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.

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

Not a Fan? Thoughts on Defining the Relationship

In Sunday school class this week, we began a new series based on Kyle Idleman’s Not a Fan. After watching the first video segment, I am---for a lack of better words----a “fan” of Kyle’s perspective in revealing what I believe is the single most destructive problem in the church today: the lack to true commitment to Jesus Christ. I won’t indulge in the details of the class or reference the book; however, I will reference one aspect of Kyle’s thoughts which have sparked some thoughts of my own. Kyle asked in the first video segment to “Define the relationship” concerning us and Christ. Relationships go through this process. A couple that dates will someday have to come to the place where they “define the relationship” as it relates to their experience together. How committed do they see themselves being to each other? Are they ready to take the next step? Are there areas that are “off limits” one to another? These are questions that have to be “defined” in order to see where the relationship stands and where it will go in the future. The same holds true with our relationship with Christ. How do we define it? Who is Jesus to us and how much of our lives are we willing to give Him? Answering these questions, however, is part of the problem. The truth is, we have only two options in “defining the relationship” between Jesus and us---will we or won’t we follow?

The unfortunate problem with the church of today as we have “defined” God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the entirety of the Christian faith, by our own “definitions” of what we want them to be. We fail to realize that when it comes to the whole idea of being a “Christian,” it is God who defines what that means. We have false prophets in the emergent church who want to “redefine” things like heaven and hell because it does not fit into their definition of what they think God’s love and grace means. By suggesting that “love wins” and God couldn’t possibly send anyone to hell because of His love, they have diminished God’s sense of justice. For most of us, “love is blind,” but for God, love does not mar His ability to do what is righteous and just (Sorry Rob, but some things just can’t be stretched like springs on a trampoline).

The truth is everything is defined by God----even our very existence. We may think we are the masters of our own fate, but it is God who ordains our steps, declares our purpose, and defines our reason for being alive. Love cannot be defined by us. Sin cannot be defined by us. Even God Himself, cannot be defined by us. We tend to differentiate between the “good things” and “bad things” of life; however, in God’s economy, He defines things like hardship, struggle, pain, and suffering as things that serve as catalysts for “goodness” to result in our lives. If we had our way, we would avoid these things because we see them as being “bad.” Jesus once gave his disciples the worst possible image to imagine and told them that doing this was a good thing. In John 6:53, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” Although he was not suggesting cannibalism, he was suggesting to his disciples that which needed to define the relationship----and in their eyes, it was not “good.” Up to this point, people had defined Jesus as the One who would meet their needs, make them feel better, and inspire them with His teaching. This was the Jesus they wanted! This was the Messiah that they defined He needed to be! Jesus submitted to these would be disciples that there is much more to the definition of being a “follower of Christ” than simply receiving the benefits of the relationship with Him.

This problem unfortunately goes back to the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve were deceived in believing that they would be able to be the “definers” of the relationship. Genesis 3:5 states, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Satan offered them the bait of being able to be the ones who could “call the shots” alongside of God and roughly 6,000 years later, we still find ourselves wanting to eat the same fruit. We open the Bible and we attempt to “define” the things of Scripture based upon our reasoning rather than upon God’s intended meaning. We redefine things like “take up your cross, die to yourself, and go and sin no more” to mean something other than what Jesus actually meant for those thoughts to convey----“you are to no longer live for yourself!” To further, Jesus also added the idea that “unless” we do these things “we CANNOT be His disciples.” Surely, He doesn’t mean that I can’t be a “Christian” if I don’t choose to do these things; after all, that’s “legalism.” I don’t have to do anything to earn my salvation. True, but you have to do something to live in it! And if we’re not going to take Jesus at His word by candy-coating the simple truth that in order to be a follower of Jesus you MUST do what He says, then I guess the only other alternative is that you will remain a “fan” who experiences the game from afar yet pretends to be a contender.

Is Jesus Better?

The Song of Solomon is an often neglected and mistreated book of the Old Testament. Theologians have labored in finding its significance and preachers have abused its context in making it mean what it does not. Some have even developed end-times theologies based upon the “bride paradigm” and believe that the book unlocks mysteries that promote a deeper and more intimate relationship with Christ. In reality, the Song of Solomon is a poem about two lovers who celebrate the joy their marital relationship. This however, does not mean that there are no parallels that reflect upon our relationship with Christ. After all, we are the Bride of Christ and He is the Lover of Our Souls. Paul explained in Ephesians 5 that marriage is a reflection of one’s relationship with Christ. It is our earthy institution that best explains our heavenly relationship with Christ (v.31-32). With this in mind, the Song of Solomon provides some challenges for the reader in the area of evaluating one’s passion for Christ.

One verse in particular, brings a great deal of conviction when I ponder its implications in my relationship with Christ. The author writes, “How is your beloved better than others, most beautiful of women? How is your beloved better than others that you charge us so?” (Song of Solomon 5:9). The woman in this passage was passionately seeking after her lover and begged for her friends to join her in the pursuit of finding him. Their response in our vernacular would have sounded more like, “What makes him so great? What makes him so different that you’re asking us to join you in your pursuit?” I believe that this is a fair question for those friends to ask. After all, it is the middle of the night and the woman is asking her friends for quite a commitment on their part. Although we would most likely not ask our friends to help us chase down someone who we are madly in love with, we would ask others to consider following us as we follow after the Lover of Our Soul----and this is where this passage begins to convict.

As Christians, we make certain claims about Jesus. We believe Him to be the most important part of our lives. We believe His Word to be true and that He keeps that Word. We believe Him to be our strength, sufficiency, comfort, joy, and even our Healer. We believe that He is God Almighty and that He is to be worshiped with all of our heart. The problem lies that when others look at our lives, does our example answer the question of “How is your beloved better than others…how is your beloved better than others that you charge us so?” We make claims that we are worshipers of Jesus, but do the actions, attitudes, and activities we choose to participate in reflect those claims? I can say that living for Jesus is “better” than choosing to live for this world but if my life does not look any different from those choosing to NOT live for Christ, then who am I kidding? This extends well past the idea that “because I go to church” I show how much Jesus means to me mentality. A passion for Christ that screams “HE IS BETTER THAN ALL ELSE” is something that needs to be a part of every fabric of my life---otherwise I live as a hypocrite. Jesus did not claim that He was “the way for some of life, the truth for only what I choose to believe, and the life when only I want to act like someone who loves Christ.” No, He said He is “THE way, THE truth, and THE life!” (John 14:6).

In George Barna’s book Growing True Disciples, he conducted a study which discovered that for the most part, professing Christians are no different in beliefs, actions, and attitudes in life than non-believers. And yet, these same Christians also make the claim that “Jesus is better than all else.” The simple truth is that we cannot claim to be “following after Jesus” while living as those who do not follow after Jesus. If Jesus is “more” than all else in this life, then our example would fully promote that. We would not be focused upon the priorities of pursuing wealth, materialism, fashion, entertainment, success, and questionable indulging that identifies us with worldly living. Rather, we would show with our lives that Jesus has “another way” of living. Those who choose to follow that way will easily be able to answer the question of “What makes Jesus better than the life I already have?” In fact, they won’t have to speak a word to answer that question as the life that passionately pursues Jesus will be evident and DIFFERENT from anything this world has to offer!