Month: December 2008

Second Sunday of Advent 2008 – Peace

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So the other day at MOPS we heard a talk about Christmas traditions and putting Jesus back into Christmas. One of the points made was to make sure that your holiday decorations convey to your neighbors that you are a Christian. I was pretty sure the speaker didn’t mean using LED lights so that your neighbors know that you care for God’s creation by not wasting energy. I just smiled at the idea with a “to each her own” response, but as I looked at my house while thinking about this week’s advent theme, I had to wonder if anyone would assume I was a Christian because of my decor.

The decor is simple – some golden stars, a baskets of poinsettias, and a sign that says “Peace on Earth” (and hopefully after Mike’s finals some of those LED lights…). But, I wondered, would the term “Peace on Earth” straight out of the biblical Christmas account be associated with Christianity these days? Are we known as peacemakers – doing whatever we can to bring about peace on earth? My gut reaction to that question is no. In fact many of the Christians I know mock those that stand for peace and instead say that war, judgment, and violence are the more biblical paths. Theirs is the voice that is often heard, so much that I can put a bible verse on my house and it not be seen as a Christian thing. That’s weird to me.

One of my favorite Christmas carols is “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” It contains the lines –

The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head:
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

But far from it being the belfries of Christendom spreading the biblical message of peace, they are often instead the ones mocking the song and promoting hate. How can their ever be peace when those that claim to worship the Prince of Peace shun his very message?

So as the candle of Peace is lit for Advent today, I find myself hoping it holds some meaning. That it is more than just a ritual or a warm-fuzzy moment, but an awakening to a message Christians have largely forgotten. I pray that we can reclaim “Peace on Earth” not just as a phrase, but as our calling. To have the world see that seeking peace on earth is part of what it means to be a Christian. For as the carol continues –

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

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Missional Effectiveness

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Foolishly entering the fray…

So the whole missional vs. attractional church debate has risen to the bloggy surface yet once again sparked by Dan Kimball’s recent post on the Out of Ur blog. In the piece he questions the fruit of so-called missional churches because a few that he knows of anecdotally haven’t grown while attractional churches are making converts in droves. Since they aren’t making converts, they therefore are ineffectual. Being missional means squat apparently unless you are growing in numbers and the sins of attractional models are incidentally absolved since they are making converts. Others have questioned the reality of such conversions, and I especially liked Dave Fitch’s response on that account. But to the specific accusation that missional churches are ineffectual, I have to ask – at what?

According to Dan, effective churches are those which make (and continue to make) a lot of converts. I’m all for conversions, but what exactly are they being converted to? Is a conversion that professes the name of Christ, but is consumeristic and “me-centered” really the sort of conversions we want? It may be easy to attract people to that sort of faith, but to pull out the old phrase – what you call people with is what you call them to. What’s the point of “converting” people to American consumer culture with a Jesus veneer? Even if you desire that they will eventually change, why the bait n’ switch? But to write off the people who are attempting to give up all that in favor of self-sacrificial living because not enough people want to jump on that bandwagon simply astounds me. When did Christianity become a popularity contest? I know I’m being extreme and harsh with those questions, and in many ways I am a both/and sort of person in regards to this issue, but I was just really shocked to hear the missional church dismissed in such a way.

And of course I’m saying all this as a “failed” missional church planter. Failed in terms of numbers and money. We couldn’t attract enough people willing to give enough money to pay our salary and so the church failed. Yes, that’s crass, but that’s what happened. And it also totally misses the entire point of what the church actually was. We were a bunch of messy people working our butts off serving each other. We had people attending who really weren’t welcome in other churches because they were “too much work” or because they “asked the wrong questions” or because they just weren’t cool enough for the attractional churches. Our church became family to each other – opening our homes (literally) and seriously caring for each other and for our community. Throwing parties for the “poor” and the mentally disabled, working to improve the local environment, helping the struggling get back on their feet. No – not one person I know of “converted” because of the church, but a lot of people made decisions to follow Christ because of it. Decisions to not walk away from the faith, decisions to return to the faith, decisions to not just go through the churchy motions any longer, decisions to devote their lives to service. That failed missional church made some serious impact for the Kingdom.

So Dan, I just want to throw my anecdotal evidence right back atcha. Missional churches are effective. It all just depends on how you define effective.

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Link Love

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First – I have a new post up at the God’s Politics blog. (see below)

And in honor of Blog Comment Day, here are a few blogs I’ve commented on today. Join in on the conversation.

Mike (my hubby) on the Relational nature of Sin.

Eugene Cho asks what movies have influenced you?

Alan Knox discusses friendships and what church structures hide

Jeromy asks about church and numbers at A Mending Shift.

Anhinga has a nice picture of the crescent moon, venus, and saturn proximity two nights ago, which was really stunning.

Dave Wainscott discusses the meaning and theology in the new U2 Christmas song.

Andrew writes on idolatry and Christmas.

more to come (hopefully…)

Questioning the ‘Survivor’ Mentality of Some Christians

First a confession –- I watch Survivor.  I know it’s the symbol of the downward spiral of television into endless reality programming, but there is something strangely fascinating about it.  So this past weekend when I was invited to attend a Women’s Holiday Tea with featured speaker “Leslie from Survivor: China,” I knew this was something I had to hear.

For the non-Survivor obsessed readers out there, Leslie was the contestant who walked out of the Buddhist welcoming ceremony during the first episode because she was a Christian.  She also broke down crying at one point because she didn’t have access to her Bible.  Her tribe voted her off on the third episode, but her short run on the show prompted media mocking of Christians around the country.  So needless to say, I was curious as to what she would say.

Her basic message of “good Christians stand up for their faith and go against the flow” wasn’t much of a surprise, but the whole time I just couldn’t get past how uncomfortable I was with her rationales.  She laughed at her critics and their fear of Christians because, in her opinion, what they fear (pushy, Bible-banging, judgmental Christians) doesn’t really exist.  Since she’s apparently never met a mean Christian, those that think they have must just be delusional.  To back that up she told the group that people will actually like you better if you act different and stand up for what you believe.  I’m not exactly sure who she was talking about though since, in good Survivor language, she had already told us that good Christians “vote their non-believing friends out of their lives,” but it seemed to resonate with the crowd in that room.

As I sat amongst that crowd of over a thousand women amen-ing and applauding her words, I couldn’t help but hope that there were no actual non-Christians in the room who had been hurt by Christians at one time or another.  To hear a woman say that she did the right thing by refusing the hospitality of the Buddhists and that God wanted her to remove the evil influences of unbelievers from her life is the epitome of the stereotyped mean Christian Leslie doesn’t think exists.  If there were any non-Christians in the room, I doubt that by the time she encouraged them to pray the prayer so that an angry God wouldn’t send them to hell they were even vaguely open to hearing what she had to say.

The average woman in the room though seemed pleased to be encouraged and affirmed in her religious walk.  Although this is Texas and, as conservative evangelicals in a megachurch, they are pretty much in power culturally, the standard churchy myth is that the world is out to get them and they must stand up for their faith by deriding and disassociating from that world.  They want to play the role of the oppressed minority, but are in reality surrounded by others exactly like them.  Gathering together for an expensive event and hearing how they are known as Christians by their disapproval of others simply shored up the patterns of thought they already had.  As much as they disparaged Christians who seek to simply love others, I’m not seeing churches who deliver that sort of message filling up hotel ballrooms to have it heard.

Most of the women there are wonderful women.  Some of them are good friends.  But I left the event wondering if this sort of message was really one the church needs to continue to hear.  At what point do we move past the description of all that we are against and actually take an active stand for something?  When do we stop just talking about religion and wishing others would be more like us and instead start doing the things Jesus asked us to do?  If over a thousand women could devote an afternoon to high tea and hearing about how we should resist the culture, how awesome would it be if that many women instead took an afternoon to be the hands and feet of Jesus to this hurting world?

But unfortunately it is a lot easier to condemn and disassociate from the world than it is to remain in relationship with and accept hospitality from those different from you.  To love our neighbor as ourself and to serve them wholeheartedly might require us to thoughtfully and respectfully engage who they are -– differences and all.  Unlike in the game of Survivor, our goal as Christians is not to be in power or end up on top, but to in humility place others first and to assume the position of their servant.  But honestly, how can we serve those we are attempting to “vote off”?

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As the Spirit Leads

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“But lead us not into temptation…” – Matthew 6:13

Alright, I’ll admit it – in my religious background the Holy Spirit always seemed like a third wheel. It had to be included for the Trinity to work, but God and Jesus were the stars, the Holy Spirit was more of a tag-a-long. When it was spoken of at all, it was referred as either a “fill-up-our-cups” happy pill or as being like a force shield from Star Trek protecting us from the photon torpedoes of sin and temptation. Wrap the Holy Spirit around us, and sin stays safely at a distance (as if sin is this external thing anyway). Repeatedly as a teenager I heard the line about “leave room for the Holy Spirit” in reference to dating – as in don’t get so physically close while making-out that there isn’t room between you for the HS (which kinda defeats the purpose of making-out, but I guess that was the point). In this truncated definition – the Spirit uplifts and protects when it does anything at all.

But then I read passages like Matthew 4:1 where Jesus is led into the desert by the Spirit. He spends 40 days, struggling, fasting, praying, and facing temptation because that is where the Spirit took him. It was where he was meant to be. Suddenly the line from the Lord’s Prayer about asking not to be led into temptation makes more sense. Far from being just a happy pill or a force shield, the Spirit is actually far more dangerous and subversive.

The desert is a hard place – barren, empty. A place not of joy and assurance, but of desolation and doubt. It is where one goes to wrestle with God – really struggle with the hard questions that honestly have no answers. It is where the temptation to settle for a simplistic faith devoid of the struggle constantly plagues us. Where putting God into a manageable box can seem a preferable choice to being ripped apart by spiritual anguish.

The Spirit can lead us into the desert. The Spirit can lead us into temptation.

And deliver us from evil. For that is the way of the Kingdom.

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Blog Comment Day

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Thanks to the awesome John Smulo tomorrow – December 3 – is Blog Comment Day. I know that I don’t often do a great job at commenting on blogs (or even responding here), but part of what I love about blogging are the conversations it creates. So I’m all for a push to get us all to comment more.

Here’s the official scoop from John –

People blog for all kinds of different reasons. Some blog to get their thoughts out in a public diary; others blog to share their expertise with others; many more blog for a dozen other reasons.I blog for the interaction, learning, and friendship that comes from putting my heart and mind out in public and the privilege of people responding through comments.

Though there may be 100 reasons why people blog, I’ve yet to meet a blogger who doesn’t appreciate comments. For this reason I’m starting Blog Comment Day on December 3, 2008. Here’s how it works:

  • On December 3, 2008 you will leave one comment on at least 5 different blogs.
  • Out of the 5 blogs you comment on, at least 2 of them will be blogs you haven’t commented on previously.

That’s it. Simple, right?

And he’d appreciate it if you’d let him know if you’re participating by leaving a comment in this post.

And while we are all sharing the love, it would be fun to post some of links to the blogs where we have commented to encourage further conversation. Anyway – happy commenting, I’m looking forward to the conversations!

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Movie Review – Fuel

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A few weeks ago at the Austin Farmer’s Market I saw a flier for the documentary Fuel – a film about (you guessed it) alternative fuel sources. It seemed like the sort of film I would like so I decided to catch it during its limited engagement here in Austin. My first attempt didn’t go so well. I pulled up to the theater and saw that it was surrounded by news crews. At first I thought they were doing coverage of the film. Yeah right. Apparently the theater had been robbed by a gunman earlier in the day and was shut down. I had to wonder what sort of idiot would rob the independent arts theater, but needless to say I didn’t see the movie that night. My second attempt proved more fruitful.

Fuel is the outcome of activist and writer Josh Tickell’s quest to stand up to our country’s addiction to oil and propose alternative solutions. It recently won Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival and is in many ways unlike any other documentary I’ve seen recently. Most documentaries that speak to fuel usage and the global crises it causes are fairly doom and gloom oriented. They paint a hopeless scenario, are pretty heavy-handed with the guilt, and speak vaguely to the need for change. Fuel though is different. While it unequivocally points out the problems with petrochemical corporations and our political dalliance with oil, it does so from a very personal perspective. Tickell tells his own story – from his mother’s heath struggles common to those living near the Louisiana refineries to his experiments with veggiemobiles. His candid approach is a constant reminder that the fuel crisis is not just an abstract phenomenon, but a very personal issue.

But what really sets this film apart is its hopeful outlook for the future. There are alternatives out there – solutions are available, we just need to jump on board. Tickell spends a good portion of the movie describing the early biodiesel/ethanol movement. I appreciated that he dealt head on with the worldwide economic and pollution issues involved in some of the production of those fuels. But he then moves on to describe better biodiesel options (like algae based fuel grown from wastewater) and the potential behind other alternative energy sources like solar and wind energy. These aren’t vague options he suggests either, but he outlines plans for exactly how these technologies can work, help create jobs, and benefit the economy. Everything from multistory greenhouse gardens that can feed entire cities to Sweden’s plan to be petroleum free by 2020 are presented in this hopeful view of the future. I liked this tangible and practical vision and left the theater wanted to invest or something in algae fuels and windmill technology.

Unfortunately as positive and practical as the film was, to make a real impact it needs to be reaching the masses. But I have a feeling that the few people seeing the film are already on board and fairly informed about these issues. Case in point – out of the six of us in the theater watching the film, I saw that two of those couples drove a Prius and a Smart Car (can I just say I was glad I was in my compact car and not the family SUV…). They are already there, I’m trying to get there – but real change will take a major movement. It will take the US government doing what many European governments have done and subsidize the eco-friendly options (instead of our oil addiction). It has to be practical, easy, cheap, and widespread for it to happen.

So I encourage you to go see the film if it is playing in your area. Get educated about these solutions. We don’t have to be addicted to oil, there are viable alternatives. And this movie is a great reminder that there is hope.

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