When Did Bashing Religion and the Church Become So Cool?

That may be a stupid question.  People have been bashing religion and the Church since the inception of both.  So here is the question I really want to ask, when did Christians bashing religion and the church become so cool?

I realize the answer to that question may be the same as the first.  Christians have been eating their own for quite a while now, but its been bothering me more than usual lately.  This past week there was a video that went viral on social media outlets.  Perhaps you've seen it.  Its a spoken word poem making the claim that Jesus hates religion.  If you haven't seen it I urge you to check it out here and please formulate your own response before reading the rest of my post.

There is a lot about this video that I like.  I'm also a big fan of spoken word and am jealous of anyone who is good at it.  The point being made is not anything new.  Being a Christian isn't about keeping to a set of oppressive rules, its about a loving relationship with Jesus.  I wholeheartedly agree!  What bothers me about this poem, and a lot else that I see and hear, is that it pits Jesus against religion and against the institutional church.  It seems there are many Christians out there who share these sentiments and I think this is dangerous

Here's why.  Here's what bothers me about all of this:

1. I don't think that Jesus hates religion.  I don't think that religion has started a single war in history.  I don't think that the church is one big hypocritical institution.  I don't think that Jesus hates the institutional church.  What I do think is that religion is subscribed to by people, and the church is comprised of people and people are sinful and sinful people do terrible things (like start wars, oppress the poor, and judge and condemn others), sometimes in the name of religion and the church.  Jesus does not hate religion, nor did he come to abolish it.  The most religious people of his day were Jews and the strictest of Jews (Scribes and Pharisees) held on to the Jewish Torah (Law) with white knuckles and yet here is what Jesus said about such religion: 

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  Matthew 5.17. 

In his short letter James writes this about "religion:"  Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after the orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.  James 1.27. 

 Jesus didn't come to abolish religion.  He came to abolish sin and the power that it has over us.  That is what happened on the cross and through his resurrection, and because of what he did for us we can actually experience and practice "pure and faultless" religion, the kind that feeds to poor and cares for widows.  When those who claim to be "religious" or "Christian" fail to demonstrate the love of Christ, that doesn't mean there's something wrong with religion or the church...it means there's something wrong with them and unfortunately they give religion and church a bad name.  The truth however, is that great good has occurred throughout the centuries in the name of religion and the church.  Even today the majority of homeless shelters, havens for battered women, adoption agencies, global feeding organizations, disaster relief and abolition of slavery efforts have the fingerprints of the "church" all over it.  Religion is supported by people.  The church is made up of people.  People are messed up sinners and therefore religion and church can smack of the same.  But Jesus loves the church and gave himself up for her and he calls his followers not to abandon religion, but to practice true religion.  This brings me to the second thing that bothers me...

2. I think we're operating with a truncated gospel.  I have often heard, and said myself, something along the lines of, "we're all just a bunch of messed up sinners loved by God."  This is entirely true and I am thankful that in recent decades it seems like the church has been more accepting and has offered more grace, inviting people to come as they are, broken and sinful.  I've heard more an more the message that the church is a hospital for the sick, and not a country club for the saints.  I am thankful for this posture but I also think it can become dangerous.  We are messed up sinners and Jesus does invite us to come as we are.  He does love us just the way we are BUT he also wants to renew and restore us.  We may be a mess but Jesus cleans things up.  We may be broken but Jesus does fix things.  He does offer us grace for our sin, but also to be agents of healing and restoration in our broken world.  The church is a hospital for the sick, but hospitals also exist to help people get well.  

I think that many of us are walking around with a truncated gospel.  For many the gospel is understood as: "I am a sinner saved by grace through the cross of Jesus Christ."  But that's only half the gospel.  We were created in the image of God but have been separated from him through our sin.  Jesus saved us from our sin by dying on the cross as an atonement for our sin, and through his resurrection we are being renewed and restored and re-conformed to his image and are invited to join him in rescuing and redeeming the world.  To put it more simply the gospel is: Creation, Fall, Rescue, Restoration.  But for many it has been reduced to simply Fall and Rescue.  We need to tell the rest of the story.  We are messed up, but we weren't created that way and we're not supposed to stay that way.  One of my favorite theologians NT Wright puts it best when he says, "we are saved and now we have a job to do."  What bothers me is that we have a great story to tell and we're leaving out the best parts.  Followers of Jesus need to proclaim the whole gospel for the whole person for the whole world!

And here may be what bothers me most...

3. I think it has become cool for Christians to bash religion and the church.  Admittedly, a lot of Christians have been burned by the church and many through their criticism are expressing deep hurt and a desire to hold God's people accountable.  How the church responds to such people will impact her reputation, for better or worse.  However, I've heard many Christians bash religion and the church who have never been burned by the Church, and if I can be blunt I think they do it because it is fashionable.  For example, as many are aware NFL QB Tim Tebow has been a lightening rod for discussion lately.  I recently read a blog post of a pastor calling for Tebow to "tone it down" when it comes to his expression of his faith.  A pastor asking Tim Tebow to "tone it down" makes no sense, unless its an attempt to appeal to the popular crowd.  Tebow may make me uncomfortable at times but I just can't see Jesus telling anyone lifting up his name to tone it down, no matter how uncool.  I get it.  I went through a phase where I bashed the church because of her faults, hypocrisy and irrelevance, and a few people may have even thought I was cool.  But I wasn't.  I was perhaps even doing more harm to the advancement of God's Kingdom than good.

So if you are a follower of Jesus and perhaps more specifically a young pastor who hates religion and/or the church I want to sincerely, lovingly and graciously ask you to consider shifting your posture.  If its for the purpose of being cool, it's not so just stop.  Think about how this looks to those outside of the Christian faith.  Think of the many people who see Christianity as absurd because their own can't even seem to agree or play nice.  If you've been hurt or burned by the church or in the name of religion that is a different story.  I hear you and I am sorry for your experience.  Its not what Jesus had in mind when he started this thing.  I've been there.  I am a pastor and the church has disappointed me more than I care to admit.  I've seen many church leaders make decisions that served their own self-interests more than the cause of Christ.  I've seen Christians use bad religion to get the upper hand on one another and I've heard people in the church say some things that nearly made me throw up in my mouth.  But...

I love the church, because Jesus loves the church.

I am striving to give my life up for the church, because Jesus did.

I don't hate religion, I want to hate the sin that is within me.

I love true religion that cares for the poor and gives grace, dignity and hope to the disenfranchised.

I believe that God loves us messed up sinners, but I also believe he wants to make us whole.

I think the church is deeply flawed, but I also believe that, at her best, she's the hope of the world.

I think our world is profoundly broken and the church hasn't always helped, but that God wants to make all things new and he wants to use the church to do it.

St. Augustine said it best, "The church is a whore but she is my mother."

Let's not hate religion or the church.  Let's redeem them both by how we live out all of God's story!

_________________

There are many others who were bothered a bit by the Jesus Hates Religion video.  One pastor/author posted his response to the video and soon after received an e-mail from Spoken Word guy.  Here is an excerpt from it:

I just wanted to say I really appreciate your article man. It hit me hard. I’ll even be honest and say I agree 100%. God has been working with me in the last 6 months on loving Jesus AND loving his church. For the first few years of walking with Jesus (started in ’08) I had a warped/poor paradigm of the church and it didn’t build up, unify, or glorify His wife (the Bride). If I can be brutally honest I didn’t think this video would get much over a couple thousand views maybe, and because of that, my points/theology wasn’t as air-tight as I would’ve liked. If I redid the video tomorrow, I’d keep the overall message, but would articulate, elaborate, and expand on the parts where my words and delivery were chosen poorly… My prayer is my generation would represent Christ faithfully and not swing to the other spectrum….thankful for your words and more importantly thankful for your tone and fatherly like grace on me as my elder. Humbled. Blessed. Thankful for painful growth. Blessings.

Grace and Peace,

Jeff

Now that is pretty COOL.

2011: A Year of Unanswered Prayers

In many ways 2011 was a great year for me.  It was probably the most fulfilling year in ministry I've had yet as we experienced a lot of growth and life-change at Resolution (the three-year old church I serve as pastor).  Our family took a vacation to Panama City, FL and spent time in the ocean.  A few months later Bekki and I saw Niagara Falls.  I was able to go with a team to help with disaster relief in Joplin, MO.  Wil turned two and Noah turned four and began pre-school this Fall.  We began the adoption process only to to discover that Bekki was pregnant herself and we look forward to welcoming the newest member of our family in February 2012.  There are a lot of great things to celebrate this year.

And yet, 2011 was probably one of the more difficult years in recent history for me.  While I know that we're really just moving to a different day on a calendar I am ready to ring in a new year and wave good-bye to 2011.

This was also a year of loss for us.  In August I lost my Dad unexpectedly after he took a bad fall causing irrecoverable brain damage.  I sat by his bedside in the hospital for a few days praying that God would miraculously heal him.  God didn't and I preached my father's funeral, one of the hardest things I have done in my life.  We also lost a house in 2011.  When Bekki and I moved to Aurora in summer 2009 to be a part of Resolution we knew it was what God wanted us to do and believed that God would take care of all the logistics along the way, mainly the house we owned in Zion.  For the first year we had incredible renters who basically paid our mortgage and taxes.  This past year we weren't able to secure new renters and decided to do a short-sale on our home.  This was a long process and twice we had a buyer, and twice the the deal fell through at the last minute.  We prayed and believed that God would move this house for us and we wouldn't foreclose. God didn't and we foreclosed.

Despite what the title suggests, I don't believe that these prayers went unanswered.  I simply believe that God didn't answer them in the way I wanted.  Yet, often when God doesn't answer our prayers the way we would if we were God we feel as if they've gone unanswered.  We feel like God is abandoning us, doesn't care or is getting back at us for some reason.

The truth is, while 2011 was a year that brought with it some difficult and gut-wrenching circumstances and while I am ready to leave it behind, I still have a deep sense of gratitude, hope and joy as the year closes.  And here's why...

I may of lost my Dad and I may have lost a house (and more importantly a good credit score), but I still have Jesus, and in the depths of my heart I firmly believe that Jesus is enough.  I trust that he answered my prayers according to his good and perfect will, even if I initially disagree.  The truth is we will experience pain, loss, disappointment, suffering and hardship and for many even one of these experiences is enough to crush them.  Yet, as I continue to follow Christ I've discovered that while these sorts of things sting and bruise me, they don't crush me, because ultimately they're not my ultimate source of meaning, identity and hope.  Jesus is, and he once said, "in this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world."

In this world we will have trouble.  We will lose loved ones.  People will get cancer.  We will lose jobs and homes.  We will get hurt.  We will suffer.  And if our health, jobs, relationships and wealth are our ultimate source of hope and joy we will then also be crushed.  But Jesus has overcome this and if we follow Christ then we will be ok because Jesus is enough.  Not Jesus plus...Jesus plus my house, Jesus plus my job, Jesus plus my family, Jesus plus my health.  Just Jesus is enough, everything else is simply an added blessing.  Some may think that this is just religious self-help stuff.  The ol' "Jesus is just a crutch" or Marx's famous, "religion is the opiate of the people," used to dull our sense of pain.  This is not to minimize our struggles.  Losing my dad sucked.  It still hurts and I suspect it will for a while.  Losing our house was embarrassing but beneath the hurt, disappointment and embarrassment lies a deep peace, one that transcends all understanding.

In spite of adversity Jesus was enough in 2011.  So here is my promise for this new year: In 2012, we will have trouble, but take heart, Jesus has overcome it!  May Jesus be enough in 2012!


Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.  Isaiah 43.18-19

A Tale of Two Advents

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. Luke 2.1


Here is a tale of two Advents, or of two Kingdoms:


- Augustus was the adopted son of Julius Caesar.  He was originally named Octavian but was lated called Augustus meaning "revered" or "exalted one."
- He was the first, and considered by many, the greatest emperor of the Roman empire.
- He established the Pax Romana (Roman Peace) which lasted approximately 200 years.
- Augustus did not consider himself to be divine, but did believe his father Julius Caesar to be divine, thus making him "son of God."
- He was often referred to as "Savior of the World."  A popular saying in his day was, "there is no name in heaven or on earth by which we are saved then by Caesar."
- He was also called “King” and “Lord” and was worshipped himself as a god 
- At one point Augustus set up in the midst of a Roman forum a statue of himself that stood eleven times the size of a normal man
- In those days when announcements needed to be made, people would be appointed as “heralds” to go from town to town announcing whatever pertinent news the Empire had (crowning of a new Emperor, a new decree, victory in battle).  These heralds were called “evangelists” and whatever announcement they made was called “good news” or “gospel.”
- If the Emperor were coming to town they would refer to it as "Advent"


Augustus’ kingdom is one marked by greed, excess, power and wealth, and yet Luke mentions Augustus, the powerful king with a powerful kingdom, to set up the story of another kingdom that was now at hand...


- A baby named Jesus is born into a poor, unknown and insignificant family and will be referred to as Messiah/anointed one, Son of God, Lord, and Savior of the world.
- Jesus is later referred to as the Prince of Peace who brought with him a deeper peace on earth, a "shalom" or wholeness that will never end.
- Jesus used shepherds, fishermen, prostitutes and tax collectors to go and be heralds of his good news.
- Instead of raising a  66 foot statue of himself to be raised up and worshipped.  Jesus was raised up himself on a cross drawing all people to himself.
- For over 2,000 years the church around the world has celebrated the "Advent" of Jesus


Augustus’ kingdom was self-serving, all about power, force, money and status.  Jesus’ kingdom is about serving others, all about love, sacrifice, grace and peace.


“The birth of this little boy is the beginning of a confrontation between the kingdom of God-in all its apparent weakness, insignificance and vulnerability- and the kingdoms of the world.  Augustus never heard of Jesus of Nazareth.  But within a century or so his successors in Rome had not only heard of him; they were taking steps to obliterate his followers.  Within just over three centuries the Emperor himself became a Christian.  When you see a manger on a card or in a church, don’t stop at the crib.  See what it’s pointing to.  It is pointing to the explosive truth that the baby lying there is already being spoken of as the true king of the world.”  - NT Wright


The story of Jesus’ birth is the story of two competing kingdoms: one of darkness and one of light, and that the kingdom of light will overcome darkness.


The question for us is: Which kingdom offers hope to a broken world?  How do we respond to these kingdoms?  How do we respond to Jesus?

Penn State, Tim Tebow and Why Character isn't Everything

Legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi once famously quipped, "Winning isn't everything; its the only thing."

For the most part, at least when it comes to sports, I have agreed with Lombardi.  And yet recent national events have displayed a dark side in taking this axiom to its conclusion.  The issue with winning being the only thing, is that sometimes that means it means win at all costs, even if the cost is our ethics, morality and character.

The recent sex abuse allegations surrounding Jerry Sandusky and the Penn State football program have demonstrated the horrific impact of sin, evil, and power.  Included in this list also are the gross results of an unhealthy lust for power, status, and winning.  Apparently the alleged acts of Sandusky span over many years, and people within the organization have known for many of those years as well.  There were people who knew about an incident in 1998 and about one in 2003, and yet it all comes to the surface in 2011.  Sandusky has remained connected to the football program in his retirement, even having been on campus as recently as a few weeks before he was arrested.

Penn State has been one of the more storied programs in the nation.  Their head coach of over four decades, Joe Paterno has always boasted of doing it the right way, winning with character and integrity, and yet it now appears that he was indeed correct about the winning, but perhaps not so much about the character and integrity.  I know at this point my position has become polarizing.  There are some who will defend Paterno's action (or inaction) and say that he did nothing wrong and did exactly what he was supposed to do.  In some respects one who takes such a position would be correct...Paterno did what we was supposed to do, according to his job, by going through the chain of command and allowing them to do with these reports what they please.  However going through the proverbial "chain of command," to me, equates doing the bare minimum.  The victims deserved more from the storied coach and program.  If my boys were victims I would expect more than just the "chain of command."

What bothers me (among many things) in all of this is we live in a culture that values winning over character.  We have for quite sometime and these events simply magnify this reality even more.  Some will respond, well yes that is true in the world of sports but sports is not reality.  In some ways however I think that sports is a commentary on our overall culture.

I don't live in Happy Valley, but I do live in church world.  In church world character, morality and ethics are a given, and yet there still seems to be this lust for winning.  I am a pastor and every month I am required to submit information to our conference office:
- average attendance
- number of conversions and baptisms
- number of new members
- number of people attending midweek programs.

In other words, is our church "winning?"

Now don't get me wrong, number of people attending, baptisms, conversions, midweek attendance, offering totals all matter.  Healthy things grow and a healthy church should be experiencing these things and I'm thankful in someways that we're held accountable for it.  And yet I wonder if winning is what's celebrated most in church world as well.  When it comes to what is happening in churches what I often hear about most is: attendance, building campaigns, number of campuses, number of services, how good the worship music is, how good the preaching is, or how many Twitter followers a pastor has.

A lot of talk about winning.

My Superintendent, Mark Adams recently mentioned something at a meeting that struck a chord with me.  He mentioned that if one were to look at the qualifications for leadership in the church outlined in the Bible one would discover that they are primarily concerned with character and not skill.  So I checked this out.  There are several places where leadership qualifications are outlined but let's just look at 1 Timothy 3.1-7 and the qualifications for Elders: above reproach, faithful to one's spouse, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money, must manage one's family well, must not be a recent convert, and have a good reputation with outsiders.


In that list there is one skill: able to teach.  I shared this recently with my staff and one suggested that "manages one's family well" is a skill as well.  So that means 1 (maybe 2) out of the 14 qualifications has to do with skill.  I think the point that Paul is making is that when it comes to leadership in his church, Jesus is looking for people with high character and is less concerned with their skill.

What if every month I was asked these questions:
- How many nights were you at home with your family this month?
- How many dates did you and your spouse go out on?
- Were you hospitable?  What strangers did you welcome into your home?
- How did you spend your money?
- Do your kids like you?
- Do people outside of your church like you?

This is a character scorecard.

Back to the sports world, another story dominating the press is that of Tim Tebow, the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos who is outspoken about his Christian faith.  In the midst of the Sandusky story is a story of a guy who appears to have high character, struggles at his position and yet wins football games and uses his platform for some good.  You would think a story such as Tim Tebow would be a breath of fresh air, and yet the "experts" continue to blast him.  In a recent interview with a former Broncos QB when asked about Tebow he said, "I think he's a winner and I respect that about him...I think that when he accepts the fact that we know that he loves Jesus Christ, then I think I'll like him a little better. I don't hate him because of that, I just would rather not have to hear that every time he takes a good snap or makes a good handoff."


Tebow's response: "If you're married and you have a wife and you really love your wife, is it good enough to only say to your wife 'I love her' the day you get married? Or should you tell her every single day when you wake up and every opportunity? That's how I feel about my relationship with Jesus Christ."


I have been pretty indifferent about Tebow and admittedly always approach the character of professional athletes with a bit of skepticism, but I'm rooting for him.  I want him to do well.  I want to see him win.  More than that, I'm rooting for character.  I hope the church can turn the tide and place more value on character than winning...and the good news is I think we'll experiencing some "winning" in the process.


So how about I refine Lombardi's quote: "Character isn't everything; its the only thing."

Not Crazy About Halloween

Let me preface this post on Halloween by listing the things I like about this time of year.  I love (not just like) the Fall.  I love the crisper temperatures (yet not too cold), and the changing of the colors.  I love NFL football and the baseball postseason.  I love bonfires, chili cook-offs, and hot apple cider.  I like pumpkin patches, corn mazes, and hay rides.  Fall is my favorite season of the year.  I was born in October, got married in October, and grew up playing soccer every Fall.

I, however, am not crazy about Halloween.  For most of my life I've been pretty indifferent about this holiday...I could take it or leave it.  Yet, I am now finding myself more and more in the "dislike" category.  I'm not against it all.  I like the idea of kids getting dressed up in fun costumes, walking around their neighborhood and receiving candy from friendly neighbors (especially as a dad of two young boys whose weakness is candy).  In many ways Halloween brings neighbors and communities together, which is increasingly rare and good in our culture today.

Yet, this year especially I have been aware of the subversive impact that this holiday has on us, and its not all positive.  Lately we've been having problems with out four-year old Noah at bedtime.  Each and every night he would say that he is scared to go to bed, would speak of monsters in his room, and wake up in the wee hours of the morning screaming.  Some may be reading this and think: that's pretty normal stuff...kids afraid of the dark, believing in monsters and screaming in the dark.  Giving it further thought this all began around the same time everyone was getting into the Halloween spirit.  The cartoons had halloween themes, the stores had scary jack-o-lanterns, ghosts, bats, and witches displayed.  While we've been desensitized to these harmless decorations and activities the truth is for many they accomplish the scary response that ghosts, bats, and witches are meant to.  Perhaps our harmless Halloween stuff really isn't so harmless after all.

My wife brought up a great point in all of this.  She said, "maybe it is normal that 4 year olds are scared of the dark, monsters, noises, ghosts, jack-o-lanterns, etc...but they shouldn't have to be scared."  Noah should not have to be afraid at night.

Halloween at is most basic level is a celebration of fear.  It has evolved from rituals for remembering the saints of the past to a cartoonish celebration of fear, evil and death.  Maybe you think I'm a bit extreme here but "haunted" houses, "horror" movies, "scary" costumes all in some way accomplish this.  In a culture that is already permeated by fear why do we feel the need to contribute?  People are afraid of everything today from germs to terrorists, why do we need to create and celebrate more fear?

We've done our best to fight a culture of fear in our house.  We have tried to teach and model for our boys that, as the Bible teaches, we have not been given a spirit of fear, but of love and a sound mind.  We have reminded Noah every night that monsters are not real and that he does not need to be afraid.  When we ask him why he doesn't need to be afraid he responds, "because Jesus is real."

So here's a suggestion: lets keep dressing up the kids and having some good fun with our neighbors.  let's keep picking pumpkins, going on hayrides, having bonfires, and drinking our cider.  Let's keep watching our football and enjoying the majestic colors of the leaves.  But let's stop scaring each other, especially the kids.  Let's celebrate love, beauty, and goodwill.  Let's remember that perfect love casts out fear and that ghosts, witches, germs and terrorists have no power over us.  Let's remember and celebrate that, as Noah said, "Jesus is real," and that in his great love he has rescued us from all that causes the fear within us!

Poke the Box, Moneyball and Jesus

I recently read a book titled "Poke the Box" by Seth Godin, who is s quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.  This installment from Godin was all about "starting," which seems like a rather simple subject for a book and yet it is precisely because so many people have difficulty with making the transition from an idea to actually doing something with the idea that such a book is needed.  In "Poke the Box"  Godin challenges us to take initiative, to actually start something, to "ship" it to the market.  He uses the example of a buzzer box that his uncle (a PhD from MIT) once made for his cousin...

"It was a heavy metal contraption, with a thick black cord that plugged into the wall.  it looked like something from a nuclear power plant, not a kid's toy, but that didn't dissuade him from tossing it into the crib.  The box had two switches, some lights and a few other controls on it.  Flip one switch and a light goes on.  Flip both switches and a buzzer sounds.  All terrifying, of course, unless you are a kid.  A kid sees the buzzer box and starts poking it.  If I do this, that happens...Life is a buzzer box.  Poke it. " (hence the title)

I also recently saw a film and have subsequently been reading the book off which it is based called "Moneyball." Moneyball is the story of Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, and how he used unconventional approaches to building a winning team with one of the lowest payrolls in baseball.  While many GM's and scouts were building teams the old-fashioned way by using the eye-test and seeing if players had the right "tools," Billy applied sabermetrics and built a team by paying close attention to often ignored statistics.  In many ways it seems like a boring plot for a book and certainly a movie (though it never did to me because I am a sports junkie), but the larger story is that Beane and others like him changed the game of baseball by doing something that few others were doing.  Beane refused to simply adhere to the status quo.  Its a classic example of "poking the box."

This is summed up well in one of Beane's five simple rules for running his team..."No matter how successful you are change is always good.  There can never be a status quo."

These two books got me thinking about something...Jesus was a box poker.  He arrived on the scene destined to do something never done in human history.  He came not just with ideas, but to start a movement.  He chose the guys no one expected to join him, he challenged the religious people of the day, and continued to carry out his mission even in the midst of the worst adversity.  Remember the Sermon on the Mount when several times Jesus said, "You've heard it said...but I say to you."  Jesus poked the box, he challenged the status quo and it resulted in the Church, carriers of God's good news that he is making all things new.  And one day Jesus will usher in a new heaven and a new earth, and put an end to status quo once and for all.

The question I'm left pondering is...why then do so many of Jesus followers simply play it safe?  Why do we seem content with the status quo?  Why do we simply use conventional wisdom when it comes to spreading the good news?  Why do we allow authors and baseball executives beat us at the game Jesus invented?  What box do you need to poke?  What status quo needs to be challenged?  What are the ideas sitting in your head just waiting to be shipped?  Maybe its planting a church, launching a new not-for profit, a career change, starting a business.  Poke the box.  Start something.  Change the game.

What's the worst that will happen?  You will fail?

In a way of response to this fear I leave you with one more quote from Godin...

"Failure is an event, and though with rare exceptions, is not fatal.  The process of starting, regularly, and of seeking out opportunities to do it more often, is never a failure."

The Ugly Four Letter Word

I recently finished a teaching series on the Sermon on the Mount and there is one verse about which I continue to think.

It is the stark warning that Jesus gives in Matthew 7.21, "Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven."

According to Jesus entrance into the kingdom of heaven is contingent upon doing the will of the Father.  This begs a deeper question, a question that I have heard countless people ask, "What is the Father's will?"  Or more personally, "What is God's will for my life?"

For many the issue of God's will seems to be mysterious, something which they seek to discover and or which they pray God would reveal.  On one level I think that God does have a specific or unique will for each individual, but on another level I think that God has a general will for all of his children, and that it actually isn't all that mysterious, doesn't need to be discovered, and has already been revealed.  In fact there are several places in the Scriptures where God's will is spelled out for us.  There is one in particular where God's will could not be any clearer.

"It is God's will that you should be sanctified..." 1 Thessalonians 4.3

There it is...God's will revealed to us...that we would be sanctified.  To be sanctified means to be "holy" or set apart.  The Father's will is that we would be holy, set apart for him to display his love and goodness to the world.  Continue to read after verse three and Paul actually gives some specific and practical ways in which we are to be set apart.

Yet, while God's will is that we should be holy it almost seems as if "holy" has become an ugly four letter word in the church today.  In the past few decades the church has become more grace-oriented.  The prevailing message is "come as you are," "God can use you in spite of your brokenness, in spite of your mess," "we're all sinners and none of us are perfect,"  I am thankful for this message and for the abandoning of a more legalistic message that tends to put up more barriers than it does welcome people in.

And yet I fear the pendulum perhaps has swung too far.  I fear that our message is coming at th expense of God's call to be holy.  While God does invite us "come as you are" and while we are all broken and messy sinners the message of Jesus' gospel is clear that God can fix us and make us whole, has saved us from sin and reconciled us to himself.  In short, he has called us to be holy, but more than that through the cross and resurrection he has made us holy.

Why is it then we're only told that we're dirty sinners saved by a loving God and not that we are holy because God has made us holy?  Why is it that often times the use of the word holy is negative?  Have you ever been called or called someone "holier than thou?"  It wasn't a compliment!

God's will is that we should be holy.  In fact we read in the Bible, "be holy as I am holy," which suggests that its possible.  God couldn't call us to be something for which its impossible for us to be.  The good news of Jesus is that though we are sinners and cannot be holy on our own God, through Jesus, defeated the sin that plagues us, and by the Holy Spirit we can be made whole and live holy set apart lives for God.

Let's redeem the word holy.  Its a great word.  It reminds us that there is something distinct, unique, and compelling about following Christ, something at which the world looks and says, "there's something different about those people but in a good way."

You are a sinner.  You are a mess.  You are broken.  Jesus has defeated sin.  Jesus cleaned up your mess.  Jesus is making you whole.  Be holy.  It is God's will for your life.