Of Martyrs and the American Medicated Church

 I have recently met a fellow believer from Pakistan whose life is drastically different than mine. He lives in a part of the world where there is a constant threat of persecution and to further his challenge of being a believer in a Muslim country, my friend has taken in several orphan children into his home whose lives have been devastated by the loss of their parents. As I compare my life with his, it is not difficult to become easily disturbed at what I have prioritized in my own life the things I consider essential and important to daily living. Recently, my friend sent me a video that showed the reality of what is happening on his side of the world. Words cannot express the horrors of the atrocities that I viewed-----the slaughtering and beheading of innocent children because of their association of with Jesus Christ. When you see something that tragic, something inside of you almost doesn’t want to believe that it is real. And yet, when you allow for it to sink in, your perspective suddenly changes and you see the world in which you live in a completely different light. For those of you who know me, I have never been one from refraining from speaking the truth and sharing my concern for the condition of today’s church. After viewing the video, I have come to the realization that the church in America is in a state of disconnection from the reality of what is happening to other believers around the world. To their defense, there is a very plausible explanation as to why the average evangelical American Christian remains disconnected. The reason? Because week in and week out, they sit in a pew in order to be spiritually medicated with the message of self-help and achieving a happy life. If you do what I did and watch a video like that on a Saturday night, and then go to church Sunday morning, you might be surprised that your perspective might change. Do we for one second believe that our messages about being more successful in our relationships, how to be blessed in our finances, how to deal with our emotions, and overcoming stress in our lives would have one ounce of meaning to those who are truly experiencing what Jesus promised-----that “you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations on account of me?” (Matthew 24:9).  

What would we say to our brothers and sisters who are living in the midst of the fire? Here’s seven principles for healthy Christian living? Sitting in our  morning services, they would most likely walk away with the impression that “We want you to feel good about yourself, so take a happy pill from the pulpit and know you’re are loved and accepted just as you are!” From more recent trends, they might even hear, “Now, be careful not to judge groups like ISIS or any other Muslim extremists, after all they were born into that kind of life, so we shouldn’t cast stones. In fact, we should understand the pain we’ve caused them from the past because they’re still trying to overcome the detrimental effects that the Crusades had upon them.”  Why? Because it appears for the America Christian, we have this fascination of wanting the world to love and accept us.  The majority world Christians (which by is no longer in the West, but in Africa and the East), does not embrace the dynamics of “relativity” when it comes to engaging culture. The majority of them only understand one kind of church: a persecuted church! Preaching and teaching the gospel could literally cost them their lives. I cannot imagine that they sit around in a pointless leadership meeting asking, “How can we get more people to come to our church?” or “What creative elements do we need to put into today’s service to make the pastor’s message more effective?” No, the focus is more likely upon things like prayer, the Word, and how can they stay alive for another day in order to preach the gospel. In the meantime, American Christians fearfully concern ourselves with being labeled as homophobes and racists because we do not want anyone to be turned off by Christianity and its true message of sin, repentance, and the work of Christ. We do everything possible to protect the image of our church from being seen as judgmental and ensure that our services will accommodate those who might find the message of the gospel offensive. 

I believe it is time to evaluate the driving factors of the American church. If we are honest, we could easily see our sermons as nothing more than hour long counseling lectures that offers just enough medication to maintain the flock until they need their next weekly fix. I have a good friend who always asks a great question when making evaluations: “What is the end game?” What exactly are we accomplishing in America when it comes to the gospel? Last time I checked, we are in decline. And my brothers and sisters who aren’t “privileged” to live in America, they are thriving in the persecuted church! According to Operation World statistics, the two countries experiencing the greatest annual growth are Iraq (19.6%) and Afghanistan (16.7%). In fact, America is on the slowest growth/declining list with a rate of 0.8% annual growth.[1] If the way we are doing church is so effective with the myriad of programs, small group studies, amped up worship teams, and cutting edge technology, then why are we so ineffective in reaching our nation for Christ? Meanwhile, in places where even the Bible is scarcely available, the church is thriving. We want so much to believe that our churches are great and that we are the supreme example of leading the way for the rest of the world, but the truth is we’re not. We can have a mega churches and tell people they can have their Best Life Now, motivating them with all sort of clever antidotes that become memes on Facebook, but it’s doing nothing more than making us feel good about our dreadful condition. I believe the words of John in Revelation are pertinent for us today where Jesus addressed Sardis warning, “You have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die” (Revelation 3:1-2).  And while our churches are teaching us to become “better people,” we are becoming horrible disciples. Yes, my language is strong, but the self-centered mentality that permeates the culture of the American church is what testifies against us. Face the truth, the American church is all about me, all about what I want, and all about what I believe. Jesus himself stated that being a disciple would cost us our very lives (Matthew 10:37-39, Luke 14:25-33) and yet, we do all that is necessary to preserve our lives and save face with our culture. After all, no one wants to be unpopular, unpleasing, and unappealing to the prevailing crowd. The issue isn’t our failure in demonstrating “love” for our world, it’s that we love this world too much.

The end game is this: we are disconnected from the reality of the true gospel. It’s not about us. It’s not about this quest to have a wonderful and successful life in this world. It’s about living the reality that we are citizens of another kingdom and inviting others to be a part of it. It’s time we stop the dosage of the self-help medication and begin to feel the pain of our failure in truly living as followers of Jesus Christ.  We as the church don’t have the answers to help our fallen world, only Jesus does. All of the self-help programs in the world cannot motivate a person to live for Jesus, only Jesus can.  Part of that reality is suffering, pain, and being rejected by the world in which we live. No matter how hard we may try, if we are truly living our lives for the kingdom, we will never live comfortably among our culture. Each day, men, women and children who live in these hostile areas in the world can testify that loving Jesus means being hated by the world. People are dying but we’re worried about crying! Here in the U.S. we cannot fathom that type of response from the world around us. We would find the newest book or begin a sermon series that would help us to cope the rejection (perhaps something like Eight Methods for Dealing with Rejection or Four Principles for a Better Self-Esteem?).  In the end, we just want everyone to see us loving, accepting, and good people, rather than the abandoned, radical follower of Jesus. And because of that, we will continue to live in a spiritually medicated state, watching the decay of the American church, while believing that as long as we’re feeling good about ourselves, all is well.

---

[1] http://www.operationworld.org/hidden/evangelical-growth

Not Running With People of Color

I recently got a good deal on a printed T-Shirt and for those of you who know me, it would rightfully define some of my personality traits. It simply reads: I did not mean to offend you---that was just a bonus. With that said, I am once again going to be the unpopular killjoy that will most likely be offensive to the mainstream mediocre brand of American Christian.  Although my intentions are not to offend, I will most likely be offensive in stating what I believe is necessary truth that needs to be voiced. I am writing this on the heels of a weekend event held in Milwaukee: The Color Run. This yearly event is a well-organized, very popular attraction that is gaining momentum as one of those “cool things you can do for fun” that is for the most part, safe and family friendly. In fact, my sixteen year old daughter attended this year’s event. This being the second year we have allowed her to attend, I decided to take a closer look at what this event was all about. The primary focus of the run is to make people “happy.” Which in and of itself, is not a bad thing. It’s about having fun together in the context of community. So that’s a good thing right? After all, isn’t that what we are focusing on in the church of today? A place of community where we do life together and all is well? I almost betting that a Color Run church movement could draw a great crowd be an effective platform for a creative approach to reaching the lost for Christ. Well, not exactly. 

For a frame of reference, before I proceed to make my point, I want you to examine these images:

 

The upper images are from the Color Run. Perfectly harmless, right? The lower images are from the Festival of Holi, which is a celebration of worship based upon various Hindu legends of good triumphing over evil. In each legend, depending on what region of India of Nepal you may live, the story involves an evil deity being defeated by a good deity. The festival itself is celebrated around the spring equinox---thus the end of winter (Death) and the coming of spring (Life). 

So what is your point Jay? Are we not allowed to have some fun or are you about to compare the Color Run with pagan rituals? Yes, but its not just that. I’m tackling a greater concern which is becoming a more disturbing trend among the American brand of Christian. If you have not noticed, (if you really haven’t noticed, then I guess I am speaking directly to you), there has become a blending of the secular and sacred cultures. Its not that the world has decided to give in and involve themselves in the practices of the church; rather, the church has decided to involve themselves in the practices of culture, polished it off a bit, and slapped the label of endorsement upon it. We’ve joined forces, we’ve locked arm in solidarity, and we have refused to see any significant differences between us and them (After all, this would be considered prideful, judgmental, and downright rude!) Wait, I can hear it now, “Jesus would have run the Color Run, He identified with sinners.” That has about as much fact as the Scripture where Jesus allowed the demons to enter into the pigs, allows them to kill the pigs,  so He could use the pigs to enjoy a plate of bacon! Jesus may have talked to the sinner, reached out to the sinner, eaten with the sinner, but He never identified with them----sinners identified with Jesus. Jesus’ identification in life was crystal clear and it was not with man, but with His Father. He spoke this truth in phrases like, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father (John 14:9) and I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). Jesus never made statements like, “Look at this world, you can see that I am just like them and I want you to be like them, to live as they live, so that you can identify with them.” In fact the premise of Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus’ commission to the church, was to make the world identify with Him in becoming disciples. (Just in case you need to be reminded, a disciple is literally to be a mirror reflection of who they are following).

In becoming a Christian, there is a metamorphosis. As Paul states, “If any one in Christ, he is a new creation, the old is past and the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are no longer to be identified with our old life. Paul makes this point clear to the Corinthian church, which by the way, continually struggled with their inability to separate themselves from the culture they lived in in serving Christ. Reflect upon this passage:

“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship is there between light and darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God (OUR IDENTIFICATION). As God has said, “I will live among them and I will be there God and they will be my people. Therefore, come out from among them and be separate,” says the Lord.                                                                       

(2 Corinthians 6:14-17)

Evangelism doesn’t take place through blending in with culture, it takes place when the believer stands apart from it and looks drastically different than the world around him. We have somehow convinced ourselves in the American church that in order to be effective in sharing our faith, we need to “do life” with unbelievers. In reality the opposite is true, we need to live in such a different way from the rest of the world, that unbelievers want to “do life” with us! We do have to live in this world and interact with those around us; however, there are limitations and definite lines which we can cross. Every time we compromise our witness by being participants in the things that would identify us with this world, we are allowing identity theft  to take place against Christ---and this is where things like the Color Run come into play. Yes its is something that our culture does; however, what is it identified with? I posed this question to my daughter upon her return: 

“Do we think that God looks at the Holi Festival in India any differently than the Color Run in America? That somehow, He says, ‘They’re worshiping demons overseas and just having a good time in the states?’ Do we think that someone who has never known of a Color Run, and yet, is a devout Hindu, would recognize any difference between the two events?”

  

The truth is, when we place ourselves in various cultural practices, we seldom think about the identity of Christ within us. We pretend that there are no repercussions to our participating in activities that identify us with the world. In essence, we are making Jesus to look like someone He is truly not. He was all embracing to people, but not all embracing of what people did. He did not strive to be relevant, accepted, or even liked. But what He did was to tear apart His culture’s understanding of what it truly meant to worship God, by exposing the falseness of the practices of the day that were not based upon the truth of Scripture. Why? Because His culture was misrepresenting God. Whether it was the Pharisees, Sadducees, Samaritans, or Syrophoenians , Jesus attempted to correct the perspective of people when it came to their approach in identifying who they believed God to be. In the end, we want to believe that what “we do” doesn’t matter because of our misguided understanding of grace and love. In reality, it does matter whether we choose to believe it or not. One only has to read through the New Testament to see that Scripture is overwhelmingly clear about our identity as believers and our participation in our culture. If what we do is going to misidentify Christ in our lives, making Him embrace things which He never would have identified with, then we are doing nothing more than worshiping the pagan gods while believing that we are just having “fun.”

Love is Not Love

Love. It is a word that we Americans, well, we “love.” We love everything from our spouses, kids, dogs, jobs, cars, and even Velveeta Cheese smothered in Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup (not that I would ever admit that I have tried such a concoction). The point is that we have assigned this word love to every arena of our lives. And the result? Love no longer means love. In its defense, love is a difficult word to define, at least in the English language. Even the 1828 Webster’s definition had difficulty pinpointing the essence of what love truly is. Generally speaking, Webster defined it as “that which gives us pleasure and delight” (it is interesting that Webster also states that “if our hearts are RIGHT, we love God above all things”). For the most part, what we see with the word love is a reflection as to what is happening in society----a devaluing of meaning and worth. The postmodern mindset has successfully permeated our culture to the point where meaning is no longer contingent upon truth but personal interpretation. Unfortunately, this is not limited to culture but has infiltrated the ideology of today’s American church. In embracing the trend of postmodernism, we have become dangerously close, if not already guilty of, profaning the ultimate meaning and expression of love: Jesus Christ.

If one were to step onto our planet for the very first time and somehow find themselves in the midst of the American culture, what would their understanding of love become? Although we would try to convey with our words love’s meaning, our actions would speak much louder. It would not take long for the stranger to deduce that love must be “whatever makes me happy and makes others happy in such a way that we are never offended, never corrected, and always accepted in the pursuit of that which gratifies and brings pleasure.” With that new founded understanding, when that stranger would hear the phrase, “For God so loved the world….” one has to wonder how he would interpret its meaning. The truth is, we do not need this first-time visitor to help us answer the question. We only need to look at the endless threads of social media posts that scream the mentality of this stranger’s definition of love. Love has become whatever we want it to be, after all “love is love.” So what is the big deal? Am I simply being just another close-minded judgmental Christian that can’t see how much Jesus loves us? No, I am tired of seeing believers live in a state of deception and confusion. In other words church, you’re starting to drink the Kool-Aid and are about to commit mass suicide. The church is failing miserably despite its trend of attempting to become more relevant toward culture. So why isn’t that working for us? Why isn’t the idea of “just love people” having much effect? My humble opinion? Because we are offering a picture of God’s love that is not accurate. Quite simply, it’s because we don’t understand God’s love.

God’s love is not our love! God’s love cannot be defined through what we think love is to be. His love is revealed to us in Scripture but we seldom consider what it conveys. Here are the facts: God does not accept us as we are! If you believe that, then you just eliminated any reason for Jesus to sacrifice Himself on the cross, thus rendering it meaningless. Why can’t we be accepted without the cross? Because we are sinners. Put that idea in our modern vernacular and we just devalued society’s meaning of love: God puts stipulations upon accepting us. Yes, He loves us, but to God, love and acceptance are two entirely different things. God is also very offensive! It is impossible to be not be offensive to God, He’s God, the epitome of holiness. He calls sin, SIN! Just the very thought of John 3:16 is offensive---What do you mean that I have to believe in Jesus to have eternal life? God, are you insinuating that there is something wrong with me, that I am somehow not good enough on my own to go to heaven? That’s exactly what it means! (Especially if you consider John 3:17, that suggests we need to repent.) Hey, try to suggest that someone needs to change and isn’t good enough for something, and say, “But I still love you.” I guarantee they will not believe you; but God still loves us even though He says that to us. God is not concerned with our happiness, He’s concerned with our eternity. He is hard on sin---so hard on it that He gave His One and Only Son, Jesus Christ to pay an awful price for you!  In the end, we have created a god that serves our own understanding and desire. We want to define his love as we define love in the hopes that it will somehow make us all feel better and get along with one another. Yes, God loves you, but it’s not how you love Him or love others. For Him, love can be offensive, love doesn’t have to accept, and love is willing to do what is necessary in order for you to see the truth of His love even if that means suffering an eternity without Him because you refused to accept the ultimate expression of His love in Jesus Christ (John 3:16).