Sojourn

On Faith and Socialism

Over the summer I spent a significant amount of time blogging at www.keepusfree.net.  Much of my viewpoints addressed what I consider to be a very dangerous encroachment of socialism into American politics and upon the American way of life.

As a follower of Jesus I find myself in an interesting position on the issue.  On the one hand, I see in the way of Jesus (particularly the Sermon on the Mount and on through the rest of the Gospels) what could be considered a socialist impulse behind the way of the Kingdom.  On the other hand I am a student of history and see how government socialism has historically always lead to oppression and the eventual downfall of the civilization.  In the same historical vein I also see how individual freedom and personal responsibility (the antithesis of socialism) is the founding principle of America - a country that has, for much of her existence, been a "shining city on a hill" to which people hungering for a better life have streamed from every corner of the world.

In watching the evolution of Christianity in America I've seen us diverge into two prevailing groups.  On the one hand there are the evangelicals on the far right of the political spectrum.  On the other hand are the "emergents."  And I've been somewhat alarmed at the movement of those who are "emergent" toward the far left (socialist) of the political spectrum.  As Rick Warren's "Civic Forum" with Obama and McCain began a couple of weeks ago this divide was brightly illuminated by a commercial endorsing Obama that featured Brian McLaren and Kirbyjon Caldwell.  And though I don't consider myself a far-right evangelical, for the life of me, I can't understand how a follower of Jesus can align themselves with the socialist agenda of the far-left that includes the killing of unborn babies.  Could it be that these "emergents" see the socialist impulse in the Gospels and the church of Acts and are confused about how it should play out in society? 

Perhaps a definition of socialism is in order.  Dictionary.com offers the following three definitions:

1.	a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.

2.	procedure or practice in accordance with this theory.

3.	(in Marxist theory) the stage following capitalism in the transition of a society to communism, characterized by the imperfect implementation of collectivist principles.

It's easy to see that the early believers did live their lives in a collectivist sort of community.  They shared their food, their belongings, and sold property to make sure that everyone was taken care of.  This makes sense to me as such behavior is the natural outworking of sincere love for God and sincere love for one another.  I believe this should be our way of life.  If I have two shirts and you have none, then yes, I should be moved by the spirit of love to give one of mine to you.

But when "emergents" look at this and then connect it with politics I think they are making the same mistakes that Israel made when asking for Saul instead of Yahweh, or that the Roman empire made through marrying church and empire.  I guess the question is this:  Who should be the administrator of a Biblically socialist way of life, a king (or president in our case) and his government, or the King of Kings and his priesthood (all believers).

In electing a socialist government we are appointing a human ruler to, by force of law, make us share our possessions with one another.  When the far better way is to live as free people under the reign of Christ being moved solely by the Spirit of God to succeed, prosper, and care for others.  Human rulers crave power and are prone to exercising their power to oppress others and pursue evil agendas.  The way of the Kingdom is to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before God.

If we were to apply the "emergent" political ideology of today to the church of the first century, Acts 2:42-47 would read something like this:

They devoted themselves to the ideology of Caesar, and to the collective, to the redistribution of bread and to debate.  Everyone was filled with contempt for those who had more bread than others.  All the believers were together and shared the same allotment from Caesar.  They sold their possessions and goods to pay taxes to Caesar who would distribute the wealth throughout the empire.  And every day they enjoyed the favor of the government.

Folks, when we read the way of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount and read about the way in which the early church lived, we have to understand that this way of life is meant to be fleshed out through hearts redeemed by Christ and renovated by the Holy Spirit, not through the force of a human king and his government.  If you believe that the wealthy should share with the poor, then start sharing.  There's always someone poorer than you.  And then teach others to do the same.  Don't take the easy way out by demanding that everyone give what they have to the government in the hope that the government will do with it what is righteous.

Dysfunctional Family

The church often bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the dysfunctional family.  There is the authoritarian presence of the minister - the professional who knows all of the answers and calls most of the shots - whom few ever challenge either because they don't dare to or because they feel it would do no good if they did. 

There is the outward camaraderie and inward loneliness of the congregation. 

There are the unspoken rules and hidden agendas, the doubts and disagreements that for propriety's sake are kept more or less under cover.

There are people with all sorts of enthusiasms and creativities which are not often enough made use of or even recognized because the tendency is not to rock the boat but to keep on doing things the way they have always been done.  ~Frederick Buechner

When the church is functioning properly as a loving household, a living organism, the corporate expression of Jesus Christ, and the community of the KIng, if offers

• interdependence instead of independence
• wholeness instead of fragmentation
• participation instead of spectatorship
• connectedness instead of isolation
• solidarity instead of individualism
• spontaneity instead of institutionalization
• relationship instead of programs
• servitude instead of dominance
• enrichment instead of insecurity
• freedom instead of bondage
• community instead of corporation
• bonding instead of detachment

~ Frank Viola; Reimagining Church

Borderline Anarchist Follower of Jesus?

A couple of weeks ago I succumbed to the culture and opened a Facebook account.  While filling out my profile information I got to the part where it asked about my religious views.  The best description I could think of for myself was, "Borderline Anarchist Follower of Jesus."  I'm sure many who've since seen this description on my page have wondered what such a phrase could mean.

I guess I have to begin with a definition of anarchist.  Dictionary.com offers the following three definitions:

1.	a person who advocates or believes in anarchy or anarchism.

2.	a person who seeks to overturn by violence all constituted forms and institutions of society and government, with no purpose of establishing any other system of order in the place of that destroyed.

3.	a person who promotes disorder or excites revolt against any established rule, law, or custom.

These definitions are all a bit clumsy for me, which is why I have to include the "borderline" qualifier in my self-description.  I would describe an anarchist as someone who sees no value in, and works to dismantle, law, government, and order. 

After 22 plus years in the church system, I am closer to an ideology of ecclesiastical anarchy than I've ever been.  And in so doing I take a seat at the table with Soren Kierkegaard, Leo Tolstoy, Henry David Thoreau, Ivan Illich, Fyodor Dostoevsky, the Desert Fathers, the Quakers, and many others.  Yet, in some ways, I remain not fully seated.  Let me explain.

As a person who has placed my faith in Christ, is set free from both the penalty and the power of sin, and believes that the book of Galatians is inspired by God, I believe that I am no longer bound to the necessity of a religious life that has "keeping the law" as its redemptive nexus.  Even so, I am not antinomian in totality as I see great benefit in living by the spirit of the law.  Being a person who doesn't steal keeps me free.  Being a person who doesn't commit adultery keeps me relationally and sexually alive.  Observing the Sabbath keeps me rested and refreshed.  As Jesus compared the law to the way of the Kingdom in his Sermon on the Mount he did not dismiss the law.  Instead, he encouraged his hearers to understand, embrace, and live freely in the spirit of the law rather than the powerless word of the law.  Where I am fully antinomian is in the dozens, yea hundreds, of ancillary, extra-Biblical laws erected and enforced by systems of organized religion over the centuries; Like the membership card I had to sign with one denomination promising that I would never dance or drink a glass of wine.

It is in the realm of ecclesiastical government wherein I find myself becoming more and more anarchist.  As I search the New Testament over and over again, I find no sign of church government.  What I do find is a rapidly multiplying community of people who have encountered Jesus, been set free of the penalty and power of sin, do life together in the most common and love-infused ways, and (as my friend Billy puts it) are devoted to inviting others to the table.  Among the community are those gifted as teachers, apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors who serve the community.  They don't rule the community.  They don't create ever-expanding hierarchies of management, command, control, and bureaucracy.  They are free people helping those around them to live freely and fully in the grace of Christ.  And the ethos of this community is one of mutual and voluntary love, encouragement, accountability, and correction.  The only King and Sovereign Ruler before whom every knee must bow is Jesus himself, the Head of the church.  Since that time, Jesus followers have left the trail he blazed for us and have given themselves to the creation and violent protection of religious nation-states ruled by clerical despots. Woe!

Finally, on the issue of order, I find myself not nearly as anarchist.  A properly functioning body of believers living under the influence of the Holy Spirit will not be chaotic or disorderly.  Where there is chaos, I suspect there is either an absence or quenching of the Spirit of God.  That said, I do believe that when forms, structures, orders, and liturgies arise out of the surpremacy of preference or an ego-driven need for control, an anarchist impulse is not only justifiable, but remedial.

This has been a difficult transition for me.  I have always been somewhat of a renegade who eschews compliance simply for the sake of compliance.  But my observance of and participation in oppressive and contentious religious environments has inspired me to embrace the shaking of such superstructures.  May that which honors Christ and frees people to follow Him with unencumbered passion be all that survives the shaking.

For more information about Christian Anarchism, click the link.

An Introduction to Celtic Christian Spirituality

One of the best books I've read this year is a small volume entitled, Listening for the Heartbeat of God.  One day in January that beautiful brown box with the curvy Amazon arrow showed up and greeted me upon coming home from work.  After dinner Lynn and I turned off the television, curled up on the love-seat by the fire, and spent the evening reading.  I nearly finished the whole book before bedtime.  I couldn't put it down.  In a way, it was almost as if my soul had returned to a long forgotten place where authentic intimacy with and worship of Christ had not yet been swallowed up by institutional religion.

This book provides us with a glimpse into Celtic Christ-centered spirituality as contrasted with Roman Christendom.  Let me share with you a bit of the journey I took through its pages.

The first thing you need to understand is that nearly all of our Christian experience in this country finds it's roots in the Roman Empire.  Catholic and protestant expressions of faith all emerge out of the Roman branch of Christianity.  What we don't often hear about are the branches of Christianity that emerged outside of Roman influence and managed to remain untainted by the abusive, oppressive, and often heretical Papal influence and the later hyper-Calvinist system of isolation and exclusion.

A purely British, non-Roman Christian stream began around the early fourth century primarily through the ministry of a man named Pelagius whom the Roman church later declared to be a heretic (yet a careful reading of his own writings may leave you convinced that perhaps he wasn't as much a heretic as he was a threat to Roman control and domination). This stream of Christianity flourished and managed to remain free of Roman infection until the Synod of Whitby in 664 finally pushed it to the margins where it eventually faded, though never entirely disappeared.

First, some contrasts between the Celtic stream of Christianity and the Roman stream of Christianity, in which most of us today remain:

Celtic Christian spirituality emphasizes the ability to listen to the voice of God and experience His presence in all of life.  Roman Christian spirituality emphasizes that the voice of God and the experience of His redemptive presence is only to be found within the church, her doctrines, and sacraments performed by a "properly ordained" priesthood.

The Roman church's view on humanity and creation begins with the fall.  Therefore, everything human and everything natural is viewed as evil, sinful, and entirely void of God's goodness.  The Celtic view on humanity and creation begins with creation and the Creator's pronouncements of "It is good" and humanity being created in the "image of God."  Where the Roman stream believes that humans are an entirely evil species which must be transformed into a new creation by God's grace, the Celtic believers believed that the goodness of God remains in creation and the human condition is that of God's image-bearers imprisoned by sin, yet longing to be freed by God's grace and restored to the righteous species we were created to be.  Roman spirituality declares that the fall erased the image of God from our humanity. Celtic spirituality believes that the image of God remains, though it is imprisoned by sin.

The Roman church locates it's authority in the person of St. Peter as a symbol of faithful action and outward unity.  The Celtic church honors all of the saints, but resonates most deeply with the person of St. John, the beloved disciple who leaned into the chest of the Savior at the Last Supper and listened to the heartbeat of God.

Next, I'll simply share with you a series of quotes from the book.

"Celtic Christian spirituality is one of deep and rich perspective, with origins in the mystical traditions of the Old and New Testaments."

"How many of us were taught actually to look for God within creation and to recognize the world as the place of revelation and the whole of life as sacramental?  Were we not for the most part led to think that spirituality is about looking away from life, so that the Church is distanced from the world and spirit is almost entirely divorced from the matter of our bodies, our lives, and the world?"

"In the old Celtic prayers the lights of the skies, the sun and moon and stars, are referred to as graces, the spiritual coming through the physical, and God is seen as the Life within all life and not just the Creator who set life in motion from afar."

"Pelagius maintained that the image of God can be seen in every newborn child and that, although obscured by sin, it exists at the heart of every person, waiting to be released through the grace of God.  He argued this despite increasing acceptance throughout the Western Church of Augustine's teaching that every child is born sinful.  Augustine believed that the image of God can be restored to us only though the Church and it's sacraments.  He thus developed a spirituality that accentuated a division between the church, which was seen as holy, on the one hand and the life of the world, perceived as godless, on the other."

If you're interested in looking at the book for yourself, click here.

Anointed One or Empowered Many

A while back I had lunch with a full-time pastor for whom I have the utmost respect.  We eventually began discussing my struggle with whether or not to remain an "ordained" elder in our denomination.  That led to a deeper discussion about my struggle with the separation of clergy and laity into two distinct classes of Christians:  Those who are authorized to do ministry and those to whom the ministry is done.

We covered all the bases around the field of ministry leadership. And finally he said something that, on face value, made sense.

"Bill, if you look at the Old Testament and the great leaders God put into place, you'll find that most of the times when things went wrong, it came out of the masses, not out of the leaders."

After lunch I found myself thinking about this throughout the afternoon.  It seemed to make sense.  God raised up Moses as the anointed One to lead the masses out of captivity.  God raised up Joshua as the anointed One to capture the Promised Land.  God raised up David as the anointed One to lead Israel as a man after God's own heart.  God raised up the prophets as anointed Ones to speak truth to the wayward masses.  On the other hand, it was the masses that caused Israel to wander in the wilderness for forty years.  It was the masses who made the gold calf. It was the masses who decided to leave the Godless nations in place as a snare to Israel.  It was the masses who decided that Israel needed a human king like the other nations and got Saul as their king.

I see clearly that this principle of the anointed One leading the needy masses is present in the Old Testament.  But...

Enter Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

I see a fundamental change in the order of things with the coming of Christ and the sending of the Holy Spirit.  As soon as Jesus came on the scene and began his ministry, he began to overturn the old order and put a new order in place.  Jesus certainly was the anointed One to atone for humanity.  But he seemed to be saying with his life and teaching that the focus will move away from the anointed-One mentality toward the empowered many.

He immediately began raising up twelve men to do what he did and promised that they would even do more than he did.  Those empowered twelve became an empowered 120 on Pentecost.  On the same day the empowered 120 became the empowered 3,120.  Shortly thereafter, the empowered 3,120 had grown to the empowered 5,000. 

The church grew exponentially with thousands and thousands of believers being filled with the Holy Spirit.  But it wasn't long before they began trying to reverse the order that Jesus had inaugurated.  The Corinthians began to shift the focus away from the empowered many back to the anointed One.  They began exalting certain people with certain gifts, and they began dividing and grouping themselves around the "celebrity" ministers.  Paul finally had to write a letter to instruct them to knock it off, function as a body, and recognize only Christ himself as the head of the church.

Fast-forward to the fourth century.  By the end of the century you find a complete shift away from the empowered many to the anointed One in the form of Popes, bishops, and priests.  And throughout the church age, nearly every heretical movement or act of treachery (crusades, inquisitions, indulgences) came not out of the masses but out of the elite community of the anointed Ones, while most of history's recorded spiritual awakenings came out of the masses, not out of the elite community of anointed ones.

Isn't it time that we returned to the revelation that Christ alone is the head of the church, and the church is a body of many parts - a temple of living stones - with every member being empowered by the Holy Spirit to live lives of holiness as participants in the redemptive mission of God to a wayward humanity?

Pastor, You're Fired!

A few evenings ago I was watching the local news and saw a story about a church here in my area that was in the process of going to court to take legal action in firing the pastor who, according to them, wasn't doing his job.  In describing his lack of performance they cited that attendance was dropping.

Being a former pastor, I had a visceral reaction to that statement.  I thought to myself, "It is up to the members of that local body to be salt and light in their world, to be the 'priesthood of believers,' leading people to Christ, and making disciples.  A falling attendance problem (as if "attendance" is the end all, be all of being the church) is just as much a member problem as it is a pastor problem...if not more."

Last night I was mowing the lawn and, for some reason, began thinking about that church again.  This time my visceral reaction leaned the other direction.  I reminded myself of the thoughts I had earlier in the week and then took it a step further.  The role of a pastor, according to Ephesians 4:12 is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.  The pastor in question had been leading the church for 20 years.  So yes, perhaps it is a pastor problem as well.  The congregation members calling for his ouster believe he deserves to go because he isn't growing the church.  If there is a legitimate complaint against the pastor, these members should understand that it's not that he hasn't grown the church, it's that he apparently hasn't equipped God's people to do His work and build up the church, the body of Christ.  For a mature body of believers will understand their role in God's redemptive mission.

All of this springs from a couple of the most lethal toxins in Americanized Christianity:  Clergy/Body separation, and the loss of missional understanding.  Many in the American system believe that church is a place you go to in order to have trained religious professionals do ministry to you.  This is a perversion of Christ's intention.  We ARE church.  We don't GO TO church.  We don't DO church.  We ARE church.  And as the church every one of us is responsible for living our lives in such ways that those around us are drawn into their own pursuit of God.  We live in this way through lives of purity and integrity and through an active participation in God's redemptive mission to the world around us.  As for the leaders among us?  They aren't called to dispense to us religious goods and services while keeping our institutions numerically and fiscally prosperous.  They are there to equip and encourage us to introduce our world to the kindness of God.

Book Reviews Coming Soon

In the past week I've been contacted by two different authors offering to send me free copies of their books to read and then write a review.  One of the perks of being a renowned, celebrated blogger with three faithful readers.

The first offer was made by Dave Schmelzer, the author of Not the Religious Type.  You can visit his website here.  I received the book a few days ago and, honestly, I haven't been able to put it down.  Not only is Dave a fantastic writer technically speaking, but he has a way of approaching his topic in a winsome and humorous way.  I'll be writing a full review in the days ahead.

The second offer came from Frank Viola, the author of Reimagining Church.  You can visit his website here.  I enjoyed reading his last work, co-authored with George Barna, entitled Pagan Christianity.  However, that book (which you can find in the bookstore on the resources page) leaves you feeling a little lost and hopeless in regards to church, wondering where you should go next.  I think this book will take us into the "next."  I'll write a full review of it as well after I've received and read it.

Thank you Dave and Frank.  I appreciate the work you do as instruments of God's voice to those of us on the sojourn.

The Simplicity of Being the Church

In the midst of their brokenness and the impending destruction of their way of life an ancient people cried out to God for a way to gain his favor. 

"What can we bring to the Lord?  What kind of offerings should we give him?  Should we bow before God with offerings of calves?  Should we offer him thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of olive oil?  Should we sacrifice our firstborn children to pay for our sins?"

And the Lord responded to the complexity of their inquiry with an answer of utmost simplicity.

"No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you:  To do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."

In the midst of their religion, many generations later, arrogant clergymen of the day tested Jesus by asking him how to find favor with God.

"One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: 'Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses."

And Jesus responded to the complexity of their religious system with an answer of the utmost simplicity.

"You must love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  But there is a second that is equally as important:  Love your neighbor as yourself."

In our time and place, as Christians in America, it seems we have a tendency to suffocate the simplicity of being a follower of Jesus with a blanket of doctrines, dogma, systems, and structures that leaves us bewildered and numb to the presence and working of God in our midst.  As a result of this religious complexity we tend to either walk away from "church" all together or settle for a cheap imitation of the real thing.

"Church" is really quite simple indeed.  To be "the church" in our time and place can be summed up like this:  We are a people who believe that Jesus is who he said he was and we have committed ourselves to living the way Jesus lived.  And the life of Jesus was a life of extraordinary love for God the Father, scandalous love for humanity, and a lifestyle of humility, doing what is right, and showing mercy to those in need of mercy.

When we move beyond the simplicity of the way of Jesus we begin to shackle ourselves with the inventions and imaginations of men that all too often distract us from what Jesus truly had in mind when he said, "I will build my church."

May we allow ourselves to be used by God to create communities of Jesus followers that will never become organizations for a man to rule.  May we not succomb to the temptations of building monuments or museums for the glory of human leaders.  May we exist, gather, and experience life together as a people who are deeply devoted to the way of Jesus, to one another, and to the world around us.  God help us to be a people of outrageous generosity, but not so our resources can be used for the emergence of a religious empire, but that our outrageous generosity will ensure that none among us is without the basic needs of life, that the poor around us are uplifted, and that the world will know the kindness of God.