On Patriotism

[This is actually a comment I left over at Purgatorio a couple of years ago, while I was still in the Army. It speaks about Patriotism in relation to my faith in Jesus Christ.]

I am an American soldier, sworn, willing and able to protect the constitution of the United States with my own life. However, my allegiance is first and foremost to the Kingdom of God.



I love America, with all of her imperfections (to put it mildly!). I enjoy freedom of religion, although I believe that it makes many Christians fat and lazy. I have the ability to teach my family about our God without fear of what would happen to them because of it. I have the opportunity to worship Him freely (although the places where I may do so are shrinking). This is why I love America.



However, I love my God so much more. He has given me a freedom that cannot be taken away by the will of Men. He has set me free from the punishment that I so shamefully deserve. How much more precious is that, over some man-given freedom to attend church!



I thank God for America, the land where I worhsip freely, but I praise Him so much more for giving me the reason to worship!

I am a Patriot, and a Christian, but I take care not to mix the two.



Happy Birthday, America!

Christian Guy Totally Owns Mormons

That's not my title. It's the title of this video from Break.com

Christian Guy Totally Owns Mormons
As Christians, should apologetics be about "owning" our opponent, or sharing the Truth in love? Did this guy go too far, or was he justified in his defense of the Bible?

How To be Ineffective in Ministry

If there's one thing I know, it's how not to do something. Now, I've been in ministry for around 10 years now, and one thing I've learned is that I'm no expert, but I have come up with a few tried-and-true methods on how not to be effective in ministry.

Here's the List:

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• 6. Base Your Ministry on Programs
• 5. Stop Growing
• 4. Stop Caring About People
• 3. Fail In Your Personal Life
• 2. Forget What is Really Important.
• 1. Stay Away From Jesus

6. Base Your Ministry on Programs
Programs are the framework around which we structure ministry. And, to paraphrase A. W. Tozer, without the working of the Holy Spirit programs can be a great way to prop up a spiritually dead ministry. In fact, if you find a meeting format that really works, you can turn it into an automated ministry machine, simply change the scripture reading each week.

Another thing you can try is to change your programs with every new ministry fad. Surely if it worked in Southern California, it will work in your [Midwestern/Northeastern/Southern] congregation. And, if that doesn't work for you, try something else- quick. I'm sure you can find a large selection of books on this topic at your local (or online) Christian Book store.

5. Stop Growing
I've found that one of the best ways to be effective is to share what you are learning and going through with your congregation. Ergo, if one stops growing they can certainly suck the life out of their ministry with little or no effort.

This is a great method for the person who has already figured out the answer to life, the universe, and everything. Be a know-it-all. Don't read books. Refuse to accept challenges to your theology or methods. In fact, you may even want to avoid other ministers from whom you can learn.

4. Stop Caring About People
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that you should be mean to people. That would be way too overt. Just stop caring about them. Avoid conversation. Don't pray for your people. Be sure that you only handle crises that occur during business hours. Even better, stay hidden in your office all week long- don't even go out in public where you may accidentally have a soul-bearing conversation with another person.

3. Fail In Your Personal Life
Nothing can invalidate years of ministry faster than personal failure. I have several friends that turned away from Jesus because our ex-youth minister literally left his wife and kids for a church organist. How's that for ineffectiveness?

Burn out by doing it all yourself. Never delegate. Sexual failure is easy if you have unhealthy relationships with the opposite sex. Ruin your home life by neglecting your family and working too many hours. Get caught with your hand in the cookie jar; steal money from the church. Of course, the easiest way to wander into these traps is to avoid accountability.

2. Forget What is Really Important.
This works for both workaholics and lazy ministers. Find something else to do. For the busybody, find something else "good" to do, like have a Christian Blog (wait a minute...), or take on someone else's ministry responsibilities. Start a new project. Make lots of phone calls. John Piper calls these things "sacred substitutes."

For the ministers who need help with GTD, play on the internet all day. Get a Facebook or MySpace account. Try Homestarrunner.com or YouTube. Find a hobby and work on it during your office hours. Read the paper. The most important thing you can do is to lose sight of the most important thing you can do.

1. Stay Away From Jesus
Far and away, this is the best way to not be effective in ministry. If you neglect daily prayer and Bible study, you most assuredly fail in every spiritual endeavor that you pursue. Why? Well, because our relationship with Jesus is what it is all about, right? It is the source of all direction and passion in our ministry. If you cut that out, what is left, besides a lifetime of work without heart or purpose. Is there any better way to define "ineffective"?

Conclusion
While I'm sure that this is no exhaustive list, I think that there is a lot that I have learned through making (most of) these mistakes. I hope that you can see through the dripping sarcasm and find some truths you can use.

How does your ministry measure up? Are you already following any of these methods? What have I forgotten to mention?

Christianity and Stephen Colbert

Watch these two videos and notice how aggressive the host and crowd are during Tony Perkins' interview on Homosexuality versus NT Wright's book about Heaven. What does this say about the concerns/priorities/questions that our society has?

Religion or Relationship?

If Christianity is really not about Religion, but about a Relationship, then Then why do we invite people to church and not to Jesus?

That's all for now, thanks.

Tim Schmoyer on Sin

"Dear Wormwood,
...On the outside he appears to many people to be the perfect guy, someone people of all ages admire, respect, and trust. However, sometimes his own hypocrisy defeats him on the inside as he struggles with God working effectively through his gifts but seemingly inactive with the areas in which he desperately needs God’s transformation..."[Tim Schmoyer]


Tim's got some good thoughts on sin, guilt and distraction à la The Screwtape Letters.

Dealing with Sexual Failure

Verwer’s burden in that conference was the tragic number of young people (like many of you) who at one point in their lives dreamed of radical obedience to Jesus and were joyfully willing to lay down their lives and sacrifice anything to make Jesus known among the nations, but then faded away into useless, American prosperity because of a gnawing sense of unworthiness and guilt over sexual failure that gradually gave way to spiritual powerlessness and the dead-end dream of the middle class security and comfort.

In other words, what seemed so tragic to George Verwer—as it does to me—is that so many young people were being lost in the cause of Christ’s mission because they were not taught how to deal with the guilt of sexual failure. [John Piper]

For the amount of effort John Piper has put into fighting for Christian Hedonism, it is surprising that the most popular resource on his website right now is a message from Passion07 entitled "How to Deal with the Guilt of Sexual Failure for the Glory of Christ and His Global Cause." As you can see from the quote above, his focus is on restoring those whose lives and potential ministries have been destroyed by guilt over sexual sin.

Is this something you're familiar with?

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Although I may have been able to guess the gist of his message theologically, Piper's wisdom and insight to even address this issue is fathoms beyond me. While so many of us are focusing on teaching purity and resisting sin (excellent things!), Piper knows the heart of those called to ministry and shines a bright light onto the hidden weight that hinders of so many young ministers.

Piper sets the foundation of his encouragement upon our forgiveness that was secured by Christ's death on the cross. He then pauses to address what some may see as a license to sin (Romans 6:1-2). Perhaps the most illuminating statement I found in this message is Piper's remarks on true, saving faith:

The mark of faith is not that I never sin sexually. The mark of faith is that I fight. I fight anything that dims my sight of Jesus as my glorious Savior. I fight anything that diminishes the fullness of the lordship of Jesus in my life. I fight anything that threatens to replace Jesus as the supreme Treasure of my life.[emphasis added]

Have you ever fought sin (in whatever form it may be) for so long that you wondered if you really were a Believer? Piper's words here are the most wonderful encouragement for my soul. He would argue that the simple fact that one is fighting sin shows that one has faith in Christ.

I hate to admit it publicly, but I needed to hear that.

The rest of the article is a great read. Be sure to check it out.

Do you struggle with guilt? How do you handle sin in your life?

"I'm Not a Christian Anymore"

While ironically wasting time on GTD blogs today, I found this very revealing introduction to an article on self-forgiveness. Heads up; there's some strong language in the full article.

I’m not a Christian anymore. Perhaps I got a raw deal when God was passing out churches—mine was shaken apart in my late teens by a pastor who got busted for sneaking a few hundred thousand out of the offering plate to buy Nazi war memorabilia, not to mention banging a few dozen women who came to him for marriage counseling—but I’ve made my peace with the Prince of it.Joel Johnson, 43 Folders

1. What does an article on self-forgiveness on a GTD Blog tell us about the human spiritual condition?

2. What does this say about importance of integrity in the life of a minister?

Christian Wrestling... Really?

...there are rip-off trinkets of every kind—a Christian version of My Little Pony and the mood ring and the boardwalk T-shirt ("Friends don't let friends go to hell"). There is Christian Harlequin and Christian chick lit and Bibleman, hero of spiritual warfare. There are Christian raves and Christian rappers and Christian techno, which is somehow more Christian even though there are no words. There are Christian comedians who put on a Christian version of Punk'd, called Prank 3:16. There are Christian sex-advice sites where you can read the biblical case for a strap-on dildo or bondage (liberation through submission). There's a Christian planetarium, telling you the true age of the universe, and my personal favorite—Christian professional wrestling, where, by the last round, "Outlaw" Todd Zane sees the beauty of salvation.

Slate has an interesting book review about an even more intriguing book, Rapture Ready by Daniel Radosh. The book seems like a good read, but it was the discussion of this topic by the book reviewer, Hanna Rosin, that caught my attention.

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The book itself is about the paradox of Christian Consumerism, the attempt to mix materialism with spiritualism. At the beginning of the article, Rosin points to an example from her past of the hypocrisy of a group of "evangelical college boys" she knew who regularly watched (and enjoyed) The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. She points to the fact that Christians have a "deeply neurotic relationship with popular culture."

She then makes a keen observation:

At this point in history, American evangelicals resemble the Israelites at various dangerous moments in the Old Testament: They are blending into the surrounding heathen culture, and having ever more trouble figuring out where it ends and they begin.

"American evangelicals resemble the Israelites"? Wow. I'm not sure that most evangelicals know enough about the Old Testament to make this distinction. Regardless, I think that Rosin is on to something. Among many other admonitions from the Prophets, I am reminded of what God said to Samuel when the people of Israel demanded a king instead of a judge:

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, "Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations." But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." And Samuel prayed to the LORD. And the LORD said to Samuel, "Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them."[1 Samuel 8:4-9], emphasis added

The rest of the article is great food for thought. There are probably 20 places I'd like to quote here, but I'll spare you all the superfluous formatting. I highly recommend you check it out. I'm going to keep an eye out for Radosh's book.

Questions:
How do you feel about the blurring of the line between what is "worldly" and "spiritual"? Where exactly is the line?

More importantly, how should we as Christians fight and/or embrace the culture around us?