everything that's on my mind
(as if there's not already enough people doing this)Friday, December 09, 2005
What we look like
I just finished reading Robert Lewis' book The Church of Irresistible Influence, which is a book about how the church can build bridges to the community around them. He uses his own church, Fellowship Bible Church here in Little Rock, as an example, basically, and in some ways is telling the story of how FBC came from it's beginning in the late-70's to where it is today. I had a particular interest in this book since we've been visiting FBC recently.
In the final chapter, which I would describe as a "what next" chapter, he comments on where the church is today, and how we've lost what we once had in engaging the community. He quotes John Stott, who explains that in 18th and 19th centuries, churches were more connected to their communities than most churches are today. Then, Stott says, something changed. Basically, after World War I, churches for the most part turned inward - seeking to serve each other and "defend the faith" instead of serving the community in which they existed, and that this is, for the most part, where we still are today. Stott also offers several reasons why he believes this happened, which I won't go into. However, following this, Lewis states:
Just last night I saw a report about various conservative Christians getting all worked up because the Christmas cards the White House sent out didn't say "Merry Christmas." I'm hearing of boycotts of various retailers who are using "Happy Holidays" instead. And there's the whole Target-Salvation Army thing that continues from last year. When I see this stuff, I can't help but think, don't these people have anything better to do? Instead of complaining about what they see as an injustice, perhaps they could be out doing something about real injustices.
So, the question: why does the world see the church the way it does? One final quote from Lewis:
In the last part of the chapter, Lewis offers three tips on what we must change, which I will comment on later, but I think this is one of the most important things the church of today must reflect on and, indeed, must change. We must show the world again what it means to follow Jesus, who was our great example in being a servant to those around him. If we can't show them, then why would we expect them to listen to anything we say?
In the final chapter, which I would describe as a "what next" chapter, he comments on where the church is today, and how we've lost what we once had in engaging the community. He quotes John Stott, who explains that in 18th and 19th centuries, churches were more connected to their communities than most churches are today. Then, Stott says, something changed. Basically, after World War I, churches for the most part turned inward - seeking to serve each other and "defend the faith" instead of serving the community in which they existed, and that this is, for the most part, where we still are today. Stott also offers several reasons why he believes this happened, which I won't go into. However, following this, Lewis states:
Whether one agrees with any or all of Stott's analysis, the point remains: the evangelical church at the beginning of this century finds itself postured much differently than it was a hundred years ago. Our rich heritage of influencing society through humble acts of charity, strategic community concern, and sacrificial works of service has been largely forsaken and has been replaced by a one sided gospel of proclamation. As one evangelical pastor recently confessed to me, "This good works stuff in the community is new to me. I'm just not comfortable with it."I think this accurately describes many, probably most, churches today. We are to live in the world, but not of the world. But, it seems we're most often doing neither. We've separated ourselves too much from the world, to the point of having little impact on it. Some point to the Christian subculture - sometimes called the "Christian ghetto" - that has been created for us as proof. Christian music, Christian TV, Christian bookstores, Christian record and publishing companies, and on and on. We are losing touch with the rest of the world. Lewis later says the following:
We have focused on the Word to the exclusion of the greater and more powerful reality of "making the Word flesh." In this posture, the evangelical church finds itself, not surprisingly, disconnected from the real world. We are isolated, self-absorbed, and socially uninvolved. ... As people who pride themselves in their loyalty to Scripture, how can we ignore the call to good works in the community that the Bible so emphatically exhorts us to?
My fear is that most evangelicals will consider the call [to build bridges] as simply too high, the work too great, the climb too steep, the change required too drastic. But if we do go on as we are, soothing our consciences with a contemporary face-lift, we can and must expect a further disintegration, not only in our influence but in two things essential to our future: our name and our perspective. The Bible says, "A good name is more desirable than great riches" (Proverbs 22: 1). Names are summaries. They come to embody all that is or isn't about a. person or group, true or false, real or imagined. They also carry in them the powerful weight o£ emotion that ignites when a name is mentioned. That's why the Bible, as well as any good marketer, holds up the high value of a name.He says that we may call ourselves by different names - Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, etc. - but that the most important one is "the one by which we are called." What do people outside of the church call us? He submits the primary name people think of is "the Religious Right." It is a name which brings to mind "non-loving confrontations, judgmental pronouncements, and self-righteous invitations to be more like us" and he compares us to the Pharisees of the first century - "Smug. Right. Rigid. Vocal. Demanding. Uninvolved." He continues:
These are increasingly the feelings our name evokes in American society. Say "evangelical," and words like condescending, dogmatic, scary, demanding, and controlling scroll across the mind. Images boil to the surface of preachy moral pronouncements, boycotts, picketing, and political pressure to conform state to church, to make people behave, to make them act more like us, for we are always right.Instead of engaging the community in a positive way, serving them instead of only ourselves, we make it worse. I cringe every time I see one of the popular news/talk programs on television - Hardball, O'Reilly Factor, etc. - and they bring on guys like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson or William Donahue to speak from a Christian perspective. Of all of the people in the world I'd want to have speak for me as a Christian, these guys, especially Falwell, are on the bottom of the list. It drives me crazy. But, they embody the things that come to many people's mind when they think of Christians.
Is it any great wonder that we find ourselves the object of ridicule or fear? This is a far cry from Matthew 5:16, where Jesus imagined a church of good works that would cause the world to give glory to God.
Just last night I saw a report about various conservative Christians getting all worked up because the Christmas cards the White House sent out didn't say "Merry Christmas." I'm hearing of boycotts of various retailers who are using "Happy Holidays" instead. And there's the whole Target-Salvation Army thing that continues from last year. When I see this stuff, I can't help but think, don't these people have anything better to do? Instead of complaining about what they see as an injustice, perhaps they could be out doing something about real injustices.
So, the question: why does the world see the church the way it does? One final quote from Lewis:
George Barna states it succinctly: "The stumbling block for the church is not its theology, but its failure to apply what it believes in a compelling way. Christians have been their own worst enemies when it comes to showing the world what authentic, biblical Christianity looks like."Answer: because they can only see what we show them. In other words, we've done a poor job of showing the world what Jesus looks like. And let me be the first to say, "I resemeble that remark." Instead of seeing Jesus, they see the Religious Right, they see Jerry Falwell, they see people picketing Matthew Shepard's funeral with signs reading "God Hates Fags" and boycotting Wal-Mart over holiday decorations. The do not see our good works and give glory to God. Instead, they see nothing, or at best very little, to draw them to Christ. I believe it was Ghandi who said "I love your Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ."
In the last part of the chapter, Lewis offers three tips on what we must change, which I will comment on later, but I think this is one of the most important things the church of today must reflect on and, indeed, must change. We must show the world again what it means to follow Jesus, who was our great example in being a servant to those around him. If we can't show them, then why would we expect them to listen to anything we say?
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Lewis' book sounds like a theme Mike Cope is touching on today, especially with regard to marriage: We Christians don't look any different from anyone else - at least, statistically.
And evidently not in most other ways where it really counts.
It's more than a little scary, isn't it?
When Angi and I went to see the movie Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I had this sickening feeling that most of the world sees Christians as not a lot different from Humma Kavula's followers, waiting for the return of the great cosmic handkerchief and chanting "Aaaah-chooo!"
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And evidently not in most other ways where it really counts.
It's more than a little scary, isn't it?
When Angi and I went to see the movie Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I had this sickening feeling that most of the world sees Christians as not a lot different from Humma Kavula's followers, waiting for the return of the great cosmic handkerchief and chanting "Aaaah-chooo!"
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