I went to a Bible study meeting last night. I haven't gone to a meeting like that in years!! Not that I have anything against Bible studies. Quite the contrary, in fact!
So anyway, a good friend of mine invited me to this meeting, and thus I found myself last night in a large room sitting in a big circle along with about thirty other people or so. It was a raggle taggle bunch of Christians, the average age was probably well over 50. And it was great!!
I really enjoyed hearing what people had to say about the bits of the Bible we looked at. Our texts for the evening included Colossians chapter 3 ... the chapter that contains the well-known controversial imperative from Paul to Christian wives: wives submit to your husbands. And a few verses later, the imperative for bondservants to put their hearts into serving their masters.
Funnily enough, not a single word was said about those verses during the whole meeting. There was a general sense of people wanting to work together, and nobody particularly wanting to stir up controversy, and most people in the room seemed fairly egalitarian. That isn't to say that everybody in the room interpreted those verses flexibly. I know for a fact that one particular person in the room took those verses quite literally, and he believes it's quite important for him to do so. But he didn't say anything about it last night.
At one point, somebody wondered aloud if perhaps we as Christians worry too much about doing the right thing, and being cut off by God. And I responded to that with, "Any amount of worry at all, on that point, is too much worry, because God would never cut somebody off ... " And then I kind of choked up, and almost teared up, saying, "As a mother, the thought of cutting off my two-year-old son from myself is unthinkable ... so how much more so would that be the case with God who is LOVE?? We are God's children!!"
And the guy facilitating the meeting (with great skill too, might I add) at that point brought up the prodigal son, and how the parable illustrated exactly that point ... that God is love, and doesn't cut us off, no matter how we behave.
And that sent a little murmur through the room and a few protests from people who wanted to qualify that with "But the son had to make the decision to return to the father ..." ... i.e., God accepted the son back, but the son had to take responsibility. That takes us back to the tension between God's grace, and our responsibility. It is so difficult for people to believe that God's grace and love can and does overcome everything in the end ... People seem to need to believe that somehow, in some way, no matter how small, we have to do something to merit God, earn God. But this is part of the mystery of grace. It is completely outrageous. And I think we as Christians need to get over it ... simply be thankful for it, and not try to find ways constantly to earn it and insist that others need to earn it.
There is no earning. That is grace. Amazing grace.
Yes the prodigal son did turn back. But he wasn't trying to behave responsibly or do anything good. He was simply responding to his own basic needs ... he was hungry and starving and tired. So he decided to head for a place where he knew that he could get some food and rest. I don't really see that as an example of how meritorious he was. In fact, it's the exact opposite. He was completely self-serving throughout the story, right up to the end, and the father (God) didn't care ... was overjoyed that his son was returning, even if it was just for food ... and from a long way off the father saw the son, and ran with joy to meet him.
(Aside: Now most Christians see that parable as a metaphor for the 'lost' coming to God. That interpretation is very useful and has some profound nuances. But I think it can also be useful to stop differentiating between Christians and non-believers in that way, in interpreting this story. That story is about all of humanity. We are all the prodigal, every day ... every day we get self-interested and ignore the Spirit ... and at any given point if we are hungry and turn around, looking for food, God comes running to embrace us. It's highly gratifying. And humbling.)
At this point in the meeting (this was the height of tension in the meeting) one man piped up, that he felt we were all treading on dangerous territory by pursuing this whole GOD IS LOVE train of thought. He said, "Yes God is love, but God is also JUST!!!" And he shared how his daughter had strayed from God, and how serious a matter that was ... how sad it made him ... how much he worried about her.
And perhaps I said something that I shouldn't have, at this point. I said that yes, that must be very difficult for him, but worry is a by-product of desire for control, and ultimately we have to trust even our own children to God and let go of worrying about them, let go of our desire to control outcomes for them. It's an obviously true statement, to me, but I don't know if it really was helpful for that man to hear it.
The good news is, I don't have to worry about it! I will leave it to God, and hopefully get better at discerning in future what is and isn't helpful to say ...
The message for us as Christians is freedom, freedom from worry ...... !!! Worry and fear and control are all part of the same thing ... and those things cannot co-exist with love. Love will drive them out, every time. No matter how good your reasons for worrying, they aren't good enough to fight God, Love himself. Hurrah for that!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Saturday, September 18, 2010
yonks
It's been yonks since I started up this blog with all good intentions of filling it richly with wisdom, humour, and joy. It's never too late ...
Why did I start a blog called Evangelism Basics????
Well, 'evangelism' (or sharing the Good News) is a fairly significant topic for so many Christians, including myself. Yes, I call myself a Christian. What a label. Some people get a bit caught up with defining what a Christian is, or who can or cannot call themselves a Christian. And to confuse matters, for awhile it seemed not uncommon for people to call themselves Christians meaning "generally nice person who celebrates Christmas".
Sometimes to differentiate my meaning from that broader one, I call myself a 'born-again Christian'. When I say this to a Jehovah's Witness who has just knocked at my front door, they usually make a hasty departure with a few over-the-shoulder looks of disgust at me. Oh well. And I would've invited them in for a cuppa, if they'd wanted.
Having been a part of numerous church groups over the years, I've experienced the idea of evangelism taught within churches as either a dirty word to be avoided at all costs (in the post-modern ones) or as a stressful, urgent burden to be at the fore of one's thoughts at all times (in the less post-modern ones).
I don't personally see it as belonging to either definition.
Evangelism is just one aspect of Christian 'mission' (another part being social action, for example).
As far as I can tell, some Christians feel an urgent call to address social injustice. Others want to reach out and care for the sick and 'needy'. Some just want to talk about God all the time. And some want to debate over which of these things is vital.
To be honest, I have no time for that debate. It's utterly self-indulgent and is all about people trying to prove that they are somehow more right than other people. As a creative person (musician, songwriter, etc) I'm concerned about how these aspects of Christian 'calling' relate to growing into one's full identity as a child of God, one's life being the ultimate creative expression of God's love.
[OKAY -- warning -- I'll be using a fair bit of Christian jargon and references. That's because I am writing this blog for other Christians.]
Put simply, I define 'mission' as any way that one can show love for others, in a way where a bit of heaven touches this world, and a bit of God is made apparent, shining through the brokenness of humanity and creation.
Mission, in the Christian sense, will always involve 'being Jesus' to somebody, somehow.
Jesus fed people
healed people
prayed for people
loved people
wept with people
ate with people
laughed and shared with people
taught people
listened to people
gave his life for people
Jesus strove to live abundantly, growing into the fullness of all he was meant to be, and desired that for others. He said, "I've come so that you may have life, and have it abundantly." And so he ministered to people's needs, whatever those needs happened to be.
In all these acts of love, people glimpsed God ... learned about God ... experienced God ... were touched by God.
And that, my friend, is mission. And evangelism is one part of mission.
But remember, the church is called 'the body of Christ', not 'the association of Jesus-clones'. If your heart goes out to the homeless and you spend all your free time hanging out with homeless people and giving them blankets and hot drinks, but you can't bring yourself to talk about God to them, THAT'S OKAY. In fact, it's more than okay. You shouldn't be trying to force your spirit into work that it's not ready or able to do, any more than you should make the referee at a pro basketball game take the place of a player who has been injured part way through the match. It will only result in a rubbish basketball game for both the players and the fans. Of course there are exceptions ... with God, exceptions always are possible. That's one of the fringe benefits of being God. If God wants that referee to play pro basketball, OF COURSE God can suddenly equip that referee to do so. But that's the exception not the rule. Unfortunately, too many churches teach people that the exception should be the rule, and that somehow every single member should do what that church has decided is most vital to being a Christian ... in a one-size-fits-all sort of way ... no matter how poor the fit. Somehow any show of different aims is a threat ... and in this way unity gets confused with homogeneity. The ironic thing is, homogeneity is a guaranteed killer of unity in any group. For unity to happen in a group, each member really has to shine in their own strengths and unique gifts, and appreciate the unique strengths and gifts of other members.
So if you are gifted at talking about how great Jesus is and you do that all the time with people who you meet on the bus or plane or supermarket queue, but your courage just fails you when you pass by a stranger in need, and you just can't even bring yourself to stop and say 'hi', THAT'S FINE. Don't waste your time and energy wallowing in guilt. Just get on with doing the things you've been called to do. Contrary to popular Christian opinion, just because something comes easily to you, doesn't mean it's worth less than doing something you find difficult.
And if you want your church to run a soup kitchen, and somebody else wants your church to have loads of prayer meetings, THAT'S FINE and it's poss that BOTH ARE REALLY GREAT IDEAS, and even so, you don't have to participate in both things if you don't want to. And nobody has to do everything. Everybody just has to do whatever thing they are called to do at that point in their lives. And in most cases, God will let them know what that is, on a need-to-know basis ... not through debates and bickering ... but through the magical wonderful ways that the Spirit speaks to us all, leading and confirming people in their spirits with peace, joy, passion, love, grace, happiness, excitement.
Now, some people seem to have an unnatural knack for hearing from the Spirit most often with convictions for others. And these same people don't receive too many messages to do with their own lives. This is rather unfortunate, and not very fair on those people as they are stuck spending all of their energy trying to fix other people's lives while their own lives are suffering. If this rings a bell with you, no matter how quietly or remotely, I would gently suggest that you consider the possibility that when the Spirit shows you something about somebody else, the main aim of the Spirit is really to lead and guide you through some sort of personal growth in your own self and your own life. The Spirit is not so mean as to try to use you in a way that only benefits others and not you. That's part of the mystery of 'being used by God' ... or put in a different way, getting to play pro basketball. You get paid for it. Richly.
Every time I've heard any sort of teaching on how God gives freedom, there's the inevitable response from somebody, somewhere, of, "OH -- SO YOU'RE SAYING YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU LIKE, WHENEVER YOU LIKE?! SO YOU'RE SAYING IT'S FINE TO GO [commit some heinous atrocious act] or [basically wallow in self-pity, lie down, and play dead] AS LONG AS YOU'RE LED BY THE SPIRIT???"
If this is your response right now, I would say you're not really understanding any of the above, and there's probably not much point in you reading this blog. Because of course I'm not saying that. Yes you can do whatever you like, whenever you like. But that will not necessarily be fine. "Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial." To find the answer to whether something is fine to do or not, you need to do something scary: trust God. Ask God. Listen to God. If you really are worried that adopting an attitude of freedom for/from the church will simply result in you turning into the worst possible person you could be, then my advice would be to try asking God if that is the case, instead of wasting your time worrying about something that you don't actually know the answer to.
Yes, you heard right, I did just now suggest it would be a good idea for anyone (even somebody without a theological degree) to listen for God's voice. "SO YOU'RE SAYING A SCHIZOPHRENIC WHO THINKS GOD IS TELLING HIM TO GO KILL A BUNCH OF PEOPLE IS DOING THE RIGHT THING IN LISTENING TO THAT VOICE?" I'm not quite sure why this argument is so popular as a rebuttal against any teachings on how individuals can personally seek and connect with God, instead of only being able to hear God through well-established wealthy church institutions with well accredited spokespeople.
If you are concerned on this count, I would suggest that you go and get examined straight away for schizophrenia, or other severe mental health problems, so that reading this blog will not result in you killing a load of people in a tragically misguided haze. If your concern is not so much for yourself, but that other people who happen to have schizophrenia will read this blog and on that basis feel it's okay to go shoot a load of people in the nearest MacDonald's, then please let me reassure you: that's highly unlikely to happen. If somebody is mistaking malicious voices in their head as being from God, I don't think that person is very likely to be seeking advice from Christian blogs like this one, and using thoughts expressed on such blogs as their main 'food for thought' and motivators. And should it ever come to light that this *has* happened, then I shall most wholeheartedly shut down this blog, and take extreme care in the future to carefully vet the people on whom I unleash my dangerous thoughts.
And if you think I'm being very silly because your objection to the idea of people being able to hear God and make their own good decisions has got nothing to do with you being afraid of what schizophrenics might do as a result of hearing these ideas ... but rather, you're just bringing up the whole schizophrenia argument as a clear example of how one can be totally wrong and think God is saying something to them when that is simply not God, I would reply, well some people have got an allergy to the sun which means any exposure to the sun is fatal to them. Despite the existence of these people, I think it's quite healthy for people to get moderate amounts of exposure to the sun. Obviously not the people who will die from it. But hopefully those people would not go sit in the sun just because I said it's healthy for people to get some sun.
It's true, it can be easy to mistake your own thoughts and desires as being God speaking to you. Over the course of history, there have been countless notable examples of politicians, leaders, and other people in high-profile positions making that mistake. And funnily enough, people are often susceptible to that mistake when it's highly personally convenient for them to make that mistake. The good news is, everyone can get better at pretty much anything, including following the Spirit. For handy tips on getting better, there's always the good old Bible which has a fair bit to say about the Holy Spirit which could be useful. For example, we know the fruit of the Spirit is "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control". If there is none of this 'fruit' in the process or aftermath of a decision or situation, the Spirit is probably not leading. After all, "a good tree bears good fruit".
In a beautiful way, different people reflect God in different ways (and I'm talking about all people, including women and people who are not Christians -- I know this idea will upset some Christians but as this blog post is already very long, I'll have to address this another time). When people come together with other people, a beautiful thing happens ... the joined up whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. Just like it's much nicer to have a whole body, as opposed to a dismembered one. A body doesn't really work very well dismembered.
And that's why I find it pretty amazing how so many churches are fraught with in-fighting, and intolerance of differences, and debates over who is right on which issues.
This blog post is pretty disjointed and stream-of-consciousness ... I'm not sure if I should apologise for not taking the time to organise my thoughts better. But this is my blog after all ... not course work or an essay ... and you are free to read it or leave it. And I'm free to be as jumbled and vernacular as I like! Thanks for taking this little walk with me :-)
GOD BLESS YOU and give you freedom from the ungodly constraints that this world tries to place on you, even (and sometimes ESPECIALLY) via the church!!
Why did I start a blog called Evangelism Basics????
Well, 'evangelism' (or sharing the Good News) is a fairly significant topic for so many Christians, including myself. Yes, I call myself a Christian. What a label. Some people get a bit caught up with defining what a Christian is, or who can or cannot call themselves a Christian. And to confuse matters, for awhile it seemed not uncommon for people to call themselves Christians meaning "generally nice person who celebrates Christmas".
Sometimes to differentiate my meaning from that broader one, I call myself a 'born-again Christian'. When I say this to a Jehovah's Witness who has just knocked at my front door, they usually make a hasty departure with a few over-the-shoulder looks of disgust at me. Oh well. And I would've invited them in for a cuppa, if they'd wanted.
Having been a part of numerous church groups over the years, I've experienced the idea of evangelism taught within churches as either a dirty word to be avoided at all costs (in the post-modern ones) or as a stressful, urgent burden to be at the fore of one's thoughts at all times (in the less post-modern ones).
I don't personally see it as belonging to either definition.
Evangelism is just one aspect of Christian 'mission' (another part being social action, for example).
As far as I can tell, some Christians feel an urgent call to address social injustice. Others want to reach out and care for the sick and 'needy'. Some just want to talk about God all the time. And some want to debate over which of these things is vital.
To be honest, I have no time for that debate. It's utterly self-indulgent and is all about people trying to prove that they are somehow more right than other people. As a creative person (musician, songwriter, etc) I'm concerned about how these aspects of Christian 'calling' relate to growing into one's full identity as a child of God, one's life being the ultimate creative expression of God's love.
[OKAY -- warning -- I'll be using a fair bit of Christian jargon and references. That's because I am writing this blog for other Christians.]
Put simply, I define 'mission' as any way that one can show love for others, in a way where a bit of heaven touches this world, and a bit of God is made apparent, shining through the brokenness of humanity and creation.
Mission, in the Christian sense, will always involve 'being Jesus' to somebody, somehow.
Jesus fed people
healed people
prayed for people
loved people
wept with people
ate with people
laughed and shared with people
taught people
listened to people
gave his life for people
Jesus strove to live abundantly, growing into the fullness of all he was meant to be, and desired that for others. He said, "I've come so that you may have life, and have it abundantly." And so he ministered to people's needs, whatever those needs happened to be.
In all these acts of love, people glimpsed God ... learned about God ... experienced God ... were touched by God.
And that, my friend, is mission. And evangelism is one part of mission.
But remember, the church is called 'the body of Christ', not 'the association of Jesus-clones'. If your heart goes out to the homeless and you spend all your free time hanging out with homeless people and giving them blankets and hot drinks, but you can't bring yourself to talk about God to them, THAT'S OKAY. In fact, it's more than okay. You shouldn't be trying to force your spirit into work that it's not ready or able to do, any more than you should make the referee at a pro basketball game take the place of a player who has been injured part way through the match. It will only result in a rubbish basketball game for both the players and the fans. Of course there are exceptions ... with God, exceptions always are possible. That's one of the fringe benefits of being God. If God wants that referee to play pro basketball, OF COURSE God can suddenly equip that referee to do so. But that's the exception not the rule. Unfortunately, too many churches teach people that the exception should be the rule, and that somehow every single member should do what that church has decided is most vital to being a Christian ... in a one-size-fits-all sort of way ... no matter how poor the fit. Somehow any show of different aims is a threat ... and in this way unity gets confused with homogeneity. The ironic thing is, homogeneity is a guaranteed killer of unity in any group. For unity to happen in a group, each member really has to shine in their own strengths and unique gifts, and appreciate the unique strengths and gifts of other members.
So if you are gifted at talking about how great Jesus is and you do that all the time with people who you meet on the bus or plane or supermarket queue, but your courage just fails you when you pass by a stranger in need, and you just can't even bring yourself to stop and say 'hi', THAT'S FINE. Don't waste your time and energy wallowing in guilt. Just get on with doing the things you've been called to do. Contrary to popular Christian opinion, just because something comes easily to you, doesn't mean it's worth less than doing something you find difficult.
And if you want your church to run a soup kitchen, and somebody else wants your church to have loads of prayer meetings, THAT'S FINE and it's poss that BOTH ARE REALLY GREAT IDEAS, and even so, you don't have to participate in both things if you don't want to. And nobody has to do everything. Everybody just has to do whatever thing they are called to do at that point in their lives. And in most cases, God will let them know what that is, on a need-to-know basis ... not through debates and bickering ... but through the magical wonderful ways that the Spirit speaks to us all, leading and confirming people in their spirits with peace, joy, passion, love, grace, happiness, excitement.
Now, some people seem to have an unnatural knack for hearing from the Spirit most often with convictions for others. And these same people don't receive too many messages to do with their own lives. This is rather unfortunate, and not very fair on those people as they are stuck spending all of their energy trying to fix other people's lives while their own lives are suffering. If this rings a bell with you, no matter how quietly or remotely, I would gently suggest that you consider the possibility that when the Spirit shows you something about somebody else, the main aim of the Spirit is really to lead and guide you through some sort of personal growth in your own self and your own life. The Spirit is not so mean as to try to use you in a way that only benefits others and not you. That's part of the mystery of 'being used by God' ... or put in a different way, getting to play pro basketball. You get paid for it. Richly.
Every time I've heard any sort of teaching on how God gives freedom, there's the inevitable response from somebody, somewhere, of, "OH -- SO YOU'RE SAYING YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU LIKE, WHENEVER YOU LIKE?! SO YOU'RE SAYING IT'S FINE TO GO [commit some heinous atrocious act] or [basically wallow in self-pity, lie down, and play dead] AS LONG AS YOU'RE LED BY THE SPIRIT???"
If this is your response right now, I would say you're not really understanding any of the above, and there's probably not much point in you reading this blog. Because of course I'm not saying that. Yes you can do whatever you like, whenever you like. But that will not necessarily be fine. "Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial." To find the answer to whether something is fine to do or not, you need to do something scary: trust God. Ask God. Listen to God. If you really are worried that adopting an attitude of freedom for/from the church will simply result in you turning into the worst possible person you could be, then my advice would be to try asking God if that is the case, instead of wasting your time worrying about something that you don't actually know the answer to.
Yes, you heard right, I did just now suggest it would be a good idea for anyone (even somebody without a theological degree) to listen for God's voice. "SO YOU'RE SAYING A SCHIZOPHRENIC WHO THINKS GOD IS TELLING HIM TO GO KILL A BUNCH OF PEOPLE IS DOING THE RIGHT THING IN LISTENING TO THAT VOICE?" I'm not quite sure why this argument is so popular as a rebuttal against any teachings on how individuals can personally seek and connect with God, instead of only being able to hear God through well-established wealthy church institutions with well accredited spokespeople.
If you are concerned on this count, I would suggest that you go and get examined straight away for schizophrenia, or other severe mental health problems, so that reading this blog will not result in you killing a load of people in a tragically misguided haze. If your concern is not so much for yourself, but that other people who happen to have schizophrenia will read this blog and on that basis feel it's okay to go shoot a load of people in the nearest MacDonald's, then please let me reassure you: that's highly unlikely to happen. If somebody is mistaking malicious voices in their head as being from God, I don't think that person is very likely to be seeking advice from Christian blogs like this one, and using thoughts expressed on such blogs as their main 'food for thought' and motivators. And should it ever come to light that this *has* happened, then I shall most wholeheartedly shut down this blog, and take extreme care in the future to carefully vet the people on whom I unleash my dangerous thoughts.
And if you think I'm being very silly because your objection to the idea of people being able to hear God and make their own good decisions has got nothing to do with you being afraid of what schizophrenics might do as a result of hearing these ideas ... but rather, you're just bringing up the whole schizophrenia argument as a clear example of how one can be totally wrong and think God is saying something to them when that is simply not God, I would reply, well some people have got an allergy to the sun which means any exposure to the sun is fatal to them. Despite the existence of these people, I think it's quite healthy for people to get moderate amounts of exposure to the sun. Obviously not the people who will die from it. But hopefully those people would not go sit in the sun just because I said it's healthy for people to get some sun.
It's true, it can be easy to mistake your own thoughts and desires as being God speaking to you. Over the course of history, there have been countless notable examples of politicians, leaders, and other people in high-profile positions making that mistake. And funnily enough, people are often susceptible to that mistake when it's highly personally convenient for them to make that mistake. The good news is, everyone can get better at pretty much anything, including following the Spirit. For handy tips on getting better, there's always the good old Bible which has a fair bit to say about the Holy Spirit which could be useful. For example, we know the fruit of the Spirit is "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control". If there is none of this 'fruit' in the process or aftermath of a decision or situation, the Spirit is probably not leading. After all, "a good tree bears good fruit".
In a beautiful way, different people reflect God in different ways (and I'm talking about all people, including women and people who are not Christians -- I know this idea will upset some Christians but as this blog post is already very long, I'll have to address this another time). When people come together with other people, a beautiful thing happens ... the joined up whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. Just like it's much nicer to have a whole body, as opposed to a dismembered one. A body doesn't really work very well dismembered.
And that's why I find it pretty amazing how so many churches are fraught with in-fighting, and intolerance of differences, and debates over who is right on which issues.
This blog post is pretty disjointed and stream-of-consciousness ... I'm not sure if I should apologise for not taking the time to organise my thoughts better. But this is my blog after all ... not course work or an essay ... and you are free to read it or leave it. And I'm free to be as jumbled and vernacular as I like! Thanks for taking this little walk with me :-)
GOD BLESS YOU and give you freedom from the ungodly constraints that this world tries to place on you, even (and sometimes ESPECIALLY) via the church!!
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