Radically Real

True Believers

I'm sorry I haven't blogged in a few days. I had a good excuse but I'll get to that in a second. First of all a word of thanks to Youth Specialties for making Radically Real their featured blog of the week. It would figure that the week that this happened would be a week when I was away most of the week, which leads me back to my blog.

My excuse was simple. The reason I haven't blogged in a while is that I spent the past week at a gathering of true believers. These people are amazing. They are united in their cause and thought they come at their cause from a multitude of different angles, they all have a common thread that they cling to passionately. They are united, they look out for one another, and for the most part, they don't let their differences divide them but rather look at it as diversity in their body. When their common thread is threatened they unite and mobilize for their common good.

By now you may be wondering what really cool ministry retreat I was at and how can you be a part of it. Well, sadly, it's not a ministry retreat, but rather a music teacher's conference, but there are a lot of things this group could teach us in the church. First off these people come together from a variety of disciplines. Some are choral, some are instrumental, some are classical, some are jazz, some teach in early childhood and elementary schools while others teach in secondary schools and even some of the area's finest colleges and universities. That is a lot of diversity. That is enough to tear a lot of organizations apart, yet it does just the opposite. You see, while they are diverse, they rally around a common thread, music and teaching that music to kids. Can the church say the same?

We are Methodists and Baptists and Brethren and Pentecostals and Catholics and Presbyterians and on and on and on. Are we united around our common thread, Jesus Christ and spreading His Gospel or are we splintered over a bunch of things that won't matter at all when we reach the Kingdom?

Right now many music teachers are feeling threatened by things like No Child Left Behind (I love you Mr. president, but this program is a "train-wreck"), budget cuts, their subject being seen as non-essential (though who would really want to live in a world without music), etc. They could fracture and go every man for himself, say, "to heck with everyone else, I'm going to save my position," but instead they unite for the common good. They support each other, not just for their own good, but for their students and ultimately for their common thread, the love of music.

Church, we face threats too. The freedoms of Christians in America are being eroded on a daily basis. What is our answer? Will we unite behind our common cause, the cause of Jesus Christ or will we continue to go every man for himself and remain fractured and ineffective? Read Jesus' prayer for the Church in John 17. It seems pretty clear what Jesus would have us do. Major in the majors, unite behind Jesus and make a difference. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. How about you?

Post Modern Ministry?
The following is a quote from David Limbaugh's book Persecution. Yes I know Limbaugh is a conservative. Yes, I know he has a bias, but I think he makes valid point.

"Postmodernism gives rise to such ideas as that tolerance requires us not just to permit the free expression of all ideas, but also to accept all beliefs as equally valid. This mindset discourages reason, because reason itself is tainted by our socially constructed realities. This mentality also largely rejects the evaluation of ideas on moral grounds, since no one can possibly be in a position to make such judgements. But since Christianity, by its very nature, cannot submit to such intellectual anarchy, it is a glaring exception to the rule that all ideas must be accepted as equally valid. The postmodern rule, more accurately formulated, is that all ideas must be tolerated except those that refuse to accept the doctrine that all ideas are equally valid. For all these reasons, postmodernism is innately anti-Christian."

"In short, "the reason postmodernists find Christians so irritating is that we keep violating the rules by speaking our beliefs in terms of real, objective truth. This is regarded as a category mistake," says scholar and writer Nancy Pearcey."

Now before I go any further, I want to say this, I have a great regard for those attempting to minister to a postmodern generation and consider myself to be among them, but, I have been forced to ask myself a few questions:

Can we work in a context of no absolute truth, when we consider the fact that we as Christians believe that Jesus is the truth?

Are we accepting that postmodernism is thoroughly inevitable, and if so is it really?

Is the fact that postmodern thought seems to run so counter to the teachings of Jesus a sign that the church has been too weak in presenting the message of God's love, and if so is the answer to strengthen our message, in word and deed?

Does meeting people where they are mean we have to accept things as they are?

Are we going in the wrong direction by assuming that we have to reframe the truth of the Gospel to reach a worldview that rejects absolute truth? Is the Gospel powerful enough to overcome people's preconceptions. It was in my case.

What are we going to do? Truth is still truth. Jesus is still the way the truth and the life, right?

Obedience.
I once heard it said that "if Jesus is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all." We cannot take away Jesus Lordship. He is Lord whether or not we believe it, but, we can deny His Lordship over our lives. Free will allows this. Romans 12:1 tells us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. This means we need to be obedient to the Lord at all times if we truly seek to follow Him. That is a very hard thing to do for al of us. Remember, we are being real here. Think about it, "Yes Lord" is the only response we can safely make. Rick Warren wrote, "No Lord" is a contradiction in terms." If we can say no to Him, is He really Lord? That's the challenge: to obey the still small voice, to do the will of God, to do what He commands. How obedient are you?

Well, I was the last person to see the Passion of the Christ or at least that's how it seems. It was... well I don't exactly know how to describe it. I can't say I enjoyed it, it's not enjoyable. I can't say I loved it. It was too hard to watch. What I can say is it changed me. It inspired me to go further for Jesus. It was a major work, an important film and if it touched others as it touched me, the ultimate critic will one day hopefully give Mel Gibson an enthusiastic well-done.

As a Christian, I would like to thank Mel Gibson for putting his considerable talent to work to the glory of the Lord. I would also like to thank the media for all the free publicity and all the folks that critiqued it before they saw it and amped up the controversy and got many into the seats of the theaters to hear the truth of the Gospel vividly and graphically portrayed. I'd like to thank all the movie companies that decided not to touch it, the risk Gibson took to put it out is a far greater testimony. In ignoring this film, Hollywood changed the face of their own industry forever. A good truthful movie about the creator of the universe still interests people to the tune of nearly half a billion so far and a person dedicated to serving the Lord no longer needs them to get the message out. Thanks Hollywood.

What can we learn from this, Church? First. 1 Peter 4:10 still rings true. Each one should use whatever gifts he has received to serve others. You may not have 30 million (or the gifts or talents) to make a movie, but God has a plan and a purpose for your life and He placed the gifts in you that it will take to get it done. Second. You can't outgive God. Third. Communicate the Gospel whether or not people try to get in your way. If it's God's plan, no one can stop you.
Happy Resurrection Day/Easter.

As we approach Easter, I think it is a great time to check how real you are. Don't worry, I'm doing it too. As we approach the celebration of our risen Lord, is He risen in you? Are you being the light of the world? Are you representing Him as He is or are you corrupting His image and allowing people to think less of Him than they should? The old cliche stands. You are the only Jesus some people will ever see. Are people drawn to you so that you can point them to Him? None of us are perfect, there was after all only one perfect person and He got nailed to a cross for His trouble, but we are called to be holy. We are called to be real. We are called to tell our story and we are called to share the love of Jesus. We share that love in word and in deed. Both must happen. If we only have words we will ring real hollow real fast and if we only have deeds people will see our filthy rags goodness and not look past us to the one they really need. I can assure you I am coming at this and being convicted by every word I write. I need to do better. I need to be more real. How about you. Get real and have a happy Easter.