Year: 2021

According To Your Word

Where will you be when God reveals to you what you are here for? What will you say? Will you be ready to say anything at all?

30Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. 32He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

34Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

35And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. 36Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. 37For with God nothing will be impossible.”

38Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Luke 1:30-38 NKJV

Where will you be when God reveals to you what you are here for? What will you say? Will you be ready to say anything at all?

I think Mary’s experience is typical of many people who seek to do God’s will but are not waiting for God to speak. We pray, we plead, and we seek to know what God is going to do with us and yet we are stunned when he speaks. If we believe God speaks, we should not be so surprised when he actually does.

Where were you when he spoke the first time? Or are you still waiting?

I find that most people have become jaded with the notion that God is going to use us to do his will. We say it, but we don’t believe it anymore. We are sitting in our homes, offices, cars, and maybe in our churches and we want to believe. We want it to be true for us.

We see it in others and we desire to be an instrument of his will. His perfect will for us, but the notion that it will ever come to pass has become nothing but a dream for the foolish, the wishful thinking of the immature dreamer.

We have become “realistic” about God’s will for our lives. But we have actually done is given up on God we have lost a sense of expectation that God will speak. In a way, we have become disappointed with God. We wonder if we can trust him at all.

What at one time was a deep passion has become bitter and stagnant. It is a lingering resentment at God.

We don’t tell anybody, we don’t want anyone else to know the truth of it. We want to be God’s servant, but instead, we have become hatred’s slaves. What else could it be? We are festering inside wishing that we could know what God is going to do with us. But all we hear is that painful silence.

Where were you? Were you in the pit of some confusion? In the midst of circumstances beyond your control?

Or did you find yourself broken and bruised hiding in the shadows of a church despising God and trying your best to be rid of him, or maybe that was just me. But he just would not let me go.

Or was it that I just could not afford to let him go and so I recanted. I repented and found myself at the feet of Jesus.

There are so many names that the scriptures ascribe to the Messiah, but the one that really touches my heart is the one that the prophet gave to him—Immanuel, God with us. The eternal God chose to come down and enter time and to be one of us.

God in his eternal power and magnificence poured himself into the frail and limited body of a man? And for what? To take that which he created out for a test run? No. He came to understand us and to provide a way back to the Father. But how was this to be done? How was God going to make it here to this earth? He would come as all other men had come. He came as a baby. And like every babe born to men, there was the need for a mother.

I love Christmas because it is a continual reminder of that fact, the truth, that God came to dwell among us. He came to show us what it really means to be human beings.

Where will you be when God comes through the door of your heart and asks for a favor? The angel came into Mary and said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one…”

Rejoice? Are we the kind of people that when God comes he commends us for the way that we have lived our lives? Will God be able to say of us that we are blessed because of the righteousness and faithfulness that is present in our hearts? Because I have to believe that God would not have picked just anybody to be the mother of His Son.

I know that there are some within the Christian faith that elevates Mary much further than is necessary, but I have to concede that Mary was not just anybody. Of all the women, in all the world, through all of history, God chose her. That makes her special. That makes her unique. And even though no one else will ever have that opportunity extended to them again, we should strive to be the kind of people that God would trust His son with.

But in a way he has. Any man or woman who has believed in faith has taken a similar step, as Mary did. By saying yes to Jesus we are accepting the responsibility to care for Jesus. We have accepted the responsibility to love him and share our lives with him. We are in a way like Mary carrying him with us because he lives in us and through us. With each passing day, with each opportunity to share our witness and testimony we give him life in a world that is lost and in need of him.

There is Mary finishing the chores of the day, thinking of the wedding that is only months away now, when all of a sudden an angel comes bearing strange news. “You are going to have a son and you will call Him Jesus.”

Where will you be?

Mary was minding her own business and all of a sudden she must make a choice. There was no time to think about it. There is no time to make him wait. Mary is stunned and asks the only question that comes to her mind, “How can I have a son when I am still a virgin.” The angel answers that there is nothing that God can’t do. And the most remarkable thing happens, that response is sufficient for Mary and she makes her own faith-filled statement, “Behold, the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”

Where will you be when your faith is required of you? What will you do? How will you respond? The Christmas story is more than just the miracle of the incarnation. The Christmas story is a miracle of faith. It is a story of a young lady, struggling to make sense of life and marriage and without asking for it is chosen to bring the son of God into this world. Faith, whenever it is expressed, is a miracle because faith is the audacity to say, “According to your word.”

“According to your word” is the kind of faith that can move mountains.

“According to your word” is the kind of faith that can make kings come crashing to their knees.

“According to your word” is the kind of faith that touches the heart of God.

Let me tell you something, “according to your word” is the kind of faith that Mary taught to Jesus as he toddled around the house so that when Jesus stayed in the temple the teachers marveled at him. When Mary and Joseph came back to get him, Jesus responded that he was about his father’s business. We see a shadow of Mary’s faith in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus says to the father, “not my will, but thine be done.” Yes, he was a man, a man with a mama that taught him about faith. A man who understood that in order to live a life that is pleasing to God He must live “according to your word.”

Christmas is such a wonderful time of year. Enjoy the lights and the family. Enjoy the gifts and the tree. Enjoy the festive nature of the year, but let us not forget the babe. Let us not forget that the joy we have comes and stays when our lives are lived “according to [His] word.”

Some people in this world may be frustrated with God because he has not said anything to them and they are waiting. Could it be that we have not said what God is waiting to hear? Where will you be when God sends his angel? I’ll be waiting. May you have a Merry Christmas.

Originally Delivered: December 19, 2004. It has been edited and expanded.

When we talk about deconstructing, what are we saying…

Are you even in the “church world” in 2021 if you don’t hear the term deconstruction at least every other day?

This past year and a half has proven difficult for a variety reasons. One of the main ones is how rapidly language is coming at people. Especially complex philosophical concepts that come out of very specific worldviews.

This is only compounded by the reality that most people don’t have the time to research these things. And thus sometimes don’t fully understand things before they decide whether it’s a helpful concept to describe their life or not.

Which is one of the reasons why I’ve started this Words Matter blog series.

If you didn’t know, the term deconstruction wasn’t made up this past year – though it may feel like it was to some. And it would take far more than this one short blog for me to explain it fully.

I’ve spent much of my adult life wrestling with philosophical concepts, especially those related to communication – like how we explain the experiences of our life. And the biggest tension within these conversations is that they all (whether someone likes it or not) come from a particular worldview.

[A worldview is a way someone thinks that helps them make sense of the world and then is ultimately determinative for how they will live in the world with others.]

In the case of the term deconstruction, especially in how it’s being used in popular Christian circles today, there are multiple problems. But the biggest is that if we look at the dictionary definition of the term, then we will see that what many are calling “deconstruction” in popular Christian circles is not likely deconstruction at all.

Deconstruction can be defined as “the breaking down of an idea or concept into smaller parts to look at how it can imply things that it may not overtly state.” I did this kind of work (though not expressly called deconstruction) in my undergraduate degree. I understand the point of a process like this, how to do the process, and the importance of doing it from a healthy place and not a place of pain (or anger, or dissatisfaction, etc.).

Deconstruction as a philosophical construct and a means of analysis is one thing.

“Deconstruction” as a word Christians are using to explain a more generalized “question everything” mindset seems to be quite another thing.

Basically, whether intended or not, it has become the catch-all term for people wanting to “flip tables” or “burn everything to the ground” or whatever other colloquial phrase we want to use. I get that desire. Believe me, I do. But in my estimate it is not the intention of such an analysis, nor a healthy mindset with which to enter into such a process.

[Spoken as someone who has entered into such a process in an unhealthy way before, and it was very unhelpful and actually caused me to be unable to see the very things I needed to see for the process to be helpful.]

While some are correctly using the term, many are using it in ways that not only doesn’t fit the basic definition but more important doesn’t describe what it is they are actually experiencing (likely unintentionally).

What I’m about to say Christians know better than anyone: Sometimes what someone describes as the reality is not actually what the reality is. We as humans struggle many times to find the words to completely describe what is happening inside us or around us. We may be trying our best, and yet we can miss the full picture.

Therefore, we have to continually try to get at what people are actually experiencing. What are they trying to describe? Not just what word they are using because they’ve heard others use it to try and say “this is what I’m going thru.”

[This blog is way too short to get into this in an in-depth way, but deconstruction is also hugely impacted by someone’s worldview. If you’d like to do some more reading on stuff like this I suggest looking into books on worldviews like James Sire’s book “The Universe Next Door.”]

Which brings me to the main point of this blog: When we talk about deconstructing, what are we saying?

What is the actual experience we are attempting to explain to other people?

Are we just using a word others are using because it’s the word we’ve been told explains what is happening? Does it accurately describe what we are going through?

As a Christian, this should also include us asking 2 other specific questions as followers of Jesus:

  1. Does God (in the Bible) provide me with language to understand what I am going through?
  2. Are there Christians in previous generations that have gone thru this experience before and have tried to explain it?

[An observation: I find much of this is happening in “protestant” circles where people have mostly disconnected themselves from the historic Church. There are those who have gone before us who have wrestled with the things we are currently wrestling with. It’s typically helpful to have “spiritual guides” who have walked the path we are walking who can help give us language to understand it. Too often today Christians are looking to words and concepts that come from those who have not walked the path we are walking (and it typically means that language will inevitably be describing quite a different journey or will be an incomplete description of the journey). I know we love to use “new language” for things in our American culture today. But many times the “old language” is the best way of explaining what it is people are going through.]

When I talk to many Christians today who would consider themselves “deconstructing” (and I’ve found it’s actually less people than gets portrayed on social media), I find that most are experiencing what other Christians who have gone before us have described as a “dark night of the soul” (John of the Cross), or “the wall” (Hagberg & Guelich), or “the second half of life” (Richard Rohr). And there’s several other descriptions that seem to fit in various ways.

This experience that people are attempting to describe as a part of the Christian journey is not unknown to Christianity. While we may be experiencing it as a new thing, it is also not actually new at all. Which shouldn’t surprise us since the Bible teaches us that there is “nothing new under the sun.”

God is not caught off-guard by it.

We are not the first generation of Christians to experience it.

We likely only didn’t see it coming because no one informed us that it would.

And it’s not actually the process of deconstruction for most.

Since words matter greatly, because they shape the way we navigate the world around us, I am suggesting we reframe the conversation using different language. Deconstruction does not seem to fit what many people are trying to describe as their experience. There are those who are actually participating in a genuine deconstruction, but most seem to be experiencing something else and need more helpful language to describe it.

[I know, because until I explored this experience more deeply, I would have used the word deconstruction to describe what I had gone thru multiple times in my life up to this point.]

The reality is also that we ultimately need to more often use Biblical language to talk about a Biblical faith journey.

That we should look to the language that is used in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.

And that we should look to the language that is used by Jesus.

So, after much thought about my own experiences and much time spent listening to people attempting to describe similar experiences, my suggestion would be to focus on the concept of refining or purification.

Specifically a refining by fire.

Whether it’s in Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah, Zechariah, Malachi, 2 Corinthians, 1 Peter, Revelation or even in Jesus’ own teachings that direct us toward the imagery of the “refiner’s fire,” this seems to be a much more helpful imagery and concept for describing what many are describing that they are going thru in this season (and what I’ve gone thru several times in my life at this point, including a pretty serious one this past year and a half).

Why does this matter? Why would this language and imagery be more helpful?

And why do I think it’s unhelpful to use a term like deconstruction to describe what most are going thru during this season?

Because in a relationship with Jesus we have a foundation upon which everything is built. We have valuable frameworks that are built upon that foundation. And simply demolishing the entire thing (including the framework and foundation) will not actually produce the result some may think it will. It usually isn’t even what they say they want and is certainly not God’s desire based upon what we read in the Bible.

But refining fire language will help us navigate these things.

One important reason why a refining fire is more helpful language is that it places the emphasis of the process upon the fire itself (a consistent Biblical image for God) instead of on ourselves. Which is the reality of what we go thru anyways…whether we acknowledge it or not.

God is the one directing or allowing the process to happen. So we might as well just name it up front.

A refining by fire certainly does mean questioning whether things belong (are they actually framework or foundation, or are they easily burned up by fire?).

But it also means you acknowledge from the start that there is a foundation and a framework (made of stone and precious metal) that will remain when the questioning is over.

Which is why listening to Christians who have described this experience historically is also important. Because they remind us that this is an experience God actually meets us in and walks with us thru (and maybe even initiates). Even if it doesn’t seem like He’s there. And that the foundation and framework will remain (even though much of this experience may be disorienting).

It’s also helpful language because going thru a refining fire is evidence of faith.

It actually requires faith to enter the difficulty of the fire and come out the other side purified.

Philosophy and faith are not diametrically opposed. But that doesn’t mean all philosophical language is always helpful in navigating faith.

In this instance, I would say that the philosophical language of deconstruction is not helpful in describing this experience of the faith journey that many are currently going through.

So maybe we could try using the language of refining fire instead, and see what happens.

I mean, what do you have to lose? If you are someone who is already “questioning everything” (I’ve been there, so I’m not speaking negatively about doing that), then you might as well question the word you’ve been using to see if it accurately describes what you’re going through anyway…

If you’re interested in exploring this more, feel free to reach out. It’s a journey I’m on. Maybe you’re on it too. And it’s always helpful to have companions on this kind of journey.

Burn out is not failure.

The amount of comments, blogs, posts, books, videos, and opinions about burn out that have been shared this past year is overwhelming. I likely have burn out from those more than the real aspects of my life…

But nonetheless it feels necessary to address the topic as a part of this Words Matter series.

First, to talk about burn out we have to attempt to define burn out – or at least discuss what the experience is that people are trying to talk about when they use the words burn out.

In listening to how people talk about it, I would say burn out is the feeling of exhaustion experienced because of an unhealthy striving. This phenomenon seems to be what most people are referencing when they say they have burned out. It’s emotional, mental, & physical, and almost always related deeply to their spiritual lives.

[The World Health Organization defines it this way: “Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”]

When people talk about it, they almost always do thru negative language. And it’s pretty much always discussed as a failure.

Which leads to needing to understand what people define as success and failure – whether consciously or unconsciously. Which has deep implications for their lives and how they talk about life thru those lenses.

Since burn out is mostly talked about as failure from what I’ve seen, I find myself asking the question “Why?”

Why is burn out almost exclusively talked about thru negative language as an experience of failure?

Does this have to do with a correct understanding of life or our definitions of success and failure?

Must we classify burn out in such binary terms, or is it possible to see burn out through a less binary lens?

I would suggest that it’s always pertinent to look to the Scriptures in our attempts to understand life, and describe our experiences. There are likely many places we could go to look for examples of what we might call burn out today, but I will reference one: 1 Kings 19.

[I suggest clicking on that link and reading the entire chapter before continuing.]

Here is a portion:

Elijah was afraid and ran for his life…He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.

All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”…He ate and drank and then lay down again.

The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

1 Kings 19:3-9

If you read the whole chapter, then you also know what comes next is the famous “the Lord is in the whisper” story. It’s quite powerful. But even more so when we know the part of the story that precedes it.

Elijah had likely experienced burn out. Ready for his life to be over, he was emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausted. It took sleep and food, as well as the intervention of an angel for him to continue on.

And yet the angels response, and even God showing up in the whisper later, gives us insight into how to understand this moment in Elijah’s life. The angel is not surprised by Elijah’s limitedness, and neither is God. He is human after all. God does not seem upset, nor taken back by Elijah’s needs – emotionally, mentally, and physically. And all of that ultimately leads to a deeply formative spiritual reality for Elijah.

Without the burn out would Elijah have been able to know God in the same way?

I think it’s a valid question. And my opinion would be no.

The burn out – or the reaching of the necessary end of his limits – provided the context for Elijah to know God truly in the way He desired to be known.

Personally.

Tangibly.

Fatherly.

God provides for Elijah’s most basic needs in the moment of his greatest exhaustion: food, rest, and relationship.

Where is God in Elijah’s burn out? Right there with him.

Not waiting on the other side.

Not in the miraculous moment the burn out was preparing him for.

Not in the successful moments before the burn out.

This was not an issue of Elijah failing. This was simply an issue of Elijah being human. And God treated it as such.

Most of us today struggle to hold our experiences of life open-handedly. We rush to classify them in temporal ways. Maybe in order to make sense of them.

What if whatever version of success that leads you to strive to the point of burn out is not success at all, and thus burn out actually becomes the most successful thing you do in the process?

Because success for God is defined by closeness in your relationship with Him. And if your “goals” are getting in the way of that, He has built in an amazing thing to us as humans that help us reorient ourselves: limits.

And those limits mean you will burn out. It’s not really if you will burn out. It’s just when.

And when you do, God will not come to you like a boss to talk to you about being a failure.

He will come to you as a Father to talk to you about being His child.

And experiencing God like this is powerful. Because He has your full attention. You (and your actions) are no longer the center of your life. Your striving has stopped. And thus God can show you how much your life is actually worth, how much He cares about you, and how loved you truly are. And all of that requires a willingness to receive, which almost always only comes after we feel we have nothing else to give.

Viewing burn out as failure mostly comes from the modern business culture of our day – which views productiveness as the highest goal of life. God is concerned with your being before He is concerned with your doing. He wants you to be productive in your doing, but only insofar as you are connected to Him in your being.

Burn out is an opportunity for us to evaluate our priorities. To evaluate our definitions of success and failure. To learn to live within our limits. And to learn to give ourselves grace when we reach them.

We’re only human after all…

May we recover healthier language and more complete understandings of what it is God is at work doing in our lives.

May we reframe how we talk about burn out and our own experiences of being human.

It’s these kinds of experiences that become crucial places God can most clearly teach you about who He really is and who you really are.

You are not what you do.

And burn out is not failure.

Words matter.

In just my relatively short time serving God’s people, I’ve grown weary of some of the language and categories that often times get used merely out of habit (or it’s just the inherited way people have always talked about things). Many times it is because of the burden that this language can produce, as opposed to what Jesus intends with an easy yoke or teaching (Matthew 11).

In my own life, I’ve spent countless hours learning to use correct language in order to help others do the same.

Because words matter.

You see, my undergraduate degree is in the study of communication, or rhetoric. And one major thing I learned, and now have seen time and time again, is how much we are shaped by the language and categories we use to describe our experiences. The way we talk necessarily “boxes us in.” Sometimes in good ways, sometimes bad. How you talk about things becomes how you think about them and experience them. And it becomes problematic when it then “boxes” God in – in ways that aren’t actually possible and yet happens because of how we talk.

In recent generations, many in the American Church have normalized modern “business language” and “leadership principles” as their baseline for discussing the organization of the church. This has also led many to use this same sort of language in order to understand their relationship with God as well. Overall, I must say, my assessment is it has de-personalized God – which is terrifying honestly.

Most times the language and categories being used are incomplete and unhelpful. They are modern attempts to describe things that have already been described in Scripture in ways that are far more complete and helpful.

Sometimes when I attempt to critique the use of modern language and suggest better ways to talk about things, I’m met by people who feel like I’m “nitpicking.” But since taking thoughts captive (2 Corinthians 10) is what we are encouraged to do, it is an important work to look at how we think and talk about our relationship with God (or the church).

And so that leads to the need to discuss an important question: Why does it matter?

Words matter (especially when talking about our relationship with God and the church) because they shape not only our own outlook on faith, but also how we directly relate to God and to others!

When someone tries to explain their own experience of God to another person, it is always an interesting process for them to try and translate that experience in a way the other person will understand. So then, translating those experiences across groups of people, cultures, generations, etc. gets even more interesting. And since words are powerful enough to shape people’s understanding of a relationship with God – it means we must take the words we use seriously.

James talks about this very thing in his letter in the Scriptures actually (though you may have never applied it this way):

“When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.”

James 3:3-5

Our words are very powerful. And so how we talk about God must be done carefully, and with great reflection. Even more so if you are someone others listen to! Because how you talk about faith will influence how others talk about it. Which also means we must be willing to try our best to give complete pictures of a relationship with God right out of the gate. And we also must be willing to evaluate how well we actually did – and correct that language if necessary.

I never fault people for attempting to use language they see as culturally relevant in order to explain faith, the church, etc. I’m constantly doing the same thing.

But what I do fault us for is when we perpetuate the use of language without looking at whether it has been helpful or not.

Much of the modern business language being used in church settings has bugged me for a long time. But over the last several years I’ve become more outspoken about it because of how much I’ve seen it hurt my own relationship with God, others’ relationships with God, and overall the expressions of God’s people – or the church.

Thus, this blog series will address specific language that I have found particularly troublesome and problematic. Phrases, metaphors, and categories that have been mostly harmful and not helpful in attempting to give people the words they need to navigate faith, their relationship with God, and the church.

Whether it’s categories like burn out or deconstruction, or language like “leaving the ministry” or “excellence culture,” I will look to the experience someone is attempting to describe and compare it with how the Scriptures (and at times mothers and fathers of the faith who have gone before us) have described it. And hopefully you will find that I am trying to offer a way of thinking about this relationship with God we are all navigating using the language God uses in the Bible to describe such things.

Words matter.

Mine included.

So with a great deal of humility, here we go…

The Sin of Utilitarian Christianity

The present challenges are new, in the sense that WE have not seen them before. But, they are not new to the human condition. King Solomon’s admonition that there is nothing new under the sun looms large (Ecclesiastes 1:9). And they are certainly not new to God.

Foreword

One of the great tasks of the Church in every culture is to effectively “Preach the Gospel.” In order to do this, a Christian must be able to differentiate between the general culture they live in and the specific culture of what it means to be Christian across contexts. This is not always an easy task, but a necessary one. It requires nuance, reflection, and the willingness to admit you’ve been wrong.

The Church in America has for too long taken on the ethos of America above and beyond worldwide Christianity. There is much about what it means to be American that has been translated into the Church, and unfortunately much less about what it means to be Christian being translated into America. I have attempted to navigate this dynamic thru two consecutive blog series over the last 18 months, posted here on my friend Victor’s blog. He has helped me navigate both these series, and in that process has clarified some of his own thoughts on the underlying issues at play.

This essay does an excellent job of diagnosing the problems (that are not new) and offering a way forward (that also is not new). May we heed the words of critique offered, and together forge a way forward that looks more Christlike than ever before.

Pastor Drew Anderson
Sumter Chapel
September 2021

Introduction

Over the last couple of years my good friend, Pastor Drew Anderson, has written two series of posts. They should be read in order (which I would encourage you to do) to get the most out of the material. In both series he seeks to answer the question of what it means to be Christian, specifically in the American context in which we both find ourselves. I would recommend them both to you. You can find “Part 1” for each here and here.

In light of his thoughts, and some extended reflections from our private conversations, I would like to hone in on something that has been bothering me. As I have thought more on the questions Drew has been raising, I have wondered if this was just a problem in the American branch of the Church, or was there something deeper going on. This post will be a kind of rumination on all of it as I try to make sense of what we, as the People of God in the United States, must begin to consider and potentially do. The present challenges are new, in the sense that WE have not seen them before. But, they are not new to the human condition. King Solomon’s admonition that there is nothing new under the sun looms large (Ecclesiastes 1:9). And they are certainly not new to God.

If God is all-knowing (and I believe He is), then what we have been given in the Scriptures are not only sufficient for the task we have before us, they are also determinative to how we address what we see happening around us. If God’s wisdom is not good enough nothing else will be!

In the rest of this post I will do my best to provide an expanded framework for what I have been thinking and reflecting on. I believe what we see happening in the Church today can be addressed with methods that are consistent with Scripture and God’s character. But those methods have to be grounded and discerned from God’s word. And why is this necessary? Because God’s word is a distillation of God’s mind. Therefore, the wisdom contained on its pages and that emerge from its implications cannot be overlooked or dismissed.

This is not intended to be an exhaustive analysis. It is best categorized as a reflection and possible call to action.

A Dangerous Trend

In the first of the two series I mentioned above, Drew explored a trend he has experienced and witnessed in his journey of faith. Specifically, what he identified was a trend that has been shifting the focus of the Church’s mission in America in unhealthy ways. The problem is, on the surface, we do not necessarily see the inherent dangers present in the movement taking place. There has been a general ambivalence to what has proved to be detrimental to the health and vitality of the Church. The reasons for this ambivalence are beyond the scope of this article. However, the reality of the harm is evident in the problems currently ensnaring the Church.

This shift has been happening in earnest, and in recognizable ways, for the better part of two or three generations. But, I think there is a great deal of truth to the possibility it has been unfolding and expanding for far longer. It takes time and distance to recognize the effects of choices made in the past. The challenge is accepting that something is, in fact, taking place.

What is most troubling is that now, two decades into the 21st century, we have seen an acceleration of the trend. It’s almost as if the consequences of the decisions which were warned about in previous generations have become the accepted norms of the day. The ideas and assumptions that should have been challenged, and possibly rejected, have become the “prevailing wisdom” of the age. The lack of discernment that has been displayed by many so-called thought leaders in the Church has proven to be disastrous to the health and expansion of faithful Gospel ministry.

If I were to offer my own summary of this trend, I would say it is as the “Americanization” of the Christian faith. While this is a helpful description because my friend and I both live in America, I would like to push the idea further out. Mainly because I do not think this is a uniquely American problem. Our context informs our perceptions of the problem, but they do not necessarily define them. So while the “American” expression of our concerns are valid, they are not normative. It just happens to be the way we are seeing them because this is how we are experiencing the trend. This is one of the many challenges we face in making sense of what is happening around us.

The Church’s Identity Crisis

The Church has been and will continue to be under constant pressure from the social, cultural, and philosophical influences in which it finds herself. This is not new. It has always been the case. And, whether we like it or not, it will be the case until the return of Jesus.

Just because our context happens to be the Church in America does not mean this cannot and is not happening in other places as well. I believe it is. I just don’t want to make specific claims about a context I do not live in and am not influenced by on the whole. I will leave that determination of how other sectors of the Church are being affected by this trend to those who live “there”. My hope here is to identify some of the characteristics of the trend as we have experienced it, in the hopes that others may find similar diagnostic tools helpful in other contexts.

I also believe, as Bishop Luis R. Scott has framed this process, we can aptly describe what we are seeing as the steady and definitive secularization of the Church, especially in America. But, as I said above, I don’t think this is happening only in America. The reason we need a more generalized description of this trend is that any nation or culture can have this secularizing effect on the Church. Particularly if the Church is not vigilant in maintaining its own identity within the contexts it finds itself. I will hope to explain this a little bit more below using the American experience as a test case for our discussion.

What do we mean by “secularization”?

I want to take a moment and attempt to clarify what I mean by secularization. The opposite of secular would be the sacred. This should not be difficult to see. We are merely looking at simple definitions. However, in this context and in this sense what we have to understand is that any move away from a religious or spiritual understanding of the world is a move toward the secular. What many people do not seem to grasp is how much of life is actually non-material. Or to say it another way, much of what we do is based on what we believe to be true. In simpler terms, it is spiritual in nature. This is not inherently a “religious” statement. But it does point to a reality too often dismissed.

The human experience is all about faith. All about what we believe to be true. For those who have a religious background of any kind this makes sense. The notions of spirit or non-physical realities are not hard to consider and even accept. However, when we deny this aspect of the human experience, we are denying something more fundamental, that not everything we see or experience can be reduced to mechanical or materialistic explanations. And yet, that is exactly what we, as a society, are being asked to accept. That there is some definitive and even arbitrary line between the physical and the non-physical experiences of life. The kinds of problems this approach to understanding the world creates are far too many to discuss here. However, the effect of this kind of thinking is seen when there is no longer a shared understanding of what is true and real. When each person can determine what is unchangeable, no one can know anything about anything.

As a form of shorthand, we can say that secularization means atheistic, or at the very least agnostic. And again, this is not necessarily a religious category. It merely is meant to show that the person holding these positions is abstaining or refusing to acknowledge the ambiguity of what it means to have a worldview to account for what we experience beyond the material.

Everyone has a worldview. A way of accounting for what they see in the world around us and the events we go through. This does not make every worldview equally as effective in explaining the world. We are just trying to point out the fact all people have one regardless of the efficacy of that worldview to provide answers or perspective.

What does this have to do with secularization? Simply that the adoption by the Church of the patterns, frameworks, paradigms, and nomenclatures of a worldview that does not take into account the non-physical realities of life will have a damning effect on the Church and her ability to be the Church. The secular world has no mechanisms for understanding what it means to be a person of faith. Therefore, when this kind of thinking infiltrates the Church it will invariably move the Church away from the holy, sacred, and spiritual understandings promoted in Scripture.

When the Church fails to challenge and counter the secularizing forces of the world, regardless of their form or source, we are allowing a wedge to be driven between God and his people. The reality of the religious experience, but specifically within a Christian worldview, is that humanity’s relationship with God must inform and constrain how people who adhere to the faith live. Any failure to do so creates dissonance when faced with various theological and ethical problems.

Ignoring how secularization impacts the sociological realities of human civilizations has led to the downfall of empires and the dissolution of societal cohesion. More importantly, from a Christian perspective, the very notion of community is grounded in theological ideas and ethical norms that require faith in God to make sense. When these foundations are removed, the entire system collapses into incoherence. Moral frameworks are necessary for civil society to function. But these frameworks only truly make sense because we are designed by our creator to seek just outcomes. Therefore, believing there is no connection between believing in God and a just society is a primary reason for the breakdowns we are seeing and will continue to see.

Recapturing the Center of the Faith

The second series I mentioned above is my friends attempt to restore some clarity to what is means for the Christian faith to be understood in its proper scriptural, historical, and theological context. It is a call to return and recapture what was and must be the Christian understanding of the faith. This is a difficult challenge. But I salute Drew’s efforts and agree in great measure with his assessment.

I also believe his project is an important call to the Church, both in America and in every nation, to challenge many of the assumptions we have made (or been given as valid substitutes) as the Body of Christ. Assumptions that have proven to not be biblical in origin, but rather cultural and, in many cases, extremely localized. And while there is some sense in which the Church will become a part of the fabric of the lives of the people in every place, there must be a healthy caution to how much “the place” influences and changes the essence of the faith handed down to us.

The goal of the Church is to transform the people with whom they meet. However, when the influence is predominantly in one direction, from the world to the Church, the problems become magnified. Instead of leading people from darkness to light, the Church is the one being lead from light to darkness. This danger has been present from the beginning. We see it in the writings of Paul, Peter, and James. The temptations to import into the Gospel, and with all the multitudinous implications, the thoughts and paradigms of the world is a recipe for disaster. These foreign and antithetical ideas will not aid us in the mission of the Gospel. They will only do damage to that mission.

The Gospel requires no assistance in accomplishing its work. What I mean is that the message does not to be altered, amended, or corrected. We are to merely convey the message, not try and conform the message. The Holy Spirit applies the message to the hearts and minds of those willing to hear what it says and obey what it implies. This belies a certain confidence in the Gospel that is sadly absent in the current Church context.

When we lose our center, the pull of other forces becomes more difficult to resist.

Let’s Speak Plainly

If we were to speak plainly for a moment I would tell you something you may already know. There is something amiss in the Church’s expression of itself in the American context.

The number of definitions of what it means to be a Christian makes it difficult to know which one is right. They cannot all be right. So, who gets to decide which definition we all should subscribe to? There is really only one answer to the question. We must rely on what Jesus said and on what God inspired to be contained in the Scriptures as our guide.

Now, I will willingly acknowledge that much of what is going on has to do with disagreement over what God has said in Scripture. But I believe this is more a byproduct of our unwillingingness to accept what is clear so we can continue to do as we please. This means the problem is not what Scripture actually says. The problem is we don’t like what it says and would rather it say, or at least mean something else. But that is not what obedience looks like. That is not what true faith looks like. That is rebellion and falsehood masquerading as honest searching.

I think we can all agree there will be problems whenever people try to “help” God do what only God can do. There will be dangers to when people are given responsibilities and authority to work in God’s vineyard. However, these problems and dangers can be minimized. When there is a sincere and heightened level of vigilance maintained, the faith we proclaim has a greater chance of remaining true to what Jesus entrusted to his disciples.

The “Why” of the Church

One of the great challenges in any endeavor is remembering the “why”. When the original purpose is lost, misplaced, or ignored, the institutional creep away from effectiveness happens. This is part of what is wrong in the Church today. We have lost clarity of vision and mission. And this loss has been exacerbated by the importation of ideas from a secular American culture that defines success and power and influence and name recognition as the crowning achievements of life.

On the whole, we have failed to see that simplicity is the key to effectiveness. That faithfulness and obedience are the marks of a genuine understanding of who God is and what he expects. Not for better, and definitely for worse, we have entered the game of keeping up with the Jones’s, rather than living in alignment with God’s character and commands.

The Church has adopted ever-increasing complexity under the false belief that it represents some kind of depth of spirituality. This is wrong on two fronts. First, making faith about achievement has ingrained legalism as a feature of the faith. This is contrary to everything we find in Jesus’s teachings and example. Second, we have made competition the means of achieving. This competitive spirit has caused us to see our fellow believers as adversaries rather than partners and fellow travelers. When I need to beat you, I will find it difficult to help you as well.

The more complex a process or mission, the more difficult it becomes to achieve. Just because something is not easy to understand does not mean it is necessarily complex. We may not have enough information to make sense of what we are seeing in front of us. In a similar sense, the Church in America has been convinced that complexity equals being spiritually robust. However, the result of this mindset has not proven true. In fact, quite the opposite. The more complex we have made our faith the further we have moved from God and his purposes for us.

Charting a Path, but not a New One

Now, it is one thing to see that something is wrong. But it is quite another to know how we chart a course back to where we need to be. My friends first series is primarily diagnostic. The second is more corrective. One without the other, however, will leave us becoming overly critical on the one hand, or naively optimistic on the other. The balance needed to get back on track is really an issue of maturity. We all must come to grips with the undeniable reality that something is in fact not right.

It is important to make an important distinction here. When we think about the “Americanization” of the Christian faith, we are saying some things and not others. And knowing what we are saying and what we are not saying is critically important to getting back on track.

What am I saying then? At the root of the trend toward secularization is the danger of assimilating into the Christian faith ideas, concepts, and theological frameworks that are not original to it. In other words, it is the process where foreign and antithetical elements are added to make it a new, and essentially different, syncretistic religion. This happens when theological, sociological, political, and cultural realities from different worldviews and systems of belief are intermingled in unhealthy and unhelpful ways. This kind of amalgamation is dangerous because it obscures rather than clarifies. National identity and ones spiritual identity are not the same thing. They were never meant to be. And they should not be homogenized in a way that makes someone believe that the are.

This problem of trying to synthesize disparate systems is different from attempts at contextualization. In the trend my friend has written about, the specific example he cites there has been a confusing of the Christian identity with the idea of American citizenship. Contextualization is not this (or at least it should not be).

The idea of contextualization can be compared to the process of the translation (writing) or interpretation (speaking) of language. When we are seeking to contextualize we have to find points of contact between two different understandings of the world. There is a search for shared meaning or there is a search for a proximity of meaning. In this search, nuances of meaning, intended meaning versus implied meaning is explored. But, the idea is to make sure that the people receiving the communication actually get what the original communicant was intending.

The entire exercise just described is not really about communicating the exact same things from one language to the next, even though that would be ideal. This is actually impossible. The aim of contextualization is the bridging of ways of seeing and knowing the world so that communication can take place, understanding can be achieved, and two people can have a common point of reference about the world around them. If we are not able to share the meaning of things, we cannot understand each other. We cannot relate to one another. We are left at a distance from others.

One of the assumptions that must be changed is thinking that just because someone knows the definition of a word they know its meaning. Communication is more vibrant and fluid than that. If you speak more than one language you will know this to be true. But even if you speak the same language natively, where you are from will shape and inform how you use that language to communicate. It is easy to know when someone is “not from around here.”

When the Faith became Works

While studying for my undergraduate degree in sociology, I read The Protestant Ethic by Max Weber. He is considered by many to be one of the founding thinkers in the field of sociology. This book is one of the first books in the field of sociological study that sought to make sense of how people’s actions were affected by the cultural forces in which they live. The book is also important in that it looks at the impact of religious faith and the affect it has on people’s expression of self in the wider cultural contexts of a society. You can read a helpful summary of this work here.

This short detour is not designed to provide an in-depth analysis of Weber’s thesis. Nor is it to say he was correct or incorrect in his analysis. I will leave that to more qualified sociologists and philosophers. The purpose of this excursus is to show that there is indeed an effect when worldviews collide. When the edges between understandings of reality are blurred, it becomes difficult to make sense of what someone is saying, arguing for, or simply defending. So, when competing views come in contact they are altered in ways not always perceptible to the average person.

This is especially the case with secular thinking and its influence on the expression of Christian faith. I am not sure this was Weber’s intent. But, I believe it is a reasonable implication of his work when looked at from a Christian perspective. The entire project was to try and “make sense” of what he was seeing in the American culture at the time. What could explain the actions and trajectory of the entire nation?

Part of the answer Weber found was in the growing theological framework of Calvinism, as he understood it, and the societal shifts well underway as a result of the industrial revolution. How these forces worked together or altered each others trajectories was both unpredictable and undeniable. And these kinds of sociological realities have not been considered in the Church for too long.

Why has the Church become more secular?

Now, where do we go from here? How does this short trip down memory lane impact my reflections on the secularization of the Christian faith?

By using Weber’s general framework, I hope to show that the realities Drew and I have been thinking about have been at work for far longer than many of us would have initially accepted. However, the reason for Weber’s inquiry then and the reasons for our considerations now are not the same. But they are not antagonistic to each other either. When considered from a higher vantage point, we can make some inferences that can help us better understand how we arrived at this predicament. And possibly what we can now do to address the problems and concerns this secularizing trend has created.

I would like to make the following three observations in light of our current discussion.

1. There is link between theology and practice.

That is to say, there is a link between the work of the mind and the work of the body. For too long there has been this idea in American Christianity that to have faith is to make a mental assent to the truth claims of the Gospel and contained in the Scripture. This has proven to be wrongheaded and a mischaracterization of the witness of God’s word.

At no time are we give any indication in the Bible that faith and action are two different things. In fact, the letter written by James contradicts this idea in the clearest of terms. I will quote the passage in its entirety.

14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

James 2:14-26 ESV

What makes this passage interesting and challenging is the link James makes between what a person believes in their “head” and what they do with their “hands” (or life more generally). The link is not just incidental. It is not just coincidence. The link between faith and works in essential to the living out of what is claimed to be believed.

To try and separate them is to do violence to a plain reading of the words and their more simple definitions. What this means is that when Christians claim a particular theological understanding, you don’t really know what it means until you are living it out in your daily life. This implementation of theology into practical action is what can properly and biblically be called faith.

2. When our “practice” is not informed by our theological understanding, we abandon theology altogether.

As we consider the link between what we believe and what we actually do because of that belief, we have to understand that what we believe is more important than what we do. The reason? We will never behave contrary to what we believe. In order to act, we must decide (in our mind) to do so. Even if that action is coerced or manipulated. No external force can change what is happening in the mind. But it certainly can guide it and retrain it to follow different and new paths and patterns.

This is precisely why Pauls says to the Romans,

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

Romans 12:2 NLT

The way to change behavior is by changing “the way you think.” This has always been the way, and it will continue to be the way to initiate the process of changing how we live.

What this means within the Christian understanding of the world is this, when we do not think theologically, we will not live theologically consistent lives. What we think about God and what God has said directly impacts what we do. Therefore, when we abandon theological reflection, we will eventually abandon living according to God character.

It will not matter that we attempt describing our spiritual practices as being spiritual. Even though it has become cliche to say that “we are spiritual” people, just “not religious”. When we become detached from God’s thoughts as they are revealed in the Bible we are not being spiritual. We are being secular. But we are just wrapping it up in the language of the religious to assuage our consciences.

A related problem with this statement (of being spiritual, but not religious) is what it does not say. According to what metric are we supposed to measure this alleged spirituality? It can only be done when looking at a faithful Christian life and then trying to compare how closely we mimic what we see.

3. Practice divorced from its theological moorings will lead to a self-destructive understanding of life and faith.

The final observation I want to make is a practical one. And while the other two have had some practical components, this one is explicitly practical.

When what we do is disconnected from what God has said about himself and us, we are left alone with ourselves. We can try and mask this isolation our independence from God creates, but the truth is we will feel its impact eventually. I find this to be a terrifying idea.

The basis for my fear is found in one of the most astounding passages of scripture. It is in Paul’s warning of what happens when we abandon God’s instruction and boundaries and decide we know better than God. The Message Bible offers a striking re-voicing of this verse.

So God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!

Romans 1:24 The Message

I can think of nothing worse than “God [giving us] up in the lusts of [our] hearts” (Romans 1:24 ESV). And it is in this moment of being given up that we see the fullest effects of our sin. We will do whatever seems right in our own eyes, convinced of our own wisdom. And that path only leads to destruction.

Considering Some Implications

The trend of moving from a Christian worldview to a secular one; the impact of this drift toward secularization has become difficult to ignore. In a way, the trajectory on which we are traveling can almost be predicted now, if nothing changes.

I titled this reflection The Sin of Utilitarian Christianity. What I have attempted to show is that without a clear, consistent, and intentional theological understanding of what we believe, we cannot sustain the kind of action we hope to embody.

This trend of importing antithetical ideas, concepts, and frameworks into the Christian faith leads to a utilitarian understanding of everything. We no longer see people as intrinsically valuable. They become means to our own selfish ends. And when we use people to achieve whatever goal we want we become villains capable of unthinkable actions in order to achieve what we desire. But it will still be done under the guise of Christian faith, and that is a truly damnable sin.

Why? Because we are taking the hopes of another and perverting it to satisfy our own plans, purposes, and passions.

In the conversations I have been having with my friend Drew and others, I have discovered that one of the problems with this particular synthesis of national identity with religious identity is the problem of importing foreign paradigms that are inconsistent with the Gospel, damaging to the process of discipleship, and destructive to the bond of love needed for Christian community.

When we do not understand or ignore or simply deny the influence of the secular world upon our understanding of God, Jesus, the Gospel, and the gamut of Christian ideas, we are abdicating our responsibility to be faithful witnesses of the faith. As members of this new family and this new community called the Church, we have been entrusted with far more than we may have initially understood. We are living testimonies of God’s grace. We have been brought near, not solely for our own benefit, but also for the good of all whom we encounter on life’s journey.

The trend we have been discussing is a trend away from submission to the highest authority, who is God. When we become a law unto ourselves, we make the same error Adam and Eve were guilty of in the garden. To not submit to God’s directives is to reject God’s authority over our lives. We can feign ignorance if we like. What we cannot do is hide from the consequences of this decision.

A utilitarian understanding of the faith is not the Faith of Scriptures, Jesus, or the Cross. It is a false gospel, offering false hopes, and leading to a false paradise.

There is only one thing we can do if we have been walking on this road for even a moment. Repent.

Turn again to God and trust him only.

Becoming More Christlike Than American: Part 7

Part 7: Answers about who

“Paul replied, “Whether quickly or not, I pray to God that both you and everyone here in this audience might become the same as I am, except for these chains.” Acts 26:29 NLT

If you’ve never read Acts 21-28, where Paul defends the faith in front of Jewish and Roman government officials, first go read it. Especially read Acts 26:1-29.

This blog series started with a focus on “Why?” questions. And acknowledged that currently a lot of questions are being asked – especially “Why?” questions and especially by young Christians – within the church today.

And this series will end where all of our “Why?” questions should really end: with a focus on “Who.”

Questions are an important part of spiritual growth. They allow for the testing of our mind, heart, and even soul.

But the answers to the questions in and of themselves are not the goal. They are a means to an end. That is a vital differentiation between how the rest of the world asks questions, and how Christians do. It requires knowing the end in order to not lose yourself in the process of asking questions…

And for Christians, the end is an actual person. Not the answers to the questions. But the answer to all the questions. The end is a “Who.” It is God the Father, Son, and Spirit.

It’s God the Father.

It’s Jesus.

It’s Holy Spirit.

And in discovering God as the end, it also ultimately helps you find out who you are – your true self in Christ – as well.

The personal discovery of a relationship with God that we each have the opportunity to experience happens fully within the context of a spiritual family. It’s amazing how Acts unfolds in such a way to emphasize this reality all along the way.

A personal experience with God’s presence. Which leads to communities that form Christlike character. Which are based upon a resilience only produced in relationships that form thru difficulty. Which happens as people advocate for the kingdom of heaven here on earth. And which ultimately leads to the experience of spiritual family with those who are personally living out a relationship with God.

All of this is ultimately centered upon not the answers to “Why?” questions, but the foundation of “Who” – the person of God and the personhood of each believer as the family of God is formed here on earth.

This is why Paul’s testimony in Acts 26:1-29 shows such extreme confidence. And why Paul does not lack confidence in any of his interactions with any of the officials throughout Acts 21-28.

It’s not because of some generalized version of self-worth. It’s not because he talked himself into showing confidence. It’s not a “fake it ’til you make it” approach to life.

It is because he knows exactly who he is in light of who he personally knows God to be, as a part of a family of God here on earth that He has been welcome into.

In Acts 26:8, he asks the Roman official: “Why does it seem incredible to any of you that God can raise the dead?”

Paul knows God, and he’s saying if they truly knew God too they would not be surprised by what the Christians are telling them is true.

When questioned about his faith, Paul is giving clear answers about Who. Who God is. Who Paul is. Because he knows the answer to all life’s questions personally – and that answer is Jesus.

And thus we should find ourselves coming to that same sort of place. Having clarity and thus confidence about who God is and who we are thru our relationship with Jesus and journey to become like Jesus as the Spirit lives within us.

It may take starting with “Why?” questions to get there (Jesus mostly asked questions during His ministry as opposed to giving answers). But the only worthwhile destination for those “Why?” questions must be the answer about “Who.”

By the time we get to the end of the book of Acts, and at the same time on our own journey toward Christlikeness, what we find is that the faith we may have started with in part has become much more wholistic. God has become much more personal. And our lives have become very much centered around a personal relationship with Him that directly impacts our personal relationships with everyone else around us.

Instead of Acts leaving us with a continued “strategy for church growth,” or a “model for ministry,” it leaves us the same way it starts: Jesus.

Acts 28:30-31: “For the next two years, Paul lived in Rome at his own expense. He welcomed all who visited him, boldly proclaiming the Kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. And no one tried to stop him.”

Our Christlikeness really is just all about a personal relationship with God, with others. We welcome God to make His home in us. And we welcome others into our home. 

The simplicity of it is almost scary. But it’s truly what we see at the core of what it means to be like Christ.

Just as God came and dwelt among us in the mystery of the incarnation of Jesus, He desires to continue to be incarnate in the world thru the body of Christ – in us, “the church,” as we are led and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

May we fully give ourselves to this simple vision of the kingdom of God.

May we fully receive into our midst the fullness of God’s presence.

And may we together reach full maturity into the likeness of Christ, so that the whole world (obviously including America) may know the love of God – as displayed thru the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

Previous Posts:

Becoming More Christlike Than American: Part 6

Part 6: Spiritual family

“So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock…You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Acts 20:28,35 NLT

If you’ve never read Acts 20, or haven’t in a while, first go read it – especially the very end.

This chapter is the story of Paul’s last couple “stops” on his lifelong missionary journey before he heads to Rome, where he expects to be convicted, imprisoned and likely killed for his faith.

It’s in this context that he shares some final words in person with the elders in the church in Ephesus.

It’s good to note that “the church in Ephesus” was not a singular organization of people with a building and a pastor (how we conceptualize church most times today). It was an extended family of spiritual families. They were groups of people who became the church and met in homes. They remained connected across the city and were led by those referred to as “elders” (or spiritual parents). This is important in the dynamic of what he shares. These elders are receiving his message as encouragement to persevere as spiritual parents. Not thru the lens of the power dynamics of an organization that we too many times read things.

So it’s in these final words that Paul says “guard yourselves and God’s people.” He goes on to use the analogy of shepherding, and how shepherds must defend a flock of sheep from predators. It’s not as much an analogy about how people are like sheep, but that the caring for our own souls and souls of others is very much like the work of shepherding. And how those who seek to harm the family of God are like predators.

It’s also likely related that shepherding was a family business in their day. A shepherd’s sheep were a part of the lifestyle of their family. The whole family was involved in caring for the sheep. They knew the sheep by name. They cared for their sheep as a family cares for the things their responsible for.

Caring for a spiritual family’s individual and communal relationship with God is much like the work of shepherding.

In this part of Acts 20, Paul teaches from his own example of giving himself completely to those in need – both physically and spiritually. And you can tell the seriousness and weightiness with which Paul is talking.

There are several points that can be implied about Paul addressing the elders in this way and about these things:

First is that there had likely already been examples of wolves in sheep’s clothing that had come into the community of faith and attempted to gain a following. Paul had undoubtedly addressed this issue many times directly himself. And the elders of the church had probably relied on Paul to help them handle such occurrences. But now he is passing on that responsibility completely to them. So it’s not a new problem. However, it is likely the first time this responsibility is now uniquely theirs to fulfill. Paul will not be around to help shepherd any longer.

Second is the emotion evidenced both in Paul’s words and in their reaction to him. There are tears – both in Paul referring to his own handling of shepherding them and in their reaction to Paul handing off that responsibility. This is more important than maybe some would want to admit. This unashamed acknowledgment and display of emotions communicates a reality about the work of shepherding that is too often overlooked – the deeply emotional connection with those you shepherd.

There’s a deep level of connection that goes into becoming the spiritual family of God.

In Acts, these spiritual families go thru a lot together, much of it caused by external pressures – persecution, being disowned by their earthly family, the general hardships of life, etc. And we read in the New Testament letters a constant encouragement to persevere together thru those things.

But alongside that, there is also a constant challenge for them to correctly handle the internal pressures that cause hardship. There’s no sense of “rose colored lenses” in Acts (or the New Testament letters) about the difficulties within the church.

The external and internal hardships are expected. It’s how the people are being called to handle those things that the Spirit cares about and the Scriptures address.

Too many times we are formed by the world and culture around us in how to handle hardship. But the Spirit seeks to re-form those of us who follow Jesus into new ways of handling those things as God’s family.

God desires us to become a display for the world of what a true family is like. Many of us grow up in earthly families where not all of these things are displayed well. And so the Spirit is forming the church into a people who are willing to persevere the external hardships (resilient relationships and advocates for justice/righteousness) and also a people who seek to form healthy relationships in the midst of internal hardships as well (communities of character and spiritual intimacy).

This work of becoming a spiritual family is not easy. It means dealing with conflict directly. It means being patient with people’s personal growth. It means giving ourselves away to others, knowing that potentially we may receive from the Spirit alone.

That last part is important. And it is what Paul ends his address to the elders with: “it is more blessed to give than to receive.”

This mentality is in direct competition with the consumer mentality of our world (a mentality that is unfortunately perpetuated in many ways in how the church today attempts to do ministry). And some times, even those of us who recognize this reality (and even say we are not consumers) have been so shaped by consuming that we struggle to truly embrace this generosity mentality. We run our Christianity thru the framework of a hedonistic consuming, and end up missing the importance of the shared life we read about in Acts.

Let’s also not over-spiritualize this calling to shared life.

Becoming spiritual family requires a wholistic approach. There are certainly elements that are expressly spiritual – eternal things that deal with the soul. But there are definitely elements that are related to our humanity – that are simply a part of the reality of life on earth.

In Acts we see people selling things they own and giving away all of that money to share with those who have need among God’s people. This should be a part of our normalized reality in the church (whether it rubs against our American sensibilities or not).

This is not about politics. This is about family.

This us not about economics. This is about generosity.

This is not about people’s ideological beliefs. This is about their souls.

For the sake of your soul and the souls of the family of God you are a part of (and maybe even help shepherd), you must truly believe it is more blessed to give (sacrificially, without expecting anything in return) than to receive (even potentially receiving attention for your giving).

Shepherding is tiring work. Forming a spiritual family can bring the same difficulties as an earthly family. Both deal with real life circumstances. Real hurts. Real needs.

It will mean giving things up for others. It will mean sharing your money, your stuff, your time, and your life to a higher degree than you might have thought you ever would have.

It’s the work of Jesus. And it’s the work of Jesus’ disciples.

It’s what we see the church in Acts living out. It’s what the church in America usually struggles with the most.

We must become the spiritual family the Spirit longs to form, not just an organization we are strategic enough to create.

We must encourage our leaders to be elders (spiritual parents/grandparents), not merely those who can run programs or speak in public.

And we must do the hard work of shepherding those who come behind us – and allow ourselves to be shepherded by those who go before us – not try to constantly chart our own pathway “in the faith.”

The church is not a startup company to be launched. It is a family to be formed in the midst of the joys and the hardships of life.

As we are seeking to become more Christlike than American, we will have to deal with conflict that arises among God’s people. There will be those who want to promote all kinds of things that are not the true Gospel. And we cannot ignore our responsibility to deal with those attacks accordingly – all the while caring of the souls of those who are hurt in the process.

May we guard our souls and the souls of those in our spiritual family with vigilance and courage.

May we care for our souls and the souls of those in our spiritual family with virtue and compassion.

May we become more like Jesus and less American in how we handle conflict and how we handle with care the souls of those in our spiritual family.

May we become more like Jesus and less American in how we hold open handedly our money, stuff, and time to be used by God to care for the lives of those in our spiritual family.

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Becoming More Christlike Than American: Part 5

Part 5: Advocates for the kingdom

“One day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Appoint Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.” So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way…Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and declared, “It was that we first preach the word of God to you Jews. But since you have rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we will offer it to the Gentiles.” Acts 13:2-3,46 NLT

If you’ve never read Acts 13, or haven’t in a while, first go read it.

This story of the sending of Paul and Barnabas to “the nations” (usually translated “Gentiles”) is foundational to our experience and understanding of the Church.

And they did not see it as a secondary result of the Gospel, but as a part of the primary mission of God’s people. The unity of the nations (“ethnos” in Greek) into the kingdom of heaven is essential to the outworking of the Gospel!

Jesus came to reconcile all people to God and to one another in Him. And so as the church formed it was to become a people who would display this reconciliation to the world. The earliest disciples knew this and it was an essential part of their lives.

Too many times in American church culture today you hear the refrain “Just preach the Gospel” in response to the work of reconciliation. And the assumption is that simply by verbalizing a message to people, all things that are supposed to work themselves out will. But we don’t do this with other issues that come out of the Gospel and shape the people of God…

Does just preaching words automatically give us a relationally healthy church?

Does just preaching words readily form a group of people across ethnicity, age, and socioeconomics?

Does just preaching words naturally bring reconciliation of people to God and to one another?

While words are certainly powerful, there is an active roll we play in advocating for the kingdom of heaven to come here on earth. There is a key relational piece that must occur and not just words that are to be shared.

The testimony of words is crucial. But the witness of reconciliatory relationships is too. The Gospel is not the Gospel without both.

Here’s the truth of Acts 13: Just as the Advocate (the Holy Spirit) lives in us, so we become advocates for the kingdom to be displayed on earth as it is in heaven.

We certainly anticipate the return of Christ as the ultimate reconciliation of all people into the kingdom. But we participate now in bringing the kingdom to earth, just as Jesus and his disciples did, to the highest degree we can.

And the main ministry we are called to in this kingdom work is reconciliation – a relational experience of a coming together, not merely words that are preached.

Since we know there is no division in heaven – not because of secondary theological issues, not because of cultural differences and certainly not because of personal preference – then our efforts must be toward the most amount of unity possible here on earth as well!

Yes we recognize that perfect unity is still not yet achievable before Christ’s return. And yet that shouldn’t cause us to resign ourselves to division as if reconciliation cannot be a reality while we are still on earth – this perspective typically leads to a divisive attitude or a desire to justify division.

So what do we do with the reality of this call to reconciliation while we are still here on earth?

It seems we are left with two options: 1) Leave the kingdom reality of unity across uniqueness (individually and in people groups) to only happening after Jesus returns; or 2) Advocate for that kingdom reality on earth as it is in heaven until Christ returns and it is fully realized.

And in my reading of Scripture, it seems only one of those options fits. Considering that this kingdom reality is not only described after Jesus’s return (Revelation 7), but prayed for by Jesus (John 17) and then sought out by Jesus’ followers (the whole book of Acts starting in Acts 2); then it must be our earnest prayer and earnest seeking as well.

Isn’t it amazing that the immediate result of the Advocate (the Holy Spirit) inhabiting those first believers was a bringing together of people from different unique languages and “ethnos” (Acts 2)?

Isn’t it amazing that the response of the Advocate to the dispersion of believers was to empower them to be witnesses wherever they ended up to the people right in front of them who were not “like” them (Acts 8)?

Isn’t it amazing that the plan of the Advocate was to ultimately send out believers specifically to the unique people groups (Gentiles) across the known world in order to plant the Gospel and see the Church spring up right there among them (Acts 13)?

It should not be lost on us how intentional God is in emphasizing at the very beginning of the Church how important it is that the Gospel bring together all kinds of people from all kinds of places into the kingdom of heaven.

It does not happen by chance or circumstance.

It does not happen because of some expressed cultural value.

It happens because it is a key result of the call of the Gospel and the empowering of the Holy Spirit among His disciples.

The uniqueness of the image of God evidenced in each person from every place is brought to a full display of beauty as we find ourselves united in Christ.

To devalue the uniqueness of God’s image within people and people groups is to misunderstand the Gospel altogether.

And this is what Acts displays for us.

Acts is ultimately a prophetic critique of anyone or any group of people who tie the Gospel to their specific culture or their specific nation. Any ethnocentrism, tribalism, or nationalism of any variety within God’s people is a foreign reality to the kingdom of heaven.

As we read Acts 13, and internalize this outward trajectory of the Spirit’s calling to unite the unique image of God within all kinds of people, we must wrestle with how we may have been formed by parts of our own American culture in a way that might deny this reality instead of embrace it.

Do we trust God enough to prioritize the call of the Spirit to go to those who do not share our ethnic values or do we find ourselves bunkering down into silos out of a need for comfort or control?

Do we trust God enough to live as residents of the kingdom of heaven here on earth among all kinds of “people groups” right around us (many that may not look like us or live like us) or do we distance ourselves from that calling because it may inconvenience us?

Do we trust God enough to identify and deal with our own biases so that we can love our neighbor as Jesus loves them or do we live with blinders on which keep us from valuing someone enough to love them well?

Do we trust God enough to celebrate as someone else to express their faith thru the uniqueness of how God has formed them (and the people He’s formed around them) or do we feel the need to get them to conform to our version of expression as if it is “the standard”?

Acts models for us what it looks like for the kingdom to come to earth across all earthly divisions (specifically ethnicity).

May we become Advocates for this united multiethnic kingdom of heaven being displayed here on earth and not for any ethnic-specific version of the American church.

May we become Advocates for this multiethnic kingdom that wages war against the evil in this world that divides and dehumanizes, in order that we may display fully both righteousness and justice as the very witness of The Advocate’s work in our lives.

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Becoming More Christlike Than American: Part 4

Part 4: Resilient Relationships

“A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria…Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Phillip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” Acts 8:1,30-31 NLT

If you’ve never read Acts 8, or haven’t in a while, first go read it.

There’s this amazing scene of Philip with the Ethiopian in Acts 8. Philip, following the guidance of a messenger of God, walks along the road an Ethiopian official was traveling. The Ethiopian official is reading the book of Isaiah aloud while traveling. Philip joins him to explain the Gospel of Jesus to him thru the reading in Isaiah. The Ethiopian asks to be baptized right then as they come upon some water. Philip baptizes him and then is miraculously transported by the Spirit to another place – he disappears the moment the Ethiopian comes out of the water!

And to think this scene happens – and the spreading of the Gospel to the people of Ethiopia (one of the first regions in the world to adopt Christianity as its religion) – because of the scattering of the believers due to persecution.

It displays one of the foremost necessary traits of someone becoming Christlike: resilience.

Don’t miss the significance of this. Christianity had mostly existed within the areas surrounding Jerusalem up to that point. But now the Gospel would go to the places Jesus told his disciples (Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth) because they are being empowered to be witnesses of Him after persecution scatters them.

The scattering of believers is a crucial part of the story of the early church in Acts. It’s a crucial part of the story of God’s people period.

If we left off with just the initial portions of the book, we could assume everything was fairly easy…somewhat organic…maybe systematic even: The Spirit comes. People are converted. They form simple faith communities. And the Gospel slowly but surely spreads methodically from place to place.

Except that isn’t what happened.

What happened was disruption. What happened was the real world. What happened was an opportunity for Jesus’ disciples to follow the Spirit into the wilderness. What happened was the chance for them to become like Jesus by being resilient.

There are some aspects of our discipleship that can only be developed in the wilderness – out beyond the places we “know.” And one of those is certainly resilience.

Other words like it might be perseverance, longsuffering, or endurance.

Resilience has two basic aspects to it: toughness and flexibility.

It means someone can handle the pressures, the difficulties, and the unknowns of life. They aren’t weakened by them, but rather are able to navigate them however is needed.

In the life of those in Acts 8, this looks like dependence upon the Spirit after they are scattered by persecution. It looks like the loss of their comfort zone and the giving up of control.

Too many times in American Christianity we’ve made it about staying in comfort zones and staying in control more than surrendering to the Spirit. We don’t want to embrace significant change (unless it’s on our terms). We don’t even really want to tolerate it. In fact, we do everything we can to guard against it.

Why? Because comfort and control have become things we worship alongside Jesus. And that never works out.

The problem with it is that by worshipping those things it actually makes us weak and inflexible – both qualities that are antithetical to the resilience needed to live as disciples of Jesus in this world.

Jesus promised that in this world we will have troubles – if our master did, then how much more so will we as his servants. But He also comforts us by reminding us that He has overcome the world (John 16).

Following Jesus into the world – knowing troubles will come but He has overcome – requires resilient relationships. We must have a relationship with Jesus and with other believers that is both tough and flexible. And resilience is best displayed when we find ourselves in the wilderness.

There is little need for it in the safety and predictability of Jerusalem. But thru the difficulties of persecution and in the unknowns of Judea and Samaria, it will be required. At least that’s what Acts 8 shows us.

We may not find ourselves actively persecuted for our faith and scattered to the areas bordering the one we call home.

We may not find ourselves literal immigrants (and yet this reality that as Christians we live as immigrants in this world is very real).

We may not find ourselves taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth more so than the ends of our neighborhoods.

But we certainly will find ourselves being called by the Spirit into areas of our communities and our world where we can take the Gospel to places it has not gone – in order for people to be fully aware of the God who is with them – that we might be Jesus’ witnesses to those who have yet to know Him personally.

The kingdom of God does not grow without resilient relationships. And we cannot form resilient relationships without being led by the Spirit into the wilderness.

How are we fighting against this calling into the wilderness instead of growing in resilience thru it?

How are we preventing this calling from shaping our lives under the guise of protecting ourselves, our kids, and others?

How are we idolizing our comfort over this calling by trying to put a “hedge of protection” around our comfort zones?

And how are we striving to control the relationship we have with God and with His people instead of walking into this calling by faith?

Relationships cannot become resilient if we try to confine them to a couple hours a week.

They will not be produced if we try to define them by what we do in a building.

They will not be refined to the degree we need them within the context of our comfort and control.

Resilient relationships with God and others happen as communities of character form around personal experiences with the Spirit as we follow Him together thru the wilderness of life.

May we find ourselves being known for our resilience and not our resistance when it comes to the troubles of this world.

May we be known for our Christlikeness in how we navigate the wilderness and not cling to our Americanness in our desire for comfort and control.

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Why Do we Weight Ourselves to Death?

We too often carry the weight of wounds inflicted too early in life to know how to properly cope with them. When we were wounded, something changed in us. We can’t always describe it, or even explain how we were affected. But it is there.

As a pastor I have heard some of these stories of these old wounds. They linger in our memory and come to the surface when we least expect them to. When I sit and hear these stories, I wonder, “What can I do to help ease the weight of this burden?”

Recently, the thought has come to mind that one of the most important realizations any of us can have is learning we don’t have to carry these burdens forever. We don’t have to carry these memories wondering if we can ever lay them down.

It is not necessary to hide our pain because we don’t want to overburden others with our suffering. Someone may have violated our trust and are now hesitant to try again. I understand that feeling.

But we can’t allow that to stop us from seeking healing and spiritual health. It is scary being vulnerable. It can be frightening to open up to someone else. But it is the path toward freedom. The path away from an unhealthy way of living.

There are people who can help us. We have to ask God to help us find them!

The process of spiritual awakening and ultimate surrender to God’s grace is the only path toward lasting peace. Not because it makes us holier, but because it makes us whole.

This is the promise offered by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He does not promise to eliminate the scars or even the memories.

What he promises is the healing touch of redemption. By taking what we give to him, broken and tattered as it might be, and uses it to fashion something new, and dare we say beautiful.

In the span between lost and found is searching. Our search for purpose, meaning, and salvation. His search for the lost, broken, and longing.

And then, in a moment we did not plan, on a road we did not chose, in a place we never expected to be in, he shows up and sets right what was wrong. Not necessarily in the world around me. But in me.

I become new.

I am changed.

My perspective shifts.

My heart feels hope, as if for the first time. But not like in the way I tried before. Not in my own strength. But as naturally as a sail catches wind. Because that is what it was made to do.

This is the journey of transformation we should seek. This is the path of spiritual health we must not give up on.

There are many who are on the “fake it ’til you make it” plan. May I encourage you to cancel that plan. It is the path of self-deception. It only makes the burden heavier and the hope we desire harder to find.

We must seek those who do not operate out of pretense or a competitive nature. Not those who have hidden motives and transparent agendas. Or those who saw what we want to hear but who are never able to unlock the chains that keep us bound. These are the marks of those still operating out of a system designed to mask what is true and good. These are the signposts of those who are just lying better than the rest of us about what’s really going on in our souls!

Freedom, the kind we need more than anything else, comes at a cost. But if it is real; if it is genuine; if it is lasting, it will be worth whatever it takes to get it.

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