Good Friday from Below

Last night we attended a Good Friday Service, as we have for some 20 years. This year was different, but not just because I am no longer leading the service.

Since we are free now to choose where to visit a service, we considered options. We decided, rather than shopping for a service we might like, we would try to do something consistent with the mission of God which this day commemorates, the mission which has called us into the city. So we chose to attend the service at an African American church in our community.

My parents joined us and the four of us were the only whites present, which we anticipated. We were warmly welcomed by the small gathering. (Good Friday attendance is always much lower than Easter Sunday, and apparently that is true across racial and denominational lines.) The brief litany was thoughtful and challenging. The cross-centered hymns were very familiar, though the style was less so. They sang my father's favorite song, and I was feeling glad we had come.

Then the lesson began.

The guest speaker was eloquent, passionate, and provocative…very provocative. He delivered a fervent exposition of Mark's passion narrative told from the perspective of the suffering of the African American people. He spoke convincingly of the injury to the soul caused by dehumanizing words and injustices, which are just as painful as is harm to the body. Those with power can kill the soul with words before they kill the body—something he persuasively insisted that African Americans have long experienced. And so, he said, they did to Jesus—belittling and ridiculing him before they executed him. Vivid comparisons were drawn between the treatment of blacks and Jesus' unjust treatment by the "po-lice" and other manifestations of Empire, culminating with an excruciatingly explicit description of the horrific torture and lynching of Claude Neal in 1934, followed by an equally explicit narrative of the scourging and crucifixion of Jesus.

There was much about the exposition that was compelling and thought-provoking. It was a bold denunciation of Empire and oppression in any age, especially our own. But there was also much that was disturbing. The comparisons between Jesus and "the black body" were pressed pretty far—too far in my opinion. The speaker wanted us to see Jesus as a young black man tortured and murdered by Europeans and the "Negroes" collaborating with them. The analogy is not without merit—but it seemed to us to be taken too far. (Or maybe we were just uncomfortable being the only Euro-Americans present…and we were admittedly uncomfortable!) His manuscript was undoubtedly written for an African American audience, not anticipating our surprise visit. Yet his strong words did not confront his audience with their own sins, only those of others—missing the confessional Spirit which I personally feel should characterize this occasion.

Perhaps even more troubling to me, though, were several verbal shots taken at Republicans, George Bush, and religious conservatives. In a sermon decrying the dehumanizing effect of verbal attacks, I could not help but feel that he was violating his own principle in his prejudicial stereotyping of his political opponents. I wonder if the message of reconciliation was lost in this reflection on the cross—the cross which has "broken down the dividing wall of hostility," and calls us to do the same.

Still, according to Raleigh Washington and Glen Kehrein (Breaking Down Walls), if we are to have reconciliation we must hear each other's stories—with the pain and offense often inherent in them. From listening we can move to understanding and to mutual respect.

Following the lesson we shook hands with the speaker as we stood in line to share communion with these brothers and sisters, and I had a very affirming and hopeful conversation with the Senior Pastor after the service. So as troubling as aspects of this evening were, I am glad we were there. Perhaps this passionate sermon was not an expression of reconciliation—but hopefully our respectful presence was.

The Priority of Love

In a recent conversation on ConversantLife (http://www.conversantlife.com/life-with-god/5-questions-for-brian-mclaren), Brian McLaren was asked how he remains peaceful amid all the conflict among Christians. His answer is great. Here's a repost:

You get a lot of criticism from evangelicals, yet you seem to always maintain a very winsome and open spirit. What keeps you in such a positive and calm frame of mind when just about everybody else seems agitated for one reason or another?

I grew up in an extremely conservative and contentious fundamentalist movement or sect. It was filled with wonderful people who loved God, but the sociology of the group depended on exclusion and exclusiveness. When I "emerged" from that exclusive fundamentalism into a broader evangelicalism, I was hoping to find less contention. And I think I did. But in recent years, I think a contentious form of fundamentalism has been making a comeback and is in the process of a takeover attempt in evangelicalism. (I think similar movements are afoot in Catholicism and Mainline Protestantism too.) When I see this, I am not impressed by it, because I grew up with it and saw what it does to people.

I've learned in my own experience that it's way easier to think oneself right than to be loving. So Paul had it dead right when he said that knowledge puffs up, but love builds up, and that without love, no matter how right you are, you gain nothing but produce a lot of noise.

So really, I'm grateful for my religious heritage in fundamentalism. It taught me many things including that if you live by contention - theological swordplay, if you will - you will die by it. If you seek to argue and fight against an argumentative and combative spirit, you become what you are against. (Paul said that if you bite and devour each other, you'll consume each other, which describes our situation pretty well.) So my background forced me to seek a better way—what Paul calls the most excellent way, the way of love, the way of the Sermon on the Mount that transcends the way of the scribes and Pharisees.

Of course, I often trip up and slip back into things I am trying to grow beyond, but even that experience of failure humbles a person and makes it harder to try to put oneself in the position of an equal, much less a superior, in relation to one's fellow Christians. I guess so much comes back to Paul's words in Philippians 2, where he urges us to consider others as better than ourselves and to follow Jesus downward into servanthood. I suppose that to whatever degree I am, albeit imperfectly, able to maintain a winsome, calm, open, or positive spirit, it's because God has used the practices I explore in Naked Spirituality to form me. I still have a long, long way to go, so even though I wrote this book, I need its message as much as anyone else.

Christmas Mission

Those are not two words I usually think of together: "Christmas Mission."
Christmas Eve. Christmas shopping. Christmas pageants. Christmas presents. Christmas dinner. Christmas sales. Christmas trees. Christmas parties. Christmas cards. Christmas decorations.
Not "Christmas Mission." Not unless you hear someone say they are going to help feed the homeless on Christmas at the Mission—but how often do you hear that?
But isn't the Christmas story really a story about mission. And I don't mean Rudolph on a mission on a snowy night. I mean the story of an angel announcing to Zechariah that God is about to fulfill the prophecies and promises of old. The story of Mary learning that she will give birth to the Son of the Most High. The story that God entered this world as a light to the nations, to bring peace to those on whom God's favor rests, to save his people from their sins.
Christmas isn't just a story about a baby in a manger, and angels singing to shepherds, and wise men bringing gifts. It's really just a chapter (though certainly a heartwarming chapter) in a greater story of a God who was, and still is, on a mission in this world.
Christmas Eve services are a lovely tradition (our family attends one every year). But the risk Christians run at Christmas is the same risk Christians run every Lord's Day. Most church goers are at risk of thinking that the focus of our faith is our faith. Church is about what the leaders can do this week that will be meaningful to me. Whether the church we choose emphasizes liturgy or preaching or music, the critical issue seems to be whether it encourages and nourishes my faith. We measure church by the quality of the experience. In short, church is about me (at least, that seems to be how we often evaluate it).
But isn't the focus of our faith really God's work in this world? Isn't the Lord's Day really about remembering the mission of God that took Jesus to the cross and brought him out of the tomb? Shouldn't we be more concerned about whether church services stir us to follow Jesus on his mission in this world?
And isn't that really what should lie at the heart of our observance of Christmas? Shouldn't Christmas call us to be light in the darkness around us? To be as concerned for the poor as is the Son of God who slept in a feed trough? To be voices of peace in the middle of all the strife? To be friends with the people Jesus came to save? To be on God's mission in this world?
Maybe Christmas at the Mission is closer to the heart of the story than most of what we do—whether at the holidays or on Sundays.
Maybe a good question we could each ask is this:
To what mission is Christmas calling me this year?

Black Friday Week???

I got an email ad this week from a retailer with this subject line:

"It's Black Friday Week! Get Started With These Great Offers."

Really? "Black Friday Week"? Has it come to that? Not only has our commercialized Christmas overwhelmed everything from Labor Day to New Year's Day, but now we are renaming Thanksgiving after a shopping day!

Ok. I know some of you who know me recognize this as my annual holiday rant. But the fact that I'm ranting doesn't change the fact that this is just simply disturbing. Predictable? Probably. Inevitable? Maybe. Pitifully materialistic? Definitely.

And the fact that I'm now working with a non-profit for inner city kids, trying to raise money so they can have something for Christmas, has nothing to do with it. Neither does the fact that I feel a little guilty about living in a brand new house that's nicer than we deserve, and we just helped a poor neighbor with her family's Thanksgiving meal. Neither does that fact that I already feel guilty for how much of a glutton I'm going to be tomorrow. Nor the fact that my car and laptop are both dying and I can afford to replace them both and still buy Christmas presents for all my family.

The only relevant fact is that a season once devoted to thanksgiving, and generosity, and penitence, and celebration of the advent of our Savior is now just one huge, seemingly endless, exercise in consumerism and self-indulgence.

If you are as disturbed by all this as I am, and concerned about the impact on your family, and feeling a little guilty too, then you might check out the Advent Conspiracy for ideas for a meaningful season. (Or, if you'll pardon the shameless plug, check out the Y.E.S. Christmas Store.)

Have a Happy Thanksgiving! And if you must venture out into the shopping madness on Friday, perhaps you might shine a little brightness into the blackness by following John the Baptist's advice and "if you have two coats, share with someone who has none; and if you have food, do the same."

I'm through ranting now.

Jerks for Jesus

What is it that leads some Christians to believe that acting like a jerk is something that Jesus would want them to do in his name, or in gatherings of his people, or…well, anytime, anywhere?
The latest hoopla over preachers threatening to burn the Quran is just one more example in a list that I think must upset God about as much as rereading a list of the kings of Israel and Judah. And if you have any doubt at all whether it was a good idea, even after everyone from the President to General Petraeus to a host of religious leaders was pleading with them not to, consider this one simple question:
Can you honestly picture Jesus daring to burn anyone's religious books unless they agreed to debate him?
Did you even have to stop and think about it?
How is it that people can claim to follow Jesus and then openly, blatantly, brazenly do something they know he would not do? I don't mean, how do followers of Jesus sin, or make mistakes in judgment, or arrive at wrong conclusions on a variety of topics? I mean, how do Christians in a premeditated manner, with malice aforethought, stand up in public and intentionally do something they must know he would never do?
How do they sit in a restaurant and humiliate a waitress for making a mistake and then stiff her on the tip? How do they walk up to an elder after church and chew his ear off because they don't like the song choice that Sunday? How do they pass on inflammatory emails that degrade and slander public officials whose political views they do not share? How do they refuse, on Easter morning, to shake hands with someone with whom they have a disagreement? How do they stage protests at a funeral? How do they go to a town hall meeting or campaign speech and shout and scream and refuse to give someone a chance to speak? How do they sit at a baptism and whistle, not because they are so excited they have to celebrate, but because they are upset that others are clapping? (And no, I did not make any of those up.)
There are all sorts of reasons why I would not want to do any of these things, but one of the best reasons is simply the Golden Rule (you remember that cute little saying of Jesus we all learned in Sunday School). I wouldn't burn a Quran because I wouldn't want someone else to burn a Bible. I wouldn't chew someone's ear off after church, because I wouldn't want someone to do it to me. I wouldn't spread slander about someone else because I wouldn't…well, you get the point. When Jesus said to treat others the way we want to be treated, I think he actually meant for us to live that way. I really don't think he had any desire to launch a movement of Jerks for Jesus.
But maybe an even better reason not to do such things is just plainly and simply because Jesus wouldn't do them.
Christians trying to be like Jesus—is that really such a radical idea?

Tent-making (or something like it)

This summer I have been looking for a part-time job I could do that would give me a more interactive presence in the community. Just as Paul had a job in the marketplace, many missional church planters look for work in the community. It increases opportunities to interact with people, and helps unbelievers relate with us better than they might with a "preacher." And since in a missional church plant you don't start up with a hundred or so in a Sunday service the way you would in an attractional church plant, you don't have very many people tithing either. Having a second job helps reduce salary costs for the church.
I was applying to become a substitute school teacher this fall, because that would connect me with principals and teachers and others in the central city. I may still do that in the winter. However, a door suddenly opened for me to serve as the interim executive director for Youth Encouragement Services, a wonderful Christian ministry to inner-city children. I have been serving on their board, and Judy and I have been planning to partner with them in our new church. So this was a natural fit that overlapped well with the work we are trying to do. I will serve about 30 hours a week for Y.E.S. for 4-6 months, and continue working at least 20-30 hours a week for the church.
We were excited and grateful for this surprising opportunity. The timing really seems to us a "God-thing." It makes me wonder what the next surprise will be!

What Does a Church Planter Do?—Part 2

I apologize for the lapse in posting blogs. I know it has left many of you with an empty space in your life. I'd offer excuses related to two weeks fighting gall bladder disease (I'm doing great now) and two weeks traveling in the Middle East without a computer (it was a great trip). But excuses won't fill that empty space, so let me try and offer something more interesting.

In an earlier post answering the question "what does a church planter do until he has a church?" I shared some of the many tasks on the to-do list of planters. However, the work we're involved in is about much more than task lists (I still wonder how the Apostle Paul functioned without project management software!). So, what else does a church planter do at this stage of the work?

One important part of any church planting effort is fundraising. That involves preparing materials that explain the mission we are called to. We are working on a new brochure that we hope to have ready to mail by the end of this month. It also involves meetings, calls, prayer, and planning. The fundraising has been going well, but there is still much to be done.

Another key part of planting a new church is connecting with various community leaders, non-profit organizations, and ministries already working in the community. I've met a couple of times with the manager of the housing project in our community. We are excited about the possibilities for serving the residents there. We've also connected well with the local elementary school and look forward to helping impact the lives of the children. We're getting to know a variety of charities and non-profits working in the downtown area. Recently I was invited to attend a breakfast for Conexion Americas, an impressive organization that promotes "the social, economic and civic integration of Latino families into the Middle Tennessee community." (I actually got to sit at the table with the mayor—but he was on the other side of the big table and we didn't get to talk.) Almost every week, I am told of another good organization or hard-working community servant I need to meet. The possibilities for cooperating to improve the lives of people are very exciting!

Most important, though, is connecting with the people who live where we will live. One reason we chose the Hope Gardens neighborhood is that it has an active neighborhood association, a very positive spirit of cooperation, and a growing level of social interaction including a community garden and regular gatherings in the neighborhood park. We've been attending the neighborhood meetings and gatherings and already know more people in our new neighborhood than we know in the neighborhood where we have lived the last 6 years. (That strikes me with both a sense of excitement for life in the days ahead, but also a sense of shame for the isolated way we experienced life in the suburbs.) Ultimately, our mission is to form relationships, to spend time with people as Jesus did, to be involved enough in their lives to know their needs and love them.

This summer we are actively looking for people to join us in this effort. We are networking with churches, campus ministries, and individuals to connect with Christians who have a heart for living as followers of Jesus in the city. Just yesterday we spent time with a young couple who came through town to learn more about the city and our work here. While it's too soon to know if they will move here, it is exciting to be with people who are excited about what God is calling us to do. Pray with us that God will connect us with people who have a passion for God's mission in this world.