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Christianity

The unraveling church

undone

A close friend of mine over the past six months has said several times, “It might feel like things are unraveling, but at least we know who holds the string.”  The first time I heard it I didn’t really get what he was trying to say.  I understood he was bringing comfort to churches and leaders who feel like their ministries, churches, and whole worlds were falling apart around them.  So on some level I understood, but I didn’t really get it until I thought about it in another way.

My wife is an excellent crafter.  She loves to use cool tools to make things.  Her greatest gift lies in knitting.  By working with yarn and needles she is able to create just about anything she sets her mind toward.  However, sometimes she really likes a particular yarn for its color or texture but has already made it into a scarf and used it as such for some time, then one day decides, “I think I want that to be socks!”  What is she to do?  She simply finds the end, unravels the existing completed project that has served its purpose and begins to turn it into something completely new. 

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Christianity

Coalesce lava lamp Christianity

lava-lamp

I am not a word smith.  A friend of mine who helps me write better blogs reminds me often, less is more.  In other words, my writing is too wordy and too long. Authors and poets have a great gift for using just the right combination of words to create powerful images.  And they do so with very few words.  The trick is using words powerful enough to convey large concepts.

 I like words that can do that.  Words like; love, redemption, restoration, forgiveness, and Red Sox.  Each word carries with it weight and meaning, history and hope.  I came across a couple words recently that I am working on making into a concept for ministry.

Coalesce and disperse.

Coalesce means to come together to form one group or mass or to unite for a common end.  Disperse means to spread out over a wide area.  I like this idea for ministry.  The body of Christ comes together for a time to do a specific task with Christ, we serve, then we disperse to coalesce elsewhere and continue the work of Christ.

I like to use the image of a lava lamp for this.  Lava lamps work through the Archimedes principle.  Basically lava lamps are made with water and wax (lava).  Both have very similar densities, but the wax is more dense.  As a rule it should always sink.  However, when heated by the lamp or coil at the bottom, the wax’s molecules speed up and become less dense and become more buoyant and float to the top of the lamp.  Once there it cools and sinks again.  The cycle repeats itself over and over.

What does this have to do with coalesce and disperse?

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faith

How N.T. Wright changed my faith

Greg Mamula is an ordained minister and the Associate Executive Minister of American Baptist Churches of Nebraska.

“Despite what many people think, within the Christian family and outside it, the point of Christianity isn’t ‘to go to heaven when you die.'”

–Simply Christian,  N.T. Wright

I did not grow up going to church on a regular basis, but went often enough to catch the same glimpses of faith many people see with only a cursory glance at Christianity.  Like many people I was taught that Jesus was my personal helper in time of need and the gate keeper into heaven. So when I prayed for something like my dad not to leave for months on end for work or to not have to move over and over again and God didn’t deliver I questioned his power and existence.

I believed that the Christian faith was ultimately about going to some ethereal heaven someday.  I believed I had to intellectually assent to the reality that Jesus died only for my individual sins, and simply admit that I was a worthless sinner and ask for forgiveness. I struggled with the purpose of Christianity even as I felt a call into vocational ministry. What is the point of belief in God if he seems to be a failed helper?  Is the only purpose of Christ to get us into heaven so I don’t burn in hell?  That seemed like a very unfulfilling and vindictive God.

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religion

Our New Religious Pantheon

The ancient Greek stories of the pantheon of gods were full of lust, envy, jealousy, and revenge.  Though gods, they acted just like humans. They could be tricked, lied to, and make deals.  They are fickle at best and even in their most glorious moments act in ways that are selfishly motivated. They really serve better as cautionary tales rather than models to follow. (For a great summary of ancient Greek pantheon read “Mythology” edited by Edith Hamilton.)

In America, we have created our new religion pantheon of gods and goddesses with their own special powers and temples.   Our pantheon of gods are usually built around real people who did impressive things.   Their temples are movie sets, concert venues, and celebrated theaters.  Their feast days occur nearly daily with award banquets, premier days, and contests where viewers get to elect the next god into the pantheon. Our pantheon of warriors are not in fact warriors at all but athletes who conquer their foes on the playing field rather than the battle field.

With the recent biogenesis clinic problems that MLB is facing in suspending twelve players for 50 games and one of their most notable warriors Alex Rodriguez through 2014, we are reminded much like the Greek pantheon, our gods are all too human.  Celebrities, politicians, athletes, entertainers, and others we hold up as our heroes fall from grace on a regular basis, some even end up as convicted criminals.  We watch their larger than life dramatic stories much like the Greeks listened to the pantheon of old. We scrutinize their actions and celebrate the consequences to their actions as though they are fictional people without real feelings, damaged hearts, and wounded families. It serves as our entertainment and as our worship.

 The one big difference between the Greeks and us is that the average Greek probably didn’t believe they could become a god. True enough some humans married gods or had half-god half human children.  But for the most part this was not the norm.  But these humans never became gods or were ever worshiped themselves.

We have moved from the worshiper to the worshiped.  We can become a god.

We are training our children that through hard work and focus they can become gods in professional athletes, musicians, or the next governor. The biggest church in many states is their state university football stadium (it certainly is in my state) or pro baseball teams cathedral.  We drive our kids from soccer, to band, to baseball, to dance, to whatever else because we may not admit it, but we really believe these kids will go pro and become a god.

We can have a difficult time  seeing the Kingdom of God as Jesus taught it in the midst of this pantheon of athletes, entertainers, and other gods. Our worship of anything other than God is an idol.  But to believe we are not worshiping these things is to lie to ourselves. We may not have mythical heroes of ancient tradition, but we certainly have a growing new religious pantheon full of temples and gods all across this country. None of them are Christ.

Greg Mamula is an ordained minister and the Associate Executive Minister of American Baptist Churches of Nebraska.

mission

A garden center, a sign, and the missional church

My parents used to tell me that first impressions matter.  So my mom always kept a very clean house in the chance someone came to visit or if I or my sister brought a friend home unexpectedly from school.  My dad always keep the cars clean and the yard mowed.  We always had clean clothes and reasonable times between haircuts.  Probably not much different from your family.

Organizations also present “first impressions” with their buildings, employees who welcome, or the cleanliness of the facility.  The front door might be one of the most important features of these organizations.  Here are a few front doors I have come across in Midwest stores recently.

This is posted on a sliding door into a business. This store is a large chain and is located in the upper middle class section of town with low crime.  Nothing about this sign says to me I am welcome to shop there.  I have never seen a sign like this on any other business, that does not mean do not exist but I have never noticed one.  I just found it to be a weird notice and felt it to be unnecessarily hostile.

This is a welcoming place. It has the clearly marked sign open, the door is open, and the hours are posted.  There is plants that greet you from the parking lot to the door letting you know that this place holds a variety of , trees, flowers, porch/deck furniture, and other yard DYI things.  But what you see outside is only a small taste of what is on the inside.  The staff  don’t just grow plants in a bucket.  They are gardeners as well. They are capable of listening to garden ideas and advising how to proceed because they live in both places.

Churches have signs as well.  Our churches often put up intentional or unintentional signs up with our actions.  Perhaps they act like the fist sign.  Your life will be scrutinized here.  We will judge you and use a filter process to decide if you are like us.  We will examine every aspect of your life until we are satisfied you look, sound, and act like we think you should.  If you do not agree to these terms you are free to leave the facility.

What if our church and the way it functions looked more like this garden center?  What if we were more inviting and welcoming? What would it look like if we could find the balance between being welcoming to all and strong in our Christian identity?  What if we found a way to interpret and discern what God is doing in the world? A missional church needs to examine their church “signs”. What signal are they sending?

Much like the garden center, there is a a need for churches to have a welcoming presence with their building, signage, and people. The church must missionally welcome people and empower others to action. The missional church needs to have a welcoming presence of hospitality and be able to discern how God is calling us to act.  God is at work cultivating our missional gardens and we need to realize what it takes to welcome and send others into his vineyard.

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