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  • Mark 8:57 am on March 30, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: christian science monitor, evangelicalism, michael spencer,   

    No One Dared to Join Them… 

    Just read an article on the coming Evangelical collapse in America.  I am both relieved and filled with anxiety as I read Michael Spencer’s words.  He depicts with such clarity the “costly” mistake of evangelicals identifying with social and political conservatism: in the next ten years, thousands of ministry and churches closing, a society-wide embrace of Post-Christian secularism, and a major tide in cultural antagonism toward evangelical Christianity as America begins to view conservative Christians as enemies to social progress.

    Will this happen?  Who knows for sure.  I do know that at some level, Evangelicals deserve it.  Though I don’t primarily identify myself as an Evangelical (especially in the popular sense of the word) there is a lot about the movement I agree with (the gospel is something to be shared, Bible is central to understanding our faith, etc).  And yet I can’t help but say this coming collapse is “deserved.”

    Evangelicals have squandered their massive influence on America, with refusing to creatively engage the culture and instead creating a Christian sub-culture (with radio stations, bookstores and the like) and when Christians DO engage their surrounding world, its sort of reminds me of little the little kid that would throw a snowball at a passing car, only to return to his little group of cronies to talk about brave he was.

    Pickets for “pro-life” and anti-gay marriage protests are not going to bring the Kingdom of God.  This sort of change in culture is not what Jesus wanted, or he would have been a politician.  Instead, he was a storyteller, an actor, a healer, a teacher, and a revolutionary.  I don’t think he’d join a cause, he WAS a cause, him and his followers.

    In Acts 5:13, Luke says, “But no one else dared to join them, even though all the people had high regard for them.” What’s up with that?  Almost like everyone appreciated the progress in society these early Christians were fighting/dying for, but few people had the guts to join ranks with them.  Isn’t this the opposite of today?

    For those reading this and are not Christians, I’m sorry for the way we as Christians have misrepresented Christ.  I’m sorry for how I’ve misrepresented him. For those who are followers, let’s really get out there and FOLLOW!  I want to move beyond argumentative Christianity, and then I want to move past cynicism and despair, and live in the adventure of the Christ-movement in North America!

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  • Mark 12:17 pm on March 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , metaphysics   

    No Room in the Inn, Plenty at the Coffee Shop 

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    Earlier this week, Katrina, Alan and I met up with a Metaphysics discussion group at the Mercury Cafe on Chicago Ave.  It’s an amazing cafe, but even more amazing was the discussion!  The evening’s topic was “What is God?”  About 12 people were present, and each of these strangers had met online to discuss metaphysics – and the sparks began to fly immediately!

    The conversation was wildly diverse, there were spiritualists, neo-pagans, Polish Catholics, agnostics, atheists, and more.  I was so moved by the lives of pain many of these people overtly expressed in their pursuit of God (or fleeing from God).  We questioned assumptions some brought (is God male, and singular?  Is he imaginary?  How does one experience God? Where did religion come from?)  Some became offended at the assumptions others made.  Still others were quiet and pensive.

    It was a strange sensation.  The discussion on God was not like most I have of him.  Most of my life God was never brought up outside of family discussion or Sunday School.  Now I was in the midst of the urban matrix and having to upend my framework and typical language for God in order to speak about who God is and how God pervasively impacts my life.

    Someone brought up the deist idea that God sees us as his ant farm, who is at least marginally interested in the creation as a whole, but otherwise does not care about you and me.  I found out later that her dad had kicked her out of the house and forced her to leave Canada.  I talked about an infinite being that could keep track of the infinite “ants” and know each spot on the back of each ant, know their dreams, their personalities…people couldn’t do this, but for God this is possible.  Many resonated with this idea.

    An atheist who had grown up Hindu was perplexed that we did not talk more in terms of science and instead we had focused on intuition and sociology.  Someone else concluded that God exists outside of space and time and therefore lives outside the language of science, yet he is also holistically integrated into our world and so completely related to science that we couldn’t not speak of God when contemplating science.  He is no where, he is now here.  (Is this why God nicknamed himself YHWH “I AM”?)

    —

    The conversation at the cafe got me thinking.  The vast majority of people in this city feel left out of the conversations about God.  They feel the church has rejected them.  Their tatoos or alternative lifestyles or responses to their pain have exiled them from the the forum of spirituality, and therefore many have resigned their lives to meaninglessness, or have left their search for God and placed it with a search for knowledge in science.

    They have been told by the church, “There is no room left in the inn.”  For my new friends at the Metaphysics discussion group, they might feel a bit like Mary and Joseph, left out in the cold and in crisis.

    Pregnant with God, but no where to go – that is the reality of millions in Chicago and all across this world.  But the stinking stable in the midst of such a crisis is where God finds you.  That is where God has been all along.  Waiting for them in the stable.  The nurses and doctors for Mary and Joseph should have been the best in the world fit for the King of the Universe, but instead they got donkeys.  Instead of a royal blessing, the young couple received from Herod an attempt on their baby’s life.

    The places of power hold for society the conversations of meaning – Main St Churches, City Halls, etc.  This is where God’s character is voted on, and dogma is standardized.  But God is outside the forum’s of man’s best theological guesses.  He is helping Mary and Joseph in the freezing cold.  God is patiently whispering into the ears of the millions who have been marginalized by the church, hoping to awaken them to who God is.

    Are followers of Christ willing to be the donkey, or the sheep, waiting next to a scared Mary as she lives completely shunned by an embarrassed family, and suspicious religion elite?  It begins by listening humbly to the hearts of those who do not have a place in the official forums, and honoring them for their “birth-pains” as God is birthed within them.

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    • Josh Frank 10:02 pm on March 21, 2009 Permalink

      Sounds like a really great night and an intense conversation. So glad to hear that it is happening!

    • John Bailey 4:34 pm on March 22, 2009 Permalink

      Great post!

    • Mark 8:59 pm on March 22, 2009 Permalink

      Thanks guys! John, what’s your scoop? NAMB north american missions board I presume? What are you up to there?

  • Mark 6:58 am on March 17, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    Planted Life – Death becomes us 

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    We have this crazy fear of death.  Okay, maybe from a certain perspective this is understandable.  But I think our culture has taken all the dignity out of death and put all our hopes on staying alive as long as possible.  Machines, tubes and drugs keep people awake and numb at the same time.  These medical marvels are great in one sense, but at the same time I believe they are killing us.

    Churches have this crazy fear of death.  Okay, maybe from a certain perspective this is understandable.  When a church believes that the work of God is limited to the existence of a church building in a certain space, they fight tooth and nail to keep the doors open for as long as possible.  This has left ten blue-haired ladies and a rector propping up their “service” in million-dollar sanctuaries in every city in America.

    This church and many like it have been dead for decades, but the outward signs of life are kept up in unnatural ways.  It is not only unnatural, it is unholy.  We have lost touch with a theology of death.

    The avoidance of death is not the same thing as truly living; its learning to live “SAFE.”  Neil Cole writes about this in his book Organic Leadership. His acronym for living SAFE is:

    Self-preservation = our mission

    Avoidance of the world and risk = wisdom

    Financial Security = responsible faith (stewardship)

    Education = maturity

    This can be considered the major values from which most elders and church leadership operate.  Essentially, this is a theology of “self-preservation” something I don’t think Jesus would look too kindly on.  Actually, its the one thing that Jesus says will kill you and separate you from God!  Self-preservation outside of God inevitably leads to self-destruction.  “If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.” (Mt 10:39).

    While this may apply to individuals, don’t forget that Jesus is talking to his disciples as a whole.  Meaning – your community must be ready to die at any moment if it is ever to truly see true life.

    Without death, you can’t have a resurrection.  Cole conveniently has a creative acronym for DEATH too…

    Dying daily to who we are

    Empowering others (not self) as our life

    Accepting risk as normative

    Theology as not just knowledge but practice

    Holding tight to Christ and having an open hand with all else that we “possess”

    I have been a part of two churches as they made plans to die.  It is a hard thing to admit to death, but most of the time we are only saying outloud what has been true for a very long time.  The more ready your community is ready to take on death for sake of God’s grander purposes, the more vibrant the community will be for as long as God has plans for it!

    I am reminded of our human bodies.  Even now as you read this, your body is hard at work, killing off old cells and multiplying new ones.  Both death and multiplication are necessary for your continued health.  Imagine for a minute that your body stopped multiplying new cells.  It would not take long for your body to begin to decay and your life would be over.

    “Multiplication stops when death occurs, and death occurs when multiplication stops.  Death and multiplication are intricately woven together in a symbiotic relationship.”

    Jesus talks about this in organic terms. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24)

    Is your church willing to give up its very life, today or tomorrow, to see God’s work accomplished?  What about your own life? That is the call of the gospel.

    So how to avoid the threat of the church-as-hollow-shell?  How about learning to expect death, and dealing with it well.  Find ways in your community to anticipate death and celebrate it as a source of fertilization for new life!

    Our church network in Chicago is planning a “Planted Life Event.”  Sometime near Easter, (a good symbol of death and new life), we’ll hold a worship event and a potluck meal where  we celebrate people in our network with a vision to start a new organic church.  We will also offer a dignified death to groups that are need to die, and cross pollinate to other churches.  Healthy groups can recommit for another year.  In all, we will honor God with our life and our death.

    Planted Life – churches are like the grain of wheat.  If we can open our grip and release our church to its death, we may see it bear much fruit.

    My friend Miller once said of organic church planting, “We’re breeding rabbits here, not elephants.”  Meaning, these groups will multiply like crazy, but they’ll also die much sooner than traditional churches.  This is okay.  I honestly hope I see the death of many churches in my lifetime, but I hope to see the birth of many more.

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    • Sean 10:39 pm on March 19, 2009 Permalink

      yeah man. I totally feel you hear. The church must except death and draw its roots from the old soil. We must continue to grow and change with time.
      Good stuff bro. This just gave me an idea with Shelbourne street. They are having some talk around the cross of Christ. This in tandome with my reading in Exiles has got me thinking about some interesting ideas for continued change.

    • Tim C 9:03 pm on April 6, 2009 Permalink

      Great idea with the Planted Life man. I am going to be thinking about his for a while. I hear you on the theology of death too. You know, I read a great book called Between Cross and Resurreection: A theology of Holy Saturday. also, John Douglas Hall has a lot of good writing on this. The Cross in Our Context is a short hand of his ideas.

      So encouraging to read these blogs man. Keep writing!

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