This book has me thinking about how Jesus ministered to the margins. Somehow, somewhere the evangelical North American church veered left of the road Christ called us to. We need to return to a place where sinners (read all of us, not the ‘unchurched’) can walk into a church and instead of saying, “I can’t relate to anybody here. There are so perfect, proper and sin-free”, they would say, “wow. I am so glad I came. These people have shown me such love. They are real people, warts and all. They aren’t in denial of all of these problems but show me hope that Jesus brought to people like us.” Just some thoughts.

I’ve been thinking about how the church raises generations of cultural christians. I saw a definition describing them as:

Most Christians would probably fit within the category cultural Christians. Their self-identification as “Christian” is more cultural and social than religious. These are people who might say that they were “born Christian.” They are often born into ethnically conscious families and are therefore baptized, married, and buried in a particular church — but have little or no interest or concern about its teachings or the meanings of its practices. A relationship with God through Christ may be either non-existent or as a Refuge/Provider/Magician on an as-needed basis. Perhaps a code of etiquette is linked to their notion of Christianity. Cultural Christians serve on church councils, vestries, boards, and the like in the same spirit as they would perform any other volunteer service to a charitable organization.

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An interesting conversation on 2005 being a watershed ‘year of the emerging church. Here’s a quote from one site:

“2005 will be the year the shit hits the fan. emergent has been around long enough for people to figure out what’s up, or at least the parts they were never going to like in the first place. prepare to be excommunicated by some and misunderstood by others. it’s excruciatingly painful, but it’s the way it’s going to be.” - http://www.jenlemen.com/

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I just spoke with a local Pastor in Pacific Beach. For those of you who don’t know about PB, it is a beach community in San Diego filled with surfers, lots of drugs and partying. Anyway this pastor spoke about how PB is a difficult mission field trying to reach these people who are “rebelling from their parents, the government and the church.”

Here’s what made me sad. I asked him how they were trying to reach this lost community. He answered, “We have a book store, we’re building a seniors community center and we have an event called Music Mosaics.” I asked him what ‘Music Mosaics’ was and he explained it was “high class music, choirs, organists, etc.”

Now I’m pretty curious. How many drug addict, street kids, surfers and abandoned post-college youth are they really reaching with these things? There’s got to be a time when many traditional mainline churches decide, let’s stop trying to reach more of us. Atheists debates don’t bring in non-christians, organists don’t get the homeless youth excited, X days of purpose programs will be rejected by a spiritually bancrupt, yet spiritually open community in this next generation. Am I wrong?

I just got my hands on a manuscript of Jesus in the Margins : Finding God in the Places We Ignore by Rick McKinley (You may know him as the pastor of Donald Miller Blue Like Jazz). I’m one-third of the way into it but I can already tell this one is going to be a must-read for many of us out there. Here’s a snipit from the publisher’s site:

Jesus is our ultimate model for finding identity, acceptance, and legitimacy from the Father. As we pull back the curtain on His life, we discover that Jesus knows what it’s like to be marginalized. He understands how it feels to have society shove you to the side, to not really be accepted, and in the end to be totally rejected. He can identify with life in the margins because when God came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ, He landed in the margins. On purpose. And He chose to land there because it’s in the margins that broken lives get mended, prisoners are set free, and the poor hear the Good News.

I hope to have a review soon…

Each month I edit the monthly culture newsletter from the Kaleo Institute of Culture Studies (Kaleo Church). It is a collection of essays, reviews and commentary. You can check out past culture newsletters here (scroll down 1/2 page). Tom Moller, a scientist working in neurological science, writes a monthly Science article. Next months already has a few articles submitted. The Gospel of Ikea by David Fairchild. Duane Smets wrote a commentary on Adbusters and a review of the band Bright Eyes. A few more are coming down the pipeline….sign up to get the newsletter at Kaleo Church.

Brian, the worship leader at Kaleo posted an article examining Christianity and the Arts. In it he looks at things like beauty, aesthetics and the role should the arts play in the Christian life. (article: Christianity & the Arts) In response, Aaron Flores wrote an article titled, Modern Christians & Arts: Response to Brian Thomas in it he suggests the Church should not determine what is beauty or valuable. Here is where I disagree. I think we need to ensure things like determining ‘what is art’ and ‘what is beauty’ are separated. (on that matter: Finding God in Abstract, Absurd and Postmodern Art)

The Christian community should accept ANY person’s claim that something is art. BUT it is at this point that we should be involved in discussing the beauty & commentary of the art.

I’m beginning a web project with a group called Burnside Writer’s Collective. It will collect a group of authors such as Don Miller (Blue Like Jazz, Searching For God Knows What) and Rick McKinley (Jesus in the Margins : Finding God in the Places We Ignore). It should be a pretty cool group. McKinnely has a three book deal, I believe he’s finishing his second. Miller is finishing another book right now so there is plenty to come. Keep your calendar set for February when it launches.

Over the Christmas holiday I am reading a book by John Piper titled, Future Grace. Here is a quote that I read that I’ve been thinking about over the last few days:

Sin is what you do when your heart is not satisfied with God. No one sins out of duty. We sin because it holds out some promise of happiness. That promise enslaves us until we believe that God is more to be desired than life itself (Psalm 63:3). Which means that the power of sin’s promise is broken by the power of God’s. (Future Grace, page 9-10, John Piper)

I am on a bit of a John Piper kick as our church continues to be impacted by his ministry to create a passion amongst God’s people to seek God’s glory. Or to quote Piper in how he says it in all his books, “God is must glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”

The devil thinks more true thoughts about God in one day than a saint does in a lifetime, and God is not honored by it. The problem with the devil is not his theology, but his desires. Our chief end is to glorify God, the great Object. We do so most fully when we treasure him, desire him, delight in him so supremely that we let goods and kindred go and display his love to the poor and the lost. (When I Don’t Desire GOD p. 30 by John Piper)

The week wore my wife and I out. After a quick dinner in Hillcrest (“Well known as San Diego ’s gay and lesbian Mecca” Union Tribune) we decided to rent a movie and call it a night. I dropped my wife off at home to put our son to sleep and drove to the nearby Blockbuster. Recently, the movie Saved! was recommended to us, so I hurried to the ‘s’ area and picked up the movie. It was then I noticed a young man and woman browsing nearby. The woman, a hip urbanite said, “That’s a good movie. It is a little strange though.” It is important to state, that my week had been a long one, work was crazy, and my wife and I had just had a conversation about serious life stuff, so I had entered into Blockbuster this evening in a utilitarian mode. Without thinking, I retorted, “Yah, but are you a Christian?” Full Article >

Last week my family returned to Seattle (we lived there nine years) and attended a conference at Mars Hill. The conference was called Reformission 2004. “The gospel has the power to transform lives, and indeed our culture. The goal of the Acts 29 Network is to plant churches that effectively reach the emerging generation. To accomplish this, young leaders need to be equipped with a solid theological understanding of the gospel. If our understanding of the gospel is weak, our proclamation and evangelism will be weak and fruitless. The Reformission conference will speak into areas of theological confusion prevalent today.” The most amazing part of the conference was hearing John Piper. That man blew me and a lot of people away. I hear they are going to put up his talks on the reformission.com site. I strongly encourage you to listen to these.

We also had an opportunity to hang with my brother. Picture Gallery >

by Dick Keyes

We are living in a time of crisis of moral authority, with culture wars raging all around. Although the Christian church’s message speaks to the deepest issues in contention, it often seems ill-equipped to act fruitfully in our society. Instead it can easily become part of the problem, not its solution - especially if we give in to the polar tendencies to turn into either chameleons or a tribe.
When Christians accommodate and compromise before the pressures of being a dissonant minority, we become chameleons. And when we turn inward as a Christian ghetto, using self-protecting measures out of fear, we become a tribe.

But as Dick Keyes explains, we can avoid the perils of polarization through biblical ways forward. One is apologetics - reaching outside of the enclave or sharpening ones argument for truth. Another is overcoming individualism to reclaim a real Christian community. However, no recommendation will be successful without true dependence on God and a return to foundations.

Chameleon Christianity calls Christians to righteously engage the surrounding culture. It provides tools for expressing the gospel and offers a fresh look at Christian community that crosses barriers of age, race, and gender.

Here is a great book that I’d recommend…it is by our old Pastor while we attended Mars Hill Church in Seattle…

Today’s mission field starts
just outside your door

“Reformission” is the continual reforming of the mission of the church to enhance God’s command to reach out to others in a way that acknowledges the unique times and locations of daily life. This engaging book blends the integrity of respected theoreticians with the witty and practical insights of a pastor. It calls for a movement of missionaries to seek the lost across the street as well as across the globe.

This basic primer on the interface between gospel and culture highlights the contrast between presentation evangelism and participation evangelism. It helps Christians navigate between the twin pitfalls of syncretism (being so culturally relevant that you lose your message) and sectarianism (being so culturally irrelevant that you lose your mission). Included are interviews with those who have crossed cultural barriers, such as a television producer, exotic dancer, tattoo studio owner, and band manager. The appendix presents eight portals into the future: population, family, health/medicine, creation, learning, sexuality, and religion.

Every Christian fellowship in the USA needs to make “radical reformission” their #1 priority in the decades to come. Are you in a place of leadership? Drop whatever you are reading and get this excellent primer from Mark Driscoll. ” The Discerning Reader

Buy:
The Radical Reformission: Reaching Out without Selling Out

The Burning Man festival has come and gone. Roughly 40,000 people came and gathered in a desert to experience a 6 day celebration of life, existence and being man. As they ask questions about our meaning and purpose as man, what answers do they give? As they celebrate man is our initial reaction as Christians to jump to judgement? Shouldn’t we understand more than any our value because we were created in God’s image? Full Article >