Here it is: The Christian Nation

Below is the final message in the unChristian series where I took a look at the perception that the Church is too political.  We studied 1 Peter 2.9-11 and found (1) that many Christians in America are too political b/c they have confused the USA with the people of God and (2) we found that the Church is the true Christian Nation to which we owe our allegiance.

Listen to: The Christian Nation.

Discussion Question: How important is it to you that the U.S. recognize itself as a Christian Nation again?  Why?

One Lord, One Faith, One Nation?

If I ever write a book on God & politics (came sorta close once actually) that’d be my title (cf Eph 4.5).

Well, my next message is coming up in about two weeks and its another one that I’m pretty passionate about, but again, need to take the right angle on.  I know that we aren’t supposed to talk religion or politics in polite company, but looks like I kinda-sorta have to do both.  In wrapping up the unChristian series the next W.E.L.D will address the perception that Christians are too political.  In other words, young people have picked up on the fact that the nature of our involvement in the political realm stems from our over-inflated view of the good Ol’ U.S. of A in the program of God (whether they’d put it in those exact words is debatable, of course).

Here are a few brief examples where I’ve noticed this.  In almost every conservative church in America, on any (and every) American holiday we decorate our sanctuaries with American flags, sing patriotic songs, and may even recite the pledge of allegiance.   Some self-proclaimed Christian, conservative commentators go as far as to say that the U.S. Constitution and other founding documents were inspired by God (perhaps not to the degree of the Bible, but nonetheless) and that people will be judged by their faithfulness to it (an extreme example indeed).  Finally, AWANA, probably the most popular Children’s curriculum in conservative churches, has patriotism as one of its core values.

Discussion Questions:

1. What constitutes a Christian nation?  Is there such a thing (I believe there is, though not perhaps as you might expect; or maybe you already know me too well…)?
2. What makes America more of a Christian nation in so many of our eyes than Britain, Vatican City, or Half of Europe (which have their own gov’t established churches)?  China may have as many, if not more, genuine believers than we do, are they or are they not a Christian nation?
3. By what means does a nation become Christian or have the Lord become their God?
4. Share your experiences of extreme Christian patriotism.

Sorry for dumping so many, take your pick…

Correction: The original post suggested there were more Christians in China than Citizens in the US.  While growing, it is estimated that there are somewhere between 35 and 130 million Protestant and Catholic believers in approved churches and house churches (some have suggested as high as 200 million, but that is doubtful).  By comparison, the Barna Group estimated in 2008 that only 7% of American Adults were Evangelical and only 1 in 6  consider themselves born again.  Of course this is a different standard than that used for evaluating the number of Chinese believers, but the original point remains that very few Americans genuinely follow Christ while the face of Christianity is shifting to the Eastern and Southern Hemispheres.

Insincerity, Authenticity, & an unChristian Faith—Part V of VII

Form follows function.  Amen.  For some reason when Kat and I stay up late we usually end up watching the tube and one of the shows we [embarrassingly] find interesting enough to stay on the couch for a little while longer is Pitchmen.   Billy Mays and the other guy are quite a duo as they sit through pitch after pitch from “inventors” trying to sell their devices to the masters of 2-minute infotainment.  Sandal Mops—floor cleaners you wear on your feet; to no one’s surprise they are large cleaning pads with a foot strap (who cares if it takes twice as long to clean the floor, they’re stylish and functional?!).  GPS Buddy?  Why of course it looks like cup (so it fits in the cup holder) and has a little shelf for your Garmin and a place to tuck all those messy wires!  And those are the products that the boys decide to pick up!  You should see the stuff they pass on!  Despite how ridiculous any invention might be one thing holds true: form follows function.  The shape, the features, the materials, form always follows function.

So I ask the question, what function determines the form that our declaration seems to take?  When we explain the Good News to someone what do we want to see happen?  In many cases I fear we just want them to make a decision and we aren’t really all that concerned about the rest of their lives.  Somehow we’ve reduced “Go and make disciples” to “just get them to pray the prayer.”  Now, here’s what our abbreviated objectives do to the way we tell people about  Jesus: (A) it makes us impatient (if all we need is a decision then 5 minutes should be enough, right?).  (B) It also makes us insincere.  First, it’s insincere b/c we withhold our intentions—we try to bait and switch people into hearing the good news.  Second, we withhold Christian love—only those who neatly or cleanly fit into our churches or groups will feel welcome or worth our time.  Third, we withhold critical information about the call of God—we reduce His call to an under-informed decision instead of a restored, faith-based relationship with God the Father through Jesus His Son by the Holy Spirit.

Listen to: Pursue the Person.

Discussion Question: How must the form of our declaration change as we adopt a more holistic view of our function in issuing God’s call (i.e. seeking disciples over mere decisions)?

Sheltering, Going on the Offensive, & an unChristian Faith—Part IV of VII

The best defense is a good offense.  On the other hand, offense sells tickets but defense wins championships.  Either way, as important as defense might be, it isn’t the be-all-end-all in sports, war, or the spiritual life.

Maybe you’ve picked up on this, but some time not too long after the Reformation, large segments of Christians stopped going on the offensive with the Word of God and started going almost exclusively on the defensive by creating our own subculture and building tall, thick walls to keep anti/non-Christian influences out.  Fleeing persecution in Europe, a bunch of us crossed the Atlantic and built forts to insulate ourselves against every force of spiritual corruption (except natural human depravity I guess, pesky offspring…).  While escaping the sword w/o denying your Lord is pretty much always a good thing, sometimes (read, “all the time”) I wonder how much our present misunderstanding of the call to holiness and the subsequent retreat from the cultural marketplace has prevented us from meaningful interaction that would reveal Jesus to people.

Genuine Christianity can’t be a purely defensive way of life (because purely defensive strategies only hold off the inevitable).  If Christianity is going to survive anywhere, it needs to be on the offensive proclaiming the Word where it isn’t heard.  The more we isolate ourselves and our kids while saturating ourselves with Christian media to the exclusion of everything else going on in the world, we’re gonna find ourselves unable to communicate with and challenge our culture.  How long will it be until we render ourselves unable to make any progress at all in the Great Commission because of the barriers we erect?

What if, instead of running scared and sheltering ourselves and our kids, we actually prepared for interaction with the world, its way of thinking, and for going on the offensive with the Gospel?  Let them play defense for a change!

Listen to: Tear Those Walls Down!

Discussion Question: Where do you draw the line between playing offense and defense?  Obviously there are times we need to flee naked (like Joseph and Potiphar’s wife) and there are times we need to go looking for trouble  (like Paul in Athens) – how do you make the call?

Love the Sinner Pt. 2 – aka Anti-Homosexual, Merciful, & an unChristian Faith—Part VI of VII

Thank you all for your comments, insights, and challenges on Love the Sinner.  I ended up tying in James 2 and the relationship between taking a look at someone and deciding either to show them honor or disdain and how we have treated homosexuals as people.

It was a powerful evening at our progressive worship service W.E.L.D.  After the message we had a drama where we built a sanctuary on the stage into which three characters entered and sat through a worship service while their pre-recorded thoughts were played over the PA (a middle-aged man, college-aged woman, and a college-aged man each dealing with their sexual identity, connection to Jesus, and earnest desire for Christian love and compassion).  Finally, a young man in the church shared his on-going experience with his lesbian mother and her wife.

Listen to: Show ‘em Mercy.

Discussion Question: I have argued for a very gracious view toward homosexuals and, in some ways, even toward the homosexual political movement.  Given the seeming inevitability of homosexual marriage within the next decade or so, how should we prepare for that day?  Should we hasten it or try to delay it?  Do we expect any fallout to come with it?  What will we have to do differently then that we might as well start doing now?  Anything?

Being Judgmental, Seeing Potential, & an unChristian Faith—Part III of VII.

We have a giant hole in our living room—the joys of home ownership!  It’s actually not that bad, you can see where the previous owners had a built-in entertainment center, now we’re building our own. Like most of the homes on the market these days we bought a foreclosure.  And like most foreclosures, the home was not exactly move in ready.  Compared to a lot of houses we saw it was pretty close, but if we wanted to hang anything in the closets, close a bedroom door, see our reflection in the bathroom, or not have our eyes bleed at the sight of kenzi’s bright yellow and orange room, this house was gonna need a little sweat equity.  All the projects have been pretty enjoyable actually.  Its great to have a vision for what the house could look like and then make it happen.

Continuing the unChristian series, Judgmentalism is the flipside of Hypocrisy.  Instead of presenting an inflated image of ourselves, being judgmental is a spiritual pride that makes us quick to condemn others, especially those who are outside mainstream Christian culture.  What if, rather than judging people as being beyond God’s reach (really a judgment on God), what if we saw the potential in people to be transformed by God into the image of His Son?

Listen to: See Their Potential.

Discussion Question: When you consider what someone might become in Christ (i.e. when you see their potential), what do you envision?  What changes?  Are they mostly external changes or internal?

You Have Heard That It Was Said, “You Shall Love the Sinner and You Shall Hate the Sin”…

…but I’m not sure what to tell you.

Like a bald tire on my old ’72 courier, that mantra has gone around and around and taken us a lot of good places, but lately it seems to be causing us more trouble than good.  This is especially true with homosexuals where an action that many Christians believe is sinful has, in an über-existentialist sorta way, become the very identity of 2-10% of our population (please don’t take this statement pejoratively).  On top of that, it has become the very center of modern civil rights activism.  And looking down the road 5, 10, 20 years, who wants to be remembered the way that we, in our post-racist generation, look at George Wallace when he stood against integration and racial equality?

Well, my next message has pulled a really fast one one me and I find it a mere 5 days away.  To complicate matters this subject has the most potential to cause a firestorm or get me in hot water.  Many will think I have gone too far, many will think not far enough.  This Sunday I am giving a message in the latest installment of the unChristian series; specifically, on the perception (read, “fact”) that the American, Evangelical Church is largely anti-homosexual.  Pay attention to that last word, I wrote anti-homosexual, not homosexuality.  The issue is not our opposition to the practice or the lifestyle, but the people who practice it.

I need your input on this one…  Please answer one of the following questions (or both if you’re feeling ambitious):

Discussion Questions:

1.  Why has homosexuality become the rallying cry for American Evangelicals supplanting abortion, divorce, substance abuse, and numerous other more common practices?  And why does our fervor always spill over into public policy?

2.  Is it possible to separate a person’s actions from their identity?  Why do we seem to do this with murder, masturbation, pornography, infidelity, kleptomania, and every other sin, but not homosexuality?

Hypocrisy, Transparency, & an unChristian Faith—Part II of VII.

Bobby Flay is the man!  From Iron Chef America to Throwdown the dude has some serious chops, some serious creativity, and makes some serious food.  Watching that guy work is amazing; but the thought of imitating him is frightening!  There’s no way my food is gonna come out looking or tasting anything like his.  It’s frustrating just to look up his recipes!  And that’s why I also like watching Alton Brown on Good Eats.  When I watch Alton cook it’s empowering and encouraging because he takes the time to show each step explaining all the while what he’s doing and how it works; he shows you proper technique and what not to do.  When I watch him prepare food I know that I too could step into the kitchen and turn something out that looks and tastes just as good.

One of the big findings in unChristian is that young people see Christians as hypocrites.  According to Webster’s, hypocrisy is “pretending to be what one is not especially the false assumption or an appearance of virtue or religion.”  Here’s the problem, young people seem to have figured out that NOBODY has it all together.  We all have garbage hiding in our closets, under our beds, and tucked neatly away.  So why do we pretend it isn’t there?  For one, it’s human nature.  But just as much, I think it’s because we’ve convinced ourselves that a good testimony (somehow the apex of Christian living) is a finished product – someone who’s totally sanctified, cleaned up, and ready to give St. Peter the rock.  Problem is (1) it ain’t true and (2) no one would believe us anyway, they’d just figure we’re hiding something really big.

What if instead of trying to be spiritual Bobby Flays wowing everyone with our unattainable righteousness, we came back down to earth, showed people where we really are, and then showed them how to go from a messy, messed up, sinful life to cleaned up, forgiven life of faithfulness?  Don’t you think transparency (showing people the process) is just as good a testimony to God’s power as a perfectly plated masterpiece?  Shoot, it might even be better…

Listen to: Live Transparent.

Discussion Question: What’s the difference between genuine transparency and recklessly throwing our garbage in someone’s face?

Salt, Light, & an unChristian Faith—Part I of VII.

The biggest piece of junk I ever drove wasn’t my ’72 Ford Courier, or my ’96 Sable, but my wife’s 2001 Daewoo Nubira.  Masquerading as a car, this putzy little clunker was a full blown lemon.  Driver’s window locked down, door handle snapped, dead battery, A/C compressor died, tranny kaput, cd player started over at the beginning of a song every time you started the car (SO ANNOYING WHEN MAKING A SERIES OF SHORT TRIPS!!!),—all before 55,000 miles!  Daewoo?  Never again!  It did get decent gas mileage though…

In unChristian David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons show us how America’s youngest adults see the church from the inside and out.  Many in the church live an unChristian faith that only masquerades as Christ-following which leads young people see Christians as (1) Hypocritical, (2) Judgmental, (3) Sheltered, (4) Insincere, (5) Anti-homosexual, and (6) Too Political.  They’ve taken their test drive but they ain’t buying.

In this series I want to help us understand these issues and get Biblical correction so that we—God’s people—can bring the experience (salt) and illumination (light) of God.

Listen to: Introducing unChristian—Let’s Follow Christ.

Discussion Question: I’ve taken unChristian and issued a call for renewal; should we invite outsiders to judge God’s people?

So This Is How Its Gonna Be…

Ok, so I lay in bed the last couple nights tossing and turning in anguish over what I’ve done.  And I’ve come to the conclusion that Everything’s Hebel needs to have a really clear purpose for it to be worth your visit on anything approaching a regular basis.  As a pastor I’m constantly faced with emerging needs, problems, and issues – many of which end up in a message or lesson.  The thing that helps me think through these issues is to talk, write, and interact with people.  I’m going to try to be as relevant as possible, as thoughtful and thought provoking as possible, as regular and faithful as possible.  I’m going to talk about my messages and my lessons before they happen.

As far as being relevant, right now I’m in the middle of a series based on the book unChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons that analyzes the negative public image Christians have among young people.  I’ve given 5 of the 7 messages in that series and over the next few weeks I’m going to post them and invite your feedback.

As far as being thoughtful and thought provoking, I’m going to write in extreme terms at times.  I may offend, I may make you uncomfortable with me.  I don’t do it because I get some low-level thrill out of it – like smashing mailboxes or stealing pears – but because we live in a complex world with complex issues that our Sunday-School answers don’t help.

As far as being faithful, I’m planning on posting every Tuesday and Friday morning.

See you Tuesday,

bern