final days forum

Dreaming about a radical church

Sleep, originally uploaded by Steven Fernandez.

What would happen if we no longer practiced church as usual?

Close your eyes and dream with me:

1. What if the church pursued welcoming, loving conversations about Jesus on social networking sites like Twitter, Plurk, and Facebook?  What if we saw opportunities on the Web to share Jesus, much like he seized chances to talk about his Father on the roads of Galilee?

2. What if the church didn't make God seem spooky, remote, and weird? Why not talk with people like we were regular people instead of robotic clerics agitated by our itchy hair shirts?

3. What if we took Jesus' words about the Holy Spirit seriously? The Bible says the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. What if we moved aside and watched the Spirit do his job?

4. What if the church did not act like the fashion police? Wehy can't we get our praise on even when the multi-pierced, the ghoulishly Gothic, the skimpily dressed, and the completely tattooed sit next to us in church?

5. What if we treated all sin as sin and didn't act as if lying, cheating, gossiping, backbiting, adultery, meanness, and gluttony got a pass in the Bible? Ahh. Jesus' words to the folks who wanted to stone the woman caught in adultery: He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.

6. What if we gave people food and bill assistance just because they asked for it? Some people will take advantage of our benevolence, but a lot of other folks would just love the church for helping them out during a rough time. Seems worth the risk to me -- just to see how God touches people and answers their prayers.

7. What if all the televangelists who typically ask viewers to "sow" into their ministry never asked for another dime? What if they urged viewers to sow into the church where they actually attend?

8. What if we actually believed in the expansive power of prayer? We could ask the Lord to heal and prosper our country instead of writing nasty, mean-spirited stuff on the Web and loudly protesting outside of people's homes?

9. What if we love people, regardless of how they vote in this presidential election? Think about it: civility the day after the election. And the church could offer the most civil environment of all.

10. What if we treated people with the grace God gives us? Unconditional love is wonderful to receive. Have we learned how to share it?

What are your dreams for the church?

 

Judy Howard Ellis

 

Would you pass the zeal test?

As a new blogger, I am still discovering my voice. But one thing I already yearn to do. No matter how passionate I feel about a topic, may my voice not cry out with anger in the wilderness of cyberspace.

The Web can be a foul place of rabid commentators and a haven for pornographers, racists, anti-Semites, bigots, and pedophiles. For example, in a column yesterday, Variety writer Brian Lowry took issue with the flood of hostile responses he receives.  An excerpt:

Dismissing anybody living within 100 miles of Hollywood as "pinheads," "stoopid liberals" or "anti-American friends of the terrorists" isn't particularly original or, for that matter, accurate. Although I might be a godless sodomite that hates America, I'm confident not everybody west of Nevada is...

While Lowry takes an unnecessary dig at Christians at the end of his piece, I think he's absolutely on target when describing the need for civility. Crazed-speech is everywhere on the Web, it's left-wing, it's conservative -- but Christians do not have to mimic that.

 Tons of reasoned believers stir me to think and grow when I visit their blogs or websites,  but the virulent, punishing tone among some Christians online saddens me. In an apparent attempt to separate their convictions from the world, these believers goad instead of guide, exacerbate instead of explain, and raise hell instead of bringing down heaven. Are these the attributes of the Kingdom?

Part of the discipline of the Christian faith is that we cannot say all that we think, and in any way we please -- even when what we want to say comes from the King James Version, and were spoken by Jesus, with His words in red. In order to fulfill God's complete purpose, we must speak the truth, but utter it with love. This is not weakness, foolishness or cowardice; this is strength, wisdom and courage.  

We often cite the New Testament account of Jesus getting angry at the temple to justify our acerbic encounters with those who do not embrace God. John 2:17 says the disciples saw what Christ did at the temple and remembered Psalm 69:9: "Zeal for Thy house will consume me." But did Jesus' eyes flash with anger without love as He drove out people, sheep and oxen, or did His eyes sear with the indignation of an everlasting Lover?

There is a difference. The late Francis Schaeffer understood that in The God Who Is There. Schaeffer wrote:"There is nothing more ugly than a Christian orthodoxy without understanding or without compassion."  Nancy Pearcy references Schaeffer in  her book, Total Truth, which I am reading now:

"Today on religious radio or in ministry fundraising letters, it is common for Christian activists to attack Hollywood or television or rap music in tones of aggrieved anger, berating their immoral content or mocking the pretensions of postmodern political correctness. But Schaeffer would have none of that. Even when raising serious criticisms, he expressed a burning compassion for people caught in the trap of false and harmful worldviews."

And, although recent blog posts by Travis McGowen , Keith Plummer and David Dunham are discussing the film, The Golden Compass, they hit on Schaeffer and Pearcy's same point. Unless we surrender to the Father and learn how to blaze with love like Christ, how dare we condemn where we don't actually care?