Holy Warps

Okay, I understand disagreements over theology. I understand disagreements over fundamental beliefs — between different religions. I think most of the divisions and debates are pointless, but I understand them. What I don’t understand is the virulent and vehement disagreement over discipleship and church membership. What are our defining features? Jesus didn’t make discipleship easy. As described in the Christian scriptures, Jesus taught that the Christian life is one fraught with sacrifice, peril, discomfort, and the risk of death. He also indicated deep satisfaction, fulfillment, and a killer retirement plan, but there was nothing simple or easy about being Christian. Paul endorses these themes. Christianity as defined in scripture is a reorientation of one’s whole being. It impacts lifestyle, values, practices, and vocation. In short, Christians must work at being Christian, devoting some significant time to learning, practicing, serving, and sweating.

So why is there so much push back from pastors about holding people accountable to their vows? The vast majority of pastors I work with think it is grossly unfair, impractical, and unreasonable to expect people in this day and age to pray, to read and study the Bible, to attend worship regularly, to work for and through the ministries of the local church, etc. Oh, sure, it would be nice if people wanted to do these things, but really, we can’t expect them to. These same pastors lament the state of the church, but see no correlation to our constant low expectations and lack of accountability. They argue that if we make Christianity anything other than easy, people won’t want it and they’ll take their money and go home… or to a church that asks virtually nothing of them.

I find it troubling that making Christianity mean something is a debatable point. A number of my friends and colleagues remind me that the majority of United Methodists have no interest in “being disciples,” let alone “making disciples.” But I still maintain, what’s the point of creating a society of passive Christian-believer spectators? What do we gain by pandering to the complacent end of the church? Why don’t we see value in downsizing the non-engaged to free up valuable resources to equip the highly engaged? Yes, I know I am speaking heresy, being mean, being insulting, being offensive — but I work with churches all the time that are dying under the weight of complacency at a time when we desperately need the body of Christ to be active, fit, and healthy. It will not happen by accident, and it will not get better if we choose to merely ignore its current sorry state.

Disciples unite! We need to rally the highly motivated and the deeply passionate and the fully engaged to lead the church into the heart of the 21st century. We need to acknowledge that the 7 million United Methodist member church is really about 700,000 disciples rubbing elbows with 6.3 million believers not that interested in doing more than attending worship occasionally and tossing in a couple bucks now and then. AND THIS ISN’T A BAD THING! What I am advocating is not lamenting that more people aren’t highly motivated to grow in their discipleship, but to focus more on those who are. We will still serve the passive side of the church, but not as our primary audience. 700,000 highly motivated disciples can move incredible mountains. Nothing breeds success like success. As the church recaptures its relevancy and purpose, it will become more attractive to others who seek something more for their lives. Will everyone want it? Of course not — never have, never will. But at least we will have reclaimed our witness — to be the body of Christ for the world.

Complacency, boredom, inactivity, irrelevancy, lack of vision, lack of motivation, lack of purpose — these things are not what we truly believe are an appropriate witness, are they? Yet, these are the very things we allow when we lack accountability and challenge in our churches. It is time to step up, time to get real and get dirty, time to remember that taking up one’s cross isn’t about going on a picnic. The gospels remind us that there can be a lot of fun and fellowship along the way, but that the real point is to teach and serve and heal a broken world — and if we don’t get busy soon it could be too late.

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25 responses to “Holy Warps”

Rex Nelson

August 26, 2010

“I wonder if part of the issue here is a lack of clear focus and vision on the denominational, conference, district, and local church level.” Could it have started with a lack of clear focus and vision at the personal level? Do we model and teach intentional discipleship or go-along discipleship? Can we expect corporate discernment without personal discernment? Is the corporate voice of the Holy Spirit spoken by the total collected membership, or the 10%? How, then, should resources be allocated, directions established, plans made, and actions taken?

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Todd Anderson

August 26, 2010

I am “IN”
Where does the line form ????

Come PREACH to us at Oak Creek !!!
P L E A S E !!!! HURRY !!!!!!!

Grace + Peace

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Adam Estep

August 26, 2010

I wonder if part of the issue here is a lack of clear focus and vision on the denominational, conference, district, and local church level. I wonder if we are trying to be invested in so many different causes and purposes, there is no clear cause or purpose to get people pumped up about.

Just look at our church calendar. Between denominational and conference specials, how many Sundays are left without a title?

It is a real challenge for local church clergy to discern and convey a specific purpose and vision for the church they serve. Perhaps this was because in the past when you leave churches every 2-3 years, what would be the point to establishing a vision that someone else would have to finish? Today, many pastors are not moving around as much as in the past, and this is a clear benefit to the local church. Are we taking advantage of it?

Some may say, “Isn’t making disciples for the transformation of the world our vision?” It is a part of it yes, but that is not nearly specific enough. How will the local church we serve fulfill this calling? That is the vision we must discern.

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Daniel J. Dick

August 26, 2010

I love this message and the comments here as they hit on really key issues. If fear of losing resources, givers, and tithers is our Lord, then Jesus isn’t.

Our Lord is the one we trust and obey.

We can give up sin or give up Jesus.
We can’t do both.
We can’t do neither.

The church building, sign, decorations, landscaping and all are labels on the can. What’s important is what’s in the can. You can tape “Tomatoes” on a can of green beans, but it will not make it a can of green beans.

You can tape “Church of God” on a church that serves satan through cowardice, lying, compromise with sin, pandering to the rich, adulterous marriages, homosexual behavior and other perversions, pride, neglect of prayer and duty to protect and take care of one another including the widowers and widows of adultery and divorce. But, that label will only add to the sin of that church that is fully satanic and hypocritical at heart. The people may go there as spectators to feel holy, but they would not give up the tiniest amount of their cowardice even to save their own children or parents or best friends. They play the harlot on their marriages and dump their spouses for another. Some of their pastors even stand before their congregation to call Jesus Christ a liar by calling Holy Matrimony what Jesus has called adultery, and it does not take any twisting or contorting of scripture to come to that conclusion.

And yet we all have opinions about what the Word of God says and means. Often, unfortunately, they are the opinions of convenience that often put unreasonable and unfair burdens on others God never intended while calling for unfaithfulness and disobedience to God at other times. It seems that many people would harness the Word of God and rule over it’s meaning so as to add a “thus saith the Lord” to their own opinions while ruling the universe by proxy.

We need to come to the place where we realize that we exist for God. God does not exist for us. We are not the center of this universe. We cannot broker another person’s salvation. We have nothing with which to wheel and deal in spiritual matters. We cannot sell indulgences and give people their tickets to sin and still go to heaven. And we need to stop defrauding one another, falsely accusing one another, lying to one another, bullying and beating one another up.

Our desire should be to love. And while that love may be bringing an inconvenient truth that is really truth for a change, it is for the purpose of love, to bring someone out of danger and into a good and real relationship with God.

But, once you have a church where the people are extremely committed and driven, how best to harvest all that energy to keep the infighting down and keep unity? We have to unify on Christ, on the Word of God. If it offers a controversy with the Word of God, ask if the person intends to call God a liar and get the world to worship is or her views instead. I don’t recommend that to be done lightly or at every whim whenever someone is totally faithful to God’s Word but merely has a different understanding of what it means. That could be arrogant, cruel, and unjust to take that approach. But, if the person is intentionally telling you that the Word of God is outdated, not relevant, unwise, unenlightened, redacted by a host of unreliable modifiers and all that to say their way is better than God’s way, then that mentality needs to be challenged firmly.

Someone may come to me and say we are predestined to heaven or hell without our choice, and I might ask, “Are you calling God a liar?” The person would be incredulous and perhaps angry and point out the scriptures to me.

A better approach might be to set up two bowls and say, this bowl is predestined for heaven, and that one is predestined for hell. Which bowl you get into is up to you. Give up Jesus or give up sin. You cannot give up one, and you cannot give up neither. Who will be your Lord? The one who has your trust and obedience. If there is anything that can get your trust and obedience away from Jesus Christ, then that thing is your Lord, and that belongs in the bowl predestined for hell. Everything else belongs in the bowl predestined for heaven.

So, predestination and free will are not so contradictory after all. Nor is it unjust. The fact sin came into the world through Adam and Eve is no indication that sin did not come into the world through you and me. We all had a choice. Worship the lusts and fears of our flesh selfishly for our own immediate satisfaction, or honor God and choose that which brings the greatest good to God and the universe. Be faithful or unfaithful. Honest or dishonest. Loving or cruel. Trustworthy or untrustworthy.

We all like to have nice looking labels on ourselves, but when we’re living as heartless, insincere, hypocritical heathens and we’re labelled honestly, our natural reaction is to bristle and fight or leave. When we lose our hope of being saved by our own goodness and good works and throw ourselves upon the mercy and grace of God for forgiveness, then it all changes. We may prefer the good labels be kept off of us until our hearts are truly faithful to God, and our repentance may be very deep and enduring and life long. That is not to say we go around grieving that we’re worms in the ground all our lives, but we realize that we have more blessings in this life and the hereafter than we could ever deserve. And that makes us want to serve and win souls to Jesus out of love.

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Wesley White

August 26, 2010

Variation:
Disciples Unite! You have nothing to lose but your passivity!

Well, that’s a whole lot. Passivity is a great protection. Its loss would have us be responsible for more than we have power to effect.

Techniques that provide protection for leaders (lay and clergy) need further exploring at both the conference and congregational levels. My own bias in work of intentional transition/interim ministry suggests there is an internal assurance part to this as well as external system shifts needed. It is wonderful to see the changes that can happen when protective permission is engaged.

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Richard H

August 26, 2010

“Why don’t we see value in downsizing the non-engaged to free up valuable resources to equip the highly engaged?”

To a large degree, we have too many resources. We have too many buildings (requiring too much maintenance) and too many pastors (requiring enough salary to support a family) to value the downsizing.

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1. doroteos2
  
  August 26, 2010
  
  Preach it, brother! Many of our churches will fail in the next few decades for no other reason than their buildings and property will drain all their resources, leaving nothing for mission and ministry. It is crunch time — we need to make some tough decisions.
  
  Reply
Taylor Burton-Edwards

August 26, 2010

Why is it debatable?

Perhaps in part because the 90% are the ones who “need” the clergy and the denominational structure. At least not on the terms our clergy and denominational structures currently work.

That isn’t to say our clergy have nothing to offer to the 10%. But what we have to offer there isn’t what we’ve come to expect we SHOULD spend most of our time on.

But if we did… well, my sense is we’d soon discover the 10% may well be not only more powerful but actually far more numerous than we thought– or than we were able to see while we were operating under our “serve the 90% the most and best” assumptions.

A clergy colleague of mine recently told me of two intern interviews he had over the past couple of years. The job for these interns was identical. Go and listen to the stories of people in the neighborhood. Find out what their gifts are. Especially find out what they really care about. Then help connect folks with common passion and complementary gifts and let’s see what the Spirit does with that.

The first intern complained that this wasn’t “pastor’s work” and so didn’t really want to do it but would give it a shot. Result– that intern was fired in a few weeks because, in fact, this wasn’t getting done.

The second intern, at a later time, was delighted to engage this effort precisely because it wasn’t “pastor’s work.” So the pastor called in an associate to help explain how it really, really was. That intern may not have changed views about whether the work was pastor’s work or not (though my guess is there was a change!) but that intern did do the work, and did it well.

And the community was blessed. And so was the congregation.

This approach assumes the number of folks who may have been gifted and even called by God to discover and engage the kingdom of God may be far larger than we know– and from the evidence I’ve seen there, that has been a consistently accurate assumption.

And it repositions what the clergy do– from “servicing” the 90% to making it possible for everyone who wants to to engage the questions and answer the challenges the reign of God brings in their lives and their community.

The accountability comes in whether the questions are being asked, whether people are getting connected, whether there is fruit on the ground and in people’s lives.

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