Thoughts…Assessing our Times

It wasn’t long ago that I read in Os Guinness’ book The Call these important words:

Our challenge is not just to see the mistakes of a previous generation, obvious because not ours, but to see as well the problem of our own time, far closer and therefore harder to see.

Those words have hung with me now for months.  I’ve contemplated them as I’ve considered my own place in time, my place in the church, and my position in the world.  I’ve heard different assessments of the time that we live in, from doomsday prophecy to pronouncements that there has been no better time to be alive.  I’ve wondered if there is a posture that can assign proper gravity to the pitfalls of our era while upholding the true marvels of our age.  To do so would not be easy, and would require serious, deep thinking, careful discernment, and humility in spirit.

My thoughts on this matter have been furthered by the recent completion of David F. Wells’ book No Place for Truth or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology?  The book is full of challenges.  Wells depicts contemporary evangelical faith as quite bankrupt.  He is amazed that theology has in large measure disappeared from evangelical thought, and has passed away with little notice.  His book chronicles the shift which has occurred as churches have become professionalized in their ministries, with seminaries pushing the trend.  The church’s institutions of higher learning have become more focused on equipping pastors to be friendly personalities and effective conflict managers, and have left them devoid of the ability to think biblically and theologically about how they might lead.  Pastors serve the role of psychologists and managers, addressing felt needs, soothing damaged egos, and managing congregations according to the direction of popular opinion.  His observations apply mainly to the church in North America.  He notes different trends which have taken place over the past 100 years, such as the decreasing tenure of many pastors.  He claims this has had the effect of depersonalizing the ministry and removing the pastor’s connection to any particular place, making it difficult for the pastor to have an incarnational ministry.  The book ends with a thundering challenge for the reclamation of theology and an open invitation for dialogue on how people called “Christian” speak concerning truth and error.

On the other extreme, as I have mentioned, have been those (all voices I’ve heard in the U.S.) who claim that all is well, and in fact, the world has never been better.  This has been a direct counter in North American Christianity to the widespread perception that the world is soon coming to an end.  I find this a bit hard to swallow.  This reaction reminds me of the words found in the book of the prophet Jeremiah, “They have healed the brokenness of my people superficially saying, “Peace, Peace,” but there is no peace.” (Jer. 6:14)

Yes, technological wonders abound.  Medicine has advanced beyond what might have been imaginable over the last 100 years.  Transportation is now incredibly diverse and easy–from North America we can travel anywhere in the world.  And the internet has put everything at our doorstep.  We have some wonderful and incredible stuff at which we can marvel, which, when used responsibly, can increase enjoyment of life.

On the other hand, the last century has seen two World Wars, outbreaks of genocide, and the development of the most deadly weapons produced in human history.  We’ve seen some of this centuries most notable philosophers wrestle with deep existential angst, questioning the meaning of existence and whether or not life is worthwhile.  The thought of Camus and Sarte are good examples of philosophers whose existentialism reveal deep despair.  As for other issues, poverty is still very real.  Racism is still a plague.  Things are better, sure, but it seems we still have work to do–as will be true throughout this age.

What to do in the meantime?  As a person who calls Jesus “Lord,” I believe that we exist in “the time between the times.”  Jesus has been raised, signaling the onset of a new age.  The church waits patiently for his return.  ”Come, Lord Jesus” remains our prayer.  As we wait, we are called to participate in the Kingdom of God as disciples, declaring allegiance to our King who is Jesus.  Discipleship to Jesus will entail an adjustment of vision, which will enable his followers to both see and exist truthfully within the world.  This will include the demythologization of the times in which we live, naming the powers and principalities which stand in opposition to life in the Kingdom.

The Kingdom of God cannot be established by our own efforts, as Karl Barth rightly asserted.  It must be patiently waited for and received.  I’m not claiming that waiting is easy.  I’m not claiming that while I wait “all is well” or “the world is going to hell.”  My theological perspective leads me to look for those places where God is remaking, renewing, and redeeming our world.  I’m trying to acknowledge those places in our world where the Reign of God is being made manifest, while going to places of pain where the Kingdom of God needs to be announced.  It seems as though life following after Jesus requires that I attempt to do both, striving with the community called Church to assess the times we live in a manner which we humbly submit is truthful.

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Obama Resigns Church Membership

This article from FoxNews has announced that Barack Obama is leaving Trinity United Church of Christ because of distractions to his campaign resulting from controversial sermons preached by Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the Rev. Michael Pfleger.  If you’ve been paying attention to the campaign, you know what I’m talking about.  Pfleger, the cause of the most recent distraction, preached at Trinity UCC as a guest and mocked Obama’s opponent Hilary Clinton, accusing her of white entitlement and feigning emotion.

What does this say about American politics?  Obama has not announced his decision to join another church.  If it weren’t for his political aspirations, would Obama remain as part of this congregation, or is his decision to depart mainly based upon political expediency?  I understand if Obama is disappointed with comments made from Trinity UCC’s pulpit.  I am disappointed myself.  However, Obama will likely not be the last presidential candidate to rise from a religious community with a controversial pulpiteer, so I ask, is this good for the church, for politics, and for American political discourse? 

Will future political candidates choose churches that are more innocuous to American culture?  No doubt some candidates have done so in the past–choosing their faith communities based on the measure of influence they could garner from the congregation/denomination/etc.  As a final question, has anything similar to Obama’s plight taken place with other persons striving to take hold of public office in a way that it has become newsworthy?

Religious conviction has shown itself important to the American public when choosing a president.  I have to wonder how this controversy will shape the future of American politics and religion, for good or for ill.

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Live Fast…and Pray Fast?

Pretty fascinating ad from Diesel.  This reminds me of a quote from The Forgotten Ways.

I was trained as a marketer and advertiser before I came to Christ, and when I look at the power of consumerism and of the market in our lives, I have little doubt that in consumerism we are now dealing with a very significant religious phenomenon.  If the role of religion is to offer a sense of identity, purpose, meaning, and community, then it can be said that consumerism fulfills all these criteria.  Because of the competitive situation of the market, advertisers have become so insidious that they are now deliberately co-opting theological ideas and religious symbols in order to sell their products.  But this co-opting is merely incidental or functional; in so doing it is acting consistently with its own nature, namely that of the official priesthood of a new and all-pervasive religion.  The assimilation of religious symbols and rituals merely serves to bolster its appeal to the spiritual dimension of life.  An advertising executive recently confessed to me that they are now deliberately stepping into the void that was left by the removal of Christianity from Western culture. (Hirsch, 107, emphasis mine)

Interesting stuff, huh?  Your own thoughts?

PS: As a bonus, you can check out more from Alan Hirsch here.

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Expectations :: A Pause for Thought

Caedmon’s Call

Expectations :: From the 2007 release Overdressed

That boy had the highest of expectations
And he heard that Jesus would fill him up
Maybe something got lost in the language
If this was full, then why bother?

This was not the way it looked on the billboard
Smiling family beaming down on the interstate

You know that we all try to blame someone
But our dreams won’t rise up from their sleep
And the reaching of the steeple felt like one more
Expensive ad for something cheap

This was not the way it looked on the billboard
Smiling family beaming down on the interstate

Dressed up nice for the congregation
Scared somebody’s gonna find him out
Through the din and the clatter of the hallelujahs
A stained glass Jesus sings

This was not the way it looked on the billboard
Smiling family beaming down on the interstate

I normally have an aversion to Christian music (I listen to alternative rock, mainly), so my choice to listen to Caedmon’s Call this morning as I was brushing my teeth was a bit out of character.  As I was listening to their album Overdressed this song caught my ear.  I was reminded of similar impressions I had of church marketing while living in Dallas, Texas–something about the white, traditional family of four smiling at me as I drove north on 75 didn’t quite sit right with me.  Since that time I have thought that such icons only affirm that Stanley Hauerwas is right when he claims that we have turned the family in to an idol.

There is a lot of truth in this song.  The first verse exposes the fact that Jesus isn’t a magic bullet, though we commonly package him that way.  The third verse addresses the common perception that religious, specifically Christian people, at times possess the fear that they must maintain an outward appearance of perfection when they are crumbling inside.

The chorus is what really grabbed me.  We market and present ourselves one way, and then reality hits.  What does our “marketing” say to people of diverse races and ethnic backgrounds?  What does it say to singles?  Senior Adults?  Teenagers who have families who have no interest in a faith community?

When Jesus says, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple,” it scares the living bejesus out of us (Luke 14:26-27).  We like verse 27, but verse 26 is a challenge.  Jesus is redefining our kinship in a way that makes us uncomfortable.  It should make us uncomfortable, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminds us.  Nevertheless, we should remember that the family of God includes people of all ages, races, genders, political parties, nationalities, and on and on.

What do you think?

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UMC General Conference :: Ft. Worth, TX

Next week the 2008 General Conference of the United Methodist Church will convene in Ft. Worth, TX.  I did not grow up as part of the United Methodist Church, so over the past few years I’ve continued to learn about their polity and the means by which they make decisions.  General Conference is an opportunity for delegates from each annual conference in the United Methodist Church to gather and discern the direction of the church.  Next week will begin serious debate and dialogue over both the hot-button issues (homosexuality, abortion, etc.) as well as how to address such matters as numerical decline in church membership.

Here  is a selection of articles from the UMC website which frame the spirit in which leadership hopes this General Conference will be conducted:

• It’s Time for a New Set of Priorities : Tom Berlin encourages unity, while stressing the good that can come out of this annual conference.
• United Methodists Seek Change in Tone at Assembly : Guidelines for discussion are presented, first among them being, “Every person is a child of God.  Always speak respectfully.”  The guidelines are found near the end of the article.
• Church Budget Tightens Around Four Areas of Focus : “After months of reviewing a proposed budget that does not keep pace with inflation, the chief executives of the denomination’s program agencies pledged to preserve ministries that address those four areas — leadership development, congregational growth, global health and poverty.” (Emphasis mine)

I’ll be at General Conference for one day.  I’m looking forward to observing the action on the floor at the conference as well as surrounding the conference–interest groups will surely be represented and active.

It is interesting to me that budget constraints have narrowed the focus of the church financially, though I’m encouraged by the way in which leadership has discerned to focus their energies.  If there are two areas of the church that I am fascinated by, it is church planting (congregational growth) and leadership development.  Why don’t we just call congregational growth “evangelism” and I’ll be even more excited.

About three weeks ago I read Lovett Weems and Ann Michel’s The Crisis of Younger Clergy.  It is my hope that discussion at General Conference would be impacted by the data presented in this short book.  According to Weems and Michel’s findings, “the percentage of United Methodist elders age 35 and under has decreased from 15.05% in 1985 to 4.92% in 2007.”  That’s a drop from 3,219 clergy persons age 35 and under in ’85 to 876 in 2007.  Not good.  Weems and Michel argue that this drop is truly a crisis.  They’ve considered other factors (such as decline in the under 35 population), and still see a crisis.  They present compelling reasons for new emphasis on youth ministries, a reconsideration of the candidacy process and the terminology used in that process, and the importance of supporting younger clergy persons.  They also challenge the UMC to consider how they appoint young clergy (finding churches that fit the young person’s gifts well, rather than sending them somewhere to “do time” and “earn their keep”), they challenge the church to help reduce clergy person’s educational debt, and also press the church to change or face continued decline.

I’ve emphatically shared with close friends that the continual and ongoing crisis of any age is leadership.  It has to be developed, emphasized, and encouraged.  For churches, this requires that we speak in language of calling–there are those in our midst whom God may be calling into pastoral ministry, and it is the responsibility of the leadership to help people young and old learn to be attentive to God’s voice and respond in faithfulness.  I have met young people who are part of United Methodist churches who clearly have gifts for ministry and leadership, but those who are part of their church have never identified and encouraged those gifts.  I believe that this is simply because of a lack of vision.  If you are not intentionally seeking to identify leaders, cultivate them, encourage them in ministry, and commit to pray for God to raise up leaders in your midst, it is likely that the demands of maintaining a ministry will create a loss of focus on leadership development.  Loss of focus in this area is simply something that we cannot afford.

For all Christian people who read this blog, I would ask that you would pray for those who will be at General Conference in 2008, that God would grant them wisdom and discernment as they gather together seeking God’s direction.  I also would ask that you would pray God would grant our leadership a vision for identifying, developing, encouraging, and praying for an influx of younger clergy persons.  I pray that God would raise up new leaders who would faithfully lead congregations and feel called to plant new churches.

May God’s grace be upon us all.

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Interesting Poll Results and Commentary on Perceptions of Religious Groups

What follows is some interesting commentary I stumbled upon today.  This post comes from The Frame Problem, a person who has commented on religion and culture.  He includes a Gallup poll that shows perceptions of religious groups.  Some of my friends who check in here will be pleased to see that Methodists are generally perceived positively.  Here is the link to the article:

Atheists no longer the most despised group in America.  Thanks, Scientology!

Thoughts?

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Oxford Receives $4 Million to Research Belief in God

This release from the Associated Press found here is about a month old, but upon reading it this evening I had some reactions I thought I would share.  The study will explore a number of issues–in fact, I plan to do some digging about exactly what this study will cover.

Roger Trigg, Director of the Ian Ramsey Center for Science and religion stated, “There are a lot of issues. What is it that is innate in human nature to believe in God, whether it is gods or something superhuman or supernatural?”  This study likely will concern very old questions that have yielded a number of different conclusions.  For example, the studies of Tylor, Frazer, Freud, Marx, Jung, Durkheim, Weber, Geertz, and Eliade are only a few of the classic theorists of religion who present differing accounts of religion and how it should be regarded.  Thank you REL601 and Mike Zogry.  If you are ever looking for some light reading and have an interest in classical theories of religion, pick up Frazer’s The Golden Bough.  This edition is only 808 pages.

The Associated Press report is rather abbreviated (the story linked above).  An account from the Religion News Service picked up on 03.17.08 by the Baptist Standard provides a little bit more information.  According to the RNS, “The three year project titled ‘Empirical Expansion in Cognitive Science of Religion and Theology’ is designed to determine if belief in a deity is instinctive or learned.  It will be funded by the Pennsylvania-based John Templeton Foundation.”

Perhaps the most interesting comment from reading these short accounts was the desire to understand if “belief in a deity is instinctive or learned.”  What do you think?  I would think this would be incredibly difficult to discern empirically.  Even if a child is not instinctively taught a religious system, traces of various religious faiths permeate the cultural soup that we swim in.  A “civil religion” of some type seems inescapable.  Would it be possible to isolate a human being in an environment where it could be seen when the “belief in a deity” instinct kicks in?

In tracing the history of religious ideas, it has been impossible to walk back through history and discover the emergence of religious belief.  Different traditions have yielded their own texts and traditions, but to dig back to the earliest moments many of these ideas were solidified cannot be done.  Foundational developments of differing systems of religious belief took place within the context of preliterate cultures.  Along with reconstructing the earliest belief systems a picture of the culture in which it emerged would need to be developed,  which would be difficult to accomplish with any accuracy.

Belief (or unbelief) and god-talk continues to fascinate us as human beings.  It is my sense that this stuff will never go away.  Nevertheless, I’ll be interested in what the Oxford team discovers.

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