Solving the God Problem

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I confess that when Mary and I first checked out the television program God Friended Me, it was with skepticism. How could a major television network like CBS present a series about God without messing it up?

The series is based around a young blogger, Miles Finer (played by Brandon Michael Hall) who uses his blog to promote his skepticism about God’s existence. One day Miles receives a mysterious text claiming to be from God. Convinced the text is a hoax, he sets out to discover the true source behind the “God text.” In each episode Miles receives another “God text” and is always surprised by “coincidental” events pointing to the possibility of God.

Miles’ search for the answer of who is behind the “God texts” is a picture of each one us. We are born with an innate curiosity to know if there is a God somewhere out there in that awesomely big, beautiful universe. Wherever you may travel, there is evidence of this hunger to know about God. Religion is everywhere. It survives every attempt to destroy it—whether through intellectual skepticism or religious persecution.

Last week I shared about my Cosmic Cop, the imaginary God of my childhood and adolescence. He was severe. I seldom felt His love nor could I describe Him as a close friend.

Apparently, I am not alone.

I have a good friend with whom I have shared both delightful and difficult life experiences. Responding to my Cosmic Cop description of God, he responded in an email: “I’ve experienced a lifetime of guilt as a child, and knew in my heart that God was always severely disappointed in me—even though God’s Word told a different story.”

It almost seems both of us may have been raised in the same local church. We weren’t, but we shared the same view of God.

Today I serve and worship the God who is kind and severe, loving and holy. I have discovered God as He truly is, or as the title of my book has it, God in His Own Image.

Recently, I was challenged to write a series of blogs promoting my book. I was encouraged to share three or four steps to help the reader solve the challenge of knowing God. My initial response was to push back, because the book doesn’t offer a recipe with three or four sure-fire ingredients to satisfy our soul-hunger. The challenge is too significant to wrap up with three cute, alliterated bows like a birthday present.

Honestly, I had misinterpreted the suggestion. Rather than a few sure-fire ingredients, the challenge was to offer some basic, universal steps to help a reader embrace God as He truly is.

So here are some basic suggestions to solving the God problem:

 

First: Humble Myself.

Admit I am incompetent to solve the God problem. I am like a third-grade boy playing a one-on-one pick-up game against Michael Jordan in his prime.

Left to myself I am a blind man, lost in the Carlsbad Caverns trying to feel my way out. I have lost my white cane that was so handy on the outside. I grope my way down endless side passageways with dead ends—including some with severe precipices ready to snuff out my life. I need a guide! Somebody who knows the way out, somebody with a lantern.

Without a guide or without a light I will inevitably create a deity that resembles me. And that is idolatry. The images we make may take on unique forms, but each one will reflect an unreal, inadequate God who is always changing and never fully up to the difficult challenges in life.

Thank God, we do have a guide. We have a light to show the way. The psalmist declared: “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” (Psalm 119:105). There it is! The Word of God is our guide.

Psalm 19 celebrates the evidence of God’s handiwork in Creation, whether innumerable stars or a harvest moon or a stellar sunrise. Beginning at Psalm 19:7, the focus is on God’s written Word.

 

The Law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.

The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.

The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.  

(Psalm 19:7-8)

I always feel a distinct thrill when I read about or watch a video about a remote tribal group receiving the first copy (or portion) of a Bible in their mother tongue. It’s celebration time, because the light has come!

If you want to know what God is really like—to really and truly solve the God problem—read His Word, because it reveals God as He is. Open its pages and see Him in His majesty, unlimited in power, perfect in every way, yet gentle, humbling Himself to come down to seek, serve and save people like me. Like you. This certainly is not the Cosmic Cop I once dreaded.

 

Second: Trust My Guide.

Like most men, I don’t like to take time to read an owner’s manual or follow enclosed assembly instructions. Just hand me the tools and let me get at it! Whenever I charge into a project like that, with banners flying and bugles blowing, I usually end up sounding retreat, and regret my haste. I discover at step number seven that I skipped number three. Now it’s time to disassemble and start over again!

It is not only foolish but impossible to try to solve the God problem on our own. The task is too great. That is why He gave us the owner’s (I say that realizing it sounds almost trivial) manual, His Word, to introduce Himself to us so we can know Him. Having a copy or two of God’s Word laying open on the coffee table, however, is no guarantee of success. I still have to follow the instructions. And I must not only read what God has said about Himself, but also accept what God has said about Himself—even when it seems difficult.

 

Third: Accept the Full-Meal Deal

To know and to enjoy God—here and now and forever and forever—I need a balanced diet. I must accept God in His own image, not in the way I might wish to re-create Him for my convenience. God’s attributes are not products displayed on an end cap in my favorite supermarket. I can’t pick and choose my favorite brands; it’s all or nothing. Anything less is just another idol.

Matt Redman described it so well in the praise song, “Let My Words be Fews.” Whenever we discover God—the great, transcendent God dwelling in heaven—our natural, human response is to feel overwhelmed and breathless. So, let our words be few. “I love You, too.”

If I were to slip in one more suggestion, it would be to read the book, God in His Own Image. You will be challenged to “taste and see that God is good.”

Oh, by the way, Miles, yes God truly has “friended” you.

In fact, He has friended each one of us.

Let My Words be Few by Matt Redman

Kissing My Cosmic Cop Goodbye

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In our attempts to understand or explain God, we naturally tend to re-create Him into something familiar. He becomes like us.

A God like me? I don’t know about you, but that prospect doesn’t appeal to me at all. A God created in my image is only semi-competent in some things, and highly incompetent in many other things. A-God-like-me will have changing moods; some days He might be loving and kind, but on other days…not so much.

In my soon to be released book, God in His Own Image, I share about the false image of God I feared and dreaded as a youth. I describe Him as the Cosmic Cop. Being a PK (pastor’s kid) in a very strict church, I heard lots of sermons about God’s severe wrath. God was both the Law-giver and the chief Law-enforcer. I knew about Law Enforcement Officers, since Dad was bi-vocational: he wore a police badge at night and a preacher’s tie on Sundays.

As a result, every police officer in Cheyenne County knew me. If I burnt rubber in my Dad’s 60-Ford Starliner while dragging Main Street, it seemed like every cop on the force would see it, and tell my father the next morning. On the plus side, I never received a traffic violation or warning. They must have figured my dad would set me straight. (Perhaps there was an advantage to being the son of a cop.)

My relationship with my Cosmic Cop, if you could call it a relationship, was a love/hate affair. When I was in danger, perhaps facing the final exam in Algebra, I wanted Him close enough to provide the correct answers. I also wanted Him to hear my Sunday prayers, especially when I recited the same list of sins each week.

But when I wanted to prove I was just a normal teen-ager and not a PK, I didn’t want the Cosmic Cop messing with my plans. In my book, I share a humorous story about the first time I took my date to a drive-in-theater. Movies were forbidden fruit in those days, and I couldn’t wait to taste the apple. But sure enough, the Cosmic Cop caught me red-handed. He always did. Lying in bed at night I often had my own personal (Protestant) confessional booth. Just in case Jesus might return before sunrise, I wanted to be certain I wouldn’t be left behind, so I apologized for everything I might have done wrong that day. It was tough—no, make that impossible—to keep the record straight.

My perverted view of the Cosmic-Cop-kind-of-God prevented me from knowing and enjoying the true and living God. I would try to manipulate Him, but I could never experience His grace and mercy. I could read about God loving the world in John 3:16, even inserting my name in place of “whosoever believes,” but somehow, I never felt that love. Since my God was a cop, I wanted Him to come on the run when I dialed His number, but I kept Him at arms-length the rest of the time.

My story may be yours. Perhaps at one time, even today, you struggle with loving or feeling loved by God. Perhaps your “God” is that cop who seems to be bent on denying you any pleasure.

Perhaps you struggle even believing there is a God.

Whatever it be, anything and anyone less than the God who has revealed Himself in Scripture, will never satisfy our hunger.

Today, I have experienced and worship the God who has revealed Himself as both holy and severe as well as kind, loving and full of grace. Over and over again, even when facing some very difficult challenges, I have felt God’s presence and seen Him provide in inexplicable, clearly-supernatural ways. A few of these incidents are shared in the book to be released May 7th.

I have tasted and discovered God is good. He alone can satisfy the hunger in my soul.

He can do the same for you.

 

If you have struggled with a similar corrupted view of God, why not reply by sharing your experience?

I am still reading The Storm Tossed Family. 

What is Our Problem?

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For all its beauty and wonders and opportunities, life is filled with problems. Some seem so trivial they’re hardly worth mentioning.

But I’m going to mention one, anyway.

Recently I had a problem with our local newspaper. Some days it never arrives at all. As I wrote these words, it had been three days without a paper laying in my driveway.

Okay, so it’s not an earthshaking dilemma. But I am of that generation that enjoys opening a (real) paper to the sports pages to catch up on the Blazers and Seahawks and our local high school teams.

But that’s not really a problem compared to the greatest of all challenges in life. How are we to have a relationship with a mysterious, invisible, all-powerful Creator? That is why I wrote God in His Own Image.

Last week, here on the Front Porch Swing, I shared about the innate desire within every human being to know God. Having been created in God’s image to enjoy a relationship with Him, we have a deep hunger to know God. As Augustine discovered, after first running away from God and then encountering Him later in life: “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.”

Those are more than just poetic sounding words. I believe they reflect the heartbeat of every person who is willing to stop and reflect on who they are and why they exist. Augustine’s words are my words. Your words.

Since God has created us in His image to know Him and enjoy a relationship with Him, there is no higher calling or more important pursuit in life.

But here’s our problem: Unless God reveals Himself to us; we are left to try to “figure” Him out by ourselves. That is what many have tried to do throughout history. That is, in fact, the subtitle to my book: “Loving God for who He is not what we would like Him to be.”

Driven by our innate hunger to know if there is “anybody out there” in this vast universe, we try to fill this soul-hunger by imagining who this God might be. Here’s a spoiler alert: Finding God through the imagination is not only a foolish endeavor, it is impossible. If a creator or creators exist, we cannot see them. They are part of a unique, other-worldly realm. We are blind people trying to imagine and paint a picture of a snow-covered mountain that we have never seen and cannot see! Whatever picture I try to paint on the easel canvas will be wrong. It won’t resemble that mountain.

I can only describe what I have seen or what I have experienced. I have never seen an atom, but I have been told it consists of protons, electrons and neutrons. I answered all the questions on the science quizzes, but the atom is beyond my ability to understand. Even so, I know very well that they exist, even in my own body.

I like to imagine the apostle Paul as a physician, or perhaps a great philosopher, diagnosing our problem. It’s not that God has neglected to reveal Himself to us, but rather that we have suppressed the evidence that exists all around us. Every atom and every galaxy in our vast universe is a witness to the Creator’s wisdom, skill and power. And, might I add, His mystery?

Having rejected God’s rule over our lives, there remains a vacuum in our soul that only God can fill. There’s a hunger to know the unknowable and invisible God.

Let’s cut to the chase. God has revealed Himself in several ways or, of if you will, in different venues.

Paul wrote that there is enough evidence in Creation itself to convince any person truly seeking to know God. We call this natural or general revelation. David’s words in Psalm 19 absolutely ring with it:

 

         The Heavens declare the glory of God,

         and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

        Day to day pours out speech,

        and night to night reveals knowledge.

       There is no speech, nor are there words,

        whose voice is not heard.

                 (Psalm 19:1-3, esv)

 

Evidence for God is on display 24/7 everywhere we look.

Later in the same psalm, David shifts his focus from seeing God in creation to seeing God as He is revealed in His Word. We call this The Bible, the book that reveals who God is and what He has done to enable us to know and enjoy Him.

Finally, Jesus Christ came to reveal the Father. That is the point of Hebrews 1:1-4. The rest of the book of Hebrews displays Jesus’ superiority over every other “competitor” and over everything that exists, whether visible or invisible.

So what is our problem? If God has pealed back layers of mystery to display His glory in the creation and has revealed Himself in Scripture and through Jesus Christ, why would I write a book, God in His Own Image?  After all, don’t we have all the evidence we need?

I didn’t write the book to convince atheists, whether real or wannabees. I have written to people who attend, or at one time attended, church services. Their view of God may have been skewed as a result of life experiences or as the result of a lack of good biblical teaching.

Unless we understand and accept God as revealed in Scripture, we tend to create God in our image. Someone we can manipulate. Someone safe. Someone who adapts to the changing culture and “moves with the times.” But here’s the problem: If God resembles me, He will be capricious, unpredictable, and severely limited in power and understanding.

Sadly today, even in our churches, we find people trying to recreate God in their own image, according to their own tastes. And they may end up with an artificial deity who is so loving, kind, and careful that He would never punish anyone. He will be a God who doesn’t control the future, and has to learn as He goes along, just like we do.

But of course that is no God at all. It’s just another man-made idol.

If God has created us to know Him and to enjoy Him forever, it is imperative we understand Him as He truly is. It is not ours to reshape God into our image. In fact, it is a deadly mistake with eternal consequences.

I much prefer to know and to love God as He is: Great, powerful, just and yet, loving and full of grace.

That is reality. He is reality.

So, here on the front porch swing, I ask if you know this God that can satisfy the hunger in the human soul?

Why not purchase the book, God in His Own Image? I believe you will come to love and appreciate God through reading the book.

 

What am I reading?

I am finishing The Storm Tossed Family and will return to The Essential Jonathan Edwards. I think I may also read God in His Own Image when I receive my first copy in a few weeks. Recently I commented that waiting to hold the first copy in my hands is kind of like waiting for the arrival of a new baby.

Thanks for the support and encouragement I have received from several of you.

Syd

Hungry?

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“I’m hungry!”

Mary and I often heard these familiar words as our two boys burst into the house after a day at school. For added effect it sometimes came out as “I’m hownnnngry!” Teenagers tend to resemble bottomless pits.

For that matter, newborn infants seem to arrive the same way—refusing to be silenced until warm milk from a mother’s breast or a bottle fills their little mouths. To live, whether animal or human, is to be hungry—to desire nourishment.

Human beings, however, experience another kind of hunger just as real as a baby’s desire for milk. In fact, that is how the apostle Peter described it: “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 1:2-3).

I believe spiritual hunger is part of our human DNA because our Creator designed us that way. Created in His image, we have an inherent desire to know God. Every culture and every tribal group, no matter where or when they have lived, share a common pursuit of some kind of Deity. Someone or something greater than ourselves. Why is this so? Why this curiosity about the supernatural?

Study animals in their natural environment or visit your local zoo, and I guarantee you will discover no evidence that any animal displays an awareness of or interest in things spiritual or religious. They build no temples or idols to worship. Yet visit any country or study any culture (even sifting through the remains of those buried in the past) and you will discover places of worship and images to reflect a Deity. Sadly, you may also discover evidence of human sacrifice among the pottery chards.

I have witnessed this hunger in India. Everywhere you look you see evidence of a religion—with enough deities to fill a football stadium. Hindu shrines and temples abound. Sacred cows wander on congested city streets bustling with smog producing cars and motorbikes. Grotesque images personify the Hindu concept of the gods.

Mosques and churches dot the landscape in Europe and America. The airwaves are filled with religious teaching on television and radio. Religious books proliferate, both questioning and confirming the existence of God.

Before the first white European planted a flag on the beaches of the Americas, Native American civilizations displayed the concept of a Great Spirit or spirits. Animism and other native religions betray our inherent belief in and search to know God or gods.

Belief in some kind of other world—a spiritual world—and in a supernatural being is part of our human DNA.

I believe this reflects the fact that God, the God of Scripture, has created us in His image so that we can know and enjoy Him. Augustine said it something like this, “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.”

Throughout history there have been concerted—even political and military—attempts to stamp out and eradicate religious belief in God. All such efforts have failed, whether it be Communism in China and the Soviet Union or the Nazis in Germany. The Christian Church has survived and often thrived under persecution, as it continues to do today in China. Guns may silence the tongue from praising God or sharing the gospel, but bullets and bombs cannot resist the Church of God.

Jesus promised that. The very gates of hell will not prevail against it.

Attempts to rationalize belief in a Deity have also failed. Atheism is an empty pursuit. People may argue against the existence of God, but no one can remove the hunger in the human heart to know the Creator.

So-called theologians have dismissed God as dead or irrelevant. Some contemporary preaching offers a watered-down gospel that only talks about love and grace. These are important words, good words, but apart from a holy God who stands in judgment of sin, the terms lose their meaning.

That is the primary reason I have written the book, God in His Own Image: Loving God for who He is, not who we would like Him to be. I have written to the average church goer as well as to the person who has almost discarded faith altogether. If that describes you or one of your friends. I am writing to you. Are you hungry to know more about God—to experience His reality and nearness in your life?  I envision a reader, perhaps you, who is hungry to know God as He really is, especially in this age when some religious leaders have tended to diminish some of His attributes, in order to present a safer, more politically correct, Deity.

I have written this blog and the book for each of you whose whose heart is hungry and can only be satisfied when you truly meet the living God, discovering that His arms of welcome have been wide open to you all along.

I can’t imagine writing anything more exciting than that.

Agree/disagree? Trying to create God in our mage or to fit our desires is both dangerous and will leave us spiritually hungry?

What I am reading: The Storm Tossed Family by Russell Moore.

If you recently read a book that you have enjoyed and been challenged by, why not share it with the rest of us?

I Should Have Missed It All

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In the next few months, our calendar will be spilling over with exciting events. Some are first time happenings. One, at least, is a once-in-a-life-time kind of event. God permitting, I plan to enjoy each one.

Here is what I anticipate when I look at the calendar:

  • On April 27, I will officiate the wedding of our oldest granddaughter, Keyara.
  • On May 7 my book, God in His Own Image: Loving God for Who He is Not What We Would Like Him to Be, is slated for release from Moody Publishers.
  • On June 8, Faith, our youngest granddaughter, graduates from Bend Senior High School.
  • On July 23, I celebrate my three-quarters-of-a century birthday.
  • On September 7, our youngest grandson, Kordell, will be married.
  • Meanwhile, we anticipate the birth of our first great grandchild. Kendra, our middle granddaughter, recently announced that she and Jacob, her husband, are expecting a baby in October. I can hardly wait.

Frankly, any one of these happy events would be enough to make 2019 a very special year. But what makes all this even more exceptional is that I could have—possibly should have—missed all of them.

When the scaffolding collapsed at Powellhurst Baptist Church in Portland, Oregon on August 25, 1984 and I fell approximately 30 feet, I could have been killed—or at the least permanently paralyzed. Six weeks in the hospital, several surgeries, and months of therapy followed.

It was a life-changing experience on several levels. I have been reminded of that event literally every day of my life since 1984. After 35 years, I continue experiencing physical problems as a result of the fall. In fact, that is why I had another spinal surgery a few weeks ago.

Although less obvious than the physical complications from the accident, I was also deeply impacted emotionally. Being more of a stoic temperament—a “just do it” kind of guy—I was always able to control my emotions. Especially the more tender ones.

I first realized how deeply the accident had also affected me emotionally when we were attending our oldest son’s high school graduation. As I watched Dan cross the platform to receive his diploma, tears slipped down my cheeks at the thought I could have missed this precious moment.

The birth of Keyara, our first grandchild, was another one of those events that gutted my strong exterior to expose deeply tender emotions. After her birth I went home from the hospital to compose a poem about my new granddaughter. The birth of one’s first grandchild is, and ought to be, one of life’s greatest moments. It is as if life has come full circle with the emergence of the next generation. It’s as if this was what marriage and life was meant to be.

Looking back, I realize I would have (should have) also missed the birth of each of our grandchildren as well as seven graduation ceremonies, counting our two sons and five grandchildren. Then there are the marriages—and now the birth of our first great grandchild.

When I shared a rough draft of this blog with my son, Dan, he commented that had I not survived the accident almost everything listed above would not have happened. It was during my six month recovery that a friend visited me while I was still in a full body cast; Jim brought one of his friends, David, with him to meet me. The result was that David began to attend Powellhurst Baptist Church along with his wife and daughter, Tammy. Short story is that Tammy met Dan in the youth group; they dated and eventually married. Their four children probably would not exist today had I died in the accident so scratch the all the births and the weddings and the future great-grandchild. Had I died, we would not have moved to Bend and Faith would not be graduating in June because she would not exist.

Back in 1984 gravity thrust me to the floor near the spot where I had once stood to preach. It would be six months before I would again preach from that spot, but this time in a wheelchair.

My accident wasn’t anything as dramatic as the blinding light that dismounted and blinded Saul of Tarsus, but it certainly changed the course of my life. Looking back, I see events as Before and After. By the kind and gracious will of God I survived the fall. Just a few weeks afterwards, I read how a man had fallen ten feet off of a loading dock, killing him. I realize that every breath, every day, every year and every special family event has been a gift to enjoy to the glory of God. Graduations, weddings and childbirths are always special, but for me they have been extra special because I could have missed them.

My story may not be your story. You may never have dived off a scaffold or been severely injured in a tragic accident, but we are all facing the same event. Unless Jesus returns first, we will face death. The challenge is learning how to live life in the interim. How to experience every precious moment in this brief journey called life.

Moses, having ground out 120 years (most of them rather lonely and difficult), composed a song about the brevity of life. We know it as Psalm 90. Moses presents a beautiful and mind-stretching contrast between our eternally existing God and His mortal creatures. God is more enduring than the mountains; we are as fragile as wildflowers that wilt under the summer sun.

Listen to Moses’ song:

 

All our days pass away under your wrath;  

            We finish our years with a moan.

            The length of our days is seventy years-

            Or eighty, if we have strength;

            Yet their span is but trouble and sorrow,

            For they quickly pass, and we fly away.

 

What a realistic description of our fragile human lives. Another wonderful poem about life, death and aging can be found in Ecclesiastes 12.

Both Psalm 90 and Ecclesiastes conclude with a similar reminder. Life is brief. Death is certain. Judgment follows life, so live wisely. Invest every moment, enjoying it to the glory of God, because someday the fragile crystal plate will break. Someday, the soul, like a bird, will fly away to meet its Maker.

That is why Moses prayed (and I pray), “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

I don’t profess to have aced the exam on living life wisely. I still fritter away opportunities to glorify God. I can still treat something very special as mundane. I can still allow Midwest stoicism to overrule the emotions that I could and should express. But each of the events I mentioned at the outset call me back to express thanks to God, because I could have, even should have, missed them all.

Come to think of it, the book, God in His Own Image, would never have been written. I would not be anticipating May 7, nor would this blog have ever seen the light of the day.

But God, in His sovereignty and great kindness, has allowed those events to be.

I intend to make the most of them.

 

By the way, I am still reading The Essential Jonathan Edwards  and The Storm Tossed Family. Both are good reads, the latter is easier and very relevant. I have just concluded reading Ezra and have begun Nehemiah today. What amazing men these were! Their prayers of confession on behalf of their nations is a model for us today.

Why not share what you are reading with rest of us on the front porch?

Also, have you an experience that has influenced your perspective on  life?

Telling Your Story

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Why do we struggle with evangelism?

Notice I said “we.”

I was raised in a church where I was taught that I needed to share the gospel, and grew up with almost constant guilt over my negligence. Perhaps you’ve also felt or still feel the same way.

Just a quick reminder from last week’s visit on The Front Porch Swing: Jesus left one specific command for His disciples: “Make disciples.”  Jesus’ game plan hasn’t changed; we make disciples by sharing the good news about Jesus and by baptizing those who choose to follow Him, teaching them to obey all Jesus commanded.

So I ask again, why is it so difficult? Why am I silent when I ought to speak? If I lived in North Korea or Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, I would have reason to be cautious. But living in America I have no legitimate reason for remaining silent.

Is it fear of rejection? Is it because “people may not like me anymore”? Perhaps, but when you think about it, that’s a pretty anemic excuse. That’s especially true if I believe that those who reject Jesus face an eternal separation from Him in hell. What kind of friend would I be if I failed to warn my neighbor that his house is on fire? I would wake him out of his slumber anyway I could.

Another reason (excuse) I have fallen back on is that I may not know what to say. I may not have all the answers to their questions. So rather than risk sounding stupid, I act stupidly by remaining silent.

Frankly, I believe we have tended to make evangelism far more cerebral than necessary. Over the four plus centuries of serving local churches, I have offered evangelism training. We have brought professional trainers to teach evangelism techniques. Within weeks, however, after the excitement of the evangelism training nothing has really changed.

Every freshman student at Moody was required to take a Personal Evangelism class. We had to memorize scores of biblical verses. I passed the class with an A, but I wasn’t an A student in personal evangelism. Sure, I handed out Christian literature on the city buses and the el trains. I preached “at” intoxicated men in Chicago’s Rescue Missions. Quite candidly, I was more comfortable preaching at these captive men, sitting through another sermon about hellfire so they could finally enjoy a hot meal and a warm place to sleep.

If you still struggle with sharing your faith with friends and neighbors, I offer a few insights:

  • Be familiar with the gospel story. Know what it is and what it is not. The gospel means good news. It’s good news about Jesus Christ—who He was and is, and what He has done for us. He is God in a human body living the perfect life we have tried always failed to live. He voluntarily died in our place—paying the death sentence we deserve. He was buried and raised from the dead, demonstrating that He truly was God and that His death satisfied the righteous demands of the holy God. (There is one more item in the gospel story that I want to save till our conclusion.)
  • Be familiar with a few key verses to support the above truths. Write the location of these verses in the fly-leaf of your Bible (or in the “notes” app on your smartphone) to alleviate fear of forgetting them. Choose verses that explain our need for salvation because we are sinners. The consequence of our sin is that we are spiritually dead and separated from the holy God. Consider Romans 3:10, 23. Be prepared with verses demonstrating that Christ has paid our debt and offers forgiveness and justification by grace through faith—not though working harder or a merit system. Consider Romans 5:8 and 6:23 as well as Ephesians 2: 8-9 to help make this point. Maybe some other key verses will come to mind. John 3:16 and John 5:24 have been used to move hearts down through the centuries.
  • Create or adapt your strategy for sharing the key points of the gospel. Over the years there have been several specific plans for sharing the gospel message. I introduce three:
    • I am most comfortable with the “Romans Road” because the verses are part of the context in Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome. He writes to present a systematic, biblical understanding of the gospel; beginning with man’s lost condition in Romans 1-3. Christ’s death and resurrection on our behalf means we can be justified (pronounced righteous in God’s sight) through faith. If you have never heard of the Romans Road approach to sharing the gospel, ask your pastor or look it up on the Internet.
    • CRU (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) developed the “Four Spiritual Laws” as a way to share the gospel on college campuses.
    • More recently, “The Bridge” approach is so simple that one can share it on a napkin over a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
  • Finally—and perhaps most importantly—tell your personal story. Share why you are excited to be a follower of Jesus. Share how He has made a difference in your life. Has He delivered you out a life of crime like a man who now calls me Pops? Perhaps your life has been quite tranquil so you feel like you have no amazing conversion story. That’s okay. Tell what it is you love about Jesus. Tell why you decided to follow Him. Has Jesus brought peace to a convicted worrier? Has he brought joy to a baptized sourpuss? Just share your story.

How did a small group of early Christ-followers turn the world upside down while experiencing persecution? They told their stories about meeting the resurrected Jesus.

Peter and John boldly defended themselves for healing a man crippled from birth. Arrested by religious leaders for the crime of healing the man “in the name of Jesus of Nazareth,” they were incarcerated overnight and put on trial the next morning. Peter and John answered their accusers by sharing that Jesus, having been crucified and rising again, had healed the lame man through them. Listen to Peter’s boldness, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

Contemplate those words. “No other name under heaven….”

Note Peter’s conviction that apart from Jesus Christ, every person is hopelessly and forever condemned. Believing that simple statement ought to provide motivation to evangelize. After threatening Peter and John to speak no more about Jesus, they responded, “…we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).

Peter and John had a story. A story so grand and life-changing they would gladly lose their lives rather than remain silent.

If you are a Christ-follower, He has given you a story. He has given you purpose and hope. So why not share your story? Perhaps God will use your story to naturally turn the conversation into an opportunity for sharing the good news about Jesus.

Oh yes, I promised one more truth that is part of the gospel. We agree that the good news about Jesus dying for our sins and rising from the dead. But the gospel doesn’t stop with Jesus walking around Jerusalem in His glorified body. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. No more exalted place can even be imagined. Jesus also sent the Holy Spirit to empower people like you and me so that we can also boldly share the good news like Peter and John and Paul.

Speaking of Paul, Wow! Consider his story about meeting the resurrected Christ. Knocked off his mount and fearing for his life. Blind three days. Then through the power of the Holy Spirit Paul could see once more—and much, much better than ever.  No matter what they threw at him or hammered against him—whether stones or wooden rods or whips or the threat of beheading in a Roman dungeon, Paul always responded by telling his story about meeting and being transformed by Jesus.

So can I. So can you.

 

What am I reading? I am still reading The Essential Jonathan Edwards but for a respite from Edwards I have also begun reading  The Storm-Tossed Family  by Russell Moore.

Keeping The Mission The Main Point

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Recently I was jolted out of complacency by a statement from a friend.

Actually, it was more like a confession.

It all resulted in this blog about a topic that is potentially a matter of life and death for many people. But that needs a little explanation.

Contemplating on how to introduce this blog led me down memory lane to Pierce Governor, a factory in Upland, Indiana where both Mary and I worked while I was a student at Taylor University back in 1966-67.

Imagine a factory that began producing governors—devices that control the speed of a vehicle or the rpm of an engine—in 1913. Pierce Governor, located in Anderson, Indiana once claimed to be the largest manufacturer of governors in the world. Governors, you might say, were the distant ancestors of the cruise control in your car. Pierce Governor also produced fuel pumps.

The factory had relocated into a new, modern manufacturing plant in Upland the year before our arrival at Taylor. Mary worked in the office during the day while I worked in the manufacturing plant in the evenings. Having been raised on a farm, I had never seen the inside of a factory. But I had driven many tractors with governors—perhaps even manufactured in that very plant.

The place was buzzing with activity, trying to keep up with demands. Metal milling machines screamed as they peeled excess metal from pre-cast forms. Hydraulic presses stamped loudly and the drill presses hummed.

I’m not sure if Pierce Governor had a mission statement, but if they did, it would have probably been “to manufacture the best governors in the world.” Imagine scores of employees punching the clock every day. Imagine raw material arriving at the receiving dock weekly. Listen to the machinery belching out decibels so loud and so dangerous to ear drums that employees were required to wear ear plugs. Look at the assembly line buzzing with activity. That was the Pierce Governor factory in its heyday.

But now imagine one small problem. The shipping dock is vacant. No semi trucks parked to receive newly manufactured governors. No finished product is being shipped to the Ford Motor Company in Detroit or any other company. Step out onto the shipping dock and the only sound you hear is the Indiana wind.

By all appearances in the front offices and on the manufacturing floor, the company is a success. Activity is everywhere. The appearance of busyness must mean good business.

But it’s not really true, is it?

To me, this serves as a metaphor for the American Evangelical Church today.

Almost every local church today has a mission statement declaring why they exist. Or, to use manufacturing terminology, what the church is producing. More often than not, somewhere in the mission statement you’ll discover something about “making disciples.” Of course we also want to glorify and worship God, but making disciples is our primary business.

Most churches are a beehive of activity. Worship teams produce music for worship services as a means of glorifying our Great God. Preachers preach, with messages enhanced by PowerPoint and creative illustrations to drive home the point of the message. Sunday School classes help interpret the Scriptures for students. Oh yes, don’t forget our youth and children’s programs, or the library loaded with Christian fiction and the latest videos for making disciples. Throughout the week believers gather in small groups or informally to break bread and enjoy fellowship.

The question is not how successful we are in attracting and keeping members. The real question is this: What is our mission? In other words, why do we exist? What is the finished “product” we claim to produce?

The answer ought to be very simple. Jesus stated it clearly enough for anybody to understand. In what we call “The Great Commission”—the one mission Jesus left for His church—there is but one clear command. There is but one verb in the entire Great Commission passage in Matthew 28:18-20: “Make Disciples!”  That’s it!

There is nothing about growing large churches or loving small churches. Nothing about musical styles. Nothing about traditional, ornate cathedrals or eclectic, modern buildings that resemble a theater. Nothing, except to “make disciples.” There isn’t even a command to “go.” It’s more of an assumption that having met the resurrected Christ, we will be going anywhere and everywhere, sharing the good news.

There are a couple of instructions imbedded within the Great Commission telling how to carry out the mission. Having shared the gospel, we baptize new converts (disciples or followers) and instruct them to obey Jesus’ commands.

Reflecting on the factory metaphor, perhaps baptism would be similar to inventorying the raw material when it arrives at the receiving dock. Teaching new converts to obey Jesus’ commands is like the manufacturing process of turning raw materials into the finished product. It is time consuming—but all important to Jesus.

Two recent experiences helped motivate this blog: a book by Francis Chan and a conversation with a dear friend.

At a local Starbucks, I shared with my friend how the book had caused me to reflect upon my years as a pastor. It all boils down to this: Have I helped make disciples who make disciples? These words tumbled out of my friend’s mouth: “Pastor Syd, I have attended the church for over thirty years and I have never led another person to faith in Christ.” I sensed remorse in her answer, and it prompted me to reflect.

Thirty years of preaching and teaching and leading small groups. After thirty years of busyness, leading services, officiating weddings and memorial services, counseling and hospital visitation; most people would call me a successful pastor.

But the litmus test of a governor factory is not the amount of activity on the production floor, but whether governors are being produced. The same is true for a local church.

Is it no wonder the American Church, though large and once powerful, has become almost anemic in our impact on the culture that is becoming post-Christian? We have for the most part, I fear, abandoned the mission to make disciples—followers of Jesus who encourage other people to become followers of Jesus. That is still the mission—and will be until He returns.

Jesus left a disciple-making-model that is still valid. Remember in Luke 6:12 how He prayed before selecting twelve men to become apostles? Why not begin our day praying that God would open our eyes and hearts for seekers—people with empty lives seeking for a fresh start. In Luke 5, Jesus invited three fishermen to follow Him and promised to make them fishers of men. “Following” meant spending the next couple of years hanging out with Jesus, watching Him minister to multitudes. On another occasion He called twelve men just to “be with Him” according to Mark 3:13.

Jesus routinely engaged seekers—people with empty lives seeking purpose and a fresh start. People like a Samaritan woman who came to fetch water, but having met Jesus she left to fetch her friends and neighbors to also meet Jesus. Then there was Zacchaeus, a social outcast camouflaged in a tree just hoping to get a glimpse of Jesus; instead Jesus invited Himself to spend the afternoon with the tax collector. After meeting Jesus, Zacchaeus invited his friends to break bread together with his new Friend.

That’s the model. Pray every morning for open eyes and opportunities to speak about our lives in Him. Take advantage of every door open door. Share the gospel, and then continue sharing life with the new converts.

Oh, yes, I promised to revisit the story about Pierce Governor. The factory dwindled to forty employees before closing its doors in 2011. Cars with cruise control don’t need governors.  The Website stated that the “Cash for Clunkers” program signed the death certificate for Pierce Governor. The large factory building has been donated to the local Methodist church in Upland, Indiana. I assume the building is quite eclectic with lots of room to grow.

Out of curiosity, I visited the church’s Website and discovered their mission statement: “We exist to worship God and make disciples.”

May it be so!

What am I reading: I am still working through The Essential Jonathan Edwards. 

 

The Enemy at Home

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Must I be carried to the skies on flow’ry beds of ease?

…Is this vile world a friend to grace to help me on to God?

With a thank you and an apology to Isaac Watts, I have lifted two lines from his hymn, Am I Soldier of the Cross? I deliberately juxtaposed these two lines to make a point.

Last week I tried to pull back the curtains just a little to encourage each of us to be more aware of Christians around our world who face persecution. This week, let’s pull back the curtains again to consider another potential blind spot. Unlike persecution occurring in distant places, this threat is all around us—inundating us with propaganda 24/7.

I believe the term “blind spot” is appropriate because it’s difficult to be unaware of the problem. Graphic pictures of hungry children and epidemics around the world appear on television news and the appeal letters from relief organizations.

Even so, as deplorable as these circumstances are, I believe the words from Isaac Watts’ hymn reveals a deeper problem. Note that the lines are actually questions—questions as relevant today as in 1721 when the hymn was penned.

Here is my attempt to answer those two questions.

No, it is not fair or equitable if I bask in luxury in the presence of suffering and hunger. This world, our current culture, is no “friend of grace.” Not by a long shot.

I am troubled when I discover blind spots in some of peers of Isaac Watts. For example, while reading The Essential Jonathan Edwards, I discovered that this great theologian and biblical scholar credited with the Great Awakening, like most of his peers, owned slaves. Recently, I also discovered that George Whitefield—the most influential Christian evangelist in the 18th Century—after being given a plantation, “converted” from denouncing slavery to supporting slavery. His reasoning? He felt slaves were needed to manage the plantation and, after all, the plantation helped support his orphanage ministry. Whitefield is also credited for helping change Georgia’s original ban against slavery.

If renowned Christian leaders like Whitefield and Edwards were influenced by their culture, would it be such a stretch to say that we can also be influenced by today’s culture? Could it be that we’ve been conditioned to accept the status quo as “normal” and “fair,” when it really isn’t?

In response, I offer Paul’s instructions in 2 Corinthians 8:13-15 (esv):

For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.” (emphasis mine)

Christians in Corinth were aware that the church in Jerusalem was facing famine-like conditions. Several churches in Asia Minor and Greece had stepped forward to send money to assist their hungry brothers and sisters. The Corinthian believers had also signed on to participate in the fundraising, but as time passed the sense of urgency faded. As a result, no offerings had been taken. Twice in the above passage, Paul uses a specific word to motivate the Corinthians to step up to the plate. The English Standard Version translates the word as fairness. Other translations use the term equality. Eugene Peterson in The Message summarizes the passage, “In the end you come out even.”

I prefer the word equitable.

Paul wasn’t the only biblical writer to call for fairness or justice. Several Old Testament prophets also called for equity. Perhaps Amos was the most outspoken. In his day wealthy Israelites enjoyed lavish homes and rich food while widows and orphans were neglected.

Times really haven’t changed all that much, have they?

So what is Paul asking the church in Corinth (and us) to do? Are we to give away everything to feed the hungry? Soon we would all be hungry. Are we to make certain every person in the world, especially other Christians, enjoy the same amenities we enjoy? Should my Ugandan friend Kato have the same balance in his savings account (if he had one) as me? Should I sell one of my vehicles so he can have a car? In other words, must everything be precisely equal?

Absurd! Kato make $40 a month as a teacher, assuming he gets paid each month. Depositing half of our savings account into an account for Kato or giving him a car would probably hurt him more than help him. The cultures in Bend, Oregon and western Uganda are worlds apart, and not just geographically. Trying to make everything absolutely equal would be global socialism; that hasn’t worked in Venezuela or anywhere else.

After having Kato as a student on my first trip to Uganda, we began to communicate via email. Yes, almost everyone has a cell phone and access to a computer today. I discovered Kato’s children were often forced to drop out of school for lack of funds since education is not free in Uganda. If his children have any hope of breaking out of poverty, they need to finish school. Mary and I began sending money via Western Union to cover their tuition.

Honestly, it hasn’t been that much of a burden. And no one can put a price tag on the joy we experience as we receive reports after each grading period. I could easily spend more money at Starbucks than the cost of tuition for each child. When Kato and his wife had a baby, they named him Sydney. Children in Uganda are traditionally named after relatives, not Americans.

On my second ministry trip, I visited Kato’s home where his wife had prepared dinner and invited relatives to celebrate our arrival. We discovered there were no doors on his home. When I mentioned this to Kato he affirmed that sometimes “unsafe serpents” entered the house at night. That shouts “Black Mamba” to me!

When a friend of ours heard this story she volunteered to provide doors for Kato’s home. She doesn’t even know Kato, but I suspect she has received as much satisfaction as Kato when he closes the doors each night to protect his family. His home has dirt floors with blankets as room dividers and will never be equal to our home in Bend. Should we sell our home and build a house out of handmade bricks with a dirt floor? It wouldn’t pass zoning! Our homes will never be equal, but we are striving for fairness and equality.

That being said, I don’t write to create a guilt trip on anybody. That’s not the purpose of our conversations on the Front Porch Swing. I am simply encouraging each one of us to pull back the curtain a little and catch a wider perspective. It’s way too easy for all of us to become comfortable with our status quo and assume this is norm.

I share a few thoughts for your consideration:

First: Pray. Pray for eyes to see those less fortunate. Pray for wisdom to know how to respond.

Second: Open the curtain. Subscribe to periodicals and electronic news releases from Christian ministries such as Open Doors, The Voice of the Martyrs or Samaritan’s Purse.

Third: Invest. That is a biblical term. Didn’t Jesus challenge us to lay up treasures in heaven, investing in eternal things? By any reading, the distinction between sheep and goats in the gospels is based on compassionate sharing with those in need.

Fourth: Establish relationships. If possible, establish a personal contact with the person or people you want to help. If it’s appropriate, try to visit your new friend in person. Some Christian ministries can be of assistance with this.

I close with this vision: Imagine a world where little children receive the inoculations and meds to prevent so many diseases carried by mosquitoes. Imagine the joy of people finally drinking clean water from a local well. Might it taste even better than a latte or mocha to us? Wouldn’t that be good?

It just seems fair, doesn’t it?

 

 

The Silence for the Lambs

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No, that’s not a typo.

It’s a play on the title of a very intense movie starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. But I wanted to grab your attention, because our topic today is truly a matter of life and death.

I write, first of all, as a confession that my voice on behalf of those without a voice has become very passive. Almost a half century has passed since Roe vs. Wade opened the door for legalized abortion in America. Back in the 70s and 80s, the issue of abortion was front burner in the Christian media and in many churches. Every January on the anniversary of that Supreme Court decision (at least in Christian periodicals), the issue of abortion is still revisited. Otherwise, with the exception of a few protests near Planned Parenthood facilities, there is little discussion about abortion in Evangelical churches.

In some cases, this silence may reflect surrender to a perceived lost cause, but I fear that more often it is a desire to be politically correct—or simple acquiescence to a corrupt status quo. One thing seems certain: the issue isn’t going away, and may very well have arrived at a tipping point.

First, the positive news: The number of reported abortions in America has been dropping consistently since 1996 when 1,225,937 abortions were reported. Today there are almost 25 percent fewer abortions being reported. I believe this significant drop is to the credit of those who have consistently and carefully stood in the gap defending those who have no voice. Pregnancy Resource Centers and the use of ultrasound have helped turn the tide by changing public awareness to the fact that fetus in the womb is not simply a mass of tissue. Everybody agrees that something alive will die in every abortion. And I would say someone, not “something.”

Even with a more conservative lineup in the current Supreme Court, we are witnessing a surge in efforts to preserve or even advance a woman’s “right to choose” if and when to abort. The line dividing those who recognize the life of the unborn as human, deserving protection, and those who display little or no concern for the innocent is becoming wider than ever before.

On January 22, 2019 (the 46th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade) New York State passed the Reproductive Health Act, allowing for late-term abortions, in specially defined situations, even up to the child’s birth. There are discrepancies over the details of what the law permits. It seems the national debate is now entirely about a woman’s right to choose to end a life. Where, I ask, is the debate over an innocent child’s right to live?

Regretfully (no, rather shamefully) Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Catholic, not only endorsed the bill but celebrated its passage by directing One World Trade Center to be lit in pink the day the bill passed!

Meanwhile, illustrating the chasm over abortion, conservative States such as Louisiana have passed laws severely restricting abortion only to have the laws struck down.  The volume and the vitriolic spirit of the debate over a woman’s right to abort will only increase. Many are shouting at each other; few are listening. Even fewer are speaking compassionately for the unborn.

We don’t need people screaming at each other while angrily waving signs. We don’t need divisive words like “murder” to win the debate. It is, after all, a simple question of justice. Everybody should want justice for the vulnerable, whether they have a voice or not. We value those like Martin Luther King Jr. who cried out against the injustice of segregation, even losing his life in the struggle. We write books and make movies of men like William Wilberforce who fought for justice on behalf of men and women trapped in the chains of slavery.

The dispute over abortion should not be a debate between liberal and conservative, or Christian and secularist. It really shouldn’t be a struggle between Democrat and Republican—but here I tread lightly because one party has made abortion part of its platform.  Abortion is a struggle between justice and injustice.

The challenge today is this: Who is crying out for justice on behalf of the innocent? Why this silence for the lambs in many of our churches?

I regret my silence. While it’s true that I no longer serve on the board of our local Pregnancy Resource Center, and no longer have a Sunday morning platform, I can still write and speak out in defense of the defenseless.

Let’s stop shouting at each other over the abortion crevasse. Perhaps our voices will be stronger and more effective when we gently but firmly pursue justice for those without a voice. Let us speak with integrity, compassion, and courage while offering support for the woman struggling with an unwanted pregnancy. Let every local church, like Foundry Church in Bend, have an adoption ministry that supports families seeking to adopt a child.

The truth is, no child is unwanted. Let’s volunteer to support efforts to place foster children in Christian homes. While seeking justice for the unborn, let’s continue to offer God’s grace and mercy for men and women who struggle with residual guilt and pain from an abortion.

It’s time to break out of our passivity, demonstrating through our deeds and words that we believe all human life bears God’s image. In place of silence, let’s use our voices to speak on behalf of the innocent, the silent lambs among us.

“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.

Before you were born I set you apart.”

(Jeremiah 1:5, nlt)

Have you considered ordering a copy or two of my book, God in His Own Image? It is available as pre-published through several sources including Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I have been advised that it is advantageous for an author when books are ordered prior to actual publication. I would appreciate your support in this way. Thank you.

What I am reading: The Essential Jonathan Edwards

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Is “Christian” an Adjective or a Noun?

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“Christian is the greatest of all nouns—and the lamest of all adjectives.”

The quote is from the March, 2018 edition of Christianity Today. The article, “How Larry Norman Became the Elvis Presley of Christian Rock,” was written by Gregory Alan Thornbury, chancellor of The King’s College and a vice president at the New York Academy of Art. Thornbury is the author of Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?

Larry Norman experienced severe criticism when he began to compose and perform songs with Christian lyrics and a rock ’n’ roll beat. Thornbury wrote, “Norman’s music inspired a generation of Jesus freaks, but he never shook the suspicion of being a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Thornbuy describes Norman’s attitude: “Christian is the greatest of all nouns—and the lamest of all adjectives”.

Let’s dissect the quote, “Christian is the greatest of all nouns—and the lamest of all adjectives.”

“Christian,” a label planted by critics, was intended as a word of derision and contempt. It quickly became, however, a tag to be worn proudly. Within a few centuries authentic Christ-followers, who dared to swim against the current of popular opinion, helped transform culture and dismantle pagan institutions. The godly response of Christians facing persecution became Christianity’s greatest apologetic.

Western civilization has been transformed by authentic Christians daring to expose injustice, even if it meant their own deaths. They helped put an end to endemic cultural sins like human trafficking, economic inequities and infanticide (at least prior to 1973 and today in New York State). Christians also supported reforms such as free education to help the poor and vulnerable break free from social, economic chains. Christians have been at the forefront in establishing hospitals, colleges, relief agencies and recovery ministries.

How about an imaginary game for just a moment? Imagine what the world be like if Christ and His followers had never lived? (Remember George Bailey and It’s a Wonderful Life?) Would women today enjoy the rights once withheld from them? Would children still be working ten-hour-days in sweat shops in America? Would blacks and other minorities still be considered one-half a person? Would slave ships still carry unwilling workers, bound by shackles, across the Atlantic if it were not for Christians like William Wilberforce?

Yes, the world is a much better and safer place (in spite of all the remaining injustices) because Christians have made a difference.

Now, let’s consider the second part of the quotation: “Christian is the lamest of all adjectives.” What happens when we add the word “Christian” as an adjective to modify another word? For example: “Christian political action group” or “The Christian Right” or a “Christian televangelist?”

Much harm as been done in the political and social arenas under the name Christian. We need look no further than the rush of European (Christian) nations to colonize Africa in the last part of the nineteenth Century.

Christian missionaries had brought light to the “Dark Continent,” as it was then called, by sharing the gospel as well as medical and educational assistance. The primary motive of European nations, however, was to exploit Africa and Africans. These nations were considered “Christian” because they weren’t Muslim or Hindu. Some European nations had also adopted a State Church, blurring the line between the noun “Christian” and the adjective.

The article in Christianity Today included this pertinent observation about Larry Norman’s concern over abusing the word Christian for personal profit or fame: “… the worst fate of all was simply to ‘make money off of Jesus.’” Candidly, I often have similar thoughts when I visit a “Christian” bookstore. It seems to me that the book section keeps shrinking while the gift and gadget section grows. I wonder if adding a Scripture passage to a picture frame makes it “Christian” art? Does placing John 3:16 or a religious slogan on a candy bar wrapper makes it Kosher? I am serious; such things exist.

I admit that in my more carnal moments I have toyed with upsetting the tables laden with “holy hardware.” Jesus is not into making a profit but making disciples.

I write the next sentences aware I may receive push-back. Have we made “Christian” music into big business? Have we made “Christian” artists into celebrities? I am not questioning the motives of the artists. God knows. I understand that an artist—a “Christian” composer or performer—deserves remuneration. God did say that an ox deserves to eat from the grain it helped thresh. Even so, I question whether the adjective “Christian” belongs beside the noun celebrity. People naturally celebrate their favorite musician, athlete or actress. That’s what makes them a celebrity. As a Christ-follower, however, I have but one person to worship and to celebrate.

When “Christian” authors or preachers or performers fall—as we humans so frequently do—more than their personal reputation is damaged. Their families also suffer, as does the word “Christian.” When “Christian” ministries enter into lawsuits with each other or are charged with moral or fiscal failure, the secular press takes note.

What is the message being sent when professing “Christians” (and there I struggle to even use the term) protest at the memorial services of soldiers while holding signs and screaming, “God hates America” or “God hates fags.” Watching a public television show, I was shocked to see “Christians” protesting during the memorial service of Fred Rogers, a Presbyterian minister and founder of the children’s’ television show “Mr. Rogers”

I prefer to use the title “Christ-follower.” It’s not an adjective but a noun describing a person. Christ-follower may not be a verb, but it is an action word. Jesus didn’t say, “Adopt My name.” He said, “Follow Me.” Or, to say it another way, “Adopt My values.” That includes loving our enemies. Having the attitude of a foot washer. Taking up the cross daily, willing if necessary to die for Jesus.

Mahatma Ghandi reportedly said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

Living the noun Christian is demanding.

Let’s also strive to make the adjective desirable again.

 

What am I reading: 

I have finished Francis Chan’s, Letters to the Church.  This book challenged me to reflect on how I should use my retirement years. I believe every pastor and church leader needs to be challenged by this book if there is to be any hope for revival in the American Church.

I also include Extreme Devotion as part of my daily reading to be reminded of persecuted Christians. This book is an international bestseller published by The Voice of the Martyrs.