Previous Post – What St. Francis Wasn’t

“You will notice that I have referred to it as “the Disciple’s Prayer” instead of the more commonly known Lord’s Prayer. I am under no illusion that I am going to reverse the trend of what people call this prayer, nor am I rejecting the traditional title. Rather, I will refer to it here as the Disciple’s Prayer because I want to underline its significance and what it teaches in respect to being followers of Jesus Christ. To genuinely pray this prayer and live a life accor ing to its truth is to walk in the way of Christ. By referring to it as the Disciple’s Prayer I hope that we will be reminded again that in all things, Jesus is calling us to actively, sacrificially and daily follow him in willing obedience” (from The Cost of Community, pg. 142)

Father God, who unites us together as one body, one family, sister and brother.

May your name be made holy by your Word and by the witness of us, Your people.

May your kingdom be established here and now, in and through us.

May your will be our first and most immediate priority,
just as it is to the angels above.

Provide for us all and only what we need for life together and obedience to you.

Let the gift of your undeserved grace for us overflow from us onto those who have wronged us, where everything that is owed is fully forgiven.

Lead us on your path, away from the empty promises of our selfish temptations.

Rescue us from every scheme of sin and darkness
which would take us from that path.

For you are King, this is your kingdom and we are your citizens and servants.

All we are, all we have and all we will do is by your power and for your glory alone,
in the past, in the present and in the future.

Amen

Previous Post – What Jesus Said About Homosexuality

If ever there was a time when we needed something stable to count on, it is today.  The economy is in the tank and politics increasingly feels like an exercise in choosing the lesser of evils.  We want something that we can count on and trust.  And who could be more stable than the lovable, bird-bath inspiring St. Francis of Assisi.  He is the epitome of all things reliable and true.

Or is he?  What if I told you that meek and mild St. Francis is not all we thought he is?  In truth, there are a few things no one should know about him.  At least, unless you willing for just a little more instability.  You’ve been warned.

St. Francis was not an environmentalist.

When Pope John Paul II named St. Francis Patron Saint of Ecology, it was a well-deserved honor.  Yet it would be a mistake to romantically reinterpret him as a modern environmentalist.  When Francis looked at creation he saw something deeply mystical. After all, it is from the earth that the elements of communion are produced, the source and symbol of our unity in Christ.  To that end, his sense of fraternity extended even to creation, calling the sun as his brother, the moon his sister.

Now more than ever we need to regain a sense of our sacred connection to creation.  It is not enough for us to see the earth as a source of material resource, regardless of how responsibly we manage it.  Neither is it adequate to settle for environmental advocacy.  Francis’s love for creation is inseparably linked to his commitment to peace, and his radical generosity to and fraternity with the poor.  In the same way, how we relate to creation will impact the authority of our witness.

St. Francis was not a pacifist.

In his youth, Francis enlisted as a soldier to win himself glory only to find himself a prisoner of war, changing him for life.  Once in ministry, he even went so far as to walk to Egypt in order to put an end to the Crusade.  When his fellow Christians refused to listen, he walked into the enemy camp, facing sure death, to make his plea for peace.  His humility and passion were so moving, the Sultan released him, praising his faith.

Yet to define this commitment as pacifism falls short of the truth. He was not merely opposed to violence and war, but instead, when he read Jesus’s words that said, “blessed are the peacemakers”, he dedicated himself, not simply to ending war, but to bringing shalom.  Shalom, that all-encompassing salvation and wholeness of both the spiritual and material.  For Francis there was no distinction between the gospel and the so-called “social gospel”.

St. Francis was not an activist.

Francis was, perhaps, best known for his commitment to the poor. Unlike those who were called to the cloistered life of a monastery, Francis disdained property to live like the common people, sharing in their demanding labors and simple joys.  He took for his religious garb the same tunic worn by the peasants. He chose a radical simplicity that stood as a living rebuke to the decadence so often associated with the medieval church.

Yet this commitment wasn’t an early example of social justice.  While he stood firmly against any injustice suffered by the poor, he was drawn to their company because he was convinced that, in the least of these he found Jesus.  What appears to be solidarity with the poor is in fact devotion to the Jesus.  Christ is with the least of these and if we are with them, He is with us.

St. Francis was no saint.

While Francis canonized as a saint in 1228, he was was no stranger to sin.  The son of a wealthy merchant, Francis lived a playboys life, carousing through the streets of Assisi with the wealthy sons of the city.  Inspired by the minstrels tales of gallant knights, he was devoted to wooing the young maidens of his city, earning him a less than flattering reputation.

Even when serving God Francis was prone to such literal obedience to Christ, that he drove himself into an early grave.  Whether throwing himself into an icy ditch to quench impure thoughts or when he scattered ashes in his food so not to take too much pleasure in the flavors, he later repented to “Brother Body” for treating it so poorly.

Yet, it is in his imperfections that St. Francis holds his greatest appeal.  Apart from his failings, we might be tempted to venerate him so fully that we would never look to him as an example to follow.  However, if he was as prone to failure as any of us, then his life stands as a challenge, pointing to the potential of what our own lives might become.

The more we discover about this St. Francis of Assisi, the more we see how important he is for Christians- for all people- today.  Some might balk at such high praise, saying instead that we should be looking to Jesus. Francis would agree. And yet, when we discover who this simple man is, we realize that as we follow in his footsteps that they lie within the deeper prints of Christ Himself.

(For more about the life & example of St. Francis, check out my book, “The Cost of Community: Jesus, St. Francis & Life in the Kingdom”)

Previous Post – Gay Christians Follow Up – Wendy Gritter

When people discuss (or debate) what the Bible says about homosexuality, it generally is brought up that Jesus was completely silent about the issue.  For some, this suggests to them that Jesus did not condemn it.  He did not hesitate to condemn other sin, so his silence speaks volumes.  Others argue that His silence demonstrates that He held true to the Old Testament teachings that prohibit same-sex relationships.  In other words, if He disagreed with centuries of teaching on so important an issue, surely He would have said something.  My argument is this: Jesus was not silent about homosexuality.

Before you get excited, I am not going attempt to tell what Jesus did or did not believe about same-sex attraction or gay relationships.  Neither am I going to claim that we’ve missed a reference to these topics in the Gospel records.  If the debate could that easily been put to rest, it would have been long ago.  Our problem is that in looking for some explicit affirmation or condemnation, we miss His more important response.

If Jesus had spent a life time teaching about every actual and potential theological issue, question of sin or interpretation of Scripture, He would have died an old man not have brushed the surface.  This does not mean He had/has nothing to say about these many issues, but rather than He choose to use His few years on earth a different way.  He modeled for us and called us into a way of life that would form us into a people that would be best prepared to, by His Spirit, respond to the challenges of life and mission.  It is a way of life made possible because, through His death and resurrection, we can live Christ together into the world.

Little Flowers Community is by no means a paragon of missional and moral perfection.  However, we have become a community that is welcoming and safe for people to belong- people who often feel alienated and excluded from the church, including people who are gay.  While it is not always easy to navigate, we’ve built honest, generative and uncompromising relationships with people while unabashedly live and preaching the gospel.  People who see this often ask me how we became this way.  Interestingly, it was not by design- at least not directly.

Early in our formation as a community, we became deeply convinced by the Anabaptist tradition we had adopted that we were to embrace an approach to spiritual and missional formation that was centered around the life and teachings of Jesus, seeking to live explicitly His teachings together in our community.  We wanted to do more than worship Jesus as Savior, important as that is, but we also wanted to follow Him as Lord.  And so, we started with the Sermon on the Mount.

We are still on that journey to this day and will continue on it for as long as God sees fit to work in and through our community.  While my book, “The Cost of Community” explores in great detail the beginning and foundations of that journey, God continues to shape us into His people.  Unlike an emphasis on personal piety alone, which is too often the primary (or even exclusive) focus of many evangelical churches, our shared formation is such that we are propelled into His mission as a result of living His life and teachings.  It is in this way that we have become a community that has been able to welcome the unwelcomed.

“Jesus subverted the patterns of religious expectation, where people had to align themselves first in wholeness and holiness before they could even presume to approach God. Instead, God reached out even in the midst of our brokenness to declare and demonstrate himself as our loving Father.” (The Cost of Community, pg. 147)

Yes, we need to continue to discuss and debate these issues.  If this week has taught me anything it is that we all have a long way to go to better understand each other and the God we love and serve.  However, we must recognize the the quickest way into discovering God’s heart for people and how to respond to them with radical grace and unconditional love is to become the people Jesus has called us to be.

“This is a significant paradigm shift, moving from a posture of policing to an almost maternal care for the new life being formed in our community. We bear the greater responsibility at this stage. Our behavior, not the outsider’s, must be held to a high standard. The Sermon on the Mount is critical in forming us into the kind of soil in which people can be fruitfully rooted.” (The Cost of Community, pg. 191)

So Jesus was not silent about homosexuality.  While He did not make an direct statements about the topic, He gave an unquestionably clear call to a way of life for His people- a way of life that would form us into a people who would respond to any and all circumstances and questions with love, grace and an authority established by lives of Christlikeness.

Previous Post – Gay Christians & Missional Integrity

All guests posts represent the opinions of the contributors, not necessarily the views I hold.  However, I share guest posts to give important and varied perspectives.  Wendy Gritter is a friend who I happily invite to share here and endorse to you all.

As the Executive Director of  New Direction Ministries of Canada, Wendy has put herself into line of fire in her commitment to build bridges and to “to nurture safe & spacious places for sexual minorities to explore & grow in faith in Jesus Christ.” This post is a follow up to yesterdays post “Gay Christians & Missional Integrity”, which in less than a day has become one of the most visited posts I have ever written.  Now, over to Wendy:

_________________________________

More on Gay Christians & Missional Integrity
Wendy VanderWal-Gritter

I want to thank Jamie for adding his voice to the ongoing dialogue about honesty, authenticity and identity for those who find themselves differing from the heterosexual majority. This is a critical time in the history of the church to be intentional in articulating the many nuances and complexities of this matter.  The resolution that Christ-followers come to about their use of language, their attitudes and posture toward sexual minorities will have tremendous impact on not only how open LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) individuals will be to engage matters of Christian faith but also on others who are carefully watching how the church responds to the gay community.  Our public witness has been so hindered by the infighting and alienating responses of the church that 91% of young adults primarily describe their negative perception of Christians as “anti-gay”.   That is why it is so important that we have a constructive conversation about how to extend not only dignity and respect to those who may differ from us, but how to also demonstrate a tangible commitment to nurturing safe and spacious environments where gender and sexual minority individuals can explore and grow in faith in Jesus Christ.

For such an environment to exist, an individual has to feel able to honestly describe the reality of their life without the anticipation of a fearful, shaming or rejecting response.  Describing a reality and defining a primary identity are two different things. It is very important for individuals who experience an enduring reality of same-sex attraction to be able to speak honestly and authentically about that without continuously having to clarify and dismantle others’ assumptions.  For many young adults in particular, such a description might be simply being able to say, “I’m gay.”  By being sufficiently non-threatened to use the common descriptive language of our culture, the church demonstrates a willingness to surrender presumption, entitlement, and pride. By nurturing environments where people can be honest about the aspects of their reality that they navigate as followers of Christ without fear of judgment, we are simply living out God’s intention for shalom – a space in which people can flourish despite the limitations of our fallen world.

Many Christians seem very concerned that people would identify themselves with or by their sexuality.  However, for the majority of gay Christians I know, there is a very clear commitment to experience their primary identity as children of God, beloved, redeemed, forgiven and made righteous in Jesus Christ.  It is clear that they view their sense of self as much more than just their sexuality.  Yet as Christians lament their perception that gay people define themselves by their sexuality, it is often the case that the only intentional engagement of the church with sexual minority persons is around the issue of sexuality.  This then becomes an invitational circle that actually perpetuates an impoverished view of the nature of our humanness.

These conversations about describing reality and navigating identity don’t address the question of the appropriateness or inappropriateness of same-sex sexual relationships. That is a different conversation altogether.  Rather, this is about the more fundamental question of how our experience of sexuality affects our personhood. We as the church ought not to capitulate to a reductionistic notion that our sexuality is simply a carnal desire to have physical sexual relations. Nor should we simplistically view sexual attraction as only sexualized thought that can lead to temptation or lust.  Rather, our sexuality is our drive to overcome our aloneness – and therefore affects how we view and engage the world of people and relationships, how we express ourselves through creativity, humour, and other means of connection. Our sexuality, whether we find ourselves in the majority or minority of experiences, has the capacity to express goodness, beauty and love as we live in alignment with our beliefs and values.

All of human sexuality is affected to some degree by the reality that things are not fully as they should be. But, let us remember that heterosexual privilege is not Biblical. Heterosexual marriage may well have been God’s original design – but a privilege that puts others in a second class category is an evolved social construction and not inherently an aspect of the good news of the gospel that proclaims that ALL have access to reconciliation with God through the undeserved gift of grace through Jesus Christ.  We are called to imitate Christ and to therefore choose to be incarnational people.  This means we strip ourselves of privilege, status and reputation so that we can identify with those on the margins, those who are alienated or outcast and extend the good news of reconciliation in Christ.  Let us stand in solidarity with anyone who finds themselves a minority and work to create environments where their stories, experiences and sense of self can be shared openly, honestly and authentically such that they can genuinely experience the hospitality of Jesus and a sense of deep belonging and acceptance in the Body of Christ.

To do this will require a willingness on the part of the majority to deconstruct unhelpful assumptions, use descriptive yet culturally relevant language, and most significantly adopt a posture of humility so that we can truly listen and encounter the real experience of our brothers and sisters who do not fit our nice neat categories of gender and sexuality.  My prayer is that in the process of humble listening, we will learn how to extend the unconditional acceptance of another’s personhood just as Christ has extended it to us.

Previous Post – Hospitality, Economics & The Suffering Church

If you are new my blog or do not know me personally, you might not know a critical part of my own journey.  While in high school I came to the realization that much of my sexual attraction was for the same-sex.  Most of you will know that I am also happily married to a beautiful woman who I love with all my heart and who is the object of my desire- that is, I think my wife is the sexiest person on the planet.  With that being said, it might be easy for many people to assume that, through the intervention of God (through whatever means one imagine), I have been “healed”, “freed” and/or “changed” from my same-sex attraction.  This would be a false assumption.

In truth, my sexual orientation has not changed since high school.  If you noticed, I said that much of my attraction was for men, but not my only attraction.  I have always had a strong sexual attraction for both genders.  I think this is important to state for a couple of reasons.  First, my marriage is not a sham that I took on to convince myself or others that I was “normal”.  I did not choose my wife because I denied myself the option of men.  I choose my wife because I loved her and wanted to spend the rest of my life building a family together.

Second, from all my experience, relationships and years of research (from sources across the board), I firmly reject efforts made to “repair” or reverse someones sexual orientation.  This says nothing about what I believe about whether I am affirming of same-sex relationships or not, only that those efforts have been proven futile and damaging, and therefore want to be very clear that no such reparation occurred in my life.

Recently, a friend in very much the same situation as me wrote me an email and asked me a question I wasn’t prepared for.  He asked:

“Jamie, do you identify as gay?”

His question has stuck with me ever since, as the issue of terminology with respect to sexuality and specifically same-sex attraction is one which the Christian community is largely floundering over.  What does it really mean for a person to say, “I am gay”?  For many of my friends, this is an easy question to answer, but interestingly, despite how obvious the answer is to those friend, many of them come to a entirely different answer.  Let me explain.

For gay friends, both Christian and otherwise (and a few straight Christian friends), to be gay means to be attracted to the same-sex.

For most of my straight Christian friends, to be gay means to not only be attracted to the same-sex, but to affirm and participate in same-sex sexual relationships.

So which is it?  Recently, this topic came up on an intense (and somewhat controversial) panel discussion at the Gay Christian Network conference.  Justin Lee, executive director of GCN said (see full video here):

“In most of the world- certainly in most of America, and certainly for folk in my generation and younger- we’ve grown up in a world where ‘gay’ means one thing and that is ‘a person who is attracted to the same sex’.”

My friend Wendy Gritter, executive director of New Direction Ministries of Canada, was also on the panel and added:

“If indeed the term ‘gay’, in our broader culture, is received as descriptive and not an all-encompassing identity, by encouraging people to not describe themselves as gay, isn’t that inherently encouraging a lack of honesty and self-acceptance of the reality of same-sex attraction?”

These two comments reflect well the stance that most of my gay Christian friends hold, as well as some of straight Christian friends.  However, anyone who have grown up in the wider evangelical community in North America will realize that such positions run contrary to most of the understandings and assumptions with the church.  For example, another panelist, Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International (a ministry which describes itself as “the world’s largest ministry to individuals and families impacted by homosexuality”), recently wrote the following for Charisma magazine:

“Celibacy is the godly option for all single men and women. Yet today, while many Christians with same-sex attractions are choosing celibacy, they’re also opting to keep the gay identity/label. This falls short of God’s best because identity matters. How we view and refer to ourselves is very important.”

For Alan, as well as most Christians I’ve encountered in the wider church, it seems that to refer to oneself as gay is to accept it as an identity defining.  This position has fueled the assumption among many Christians that to identify oneself as gay was to affirm the orientation and therefore be willing to participate in the “gay lifestyle”.  They take exception to statements like the ones that Justin and Wendy made, claiming that the word does, in fact, mean what their understanding affirms.  However, dictionary definitions do little to help the discussion, with some leaning towards one side of this argument, some to the other, while still others that affirm both.

(As a brief, but critical aside, let me encourage those who are unaware that, for the most part, referring to a gay person as a “homosexual” is not generally appropriate.  The term has come to be a derogatory expression that all of my gay friends- and myself- strongly find offensive and ask that you refrain from using.)

While I strongly agree Justin and Wendy, both for the definition of gay, but also with their convictions about the need for the church to accept that definition, I would call for caution.  While challenging someone like Alan Chambers, whose role is to represent one of the worlds largest ministries to gay people, is a prophetic necessity, we must have much grace to other Christians who find themselves in often very hostile environments where such a change is concerned.  I am not saying we should soft-pedal on injustice out of self-protection- even writing this could threaten my own financial stability in ministry- but instead recognize that this issue is first pastoral, not simply ideological.  We may to navigate like people who are bilingual, slowly helping others understand the differences.

I would argue that the most widely accepted understanding of the word “gay” is someone attracted to the same-sex.  However, the fact is that millions of Christians utilize the word with their understanding in context often isolated from the wider context.  To see change in how Christians understand and use the term will take a long time- longer than is probably right or fair.  Further, there will be some circles in which the change will not happen at all.  For Christians and Christian communities that genuinely desire to missionally engage gay people outside of the church or with gay Christians (which there are many, many, many) or even with people in the wider post-Christendom culture, this is a change we must work at diligently.

Why?  Because, we are to follow Christ, who “did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself” (Phil. 2:6,7).  In other words, the onus of connecting meaningfully with people falls to the Christian.  We do not require people to adapt to us, to our language or our culture, in order to encounter Christ.  This is not license to be amoral, but rather a foundational missiological commitment that we affirm in almost every other expression of Christian mission.

Some may argue, like Alan Chambers that the “problem with being a gay Christian is that gay takes center stage. But God won’t share His throne with anyone or anything.” After all, some will say, I don’t identify as a ’straight Christian’.  yet these statements miss the fact that we live in a heteronormative culture, which means that we don’t have to say we are “straight Christians” because heterosexuality is by far the assumed reality of most people until they identify otherwise.

Therefore, when my gay friends refer to themselves as “gay Christians” they do not do so because their orientation is somehow more primary than their identity in Christ, but rather because it is all too often assumed that the words gay and Christian are irreconcilable.  It is a response to year beyond counting where gay people have had to live in fear and silence regarding their sexuality, even (and sometime especially) from the church.

So, what then do I say when someone asks me if I am gay?  My response has general been to explain that my sexual orientation is bisexual.  Does this mean I am not gay?  Not necessarily.  It depends on who is asking and what they mean by the word?  Am I happy with that ambiguity?  No, but it is my commitment to continue to have these kinds of conversations, the broaden peoples understanding so that the divergence between these two understandings becomes less and less.  It is not something I do because I owe it to my fellow gay Christians- though that is a motivation- but rather because faithfulness to Christ requires no less.

Let’s explore this with comments and questions.  However, any attacks or offensive posts will be deleted.  Thanks for keeping this a safe place.

Previous Post – Epic Fail Pastors Conference 2012

Last week, I wrote about the realities of suffering and the church.  Jesus seemed fairly clear that those who follow Him would suffer for it, suggesting that a church that does not suffer may not be following Christ as He has called them to.  Again, we are not to go looking for suffering for its own sake, but to be unwaveringly bold as we dare to live out the teachings of Jesus, to follow Him, not just worship Him.

It is all too easy for us to define our position as a “persecuted” community through the lens of things which we stand against.  In other words, as we publicly oppose abortion, it is not uncommon to be vocally rejected and despised by many people in the world.  However, while such stances are necessary (even if we have gone about it poorly more often than not), I do not believe that our true suffering will primarily about what we oppose.  Instead, following Christ will produce a community whose behaviour, even internally, will offend and threaten the powers that be.

Perhaps one of the most critical of such behaviours in early church history was the practice of hospitality, especially with respect to welcoming people of very diverse, even divergent, economic positions.  Early Christian communities were often characterized by their inclusion of the rich and the poor together.  It was not simply that both were included, but rather than the nature of that inclusion was intentionally subversive to the expectations and patterns of the world.  The poor were not condescended to or merely tolerated, but often given the place of honour, while the rich were encouraged to humble themselves in the community.

It is critical, at this stage, to understand that Jesus (and His wider Jewish tradition) held very integrated view the material and the spiritual with respect to poverty/wealth.  In other words, it is not merely a matter of if you have great wealth or no wealth nor is simply a matter of being “spiritually” rich or poor.  It was both.  Jesus affirmed that follow Him would lead to a life in which the bondage of material wealth would be loosened and our commitment to generosity, simplicity and hospitality would lend itself to an economic place that was more likely to be humble than in abundance.

This is part of Jesus’s upside down kingdom, living in a way so contrary to the way of the world that it seems ludicrous.  And yet, Jesus calls us into communities where poverty (as nuanced above) is something we are to take joy in, while wealth (again, nuanced) something that should teach us humility.  While we do not have the space to get into this in detail here, the point is that our communities should relate to the dynamics of economics differently than the world does.

However, what is most critical for us to recognize is that the rich and the poor did not just happen to be part of the same community, but were there by necessity.  Unlike today, where choosing a Christian community is akin to shopping the market, the early Christians were a minority, an often persecuted minority at that.  Thus, they found themselves together as a community of diversity.

That diversity, while perhaps a necessity in their context, was hugely formational to the nature of their community and the focus of their ministry.  The Roman Emperor Julian commented (disdainfully) on such an identity when he said that their numbers were “specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers, and through their care for the burial of the dead. It is a scandal that there is not a single Jew who is a beggar, and that the godless Galileans care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them.” In other words, they were selflessly caring for the very people who persecuted and killed them.  And this was a threat to the empire and its interests.

All this is to say that, when we consider becoming a community that suffers for Christ, we should give special attention to how we relate to those of lower or higher economic status.  Do our church communities truly and functionally honour the poor?  Do we encourage the wealthy to humble themselves?  How often is the reverse true? These are critical questions for us to unflinchingly ask ourselves.

However, it goes much deeper than this.  After all, unlike the early church, necessity does not require most of us to share life with people of different economic or social status.  As a result, our communities lack the powerful formation that shapes who we are and the ministry we engage in.  Such an admission requires that we ask much harder questions, such as: Might obedience to Christ call demand a re-orientation, even relocation, to intentionally pursue such relationships?  If such a response is necessary, are we willing to uproot ourselves, our families, perhaps even our churches in order to follow Him? As I am fond of saying, when God said there should be no poor among you, He wasn’t recommending segregation.

What does this have to do with suffering?  Without question, the radical reorientation I believe that God is calling His church to will threaten the powers that be, both in the world and among the religious status quo.  It is only when we begin to invite people into our homes, attempt to feed the hungry in our communities, create alternatives for economic justice- it is only in the midst of such a reorientation that begin to discover our counter-cultural Christ’s community is called to be and how many of the world’s (and the church’s) systems resist such a change.

Not every Christian is called to move into a poor neighbourhood (though far more are called to that than are obediently responding).  However, every Christian is called to live a life of generous simplicity and radical hospitality in whatever context they are called (again, not one they simply happen to be in- there is nothing incidental about place).  Every Christian is called to participate in a community that is seeking to be formed into the image of Christ- a formation that necessitates sacrificial and costly choices.

What do you think?  Am I overstating my case?  If not, what response should we give?

Previous Post – Why St. Francis Loved Jesus & Religion

It’s happening again!  My friend JR Briggs announces the upcoming Epic Fail Pastors Conference.  Here’s the skinny:

the idea

The idea for this conference came from two sources: A blog post from J.R. Briggs, a pastor at Renew Community in Lansdale, Pa and the wildly popular site www.epicfail.com.
A few dangerous questions were asked:

• What if we offered a space that is gutsy, hopeful, courageously vulnerable for pastors to let go of the burden to be a Super Pastor?

• What if we could hold an event that was free from the thrills and frills of other pastors conferences?

• What if we came together as epic failures and sought not successful models or how-do’s but instead celebrated faithfulness in ministry because of the reality of Jesus?

•What if we were reminded that we’re not responsible for being ‘successful’ in ministry, but we are responsible for being faithful to the calling that God has laid out for us – regardless of the outcome?

•What if we had a conference that was led not by famous pastors who are household names, but by scandalously ordinary ministers and leaders who are faithfully attempting to join with God – even in the midst of glaring obscurity and anonymity?

That post attracted more hits than any other post that J.R. had written in seven years. People from all over the world began contacting J.R. through the blog, email, phone and text messages saying, ‘I’m in! Where do I sign up?” We knew we had struck a nerve. We were on to something significant.

This excited us and freaked us out.

the details

When:

March 22nd – 24th. Registration will start at 6 p.m. on Thursday, we will start at 7 p.m. We will be done at noon on the 24th. It is important to stay through the end of the conference.

Where:

True Worship Experience | 374 East Willow Dr., Mansfield, OH 44906

Cost:

$89. This covers the cost of the conference. You are on your own for food and lodging. Check out our travel section for nearby lodging.

For all other details, click here.

Previous Post -A People of Suffering

Spoken word poet Jefferson Bethke is no stranger to viral video success, with several of his YouTube videos drawing hundreds of thousands of views. However, there was no way he could have anticipated that more than 15 million viewers would tune in for his newest piece, “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus”. Neither could he have guessed the level of controversy it would sparked. From people deeply inspired by his honest passion to others upset with what they felt was a reckless use of the term “religion”, few people are without opinion

In response to the popularity (and notoriety) of the piece, Bethke explained that at his church, “the word ‘religion’ is pretty much synonymous with hypocrisy, legalism, self-righteousness, and self-justification”. Criticism not withstanding, the vast majority of viewers seemed to approve of the poem, resonating with his cutting critique of Christianity’s failures. And frankly, fair enough.

Few of us would be hard pressed to think of examples, whether through historical events or personal experience, where Christians represented themselves poorly, even atrociously, in the name of God. It’s an all too common sentiment to hear today that people “love Jesus, but not the church”, considering themselves “spiritual, but not religious”. And so, Bethke struck a nerve with millions who indeed love Jesus but hate “religion”.

St. Francis of Assisi was no stranger to such attitudes. The church of his day was so often characterized by corruption that the common people saw it as being little different from their abusive lords and kings. It was this very corruption that, at least in part, led Francis to the radical life of devotion to Jesus that has made him one of the most loved Christian figures throughout history. His unrelenting commitment to follow Jesus stands in sharp contrast against a culture of religious despotism and debauchery.

And yet, Francis was unabashedly a true son of Rome, fully submitted to papal authority. His devotion to the church even extended even to the basest compromises of simple priests. It’s said that Francis would kneel in the mud before even the fattest, most compromised priests. And while he held communion as the holiest of sacraments, he would willingly receive Eucharist from sinful priests for their indiscretions. How could such an uncompromising follower of Jesus make such seemingly compromising choices?

It is in this very dissonance that St. Francis has so much to teach us today.  What first appears to be fawning obedience to the institutional authorities of Rome was, in fact, motivated a far more powerful obedience to Christ. Whether he faced a parish priest or Pope himself, he knew he was looking at men created in the image of God- more so, brothers resurrected into the same Body of Christ. His reverence for the holiness of God far outstripped the sins of a corrupt clergy. All he could see was Christ.

This is not to say that Francis was indifferent to their failings. His pursuit of holiness often drove him to extremes, meaning he turned his critique inward for he know that the best rebuke of the bad was the embodiment of the better. Aware of the brokenness of his own heart, he was too dependent on the grace of God to stand in judgment of others.

Many people who are part of Little Flowers Community, the small church that I pastor in my impoverished, inner city neighborhood, have very good reason to hate religion, especially Christianity. They are the addicts, the mentally ill and the homeless- people who experienced more alienation at the hands of the church than most. Yet everyday we seek to follow the example of St. Francis, by seeking to see in others- beyond their “hypocrisy, legalism, self-righteousness, and self-justification”, beyond our own- the Jesus we love.

Bethke’s poem confronts us with the uncomfortable reality that our treasured religion is not exempt from being twisted by sin. And yet, when we see Jesus in people who use and abuse religion, we realize that it is not so easy to simply love Jesus and hate religion.  Instead we discover that God’s grace is all encompassing, calling us to a humility and embrace that will be offensive to many. Yet we hold on to the hope that when a waiting and watching world sees such love, they will look past our flawed religion and see Jesus.

Previous Post – Remember Haiti

A few years ago, while reading through Church history, I was struck by how often Christian communities found themselves the object of persecution and trials.  More pointedly, it seemed that those times where the church suffered most were the times their witness was most vibrant and authentic.  While I had seen this dynamic before, I had always assumed that their suffering produced in them the notable faithfulness- and to be sure, that is a part of it.  However, I began to wonder if that was the only way the two dynamics were connected.  What if it was their very faithfulness to Christ that brought on their suffering?  The more I studied, the more I realized this was equally the case.

Jesus not only made it clear that His followers- us included- would face suffering, but that such suffering was a blessing which we should rejoice in.  This is such a contrast to the culture of comfort and social acceptability that Christians in the West largely enjoy.  Some will cite examples of Christian suffering here, like no prayer in school and the like, but these inconveniences are nothing compared the genuine suffering God’s people have faced through history.

Sadly, such suffering was not always at the hands of those who were outside of the faith.  All too often, both in Jesus day and throughout Church history, many Christians who sought to live faithfully according to the way of Jesus found themselves facing the persecution of the larger Christian community.  Jesus knew that follow Him would often put us at odds with the world and the religious authorities alike.  It was a hard truth, but one that was held firmly by His disciples and later followers.

While we do not need to out looking for suffering- nor justify legitimate rejection by the wider world due to our self-righteousness and pride- we must ask ourselves why the church in the West faces so little of the suffering Jesus promised we would see.  Some would argue that our peace is a blessing from God, linking it nationalism or exceptionalism, but an examination of history and Scripture suggests a very different conclusion to me.  While God does blessing us, we must also consider the reality that millions of others worldwide, Christians sisters and brothers included, suffering because of some of our so called “blessings”.

Why should such suffering be a blessing?  When we follow Christ in faith, even in the face of suffering, we are stripped of our pretenses and false-securities.  We realize in tangible ways that we are utterly dependent on Him, and by extension of His Spirit in us, on each other, His Body.  We are blessed because Christ works in and through us to bring us to maturity, not from a distance, but from right along side us.  For before we suffered for Him, He suffered for us, inviting us to join Him in that painful, yet hopeful and redemptive work.

Again, the challenge is not to go looking for suffering, but to instead be unwaveringly bold as together we dare to live out the teachings of Jesus, to follow Him, not just worship Him.  This might sound obvious, but the realities that such a commitment will not only put us at odds with the world, but perhaps even with the status quo of the Christian subculture.  For example, our radical obedience will, like it did with Jesus, bring us into the company of people the church has rejected as sinners, as “unclean”.  Those we love and respect in the faith might rebuke us, even reject us.  And while we are never arrogant, it may require that we defy the norms to be faithful to Christ.

I believe that we are in a crisis of faith in the western church.  We need to rediscover what it means to follow Jesus to any end He calls us to.  We need to be willing to ask the hard questions about what kinds of communities are being produced in our culture- communities of Christ or communities of consumers?  Or communities at all?  I am, however, also hopeful.  I see many people gathering together to live just such obedience.

Shall we join them?

Previous Post – Jesus I Have Loved, But Paul? Blog Tour

Two years ago today, Haiti was rocked by an earthquake magnitude 7.0 Mw, leaving hundreds of thousands dead, as many wounded and over a million people left homeless.  This would devastate any country, but Haiti was already suffering under extreme poverty.  A few months after the quake, I had the opportunity to visit Haiti with Haiti Partners (also see their Canadian office here).  Nothing could have prepared me for the devastation.  (See post about my visit here).

Yet, what was equally amazing was the spirit of the Haitian people.  I remember listening to the WOZO Choir (see above) practice and how they symbolized the beauty of the country and its people.  Through the work of Haiti Partners, I encountered a people with a determination and hope that was humbling.  I cannot overstate my endorsement for this organization.  They are worthy of your daily prayers and regular support.

Kent Annan, my friend, fellow Likewise author and co-director of Haiti Partners, has written two powerful books that I encourage you to buy:

“Following Jesus Through The Eye Of The Needle: Living Fully, Loving Dangerously”

“After Shock: Searching for Honest Faith When Your World Is Shaken”

Also watch this update by John Engle, also a friend and co-director of Haiti Partners: