What If Our Friends Asked Us to Come to Their Community?

What if your non-churchgoing friends asked you to join them for a few weekends in a given two-week period, doing what they do and going where they go. This would cause you to miss your church times, would you do it?

Some of you may have answered an emphatic "NO" to that question. Then the next question is simply, "Why?" I would guess that a lot of you would answer something like, "It would cause me to miss church", "I wouldn't feel 'right'", or "It would be odd/awkward/uncomfortable."

Here's another thought...what if your church decided to take out everything in its auditorium and replace it with some round tables, with chairs. Additionally, they stopped having regular meeting times and started having opportunities for you to come whenever you wanted to come, on Sundays (for tradition sake). When you did come, you could either sit down at a kiosk and listen to the sermon that was previously recorded or go into a room where, for bigger groups, and watch the sermon on the screen. You would also have your time to visit, maybe sitting around the tables that were set up or in an area that people could stand and visit. You also wouldn't be required to watch a sermon, you could simply come and hang out as long as you wanted. Does that sound appealing?

For most, that sounds like something so wrong and uncomfortable that it is not church at all.

What if I told you that the first scenario may be how some of your friends view an invitation to go to church with you. Does that surprise you? In essence you are asking them to interrupt their weekend plans for one, two or more weekends. They are going to a place they don't understand. Sing songs, do chants, shake hands with people, practice rituals and various other things, of which they are not familiar with and may make them uncomfortable.

I recently watched a video that talked about a churches and discipleship, by Todd Engstrom. It was eye-opening to me and showed me how our "church" gatherings may not be that appealing to others. It doesn't matter if it is a "small group" setting. These still tend to highlight the organizational aspect of religion.

People tend to not like organizational religion. The idea that everything is so formal or planned out, demonstrates how that speaks to me. To stand around and visit with people, similar to what one does when they go to an informal gathering, is "unorganized."

I doubt my church setting "remodel" will take place in my generation, but it may be a key in helping people become more attracted to church because it is more what society is like outside of our formal Sunday and Wednesday church gatherings.

I also find it interesting that Jesus went with others to their community. Zacchaeus, Matthew, and Woman at the Well all were example of Jesus being with them in their community. He didn't drop off his proverbial business card and say "Come and join us on Sunday." If He didn't do that, why do we?

Meeting them on their turf seemed to be less uncomfortable and more impactful. Maybe we could think about a way to use this principle and become more of what Christ would be to the 21st Century.

May we also be more sympathetic toward our non-churchgoing friends when they turn us down for an opportunity to join us for a church gathering.

Now it's your turn...How does this affect your view of your non-churchgoing friends?

Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus - My View

cc Within the past few months a video on YouTube was released that was titled “Why I hate Religion, but Love Jesus,” by Jefferson Bethke. At the time of this writing the video currently has been viewed 20,757,918 times. This video went “viral,” which is one that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing. I am sure that some of those numbers were repeated views. However, that number is still astonishing. It definitely raises some questions for us all.

If you haven’t viewed the video, what are your initial thoughts from the title? Does it strike you as true or false? Regardless of your answer, why did you answer it the way you did?

If you have viewed the video, what was your reaction? Agree or disagree? Why or why not?

Often times the term “religion” has been symbolic of “Christianity.” The problem seems to be when “religion” becomes equal to “Christianity” because they are not. Religion shows the institutional side of Christianity, which many seem to not be attracted to at all. Christianity is about Christ, which I see is about relationships. Religion is about showing up and checking off a list of duties you deem necessary. Christianity is about putting self second to other things to live a life of servitude.

Religion attempts to look good, from the structures or décor of the buildings to the clothes you are wearing. Christianity may look nice but that isn’t a priority.

I grew up with “religion” in mind. The denomination I have attended since birth made “doing it right” a priority over what it actually means to “do it right” outside of the church building. I had no idea what I was supposed to “do” in my everyday life; how I was supposed to live out my Christianity. I only knew I was trying to get “you” to look like me.

In one portion of Jefferson’s poem he challenges by saying, “Religion might preach grace, but another thing they practice; Tend to ridicule God's people, they did it to John The Baptist; They can't fix their problems, and so they just mask it; Not realizing religion's like spraying perfume on a casket.”

I think that grace is one of those “Christianese” words that we have used in churches forever. However, the depth of its use has become stripped and devalued. It has become a selfish word, meaning that you like grace given to you but have a difficult time giving it to some people. It is a challenging word to practice. The time you need to practice it may be the most difficult. The religious will sometimes throw the “Jesus” card out there to think He will fix everything, when, in fact, He may not. So, His name is used as a mask when a situation may not actually get better. On occasion, using phrases like “God will make a way,” “He doesn’t give us more than we can handle,” or “God works all things out for good” are phrases that have truth in some circumstances but are not guarantees for every situation.

Here are some additional lines from Jefferson’s poem, “See the problem with religion, is it never gets to the core; It's just behavior modification, like a long list of chores; Like lets dress up the outside make look nice and neat; But it's funny that's what they use to do to mummies while the corpse rots underneath.” Have you ever had a religious experience where you didn’t feel you made it past the surface? Instead, you did your religious things out of duty? Or dressing up to look nice. How about the thought of looking like religious “mummies” by dressing up? Religion just seems to be about the wrong things. It tends to keep away the relationship and is concerned about the “what” you do in life and how often it’s done.

We can all put on a good front, as that is what the institutionalized part of “religion” seems to cause us to do. It is like Jefferson put it, “like [we’re] saying [we] play for the Lakers just because [we] bought a jersey.” We want to look like we belong to Jesus but it doesn’t go past the covering.

The “religious” in the Bible were often corrected for their outside acts and dead hearts. Jesus called them fools. All they were doing was living a life following the rules. The church needs to let Jesus in, not just spew “Jesus” out from their mouths. Jesus is the cure for sin and “religion” can cause you to have an infection. It makes you feel good but it doesn’t go deep. Religion causes us to work but Jesus already did the work.

Understanding what Jesus did and why God allowed what Jesus did should cause us to be eternally grateful and humbled. It is not us who had to pay the penalty we deserved to receive because of sin. When sin came into the world, in the Garden of Eden, God separated Himself from us. To allow Jesus to die was God’s plan to be able to have the intimate relationship with us. Religion simply does not do that. Those that have a relationship with Jesus are religious, in nature, but those that are religious do not necessarily have a relationship with Jesus.

I am thankful that Jesus died so that I can have a relationship with Him, His Father, and the Holy Spirit. May I never be just religious.

RESTORE: Engaging the Culture

Think of what your culture is like. How would you describe it? Are those descriptions good, bad, or neutral? Are they simply describing the culture or are they promoting or tearing down the culture in which you live? Is it describing a culture or a subculture in which you live?

Lots of things change in culture. Some changes may enough to create a subculture within the culture. Some changes are simply the culture evolving into something different.

When you see those changes come into your culture, how are you at adapting to them? Does the "previous" outweigh the "present"? In other words, are you standing your ground to make sure you are most comfortable or are you able to adapt?

Sunday we looked at the idea of "engaging the culture" in which we live in order to make our world restored back to the greatness of which God hoped it could be. We, as His body, are called to live it out. But, in order to, live it out, we must be able to engage the culture for best possible impact.

• Engage the Language ~ There are words that have changed in their meaning and context over the years. This is not new to the "2010s" decade. This has been going on for years. Bread used to mean something you ate, but when I was born it also meant money. Crack used to mean a break in the surface of an object (or could go all the way through) but it also points to a drug. Cell was basically a term in biology, but now will refer to a phone. Turn the channel used to actually mean what it said, but now you hit a button and nothing turns. The list could go on and on. The point is, we must understand where our culture is when it comes to language so that when someone responds to our invitation to come to our house to talk about their faith and they use the word "crib" we'll know what they mean!
• Engage the Fashion ~ Fashion is also one of those revolving changes in culture. When I was in the upper primary grades the "jean jacket" was coming back in style. My parents wore those when they were teens and I had a hard time believing them. Then a few years later, the "bell bottom" came back. Along the way, tie-dye has been in style again. Shoes have changed, too. I remember when I wanted nothing to do with a "dress up" shoe for everyday, but now I like that type of a shoe to wear with jeans, but now they are "casual" and not "dress up." How about another area of fashion is make-up and hair styles. They have come and gone over time. However, now it is a social norm to have a guy wearing some make-up. How do you feel about that? Or a guy in earrings? Tattoos - another subject. Hair length - another subject. Someone predominately dressed in black clothes, does that bother you? You will be amazed if you will just sit down and talk to the type of people you snub your nose at and you will see they have a "heart" and something worthwhile to share. But we can disengage them and lose out on being effective in sharing our faith.
• Engage the Challenges ~ When a person is learning something new, they are going to become frustrated and probably have times they will want to talk themselves out of trying to accomplish the task. My son picked up learning to ride a bike without training wheels really quickly. However, there were times he wanted to have them put back on - even after he had actually learned how. He was challenged to be able to get on the bike and start pedaling all by himself. I was there to encourage and foster his learning. When you look at something different in your culture with eyes that you've never looked at the possibilities before, it will come with challenges. The fun part is, it will also come with victories. Work through the challenges and failures to get to the victories. They will come! Anticipate them!

Keep in mind that "engaging" does not mean that you start practicing the things that you find odd. It means that you will take an active role in learning about your culture so that you can have the most impact you can have in order to succeed in being a follower of Jesus.

I can just imagine there were times which Jesus was not wanting to be with certain people, but He knew that in order to be the most effective, He would embrace them. He engaged the Samaritan culture, which is a great example of doing something He wasn't used to, but He did it anyway!

Now it's your turn...What can you do to effectively engage your culture/subculture?

Why Our Differences Tend to Keep Us Separate

You can talk to some people about all kinds of things, but if you bring up the subject of religion, the conversation slows down or comes to a screeching halt. I don’t know why this idea came to me to write about, as I am not attempting to prove if one church group is right and another is wrong. However, when the idea did come, I thought it may develop into something interesting.

I have been in ministry a relatively short amount of time, entering my ninth year. At my first ministry position, I was not involved in the local Ministerial Alliance. I found a few ways to make my way into the community, but I kept hearing other minister’s names be mentioned with their involvement. Each one of them was a part of the Alliance. I was seeing a degree of value regarding involvement in the Alliance.

At my second ministry position I did get involved with the local Ministerial Alliance. I thoroughly enjoyed the involvement. It allowed me to be more a part of the community. It allowed our church to be visible in the community. So, when I moved here, it was natural for me to be involved with the Alliance, along with other groups.

I say all that to arrive here. Almost all of my growing up, my family or church tended to not be involved with other church denominations. You may have similar experiences during your years of growing up, in the church you attend. You may have grown up knowing about spiritual and pastoral debates, trying to prove who has the handle on a scriptural topic or doctrine. Did any type of unity develop from that or just a greater knowledge of what makes you different?

Somewhere in your church’s history a dividing line was created to cause your church’s name to be put on your building, which differentiates you from the church “down the street”. To some on the extreme side of the spectrum, that means that one cannot fellowship with one who believes any differently. Possibly worse than that is when a church has split and now the groups are “mad” so they can’t talk to each other.

Whatever the reason for the differentiating mark, does that mean we have to be like the Montagues and Capulets when it comes to a spiritual relationship? We might be able to pool our money to share seats at a sporting event, while cheering on the same team, but if it comes to pooling our money for a spiritual event, put on the brakes!

What is the advantage of trying to stay on opposite lines when it comes to working together toward a common goal? One thing I’ve learned, being in the Ministerial Alliance, is that even when you may not agree on every theological point, you can still accomplish some great things! The Alliance is not about a “show-and-tell” of who’s right. We are about collaborating together, in the realm of faith, to bring Christ to the forefront.

The Montagues and the Capulets were bitter rivals. Imagine what might have been accomplished if they would have been able to work together? When we act in this manner, we are creating a “civil war” of sorts. You may have deep beliefs concerning your stance on certain theological issues. I don’t mind if you do. I also hope that you would not let those issues be something that keeps you from being involved with efforts of the churches in our community. After all, bitter rivals put out a lot of effort trying to avoid one another, where nothing gets accomplished. Why not approach the difference in a way that understands there are differences, but greater things can be accomplished working together rather than working against each other.

In November, the Thomas County Ministerial Alliance is hosting a Thanksgiving Service at Frahm Theater. I think this will be an awesome time to come together, expressing our thanks to our Creator. We don’t have to worry about who goes to what church. We have one thing in common, Jesus. Our focus that evening is about being thankful to Jesus.

I still do not know why we tend to be able to talk about so many things except religion. I am learning to talk about it easier with folks that I know differ and not having it come to a halt or move into a debate. I am not right on every point or interpretation of every Bible passage, so that causes me to listen more and talk less.

The concept of not being so separate may be a step for you. You aren’t going to cross the bridge without taking one step at a time. Eventually, you’ll make it over. Eventually, it will become more comfortable. Maybe, eventually, we’ll all be able to live together, talk together, and work together, keeping Jesus in the middle. All the while, letting any concept of “right” be something you reserve for appropriate settings and not allow it to keep us from working together or from being civil to one another. We’ll all find out, one day, who was “right” and who wasn’t. For now, let’s focus on what we have in common, Jesus, and allow that to help us work together, rather than letting differences separate.

Religion: Not Just an Instution

Times have changed over the past few decades, specifically with religion. I originally was going to have the title say that religion was not an institution. However, after looking up Webster’s definition, I found that one meaning was couched around being institutional.

I am alive in a religious time which is exciting for me. I have been affiliated with the Church of Christ all of my life. Throughout my life at home, my view of “church” were the practices we did on Sundays and Wednesdays. A typical Sunday morning would look like this: go to Bible class, and then sit in the auditorium for about an hour while listening to songs, listening to prayers, watching people take the Lord’s Supper, listening to the preacher talk over my head, and then going home. We would come back on Sunday night to sing some more songs, hear another sermon, and go home. A typical Wednesday was going to Bible class and then everyone coming together for the last few minutes to sing a few songs.

Your story may differ a bit depending on your experience. However, the institutionalized part of religion is a turn off to many. It is for me, too. Religion is not about a “check off list”. Religion is not “church”, though the church is religious. I have refocused my view of religion. It is not an institutionalized view, but rather an exciting opportunity to team up with my Creator, every day. Everywhere I go, every person I meet, and every action I take should reflect the appreciation for my salvation and wanting others to be a part of that as well. I am not trying to attract someone to “church”, the institutionalized part of religion. However, I am trying to attract someone to a challenging and rewarding way of life.

For those who have made religion institutionalized, that is a huge mistake. It has led so many people down a dreary and exhausting path. It takes all the joy out of it. The little bit of time you spend in a building on a Sunday is not geared to give you “brownie points” to God. In fact, the Bible speaks against the institutionalized part of religion. Jesus came to show that it wasn’t simply offering sacrifices because God wanted their hearts more than sacrifices. So, getting together on Sunday should be about revving you up and getting you ready for the week as you go back out into a world that is spiritually dark.

One of my goals, as a minister, is to show people that religion and Christianity is joyous rather than institutional. I have been “institutional” too much in my life and it did not bode well for my faith. Experiencing the uplift that comes from teaming up with God has allowed my faith to become stronger.

Remember, that God wants you, not just your presence in a church building. God wants you, not just your money in a plate. God wants you, not your hypocritical actions.

I go through days where I am guilty of all three of these. I am constantly working to give me to Him, so I don’t revert back to making religion an institution.