The "Blight" of Postmodernity

It seems that from every conservative, evangelical corner, there is one clarion call: postmodernism is bad for Christianity. This postmodern world does not hold to absolute truth; it questions everything, including all we hold dear. Unless the blight of postmodernism is stemmed, our faith may be lost. Really?

Admittedly, I'm not an expert in postmodernity. In fact, I don't know much about it. But I won't let that stop me from making a few observations. These aren't complete (they may not even be correct!), so I may give this another go later.

My thesis: what we call postmodernism may be the best thing that's happened to Christianity. Here's why...

1. It is forcing us to get back to what it means to be witnesses in the world. For too long, we have relied on mass evangelism, gospel tracts, and canned presentations to share the good news. Now, I'm not knocking mass evangelism, but I am knocking gospel tracts and canned presentations. They turn far more people away than they positively affect. Postmodernism is forcing us to examine what Jesus did and what the New Testament teaches as it concerns sharing the gospel. And that has to be a wonderful thing. We are now seeing that, to be a witness, we have to first earn trust. Maybe that takes a while, maybe it comes quickly - circumstances will dictate that. Postmodernism is forcing us to serve, bless, and heal those around us because we have spent far too long asking something from people rather than giving to them. And as a result, our reputation with them stinks. We are being forced to see people as people, not as spiritual scalps.
2. Questioning is not a bad thing. We have entire generations who have accepted the facts of Christianity, but may not have accepted the Truth of Christianity. That's why Billy Graham says that at least 50% our church members are not saved. The facts of Christianity are the virgin birth of Jesus, His atoning, sacrificial, substitutionary death, His bodily resurrection, and His soon return. Those are the facts. Many hold to them. But the Truth of Christianity is Jesus - following Him, letting Him shape you, believing He is who He says He is and can do what He says He can do to the point that it changes you. What I'm saying is this: there must be a time where your faith moves from a mere body of facts that you give mental assent to and becomes sum and substance of who you are. It's not your parent's faith or your youth pastor's faith or your spouse's faith - you have owned it because you have internalied it. Postmodernism is forcing us to examine what Scripture says it means to be saved. That's a good deal. And BTW, why are we afraid of questioning? Are we unsure of the Truth of what we believe?

We need a little Christmas

My wife and I went to our local community college's Christmas concert last night - choir and orchestra. It was really good...lots of talent. The choir did a medley of Christmas songs, among them "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" and "We need a little Christmas". I really like those songs - catchy tunes.

So anyway, as they sang "We need a little Christmas", the thought that's been running around in my head for years resurfaces. You see, I agree that we need a little Christmas. But the question is, "Whose Christmas?"

Main Street tells us that a "little Christmas" is buying your family more than they need and more than you can afford, then buying presents for extended family - presents they will regift at the next party they go to, and then buying gifts for your office. I don't need that "little Christmas.

Hallmark tells us that a "little Christmas" is a huge family, all dressed to the nines, sitting around a roaring fireplace, sipping cider, a mammoth tree decorated by Martha Stewart surrounded by amazingly wrapped presents in the background, smells of a meal cooked by Rachel Ray wafting through the room, and all looking out a huge picture window as snow falls on the horse-drawn carriage. Now, I could stand a bit of that "little Christmas", but come on, that is as unrealistic as the Baylor Bears in a bowl game.

From the more "spiritual" and charitable among us, we hear that Christmas is a time for peace, or that it's a time to buy toys for kids who won't get any, or that it's the time to volunteer at a soup kitchen, or to invite a lonely family over for Christmas dinner. I think that's getting closer to the correct idea of a "little Christmas", but why are those things just a once-a-year deal?

So here's the thought running around in my head. A "little Christmas" must be tied to the original one. You remember, right? Simple. Smelly. An unwed teenage mother. A birth among sheep dung (this is a family blog), flies from cows, and dirty hay. A feed trough that doubles as a crib. Shepherds who were told far more than they could grasp. And a baby. THE baby. Not, "Awwww, isn't he cute? He's got his mother's eyes. How much did he weigh? Aren't those dimples just precious? Can I hold him?" No, not that at all.

It's like this. Awe. Staggering, mind-numbing, speechless awe. God. God not just as a man, but God as a baby. The infinite becomes as infant. The omnipotent becomes breakable. When you do speak, you break out in praise. It's all you can do.

No wonder Mary "pondered those things in her heart." So should we. We need a little Christmas.

What does God "hear"?

First, thanks to all of you who have asked me to blog. Not sure why you want that, but nonetheless I appreciate your interest. Seriously.

I've got a question that I need help with, but let me tell a story that will give you the context. Last week, I got a call fairly late at night from somebody who had visited our church. This person had a daughter in the hospital who was dying, and wanted me to come by. I did. I found out this person was an adherent of a non-Christian cult (they believe Jesus was created, thus is inferior to God and clearly, not God; they also believe that Jesus did not bodily rise from the dead), as were most of the family. There were at least 2 clergy at the hospital from that religion, and they all prayed for the girl. I also know that there was a huge prayer chain from that religion that sought God's intervention.

I prayed with the girl's father, I called my wife to call our prayer chain, and the next day I asked my email list to pray. Well...the girl recovered, miraculously in my estimation. I heard the doctor tell the family she had an hour to live, maybe 3-4 at the most. The girl survived the night and began a rapid recovery from unstoppable bleeding and from being without oxygen for several minutes. Again, methinks a genuine miracle.

So here's my question...Did God hear the prayers of the non-Christian cult? Does God hear the prayers of non-believers? I'm confident God heard my prayers, and the prayers of many of our people, because we see Jesus as our Great High Priest and because we understand at least a little of James 5.16. But what about the prayers of the non-Christian cult? I'm listening.

What do we do?

We are called to reach the world that does not know Jesus. It's our mandate, our commission, our reason for existence. Yes, I fully agree that we live to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. But He made it crystal clear that to do that we must engage pre-Christians with the Good News. At our church, we feel that the best way to do that is to serve, bless, and heal in order to build bridges.

We need to be honest...pre-Christians seldom come to our worship services. Surely, all churches have more than enough folks who have been inoculated with a form of Christianity - they have been baptized, sprinkled, confirmed, prayed with, prayed for, they joined a church, whatever - but they are not followers of Jesus. And we have a serious, too-oft ignored obligation to present them with truth. Yet still, we have few "seekers" come to our worship services.

So...what do we do? Format our worship services to attract them? Well, almost everything has been tried with only a modicum of success. We've changed music, done small groups, shown videos - all with little to show for it. Don't get me wrong: I'm all for varying musical styles, all for small groups, all for different venues of proclaiming the word - but worship services are primarily for those who already follow Christ! To think that we can somehow format a worship service to attract pre-Christians is to use 1950's thinking. It may have worked then, but it does not work now! We have ridden a dead horse long enough. Paraphrasing Rick Davis, "If you'll get off the dead horse, you'll get where you're going faster and it won't smell as bad."

Most churches are 50 years behind, more likely 2000 years behind. E.g., Jesus went to where lost people were! And where He went, He served, blessed, and healed. Reckon what we ought to do?

I don't have the answers. Instead, I've got questions...Where do we find them? How do we bless them? How do we serve them? We better ask (God), and we better get busy. Can you help me?

Serving, Blessing, and Healing

One of the core values at the church where I pastor is that we follow the model of Jesus as we relate to the world...we serve, bless, and heal.

Each year, like so many cities in the south, we have a fair. Ours runs 9 days, and attracts 200,000 visitors - almost the population of the county. For years, I wondered what we could do to reach some of these folks. God showed us something last year, and we did it again this year.

We rent booth space (it ain't cheap) and we give away stuff! This year, we are giving away a 32" LCD HDTV, an XBox, a BBQ grill, some homemade pen and pencil sets, and various other prizes. There is no catch, no cost, no information required (other than the person's name), and no strings attached. We just ask people to give us their name, for verification purposes in case they win. We don't contact them; they contact us via our website to see if they won a prize.

After they sign up, we ask if there is anything we can pray for them about. Most of the time, people say "yes." We ask if we can pray on the spot, and most allow us to. We don't try to shove tracts or church literature at them, but we do try to see if God is working in their lives. If we sense that, we pursue that as far we it goes.

Most people are skeptical. They think there must be some "bait and switch" going on. They think we will put them on some mailing list or proselytize them or otherwise hound them. They are wrong. But yet, we see many who will walk around us when they realize that we are a church, not stopping to see that this is nothing more than a way to bless a few folks with some neat stuff...and prayer.

Why is that? Because the church has such a rotten reputation with pre-Christians. We have so long ignored them or used them that they cannot fathom that a church just wants to bless, to give (as opposed to asking), to pray...no strings attached. We're trying to make headway. We're trying to build bridges. We're blessing, serving, and healing. Are you?

William Tell Overture

A tribute to all moms. Enjoy!

Truth and Wisdom

When I began to blog again, I said I would not self-limit the parameters. Thus, a little Bible study today...

Our church is going through a study by Anne Graham Lotz called I Saw the Lord. It's good, pointed, convicting, challenging. In last week's lessons, Psalm 51 was used. I've read Psalm 51 a hundred times, maybe more, but I saw something this time that really opened my eyes.

One of the things I remember learning in seminary was that Hebrew poetry contains many couplets - a compound sentence that expresses the same idea in two ways. E.g., "It's a clear day; the sun is shining." Basically the same thing, expressed in different words. In any case, in Psalm 51.6, David says to God, "Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place." (NIV). It's a couplet - the same thought expressed in different words.

So I was struck with the thought (God, I believe) that if this is a couplet, then there is a symbiotic relationship between truth and wisdom. I thought more...

1. If you have truth, you will have wisdom.
2. If you have true wisdom, you know the truth.
3. If you hide the truth (deception), you do not have wisdom and will thus make stupid decisions.

I shared this with my wife. She began to meditate on this and last night told me this: King David hid the truth (the whole Bathsheba thing) until Nathan confronted him. He then confessed, wrote Psalm 51, and spent a season of grieving over sin. The moral of the story: David hid the truth about Bathsheba, and thus made stupid choices about Uriah. But that's not the end of the story.

Bathsheba and David have another child - after David admits the truth. You know him - Solomon. And he's known as the wisest man in history. Coincidence? I think not! There is an unbreakable relationship between truth and wisdom! If we will live in God's truth, we will operate in God's wisdom. If we suppress the truth, stupid decisions are just around the corner.

Pee Wee football

I help coach a pee-wee football team. It's not like I don't have enough to do, in fact, I'm like most folks - I've got more than enough to do. But I got under conviction that I know very few folks who have yet to follow Christ. Like most pastors, I get stuck in the office. And when I'm out, I'm usually with church members. Since I'm not all that disciplined, I figured I needed a outlet that would discipline my time to spend with pre-Christians. Since I am an old football coach, this seemed to be a natural fit. I believe God is in this thing. I've developed nice relationships with the kids and with 3-4 sets of parents, only one of which attends church. I'm building bridges because these folks need Jesus. I'm not a salesman, I don't use bait and switch techniques, and I'm not interested simply in these folks occupying a pew in my church. I want them to follow Christ, and I pray that I will not get in God's way as He uses me. So...here's my question to you: how is God using you to reach pre-Christians? If you can't answer that, you need to do as I did - find out how He wants to, and then get busy building bridges.

Anyway, a funny story. The first day we put on pads, one kid (7 years old) is getting hammered in the hitting drills. He's getting run over every time he's in the drill. So after about 15 minutes of this, he looks at me and says (with his mouthpiece in), "Coach, somebody's fixing to get hurt. And it ain't gonna be me." I laughed so hard I nearly fell on the ground. This kid is getting hit between the snot and the spit every play, yet his confidence is at an all-time high. I love that kid. He's amazing. And here's the deal...he's getting better every week. He's making tackles now, he' blocking better, and he loves football. There's probably a spiritual parallel there, but it's Monday and my brain is mush. Maybe I'll explore that later.

The power of the gospel

As with Monday, last night God really manifested Himself on 2 occasions. During our prayer meeting, we discussed what the Bible has to say about what it means to be saved. We talked about things like grace, belief in who Jesus was and what he did, the presence of the Holy Spirit, persevering, abiding in Christ, adoption, confessing Christ, and a couple more. The folks really dug deep in their Bibles, and that was cool to see. Then we talked about what the Bible doesn't say about salvation - praying a prayer, joining a church, walking down an aisle, being baptized (you Church of Christ folks can stop reading now), etc.

One of the folks present candidily admitted she had trouble with a public profession of Christ. Because of her somewhat sordid past, she was a bit apprehensive about a public confession, as she feared the number of people who would be disappointed if she "fell". At this point, I asked our church to respond to her. They poured out love, acceptance, and biblical counsel. It was really a display of what "church" is supposed to be. Then we gathered around her, laughed with her, and prayed for her. That, folks, is a church being transformed.

Then I quickly left for a meeting with a couple who have recently repented and recommitted themselves to God's ways. She was a meth addict for 25 years; he an alcoholic for maybe longer than that. They were open about their fears, their faith, and their family. I offered a little counsel, but mostly I just listened and praised God for His power to transform people who follow Him. These people, according to those who have known them in their "past life", are not the same people today that they were before. That, folks, is a family being transformed.

Weeks like this one make me love what I do. It makes me want to invest in people more, and in "stuff" less. I love people with purple and pink hair who have been transformed by Jesus. I love drug addicts and alcoholics who have been transformed by Jesus. May God send more of them my way.

Will my generation get it?

I talked to my great friend Monday. He's on staff at a large church in the metroplex. The conversation turned to reaching children for Jesus, which is always on my heart. He told me of a large church pastor who was talking with a room full of boomers (my age group) and builders about what their greatest desire was. With unanimous accord, they said, "that our children and grandchildren would follow Christ." Hear my applause. Praise God. Couldn't be happier. Then he asked one more question, "If you would be willing to change your music to reach your kids and grandkids, raise your hand." Not one hand went up. Not one hand in the entire room.

So you tell me...is their greatest desire to reach their grandkids for Christ? Nope, it's not. Their greatest desire is to be catered to. Their greatest desire is to have their "likes" handed to them on a plate each week and their "dislikes" to be summarily dismantled. Edwards' translation, they said, "To hell with my family."

Don't get me wrong. Music won't save kids. Only Jesus does that. But music can draw kids and keep kids.

The biggest hurdle for the builder generation is music. Many, if not most, have not cleared that hurdle. Some in my church have. Praise God. But until the generation that built most of our churches makes the main thing the main thing (as opposed to music the main thing), we cannot expect to reach this generation.

So as I'm having an internal rant and rave about this, the thought struck me...What hurdle will my generation have to cross? Will it be the format of how we "do church"? Will it be the demise of denominationalism? Will it be the way we do world missions? Honestly, it really doesn't matter what our hurdle is. The real question is, "Will my generation have a greater heart for the lost than we do our personal preferences?"

I hope I do. I hope we do. Christendom in the USA may depend on our answer.

They get it!

Two meetings I had yesterday were enlightening and encouraging...

I met with a couple - a couple I've known for several years. They used to be in our church, but joined another one a few years ago. They wanted to meet because the husband feels called to the ministry. So the Associate Pastor and I met with them for over an hour, talking about how God has touched them and asked the husband to be involved in some type of ministry full time. He quit his job at God's leading and is now listening and pursuing the next steps. He gets it! He understands that life is not about career and money, but it's about God - God and our relationship with Him that transforms us and makes us useful to Him in His work in the world.

In the midst of our conversation, the wife told us about the business she felt led to begin a year ago. She, too, felt God asking her to quit her old job, and she did. Because of that, she was able to spend 9 months with her mother who was dying. In the middle of that, God put in her path this business proposition. After her mother died, she opened the business.

But here's the part where she REALLY "gets it". She told us that God was providing for her family through the business, but in reality, the business was just a way for her to minister to people! God sends her people every week who are hurting and struggling and searching. She ministers to them, prays for them in her shop, and follows up with them in their lives. She truly understands that a job is not for our gratification, but for God's glory and so God can use us. She gets it!

I pray we would all do so.

I met with another man. He told me that as he entered the worship service Sunday, he earnestly prayed, "God, I need to hear from you. I don't want to leave here the way I walked in." God indeed met Him, touched Him deeply, and the man left transformed! This man gets it! A worship service is not about us putting in our time - or even being blessed. A worship service is to adore God publicly, with others, and being transformed!

I pray we would all do so.

Mulligan

Well, I tried my hand at this blogging business, but I didn't do so well. I guess a blog every 8 months isn't exactly blogging. The way I've got it figured, I made 3 mistakes.

1. I thought I had to have something mind-blowing to say
2. I limited the scope of my blog to narrowly
3. I failed to schedule time to blog

So...I'm going to give this blogging thing another shot. I'll post on things that interest me, with the major emphasis still being the church and how she lives out her mission. But, my posting will not be limited to that. To check my resolve to restart this, I'm going to wait until tomorrow to submit a real post.

Lots of info, very little out-go

I've been away for a while...lots of reasons, but no excuses. I'll be a more frequent "poster" in the days ahead.

We've got a new Christian bookstore (Mardel's) in my small city. OK, it's not all that new now, but it's still new to us. This new bookstore is huge - far bigger than the really big Christian bookstore that was opened several years ago. We also have another Christian bookstore - a smaller, more homey one. Why post about bookstores?

It seems that there is much talk in Christian circles these days - especially among the conservatives (read that real conservative) of my denomination - about orthodoxy. I think this new Christian bookstore is an illustration of that: everybody wants to know something. You can find help for sermons and lessons, help for your hangups, help for your hurts, help for your habits - it's all there, it's all new, and it's all in a Christian bookstore near you!

Now, I'm certainly not against orthodoxy or dogma or doctrine. It is essential. You can't believe anything you want and still be in a right relationship to God. Doctrine is necessary, and those who don't like doctrinal sermons have a serious problem in understanding how a Christian is supposed to live this life. And in some rudimentary sense, doctrine is all that matters. On the most basic level, it separates the sheep from the goats, the saved from the lost, the heaven-bound to the hell-bound.

That said, orthodoxy was never intended to be the end-all of the Christian experience! Doctrine was not given so we could know about God, but so that we could die to self to let God live through us! We've got way too many folks whose orthodoxy is rock-solid, but whose orthopraxy is sadly lacking. They know a lot about God, but they fail to let the knowledge hit their hearts and come out of their feet. It's as though some of these folk think that when they get to heaven, God's going to give them a Bible trivia test. Or that God is going to say, "You missed that part about women teaching men. You have to spend 100,000,000 years on the back row (or front row if you're Baptist)."

So what will God be looking for when we stand before Him? After our names our located in the book of life, I have a strong suspicion (from Acts 13.22) that He may want to know, "Did you do everything I asked you to do?" What He won't be asking is, "Did you know everything I asked you to know?"

Knowing the right thing does not equate to doing the right thing. I'm the poster child for that. I know far better than I do. It's critical to understand that doing the right thing doesn't come from your head - it comes from your heart. That's what Jesus said in John 14 - three times as a matter of fact. If you love me, you will obey me. Not if you know about me, you will obey me. Until we get this straight, we will never be transformed. And going to Mardel's won't help.