a culture of distrust

One of the unpleasant realities of modern church culture is that we have created a culture of distrust for ourselves. This means that our default mode is more time spent assuming the worst in each other than anything else. For some people this happens when a brother or sister does something which is confusing. The first step is then to figure that this is some sort of mean-spirited behavior. In reality, the first step to act in Christian love should be to assume that a fellow believer will have the best intentions in mind, even though we might not understand it immediately.

This is a constant plague in church leadership. It typically begins well, when we appoint or elect or volunteer someone to a position within the congregation. We approve of said move because we believe this person to have a good head on their shoulders, and to be a strong person of character and faith. But then, in that fateful moment, when the church leadership makes a decision which we don't understand or with which we don't agree . . . they must be out for control of the church, they have never been gifted for leadership, their faith isn't as strong as mine, they obviously don't pray or else they would see it my way, we can never trust their leadership from this point forward.

In a serious sense: What the hell has happened to ourselves?!?!

If the primary mandate of this community is to love God and love others, to which the gates of hell itself would not overcome such commitment, and we are not capable of doing so within ourselves, then our foundation certainly is missing. It appears that many pockets of Christianity have more in common with the pagan gates of hell than they have with the kingdom of God. I say this because the former is characterized by destruction, the latter with love and edification.

As a pastor, I find myself in this situation quite often. As a young pastor, I find myself in this situation more than many other pastors. As a young pastor in a congregationalist-oriented church, I find myself in this situation all the time. By this I mean to say that some denominational structures and church cultures afford more credence to pastoral authority than others. I'm not saying this is always a good thing, nor am I advocating a more episcopal-looking church structure for myself . . . we are simply not one of those churches.

And so many of us think that anyone who doesn't do everything we think they should in the manner in which we think it should be done is somehow a bad person. I'm certain that in many cases there are many church pastors and leaders who are not good people - and I'm quite certain that I've met some of them - but that doesn't say that love can't overcome them. Living out a kingdom-oriented faith demands that we move beyond such failures and discover a better way.

the shallows

Nicholas Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains (New York: Norton, 2010).

It is always a struggle for those in pastorates to read outside of our normal scope of biblical studies and theology. Sometimes, it is enough of a struggle just to accomplish any reading at all! However, I stand firm in the belief that it is of great benefit to find books that stretch, challenge and give new perspective to the daily routines of ministry and/or academic study of Scripture. Having said that, I am happy to have taken this recommendation and worked my way through The Shallows, a social-scientific study of what effect the internet culture is having on the human mind.

In short, the book is good . . . the reality of the shallows is not so good.

One summary statement that catches the heart of the book is this: "Our use of the Internet involves many paradoxes, but the one that promises to have the greatest long-term influence over how we think is this one: the Net seizes our attention only to scatter it" (118). It appears that the constant exposure to a technology age based upon the internet is altering the way the human mind functions, in most cases to the loss of sustained and contemplative thought. In the (not-too-distant) past we would find ourselves immersed in books that allowed us to follow a story, argument, logic, etc. With the advent of the Internet age we instead find that we scan pages quickly for bits of information and care very little about sustained thought.

The further effect of this phenomenon is described as such: "Whenever we, as readers, come upon a link, we have to pause, for at least a split second, to allow our prefrontal cortex to evaluate whether or not we should click on it . . . We revert to being 'mere decoders of information.' Our ability to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction remains largely disengaged" (122).

Research has shown that the brain is capable of remapping itself and discovering new ways of working to accommodate a lifestyle, a set of chores and tasks, or an approach of thought. With the internet we discover that the human brain is altering its way of thinking which bypass the areas which provide deep thought. Hence, there is an overall shallowing of the mind which may or may not be apparent in daily life.

There are many causes for this that exist in our culture, and the internet should not be labeled as either good or bad, but the way we utilize it will undoubtedly change us forever. Some believe that we are becoming more sophisticated as a culture because of our electronic devices and internet access. However, the measure of this inherently flawed in that our capacity to work information into our memories and imaginations becomes limited by the fact that we no longer have to remember or work for what we want to know in a given moment. Search engines and hyperlink texts have made information so readily available that we can obtain instant gratification for our queries, and never break an intellectual sweat for knowledge.

It is unfortunate that wisdom will never be discovered in such a lifestyle.

Finally, "The Net is making us smarter . . . only if we define intelligence by the Net's own standards. If we take a broader and more traditional view of intelligence . . . we have to come to a different and considerably darker conclusion" (141).

We believed that the world was contained in this little thing called the internet. It turns out that it became a bubble which shelters us from the world and all of the wisdom and wonder of the created order around us.

the mission of god's people

Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God's People (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010).

The two questions which appear to be inescapable from modern discussions of the church are, Who are we? and Why are we here? Everyone seems to have a horse in this race, and there is no shortage of answers to this self-imposed query. The fact that many people are asking, however, does not necessarily mean that they are poor questions. In fact, they are vital to the foundation and direction of the church.

And it is this set of questions which drives Christopher Wright's latest book forward. Who are we, the church? Why are we, the church, here? His answer comes in the focused discussion of missions . . . or missiology, missional, missions-minded, etc . . . that many have spoken of before. What makes this reading unique and worthwhile? My opinion would suggest that this is one of the best and most accessible biblical discussions on the nature of the church that you can pick up today. Although I am by no means an expert on missiology, I do know that the church culture is refocusing on the missional movement of the gospel and that the themes of Scripture are being reread with great vigor to that end. So, this is a relevant book . . . it is timely, thoughtful, and challenging.

One of the primary strengths of this book is Wright's constant focus on the hands-on work of the church, never allowing the theory and theology cast a shadow on the importance of the daily life of the believer. Such writing will make this a strong text for classroom and small group, and should now occupy the pastor's shelf. (Although some of the many inset-texts become distracting and bothersome, they hold good content, summary and example for the discussion.)

The overall tenor of the book is this: the church has a specific identity, which lends to its mission, which defines its ethic.

Wright demonstrates his thesis by providing a strong overview of the biblical data, grounding the work of God upon both Creation and Covenant and then seeing its fulfillment in the work of Christ. The mission of God's people begins with the charge to be stewards of creation (God's representatives), as well as people who bless the earth as descendants of Abraham (God's representatives). The twin themes of Creation and Covenant show that Wright's is a view which encompasses the story of Scripture (see chs 2-4).

From understanding the identity and mission of God's people, the work of the church moves to its ethical dimension. "Experience of redemption must generate redemptive living" (108). This 'redemptive living' is demonstrated by the many 'just-as' statements in which God charges his people to mirror his character into their world. Thus, the church is a people who represent God to the world, and live out his redemption into the broken and corrupt culture. We are to 'put on' God and invite the comparison of our lives to that of others (131 . . . that last bit is quite frightening for many of us).

The book itself is a good discussion and meditation on the identity and work of the church. It never loses sight of the real-life effect God's people must have on the world. Wright does well to keep this in the discussion throughout the text, but does include a concluding chapter which brings an additional practical application to the whole of the discussion. In the end, it is the worship of God that drives our mission . . . but it is the mission which draws us to worship him.

repair requires acknowledgement

Things break. This is an undeniable truth of this life, whether it is an inanimate physical object, a part of the human body, an psychological-emotional state, an organization consisting of people, or a spiritual reality. At some point in time things will break and need to be repaired.

A generation or two ago we still had a society which fixed things as the norm and replaced them as a final option. This has been the state of world civilization since its beginning, only giving way to a disposable culture in the past few years. At some point we began throwing away little, insignificant things like paper cups and towelettes. Now we have moved up to disposable cellphones and (practically) disposable computers. (What would our great-grandparents have thought of this?) When televisions and microwaves - those quite revolutionary magical household items - break, we don't even think of paying the cost to have them repaired because it is quicker, easier, and often less expensive to get a new one. Plus, we always want the newer and better model.

I wonder just how much this disposable culture has impacted our kingdom work. Already we have seen how people will migrate from one church to another simply because it is easier to walk away than it is to repair broken relationships. Perhaps we also dispose of the very ones who need the gospel message most simply because it takes a lot of effort to help someone find repair in their own lives. After all, isn't there a self-help book out there anyway?

Nobody can deny that things in our world break, and that there are times when we have to fix them. Sometimes its drastic, like removing a limb because there is a cancer. Sometimes its quite inconvenient, such as when we have to try to get through a stretch with our leg in a cast. Sometimes is relatively simple, other times its terribly difficult. We all know its most difficult to repair the relationship factor, because it requires humility and openness with the other person.

But what is common in all of our break-and-repair situations is the necessity for us to admit that something is broken. This is so overly-simplistic that it often trips us up. Think about it: When your car isn't running correctly the first step is to discover what is broken. In fact, the mechanic isn't even legal allowed to start a repair until you admit that your car is broken - this involves signing an agreement stating the problem, estimating the cost, and allowing him to commence.

I been told that I am pessimistic. I contend that I am optimistic, because I like my chances, but that I am also a realist. In other words, I have the ability to identify a situation as it is but with the eternal hope that God is doing great things. Realism can lead to pessimism, but it doesn't have to . . . and although I admit that I am often disappointed and concerned with things, I continue to believe that God's grace is sufficient.

But in our spiritual walk it is important to identify the problem - the break - as it really is, otherwise we cannot adequately achieve repair. For our spiritual status, this requires that we admit the condition of our sinfulness that we might discover the grace of God and the sacrifice of Jesus. For our church communities, it means that we must be willing to say that things aren't going well when it is true so that we can find the way God desires for us. Either way, it begins with the admission of where we are, moving into the expectation of what God is going to do on our behalf.

Just as the Israelites were aware of their captivity in Egypt before the exodus given to them, we will also find that in this world repair comes after the acknowledgement of our current place. And since the story of the exodus is told year after year, complete with the bitter herbs of slavery, then we may suppose that telling the complete story of our lives only leads to God's greater glory.

divine belittling

It is part of the human equation that we often make others feel small, inadequate, and unimportant. In other words, we have a tendency to belittle one other. This is not considered proper behavior, and it is often the mark of unhealthy and broken relationships. So, it should not have to be stated that the Christian is not to engage in this activity, since we have been called to love our neighbors as ourselves.

I still notice, however, that even though we can restrain ourselves from belittling one another in many instances, there is still a good amount of nit-picking, hurtful speech, ill-spoken words, and the like that appear in our Christian circles. Probably this is because we still have a pride issue that persists on in our hearts. In other words, it would most likely do some good for us to be belittled every now and again. (Actually, we call this humility when we want to be spiritual about it.)

What I find disturbing is the amount of Christ-followers who are willing to be about the Lord's business in humbling others. Yes, despite many pointed statements to the contrary we fall into the trap of unduly criticizing one another and making them feel small and unimportant. Although I could continue with the pitfalls in this area, others have already done so and I wish to focus on the other half of the equation - the fact that our needed humiliation ought to come from God himself.

I found myself in this place just last evening when, as a discouraged and empty kingdom-worker I found myself being uplifted by the presence of God's Spirit working in the lives of two fellow pilgrims. Have you had those moments? The ones where God demonstrates his life and love in ways that make your immediate context appear pathetically small? At one point I found myself with head in hands, almost unbelieving of his providence. And yet it is within my human condition that I might think for a moment in time that his grace might not be sufficient for me.

Perhaps it is a cycle within my journey, or a necessary step in my walk. But I have talked before about me and my fickle faith when I found myself standing on the cusp of something much larger than all of this. For God's belittling is not simply a pride-buster, nor is it some sort of divine king-of-the-hill game. But it is the first step of opening us up to a world that is much larger than our own, a reality which is more real than we choose to believe, and a life which is more abundant than the uncertainties which we cling to on our own.

For what he has done, what he is doing now, and what he will do in completion - to God be the glory.