Method or Madness

Several years ago I began to read extensively on church growth, contextual missions and theology, the emergent church, and other how-to-do-church-in-the-21st-century books. At the same time my pastor was challenging the idea of spectator Christianity. This is where ‘super-star’ musicians and preachers wow the crowds with their talent while the crowds seldom if ever engage in the worship activities: preaching, prayer, singing, service, etc.

After 30+ years of three songs, prayer, offering, announcements, special song, teaching, and final prayer I was ready for ‘real’ Christian ministry. The pattern of worship was so familiar that I began to despise it. I read McManus, Bell, Warren, Barna, Viola, McLaren and many others. I let the ideas of these good, honest men roll around in my head and a new framework of simple, Spirit-led church emerged in my imagination. On my daughter’s sixteenth birthday I woke up around 2 or 3 AM and started writing my own vision for how church should be ‘done’ (She’s approaching 21, so, you can see these things have been rattling around in my mind for some time).

Eighteen months ago I helped start a small church in East Tennessee. I was excited about the possibility of ‘doing church’ in the simple, Spirit-led manner I had imagined. Although it is good (at times exceptionally good) I am cured of the disease of believing that there is a ‘right’ method for doing church and worshiping God. I now believe that the pursuit of method can be a form of magic (I’ll explain more below). I believed, while I was worshipping in a traditional way, that the number and tempo of the songs, when we stood or sat, who spoke and when, would actually cause God to ‘move’. I came to believe, in my newly acquired framework of worship, that God would actually speak if we simply opened it up, kept it simple and intimate, and called for full participation of all the believers. If, however, a person has spent their week not seeking the will of God, not serving others in love, not looking into God’s word for direction, not praying for his guidance, and then attempt to ‘do church’; their efforts will fail no matter the method. But, if people adore God, serve others, and seek his will throughout the week then when they come together to celebrate God’s victory in their lives; whether it’s traditional, emergent, simple, charismatic, or liturgical God will meet with them and they will experience, both individually and collectively, the transcendent, life changing, presence of God.

Going back to my claim that method can be a form of magic. Magic is the art of invoking supernatural powers. Magicians would conjure through their actions or incantations some spell that would ‘obligate’ the supernatural powers to act. I have a feeling that in some ways we have come to think that God responds to us, through our methods, like the powers respond to a magician. But, there are a couple things to remember about God and I think they’re supremely important: 1) he acts unilaterally; and 2) he acts out of grace. These two points are corollary to each other. We could not act on our own so he had to act for us (that’s the whole Jesus in the flesh, on the cross thing). When we receive the Spirit and seek to do his will we can become participants in his work, but our efforts must be heart driven and not method driven. So, it is in my opinion that an individual or community of faith could be liturgical or charismatic in background and still experience and be changed by the presence of God.

I mean to imply that there are benefits in many of our traditions and also reasons to consider opening ourselves up to less structure, but the question of method is less important to the Christian community then the question of heart and desire for God. If you are at dis-ease by the methods of your church simply open your own heart toward God, seek him through the week, and serve others through love. When you return on Sunday embrace God through your spirit and see if you are not changed.

Bin Laden is Dead - How Should We Then Live

I will never forget the morning of September 11th 2001. As I prepared for work my wife called me into the other room because the news was reporting that a plane had struck one of the trade towers in NYC. I was incredulous as to how a pilot could make that kind of mistake. Within a few minutes, when the other tower was struck, I instantly realized that something sinister was occurring. I pealed myself away from the television and drove to work. When I arrived at the office the monitors were lit up with the CNN news feed. I walked into the office in time to watch the first tower fall – I was sick – I will never forget the horror, the anger, and the dismay at what was occurring. The other tower fell, thousands died, and tens of thousands lost loved ones. America engaged in a war which has claimed additional lives of both soldiers and civilians. Think about the number of deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. The estimates vary greatly, but the most conservative numbers run at nearly 250,000 (probably more). Two-hundred, Fifty Thousand! The repercussive, exponential pain of a single action! The mind behind this act was Osama Bin Laden.

I love my country and never want to relive the events of 9/11. So, I hope my government continues to exercise its right and a responsibility to protect its citizens against attack. My hope is that we will continue to look for less violent ways to accomplish this (I write this with the full understanding that violent men often only accept violent ends). I am an American and I love my country, but I am first a Christian and a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is to those who are first a part of this kingdom that I address the rest of this post.

I fully understand the chest thumping victory cries of those who rallied at the White House and in NYC at the towers site last evening and this morning, but this is the response of people whose hope lies in a strong national presence; people who need proof that America is the world’s only ‘super-power’. Again, I understand hurting families and the need for justice and closure, but as Christians we recognize that justice will never be fully served in this life and will rarely, if ever, be administered properly by other broken, fallen people. Our hope, however, is in Jesus Christ, who has been exalted above all the powers and authorities of the earth (Ephesians 1) and has called us to join him in his kingdom as ambassadors of peace and reconciliation. In Ephesians 3.10-11 it says, “His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the powers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The church is the visible representation of what God purposes to do for all humanity.

The church in the first century was having trouble integrating Jews and Gentiles within the same congregations, but this reconciliation was called for by its leaders so that tangible evidence that Jesus Christ had taken his throne could be seen and that “all things in heaven and earth” were being reconciled to him. The church today must gain a vision of the Kingdom of God, a kingdom of peace and reconciliation, which is both active now and will be more completely experienced in the future. The church must stand at a distance and distinct from the state in which it resides or it will never be able to call that state or its people to something better and higher. The church and its members in particular must reflect the peace of the world that is to come. The future Kingdom of God will be utopian in nature. In contrast to other utopian attempts where power and force are used as the primary tools of construction; God’s kingdom is constructed through self-sacrifice and meekness. A triumphal, pro-American faith only subjugates the Kingdom of God and essentially marginalizes the church. (I say the church is marginalized when it ties its destiny to that of its host state.)

As Christians, we believe that everything that defaces, distorts, damages, or spoils another person is evil. What Osama Bin Laden and his followers have done, and will no doubt continue to do, are evil and should be resisted. I doubt, however, that violent actions will ever beget peace. As Christians we should recognize that more than most. The Pax Romana was only peace to those who quietly subjugated themselves to the powers that were – Jesus found out that Roman Peace came at the end of a scourging whip and the top of a crucifixion stake. This is not how the Kingdom of God will create peace, however. NT Wright said, “revenge is keeping evil in circulation”. Can kingdom-peace be generated from violence? Or, will it come as we exemplify the character of God in our communities – ever expanding concentric circles of peaceful, integrated communities – not returning evil for evil, but blessings for cursing. Ezekiel 33:11 says, Say to them, “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die?” Whenever wicked, evil people perish it should not be a day of rejoicing, but recognition of how far we are from accomplishing the commission our king has called us to.

God bless America, God bless the World.