donate money to a lot of good causes (both Christian and secular); but money can’t communicate love – only people can, and only in person. Sure, I teach and encourage fellow Christians; but God’s way is always to teach by example, and I can’t honestly tell people they should model themselves on my life.

The buzzword for this in the church today is "being missional"; although there isn't a lot of clarity at to what that means (another blog I follow recently collected 50 very different definitions of what it means for The Church to be "missional"). The sense is that both individual Christians and the church as a whole and need to get more other-focused in how they operate – not in terms of preaching; but in terms of service and love. There are some clear examples of Christian communities that are doing this very successfully; but they are all doing it in very different ways, so defining the term has proven to be a challenge.

Of course my immediate focus is to understand what God wants of me personally. I suspect that around this bend in the road I will be spending more time working with people in need, although how, when, and with whom isn’t clear. I also suspect I will have a better understanding of what God expects from His church in this regard; and I will then be able to teach on this and honestly say “and this is how God led me to live this lesson out”.

As I come to understand things better I will blog on them; but from past experience, it may be a while before I have a clear picture on this.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

July 21, 2008

Books : Books 2008/07/21

Current count of books pending to be read: 98
Read one, purchased none

Books finished this week:

Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Defined a Generation

by Chris Turner

The premise of this book is to accept that the TV show “The Simpsons” is primarily a work of satire and to examine exactly what it is saying about America – what are the characteristics of our society that the show consistently satirizes? What is the image of America that is behind the funhouse mirror distortions of the show? For about 100 pages the book does an excellent job of doing just that. Unfortunately the book is nearly 450 pages long, and much of the remainder is a collection of minutia, trivia, and outright digressions (for instance, a multi-page sequence recounting the history of punk rock which could have been reduced to a single page and still made the same point). If it had started the way it ended, it would have been a punt; but given the good start I kept hoping it would return to the initial quality – which it did for about 10 of the final 30 pages. Sigh.

Computer Games Played: None
DVDs Watched: AtS S2 D6

Next Book: An Unstoppable Force

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 23, 2008

Faith : The Mission of the Church (Part 1)

The Mission of the Church (Part 1)

Before one can talk about what it means for an individual Christian to be “missional”, you need to be clear on what it means for the church as a whole to be missional, which means you need to be clear on exactly what the mission of the church is. Now for many Christians, this is obvious – they simply point at Mark 16:15:

And He (Jesus) said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”

This verse is what is known among church people as the “great commission” and based on it they believe the mission of the church is to travel around the world speaking to crowds about on how Jesus died for their sins (or at least enabling others to do so).

I don't think the meaning of that verse is as obvious as people think, nor am I sure it was meant to serve as a mission statement for The Church.

First, as can be seen in verse 14 just before this, Jesus is talking to the eleven remaining disciples (with Judas out of the picture after the betrayal). So is Jesus really giving this command to all Christians? To the church as a whole? Or is He just telling the eleven what He expects of them as individuals? Certainly even in the first century that the vast majority of Christians did not “go” anywhere – only a few were called to travel as part of their service to God. So is “going” central to the mission of the church? Or is it only certain individuals in the church that are called to “go”? And if we assuming the command to "go" in this verse is of more limited scope, then what about the rest of it?

Second, there is that word “preach.” Now ask most Christians what it means to “preach” and they are likely to describe someone standing in front of a group giving a speech of some kind. The problem is that the Greek language has a couple perfectly good words that describe that kind of oratory and those are not the words used here. The word used in this verse in the Greek is “kerruso” which means to serve as a herald. So what is a herald? Here are a few definitions I found:

-A person who carries or proclaims important news; a messenger
-One that gives a sign or indication of something to come; a harbinger
-(formerly) a royal or official messenger, esp. one representing a monarch in an ambassadorial capacity during wartime

While those definitions do not exclude the use of speeches, one can certainly serve as a herald without grand oratory. Furthermore, I can point to numerous other verses in the Bible that agree that all Christians are to act like God’s ambassadors in this world, delivering God’s message and giving notice that this present age is coming to an end, so those definitions of a herald do very much sound like what the church is supposed to be doing.

Finally, there is that word “gospel” (“good news” in the Greek). This has unfortunately become a very religious term whose definition has become culturally established; but we need to be asking ourselves if our cultural definition of “the gospel” is what Jesus meant by the word. Many Christians would say that the essence of the gospel is that Jesus died for our sins (which He certainly did); but is that the “good news” we are to herald? An interesting thing to note is that half the time that Jesus is recorded as using the term “gospel” he qualifies it as “the gospel of the kingdom” or “the gospel of the kingdom of God.” So where is the “kingdom” in the message that Jesus died for our sins? Or is the gospel something larger of which only a piece is what Jesus did on the cross?

Now I don’t actually have a problem with the great commission; but I do think we need to take a very close look at the verse before we take it as an “obvious” statement of what the mission of the church is supposed to be.

I’ll continue in my next post with my own working definition of the mission of The Church.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

July 25, 2008

Faith : The Mission of the Church (Part 2)

In my previous post I asked the question “what is the mission of The Church?” And I analyzed the most commonly given answer to that question – the “Great Commission” – to show that it is not as obvious of an answer as some might think.

So what do I think the mission of the church is? Here’s my definition, although I will say up front that this is a synthesis of my understanding of many scriptures, and so I can’t point to any specific verses that phrases it this way. With that disclaimer, I believe the mission of the church is:

“To enable everyone in the world to make an informed decision as to whether they want to be a part of The Kingdom of God, or The Kingdom of the World”

In order to do that, we need to make clear to people:
- That there are two kingdoms
- The nature of The Kingdom of The World (sin, bondage, etc.)
- The nature of The Kingdom of God (love, power, etc.)
- The good news that people have a choice as to which one they are citizens of
- That a time will come when it will be too late to switch citizenship

The "good news" (gospel) of the Kingdom of God is that because of what Jesus accomplished in his death and resurrection, people who are in The Kingdom of The World have the option to change their citizenship into The Kingdom of God. The Church then is the official embassy of The Kingdom of God operating within The Kingdom of The World with the mission to offer citizenship to everyone. We will not somehow transform the world into God's Kingdom, but we will translate as many people as want to into citizens of The Kingdom of God (adding them to our ambassadorial ranks in the process).

In my previous post I noted that if you go back to the original Greek, the "great commission" talks about people being "heralds" of this good news. Consider again the definitions of herald I provided:

-"A person who carries or proclaims important news; a messenger." All Christians carry an important news message from God that citizenship in His Kingdom is open to all who would apply, and we are all charged to share that message with anyone who will hear it.

-"One that gives a sign or indication of something to come; a harbinger." All Christians are harbingers of the end of this age; giving notice that God's offer of citizenship is open for a limited time (although we have no idea how long that time is, having already lasted nearly 2000 years).

-"(formerly) a royal or official messenger, esp. one representing a monarch in an ambassadorial capacity during wartime" God's Kingdom is in conflict with The Kingdom of The World and all Christians are official, royal, representatives of God Himself.

Unfortunately, (if I may borrow a phrasing from the movie The Matrix), no one can be told what The Kingdom of God is - they have to see it for themselves. People are so used to "how the world works" that they feed any description of God's Kingdom though that filter and end up with a distorted picture. The only way we Christians, as ambassadors of God, can successfully inform people as to what The Kingdom of God is like (and therefore why they might want to change citizenship) is by demonstrating it to them.

The church then, as part of its mission, is responsible for demonstrating what The Kingdom of God is like in how we operate and interact with others. We are to demonstrate what it means to really live in a culture based on love, equality, and the power of God. A culture where everyone cares for each other's needs. A culture where no one is above (or below) another. A culture where God intervenes to address specific needs that are beyond human resolution.

And here is where the church has failed Jesus horribly. In far too many cases we have allowed the World's Kingdom to infect the church – instead of demonstrating a difference, we demonstrate that we are no different from the world and that there is no reason to switch citizenship. In too many cases the church demonstrates hatred and bigotry, wagging out fingers when we should be showing compassion to those in bondage. In too many cases the church demonstrates some people are better, higher, or more important than others instead of valuing all people (including ourselves) equally. In too many cases the church demonstrates that the only solutions to problems are human ones (psychology, politics, etc.) rather than looking to God for action.

But none of that changes what our mission is – to serve as ambassadors of God, demonstrating the advantages of His Kingdom, and offering people the opportunity to become a part of it.

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July 28, 2008

Books : Books 2008/07/28

Current count of books pending to be read: 97
Read one, purchased none

Books finished this week:

An Unstoppable Force: Daring to Become the Church God Had in Mind

by Erwin Raphael McManus

Hmmm. Not sure what to say about this book. The book in an encouragement to Christian Leaders to start looking at the church in a new way. The problem is that I passed this point a few years back, so the book didn’t really say anything to me. The better question is if it might be a good book for someone else who is following the same path I am on; but even there I think “Organic Church” and “Shaping of Things to Come” might actually be better books that provide a more complete picture. Still, I agree with everything the author says, so I hate to give it a bad review; but for me it was more of an “I remember when I was just realizing that” experience.

Computer Games Played: None
DVDs Watched: BtVS S6D1

Next Book: Conspiracy of Kindness

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July 30, 2008

Faith : The Mission of the Church (Part 3)

In my previous post, I stated that my working definition of the mission to The Church was:

“To enable everyone to make an informed decision as to whether they want to be a part of The Kingdom of God, or The Kingdom of the World”

Now many people, including many Christians, would find the language of “Kingdom” and “Citizenship” quite odd and might even question my theology. While I am open to improving this definition over time, I am quite comfortable with those aspects of the statement. If you read what we have recorded of what Jesus actually said, He talked more about “The Kingdom of God” than any other topic. Many of his parables began with the phrase “The Kingdom of God is like. . .” Jesus was very concerned that people understood what the Kingdom of God was – it was central to His mission.

Likewise, Paul had a lot to say about the citizenship of Christians: “But our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20), “you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household” (Eph 2:19) “I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world” (1 Peter 2:11), “We are therefore Christ's ambassadors” (2 Cor 5:20)

This language particularly appeals to me for two reasons.

The first is that it is easier to describe the full truth of Christianity in this context. People generally understand that being a citizen of some nation involves both rights and responsibilities. As a citizen of the United State, I enjoy a large number of rights; but those rights come with certain responsibilities – to pay taxes, to serve jury duty, and at some points in our history to serve in the military. Likewise citizenship in God’s kingdom comes with many rights (including direct access to the creator of the universe Himself); but it also comes with responsibilities – to serve God while living in this foreign land. By rephrasing the mission of the church away from “getting people saved” to “making citizens of them”, we are less at risk to soft-sell the transaction.

The second reason I like this language is that it inherently gives Christians a correct perspective on our lives here on Earth. In one of my sermons I have used the analogy that we are Christians are on a business trip for God to this world. Now business trips are something I understand well, having done a fair about of travel for my employers over the years. I’ve been to London, Paris, Jerusalem, Sydney, and all across the United States on business. When I travel for my employer, my work comes first. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy myself – I can usually find some free time on each trip to see the sights, do some shopping, try out the local cuisine, etc. Yet I always do those things in the time I have available after I get my business done. There is also a limited degree to which I get settled in to the hotel room. I might unpack my suitcase, hanging up my clothes or putting them into the drawers; but I don’t buy new furniture or start to redecorate.

That’s the attitude Christians should have with respect to their lives in this world – it is only a business trip. It’s OK if you enjoy yourself, do some shopping, try out the local cuisine – as long as you tend to your mission here first. It’s also OK if you get settled in enough in your temporary housing here to be comfortable during your stay; but realize that you are going to have to leave it all behind at some point, so there’s a limit to how much you should invest in things here.

So that’s why I like talking about Christianity as a matter of what Kingdom do you want to be citizens of.

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