Monthly Archives: February 2010

Compassion and Conservative Christians

Who knew? Obviously, no one had any idea “conservative” Christians could be compassionate… that is until someone like the New York Time officially recognizes that, hey, conservative Christians actually do some good! Okay, NOW, conservative Christians can be considered as compassionate. (It was like the media “discovering” Pentecostals in 2006, the 100th Anniversary of Azusa Street.)

Nicholas Kristof gives a slight tip of the hat to the compassion of conservative Christians, and their amazing generosity. He still needs to take his digs at that crowd. (But, hey, I still need to take my digs at him as well.)

Kristof does make an excellent point that is overlooked so often by many people:

A root problem is a liberal snobbishness toward faith-based organizations. Those doing the sneering typically give away far less money than evangelicals. They’re also less likely to spend vacations volunteering at, say, a school or a clinic in Rwanda.

The media may be finally waking up to the hard work, the generosity, and YES, the compassion of conservative Christians. Of course, there is no way they will attribute that phrase to George W. Bush and his work. Why be overly generous?

Still, it’s nice to see some kudos for some very hard work going on in Haiti, Africa, and other parts of the world.

Hard Work and Determination

I am reading a book with my church staff about the “Me Generation.”  It is a study, with some very funny sharp opinions, about our current generation. There are some very admirable things about this current generation. One thing I was admittedly surprised about was they seem to have high goals. The downside is they don’t seem to want to work for them. AND, it’s about notoriety. It’s about the 15 minutes of fame and the American Idol mystique.

This article about Supreme Court Justice Byron White is superb. He was incredibly skilled as an athlete AND a scholar. He was also a WWII hero.

He also hated fame. His actions as a WWII hero were enough to gain him incredible fame. Add to that his accomplishments as a football player in his era, and then on top of that his incredible intellect… and he simply avoided the media. What was wrong with that guy?

It’s a great story and a great lesson. Enjoy.

I Love this (Bar)… (Church)…

Mark Galli is becoming a favorite of mine. He cuts through the cultural laziness we have as a church. His recent article deals with just how “friendly” a pastor or church should be. Really, putting it in pure poll numbers, the church just isn’t ranking up there! Isn’t that just a shame? We’d rather go to the local bar than church. Hmmm.

One paragraph:

This finding puzzled Kimberlee Hauss, the Religion News Service writer who summarized the findings. She asked, “Why would people choose a restaurant or bar over a church?” The hidden assumption here, of course, is that churches should be as friendly as bars.

It’s all in the marketing, I suppose…

Galli continues:

No, the life of faith is anything but the easy going, care-free life of the bar, where conversation is easy (at least partly because it is lubricated by alcohol). So it shouldn’t surprise or alarm us that the church is not really like a bar.

Why not go to a bar? You can slur your problems, drown them, and then pick them right back up on the way out the door. Why even think of doing anything ABOUT those problems?

What is needed is authenticity. I do not question that. Yet, it not just needed by the pastors. It’s needed by everyone. It’s not a matter of throwing your life out there like a Facebook update, where you really don’t want solutions. What is needed is a place where people can be transparent (which will take time and energy), and there is a desire for CHANGE. If you don’t want to change, but just pour out your problems (pardon the pun), the local bar is probably your place. Honestly.

But if you struggle with the reality of Christ, the reality of God, the truth of the Gospel, and desire to KNOW answers, the Church just might be your place. However, be warned. You will come face to face with the truth in a real church. You will find healing and hope and freedom, but you will first have to face some ugly truth in all likelihood.

Galli pulls no punches:

Compare religious leaders in the Bible. Would any be described as friendly, even as friendly as a hairstylist? This doesn’t describe Moses. Nor Isaiah. Nor Jeremiah. Nor Paul. Nor Peter. Nor James.

It’s not that I am not friendly, or wish to NOT be friendly! What I look for is freedom in Christ. That takes truth. As James Garfield is credited with saying: “The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.”

There is a need for truth from pastors AND from the people:

I interviewed The Message translator and spiritual theologian Eugene Peterson a few years ago. We were talking about the extraordinary efforts some churches make to be user-friendly, to be accessible, to be warm and inviting. Peterson said that he believes that visitors don’t come to church to be entertained or to have people fawn over them. More than anything, he said, people want leaders in the church to take them seriously.

(I wish my own denomination would pay attention to Peterson’s words a little more.)

There is a need to seriously engage the tough questions of life. This is crucial. Pastors need to be more willing to do so. People need to be more willing to HONESTLY engage those issues. Get it past just a Facebook posting where you want to try and shock people or gain a little sympathy. ASK the questions, and let’s engage the TRUTH.

Unfortunately, evangelical churches are still missing the cues. We’re not seeing the deeper needs. We are paying too much attention to the polls, like so many politicians:

When all was said and done, Group Publishing looked at what makes a place friendly, and then offered suggestions on how churches can be more welcoming. They noted that the top things that make people feel a place is friendly are “making me feel like I belong” and “making me feel comfortable.”

Where the Church shines is at the cross. It’s level at the cross. You belong at the foot of the cross. All of us fit there! Yet, we can’t get to that second thing: Feeling comfortable. Not at the foot of the cross.

For comfort, you’ll need the local bar.

Galli wraps this up nicely:

Maintaining a sense of belonging is not easy. You will find yourself worshipping with people who irritate you, people with whom you disagree, people you find difficult to forgive at times. But the very reason you put up with their flaws and stupidities, and they with yours, is that you both belong to a family you cannot escape.

Furthermore, you don’t really belong to a group until people feel free enough to tell you what they really think of you and free enough to talk about the deepest, most troubling realities.

The church (at least where I pastor) will engage you and love you and be with you. But it won’t always be comfortable. You will irritate others and others will irritate you. Welcome to the real world! But they will also put up with shortcomings because we all know our own shortcomings. AND we work for healing, because the pain of where we are needs to be healed and made whole.

Well, THAT was fun…

I have been “blogging” for a few years, but trying to do it more seriously about a year or so. It has been fascinating, since moving to WordPress, to see how certain articles gain certain hits. I just don’t get a lot of activity on my blog, but that’s nothing new. I expect to blog about something inane, like spiritual disciplines, which bores the stuffing out of Christians. Really…why bother with all that spiritual discipline stuff? Can’t I just put up a good worship video or something?

At any rate, a couple of times I had some really fun days for me. Nothing huge, but all of a sudden, I went from 20 hits to 200. One time it was book review on Roy Williams. So, that’s a bit understandable.

But I did a fun post on cell phones in the bathroom, and ZOOM.

Now, I’m back to zero hits. So, life is back to normal. For four days, it was a TON of fun, so thanks for giving me a big rush during that time.

The Wonder of the Cross

It is about this time of year when a large part of the Church focuses on Lent that another part of the Church will cry out for more attention on the resurrection. The clamor is probably about the misconception of living in the cross without the power of the resurrection. I get that. I understand that can become a focus that is not healthy.

Yet, in this time of year, I am reminded of the incredible power of the cross. It’s not that I don’t live in the power of the resurrection. One of my favorite verses is about the same Spirit which raised Christ from the dead dwells in me (Rom. 8:11)!

Friends, it is BOTH. We must have the power of the cross effective in our lives. Through this time of reading in Lent I am also reminded of the overwhelming focus of Paul’s preaching. He says to the Corinthians, “But we preach Christ crucified” (1 Cor. 1:23). The cross is a stumbling block. Let it be a stumbling block for unbelievers, not believers!

Satisfied… or not?

Just when I think I’ve got something figured out… go figure.

Ben Witherington has to write on holy DIScontent. Great! :)

First, I would say that we must not listen to the siren voices of pop psychology and the like which encourage us to settle, to be satisfied with the way we are, especially when it comes to our behavior.  On the contrary, we should wake up every morning realizing we are not all we ought to be. We have not yet arrived.

Great. I’m NOT satisfied. Back to the drawing board!

The Pain of Satisfaction

The other day I read a story about a man I have admired for well over 20 years. He is the top in his profession, in my opinion. He has known tremendous success in just about any way you could measure it. Not just money, but integrity, family, awards… I have not known him personally, but everything I could ever read about him spoke of excellence.

The other day I heard a story about another person. Not nearly as well known, but a friend. Though I’ve known of difficulties, I have known this person to be a loving person. Though there are struggles, she would be one I would look at and say, “You know what? She loves God and pursues God and loves people. I truly admire that.”

The stories I heard about both of them were the same: ultimately, they weren’t “enjoying the ride.” For the successful man, the article I read talked about how he never let the successes carry him along. He would let the defeats in life depress him for weeks or months. He couldn’t savor the successes, even when it meant so much to so many people.

For the friend, she was allowing words of defeat and depression take away all the Lord had done in her life over these years.

It is like we cannot believe in contentment. Paul’s admonition that “godliness with contentment is great gain” is lost on us. It is too often lost on me. There is always something better I SHOULD be doing, or I left something undone. And should I ever feel a moment of contentment, it is often overwhelmed in a few minutes with guilt. “There are so many who don’t have what I have.” Or other thoughts like that.

Yet, the Word almost yells at us about our incredible God. He is abundant. In him we FEAST on his grace and mercy.

“My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips” (Ps. 63:5).

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight” (Eph. 1:7,8).

I am incredibly, deeply satisfied in God’s grace and provision. Truly. My heart is full. It is such a pain to write those words.

Is the Age of Entitlement Over?

A column by Thomas Friedman thinks so. Friedman is a great observer of American culture. In his view, we truly have reached lean times when residents of a county have to think about paying for a 911 call. They can pay a flat fee per year, or a huge fee per call.

So many things we just simply take for granted due to extravagantly “fat” times over the past generation are now coming home to roost. What was a privilege two generations ago is now seen as a right. And somehow we have lost sight of the fact that we have to EARN our rights. They are not always free. In fact, they are NEVER free.

Yet, it’s what we keep demanding.

Healthcare. We need reform. However, NO ONE wants to give up ANYTHING to get something better. We can blame the insurance companies, hospitals, doctors, and on and on. How about ourselves? How about learning to deal with a cough WITHOUT going to the emergency room? We just keep demanding.

We want responsibility from banks that practiced horrible lending practices. Yet, we were certainly thrilled to take out a $300,000 loan to get a house we couldn’t possibly hope to pay for in a huge mortgage. We just keep demanding.

President Obama keeps lecturing us that government isn’t our solution… and then proposes more government spending to get us out of the mess we made. We just keep demanding.

A generation ago, I could have these thoughts and put them in a journal using a pen and paper and no one would ever read them. Now, I can put them on the web and… well, no one will still read them, but there is the possibility that SOMEONE will read them. Yet, do I want to pay more for internet access or a newer computer or newer technology? Not if I don’t have to! We just keep demanding.

We do not know how to make lean choices. We are intelligent, well-educated, creative in so many ways… and handicapped. We don’t know how to do without, or EARN our way to something better. We just keep demanding.

Cell Phone Etiquette

I realize how foolish it is to put the words “cell phone” with “etiquette.” It’s like putting “Facebook” or “Twitter” with words like “RESTRAINT.”

Yet, twice in the last several weeks I have had run-ins with cell phones in places I just can’t believe people would take them and actually USE them. Could I offer one word of advice? It won’t go anywhere with you, but just one word:

Could you please NOT use the cell phone in a public bathroom?

It would be understandable if the public bathroom were in, say, the Pentagon. The Pentagon might be a place where there could be a free pass to use the cell phone in a public bathroom when the one on the cell phone in the bathroom is a four star general needing to talk to the President about a nuclear strike. It’s possible the general has been on hold with the President for awhile, and, well, nature called. So, you can’t just hang up with the President while he is consulting other world leaders. So, should I be in the Pentagon and in a public bathroom and hear a four-star general conversing in the next stall and realize he is the only one in there (which would be a relief), then I certainly wouldn’t mind hearing something like, “Well, Mr. President, I think we should stand down on this one.”

So, one exception could be if we are on the brink of nuclear war and you are on the phone counseling the President.

It just COULD be understandable if it were a hospital public restroom. The surgeon needs to take a quick break and he gets a call from surgery. So, maybe if I hear voices coming out of the next stall and the deep male voice is saying something like, “No, that’s the spleen. You’ll need to put that one back. The appendix looks like…” I will certainly understand.

Nuclear war. Major surgery.

But you just holding a conversation with someone about your horrible day because you had to wait in line for some stupid concert ticket? I’m sorry… out of bounds.

It’s quite possible women are not bothered by this at all. Conversation in the public bathroom has been going on for centuries over there, I’m sure. But in the men’s room? Not so much. Thus, it is completely unnerving to go into a restroom, notice that the stall is occupied by one pair of feet, so you take the next stall, and then you start hearing TWO voices out of that first stall.

Gentlemen, could we PLEASE have some space here? Plus, if I happen to be on the phone with you and I hear a flush, I just want you to know ahead of time… I’m hanging up. President or not. Surgeon or not. I’m hanging up. Nuclear destruction can happen. I don’t want to hear your bodily functions in my cell phone.