jrrozko's shared items
Simple observation confirmed by numerous studies have found that how American Christians live and their basic beliefs about life are no different than those of the non-Christians.
The Barna Group has established this reality over the years with findings like:
- When defining success, most adults, Christian and non-Christian, focused on personal accomplishments, family solidarity and emotional fulfillment. Only 7% grasp the biblical message that success is not about personal accomplishment or material possessions.
- Almost everyone in the U.S. believes that truth exists. However, a large majority of adults, Christian and non-Christian, contends that there is no absolute moral truth. More than two out of three adults argue that truth is always relative to the individual and the circumstances.
- The divorce rate among Christians is no different than that of non-Christians.
- Breaking the speed limit was an action deemed morally acceptable by two-fifths of all adults. That proportion was rather stable across a wide range of subgroups, including “born again” Christians.
Somewhere in the past 2,000 years, Jesus message and teaching on the genuine Christian walk and calling has disappeared for the most part. Sure, we grew up with a strong teaching that we needed to evangelize, to share our faith, but when did you last hear a message calling us to model our lives after the Sermon on the Mount? It’s as if the average American Jesus follower lives by the credo…
While talking with members of our missional tribe, this subject came up as a passing observation, but it has been resonating with me ever since. It was noted that the missional paradigm is about a fundamental and essential change in our core being which leads us to realign ourselves with the biblical narrative. That shift or change might be verbally illustrated as…
We no longer live the “American dream” with the rare “gospel presentation,” but begin to understand, apply, and walk in the faith Jesus taught and demanded. Out of this deep significant journey into “the way of Jesus,” we will be “conformed to the likeness of his Son” and have a life worth sharing. One which resonates with purpose, hope and meaning. A life where “the way of Jesus” informs and radically transforms our existence to one wholly focused on sacrificially living for Him and others.
Technorati Tags: Missional, Missional Church, Jesus, Christian
He works on us in all sorts of ways. But above all, he works on us through each other. Men are mirrors, or carriers of Christ to other men. Ususally it is those who know Him that bring Him to others. That is why the church, the whole body of Christians showing Him to one another, is so important. It is so easy to think that the church has a lot of different objects - education, buildings, missions, holding services … the Church exists for no other purpose but to draw men to Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any
other purpose. - C.S. Lewis
Not sure how this quote came together, Doug? Part of it is from Mere Christianity.
Tagged: c.s. lewis, christian community
Had a great couple hours yesterday talking with one of the pastors of the large church that helped launch Evergreen (by, uh, "releasing" me into ministry!) yesterday.
There seem to be two different models of growing into Christ at work here. I would argue one is more modern, individualistic and particularly good for people who were raised in evangelicalism and liked it and have a character already formed into Christ (because of good Christian parenting) and therefore are less in need of Christian formation (or at least can get along without it). The other way recognizes the formational issues of growing up in post Christian-dom world. This way is built around a community (the speaking of truth in love- Eph 4: 15), growing together as a community (Eph 4:16) into Christ based upon the working of all of the gifts of Eph 4:11. I must adamantly assert that I don't think the second way is any less committed to Scripture, the conversion of the lost into Christ's salvation or the development of each believer in over and out of sin than the first way. The ways of understanding how Scripture, preaching and the Holy Spirit work together in the community and the individual's sanctification are however different.
Matt Tebbe, one of our pastors, with the help of Geoff Holsclaw, another of our pastors, wrote up the difference like this. (I have edited a few of Matt's words)
HOW DO CHRISTIANS GROW AND MATURE?Have you experienced either one of these ways to how a Christian grows into Christ? Has Matt been fair in his characterizations, the weaknesses and strengths of each way? Have you noticed the same distinctions? Have you ever been in a community that operates under the second set of assumptions? What are your own experiences of growth in relation to the worship/discipleship practices of your church? Do these distinctions ring true for you?
ONE WAY:
1. Strong, charismatic, decisive leadership
− emphasis on one person's vision, dependent on personality and leadership skill of pastor, creates STRONG group identification among members
2. Lengthy, exhaustive, application-heavy teaching and preaching -
− emphasis on right belief leading to right behavior, problem in spiritual progress diagnosed as "wrong/bad/insufficient beliefs" (i.e. not enough information)
3. Community who will be "in your face" about issues, ideas, opinions, advice
− emphasis on not tolerating sin, speaking truth, issues tend to be black and white and approach others monolithic
Can lead to:
− "like throwing gas on a fire" - can bring fast, initial growth, but over time Christians develop lack of character, discernment, and wisdom to sustain an abiding relationship with the Lord
− Leadership style undercuts development of listening, sensitivity, wisdom, and responsivenes to the Spirit
− Incredible numerical growth and brand loyalty to church
− Mature Christian = one who has answers to important questions, can articulate churches positions on issues, has demonstrated right living in certain areas of focus at church
ANOTHER WAY:
1. Humble, mutually-submitted, empowering leadership
− emphasis on a togetherness of leadership, Spirit's authority is not deposited in one person in the church, raising up and empowering others alongside leadership
2. Sermons proclaim the Word of God, the truth (the reality as it is under Christ's Lordship) leading to
a response to the Holy Spirit by congregation in liturgy rather than an application "to-do" list
− emphasis on character formation, responding to Spirit's conviction rather than Pastoral direction, and the mutual reinforcement of obedience and belief.
3. Community who will engage in dialogue, questions, and listening as a way of engaging with others
− emphasis on listening to what the Spirit is doing in another's life, discerning what a person is ready to receive, issues tend to be complex and approach to others is contextual
Can lead to:
− "duraflame log" - slow, steady, sustainable growth in maturity and wisdom as a Christian.
− People who learn how to listen to Spirit, think through issues with a worldview shaped by obedience to scripture, and care for others and respect their journey of faith
− Lower numbers and less brand loyalty
− on the downside, can lead to: abdication of pastoral leadership/authority (i.e. too hands off), congregation can interpret lack of directedness as being "soft on sin" or "not structured enough"
− Mature Christian = one who is a practiced listener - to scripture, the Spirit, one another - and responder, has an imagination and conceptual tools increasingly full of the Story of God, knowledge and understanding leads to humility, obedience, and compassion.
“Like every human organization the Church is constantly in danger of corruption. As soon as power and wealth come to the Church, manipulation, exploitation, misuse of influence, and outright corruption are not far away.
How do we prevent corruption in the Church? The answer is clear: by focusing on the poor. The poor make the Church faithful to its vocation. When the Church is no longer a church for the poor, it loses its spiritual identity. It gets caught up in disagreements, jealousy, power games, and pettiness. Paul says, “God has composed the body so that greater dignity is given to the parts which were without it, and so that there may not be disagreements inside the body but each part may be equally concerned for all the others” (1 Corinthians 12:24-25). This is the true vision. The poor are given to the Church so that the Church as the body of Christ can be and remain a place of mutual concern, love, and peace.” - Henri Nouwen
“This, then, is the revolutionary situation: to be revolutionary is to judge the world by its present state, by actual facts, in the name of a truth which does not yet exist (but which is coming) — and it is to do so because we believe this truth to be more genuine and more real than the reality which surrounds us. Consequently it means bringing the future into the present as an explosive force. It meas believing that future events are more important and more true than present events; it means understanding the present in light of the future, dominating it by the future, in the same way as the historian dominates the past. Henceforth the revolutionary act forms part of history: it is going to create history, by inflecting it towards this future…”
– Jacques Ellul, The Presence of the Kingdom (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 38-39.
“Our children need to join us in this ministry of identification (with the poor). We do them no favor by hiding them from suffering and need. If we imprison them in ghettos of affluence, how can they learn compassion for the broken of the world? So, let us walk hand in hand with our children into pockets of misery and suffering.”-Richard Foster in Freedom of Simplicity
(This is not a critique, but what I believe is an honest starting point for a dialog regarding mothers and babies and how the church can be the embodiement of the love of Christ)
I have seen so much passion regarding this issue, so much time, energy, finances, thought and more being poured into the anti-abortion stance by Christians and christian groups. I’m not sure that I’ve seen so much passion from the church in the USA regarding any other issue (at least from my limited perspective). I’m excited to see so much passion by the church (though at times I feel it is misguided) and I want to empower people to direct that passion to love for babies, children and mothers (completely families). I have a hunch though.
I’m starting to think and believe that the church isn’t pro-life at all. If you could call the church anything regarding this issue it would be “pro-birth”. When I look at the church wholistically and specifically regarding the issue of abortion I see a drive to insist that the only moral route for a pregnant mother is for a baby to be born. But before and after that I see very little effort by the church as a whole to live through our actions a truly “pro-life” stance. Let us love in actions and in truth.
So, that being said, here is my beginning list of ways the church can and should be The Church regarding the issue of pregnancy, babies, families, birth and abortion. I want to start with the ethos of the communities.
Looking at the statistics (regarding premarital sex) and beliefs (against abortion), I find it a little odd that (with one exception) I have never seen a young woman who was pregnant out of wedlock in any church or youth group I attended or was a part of (nor at Wheaton College where I went to undergrad). This concerns me on two levels. First, it says that couples that are getting pregnant and are unmarried are disappearing from the church, or could be secretly having abortions, because of the obvious social acceptableness of being pregnant and unmarried in the church. Secondly, it means the church, by and large, is an extremely uncomfortable place for a woman (or couple) who is pregnant to come to and find a support system.
The church is failing to live out it’s roll because we are shouting condemnation and judgement so loud no one is comfortable coming to us for the love of Christ.
Pastors and Youth Pastors need to take the roll of shifting the ethos of the church to be a welcome place for pregnant teens and unwed mothers (by and large it is not). Sermons need to be preached from the pulpit (of grace, not of condemnation), individuals and families need to be loved, cared for, apologized to. Students need to feel comfortable coming to the parents, youth pastors, or friends, for help regardless of the circumstances.
In addition, the church should be living by example a wholistic love for people through out the life span, regardless of circumstance. By and large, most churches in the US participate in meager acts of charity (again, this has been my experience). A person, of any age, should be able to walk in the church door and have their needs met. And I mean that to an extreme. (I’m talking church, not government, so feel free to accuse me of being a complete church socialist or communist ;). Every man, woman and child within the vicinty of a church should be able to come there and have something to eat, proper clothes and a roof over their head (my church here is far short of that as well, and my own life does not live up to this standard I admit). It says something about us in the church when we claim to be pro-life, but we spend are money and resources on ourselves just like our neighbors while children go hungry around us and woman feel unable to go through with a pregnancy.
Lastly, we as Christians should be in relationships that would allow us the opportunity to intervene and shower our love and support on a woman faced with an unplanned pregnancy. I’ll be the first to admit, I have very few relationships that would put me in a position to help someone and support them before they made a decision. Abortions, by and large, are done in secret, many times because they want to keep the pregnancy a secret. If I was a young pregnant mother, Churches and Christians would likely be the last place I would go, you can feel the venom of condemnation and judgement just imagining it. We need to be those people of unconditional love. We need to be the people that a young pregnant couple could come to and ask for our support in making the right decision, and that we would love them in action, unconditionally. I fear the church (myself included) is not at that level of relationship with the woman (and men) who are being faced with these decisions, and we need to be. I think this is one of the churches great moral failings.
