Going The Distance

I admire people who are passionate enough about a cause to keep up the struggle over the long haul. I think that in most situations there are usually a couple of options that one can take that require less energy and focus and are therefore more attractive. But that doesn't neccessarily mean those options are best in the long run.

I feel this way about my denomination sometimes. There are moments when I feel highly energized to push for change. That's followed by times when I think it is better to simply follow along and not say anything. It's the easier path to take. It probably makes a lot of people happy too.

"The tension is here. I dare you to move," is how the song by Switchfoot goes. I hate being dared.

Sounding Off

Why is it that some of the biggest churches have the worst sound? Yes, I know that this statement isn't really true if you actually took the time to get the data. And I also know that there are plenty of small churches with lousy sound systems. (The good thing about the small churches is that the tubes most of them have in their amplifiers are valuable again.) But I don't get out much and I am amazed that the last two large churches I was in (for weddings) had terrible sound problems.

The first had a wireless that was going nuts. Lots of static and drop outs. I assumed bad batteries but wouldn't they have been careful about that since it was a wedding.

At the second church the pastor's mike gave a ringing sound like you get when the midrange frequencies are up too high on the equalizer. I was so distracted I hardly remember what went on.

In both cases the guy running the sound just sat there like he was oblivious to the whole thing. Now I have been told by our sound people how bad they feel when something goes wrong. They wish they could crawl in a hole and die even if it isn't their fault. But these guys acted as if nothing was wrong. Maybe they are just better trained than our guys are and have been to the class on looking bemused when things go wrong.

I just don't get it. It seems that with all the money they spend they would at least have a decent sound system.

Dog Gone

I’ve always disliked little dogs mainly because they have a tendency to have big mouths. They act so tough when I know one good kick could send them flying across the room. (I don’t really kick them but I sure think about it.) For this reason I have preferred to own bigger dogs. Right now we have a retriever/lab mix that weighs in at just a little over 100 pounds.

The sad thing is that my big dog is a wimp. It’s humiliating. She will run up to any dog that enters the yard, flop down on her back and flail her paws in submission. Yes, she will even do this for those little yappy dogs I don’t care for. It is embarrassing.

It got worse when Kim took her to the vet today. She asked about a rash on our dog’s belly and the vet said it was an allergic reaction to grass and tree pollen. What kind of dog is allergic to grass and trees? So now she is on allergy medicine along with her seizure medication. What ever happened to those hearty canines who defended the home place while surviving on dog chow and whatever critters they caught passing through the yard? Instead I’m stuck with a pacifist who requires more drugs than anyone else in the house.

What’s even more frustrating is that she is apparently oblivious to her failings as a dog. If I were her I would be walking around with my tail permanently between my legs. She’s just too goofy to realize she is seriously lacking as a dog. Instead she just lays on the kitchen floor avoiding as much grass as possible, slobbering all over anyone who pays her the least bit of attention and making disgusting noises as she passes gas from both ends.

There is a spiritual application here but I don’t think I’ll bother. I get tired of people turning every situation into a life lesson. Instead I’ll just shake my head and dream of the day when she finally stops breathing and I can get a new dog. I think I’ll call it Killer or Fang or something.

My Retirement Life

I think I've finally found what I want to retire to. I watched the movie "Secondhand Lions" the other day and I can just see myself spending half my time sipping tea on the front porch while chasing away salesmen with a shotgun then spending the rest of my time fishing with a shotgun.

Actually the movie is about living life to the end even after one "retires" and "dying with your boots on." It is summed up well when a child, wanting to know if the two uncles actually existed, asks "They really lived, didn't they?" To which the nephew who was raised by them replies "Yes, they really lived," meaning that they not only really existed but that they lived life to the fullest.

The title refers to a used lioness that the two "retirees" buy to shoot for sport only to find out that it is too old and sick to move. Instead they allow the nephew who lives with them to keep it as a pet and in one last burst of glory the lioness gives her life to save the boy (who she sees as her cub) and be a "real" lion. Notice the title is plural however so it is actually using the lion as a metaphor for the lives of the two uncles.

It is hilarious (at least I thought so) and every time I watch it I catch another tidbit of wisdom about life. I had not heard of it before which I thought was odd since it features heavy weights Robert Duvall and Michael Caine who do an outstanding job.

Diversity

What a loaded word. But I think it is something people are really afraid of and yet many may not realize what a big issue it is becoming. Most people think of diversity in terms of race but I think it is much deeper than that. I think it has more to do with culture.

I think America is becoming even more diverse in terms of culture. Even the little, sleepy town that I live in has several cultures even though it is 98% white. And we don't do that good of a job of getting along or understanding each other. Some have pointed out that America is not a melting pot but more of a mosaic. I think they are on to something.

Churches are notorious for being culturalcentric. (Is that a word?) I think this is even a bigger issue than churches being ethnocentric because location has a lot to do with the latter but most churches can find multiple cultures right next door. The problem is we just have a hard time with people who are different than we are. We need to put more effort into finding bridges over the cultural gap.

The problem is even worse with private Christian colleges. They have become the haven of white, upper middle class, suburban, Christian kids. I get a kick out of professors at my alma mater who survey their students and then tell us what young people think about our churches. I hate to tell them that I am not really interested in what their sample group has to say because they don't fit the context in which I work. It gets even worse when they talk about youth and youth groups. Their students are from a different planet than the one I work in.

The question for me is how do we bridge these gaps. I know that there are some who would say the question is WHY bridge those gaps but there is something about being one with humanity that leads me to assume we must. Unity is kicked around a lot but we tend to be unified about things we agree on and then pat ourselves on the back for fulfilling our unity quota. The hard part is being unified when we don't see eye to eye and we aren't doing a good job at that point.

Busy

For the most part I don't believe in being busy. I agree with Peterson that business is often used to justify one's existence. "If I'm busy I must be doing a good job." Instead I try to spend my time doing what I think is most important for me as a pastor. That means basically studying Scripture, Prayer, being a husband and father, living life with my congregation and studying/reading scholars.

But I got caught being busy. I 've had a few crisis situations come up, I'm working ahead in my sermon schedule, I bought a new dishwasher that leaked after I installed it (not my fault and finally got it fixed yesterday), I am preparing for a soccer tournament and my taxes need to get done. Happy to say that things are much better now even though I still have the taxes staring me in the face. Right now the debate in my mnd is "extension or just do them." The taxes I mean.

Thoughts on Post-modernity

There has been a lot of discussion regarding post-modernism and how it relates to Christianity. As one might expect the reviews have covered the spectrum from full acceptance to complete rejection. The reason for this is that post-modernism itself is widely defined and so you have responses to multiple definitions and expressions. This may be unfortunate as it may cause some to reject the whole because of a problem with a particular definition. It would be similar to Christianity rejecting modernity if they only heard it defined by an atheist. Likewise, post-modernity is liable to be rejected if one only hears it defined by the relativists.

I believe post-modern thought does offer some valuable insights that are helpful to the church today. I will discuss two of those in this post.

Post-modernity has reintroduced the idea of mystery and the inability of man to know all things. The modern church reacts strongly to this not because they think they know it all (well some might think so) but because it leaves open the door for relative truth. Obviously a large number of post-moderns have walked through that door but slamming the door shut is not the answer. It is a tension the church must learn to live with. I believe that in their desire to insist on absolute truth (which I believe in, by the way) many moderns have refused to utter the three simple words “I don’t know.”

I believe that this refusal to acknowledge mystery has had two harmful affects on western Christianity. First of all, our haste has caused us to interpret scripture in only a western context. As much as we know this we can’t seem to help ourselves. The real proof is obvious as prominent African and South American theologians have begun to develop indigenously. We sometimes struggle with their conclusions and we are only at the beginning of this process as even today most of them are still trained in the west. It will indeed be enlightening to hear what these scholars have to say when they are fully developed locally. I think their interpretation of scripture, having developed with minimal western influence, will be enlightening. (Interestingly, many non-western scholars have not noticed a rise in post-modernity in their countries. I think this is because so much of post-modern philosophy is already in their culture. They haven’t really fully developed modern thought yet so they don’t see this shift. Of course I’m looking at this through western eyes so what do I know?)

The second problem with refusing to acknowledge mystery is that the world quickly finds us out and we lose our credibility. We often behave like know-it-all teenagers and it becomes tiresome to the world. The fact is we don’t know everything about God and that’s okay. This is only the tip of the iceberg though. We don’t know everything about growing a church either, or fully what it means to even be a church, and that should be okay too. I think Paul said something about seeing through a glass darkly.

The other valuable insight that post-modernity may help us recapture is a sense of wholeness. The west is known for tearing things apart. This has served us well as our analytical minds have brought us great advances in science and industry. We are always trying to reduce things to the smallest part possible. Give us an atom and we will try to split it. We place high value on personal freedom, often at the expense of the good of the whole society.

Post-modernism returns us to the pre-modern value of the whole to some degree. People who work in pre-modern cultures are usually aware of this value. Pre-moderns think in terms of the whole much more readily than we do in the west. The good of the whole is often valued higher than the rights of an individual. There seems to be more of a connection between one’s actions and the affect they have on others.

In our society today we see post-moderns rejecting the isolating “castles” (homes) that the moderns have built in the suburbs to return to more community minded living. They seem to value relationships more and have less of the “I am a self-made man” mentality that previous generations have valued. They seem to have more of a sense that their actions have an impact on others in society and the environment in which they live.

I don’t think the post-modern mindset is anything new. It has always been there but has been thoroughly dominated by modernity. One of the biggest mistakes people make is too view post-moderns as those from a particular age. While some age groups may have higher percentages of post-moderns the fact is you will find them in every age grouping just like you do with moderns. What we are seeing now is a combination of an increase in the number of people who hold post-modern views and that they are beginning to express themselves more.

To sum it up, we shouldn’t reject post-modernity out of hand. It does have something to offer western Christianity.