With the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther Kings death a number of news media printed reports and opinions on his work during the 60’s and 70’s. One such article, published by CNN on Monday, was a particularly interesting read as it contrasted the Prophetic Gospel of King with the Prosperity gospel of the modern church. Here is some of what the article had to say:

Forty years after his death, King remains a prophet without honor in the institution that nurtured him, some black preachers and scholars say.

They also say King’s “prophetic” model of ministry — one that confronted political and economic institutions of power — has been sidelined by the prosperity gospel.

“It’s dangerous to be prophetic,” said Wheeler, who is also president of the Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, Indiana.

“I don’t know many prophetic preachers who are driving big cars and living very comfortably. You don’t generally build huge churches by making folks uncomfortable on Sunday morning,” he said.

The Rev. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where King preached, says that prosperity preaching is not just a distortion of Jesus’ message but a betrayal of the black church’s heritage. The black church was formed by slaves who saw Jesus’ message as a tool for social justice.

You can read the full article here or (if it is deleted) download a PDF version here.

Continue reading ‘Prophetic Activism’

If I had to pick the greatest sin in my life, and western society in general, I would suggest greed. I’m not talking about the healthy self-interest type of thing here. I’m talking about the fruitless pursuit of happiness that comes at the expense of others. Western society has been built upon this greed.

Greed is the exact anti-thesis of the Christian life. Whilst Jesus calls us to place ourselves last as we stand in awe of an amazing creator, greed sets us up as our own God as we attempt to meet our own ends through our own means. Greed is idolatry.

Whilst the causes of Global Poverty are complex we cannot over look the responsibility we share in causing this catastrophe. Social sins are built upon personal sins. Our nations are rich because of years of exploitation of the poor. Our firm grasp on our comfortable lifestyles causes us to seek apathy as we immobilise ourselves from making a difference. Europeans each year spends more on alcohol alone than would be required to supply clean water an sanitation for all.

Greed destroys our relationships. Lust is a manifestation of greed. It causes us to steal all we can from someone without giving anything back - in the end leaving us hollow and unsatisfied. So often we befriend people for what they can give us in return. The result is a lonely society where the pain is so strong youth kill themselves in their thousands.

Greed infests our worship. Many times I have caught myself living a Christian life not for the glory I can bring to God - but rather for the benefits I can get out of it. Comfort and Security - the great shackles of society - have become the primary export of almost every Church. So often I have taken God’s grace for granted, not recognising Him as the glorious and fearful God He is.

Greed gets everywhere.

‘They’ say that there are two opposite ideas that make up greed: envy and jealousy. Envy is wanting what you don’t have. Jealousy is fiercely guarding what you do have. Personally, I don’t find envy to be too much of a problem (at least not overtly). But I do have a problem with jealousy. Christians should do more than just give sometimes to their favourite charity. We should share everything. That scars me because I like my comfortable and secure lifestyle.

My jealousy gets in the way of following God. Sometimes I am too worried about being embarrassed than to do what He asks: that’s being jealous of my image. Sometimes I’m just to comfortable - like I keep hitting the sleep button on the alarm clock of God’s nudging.

Greed is infectious. It keeps tempting me to place my own desires above God, and people suffer for it. Everyday I dethrone God as I seek to satisfy my own wants via my own ways and are left empty handed in return. Greed is what makes me grasp at straws.

Jesus calls us to place ourselves last and Him first. In so doing we find that life exists in the service of God rather than the service of self. God’s kingdom comes alive in our midst as love overtakes greed and redemption reveals itself in our relationships and actions. It is this the-last-will-be-first style kingdom that we are meant to spread to the world. Yet how can we do this when we are corrupted by greed?

I think we all need to get serious about greed. That photo at the top of this blog was taken from graffiti written into wet cement just in front of where I work. It reads, “Where is the war on greed?” (recently someone added in pen: “I sold it to an international consortium”). It is an important question to ask. As Christians we strive to end hunger and homelessness and broken relationships. Yet so often we over took the source: human sin. Perhaps this is because repenting of our own sin and greed is so much more difficult than applying a Band-Aid solution through aid (which is part of, not all of, the solution).

And that’s the clincher. It is so much easier to give to a charity than it is to admit that our sin is partly responsible for the struggle of the child I am helping 10 thousand miles away. But until we do deal with our greed (and let compassion overtake it) the world’s problems will never go away. Only when we are willing to share the comfort and security we have will others have a hope of enjoying the luxury.

This is where Christianity has an advantage over any other form of self-help style activism out there. Christianity deals with the heart of the issue - evil. It calls us to a place where greed no longer factors into our life style. Who can witness the glory of God and still hold on to their possessions so tightly when His children are suffering?

I am really preaching to myself here. Remembering that God is a billion times bigger than me is a hard thing to do. I like to think I rule the universe sometimes. So I seek our my own pleasure. Then, when I am unsuccessful, I mope around crying “woe is me”. If only I could keep my eyes on God’s glory than I know that even if I were surrounded by jewels I would not care for them because He is more beautiful.

It is the glory of God - revealed to us in the person of Christ - that may be used as a weapon against our sin. Who can be greedy when they see He who owns everything?

I am convinced that the Cross of Christ is the solution to all the decay in this world. I don’t think it is just the means by which we can escape the earth to the safety of heaven whilst it descends into hell. I think Jesus died to redeem us, to fix us, to cleanse us from sin, heal us from pain, fill us with love, and make us what we were made for - beings that glorify God. This is the “missio dei” or “the mission of God”.

As part of this I have moved beyond thinking of our role as Christians as being merely that of evangelism - to convert people from one idea to another; and have come rather to think of us as participating in what is known as “Kingdom Mission” - the transformation of our lives, our communities, and our worship in real, meaningful ways. This is what being missional is all about and why I have the “friend of missional” link on the side of my blog.

In thinking about Kingdom Mission I have found it helpful to split it into two parts: being in places where it is dark and then bringing light to these places. Contextual and Incarnational Living.

Contextual Living

I have written on this before. Contextual living is nothing more than “being there”. It’s the first rule of evangelism: show up.

I can’t remember where I saw it but I once read a quote that goes: “You can’t change what you don’t see.” It’s terribly true. There is so much pain, loneliness, hopelessness and evil in this world. But it’s ‘out there’. It’s not sitting where it is comfortable for you to reach it. It’s very tempting to sit back and church and wait for God to dump an easy opportunity right in front of us that is nice and easy and doesn’t require any dear grace on our part. In fact, this is what charity does. Charity is great but it is dangerous - it allows us the ability to feel good about ourselves when really we have placed a proxy between us and the people who need us. We must invest with more than money, relationships are needed also.

I grew up in the religious ghetto. I was born into a Christian Cult called Revival Centres (aka Christian Assemblies). They were extremely wary about any contact with anyone outside the church. Fortunately, my parents moved on whilst I was still quite young and we started going to AOG churches. Now there is a very strange thing about growing up in Church - it separates you entirely from the culture around you.

See, when you get heavily involved in Church you end up devoting all your time to Christian activities. I would go to church on Sunday, Have prayer on Monday, Youth Leadership team meeting on Tuesday, Bible Study on Wednesday, might take Thursday and Friday off, and have Youth on Saturday. Many Christians never have contact with non-Christians, and if they do they rarely develop deep, meaningful relationships.

Church’s would do much better if rather than engaging their congregations in endless spiritual activity they cut back and encouraged them to spend one day a week spending time in a ‘3rd place’ with non-Christians. 3rd places are where people play. A 1st place is somewhere like home, a 2nd place is work, a 3rd place is a bar or sports field. People relax and open up in 3rd places. It’s where relationships are formed.

We have to be very intentional about meeting darkness head on in this world. Weather that means going next door to confront the loneliness in our suburbs or heading to Africa to fight starvation amongst children. Do anything short of sin to get where it hurts in people’s lives. If that means swearing then swear. If it means disruption then disrupt. If it means giving then give. God came all the way across the universe to live in our gutters and our suffering and the result was our eternity.

Incarnational Living

Then once we are in dark places it is our duty to bring light to those places. To transform these places and drag them into the kingdom of God. Go into darkness and bring with you the light. Go and Do. Heal pain, show love, teach truth. This is where we get to be Jesus and introduce people to Him.

Incarnational Living looks differently in different situations. To the waiter’s union in inner-city Brisbane it means holding problem solving sessions for issues in the community and then revealing to people they chose and successfully implemented where following the principals of Christ. For Mother Teresa it meant serving the poorest and most helpless in the community. For Martin Luther King it meant confronting social injustice head on. For xxxchurch it means going into sex shows to tell porn stars that Jesus loves them. For Shane Caliborne it means holding a juggling act when the kids in the community start a fight. For someone else it may mean cooking a meal for a sick neighbour, taking in a young girl who chose to have a baby rather than an abortion, mentoring a high-risk kid, or daring to pray for a sick work mate.

All these actions shine light into dark situations. They deal with the real problems and effects of sin in practical ways. None of them are easy but this only serves to make them more significant. Whilst the ways God works are various can think of a few things we should all be doing: Praying, Sharing, Fasting, Teaching, and Celebrating God’s work.

Incarnational Living serves to introduce people to a concrete, present-day Christ, not an abstract, 2000 year-old, dead guy. As lives are transformed they’ll be swept up into the arms of God as well. Let’s “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” (1 Peter 2:12)

Reach into the Darkness

“Dare to reach out your hand into the darkness, to pull another hand into the light.” - Norman B. Rice

We’ve been told to be in this world but not of it (John 17 - Contextual and Incarnational Living), but so often I feel like we Christians are of the world but not in it. Like we have wrapped the world’s addictions to safety, comfort, greed, pride, dishonesty, and loneliness in new religious garb whilst also retreating to safe spaces surrounded by holy walls. I’m as bad or worse than anyone.

Yet I believe that the Cross of Christ is the solution to all the decay in this world. I believed that God, the king of history, reached into our darkness - even surrendering himself to the disgrace of death by torture just to give a hand that pulls us into the light. I look at much of the darkness in this world - the hunger, the wars, the greed - both right in front of me and a million miles a way. But Christ died to give us hope of something more and it is our duty to share that hope with people who need it most.

God created this universe. He flung stars into space. He spins galaxies on His finger tips. There is nothing He cannot do, no life He cannot save. Our arguments and fears mean nothing in the light of His glory. He merely needs us to go. Go and be Truth and Love.

Change the world.

Given some of my comments previously I thought it would be appropriate to clarify my position on penal substitution. Penal Substitution is one of many “models” of the atonement which has become more controversial over the last few years as many Christians (particularly those from the emerging conversation which I consider myself a part of) have begun to challenge its long standing (since the middle-ages) position as the core of Christian doctrine.

As a starting point I believe that the cross is multi-faceted in the way it deals with sin and heals our world. As such I do not believe it is a case of choosing one model at the expense of the others. I believe all (or most) “models” of the atonement should be taken into our understanding. However, I also believe penal substitutionary atonement has been over-emphasised at the expense of the other “facets” and needs to be put back in its appropriate place. I believe this emphasise is damaging in that penal substitutionary atonement has the potential to distort our view of wrath if not analysed properly.

An explanation of Penal Subsitutionary Atonement (aka Satisfaction Theory or Propiationary Atonement) goes as follows: The wages of sin are death. God, because He is just and cannot go against His own nature requires that all sin must be paid for (thus the existence of hell). Jesus death satisfies God’s justice thus allowing Him to forgive and enables us to escape the penalty that was waiting for us. In essence, Jesus death allows God to be both just and merciful at the same time.

My Problems with this View:

1. Penal Substitutionary Atonement changes God instead of Man

In this view it is God who has a problem that must be dealt with in order for us to escape hell. Jesus death changes God, enabling Him to pardon us from our sin. But this is counter-intuitive: surely the problem is with us and not God.

2. Penal Substitutionary Atonement separates the Father from the Son

In this model Jesus is a separate entity to the Father who, by dying, can satisfy the Father. The Son has come to earth to save us from the Father.

3. Penal Substitutionary Atonement separates Jesus death from His life and resurrection

According to this idea Jesus came merely to die as His death alone could satisfy His purposes. Different meanings must be given to His life and resurrection in order for them to have purpose. The incarnation is no longer viewed as a single ‘package’.

Biblical Basis

What is biblical about this view is that Jesus death was the result of Him bearing the consequences of our sin so that we don’t have to. This idea is threaded throughout the New Testament so I wont bother listing verses here. It should be noted that this idea doesn’t need to be carried on the back of this model.

What is unbiblical about this view is the idea that God’s wrath requires satisfaction. This view is based around the thought that our actions can earn favour from God and is inherently pagan in origin. In Pagan mythology people would sacrifice animals to the gods so that they would avert disaster or have good crops. This is what we call propiation.

But Hebrew sacrifices (and the bible in general) emphasise expiation. Expiation is the process by which we are cleansed of sin as opposed to changing God’s view of that sin. The change is in us instead of God.

Justice

However, the big issue here is our understanding of Justice. We in the western world have a very stage idea of justice. Our court systems are based around the idea of punishing someone so that their pain will satisfy the victim’s (and nation’s) vengeance. Courts are meant to insure that the perpetrators of a crime suffer as much as their victims have. “An eye for an eye” is the basis of the idea.

But as Gandhi said, continuing Jesus tradition started in Mathew 5:38-42, “An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.” Our legal system suffers from the logical fallacy that two wrongs make a right. Perpetrating evil in an attempt to destroy evil only ever leads to ever growing spirals of violence. War cannot create peace. It is based on the flawed myth of redemptive violence.

We western Christians, coming from a modern world view, then read this warped understanding of justice back into the biblical text. This is a mistake. God’s justice, rather than being the execution of his vengeance, is focused on redemption and reconciliation. Earthly (or vigilante?) justice is executed when a young man who killed a family’s son is sent to jail for life for what he has done. God’s justice is executed when that grieving family takes that broken man under their wings as their new son. It happens when wounds are healed and relationships are restored to their Godly standing - based in mutual love and respect. Justice happens when relationships are “justified” - put into right alignment.

Consider the close relationship between mercy and justice in the following passages: Isaiah 1:17, 30:18, Jeremiah 21:12, Zechariah 7:9, and Matthew 12:18-21. And read Jesus own mission statement in Luke 4:18-19: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” You’ll notice that the entire statement is about reconciliation. To release prisoners rather than put them in jail. To fix things rather than make them worse.

However, I wouldn’t want to make the mistake of forgetting God’s wrath. It is not something I fully understand. But it is real. Sin is serious. I am convinced however that it is a part of justice - not all of justice. Perhaps Mathew 25:31-46 is a clue to understanding this.

This concept of justice runs right through the New Testament (and much of the Old). It is the reason the early Christians were strict pacifists requiring new Christians who were soldiers, along with prostitutes or judges to leave their profession (Tertullian wrote, “The divine banner and the human banner do not go together, nor the standard of Christ and the standard of the devil. Only without the sword can the Christian wage war: for the Lord has abolished the sword.” Origen wrote, “You cannot demand military service of Christians any more than you can of priests. We do not go forth as soldiers.” It should be noted however that around 160-70 AD some Christians were soldiers going against the general will of the apostles and church fathers but were not excluded from communion). Jesus death teaches us that there is something worth dying for but nothing worth killing for.

It is also why Christians had to be hospitable to even the lowest members of society. As Christ’s ambassadors they has to execute God justice and love which was reconciliation.

From this perspective we see that Christ’s death, rather than satisfying God’s sense of Justice, actually executes God’s justice by repairing the broken relationship between God and man.

For further resources on this topic I highly recommend this sermon on the atonement by Bishop Ware. My notes can be found here. Also Sharktacos at The Rebel God frequently discusses this issue.

PS: I will be trying to post something every Friday from now on (Australian Eastern Standard Time). Though with my previous record I could miss a few!

In my previous post I discussed how I felt contemporary Christianity’s popular gospel message had reduced the good news to just another consumer product. I also pondered how to evangelise a gospel which was much more demanding and, I believe, true to the original message. The next few posts are my fractured part-answers to my questions.

The Cross of Christ

I think Christians often underestimate the power of the cross. Many times I have heard people ask “Why did Jesus have to die?” If you believe He died only to provide for us a means of forgiveness from sins it is a valid question. God doesn’t need blood to forgive. He is absolutely in love with you. He begs to spend every moment with you. If He slept He would dream of you. He is your one true father. He wishes to lavish you with attention. He isn’t looking over you waiting for you to stuff up so that He can punish you. And He certainly doesn’t need payment to satisfy Himself (the oft-taught dogma that God’s wrath needs to be satisfied before His love can forgive does not appear in the Bible; God justice is not vengeance). The son did not come to save us from the Father.

But if Jesus died for our redemption we have a different story. You see, God didn’t need Jesus to die - we did. Whilst God would forgive us in a second without Jesus I doubt we would turn to Him. And sin has done much more damage than just to put a few black marks against our name. It has consistently and cruelly destroyed the image of God that was once in us. Over the centuries it has turned us from glorious beacons of God into awful monsters. It is this fate - being monsters - that hangs in the balance. I believe God came to redeem us from this reality and to turn us into fulfilled, living people who will glorify Him the way we were made to.

How does the cross do this?

The Cross reveals our Sin

The Pharisees accused Jesus of blaspheme against the temple for His statement that “not one stone will be left here upon another” (Matthew 24:2). Jesus was telling the truth. They taunted His majesty by giving Him a crown of thorns. Jesus is the king of the heavens. With whips they tore the skin of His flesh. Jesus comforted the poor. They spat on Him. Jesus feed the hungry. They shamed Him before crowds. Jesus healed the sick. They nailed His hands to the cross. Jesus never sinned.

Christ’s death represents the greatest injustice of human history. Jesus let himself - the only truly pure and righteous man - be killed upon a roman torture device. In so doing He proves once an for all that we are evil. The fact that my sins resulted in the death of the most beautiful thing in the world teaches me how far I have fallen. And His death exposes for once and for all the prince of this world for what he is - disgusting. As Colossians 2:15 says, “having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Christ, by His death exposed those powers and authorities, and their exposure is God’s victory.

This revelation leads to conviction which leads to humility and fear which leads to repentance. A deep, life changing form of repentance birthed in brokenness before God. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17) This form of brokenness is a far cry from the usual consumerist response we often try to use to get people to convert.

The Cross reveals our Beauty

The fact we killed Christ proved we are ugly, but the fact Christ let us proves we are beautiful. Jesus, the king of the 160 billion galaxies in the known universe, made Himself nothing - even going so far to submit himself to our scorn and death on the cross (Philippians 2:6-8)! And He did it entirely because of love (John 3:16). That shows just how valuable we are.

There are two types of value an object may have. Firstly, it may have instrumental value - we value it because of what it can do for us. Secondly, it may have intrinsic value - we value it because of what it is. If a fire burns in your house you would grab your birth certificate and drivers license because they have instrumental value. But you would grab the family photos because of their intrinsic value.

One of the great problems with sin is that it emphasizes people’s instrumental value at the expense of their intrinsic value. Lust, for instance, is the focus on a person’s ability to bring you pleasure whilst degrading their instrumental value as a person with their own needs and feelings. So often do we make this mistake. How many times have you become frustrated with the slowness of a checkout chick, as though she were just a machine, without ever considering that perhaps she is having a bad day herself.

By exposing our evil Christ’s death strips us of our instrumental value - we are worth nothing to Him for what we can do for Him. But it elevates our intrinsic value to new heights. The fact that even though we can never repay Him, but He still died for us shows that He did it just because He values us for what we are. That is true love. And where conviction brings us to our knees, His love brings us into His arms. Without Christ’s death we would never truly know how much we mean to Him.

The Cross reveals our Option

I remember in a sermon hearing the story of a solider, who after several battles in a hard war collapsed in a church - hopeless and depressed. As he lay there he saw a spider trying to climb the glass, yet constantly slipping to the floor. But each time it would fall it would try again, and again, and again, and again. The determination of that spider inspired the soldier to get up and march off to war once again.

It seems no matter how hard we try we continue to sin. We continue to be that monster formed more by sin than by love. Inevitably the situation can seem hopeless. Christ’s death however gives us hope.

There is something about the cross which is more than symbolic. Love is not just a nice feeling. It means something. When you love someone you change them. And as Christ loves us absolutely, so we should be changed absolutely.

When we are in the gutter the cross tells us that God’s hand is there waiting to lift us out of it. When we are ready to give up being disciplined in our holiness the cross urges us to go just a little bit further. When we think we are lost the Cross shows us there is a way, there is always a way, to follow God and be the person we were made to be.

The Cross reveals a greater reality than we can see with our eyes. It shows us an option: either we can reject Christ’s help in serving Him, or we can follow Him and learn that redemption has arrived not on the back of a war horse but on the back of a cross. It shows us another way. It shows us a kingdom way. And by showing us these things it empowers us to make this choice.

I’ve looked at the message of the cross here more than its power. But through the cross Christ does for us what we ourselves can never do - He pays our ransom and washes away our sin (expiation). The fact that God’s option exists is revealed in the fact that He died to make it happen.

If we are going to reach the lost without selling them a commodity I believe our message must focus on the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. It is a story, which through its own power, transforms people’s lives.

I have an evangelical background. As such my zeal to ‘change the world’ always brings me back to conversion, or salvation, or my zeal to change a world. But as I have grown more committed and have come to understand the real cost (and joy) of following Christ I have become increasingly uncomfortable with a gospel message and presentation that, I feel, sells out on God.

I feel like we are coming to a generation of people addicted to comfort and security, who are literally dead on the inside for all their self serving motivations, and saying “Hey, for only a little faith you can spend eternity in this really cool place called heaven, and if you sign up now we’ll be sure to make your church experience as unchallenging yet entertaining as possible.” And whilst it is true (for us salvation is cheep and it is the best ‘product’ in the world) there is a greater truth: Your salvation - your relationship with God, your healing, your transformation into Christ-likeness - is the most expensive and difficult and disciplined thing you’ll ever work for. Your life after death will cost you your life before death.

How do you get people to sign up to that?

How do you preach a gospel that goes something like this: You must stop trying to save yourself, to make yourself the god of your life, to find meaning in fruitless things, to compete with your brothers and sisters over trivial things, to seek comfort and security over love or courage. Because you’ll never find fulfillment in anything when your first motivation is yourself, and you hardly know what you want anyway. Instead there’s this guy from Nazareth, an outcast, who was killed on a Roman torture device, who said dangerous things about giving all our money to the poor, praying for our enemies, becoming last to be first, and taking up our cross so we can join in His suffering. And, despite it being completely backwards, following this guy (the son of God no less) is the only way you’re going to get the satisfaction (the salvation) you’ve been looking for all along. He died to make this possible. But you can’t make that your primary motivation - because even if (impossible as it is) following Christ does not lead to the fulfillment and redemption of your life it is still the right thing to do…

When it comes down to it, that is the gospel. But it doesn’t sound too appealing. So we want to tone it down and split it into a few points and make it about us getting something from God as opposed to giving back to God what we stole to begin with. Jesus never lowered the bar like that. He told a rich guy he had to give away all he had and when he turned to leave Jesus didn’t run after Him confessing it was just an allegory. And if you think James is big on the action-accompanies-faith thing you should read 1 John: “No one who lives in him [Christ] keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.” (3:6) The early Christians had the bar so high we protestants would call them heretics! The bible seems to make it clear enough that discipleship is a part of salvation, not an optional extra that comes after it.

My question is: how do we effectively ‘evangelise’ that?

I have a collection of haphazard thoughts that I have been collecting but certainly nothing even approaching anything the 3-point-plan which I would love to have (even if I know it doesn’t exist). That makes things challenging, but challenge is what moves us forward. I’ll be posting more of those ideas as I have time (much sooner that the time since my last post I promise!)

But in the mean time how have you presented the gospel in a way that lead to long term meaningful transformation as opposed to offering just another spiritual good? There are people who get ‘born again’ every year yet never change, and there are people who see God and never look away again. How have you worked to see the later kind?

I went to a large church a fair way from where I live last Sunday night. The building was very impressive. The music was like a rock concert - with swirling lights, loud music, and even a mosh pit. The sermon was comfortable, and at the end we were all asked to close our eyes and bow our heads whilst any new converts “raised their hand” (a rather interesting interpretation of Mathew 10:32). The people were all very young and at the end I asked the people with me if they could find anyone who was not a middle-class, white Anglo-Saxon. We counted 2. Out of at least 400 (it was a night time service over the holidays).

The atmosphere was good. I enjoyed the service. But I also knew that I hadn’t really worshiped God. I hadn’t heard his word. I hadn’t seen people saved. I had jumped to contemporary music with a strong beat. I had listened to a guy preach to the choir. And I had seen some people be converted - only to return to their old lives this week.

I left that service thinking it was like a drug. A spiritual high. An addiction which the congregation was indulging in every week oblivious to the effects it had on their lives during the week.

Spiritual Masturbation

Shane Claiborne calls this feel good spirituality “spiritual masturbation”. I can hardly think of a better term. Countless times I’ve attended worship services more bent on making me feel good than in making me feel God. The lighting is just right. The pews are positioned correctly. I can predict the rhythms of the service - when the beat will speed up or slow down, when they’ll stop for prayer, or when a “clap offering” is coming. Too often I feel like I haven’t worshiped God unless I raise my hands and “ooh” and “aah” in ecstasy.

But when I really encounter and worship God I find myself on my knees. My life laid bare, my failings so clear in the light of His glory. All my pursuits and dreams seem like foolishness and I beg him for mercy. It is a decidedly uncomfortable experience -but a life changing one.

In short, I often seek a counterfeit form of worship that makes me feel good over real worship that is honouring to God. And this is only one issue. I think most Christians are not Christians for God’s sake, but for their own. Consider:

The Building - we spend millions to keep ourselves comfortable. We create spaces where it is “safe” to meet God. Yet did we ever thing that God would be more glorified if we danced in the streets and preached in the parks? If we invited people into our homes rather than just our halls? Or if we invested the money in the poor rather than the Air Con? (Recently at a local church there was a meeting to discuss installing air conditioning for the amazingly ‘cheap’ cost of $18000. One of my friends stood up before this meeting and said that it isn’t all that cheep when you consider that for $17000 we could provide clean water and irrigation for an African community and save thousands of lives in the long run. They ended up installing the air con.)

The Distance - the word “fellowship” is one that is only ever used in Christian circles (and the lord of the rings). I’ve come to conclude that it is code for “making us look like we have a more meaningful relationship than we actually do”. From the moment I walk into church I am handed a newsletter from a woman with such a grin she looks like she is meeting an old friend. I can’t even remember her name. Over biscuits and coffee I people (who I hadn’t seen since the previous service) ask me, “how are you?” but they don’t really care, so I reply, “fine” because I don’t really care either. We stand in pews looking at the back of each other’s heads, only hearing what the people on the stage have to say rather than what the heart of the person next to me is wishing to scream. And in the end we depart for another week, each of us feeling complacent with the “fellowship” but none of us having actually given anything.

The Preaching - I can’t remember last time I heard a sermon in an IC (and I’ve been to a fair few) that actually challenged me. Time and again they do nothing but reinforce what I learnt in my first few years as a Christian; repeating the globally accepted and safe cliches of my religion. I can certainly understand the conundrum of the pastor here - if he challenges us too much people will feel uncomfortable and leave. Oh, how far we have fallen.

I could go on. My my point is that for the most part Western Christianity has become a commodity (we pay in tithes - it is quite literally a transaction for religious services) that promises Comfort and Security - exactly the two addictions the empire of the world controls us with! Religion has become nothing more than the opium of the masses. Rather than creating a dangerous, counter-cultural kingdom we have, as Alison Morgan says, “set up private clubs for people whose leisure interest is religion.”

Loving God

Have we even begun to be Christians? Jesus dies on the cross, giving us hope for new life, and calls us to love him in return. But instead we rape Him; using him for our emotional or spiritual highs, our political goals, or our life improvement programs. Jesus has become nothing more than the solution for our problems (like hell); and whilst he IS the solution to our problems he is also our Lord and King and deserves not merely our requests but also our offerings.

The end pursuit of Christianity is not our salvation, or our “coming alive”, or our healing. It is God’s glorification. We’ll be saved and come alive in the process but those things are not the end, they are the means to an end. In our truly counter-cultural religion Christ literally calls us to abandon or “lay down” our lives for his sake to find what we were really made to live for. Die to find life. It’s a life that only comes when we abandon the pursuit of happiness and instead make the service of God our life goal.

Love is not a feeling we get when we worship in Church. Love is an action. It’s an action that leads to a wide range of feelings - from ecstasy to sorrow. It’s a choice to wake up each morning and say “God, today I will glorify you with my life. Today I will not make my satisfaction my goal but rather hope to find it in the service of you. But even if I do not, I will still live for you because you are holy and the one I love.”

I’ve been very busy with assignments and exams this last month and hence have not done any blogging. However, 2 weeks ago I was tagged to spread the 10-20-30 virus. The virus started here (I am a 5th generation hit).

Quick: What were you doing Ten, Twenty, Thirty years ago?

10 Years Ago:

Just enjoying being a kid. Had moved from the country into the city just before this and gone from a D-grade student to an A-grade one.

20 Years Ago:

Learning to walk and talk.

30 Years Ago:

Wasn’t even a twinkle in my Mamma’s eye. But then, neither was Dad.

I’m going to infect AO.

One of the major new story in Australia right now is the death of one of our soldiers in Afghanistan from a road side bomb. Naturally, and appropriately, the nation is concerned for the welfare of our troops and the two daughters and wife he left behind. But what does concern me is how this incident highlights the inequality of value we place on human life. Afghanis are killed from this war quite often yet we never hear of them except perhaps in the occasional statistic. One of our soldiers dies and it is front page news.

And if a terrorist, an enemy, dies it is a good thing.

A good thing.

No evil, no matter how necessary, is ever a good. It is always an evil. No evil, weather it benefits us or not, is ever a good. The death of a terrorist or a soldier both represent an ultimate, irrevocable failure in the human condition. We should mourn terrorist’ deaths and beg for forgiveness for the unfortunate punishment we have had to lay upon them just as we do for our own.

In Iraq we have definitive statistics for the number of coalition casualties. We have reasonable estimates for the number of Iraqi civilian deaths. But we never hear how many terrorists we are killing. It’s like they don’t count. They’re not human. Surely our armies would have some idea. To fight an enemy without any idea of their numbers or how effective our troops are is incompetent. It’s not like dead bodies move.

It’s that we don’t care. We don’t want to hear how many of them die. They don’t matter to us. Their lives are insignificant.

A person becomes our enemy when we de-humanize them so much we can no longer relate to the person we have produced in our mind. We forget that our enemies have mothers and fathers and sons and daughters. We forget they have favorite foods or colours. We forget they have feelings or dreams or concerns or prayers.

I cannot imagine what a mother feels like after her son has blown himself up on a buss filled with Israelis. Is she looked after or abandoned? Is she surprised or supportive? Where does she turn? Who can understand?

I cannot imagine what pain or ideal, hope or horror could compel a child to destroy them self. Were the brainwashed or did they choose out of free will? Did anyone advise them against it? Was there any other option to achieve what they hoped? How did they view us westerners?

And no, I cannot imagine what it is like to be holding my child after she was hit by shrapnel from a bomb and lays dead.

But can we see both sides of the problem here? A horror has been done to the victims. But a horror has also been done to the perpetrator. When we hate someone the first person we hurt is ourselves.

Christianity is the only world religion whose followers are commanded to “Love your enemies” (Mathew 5:44; Luke 6:27). Now I have no one who I want to kill right now, but there are terrorists who wish to kill me. They have made me their enemy by de-humanizing me. By forgetting I have feelings or family or hopes. They can only imagine a caricature of evil in place of a real person.

What would happen to that image if we met? What would happen if in some way I was able to show them love? Could they still hold me as an enemy?

I have searched to see if there was any Christian originations working in terrorist breeding grounds or with families of the bombers. I found none. I think this is disappointing because bombs wont win this “war on terror”. Aggression only serves to continue the ugly cycle that creates a terrorist in the first place. Only Jesus’ way - the love your enemies way - can undo this cycle. Only love of enemies can redeem the broken relationship. After all what is peace if not the absence of enemies?

For now lets pray that God reaches these people. That he comforts family members and that He gives a way out for potential bombers. And that the victims of attacks will not be even more damaged by the rage in their hearts.

Missiology is very much where theo.ogy meets our methodology. We believe in these doctrines, now how does our belief in them influence the way we act. Where does God’s mission meet the Church’s mission and our personal mission? It is both a subset of ecclesiology and a branch of theology in its own right.

Let’s call it theology getting its hands dirty.

Foundationalist Exclusivism

The paradigm which I have named “Foundationalist Exclusivism” (or “Evangelism”) is I think the primary lens by which the church has viewed missiology since enlightenment times. It’s based on two ideas:

1. Forundationalism is a theory in epistemology (the study of knowledge) that hold beliefs are justified because of basic premises or because they are justified by other justified beliefs. Basically foundationalism holds that many beliefs and practises are “set in stone” and upon this foundation of knowledge we slowly build more knowledge.

2. Exclusivism is the belief that people can be categorised into “saved” and “unsaved” people based on the fulfilment of some criteria (faith, baptism, works, etc)

Essentially the Foundationalist Exclusivism paradigm holds that every person is in one of two mutually exclusive groups: “Unsaved” and “Saved”. Your position in one of these categorisations predetermines your eternal destination. Essentially, we categorise people by where they are going to end up. We then suggest that there exists a transitionary action that changes us from unsaved to saved (or vice versa).

Now foundationalism is what creates this barrier between the saved and unsaved. Essentially foundationalism states that “Saved people believe and do these things…” Every saved person is expected to adhere to foundational practises and beliefs. Have you ever heard someone say that you need to believe in young earth, six day creationism to be Christian? That is a foundationalist position. Foundationalism creates the wall, the standard, between saved and unsaved people. It determines the requirements for the transition. What doctrines one has to have faith in for example.

According to Foundationalist Exclusivism the primary mission of the church is to get as many people into the “saved” category as possible. How? By getting as many people to fulfil the requirements for the transition as possible - Get as many people to pray the sinner’s prayer as possible, Get as many people baptised as possible, Get as many people convinced as possible. Foundational Exclusivism usually says nothing of the character of saved and unsaved people except that “saved people have fulfilled the requirement of x and unsaved people have not”.

Missional

The Missional paradigm is a new way of approaching missiology. The Missional Paradigm holds that God’s primary mission is not to make people saved, but to make people like Christ. Essentially in the Missional paradigm the goal is not justification, it is sanctification. This is significant because sanctification is a goal that is not achievable in this life time. So Missional Christians do not believe the “transitionary requirement” has ever been fulfilled but is constantly in the process of fulfilment.

In the Missional Paradigm no one has ever “made it”. Our eternal destination is not something which has been predetermined because of some requirement we have met (not all Missional people need agree with this). Rather we just believe that God has our best interests at heart and will do what is right when we die whilst we get on to the task of being “Christlike”. The primary goal is transformation (where as in the Foundational Exclusivism paradigm it is an option). The sinners prayer, faith, baptism, and works are all fuel for (and the continuing results of) transformation they are not the goal.

In the Missional Paradigm evangelism is not about inviting people to become “saved”. It is about inviting people to join with us in a new way of life. Stanley Hauerwas puts it best: “The work of Jesus was not a new set of ideals or principals for reforming or even revolutionizing society, but the establishment of a new community, a people that embodied forgiveness, sharing and self sacrificing love in its rituals and disciple. In that sense, the visible church is not to be the bearer of Christ’s message; but to be the message.”

The great commission reads as follows: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Mathew 28:18-20) What’s interesting here is that the only actual command in this passage is “make disciples”. In the original Greek “go”, “baptise”, and “teach” are all adverbs – they describe the method by which we are to make disciples.

In Judaism a disciple was someone who has dedicated themself to becoming like a rabbi. So Jesus was essentially saying “make everybody be like me”. The great commission is not about getting people saved, it is about making people Christlike.

Effects of the Paradigm

The effects of your paradigm on your actions are so huge they are hard to summarise. But consider the following:

1. It changes the way we act as Christians

2. It changes the way we evangelise

3. It changes the way we do church

4. It changes the way we approach soteriology

5. It changes the way we approach social action