emerging mosaic

Several weeks ago I shared my thoughts about moving beyond a churchianity type of Christianity to practicing faith more focused on joining God in kingdom work. Now a recently released boo titled unchristian points to why this is so important.

The book has research about how the church is viewed in our culture by the prominent Christian researcher George Barna. It reinforces the title of Dan Kimball’s book They like Jesus but not the church. The book and its accompanying web site suggests that the church has an image problem.

 Here are are some snippets

One-fifth of all outsiders, regardless of age, admitted they “have had a bad experience in a church or with a Christian that gave them a negative image of Jesus Christ.” This represents nearly fifty million adult residents of this country-including about nine million young outsiders-who admit they have significant emotional or spiritual baggage from past experiences with so-called Christ followers.

Christians believe the primary reason outsiders have rejected Christ is that they cannot handle the rigorous standards of following Christ. There is a nuance here that allows Christians to feel like they’re better than other people, more capable of being holy and sinless.

Only one out of five outsiders said they perceive Christian churches as loving environments, places where people are unconditionally loved and accepted regardless of how they look or what they do. Surprisingly, fewer than half of churchgoers, including born-again Christians, felt strongly that their church demonstrates unconditional love.

Here are a couple thoughts I have. It is certainly not exhaustive but a starting point.

First I think we need to get over ourselves. We have to get beyond thinking that being the church is about those of us who are in the church. The church exists to serve God by serving the world. Jesus said it clearly he came to serve humanity (Matthew 20:28Matthew 20:28
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
28 The Son of Man did not come to be a slave master, but a slave who will give his life to rescue x rescue: The Greek word often, though not always, means the payment of a price to free a slave or a prisoner. many people.

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) so as his followers so should we.

Second spend less time trying to figure out who is in and  who is out and focus on doing the things Jesus said connects to him and to God. Like visiting the sick and imprisoned, feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless and clothing the naked. (Matthew 25:31-46Matthew 25:31-46
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
The Final Judgment ³¹ a ; b . When the Son of Man comes in his glory with all of his angels, he will sit on his royal throne. ³² The people of all nations will be brought before him, and he will separate them, as shepherds separate their sheep from their goats. ³³ He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. ³⁴ Then the king will say to those on his right, �My father has blessed you! Come and receive the kingdom that was prepared for you before the world was created. ³⁵ . When I was hungry, you gave me something to eat, and when I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. When I was a stranger, you welcomed me, ³⁶ and when I was naked, you gave me clothes to wear. When I was sick, you took care of me, and when I was in jail, you visited me.� ³⁷ Then the ones who pleased the Lord will ask, �When did we give you something to eat or drink? ³⁸ When did we welcome you as a stranger or give you clothes to wear ³⁹ or visit you while you were sick or in jail?� ⁴⁰ The king will answer, �Whenever you did it for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me.� ⁴¹ Then the king will say to those on his left, �Get away from me! You are under God's curse. Go into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels! ⁴² I was hungry, but you did not give me anything to eat, and I was thirsty, but you did not give me anything to drink. ⁴³ I was a stranger, but you did not welcome me, and I was naked, but you did not give me any clothes to wear. I was sick and in jail, but you did not take care of me.� ⁴⁴ Then the people will ask, �Lord, when did we fail to help you when you were hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in jail?� ⁴⁵ The king will say to them, �Whenever you failed to help any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you failed to do it for me.� ⁴⁶ . Then Jesus said, �Those people will be punished forever. But the ones who pleased God will have eternal life.�

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) Basically being their for the outsiders of our world.

Finally I think we need try to become like Jesus. A middle eastern man who lives a simple live was always working to deepen his connection to God and live out the scriptures. You see I think many in the church have become good a seeing all the flaws in others that will prevent then from going to heaven but we aren’t paying attention to what God is calling us to be as followers of Jesus. Not judges but followers. A recent talk I did at a public forum has gotten me a letter that suggest I am misguided at best and pagan at worst because I practice yoga and we have setup prayer labyrinths.

I wonder where in the scriptures does it say don’t practice yoga that focused our hearts, bodies and spirit on following Jesus or set up prayer labyrinth that deepen our relationship with Jesus our Saviour? However Jesus did tell his followers to leave alone anyone who proclaim the good news of God’s love in his name. (Mark 9:38-41Mark 9:38-41
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
For or against Jesus ³⁸ John said, �Teacher, we saw a man using your name to force demons out of people. But he wasn't one of us, and we told him to stop.� ³⁹ Jesus said to his disciples: Don't stop him! No one who works miracles in my name will soon turn and say something bad about me. ⁴⁰ ; . Anyone who isn't against us is for us. ⁴¹ . And anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name, just because you belong to me, will surely be rewarded.

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Well I don’t know how I represented the emerging/post-emergent/missional world view at the Baker forum two weeks ago. It was fun to hear the thoughts of the other participants all of whom I know; including my friend Steve Argue, who argued articulately for the need of the church to look again at how we practice what we preach. A colleague John Frye, who spoke with some pastoral compassion about the important contribution of the emerging church to the church. And Michael Wittmer who was brilliant in raising an appropriate cautionary question about what we do believe. I spoke about my experience with emergent and what is means to be embracing missional values pastoring an urban emerging church. I talked about the false dichotomy between belonging and believing. orthodoxy and orthopraxis, and the lack of diversity in the conversation. It was cool to have a recently connected couple from Mosaic Life there. The moderator Sarah Cunningham did a great job guiding the conversation.

One the one hand the folks at Baker thought it went well. (thanks for the pics guys). On the other hand someone who attended, warned a student working with me that they should careful working with me with me because I do yoga. I don’t know if much changed as a result I only received one letter about what I said I supposed there could have been more. The strangest thing was the one person who came up to afterward to tell me that he had friends who were Muslim and Indian who were good people but they were lost. I’m not sure why he thought that was important to tell me but so be it.

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So for about three to four years (intentionally for about the last two years) now I have been practicing yoga. I got into it because I was looking for something to help with my chronic back pain (caused by my scoliosis). After some frustrating days I discovered that practicing yoga helped relieve my lower back pain. In fact I am now pretty much pain free in my lower back. However there were two unanticipated benefits.

1. I lost weight (30 pounds in fact)
2. Yoga helped me to center my mind in a way that allowed me to better connect with God.

Now most everyone who is a regular part of my church Mosaic Life knows I practice yoga. But recently with the launch of our new ministry Awaken: contemplative living 24/7 I decided to pursue training to teach yoga as my contribution to that ministry. So I got level one teacher training from yoga fit and I’m pursuing registered teaching training with Brooke Boone of Holy Yoga. Next month I will start teaching a free weekly yoga practice. I know there are some Christians who think that the two are incompatible (check out the video below.) But there is something powerful that happens when I bring my Christian spirituality to my yoga mat. Any other Christians yogis care to comment

yoga and christianity

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I just came back from Jamaica where I discovered this incredible biting critque and satire about the church by reggae artist shaggy.

Church Heathen Lyrics

If yuh tek this too serious, then yuh really need som chuch    

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My esteem of moby, artist, musician, entrepreneur and Jesus follower is going up all the time. I find his candor and perspective on the Christian faith refreshing. Check out this recent post on the insanity of how some are practicing faith in America and the contrast in actual teaching of Jesus.

It was sparked by this news article Neighborhood fights over peace wreath, here is a photograph of the wreath

Read the post truly insane | moby.com

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The protest was called off after a meeting with Driscoll. Read about it or here

Driscoll’s comments about Ted haggard’ recent problems has generated protests from a group called people against fundamentalism. This is why I was so disturbed frustrated by Driscoll’s remarks. When he says things the way he does it just perpetuates already high levels of cynicism about Christians in our culture, creates divisions in the body and undermines the Christian witness. Now while I support their right “take action” on what they call his “misogynist religion”, I am saddened that it has come to this. Haggard situation was painful and unfortunate enough but this just adds to the brokenness. How can we learn to be healers, wounded healers instead of fix it experts?

Here is some of what they say about Driscoll and the protest on their blog. 

‘He has been relishing in his misogyny, rolling around in it like a feline in catnip. His latest women-bashing came in a blog post about former pastor (and former head of the Christian umbrella organization National Association of Evangelicals) Ted Haggard’s marital infidelity. As is typical with misogynists and other abusers, Mark blamed women for the terribly hard time pastors have controlling their sexual urges: “It is not uncommon to meet pastors’ wives who really let themselves go…” The post makes for an interesting read; Helen, over at Conversation at the Edge dissected it well, so I won’t rehash it here.

Mark also regularly rants against men who don’t meet his minimum testosterone bar, which seems to be a Father Knows Best, 1950s, I-Am-Man-Cook-Me-Dinner, Bear-My-Children sort of fantasy ideal. His poison, though, is woven insidiously through much of his writing and thought. (See for example how he just has to bring the hammer down in an unrelated post here.)

After standing by while Misogynist Mark beats up on women regularly, it is time for us to stand up for the oppressed. People Against Fundamentalism is sickened by the injustice preached from the Mars Hill pulpit. We are done standing by while Mark the Misogynist takes his misguided religion and hollows out the humanity, dignity, and equality of the women in our midst.

So, we’re organizing our first direct action. On Sunday, November 19 December 3, we’re going to take a physical stand against injustice outside the Mars Hill Ballard Campus in Seattle at the 11am service.

Read the whole post » Take Action on December 3

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New Line Cinema releases the movie Nativity Story this week. I had the opportunity to see a preview screening last week. I took the whole family. The youngest 5 loved it though he was scared when Herod’s soldiers killed the Hebrew babies. My oldest 12 could take it or leave it. My wife said it was alright.

The PR guy said the movie was 13 months in the making from idea to release. To me it felt more like a made for TV movie than theatrical release. It wasn’t tacky or cheap or cheesy it just didn’t have a big screen feel. Maybe that was by intent because the publicity notes say they are trying to tell the story on a more personal level. Looking at the story from the perspective of the people involved. On that level I think they succeeded.

They also did a very good job with casting particularly Kiesha Castle Hughes (Whale Rider) as Mary. The folks look middle eastern unlike passion of the Christ where even though they spoke in Aramaic they looked European. The magi provide some light humour.

Overall it rates B. I’ll use aspects of it in my advent messages series at Mosaic Life

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I have watched, read and listened to all the talk about Michael Richards racial meltdown last week. Now I’m ready to wade into the hype. I have to say of the bat, I was never a fan of Seinfield; (it always amazed me that as with Friends all these people could be so active in NYC and not come into contact any black folks.) So I don’t have any love lost for Kramer.

So even as my state of MI passed a proposition to end affirmative action, this kind of stuff illustrates why we need to talk about race. There is so much latent racism in our culture and people think that if it doesn’t come in the form of a man in a pointed hood and robe or a cross on a lawn it is not racism.

It is absolutely amazing to me that Richards could go on Letterman and say “I’m busted up about this.. because I am not a racist” after what came out of his mouth. I can’t even say that. This betrays the hidden racism and ignorance that continues to permeate our dealings with each other. Like the folks in MI that voted to end affirmative action saying things have changed so we don’t need it any more or an emerging church leader thinking that because a couple of black folks have bee given positions in government that means that they have more privilege than he. Then there are all the folks who expect Richards to be able to call Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton and have every be alright because he apologized to them. Props to Al Sharpton for not going there.

Let me say this as clearly as I can. We cannot be the church of Jesus Christ until or unless we confront the sin of racism that exists in our churches and our culture. All the good theology in the world won’t mean anything if we don’t wade into this issue.

in a side note Bob Hyatt says that Brian Mclaren will stop doing outside speaking engagements 

but will begin to put on his own events with speakers drawn from a more racially, geographically and…uh.. genderally diverse group

I am anxious to see how this goes.

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Mark Driscoll, who got some flak for his offhand comments about pastors wives letting themselves go being one the root causes of male pastors indiscretions says Thank You, Critics on his blog. Read it for yourself and decide what you think.

I think I see an unhealthy pattern. make an insensitive or over the top remark about people and then backpedal and blame it on being misinterpreted. Based on the post on the Huffington post that I linked previously I think when he does this kind of thing Driscoll send a very destructive message to others in our world about followers of Jesus.

As a pastor who says he holds to drawing on all of God’s teaching in scripture I would like to encourage Pastor Driscoll to study the book of James. Especially James 3 which talks about the power of our words.

Here are some other reactions to his first post

Open letter from Rose Madrid-Swetman 

Fat lazy wives 

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If you can believe it, the women  this church Matinicus Island Church   are  raising money for charity and to install plumbing in the church using a "tastefully done" calendar ala the calendar girls movie.

I wonder if any were bought for the walls of the church. Go figure it strange but true?

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