A World-Changing Day

Yes folks, today we celebrate an event that changed our entire world for the better. It was 47 years ago today that Australia, and dare I say, the universe, was forever altered for the better. 47 years ago today something happened, something was brought into being, that would shock us, compel us to frenzied excitement, and salute us directly before we began to rock. Yes, it was 47 years ago today that Angus Young was born. Happy birthday Angus; for he who continues to rock, we salute you.

What the Crap?

Would you like to see a 27 year old, sworn non-violent resister go on a massive killing spree against his own brothers and sisters in Christ? Show me a few more of these, and we'll be getting pretty close.

(For my fellow Americans living in a constant state of fear of those terrorists hiding behind every bush that once hid the reds, don't worry, the killing thing is meant to be humorous, not terrorist...)

The Shaping of Things to Come (part III)

"What do 'holy ones' do? They live holy lives. This is what scholars have called the indicative and imperative. The indicative defines us, and the imperative calls us to live the definition out in daily life. Incidentally, this is how the New Testament, especially the Pauline Epistles, is structured. In almost every case the first half of Paul's letters are framed in the indicative (you are saved, justified, etc.). The second half is framed in the imperative (therefore live as...). Who I am, or rather who I have become, in Jesus, must change the way I behave and determine to a great extent what I do... Our primary identities determine our primary purposes in life."
-page 148.

The mega-church all-star John Ortberg once told a hypothetical story of a man who was a total jerk, became a Christian and attended church every Sunday and participated in everythin that went on, and died years later, still a complete jerk. How could this happen? Especially, how could this happen to somebody who is supposedly "active" within a church?

The modern church expects people to "attend." Sometimes it lays out the challenges that go something like this:

• Invite your friends
• Don't have sex until you're married
• Don't be addicted to anything
• Vote Republican
• Serve somewhere in the church (like a greeter...)
• Read your Bible

There's more, but you get the idea. What does any of this have to do with being a disciple of Jesus? I will not deny that there is an ethical charge within our faith, but it comes from who we are in Christ, as Frost and Hirsch discuss in their summary of Paul's letters. We are transformed in Christ, and the changes occur from there. The church has dropped the ball on this, saying little about what it means to have a new identity in Christ, then saying even less about what that means for your day-to-day life. True transformation is when we look at a person and can barely recognize them because the Spirit has obviously changed them in radical ways, first inwardly, then outwardly.

Part of this is a re-grasping of holiness. This is going on right now in some church circles and I think it is a step in the right direction. There is a lot of bad connotations with the word, but it is Biblical and needs to brought back out of the cellar and put to the use originally intended by God, who is holy, and says that we are as well. I think holiness is the connection between the indicative and imperative mentioned by Frost and Hirsch. I think this is a large part of our Kingdom calling. Let's be holy.

Peace,

Matt

The Shaping of Things to Come (part II)

"...it's one of the core tasks of leadership to help the community to dream again. It's a disturbing trait of the more gung-ho Christian leader today to believe that he (usually male) is the sole visionary and the people are mere receivers of teh vision and must adhere to it because of the position of the leader in the organization...A much more wholesome view of vision and visionary leadership is contained in the idea of the management of meaning. Considered philosophically, all that a great visionary leader does is awaken and harness the dreams and visions of the members of a given community and give them deeper coherence by means of a grand vision that ties together all the 'little visions' of the members of the group."
-page 188

Working now in my second mega-church, I'm beginning to realize how silly our modernistic, heirarchichal conceptions of a visionary leader really are and have always been. Some yuppie male stands up in front of 2 to 30 thousand people and tells them he knows where God is taking them for the next year, 5 years, or even 30 years. Typically one of two things happen in the time to come; either he sets too bold of a vision and ends up leaving or replacing it later on and proving it was not God's vision because it didn't even come close, or else he sets a bland, broad, generic vision that is easy to fulfill because it just isn't from the Lord at all. Luckily, all the mega-churchateers are blind followers and stick with him no matter what.

Frost and Hirsch have a different idea for leadership, as was shown in the initial quote above.

The implications of that paragraph are enormous. First, it means pastors have to really know their church. By "really know," I mean a pastor spending a minimum of half of his or her work week with the people of the church, listening to their needs, hearing their dreams and visions and imaginations and hurts and frustrations and pasts and everything else. I think this is a big reason why Eugene Peterson chose to never lead a mega-church; he wanted to know the visions of his congregants!

Secondly, the hierarchical model of church is toppled. Few people deny that there will not still be some sort of leadership structure, but it is changed now. A real priesthood of all believers becomes possible when the pastor becomes a shepherd and vision sharer rather than a celebrity and lead salesman. Only in a non-heirarchical church can the body of Christ have only one head rather than two.

Lastly, people are able to really become disciples of Christ in the church. Honestly, I think the church makes it hard right now for this to happen. Like the Pharisees, we travel across the world to convert one person, then make it impossible for them to actually follow Christ in a true life of discipleship. Our current way of "making" disciples is to talk at them on Sunday mornings then have them go to a small group where they do Bible study and learn more. If knowledge is all it takes, why don't we just make Satan our lead pastor? Obviously there's something missing. I do not think discipleship is possible in the church unless people are aloud and invited to fully participate in everything.

All this being said, I would only add how much I love this view of leadership. It's like creating a song, pulling together all of the instruments to make something beautiful. Currently we have one man trying to entertain everybody as he attempts to play 10 instruments well at once (there is a guy in Seattle who does that quite well by the way). I look forward to a time where everybody is invited to join in. Isn't that what being part of the body is all about anyway?

Peace,
Matt

The Shaping of Things to Come (Part I)

"The truth consists not in knowing the truth intellectually but in being the truth... Knowing the truth is something which follows as a matter of course from being the truth, and not conversely. And it is precisely for this reason it becomes untruth when knowing the truth is separated from being the truth, or when knowing the truth is treated as one and the same thing as being the truth, since true relation is the converse of this: to be the truth is one and the same thing as knowing the truth." -Kierkegaard, "Training in Christianity"

I read this quote late last night in Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch's revolutionary book The Shaping of Things to Come. I had a terrible case of insomnia last night, literally getting less than one hour of sleep. The problem was that my mind was racing. And my mind was racing mostly because of thoughts that had been planted in my head over a year ago when I read this book while taking a class at Mars Hill under Dwight Friesen.

I have to admit I was not originally impacted very much when I read it, but it never really left my mind, until I finally had to reread nearly the entire thing last night! My plan is to share some quotes and thoughts from it in the days to come (but not in a systematic manner). This quote from Kierkergaard is worth reading a few times, though I think it speaks for itself. We need to embody our faith. This seems obvious, yet we as the church rarely challenge people to do this, at least not fully. In the past few days I have seen some people take bold, drastic steps because of the Gospel, and have felt a renewed calling on my life that scares me to death, yet seems to be a challenge to faithfulness from God, asking me whether or not I can stop just teaching and knowing truth and actually be the truth. We will see.

Peace,
Matt

Currently Pondering: Immigration laws, impeachment possibilities, the rave scene, the horn of Africa, cancer, the pitfalls of Emergent, Solomon/wisdom, and the absolute arrogance of Western culture.

Creativity, Imagination, Culture, etc.

Yesterday I had the distinct privillege of having lunch with a kind New Testament scholar named Ron Hermes, who coincidentally just started teaching at my old school, Mars Hill. My friends and I were able to pick his brain as we prepare for our retreat teaching on Revelation (see last post on how I feel about it). Ron was very gracious and helpful, and brought up what I was already talking about, yet fearful of at the same time. If we are going to explore Revelation, we have to get into creativity and imagination, do some cultural exegesis, then let people go wild.

Scholars from Eugene Peterson to Walter Brueggemann to N.T. Wright are exploring the role of imagination when dealing with scripture, and I honestly appreciate it and am glad for it. The hard part is to deal with it on a pastoral level. Some people don't want to use their imagination, or don't think they are creative, or just don't see how any of it has to do with the Bible. They "just read the Bible and do what it says." You can't go very far in a study of Revelation before you realize how much John understood his culture (at a much deeper level than most "culturally relevant" church-people do today), and how creative he was in bringing the imaginative, apocalyptic literature of his day into a dialogue with Old Testament writings and his brilliant cultural exegesis.

I think we can do something very similar today to what John did. In fact, I think it's needed sorely. But who should do it? Many of us would gladly stand and say "here am I, send me," but our willingness is not the same as a calling from God. As I ponder inviting high school students into a space where they get to test their own prophetic voices as they wrestle with their dialogue with culture and how to bring creativity and imagination to it, I walk with a great amount of trepidation. Who has the right? Who has the authority? All of us? Few to none of us?

I'm getting closer to what I've always dreamed of doing with high school students, yet am becoming more confused and fearful than ever. It's a fine line, but one that obviously needs to be looked at from time to time. It does sound like a beautiful thought; high school students taking up a prophetic voice and speaking to the followers of the way in Whatcom County, calling them to a new way of life that honors God where they live. Awesome. Scary.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Peace,
Matt

Currently Reading: Simulacra and Simulation by Jean O Baudrillard. It's fascinating, and I have no doubt that I'll be blogging some stuff about it quite soon, especially as I continue to attempt my own deep reading of culture.

To be a coward...

Reading The Power and the Glory again is probably partly to blame for me thinking this way, but I'm realizing how much of a coward I am when it comes to ministry. Luckily I'm not the only one, but it still stinks.

In his great book The Contemplative Pastor, Eugene Peterson claims that the pastor must be subversive. His point is that most people in the church cannot handle everything the pastor has to teach, so you give it to them a little at a time, slowly guiding them to some tough questions and answers. Most pastors seem to resonate with this, including myself, though I'm realizing that we like it because it gives us an easy out. The truth is, we are afraid to tell it like it is.

Why is this the case?

For years I think there were many American pastors telling things exactly how they saw them. And the church caught on and agreed. Unfortunately, I really don't think these views were correct. And now the church is firmly entrenched in what it believes is right and wrong, and it is a form of church suicide to disagree with that. So we sit and hope we can be "subversive," which is really just an excuse to hide in our cowardice.

In under two months I go on another youth retreat. We are planning on spending the weekend discussing the book of Revelation. Unfortunately many of my kids have "churched" parents; the kind of parents who, if we want to stereotype, have probably spent one entire year of their life studying different cults, believing they can now argue somebody out of their faith, and another year studying Revelation, now believing they can see the US's role in the apocalypse, have a good idea who the beast is, and are continually leary of any new technology with fear that it may in fact be the mark of the beast. They are waiting for the end, and unfortunately teaching their kids to do the same. And I don't want to deal with it. I don't want to get into theological arguments where I have explain to people why their exegesis is poor, only to have them stubbornly hold onto ideas that are too entrenched in their minds to lose. Honestly, I just don't want to fight.

I know not all in ministerial positions think this way. Some are only too eager to get into it. But what it often boils down to is us being afraid of losing our congregants, if not our very jobs, by calling people out on poorly thought-out ideas and beliefs that have more to do with the Western worldview than Biblical faith. So we instead sit in our offices and try to plan out how to continue disguising our cowardice as subversion.

Perhaps there is a better way?

Peace,
Matt

Currently Reading: The Present Future by Reggie McNeal. The staff at the church I work at are required to read it, and I was honestly scared at first. It's written by a Southern Baptist, and I never know what sort of rude thing I might accidently say when discussing how to do church with others... Anyways, the book is surprisingly intelligent and challenging. But I'm still scared of what I might say. I definitely see things differently and I really don't think that would always be seen as a good thing there.

The Best Book Ever Written

I wrote that title, then realized that this is the typical spot where a throw in my shocking cliched Christian answer: the Bible. Of course, the Bible is a collection of numerous books, so I can get out of that conundrum, because seriously, who wants to choose which books are good and which are less than good (although seriously, Proverbs needs to go, and nobody would even notice if Song of Songs, Jude, Philemon, 2 Peter or 3 Peter were even gone). But I digress.

The best book ever written is The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. It is a painfully beautiful piece of literature that I just started rereading, as I have vowed to read it once per year for the rest of my days.

Why is it so great? If you've never read it, P & G is the story of a "whiskey priest" in a communist state in Mexico. He is a pitiful, pathetic, drunken priest riding a donkey through the swamps and forests of Mexico, trying to keep ahead of the police and military, whose only desire is to murder him. He sees himself as useless, a damned soul providing sacraments for the people. The villagers love him, as he is the only priest left (all the others have been killed, ran away, or renounced the priesthood).

I love this book because to me it displays more truth about the psyche of a priest (or pastor) than any other book I have ever read. Or at least it does for me as a youth pastor. Most days you feel 100% unworthy of your calling to the point of despair. Typically you feel like more of a burden than a help. Watching the despair of the people makes you want to vomit as you realize just how little you have to offer and even worse, know that they are beginning to realize the same thing.

With all of this going on within Greene's rather short book, he leaves you feeling like you have just witnessed the true birth of a saint. His small deeds produce miracles. And his sad life is in fact the greatest miracle of all. Read this book, then read it again, especially if you are in ministry (thanks, Brown Kid, for buying it for me originally)!

Peace,
Matt

Currently Reading: I just told you! But last night I did watch Jarhead for the first time. Honestly, it was disturbing. I feel a frustrated about so much in this world and that didn't help. Nor did Bush's speech, which was full of his typical rhetoric: how can you answer a question about why we chose to go to war by referring to 9/11? Everybody knows that's not why (although 85% of US soldiers polled believe we went to war with Iraq because of Saddam's role in the 9/11 catastrophe). Also, hearing that congress will be balancing the budget by cutting cancer research out, rather than just the poor, elderly, and aliens among us didn't help. No wonder nobody believes in God in our country; our Republican government was voted in on the shoulders of US "believers" to usher in this version of the Kingdom, where the Bible is boiled down to making the rich richer and telling everybody else to shove off. I am not proud to be an American.

That was a long side-comment. Apologies.

Jared Diamond and the Kingdom

Jordan Cooper had put this link on his site, and being the unoriginal guy that I am, I decided to follow suit. I have not read Collapse yet, but I did recently read Guns, Germs, and Steel, and think that Jared Diamond is one of the most important writers today, both for his amazing research, creativity, and the way that his books are being embraced by the mass public.

My question, which I purposely choose to propose as a question rather than a rant, is as follows; how do we get church-folk to engage in the kind of conversations that are brought up in Diamond's books? For instance, I read Guns, Germs and Steel at the same time that I read The Poisonwood Bible, and noticed an immediate correlation between the two. Too often the western church has a simplistic view of the rest of the world, especially as we send our missionaries to other countries to "fix" different societies. Our simplistic models need to get blown out of the water, and right now I'm definitely struggling to make this a reality for myself, as well as for those I minister to and with.

Peace,
Matt

Currently Reading: The Godbearing Life, by Kenda Creasy Dean. I really appreciate what she is trying to do with youth ministry, though her books sometimes seem to all say the same thing over and over...at least it's a good thing, I guess.

Brian McLaren's Newest Book

On McLaren's website about a month ago, he mentioned that his newest book, The Secret Message of Jesus, was coming out soon, and that the publishers wanted to give out some free copies to bloggers who would review it on their blogs and on Amazon. I replied, expecting very little after an incident with Doug Pagitt's Preaching Reimagined. But then one day it arrived. So now I have to actually be a man of my word and say some words about the book (and no, they didn't tell me to say nice things about it). I've had weird experiences writing reviews on Amazon, but we'll leap that hurdle when it comes. For now, here's some thoughts:

Upon receiving The Secret Message of Jesus I was immediately struck with a strange fear by the title alone: had McLaren slipped into some sort of gnosticism? Of course, that wasn't it at all, though I would have to say that the title does not do justice to the book and quite often it felt like he was trying to twist what he was saying in the book to fit the title in nicely, which it didn't. But that is just secondary stuff to the book itself. This is a book about the Kingdom of God, which makes it invaluable in a society where that Kingdom has been ignored or replaced by the average believer.

If you are at all aware of the people McLaren reads and is influenced by, this book comes as no surprise. Particularly, N.T. Wright and Walter Wink have been writing about the Kingdom for years and their influence is obvious. Of course he also uses C.S. Lewis, Martin Luther King Jr, and, to a lesser degree, Walter Brueggemann, Jurgen Moltmann, and possibly even Crossan, though he is not often quoted. What I'm saying is that if you are a follower of some of these writers, McLaren doesn't necessarily have much to add, though he does do a fine job of boiling down and mixing their thoughts for the everyday Christian looking to live into the Kingdom, which I'm sure is what he is looking to do.

The Secret Message does a wonderful job of putting Jesus into his context within first century Palestine. McLaren points out the beliefs and actions of different groups from his time/location, from Essenes to Herodians to Pharisees. It is looking at these different groups, as well as the political situation of his country at the time and their struggle to make sense of being "God's chosen people" while under Roman conquest, that he can talk about Jesus' political, Jewish, revolutionary and "hidden" message.

Beyond the context of Jesus' life, McLaren also brings Paul into the picture and shows how Paul works within the kingdom framework provided by Jesus, rather than preaching his own gospel as some believe.

The most important thing about The Secret Message to me is this: Brian McLaren has written a book that seems far less controversial than usual, which makes it clear that the gospel is about participating in God's kingdom, both now and eternally, and is something much richer than heaven after you die. He brings the historical Jesus into today and asks the hard questions about what the Kingdom of God looks right now, about where it is breaking into our kingdoms. He creatively brings up different ways of referring to this Kingdom, such as God's dream, revolution, mission, network, and more.

My one problem that I often have with people referring to God's Kingdom, and this unfortunately often includes me when I'm not thinking things through, is that we get so excited about God's Kingdom that we forget the particulars Jesus said about it and focus on the parts we like more. McLaren used more Biblical passages than I'm used to seeing in his works, but I honestly think he could have gone even further, which is a big thing for me to say. Whenever I teach on the Kingdom, I'm blown away by what I think it is and what Jesus says the most about it. My hope is that the readers of this book would go to the Biblical text itself and read the gospels, as well as the entire New Testament (then the entire Bible even), keeping God's Kingdom in mind as they read.

Complaints aside, I would still say this is a good read. Let me put it this way to close: if every person on this planet read this book, the world would be a better place and the Kingdom would be more apparent than I've ever seen. This is a good introduction into current thinking on the Kingdom and a great reminder to all Christians about what our calling really is.

I'd be glad to answer any questions about the book, or to engage in any sort of discussion about God's Kingdom if anybody's interested.

Peace,
Matt

Currently Reading: Systematic Theology, vol. 2: Existence and the Christ by Paul Tillich. I'm amazed at how volume two is even better than volume one! Tillich's existential theology is brilliant, fascinating, and more important for today than most people seem to realize. I first read him while studying under Stan Grenz, and now realize how important he could be for postmodern theologians. If I ever do more theology work, he may be the man I choose to study. Of course, I have too many interests to say that for sure...

From Rumi...

We must become ignorant
Of all we've been taught,
And be, instead, bewildered

Run from what's profitable and comfortable
If you drink those liqueurs, you'll spill
The spring water of your real life.

Forget safety.
Live where you fear to live.
Destroy your reputation.
Be notorious.

I have tried prudent planning
Long enough, from now
On, I'll live mad.

-Rumi

Tim Lahaye: Model Christian Fundamentalist

Wow, I am continually amazed at how low we are sinking. No wonder the Western church is shrinking! If this is what we are preaching, who would even dream of becoming a follower of Jesus?

Peace,
Matt

...

Matt News!

Some of the stuff I've been up to lately is pretty exciting, so I thought I'd share...

First of all, I started writing a book today. I'm already realizing that I am probably biting off more than I can chew, and it will most likely never get published or read, but it's exciting for me anyways. It is about Genesis, though I would not say it is a commentary. It's more like an attempt by me to get readers to ask harder questions about the origins of all that is. I'm trying to do this through frustrating questions, dissecting commonly held assumptions, and making some "what if" statements that have the potential to challenge status quo faith. So far I've been quoting children's books, musicians, theologians, linguists, philosophers, and Biblical scholars; in other words, it's Matt's kind of book. We'll see how it pans out, and you can feel free to ask me as time goes by (it might help keep me on track).

Last Sunday we set up an experiential walk-through based on the minor prophets and inspired by Jonny Baker. I have pictures to share if I ever figure out how to add pics to this blog. Anyways, it was an amazing experience. Students were honest about their own sins, their frustrations with God, etc. Most days I think my high school students have a deeper faith than most adults I meet.

There's more to say, but I think I'll end on this: I bought Walk the Line on the day it came out and have already watched it twice. Cash is awesome, and I'll have words with anyone who thinks otherwise.

Peace,
Matt

Currently Reading: Creativity by Matthew Fox.