--------Prayer Before Meals-------

During the past year or two many of my friends and I have decided to disgard a common chrisitan pratice which is praying before our meals. Basically we are reacting to the abuse or misuse of this christian spiritual discipline. And maybe in our abandoning of the practice we are making a statement or maybe just tring to distance ourselves from what we percieve to be corruption or we are just in pursuit of what is good and true. I guess we have lots of reasons, and I would say that for the most part they are good reasons.

However;
During this entire time there was a part of me that was screaming "foolishness" (now ususally I worry when part of myself is screaming at another part of myself lol). I guess that even though I could see the abuse and that something needed to be done, I couldnt and still can't get away from the fact that this practice was started for a reason. And I somehow feel foolish for leaving this practice because I feel that I am neglecting the wisdom from those who have gone before me.

Recently Dr. Mathews (MVNU prof of Theology) introduced me to proper thinking in this area, more specifically he reaffirmed my inhibition in regards to the flippant abandonment of historical practices. "Functional dynamic equivilant" is the fun new term that he gave to me. Basically it means the when one thing that had an original purpose is left something new must be pick up to fullfill the same role, or purpose.

From my understanding praying before our meals is a practice that is used to remind us of God's provision and instill a sense a contentment and gratitude as a part of our character. Obviously this has long been forgotten by Christianity as a whole and the practice has become a religious ritual that you just do if your a Christian. So I believe that the practice needs to be abandoned by our generation and picked back up again once several generations have died out, and with them the perversion of this beautiful practice.

So my question is: What is the functional dynamic equivilant of praying before meals???

///////////Caught in the Middle////////////

So I was listening to some podcasts from Emergent Podcast the other day. These particular episodes were from a conference where two of the worlds top philosophers, Jack Caputo and Richard Kearney, were discussing some of the history of philosophy and more particularly the progression and the characteristics of modernism, and post-modernism. Both Jack and Richard should be thought of as "post-modern" philosophers.

There was about 5 hours of material, and on the whole I greatly benifited from their discussion. However at the end they talked about something that to be honest made me shiver for a moment, because I was so surprised by it. One of the most notebale qualities of post-modern thinking is a deep rooted suspicion and often abandonment of metanarratives of any kind, and I can understand why. Now these two men are deeply Christian, and are trying to find Christian truth mind you. But at the end they made this comment,

"I want to be absolutely clear, we are saying the Christianity is unique and there is nothing else like it, but it is not the only way to God, there are many other ways. .... If Jesus and Buddah met, Jesus wouldnt have told him to follow, but instead would have asked to follow Buddah to learn from him. It is arrogance to think that the Christian Faith is the only way!"

Wow....what do you do with that? I think that this illustrates something that I have noticed recently amoung those who have reacted to Modernism, and are pursueing something different.
It seem to be that many of us have idealized post-modernism, and have made it into a God-send. Now I'm all for reactions, and the emotions that go along with it. But It seems to me that many of the reactions that I have seen are simply swirving to the other side of the road. It seems that we define ourselves as anything that modernism is not, as long as we arent like that then we are good. As opposed to defineing ourselves by Christ and his teachings.

I dont know I guesss that Im just scared when I see my fellow followers reacting so strongly that they throw out everything modern with anything and any one that might have something to do with it.

Have we been controlled by reactionism? Do we really Think this new culture is a God-send? Have we jumped into bed with Post-modernism??

Am I the only one that sees the great danger that is coming with this new culture shift??????

Does anyone else feel caught in the middle, fighting a two-front war???? (its a lonely place to be)

Our Greatest Leaders???

What have we as the church done with our greatest leaders?

Think about it, those within the church who are what we would describe as the "most spiritual", or the most highly trained theologically, spiritually, ministry ect, (if we can really say this lol, but you know what I am saying) are the very ones that we completely pull out of everyday life, and isolate them in a church building. On the whole the only contact that a "Pastor", or "professional minister" has with others is in this artificial environment. They have no major contact with the outside world or with the real every day lives of other Followers. Their life is this "ministry" that exists outside of normal life.

What happens when we take our greatest leaders and lock them up in a building?????

Post-modern Gospel???

So I've been thinking a lot about the gospel, and more recently I have been thinking about how this relates to culture, more specifically modern and post-modern culture.

I was taught recently, and I believe it to be true, that every culture has 3 parts. 1.) that which Christianity affirms, 2.) that which only Christianity can truly fulfill, 3.) that which Christianity much reject or deny.

The second, and third part is what interests me. What is it in culture that the Gospel fulfills? -or- What in the culture is the Gospel??? Then what in the culture must we oppose???

As I think (with my limited understanding of) about the difference between modernism and post-modernism I see a dividing issue, or a balance between two ideas. Truth, and Relationship.

Modernism : places "truth", head knowledge, absolutes, science as the highest value and minimizes relationship and community.
3.) we obviously reject the minimalization of relationship
2.) Modernism pursues truth as its highest goal, but in reality it can never attain it because truth separated from relationship and community is not truth at all. Therefore only Christianity can fulfill this part of modernism.

**So how do you reach this culture. Like any other culture you learn to speak their language, which is "truth", head knowledge, academics, logic, absolutes. And through this medium you expose the fallacy of the culture and introduce relationship based truth. We never separate the two, but present it as one whole.

Post-Modernism : places relationship, community, friendship,experience, emotions, feelings, personalization as the highest value and minimizes and even rejects "truth", absolutes, science logic.
3.) We obviously reject the minimalization of "truth, absolutes, science and logic
2.) Post-Modernism pursues relationship and emotions as its highest goal, but in reality it to can never attain it because relationship/community separated from truth is not relationship/community at all. Again only Christianity can fulfill this part of post-modernism.

**So how do you reach this culture. Again you learn to speak its language, which is experience, relationship, emotions. Then through this medium you expose the fallacy of the culture and introduce truth based relationship. Again we never separate the two we live and present them as one whole.

The reality is that the two cannot not be separated from each other, they are two sides of the same coin. One defines the other, and both are only true when they exist together. My point is that when it comes to culture we must understand which door to enter, or which side of the coin to expose. Because when we hand them the coin the may see the side they recognize but in reality they are getting the whole coin, The GOSPEL...........

Stolen

Ok last night, something happened while I was sleeping. I guess during the early morning some guys decided to break into my car and................. "borrow" a few things lol Bascially they took my cd player, and all the audio equipment that was in my trunk. In all they probablly took between 1500 and $2,000 worth of equipment, as well as leaving a destroyed lock mechanizm on the passenger side.

But here is the strange part......my reaction. I got up in the early a.m. to go for a morning run. I was all suited up in several layers of thermals, considering that it was 30 degrees out. And when I was stretching I looked over at my car and noticed that the trunk was open. I thought "hum thats strange". But as I walked closer to the car I felt a release. It was freeing experience. But wait thats not right.....

Those stupid punks, who do they think they are, breaking into my car and takeing my stuff, that I enjoy so much, that I had worked so many hours to purchase and put so much time into installing and maintaining. And most likely they are going to sell it and blow it on something stupid. This is so wrong. But it was just so strange that none of this was on my mind, none of this was in my heart.

Some how I didn't feel hatred, revenge, or even anger towards these guys. I actually feel compassion because of this experience with the brokeness of this world. These guys are absolutely broken and they dont even know it. I just wish that I could do something more for them............ I just dont now what.

And as I mentioned earlier, I felt in some way "freed". As Travis Keller mentioned in his recent blog, that we allow so many things to drive a wedge between us and others. I know that historically, this stuff has driven a wedge between me and others, it was been a crutch for me, a way to make friends, a way for me to build and establish my reputation, a way for me to define myself. But no more, its gone!! And with it goes one more distraction from the things in life that really matter. One more material thing that was distracting me from becoming. I can breathe a little deeper because this burden has been taken off my shoulders. I'm free. (I actually have a trunk now lol)

Right now I am just absolutey floored. Three years ago I would have flipped out! I would have called the police and would have plotted how I could catch these guys and give them what they deserve!!! Oh but to think of how far my savior has brought me. Its all him, there is nothing in me that would elicit such a Christ like response. Oh what joy... that the gospel is not just a free ticket to heaven, but it is alive today. Salvation is not just from hell, but salvation is alive in the here and now. We can be saved from sin, and transformed into something so much more, right here, right now. He came not just to get us to heaven, but to restore us to wholeness. How beautiful the gospel is! How beautiful our Savior is!

Cost of the Gospel - Forgiveness

As I have been meditating on this idea of the gospel, I continually come back to this theme of brokeness. As followers of Christ, or as His body, we enter in the lives of others, both followers and non-followers alike. But in doing so we are entering into filth, muck....brokeness. And when we are here it is only natural that we are going to be hurt or broken ourselves. But then again thats kindof the point, isnt it? We have been restored and made whole because Christ entered into our brokeness, took it on His shoulders, tramples it under foot, and offered wholeness and life. Therefore we can enter into the broken lives of others and take their brokeness on ourselves, while offereing the possiblity to be whole, clean, good. So I guess that in a sense we are like conduits that channel the brokeness of the world onto Christ who defeats it and offers wholeness, and life instead.

Now that sounds all nice and dandy, but the reality is we are allowing ourselves to be broken, hurt, defilied, even killed, while instead offering beauty, wholness, agape. This is the high cost of discipleship.

And we wonder why forgiveness or the lack there of is such a huge deal in scripture. "if you forgive the sins of others then your father will forgive yours, but if you do not forgive the sins of others, then He will not forgive yours." Forgiveness seems to be a defining characteristic in the life of and disciple. So this is my definition of Forgiveness: willingly absorbing the brokeness of another, and in return offering wholeness, life and agape.

In the very act of forgiveness I am offer salvation to another. Is this wrong, or going to far. Think about it. We are Christ's body, and those who are broken (aka everyone) cannot restore or heal themselves. Then the only way they can find restoration is for another who is not broken to enter their lives, take their brokeness on themselves and offering restoration instead. So when I forgive I am offering the very salvation of Christ. (believers and non-believers alike James 5, "confess your sins to each other to be healed" ) Thats the Gospel.

At this point my mind naturally goes to the movie "End of the Spear". The five missionaries in this movie we dedicated to reaching this remote tribe with the gospel. Now this tribe was absolutely broken, with the most noteable aspect of brokeness being that of violence, revenge, and death. So these missionaries Knowingly, Willingly, submit themselves to the brokeness of this tribe. I'll never forget the scene where the missionaries had just been speared and lay dieing on the ground. The indians hovered over the dieing bodies of the missionaries, and when they peered into their faces they saw someting different, they saw, peace, forgiveness, friendship. In that moment they where pierced to the core, because they had just encountered the kingdom of God, they had just experienced the gospel. Remember their faces and their composure. From this point on they are tortured, and eventually every one of them comes to Christ. What a beautiful picture of the gospel, forgivness, and the bearing of brokeness.
But what a high cost the missionaries paid! Are we willing to do the same?

BO

This past weekend I had the pleasure of traveling to Mentor Ohio with a few of my closest friends to another friends house. There we ate some of most amazing food, and lots of it. Also we engaged in some mutually beneficial conversation with the father of the house, Mark. (a pastor)

On Saturday, we traveled to Mark's church to do some work (raking leaves, building things ect.) Anyways while I was there I came into contact with a very interesting man named BO. First of all I want to make it clear that BO has a big heart, and I believe that he loves Jesus very much. However during my conversation with him, I found that I had been sucked into a trap. Before I knew it I was being "evangelized too", by this middle aged man, wearing his Christian T-shirt, with his Christian music blaring from his car, preaching to me about the Holy Spirit and sanctification, saying praise God, hallelujah every other sentence as if it were some new cuss word. I found this very interesting so I decided that I would be a morally relativistic, agnostic atheist, or something like that, whenever he would tell me something, I would smile and say "wow, I'm really glad that works for you". You can imagine the frustration on BO's face. :) Later he told mark that because of his "gift of discernment from the holy spirit", he could tell that I was not a Christian and that I needed to repent. But I was getting close LOL :)

Looking back I very much enjoyed taking on this role and stepping into the shoes of a "non-Christian". All that I can say is wow. Never once was there any interest in me as a person, or was there any interest in my story, the whole incident involved a dizzying barrage of Christian lingo. I know that if I myself would not have been a follower, then I wouldn't have understood anything that was said to me. I felt more like an Object that had been thrown into some strange culture. It was all so fake......

All I can say is that, if that is Christianity, then I want nothing to do with it. No wonder Christianity is viewed as a joke. And the sad truth is that Bo represents many Christians in America today.
There is something very wrong here.
Today I did not receive the gospel!!!

Gospel and War?

I just got out of a very long yet, good conversation with my good friend Kris Browning. Basically our conversations centered around war, and the defense of others. Now I have been wrestling with this issue for years now, and have been back and forth. But during the journey that Christ has been taking me through about what the gospel is, I think that now I have a much different perspective. While I was challenged in some of my thinking(which I am very grateful for) and had to re think, I walked away with some resounded thoughts in my head. Is the gospel only relevant or needed in the majority of situations, implying that there are some situations that we must act differently?

See I believe that the gospel (the good news) is the restoration and reconciliation of all of creation back to wholeness. Its the good news that brokenness doesn't have to be perpetuated, and that wholeness in all of life is offered freely. Didn't Christ more than exemplify the gospel in His life and His words? And as followers or disciples of Christ our lives are on the journey towards becoming whole, in the image of Christ.

So then, How can I justify hurting or killing someone else to protect someone, or to defend something? How can the gospel and the giving of brokenness ever be reconciled??????

"But when you fail to protect the lives of others, you are letting any other chance of them coming to Christ be put to an end! And Christ would have stopped it at all cost" I'm told. But here I must ask - Are we assuming that the gospel is based on results? Has modernism tainted our understanding of the gospel? Where does God's sovereignty come in?

All that I know is that as a follower of Christ I am on a mission. lol My entire purpose is to pursue the reconciliation or wholeness of All of creation. And I can't believe that Christ would have me inflict more brokenness to accomplish this end. Brokenness + more brokenness does not = wholeness! Brokenness + Sacrifice = Wholeness. At least that's my limited understanding of the Gospel.

Gospel

Recently Christ has been taking me on a journey in my understanding of the gospel. You see its a strange thing because the gospel is something that is suppose to be so important and even central to our faith. But so many times when a message moves to talking about the gospel, I get bored and check out, or a book starts talking about Jesus dieing on the cross, I just skip ahead. The "gospel" is elementary, or something that new believers think about and deal wtih, but us mature Christians need only to pass it on to potential converts when the occasion arise but move on to more important or relevant Christian issues.

But wait something is wrong here! The gospel, the good news, how can it be boring? How can it be irrelevant? Shouldn't it excite my soul, shouldn't it make me come alive when I ponder it's mysteries? But wait what mystery is there really. Growing up in the church I can give you the romans road, or the 4 spiritual laws, or some other mechanical rendition of the "gospel". But how can we boil something like the gospel (the good news!) down in to a simple formula? How can you mechanize life? How can you systematize grace? What has the modern church done with the gospel? I've come to see that the gospel is rich and deep and profound, yet simple, its beautiful in a way that can't be describe, it's a mystery that we we will ponder for a life time, it is the greatest most aw inspireing thing that has or will ever enter into my existence. It is my life. It defines who I am. Imagine me, a student studying to go into full time Ministry, and I am just now beginning to understand the gospel. Something is wrong!

So are we missing something? What is the gospel?

Christian Wal-Mart

Recently I attended the "National Youth Worker Conference" in St. Louis. For the most part I had and enjoyable even beneficial experience on this trip. However there was an aspect of this trip that particularly broke my heart, the exhibit hall where all of the "Christian" business were on display trying to sell their products. It was a “Christian Wal-mart”. After walking around for a few minutes the realization of what was really going on finally hit me. It was consumerism and materialism at its finest, only with a Christian label on it. The advertisement was absolutely everywhere, even on our room cards to our hotel rooms (thanks to youth specialties)! As I walked, each of these companies were not trying to meet a need of mine or looking out for my best interest, but instead they were trying to get me to buy their product, and they appealed to the materialism that we all struggle with, to try to accomplish this goal. “Free ipod’s, free clothes, 400 Free cd's, free this, free that”, as if any of us really need any more stuff. If anything we all need to get ride of much of the “stuff” that is consuming our lives. But some how we think that we need so much more. Afterwards I walked away and thought “wow I guess that until I came here I didn’t realize that I had all these needs for all these products, but how lucky I am that the very companies that have informed me of my needs, just happen to have the answer to those needs for sale for me at a very special 20% off, because they are trying to look out for me!” I’m sorry but the church has adopted the materialistic consumerism from our culture and made it into an ok thing, or even a good thing. What a heart breaking realization. This is not the way of Jesus! But on the other hand it was a good thing because my eyes where really opened and I gained some new insight into this reality, so in the end I am thankful for this heart-breaking experience. But as the church what have we become, when we pay $650 to attend and event just to be persuaded into buying even more stuff? Am I being to harsh or overly critical? Does this fit with the way of Jesus?????