At the Margins

Christian vs. Christ-follower

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Created: Wed, 01 Nov 2006

My friend Colin just sent me a link to a set of Christian parodies of the Mac/PC commericals. It’s a great concept, but I’m afraid they fall short.

Essentially it’s an issue of good concept, poor articulation. These are anti-Christendom, but leave one thinking that being a Follower of Jesus is even more meaningless. They spent a lot of time dismantling Christendom but failed to equally develop what it means to Follow Jesus.

My friend and housemate Ryan provided a very good critique:

Good application of the Mac/PC ads. But, as Colin says, poor and lukewarm generalization of Christian and ‘Christ-Follower’ (Shouldn’t they be the same? Let’s not draw even more lines to define who we are by differentiating ourselves
from others.) Another attempt to market Christ on a platform of feel-good Christianity? Probably. “Hey, I smoke, have a tongue-piercing, don’t take showers, AND I love Jesus; so that makes my relationship with Christ more authentic and me more ‘real’, man.” Would have been better if the ads de-emphasized the very things it brought to light.

At any rate I think they are interesting and worth discussing.

Last night before going to bed, I read a wonderful reflection by Lissa on her personal experiences with homosexuality and the Church. It was a wonderful reflection of her thoughts. Take a look at http://melisseus.vox.com/library/post/good-christians-dont-do-that-except-that-really-they-do.html

Most of you know that I don’t like “specialized” services (i.e. worship for 20-somethings), but what happens when the Church completely rejects a people?

[Note: I am completely avoiding the issue of homosexuality and the church for now.]

Member after member of the Christian left has declared victory in last Tuesday’s U.S. election, as did their conservative counterparts in elections past. The reality is that Christ lost the election this year, as with so many previous ones.

He lost the election when we chose to proclaim the Gospel with our votes as a substitute for our lives…When we decided it more expedient to manifest the kingdom in our laws, in our congress, and in our courtrooms than in our neighborhoods, in our families, and in our hearts…

I pray that we may repent and leave our comfort, our security, our control, our success, and the ways of this world so that the Kingdom of God may break forth more boldy among us!

Several weeks ago I was asked what type of Christian I was by a new friend expecting to receive a response along the lines of methodist, baptist, et cetera. My new acquaintance instead got a 15 minute explanation of what type of Christian I am. At any rate, it got me thinking, what type of Christian am I–not that one needs a type? I grew up methodist, but apart from really liking much of Wesley’s teachings (I am not as well read any them as I would like), I’m really unsure what it means to be methodist. Most would consider me evangelical, but I fundamentally disagree with much of their practice. I’ve yet to grasp what emergent really means and to say I’m New Monastic is probably too specific.

I’ve arrived upon incarnational. I believe that we are to seek to incarnate the model of Christ’s obedience to the Father and that, in the model of Christ, we are to seek to love others with complete self-sacrifice, even to death. Of course it could be misinterpreted as simply another way of saying we should emulate the specific life of Christ (see my post “What Would Jesus Do? Really???” What I mean by it is that we are the body of Christ acting in the world and that Christ is incarnate in us through His Holy Spirit which dwells in us.

I’m not sure if incarnational is the best description (probably not), but it’s the best I’ve come up with so far. Any other ideas?

We have been doing a relationship series at my church. A couple of weeks ago singles met after church to talk about what they wanted to hear about during the two “singles” weeks. Out of that meeting, there was renewed interest in our singles ministry, of course, like every singles ministry I have ever encountered, the concept for the ministry was centered around providing “social” opportunities for singles–that is help singles meet other singles to date or marry.

I understand why these are so popular in churches, it’s what people want and thus attracts more people.

However, it buys into the Christian subculture which implies that singles are incomplete until married. Ack!!!! This is simply untrue and hurtful to those who have been called to singleness (even if for the time being).

“…others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 19:12

After all there are many singles who have dedicated their life to the Kingdom, Paul, John the Baptist, even Jesus for that matter. For some reason modern American protestants (want to?) forget this fact.

It is clear that singles have an important role in the Kingdom of God and we as the Church should seek to help them serve out of this calling.

Instead of singles ministries seeking to remedy the problem of singleness (which as I’ve pointed out is in fact not a problem at all), singles ministry should provide opportunities for singles to live out the particular service they are called to and equipped most for. Here are a couple of examples:

1. Singles are much better placed to assist in last minute situations or emergencies than their married counterparts and thus this is a key function in the service of singles to the Church and to the world. If I receive a call from a friend who needs immediate assistance, I am able to know what I am doing and make a quick judgement of whether or not I can assist. If I was married, I would need to check with my wife first, and if I had kids, I would have to deal with taking care of them first also (I realize this applies less to singles with children).
2. Serving at an overnight shelter is another excellent example of an opportunity to serve in which singles are better equipped than marrieds (for many of the same reasons listed in 1).

I realize that my examples are weak, so I would love to hear more examples from you! Please post them to a comment.

You may say, wait, but shouldn’t there be social opportunities for singles within the church. I would say no. However, I would agree that there should be opportunities for real Christian community encouraged by the Church. Of course, then it doesn’t make sense for it to just be singles anyway, because rich and deep Christian community should be diverse–we have much to learn from people who are different from ourselves.

Now I am not saying that we should seek to keep singles single, not at all. Let’s face it, it is quite probable that singles living in community and serving together will often develop romantic relationships and marry. This is a wonderful thing.

However, marriage should never be the goal of singles ministries, worship and service to God should. Singles have a great service in the work of the kingdom which should be lauded and encouraged to live it out now. We should particularly embrace those who have chosen to remain single for the Kingdom.

Thoughts? Comments? I’d love to hear what you think!

I was talking with my friends Aaron and Amy Graham of Kaleo Ministries last night about living in community, movements of the church, you know, the stuff I love to talk about.

It occurred to me during this conversation, just how much I want to start a movement–to see the Church transformed to that which Christ intended. How arrogant of me to 1) think I could do such a thing and 2) think that I’m somehow better than all those who have tried before, that our generation gets it and will somehow succeed where every generation before us has fallen short. It seems that real movements in the church (I’m no Church historian, so chime in with more information) don’t start off as movements at all, but rather are born from people seeking to be faithful to scripture and the Holy Spirit. We worship a God who time and time again uses the micro to change the macro (I just can’t get away from econ, can I?); who uses the small, the weaker, often the unwilling, to transform the greater, the stronger.

Seeking large scale Church reform, though tempting, is seeking one’s own glory–is idolatrous. If we as a people, as a generation of believers, would seek to be about the Father’s business in our lives, loving the unlovable, seeking to hear and obey, than our communities would be transformed–certainly not easily and not without much suffering, but in amazing ways. I don’t have to start a movement (nor should I). It is readily apparent as I travel and meet people that God started the movement long before I did (and will continue it long after I am gone). That there is a calling on our generation (not sure if it is unique to our generation) and that there are groups and individuals all around this country and world seeking to inhabit this calling. Christ is moving in His bride with boldness! We are a movement that cannot and should not be contained by a vision statement, not connected by x statements of belief, not beholden to a five-year plan, but rather a movement convened and ordained by the Holy Spirit Himself. We are the Church. We must encourage, even demand, from one another that we seek after God with reckless abandon, for it is when we seek after Him that we see His Kingdom break forth on earth, that we see His bride in greater glory.

But here’s the thing, we’re going to get it wrong, like the generations before us we are going to fail to fully manifest the vision God has placed on our hearts. We must have the courage to grow and mature, to look back and see where we have been wrong and to move forward with new zeal in the face of knowing we will once again fall short of perfection.

And as our kids mature we must not only tell them, but show them the story of the God of Abraham working today to help them to, not simply rest on the word we have received, but to listen and obey His voice themselves. We must have the courage to not only allow, but encourage them to tear down the asherah poles and high places built by us, as we did for our fathers.

What exciting times we live in. The Kingdom is alive and among us! Praise be to God!

While at the CCDA conference I got to hear from a group that I was first introduced to at the PAPA Festival.

Relational Tithe seeks to relationally distribute tithes in accordance with scripture. Much of their work is fueled by an essay by a megachurch teaching pastor entitled, “Embezzlement: The Corporate Sin of Contemporary Christianity?” In it Ray Mayhew, quite against his own best interests, seeks to examine the purpose of tithes using scripture and documents of the early church. It is an amazing, hard teaching and a very worthwhile read.

I increasing realize the need for a complete examination of church practice and that many of the problems of the church are directly related to an incorrect view of evangelism. I am working on a paper examining evangelism and plan to post it in the next few weeks. My hope is that it will serve to begin a series on a vision for the 21st century Church.

Starting Over After the First Two Weeks

Category: News article

Author: Nathan Colquhoun

I read this reflection by a church planter just now and thought it was worth sharing. Nathan Calhoun reflects on the difficulty of escaping the false Sunday focus of being a Christian.

I spent the last weekend cooking for my college choir’s retreat (it’s a way alumni serve the group). I met lots of wonderful new people and had some great conversations with old friends.

While I was there, I got to hear yet again how God is speaking to so many people in our generation. He may call us to different specific things, but it is apparent that God is uniting a generation of believers to seek after Him and inhabit His promises and commands with wreckless abandon. It’s amazing!

Unlike our parents, the people of my generation much more typically are either hot or cold with their faith. Either we desire to give up everything and follow Him or we don’t and realize that it’s not worth going through the motions. That’s an exciting thing for a generation who, more oft than not, grew up in a luke warm American gospel of cheap grace–a faith in which we could have both Christ and all our personal preferences–a gospel without sacrifice and a gospel without love.

We have inhabited a church so long that forgets that Christianity is more about having a relationship with our loving Father and Creator today than about salvation (route by phrase) tomorrow, that Christ calls us to daily take up the cross and follow him, and that our God is worth dying for (and thus worth obeying and worshiping).

It is a time of rebirth in the Church, when the poor, the fatherless, and the stranger will be welcomed into our homes (and more importantly our lives), when we will love the unlovable and heal the broken, when God’s revelation will flow in abundance and we will see Him with new and glorious clarity, when we will be persecuted for living a life in accordance with Him, when we will give up comfort, control, safety, and success to boldly follow after our Father, our Savior, our Creator, our Lover, and our King, and when we will see glimpses of Heaven breaking forth among us!

It is a wonderful and amazing time! Praise the Living God!