everyone matters

Yesterday I came across "An Open Letter to Young Christians on Their Way to College" written by Stanley Hauerwas. (You can find the full letter here.) While I have my agreements and disagreements with parts of his letter, one line really jumped out at me. 


"Don’t underestimate how much the Church needs your mind."


While it is obvious he was speaking to college students, I think these words need to be heard and remembered by all of us who are part of the Church, adults and youth. This is not just some flippant homage to the body of Christ. So often we forget how valuable each person is. We are all different. We have different experiences, thoughts, and habits. It is those differences which foster creativity and growth within our worshipping communities. The Christian faith is communal by nature. We cannot exist apart from one another nor should that be our aim. 


Another thing that we must remember is that no one person is more important than the other. Today being "Reformation Day" it is so easy to get caught up in the overly-romanticized version of events from 1517.  Martin Luther may have played a major role in the historical events surrounding the reformation era but he is no more important than those of us who inhabit worshipping communities today. Furthermore, we should not pretend that Luther, or anyone else, reformed the church independently from others. 


I really struggle with celebrating "Reformation Day" for several reasons, not the least of which is the overly-romaticized version of events. But I think in celebrating that day we are setting up other people to believe they will never matter as much as Luther did. That could not be more false. The world is constantly changing and although Luther was great for his time, he cannot address all things throughout all time. In the end it is up to us to, as a community, change our interactions with both our worshipping communities and the world. We cannot do that by ourselves. We all need to be part of the conversation. We need to remember that everyone has different thoughts and experiences and those things are important for us and our interactions with the world in which we live. Everyone matters.

money

As per usual, money seems to be playing a big issue in some decisions my wife and I have to make regarding our future. While this is true in our lives as individuals who live in a society where money matters, should this also be the case for worshipping communities? I understand that those communities are also under the same constraints as us as individuals when it comes to living in the world but are the methodologies employed by worshipping communities good for them? It seems that everyone these days is speaking up and asking why we need buildings and paid church workers and my voice is among them. My favorite blogger Dave Fitch posted regarding this topic and I think he gets it right. 


Here is his blog reposted from www.reclaimingthemission.com

When it Comes to the Ministry – Money changes everything

Money change things. And so when we pastors accept money from our churches to do ministry it changes everything. This is to say the obvious. Right? More specifically, when we pastors accept money from the church:

1.) We as pastors(s) now have to worry about the income flowing into the bank account every Sunday. We have to have a responsible eye for the budget.  Which means you have to worry about people with big pockets being “happy” with your church. There is a dynamic set in place that changes what we say, how we interpret ministry, how we challenge our selves and community towards mission. Often, this dynamic stalls mission in the local church.

2.) We as pastors now come under performance review. Money changes the relationship between the pastor(s) and the rest of the congregation. There is now the inescapable reality that the pastor is being paid to provide something, some basic goods and services for Christians or maybe some growth in the bottom line for the church. The relationship between the congregation and pastors takes on the character of performance reviews. As a result, pushing the church outward where time and effort does not produce such measurables  gets thwarted. As a result, mission is stalled, even thwarted in this mindset.

3.)We as pastors begin to look at people differently – as viable “giving units.” A business mindset starts to take over the church. This dynamic undercuts and stalls mission  for obvious reasons and must be fought at all costs.

I contend however that all of the above does not mean pastors should never be paid. I even suggest there are many times when it is appropriate for pastors to be paid full time. I also contend that there must be ministry accountability within the leadership of the church. I contend however than in all this, the dynamics outlined above should be fought with all our might if we would shape communities of Christ’s people into mission.

What do you think? What is the role of money? I know its an inescapable fact of reality but are there better ways of using our resources in a worshipping community so that others might benefit and we might not be constrained? Lets talk.

think different

Many of you will recognize what follows as being from Apple, Inc's marketing in the 1990's. It may have been used for marketing but I think these words could have great impact on the church's mindset. What if we thought about people this way?


Here's to the crazy ones. 
The misfits. The rebels. 
The troublemakers. 
The round pegs in the square holes. 
The ones who see things differently.

They're not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,
disbelieve them, gorify them or vilify them.
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.

Because they change things.
They invent. They imagine. They heal.
They explore. They create. They inspire.

They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that's never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think they
can change the world, are the ones who do.

Think Different

What would the church look like? How would it affect our theology? What if we encouraged one another to think different?

image problem?

It may come as no shock to most of you that Christians have an image problem. I saw this video from CNN the other day about what one church is doing to change that.





To add some more fuel to the fire, I want to repost this quote from Moltmann:


"The church cannot understand itself simply from itself alone. It can only comprehend its mission and its meaning, its roles and its functions in relation to others."


So, what do you think? Does the church have an image problem? What can we do to fix it? Lets talk about it.

what do you think?

Over the last week I stumbled across a few different quotes. Two are from Jurgen Moltmann and the other is from Tony Campolo. I had hoped to be able to put them all into a post with some sort of golden thread to weave them together but I have had trouble verbalizing the thoughts in my head. I think what I need to process these is some outside help. Here you go...



"My fundamentalist friends have no trouble allowing women to be missionaries. It’s alright for you to preach to black men, you just can’t preach to white men. If that doesn’t have racist overtones, I don’t know what does." -Tony Campolo


"Hierarchy is a church for looking after people; it is not a self-confident church *of* God's people." -Moltmann


"The church cannot understand itself simply from itself alone. It can only comprehend its mission and its meaning, its roles and its functions in relation to others." -Moltmann


Suffice it to say I agree with them, but what do you think? 


More to come...

an open letter

This letter was written about a year ago by Shane Claiborne. I want to sign my name but I feel like there is more to living this out than just signing my name. I believe what he says is true, living it out is another matter. What do you think?


To all my nonbelieving, sort-of-believing, and used-to-be-believing friends: I feel like I should begin with a confession. I am sorry that so often the biggest obstacle to God has been Christians. Christians who have had so much to say with our mouths and so little to show with our lives. I am sorry that so often we have forgotten the Christ of our Christianity.


Forgive us. Forgive us for the embarrassing things we have done in the name of God.
The other night I headed into downtown Philly for a stroll with some friends from out of town. We walked down to Penn's Landing along the river, where there are street performers, artists, musicians. We passed a great magician who did some pretty sweet tricks like pour change out of his iPhone, and then there was a preacher. He wasn't quite as captivating as the magician. He stood on a box, yelling into a microphone, and beside him was a coffin with a fake dead body inside. He talked about how we are all going to die and go to hell if we don't know Jesus.
Some folks snickered. Some told him to shut the hell up. A couple of teenagers tried to steal the dead body in the coffin. All I could do was think to myself, I want to jump up on a box beside him and yell at the top of my lungs, "God is not a monster." Maybe next time I will.


The more I have read the Bible and studied the life of Jesus, the more I have become convinced that Christianity spreads best not through force but through fascination. But over the past few decades our Christianity, at least here in the United States, has become less and less fascinating. We have given the atheists less and less to disbelieve. And the sort of Christianity many of us have seen on TV and heard on the radio looks less and less like Jesus.


At one point Gandhi was asked if he was a Christian, and he said, essentially, "I sure love Jesus, but the Christians seem so unlike their Christ." A recent study showed that the top three perceptions of Christians in the U. S. among young non-Christians are that Christians are 1) antigay, 2) judgmental, and 3) hypocritical. So what we have here is a bit of an image crisis, and much of that reputation is well deserved. That's the ugly stuff. And that's why I begin by saying that I'm sorry.


Now for the good news.


I want to invite you to consider that maybe the televangelists and street preachers are wrong — and that God really is love. Maybe the fruits of the Spirit really are beautiful things like peace, patience, kindness, joy, love, goodness, and not the ugly things that have come to characterize religion, or politics, for that matter. (If there is anything I have learned from liberals and conservatives, it's that you can have great answers and still be mean... and that just as important as being right is being nice.)


The Bible that I read says that God did not send Jesus to condemn the world but to save it... it was because "God so loved the world." That is the God I know, and I long for others to know. I did not choose to devote my life to Jesus because I was scared to death of hell or because I wanted crowns in heaven... but because he is good. For those of you who are on a sincere spiritual journey, I hope that you do not reject Christ because of Christians. We have always been a messed-up bunch, and somehow God has survived the embarrassing things we do in His name. At the core of our "Gospel" is the message that Jesus came "not [for] the healthy... but the sick." And if you choose Jesus, may it not be simply because of a fear of hell or hope for mansions in heaven.
Don't get me wrong, I still believe in the afterlife, but too often all the church has done is promise the world that there is life after death and use it as a ticket to ignore the hells around us. I am convinced that the Christian Gospel has as much to do with this life as the next, and that the message of that Gospel is not just about going up when we die but about bringing God's Kingdom down. It was Jesus who taught us to pray that God's will be done "on earth as it is in heaven." On earth.


One of Jesus' most scandalous stories is the story of the Good Samaritan. As sentimental as we may have made it, the original story was about a man who gets beat up and left on the side of the road. A priest passes by. A Levite, the quintessential religious guy, also passes by on the other side (perhaps late for a meeting at church). And then comes the Samaritan... you can almost imagine a snicker in the Jewish crowd. Jews did not talk to Samaritans, or even walk through Samaria. But the Samaritan stops and takes care of the guy in the ditch and is lifted up as the hero of the story. I'm sure some of the listeners were ticked. According to the religious elite, Samaritans did not keep the right rules, and they did not have sound doctrine... but Jesus shows that true faith has to work itself out in a way that is Good News to the most bruised and broken person lying in the ditch.


It is so simple, but the pious forget this lesson constantly. God may indeed be evident in a priest, but God is just as likely to be at work through a Samaritan or a prostitute. In fact the Scripture is brimful of God using folks like a lying prostitute named Rahab, an adulterous king named David... at one point God even speaks to a guy named Balaam through his donkey. Some say God spoke to Balaam through his ass and has been speaking through asses ever since. So if God should choose to use us, then we should be grateful but not think too highly of ourselves. And if upon meeting someone we think God could never use, we should think again.


After all, Jesus says to the religious elite who looked down on everybody else: "The tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom ahead of you." And we wonder what got him killed?


I have a friend in the UK who talks about "dirty theology" — that we have a God who is always using dirt to bring life and healing and redemption, a God who shows up in the most unlikely and scandalous ways. After all, the whole story begins with God reaching down from heaven, picking up some dirt, and breathing life into it. At one point, Jesus takes some mud, spits in it, and wipes it on a blind man's eyes to heal him. (The priests and producers of anointing oil were not happy that day.)


In fact, the entire story of Jesus is about a God who did not just want to stay "out there" but who moves into the neighborhood, a neighborhood where folks said, "Nothing good could come." It is this Jesus who was accused of being a glutton and drunkard and rabble-rouser for hanging out with all of society's rejects, and who died on the imperial cross of Rome reserved for bandits and failed messiahs. This is why the triumph over the cross was a triumph over everything ugly we do to ourselves and to others. It is the final promise that love wins.
It is this Jesus who was born in a stank manger in the middle of a genocide. That is the God that we are just as likely to find in the streets as in the sanctuary, who can redeem revolutionaries and tax collectors, the oppressed and the oppressors... a God who is saving some of us from the ghettos of poverty, and some of us from the ghettos of wealth.


In closing, to those who have closed the door on religion — I was recently asked by a non-Christian friend if I thought he was going to hell. I said, "I hope not. It will be hard to enjoy heaven without you." If those of us who believe in God do not believe God's grace is big enough to save the whole world... well, we should at least pray that it is.



Your brother,
Shane

Read more: http://www.esquire.com/features/best-and-brightest-2009/shane-claiborne-1209#ixzz12B2HgV2K

food for thought

I know the last couple of posts have been focused on this but I cannot stop the thoughts from swirling around in my head. It is hard to dispute the fact that our thoughts or theological stance on homosexuality affect how we choose to interact with the LGBTQ community. Perhaps before we are able to spread the hope that it gets better we have to rethink our position. Maybe if we stop and think if we really believe that we have a God that can and does change reality and our perceptions of it that we can begin to change the way we interact with our reality. The following videos are some food for thought.








So... What do you think?

it most certainly does get better

I know I recently put up a post concerning this but it has yet to fall from the spotlight. Yesterday, Yahoo.com released an article concerning the ever growing ‘It Gets Better” movement. (You can find this article here). Although this article helped spread the hope to those who need to know it gets better, it brought with it another message, get involved. I will concede that this article does not come out and say it overtly, but it is filled with examples of people getting involved which begs the question; what are you doing to spread the hope?

As the church we should be familiar with this question. Why is it then that we are so often the ones proclaiming the message that there is no hope to the LGBTQ community? The airwaves are full of messages from worshipping communities and individual Christians condemning homosexuality even though the recent suicides have brought to light the reality of the power of words and actions. In many ways the church is directly responsible for the suicides of so many in the LGBTQ community. In many ways the church has been the biggest bully of them all by dispersing hope not in the temporal but in the eternal. 

Now, I know that the entire church has not been responsible for the propagation of such a message. There are many Christians, Christian organizations, and worshipping communities who openly affirm and support the LGBTQ community and to them I personally want to say thank you. Your voice is needed in the church. Your actions are needed in the world. 

The extremes of the spectrum regarding homosexuality will always exist. People will always condemn and harass the LGBTQ community and people will always affirm and support them. But what this spectrum has forgotten is the realization that what we say and do actually affects people. The LGBTQ community are not second class citizens, they are not worthless, they are not inferior, they are God’s children and they need to be loved. I seem to remember Jesus Christ coming for all because all are sinners, gay and straight. No expression of human love is completely devoid of sin and we in the straight community need to realize that. What was at stake for Christ was not that we all sin. What I mean is, our sins weren’t what we do that caused Him to come down, it was who we are, all of us, the fact that we are sinners. It was the fact that we were and are broken. All of us. 

The question cannot be will you spread hope or take it way. The question needs to be exactly what that Yahoo.com article asked, what will you do to get involved. The world is broken and so are we. But we need to remember that we live in the reality of the resurrection. That Christ’s death and resurrection did more than punch our ticket for eternity. It is a reality that says we can be “all things to all people.” A reality that beckons us to be “wise as serpents and gentle as doves.” A reality that fills us with the love that brought us back to life. A reality that urges us to “always have an answer for the hope that is within us.” A reality that changes the way we think and interact with all people. A reality that reminds the world of the truth that it most certainly does get better. 

it gets better

It seems that recently a lot of stories have been surfacing regarding gay teens committing suicide. The video below is part of a project to spread the word to those hurting that, "it gets better." 





Recently, Ellen Degeneres also offered a plea for people to get involved and help stop the bullying which leads to these tragic events. (You can watch her video here.) I don't think this is the time for the church to stand up and start  talking about whatever the narrative may or may not say concerning homosexuality. Right now, people dont need to hear another voice, they need to be listened to, they need to be loved, they need to feel hope again and know that it gets better. 


"We often ask God to show up. We pray prayers of rescue. Perhaps God would ask us to be that rescue, to be His body, to move for things that matter. He is not invisible when we come alive. I might be simple but more and more, I believe God works in love, speaks in love, is revealed in our love. I have seen that this week and honestly, it has been simple: Take a broken girl, treat her like a famous princess, give her the best seats in the house. Buy her coffee and cigarettes for the coming down, books and bathroom things for the days ahead. Tell her something true when all she’s known are lies. Tell her God loves her. Tell her about forgiveness, the possibility of freedom, tell her she was made to dance in white dresses. All these things are true.

We are only asked to love, to offer hope to the many hopeless. We don’t get to choose all the endings, but we are asked to play the rescuers. We won’t solve all mysteries and our hearts will certainly break in such a vulnerable life, but it is the best way. We were made to be lovers bold in broken places, pouring ourselves out again and again until we’re called home.“  - Jamie Tworkowski