"Exploding" Christianity in Africa -- What Will We Do?

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CBN reports on the growing number of churches and Christians in Sub-saharan Africa.  Christianity is "exploding."

In 1900 there were 7 million Christians in sub-Saharan Africa. That number is up 70 times today to a staggering 470 million. Christians now account for 60 percent of the population.

That growth by any global comparison or historical comparison has to be one of the most rapid religious transformations in the history of Christianity in the last 2,000 years.

I know the United Methodist Church is growing by leaps and bounds there.  The question is what the Western Church will do when denominations and para-church organizations take on a particular African feel -- socially conservative, emphasis on liberation and health issues, different styles of worship, etc.

Researchers have discovered the most religious place on earth: The area between the Sahara Desert and the southern tip of Africa.

Here Christianity, and to a lesser extent Islam, are attracting followers in numbers not seen in more than 100 years.

Soweto. Most people will remember this place for the role it played in the struggle against racial segregation. Twenty years after the end of apartheid, inside South Africa's biggest black township, another image is emerging.
Soweto is on fire for God.

"People come here and they really sense that they've had an encounter with God," said Pastor Mosa Sono of Grace Bible Church in Soweto.

So...what do we do?  How we we respond?  How do we embrace this growth, encourage it, and learn from it?

The Rabbi's Gift -- A Lesson for All Christian Churches

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The story concerns a monastery that had fallen upon hard times. It was once a great order, but because of persecution, all its branch houses were lost and there were only five monks left in the decaying house: the abbot and four others, all over seventy in age. Clearly it was a dying order.

In the deep woods surrounding the monastery there was a little hut that a rabbi occasionally used for a hermitage. The old monks had become a bit psychic, so they could always sense when the rabbi was in his hermitage. "The rabbi is in the woods, the rabbi is in the woods" they would whisper. It occurred to the abbot that a visit the rabbi might result in some advice to save his monastery.

The rabbi welcomed the abbot to his hut. But when the abbot explained his visit, the rabbi could say, "I know how it is" . "The spirit has gone out of the people. It is the same in my town. Almost no one comes to the synagogue anymore." So the old abbot and the old rabbi wept together. Then they read parts of the Torah and spoke of deep things. When the abbot had to leave, they embraced each other. "It has been a wonderful that we should meet after all these years," the abbot said, "but I have failed in my purpose for coming here. Is there nothing you can tell me that would help me save my dying order?"

"No, I am sorry," the rabbi responded. "I have no advice to give. But, I can tell you that the Messiah is one of you."

When the abbot returned to the monastery his fellow monks gathered around him to ask, "Well what did the rabbi say?"

“The rabbi said something very mysterious, it was something cryptic. He said that the Messiah is one of us. I don't know what he meant?"

In the time that followed, the old monks wondered whether the significance to the rabbi's words. The Messiah is one of us? Could he possibly have meant one of us monks? If so, which one?

Do you suppose he meant the abbot? Yes, if he meant anyone, he probably meant Father Abbot. He has been our leader for more than a generation. On the other hand, he might have meant Brother Thomas. Certainly Brother Thomas is a holy man. Everyone knows that Thomas is a man of light. Certainly he could not have meant Brother Elred! Elred gets crotchety at times. But come to think of it, even though he is a thorn in people's sides, when you look back on it, Elred is virtually always right. Often very right. Maybe the rabbi did mean Brother Elred. But surely not Brother Phillip. Phillip is so passive, a real nobody. But then, almost mysteriously, he has a gift for always being there when you need him. He just magically appears. Maybe Phillip is the Messiah.

Of course the rabbi didn't mean me. He couldn't possibly have meant me. I'm just an ordinary person. Yet supposing he did? Suppose I am the Messiah? O God, not me. I couldn't be that much for You, could I?

As they contemplated, the old monks began to treat each other with extraordinary respect on the chance that one among them might be the Messiah. And they began to treat themselves with extraordinary respect.

People still occasionally came to visit the monastery in its beautiful forest to picnic on its tiny lawn, to wander along some of its paths, even to meditate in the dilapidated chapel. As they did so, they sensed the aura of extraordinary respect that began to surround the five old monks and seemed to radiate out from them and permeate the atmosphere of the place. There was something strangely compelling, about it. Hardly knowing why, they began to come back to the monastery to picnic, to play, to pray. They brought their friends to this special place. And their friends brought their friends.

Then some of the younger men who came to visit the monastery started to talk more and more with the old monks. After a while one asked if he could join them. Then another, and another. So within a few years the monastery had once again become a thriving order and, thanks to the rabbi's gift, a vibrant center of light and spirituality in the realm.

This story came from The Different Drum, by Dr. M. Scott Peck, M.D.


See the original story here.
  * The Different Drum was written by Scott Peck. He did not write this story. The author is unknown.

"We Messed Up" -- A Letter to Those Disenfranchised by the Christian Church

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My friend, Dave Beckett, who happens to be my Superintendent in the Alaska United Methodist Conference, has written a wonderful letter over at his blog, "Dave's Dibble."  It's a confession that, in the name of doctrinal purity, we have failed to show love to this world of ours and have failed to listen to the unchurched in our midst.

It begins this way:

We got it wrong.  For quite some time now the Church has made crucial mistakes.  We have assumed that Church as we have known it will continue without the major changes you have wanted to see.  We have focused more on doctrinal purity than the needs of the poor.  We have tried to start new churches based on our vision rather than your needs.  We have convinced ourselves that we have been loving you but more often than not you have not received our actions as genuine love.  We have held fast to worship practices that keep us entrenched and unable to conceive of the changes necessary to reach your heart with the glory of God.  We have caused division in the Church and the world with our beliefs about who is living in sin.  We have insisted that you accept certain forms of prayer and non-essential beliefs before we accept you into the Church.  

I hope you'll read the whole thing over here.

"THIS is why I do it" -- On of the Rewards of Pastoring

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I was merely going out to ask the guy across the street not to park his car directly behind our Suburban.  It's hard to see back there.  Plus, really, I think it's kind of rude to park at the end of someone's driveway.   I was asking nicely, but I just never understood why, when there was ample parking space in front of the house they were renting that he thought that the best place was at the end of our driveway, making it difficult for us to get out.  I seemed inconsiderate.  And, more, as the snow will soon begin to fall we have a great interest on our street keeping the road as wide as possible.  We live on a hill.  Sometimes in winter you really want to have a two-lane road because the car going downhill may not be able to stop.  It happens.  You need some passing room.  It's safer.  And, as I said, there was ample room for him to pull off the road right in front of his home.  He didn't have to park where he was parking.  But, I was going to be nice about it and I was.

So, that's what got me out of the house in the dark to talk with the new neighbor across the street on a weeknight.  Slightly confrontational?  Yes.  But something learned by actually living on the street for the past 7 years and seeing how it all works.  We need some room to maneuver.

I, frankly, was a little nervous as the door closed behind me.  I'm really not one that handles confrontation very well.  I'm more of a "smooth-it-over guy."  I didn't want to have anyone upset with me.  I like everyone to love me and be happy with me.  I don't want to be seen as an obnoxious neighbor.

And, as I got out there at night I saw a familiar face among the four persons standing out there.  She's someone whom our church has helped out financially.  She's someone who has worked with my kids in daycare.   She's someone who used to work in a drive-through coffee shop and I used to go get coffee from her every Sunday morning between our 8:30 and 10 AM worship services.  16 OZ SKIM MILK LATTE WITH SUGAR FREE HAZELNUT, HALF THE USUAL AMOUNT OF HAZELNUT (my drink of choice.)  And each Sunday she'd ask me what I was preaching on and each Sunday I'd give her a terribly abbreviated version of my sermon.  Each Sunday.

One Sunday we were discussing poverty in church and I shared some of the statistics about "the working poor" and the struggles they face.  She said, "Pastor Jim, that's me.  I work two jobs and sometimes three in this town just to try keep living here and each month I get farther and farther behind.  There's a lot of us in this town."

Sometimes it was she who preached to me.

Well, in the street at night, addressing the car parking issue, she said to the others from the rental unit.  "Pastor Jim here is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet," and she put her arms around me to give me one of those those "side hugs" that are always pretty "safe" but can still show some genuine affection.  I love flattery, but it's what she said afterward that I really loved.  Afterward she looked at me and said,

Do you remember all those Sunday mornings you came and got your coffee and shared your sermons with me?  Well, those were awesome.  I always looked forward to that time.  I grew up Catholic and left the church a while ago, but those times brought me closer to Christianity than I'd been in a long time.  They kind of restored my faith in the church. Thank you.

As I think back to those Sunday morning coffees, I think I got the sense that she truly enjoyed hearing my condensed sermons.   And I think she got the sense that I wanted her perspective and to hear her stories about them for the week.  I did.  And to hear now, in the dark, a few years later, that God was acting in her life because of those conversations was awesome to hear.  It was a blessing.  It was a blessing for me to know that it made a difference.

I don't really want to take any of the credit here.  I'm very happy calling this a "God-thing" and leaving it there.  But I am going to hold onto this conversation.

Sometimes in ministry I can wonder why it is that I do this...this whole ministry-thing, with its meetings, and planning, and worrying about church finances, and running off to Bible studies, and entering into some dramatic highs and lows in persons' lives.

So, why do I do it?

Because sometimes, God, acting through me, leads to a transformation in someone's life.  Sometimes I see someone drawn closer to God again (like my friend in the street).  Sometimes a person learns something and their eyes are opened to a new reality about Scripture or person and work of Christ.  Sometimes I can see the proverbial "gears" grinding away in their minds as they begin to understand faith at a deeper level.  Sometimes right choices are made and wrong choices are confessed and atoned for.   Sometimes marriages are saved or children come home or those who have lost loved ones are comforted in their time of need.

I do it because the Holy Spirit is alive and kicking and sometimes works through even me as surprising as I sometimes find it. And sometimes, like in the account above, I get to actually see some of the fruits of this whole minitry-thing.

"[CHURCH] is a VERB" -- Sermon for August 15, 2010

Text:  Matthew 28:16-20 & Luke 10:1-12
Title:  “[CHURCH] Is a VERB”

My first church out of seminary was in __________, Indiana.  There were some good people in that church…really good people.  Some of you know that I've talked openly about how that was a hard place to start out in ministry for a couple different reasons.  And, so, when I say "there were some really good people there" you might expect me to follow it with the traditional Southern, "Bless their hearts."  Sometimes, perhaps stereotypically, Southerners will say something like “Jimmy Ray Miller (bless his heart)…” and then follow it with all the horrible stuff they were going to tell you about Jimmy Ray Miller and the only reason their saying "bless his heart" at all is so they don't feel bad about talking bad about him.

But there were some really good people in that church.  There really were.  In fact Julie and the kids were able to go visit a few of them when they were down in Indiana…although they attend a different church now.  There were, and I'm sure still ARE, some wonderful people in that church.


But I did come out of that church with some stories that have been instrumental in my understanding of what it means to be a church and what it means to reach out, as I am want to say, "IN CONCERN AND SERVICE FOR THE WORLD."

I know many of you have heard this story before.  But, you’re going to hear it again.

See, when I got to the church, one of the first Sundays I was there, one of the folks who had been around awhile said, “Preacher, you know what your job is here.”  My ears perked up, thinking this could be pretty important.  He said, “Your job here is to bring in young people…and make sure they’re upwardly mobile.”  In an economically depressed county seat town in Indiana, he wanted me to find the one or two twenty-somethings who were moving up a corporate ladder somewhere and hadn’t moved out of that town and make them members.  It was going to be a challenge to meet that job requirement.

But that comment wasn't meant to be rude or mean or anything.  It was because the church was hurtin’ for young people in the pews.  Those referred to as “the young women” by the elders of the church were now approaching 60.  And the older ladies were approaching 80.  Most of the kids of those 60 and 80 year old persons had moved away, seeking greener economic pastures.  And the church found almost no one to fill the void.  They weren’t an unfriendly bunch.  They had some studies going on.  There was a lot of experience in the congregation.   That gentleman who gave me my job description was merely putting some words to what, I think, a lot of folks were feeling when they had a 22 year old pastor show up with his young wife to serve a congregation with a lot of graying hair.

While we can have lots of discussions about mission and evangelism and hospitality that this all points to, I want to say that this particular church in ______, Indiana was suffering from BAD GRAMMAR.

See, back in the fifties, after World War II, those returning veterans with their lovely young wives...they were full of energy.  They were planning families.  And they wanted to build a church.  They got together and they worked and they planned and they sacrificed and they built a rather large stone church with a  whole neighborhood around it.

At this time, the church adopted a BEHIVE as their symbol—each worker bee assigned a task in order to raise up a hive…a church…a spiritual home for all of those bees.  It’s no mistake I think that the Freemasons see a beehive as a symbol of industry.  There were a lot of masons among the older members of the church and they were clearly industrious.

Now I’m extrapolating from my own history there as these events took place long before I got there in 1994.  But, I think all of that DOING had one goal…BEING.  There were a group of people who were, by God, going to build and BE the Methodist Church in that neighborhood.  They had young families and they had a facility and the assumption was that persons would be drawn to that place like…well, bees to honey.

And, perhaps it worked for a little while.  The “if you build it, they will come” mentality works well for a while.  The latest new thing always gets a little bit more attention.

But somewhere along the line…they were no longer DOING church.  They merely WERE the church.  All those action words that had described them during their years of construction and growth stopped.  It was all stuff from their PAST.

Their church became a NOUN.  It was a building.  Yes, it was a building where they had friends and had funeral dinners to support the loved ones after a funeral for those who had died in the community.   Yes, they had their Sunday School classes.  And, yes those older women and younger women, who were rapidly increasing in age over the years, supported missionaries far and wide.

But very few people ever set foot in their building, except for Sunday mornings.  For many in the community, it was just that church building over by Lincoln School.  And, by the time I had gotten there, and walked around the community, I found many of the neighbors didn’t even know it was a church.  Because of their need to protect their building…because of a self-satisfaction that comes from being around people just like you that you just really like…because they had gotten undisciplined in their discipleship…they HAD church, all right…but they were failing at DOING church in their community and in the world.

In all fairness, this is way oversimplified.  Factor in an economic depression, an influx of Hispanic workers, and the exodus of young adults from the community and you can see there were other factors involved.  A fifty year history of a midwestern church in a midwestern town can't be condensed down to a 20 minute sermon illustration without using some very broad strokes.

But it’s clear from my time there, that church was NO LONGER AN ACTION WORD.

Two quick stories that get at this:

First, there was a story about why the boy scouts were no longer able to use the building.  I think I remember it correctly at this time.  Apparently, when meeting up on the third floor…long before I got there since I never saw the third floor used but twice…when meeting up on the third floor, one of the boy scouts started a fire in the garbage can.  I understand that this is behavior you don’t want repeated, but the response of the church was excessive.  They determined that no outside groups were going to use their church, particularly not the Boy Scouts.  And I have no idea how long that had gone on before I got there, but they had a facility that had, easily triple the floor space of our new facility we're building over there and it was only regularly used Sunday morning for worship and Sunday school, Thursday morning for “[Older] Women's Bible Study” (and I loved those ladies), and Thursday evening for choir practice…four hours a week.  But they kept it clean and protected it from any fires up on the third floor.

Secondly, and I’ve shared this here, when I got to the church and saw that it was right across the street from Lincoln School, I wanted to know about outreach and ministry with the kids or teachers at the school.  The conversation went something like this:

“So, I notice, we are right across the street from Lincoln School.  So what types of ministries have you all done with the school over the years?”

“What do you mean?

“I mean, have you had any kids clubs or tutoring or have you done something special for the teachers on the first day of school, like a breakfast or something, or brought over gifts at the holidays.”

“No.”

“How long have you been across from the school?”

“Forty years.”

“You mean this church has been sitting directly across the street from an Elementary School for forty years and we’ve never done anything to be in ministry with them or to them?  Well, we should start something!”

“Well, the school is closing down this year.”

And it did.

There was a kid walking home from school right before summer vacation and I was inviting him to the first Vacation Bible School that church had had in years.  I was telling him where it was going to be and pointed to our church which we were standing in front of, and he said he had no idea that it was a church at all.  The church could have evaporated into thin air, right there on the spot, and it wouldn't have made a lick of difference to him...or perhaps his parents...or perhaps many other folks in that town.  That's not just sad.  It's not right.

Many churches, for years, have operated from the ATTRACTIONAL MODEL—meaning churches have felt “if we build it, they will come.”  Churches have felt that all we needed to do was put up pretty signs and have the most awesome praise band and make sure the Yellow Pages (that’s a phone book, kids.  You may not use one), make sure the Yellow Pages listed you as a “FRIENDLY CHURCH.”  And people were going to be ATTRACTED to the church merely because it was the church…it was THERE.  It had persons.  It was a place.  It was a thing.  It was a noun.

And, you know, golly, when you’re working in an environment that is religiously sensitive, where activities revolve around church activities, where persons are being born in the church and raised in the church and married in the church and taught in the church and buried in the church—or nearby it—this just might work for a little while.  Just make the neon sign a little larger than the church next door and you’ll be fine.

But, you know, it just doesn’t work this way.  I know that when I go outside and speak to supporting churches and show them the artist’s rendering of our new facility and show them all the people that are walking in through the front doors I joke that we didn’t have just an artist but a prophet, too…he could see all the people that were going to come to us once we build this place. 

Our shiny new doors aren’t going to reach people for Christ.  And, I’m happy to say, I’M not going to reach people for Christ.  WE ARE.   And to do so, we will need to be sent out through those shiny new doors, to love the people where we are…our neighbors, our coworkers, our teammates.

People will hear the gospel message, they will find comfort in times of trouble, they will have their minds blown by the amazing grace of God, they will find that there are Christians whose company they can enjoy and have fun with…because, instead of an ATTRACTIONAL MODEL of ministry, we have a MISSIONAL model.  We’re not a noun.  We’re a verb.  We’re an action, a ministry, an outreach.  We are a people who do not SIT, we are a people who are SENT.  Amen?

It’s probably about time for a little Bible now.  And, these aren’t hard, friends.

Matthew 28…the Great Commission.

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.  When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.  Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Go.  Baptize.  Teach.  Verbs!

Luke 10:1-12, known as the sending of the 70 (or 72, depending on the manuscript):

He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.  Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.  Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

Go.  I’m sending you out.  Go be VERBS!

It was said by one of my teachers down in Nashville, that while much of discussion of mission in the church has revolved around Matthew 28, Luke 10 may be closer to what the church needs today.  We’re not looking for vast hordes of Christians to go out and harvest like a swarm of locusts eating crops.  We need folks to do out two by two…into the places where the unchurched people are--as your friends--and eat and stay and be with them…trying to be good witness in their presence and…over time…through relationship share the story of Jesus...or what Jesus means to you.

Look, next week is our CHURCH IS A VERB SUNDAY.  We're going to be doing service projects in the community again.  But, I don't want to close out the sermon by just listing them.  I want to give you an illustration about what it looks like when a church starts being a VERB.  It’s an illustration I heard from Rev. Sharma Lewis, a United Methodist District Superintendent from Georgia and thought it was so awesome, I put in on my blog.

There was a church (as often these stories go)….

There was a church in a downtown area of some town somewhere and it might have had some resemblance to that church in Indiana that I had been sent to—not much going on, the community not knowing it was even there, and if it had burned down only the people who were there on Sunday morning would have missed it.

In this "somewhere church" there was fire that broke out on a Sunday evening.  Some trustees of this church were in the area and saw the smoke coming out through the old stained glass windows.  The trustees ran in to the building thinking that they could AT LEAST save a picture of Jesus hanging down in fellowship hall.

Now, this was a pretty traditional picture of Jesus and had been in the congregation, hanging on the same wall of the fellowship hall, for 25 years.  It had been painted around, straightened when it got a little crooked, occasionally dusted.  Persons had eaten many a doughnut and drunk many a cup of coffee at its feet.  Children had run wild.  Youth had held lock ins.  All with little regard to its presence in their midst.  But that was many years before.  Recently it had just been dusted around.

Then the fire came.

Well, those trustees raced into the church, raced downstairs into fellowship hall, and raced on out with the picture of Jesus.

There wasn't much else that could be saved that day.  Those two trustees, some other members who got the phone call about the fire, and a lot of the people from the neighborhood gathered around and watched the church slowly burn to the ground.  It was a community event.

As they stood there and watched the church burn, they looked at the picture of Jesus in their midst.  It was traditional.  Jesus was a traditional lily-white, gazing up to heaven.  But there was a beauty about him.  Someone noted an irony of "saving Jesus from the fire."  The trustees got to share why it is that they would run in and save this one thing and why it was important.  Church members got to talk about some of the great, holy, life-changing events that had happened in that little church, even if it had been a long time ago.  And persons, some of whom had been in the community for years, heard about the saving power of this "saved" Jesus for the first time.

We need to be about the business of taking Jesus out onto the streets.  We need to take the message out on the highways and byways…to the neighborhoods and coffee shops and bars and parks and homes and businesses and lives around us.  We CANNOT keep our Jesus confined to our fellowship halls and our libraries and sanctuaries and church offices.  We CANNOT keep our Jesus inside our 30-foot by 30-foot leaky-roofed box of a church or our 126-seat sanctuary church we hope to be in.  We have a world out there that needs to hear about and be transformed by our Jesus.  It may take a spiritual fire to make it happen, but we pray it doesn't take a physical one.

We need to go and preach and teach and love and serve and work and relate and share and play and heal and love.

Because CHURCH IS A VERB.  We are an ACTION WORD FOR JESUS.  Let's GO.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

A Twiter Version of the Bible

Image by The Next Web via Flickr

Yes, it's Christians across the pond.  First there was communion via Twitter.  Now the whole Bible.  The hope, apparently, is that persons will receive the tweets and want to read the whole Bible.

Reports The Guardian:

A Christian evangelist has launched an almighty work of precis, to reduce the 800,000-odd words in the Bible to 1,190 tweets.

Chris Juby, a 30-year-old freelance web developer and director of worship at King's church in Durham, says it will take more than two years to reach chapter 22 of the Book of Revelation, with its forecast of the second coming of Christ.

He started last Sunday by condensing the 31 verses of Genesis chapter one, which traditionally starts with the appropriately pithy: "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." Juby supplemented this with a further 17 words in his opening tweet, staying comfortably within Twitter's 140-character limit.

Here are the first three tweets:

Gen1: God created the heavens, the earth and everything that lives. He made humankind in his image, and gave them charge over the earth.

Gen2: God formed a man and gave him the garden in Eden, except for the tree of knowledge. Adam was alone so God made a woman as his partner.

Gen3: The serpent deceived the woman; she and Adam ate from the tree. The earth became cursed, and God sent Adam and Eve out of the garden.

I'm not sure if this is genius or wacky, but I confess to signing up to be a follower (a Twitter Follower)

The Salvation of Katy Perry

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(OK, a little reflection on some pop culture here.  Clearly not my strong point.  However, I'm interested in the religious side of this discussion.)

Much has been made of the Katy Perry interview and cover over at Rolling Stone magazine recently, partly because of all of the "faith" issues it brings up.  See, Katy was raised by some dynamic youth ministers in an evangelical Christian church, she had a short-lived Christian Music Career, and now she's engaged to Russel Brand (hard-living/hard-talking comedian) and is a pop princess.

There's a preview of the article, entitled "Sex, God, and Katy Perry" over here at Rolling Stone.

You can see a video here where she talks about her parents.

And there's a whole lot out there about the revealing outfits she's worn.

But it's the transition between that upbringing to what she reveals, in word and action, now that are of interest to myself and others.

MTV talks about her upbringing:

In fact, while she appreciates having fiancé Russell Brand in her life, she just can't bring herself to say she feels lucky. Why? "I wasn't ever able to say I was 'lucky' because my mother would rather us say that we were blessed, and she also didn't like that lucky sounded like Lucifer," she told the magazine, which hits newsstands Friday. "Deviled eggs were called 'angelled' eggs. I wasn't allowed to eat Lucky Charms, but I think that was the sugar. I think my mom lied to me about that one."

Perry, who has the word "Jesus" tattooed on her wrist, admits that her parents channeled God regularly. "Speaking in tongues is as normal to me as 'Pass the salt.' It's a secret, direct prayer language to God," she explained, adding that her father is the one who can speak in tongues with her mother acting as translator. "That's their gift," she said.

So...no "lucky"...no "Deviled eggs"...no problem with speaking in tongues...

And we see this in the New York Daily News:

Katy Perry may be cool with stripping down to her skivvies for Rolling Stone, but the pop star says she takes her religion very seriously.

"I am sensitive to Russell taking the Lord's name in vain and to Lady Gaga putting a rosary in her mouth," the pop star, 25, told Rolling Stone about her fiancé Russell Brand's often dirty mouth and Lady Gaga's "Alejandro" video. "I think when you put sex and spirituality in the same bottle and shake it up, bad things happen."

So...sexually revealing stuff is OK...but blasphemy she still has a problem with.


What I have found interesting, outside of the pop-culture news of all of this, is the questions surrounding Katy Perry's salvation.  Is she going to heaven or hell?  Is she a believer anymore?

Denny Burke, New Testament professor at Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, pulls out some other quotes from the magazine in a blog post:

“It’s surprising to hear Perry talk about God in this way, because one would think her religious past is behind her, but she says she still considers herself a Christian.  She shows me the tattoo of the word JESUS that she got on her wrist, just like her dad. ‘God is very much still a part of my life,’ she says. ‘But the way the details are told in the Bible—that’s very fuzzy for me. And I want to throw up when I say that. But that’s the truth.’

“‘I still believe that Jesus is the son of God… But I also believe in extraterrestrials, and that there are people who are sent from God to be messengers, and all sorts of crazy stuff… Every time I look up, I know that I’m nothing and there’s something way beyond me. I don’t think it’s as simple as heaven and hell.’”

“Perry started to question the path she was on. Her Christian label shut down, and, she says, ‘My gospel career was going nowhere.’ She started to write songs about love—and boys—on her guitar. And those weren’t gospel songs. ‘Letting go was a process,’ she says. ‘Meeting gay people, or Jewish people, and realizing that they were fine was a big part of it. Once I stopped being chaperoned, and realized I had a choice in life, I was like, “Wow, there are a lot of choices.” I began to become a sponge for all that I had missed—the music, the movies. I was as curious as the cat.’”

So...we have more info here.  She still considers herself a Christian, believing Jesus to be the Son of God, she has some doubts about the Bible.  It appears that she had been taught (or at least she learned) that gay people and Jewish people were not "fine."  (My assumption is that she had been taught that gays and Jews, because of their sinful ways or lack of belief could barely function in this world out of need for the salvation that Christ offers.  But, when she actually met homosexuals and Jewish persons she found they functioned surprisingly well in society and didn't seem like they were crying out for much assistance anyway).

Burk goes on to say:

The article is as sad as it is revealing. I hope and pray that perhaps there is a flicker of gospel still alive in Perry and that she will heed it soon. Pray for her. The Lord’s arm is not too short to save.

I don't want to say that Katy's journey from Christian gospel singer to pop-princess with doubts isn't troubling.  The comments on Burk's post read as if her comments should lead us to question her life...is she going to hell or to heaven...is she really a Christian (and many of the comments clearly believe that she's not.)

 

 

I am not alone in thinking this, but perhaps a better course of action, when faced with the questioning (and maybe even rejection, but I'm not willing to say that) of the faith by a teen idol, is to ask how has the church been acting that would lead one down this path.  Because, I don't think Katy Perry's path is so very different than a lot of 20 somethings whose Christianity has painted such a picture of the world that it could not stand when their belief came into contact with the world.  Have we made faith into "just" heaven and hell?  Have we gone "Pharisaic" with our faith, making rules about "Deviled Eggs" or "Lucky Charms," perhaps straining gnats and swallowing camels.

While the two changes of heart are not connected, can we, as a church, learn something from this as well as Anne Rice saying that she believes in Jesus but can't call herself a Christian anymore?

"For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being 'Christian' or to being part of Christianity. It's simply impossible for me to 'belong' to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else." 

Look, I think it's well worth praying for both Katy and Anne.  Clearly there are issues going on here and many persons who aren't singers or writers go deal with these issues regularly.  But I think we also need to pray for a church that:

1. Feels a need to question the salvation of those whose deal with doubts very publicly in the media (and through a very small window into their lives)
2. Carries itself in such a way that many persons (young persons in particular) reject or question whether the beliefs of the church really are in line with the Gospel image of Jesus Christ.

Look, I'm not sending Katy Perry to heaven or to hell here.   I question why we don't celebrate the spirituality that she does express and pray for a continued strengthening of her faith...as well as our own.

Nice Blog Post About Leaving "Tracts" as Tips

Image by spike55151 via Flickr

Leaving tracts in restaurants as part of your "tip" to your server?

In short...if you're going to do it, don't leave a crummy monetary tip and then your favorite tract or note. 

Be a good tipper.  Be courteous.  Be respectful.  Be loving.

Here's an excerpt:

He showed me the card.

Print on the front was the verse: “The wages of sin is DEATH. The gift of God is eternal LIFE.”

Then he slid it on top of the money that was on top of the bill and said, “Hear ya go, and you can keep the change.”

I did not even want to tell him that I basically worked for a church and that I did indeed follow Jesus.

To be honest, more influential than his “get saved now or your going to hell” card was the sub-par tip that he’d placed under the card.

I can tell you that the last thing some waitress/waiter wants to see is these “Get saved cards” with a crappy tip.  Invite me to your church and try and build a relationship with me; do not just hand me some card.  Not only that, but the card is misleading about what it really means to truly follow Jesus.  Jesus is much bigger than a “business card.”

Read the whole post over at Jesus Needs New PR.

Where are Your Fields?

Image via Wikipedia

Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

Matthew 9:37-38

"Jesus Picture" -- Getting Jesus Outside the Church

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Heard a wonderful, powerful, Spirit-filled sermon this morning in the African American tradition.  There were a lot of "Amens" which filled our worship space.  But I wanted to share, as best I can, the story that began the sermon…a story about taking Jesus out of the church and into the world.


There was a church (as often these stories go)….

There was a church in a downtown area of some town somewhere.  In in this "somewhere church" there was fire that broke out on a Sunday evening.  Some trustees of this church were in the area and saw the smoke coming out through the stained glass windows.  The trustees ran in to the building because they knew that there was a picture of Jesus hanging down in fellowship hall.

Now, this was a pretty traditional picture of Jesus and had been in the congregation, hanging on the same wall of the fellowship hall for 25 year.  It had been painted around, straightened when it got a little crooked.  Persons had eaten many a doughnut and drunk many a cup of coffee at its feet.  Children had run wild.  Youth had held lock ins.  All with little regard to its presence in their midst.

Then the fire came.

Well, those trustees raced into the church, raced downstairs into fellowship hall, and raced on out with the picture of Jesus.

There wasn't much else that could be saved that day.  Those two trustees, some other members who got the phone call about the fire, and a lot of the people from the neighborhood gathered around and watched the church slowly burn to the ground.

They stood there and looked at the picture of Jesus in their midst.  It was traditional.  Jesus was a traditional lily-white, gazing up to heaven.  But their was a beauty about him.  Someone noted an irony of "saving Jesus from the fire."  The trustees got to share why it is that they would run in and save this one thing from the fire.  Church members got to talk about some of the great, holy, life-changing events that had happened in that little church.  And persons, some of whom had been in the community for years, heard about the saving power of this "saved" Jesus for the first time.


We need to be about the business of taking Jesus out onto the streets.  We need to take the message out on the highways and byways…to the neighborhoods and coffee shops and bars and parks and homes and businesses and lives around us.  We CANNOT keep our Jesus confined to our fellowship halls and our libraries and sanctuaries and church offices.  We CANNOT keep our Jesus inside our church.  We have a world out there that needs to hear about and be transformed by our Jesus.

Good Read -- Shane Claiborne "Letter to Non-Believers"

Image by echobase_2000 via Flickr

Hey everyone.  As stated, this is a good read. It's Shane Claiborne's "Letter to Non-Believers" found in Esquire Magazine (how often would you think they'd have Christian writer?).  I used this early on as a way to introduce persons to Shane and to be confronted by some of his writing. 

As with many of the things I've been posting here, go ahead and read the whole thing.

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

The Bible that I read says that God did not send Jesus to condemn the world but to save it... it was because "God so loved the world." That is the God I know, and I long for others to know. I did not choose to devote my life to Jesus because I was scared to death of hell or because I wanted crowns in heaven... but because he is good. For those of you who are on a sincere spiritual journey, I hope that you do not reject Christ because of Christians. We have always been a messed-up bunch, and somehow God has survived the embarrassing things we do in His name. At the core of our "Gospel" is the message that Jesus came "not [for] the healthy... but the sick." And if you choose Jesus, may it not be simply because of a fear of hell or hope for mansions in heaven.

Where I've had people complain about this is the last paragraph:

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

But, that's pretty much what one of my professors said in seminary -- "It may or may not be Christian to believe in universalism, that all persons are saved.  But it is very Christian to pray that this will be the case."  Or it's like a little skit I remember from youth group days that closed with Jesus up on the cross and asked, "When Christ is up on that cross, arms spread wide, who is it that he cannot embrace, who is outside of his saving arms?"

Church Shopping 101: A Guide for Consumer Christians

I stumbled across the following post today.  As is often the case, I was looking for something else and found this.  And, frankly, I wasn't inclined to read it...as I wasn't looking for it.  But it's good.  It gets at the church's loosening of expectations the increase in programs and activities in the hopes of getting people through their doors.  I did read it.  And, I've fallen into these traps as well...and if I've not fallen into them, I've been jealous of the churches who have been able to do them.  This, once again, has made me ponder the level of commitment we ask of our members and friends.  Really, it's made me ponder the level of commitment I ask of myself.  And, as pastor, if I'm only asking "Christianity Lite" from myself, how can I expect any more from parishioners? 

The post is from "Wrecked.org:  Social Action for Spiritual Misfits" and it was written by Tim Chermak of Calvin College in February of 2010.   I think I'm going to have to go back to that site.   I find it challenging.  They'll be more posts from that site later.  Good stuff.

CHURCH SHOPPING 101:  A GUIDE FOR CONSUMER CHRISITIANS
For the ecclesiastically challenged out there, this guide's for you. If you're fed up with the color of the carpet, boring sermons, generic donuts, or the terrible lead guitar player at your current church, maybe it's time to consider looking for another house of worship.

Today's church market is more competitive than ever, and this translates into low levels of commitment for you, the consumer.

Smithian free-market economics has created a dream situation for church shoppers -- decreased demand in religious seekers has current churches scrambling to keep their doors open, which leads to great deals for consumers.

The oversaturation of the religious market that occurred in the last few decades has proven deadly for pastors, and many churches that rode the rising tide of the prosperity gospel movement have found themselves struggling to stay afloat as that tide receded. An overabundance of supply coupled with a massive decrease in demand has created an inevitable perfect storm for church shoppers -- purchasing power is greater now than ever before.

While still far behind our neighbors across the Pond, the American church has seen a steady decline in market share in the last few years. Other Sunday activities, mainly sleep, have cut into weekend time slots traditionally reserved for church. To combat this, churches have diversified their product line into an impressive array of low-commitment appetizers, such as online sermon podcasts and short-term small groups.

Many churches now feature happy hours designed for "seekers," which feature programming designed for especially frugal religious shoppers. These free-trial experiences have translated into frequent return customers --a good sign for pastors who find themselves in a struggling religious marketplace.

Sick of overwhelming commitments and stressful sacrifices? Today's houses of worship offer many experiences and solutions... with no down payments! While our parents were expected to attend church programming at least twice a week to retain their membership status, today's churches require little or no risk on your part. If you don't like what you see, nobody is making you stay.

Tired on Sunday mornings? Try the evening service. Sick of smelly old people and their outdated hymns? Try the young adult Saturday evening service. Weirded out by the candles and tight jeans? Join an "online community," a church experience specifically designed for those of us who prefer cyber-interaction to the real thing.

Whatever your style or preference, today's ekklesia has a solution just for you!
It's easier now than it has ever been to get plugged in at a local church -- in most cases, you don't even need to leave the comfort of your bed, assuming you have a laptop with wireless internet capabilities. Still scared off by unrealistic expectations and spiritual conviction? No worries, today's sermons are diet versions of the traditional two-hour discourse of our parents' age, and rarely (if ever) intimidate us into making lifestyle changes we aren't ready for.
There has never been a better time to invest in a local congregation. What are you waiting for?

Posted via email from The Prodigal Blog

Is Social Media a Fad?

I'm writing this in GMail, with my "Google Buzz" count prominently displayed to the left. 
This post will then get published on My Posterous Blog, The Prodigal Blog before it goes to its final home, my main blog, "The Epistle of Jim."  On that site you can "follow me" on Twitter, check out the Girdwood Chapel website, or subscribe to my posts.  The post will then appear on my Facebook page.

I manage two other websites (very poorly) and two more Twitter Accounts plus another Facebook page.  No MySpace.  No LinkedIn.  No YouTube.  No Vimeo.  But they may be coming for me.

So why do all of this?

Maybe I'm easily captivated by the new technical stuff out there...even if I have little to no expertise.

Maybe, as Communications Chair of the Alaska United Methodist Conference, I thought I'd better understand these things.

Maybe I'm avoiding the other work that is staring me in the face.

Maybe I want to understand all of this so I can understand our culture and understand how these tools can be used in evangelism and discipleship and the forming of relationships.

Maybe I'm concerned about the "branding" of our church and our churches.

Regardless, I don't think "social media is a fad."  Things will change and the next new thing will come up.  Earlier today I read how some social media experts have been giving up on Facebook and putting their collective energy into a new service that will, they say, better protect personal information.  There will be something new.

And this all brings up interesting questions for the church.  Just a handful...

1. Just because we can use social media, does that mean we should?
2. What does it mean that so many thoughts (good and bad) are not private anymore but are broadcast?
3. How does the church use social media constructively for evangelism and discipleship?  Or, can it at all?
4. How should the church deal with the social media issues of privacy and cyber-bullying?
5. For our larger churches, how much of our staffing should be directed towards this area?

If you have answers, let me know.

Posted via email from The Prodigal Blog

"Flinging Cookies" -- April 24, 2010

I love cookies.  To be honest, I particularly enjoy eating them.  However, I also enjoy baking them.  And I really enjoy flinging them.  At Girdwood Chapel we fling cookies several times a year.  It started when we were doing a series based on OUTFLOW by Steve Sjogren.  Pastor Sjogren is a big advocate of “servant evangelism” and believes that “small acts done with great love can change the world.”  He has another website that's entirely devoted to the concept of Servant Evangelism.  In that book he talked of the parable of the sower from Luke 8:

¹After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, ²and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; ³Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

⁴While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: ⁵“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. ⁶Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. ⁷Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. ⁸Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”

When he said this, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
⁹His disciples asked him what this parable meant. ¹⁰He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,

” ‘though seeing, they may not see;
though hearing, they may not understand.’

¹¹“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. ¹²Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. ¹³Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. ¹⁴The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. ¹⁵But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

The point of this story, says Steve, is that we need be passionate about spreading God’s love wherever we can, knowing that some of it will fall on the rocks and some of it on the thorns, etc.  But some of it will fall on good soil and will bear fruit.   We need to be passionate.  We need to be indiscriminate.  And we need to share God’s love wherever and whenever we can.


So, at Girdwood Chapel, we're "Cookie Flingers"  We go around and hand out cookies to persons, pretty much indiscriminately.  Each little baggie has about 3 cookies in it and a note.  Today's note said the following:

Just a simple way to share some love.

These cookies may contain nuts, though. So, if you’re allergic, please share the love with someone else :)

www.girdwoodchapel.net

Malaria Awareness Weekend -- April 24-25
3rd Annual Chili CookOff --Sun. May 9th

If anyone asked why we were doing it, we just said, "Because God loves you."  Will large volumes of people be knocking on our church door tomorrow because of it? No.  But, for a brief moment did the random people we met feel the love of God and see a church putting God's love into action?  I hope so. 



Love God.  Love others.  Change the World

. 

Posted via email from The Prodigal Blog

"Unchurched Harry and Unchurched Mary" for 2010

http://www.flickr.com/photos/decadence/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

It's been 17 years since Lee Stroebel wrote his book, "Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry & Mary:  How to Reach Friends and Family Who Avoid God and the Church."  It was shortly after that that I found myself at a conference at Willow Creek Community Church up near Chicago.  At the time there were a few mega-churches that were really stepping out and doing something new for the sake of the unchurched.  Fourteen years after that, in 2007, the Barna group had a study that said we were approaching 100 million unchurched folks in the US.

Think about that number for a second.  See, here in the US and, indeed, in my own church, we have a sense that mission work is something that is done "over there."  In Alaska we sent missionaries off to the deep dark corners of our state (and did some horrible things while there).  But it was all done in under the guise of "mission work."  Well, our real mission right now is with our neighbors and friends.  It's the people around us.

There was a follow-up study by a pastor and an atheist who visited a bunch of churches to experience what it was like as a visitor in them.  This, of course, was made into a book, "Jim and Casper Go to Church."  One of the things I found most interesting is the following paragraph that Barna provides:

Many of the insights drawn from the experiences of "Jim and Casper" parallel the findings of Barna Group studies among the unchurched. Some of the critical discoveries were the relative indifference of most churched Christians to unchurched people; the overt emphasis upon a personal rather than communal faith journey; the tendency of congregations to perform rituals and exercise talents rather than invite and experience the presence of God; the absence of a compelling call to action given to those who attend; and the failure to listen to dissident voices and spiritual guidance to dig deeper in one’s faith.

How often have our own churches stressed the personal rather than the communal?  How often have we put an emphasis on talents?  How often have we failed to allow dissident voices in our own congregations?  And, perhaps most troubling for me, personally, how often have we failed to call our people to action?  I, for one, am not challenging enough as a pastor.  It is said that you will get what you ask for.  If you ask for little commitment from your congregation, you'll get just that.

Maybe the problem isn't with the unchurched folk but with those of us who are already churched?

Posted via email from The Prodigal Blog