Rich or Poor?

My friend Kent Chevalier recently posted an interview between Francis Chan, Mark Driscoll, and Joshua Harris on his blog. Please go to Kent's site (a link is on the right side of this page) and watch the interview. Francis Chan, who is a famous author of the books "Crazy Love" and "Forgotten God," has made the decision to walk away from his role as the lead pastor of a megachurch in an affluent part of southern California in order live and minister incarnationally among the poor in inner city Los Angeles. Chan seemed to have it all, in terms of success, from an American cultural Christianity perspective... a popular preacher and leader of a big church in the suburbs and great wealth that could potentially be generated as a famous author and sought after speaker within mainstream evangelical Christianity. So what would make him walk away from that path? He is on a journey to follow Jesus. But, what does it mean for Christians to follow Jesus?

Obviously I admire Chan for what he is doing, but I was very interested in the tough questions that Mark Driscoll asked him. What does it mean to follow Christ in America, a culture that is defined by extreme brokenness found in both affluence and poverty? Is a calling to minister to the rich just as meaningful as a calling to minister to the poor? These questions have "haunted" Christianity for the past 1700 years since the Roman Emporer Constantine endorsed Chistianity as the main religion of the Roman Empire. During the first 300 years of Christianity, the religion grew exponentially among the poor and Christians were persecuted by the rich and powerful people in the world. When Christianity was embraced by the rich and powerful, it caused a great deal of tension. Christianity has not really grown since the 4th century. About 34% of the world's population were Christians when Constantine endorsed Christianity, and today about 34% of the world's population classifies themselves as Christian. Most growth in Christianity over the centuries has been defined by growth in some geographic regions and decline in others, as is happening now with the massive decline of Christianity in America and Europe and the growth of Christianity in the global South (Asia, Africa, and Latin America). These trends show us that Christianity often declines when it is tied too closely to affluence and power, and it grows exponentially among the poor.

What does all of this mean for us as followers of Christ? Should American Christians immerse themselves in the culture of prosperity, materialism, and individualism in order to enact change from within? Or, should American Christians go to the poor in order to minister where Christianity is experiencing exponential growth in places that desperately need the resources and influence of rich and powerful Christians who have been hoarding wealth and power for many years? I loved Chan's answer to these questions... it is not a matter of choosing between rich and poor. It is a matter of love. If God is love, then all Christians should be ministering to one another whether we are rich or poor in this short life on earth. We are all the body of Christ. Affluent and powerful Christians should be engaged in deep, meaningful, authentic, loving relationships with the poor and powerless. And vice versa. We have much to learn from one another. This is not an either/or decision. We are not defined by our economic class. Christians are defined by the body of Christ. We are all one in Christ. The problem is, many Christians do not live like that. Societies in this world are often structured for us to assimilate with people who look and act like us, and reject people who are different than us. Just look at all the divisions in this world between races, classes, and religions. The way the world looks models what the world values. But Christians are called to be set apart from the values of the world. We are the one body of Christ. We are reconcilers and peacemakers. We should be defined by love and grace, not hatred. To be a Christian means that we follow Christ, and we all have different callings within that context. It's refreshing to know that even the heavyweights of American Christianity, people like Francis Chan and Mark Driscoll, wrestle with the implications of their unique callings within the body of Christ.

Resurrection

These thoughts from a sermon by NT Wright about Christ's resurrection challenged me. If you come from an American background, I hope it challenges you too:

Denying the resurrection is a necessary part of the Enlightenment worldview. The Enlightenment split off God from the world and denied that God could or would act in the world. That's the culture we've been living in for the last 200 years, that denial. God was upstairs and we were downstairs. Christian faith enables you (Enlightenment allows it) to enjoy a private spiritual relationship upstairs with God, but that couldn't and shouldn't affect how the world runs. God was banished upstairs and we humans, we in northwestern Europe, we in America, would get on with running the downstairs world the way we wanted to.

The denial of bodily resurrection in the scholarship and popular writing of the last 200 years has gone hand-in-glove with the political position of the contemporary Sadducees.
"We are in power. We run this world. And we aren't going to allow any messages of revolution of a new world order of Jesus to disturb our privileged position." When, as a New Testament scholar, I fight day by day the battle with the skepticism that dogs my own discipline, I have come to believe that that is part of the larger, cultural battle. It isn't just a battle with the Enlightenment philosophy at one level; it's a battle with the whole Enlightenment package - culture, politics, the lot.

This leads to the necessary application of all this to our own day and situation. With the resurrection of Jesus, God created a new world and sent Jesus' followers off to announce it to the world. If you go to the resurrection chapters in Luke 24, or in Matthew, or Mark, or John, and say, "What do the evangelists think this stuff means; why are we telling this story?" The answer is not, "Jesus is risen again, therefore, we can go to heaven when we die and be with him." It's interesting they never say that, those resurrection chapters. Rather, they say, "Jesus is risen from the dead. Therefore, God's new creation has begun, and you are commissioned to go off and make it happen." That's the emphasis. And it's a new world of justice and freedom; it's the exodus of the world, the return-from-exile world, the world where Jesus already reigns as Lord, it's the world with good news for all, especially, as in the New Testament, for the poor.

As we move into a new century, with all the contradictions of post-modernity swirling around us, and now the sense of living in a dangerous and scary world with the forces of violence and hatred suddenly unleashed in our midst, we have to ask: What might God's new world look like? Start with Easter and what dreams will come? What are we, the privileged ones, doing to help implement God's victory over evil, over death, over poverty, over slavery? Where in the world today is the 'exodus' as God listens to the cry of the slaves who cannot help themselves and is assuring them that he is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?

Reflections on a Violin and the Church

During a recent church staff meeting we watched a You Tube video of the most famous violin player in the world conducting something of a social experiment. He got his hands on the most expensive violin in the world, an instrument from the 1700s with an estimated value of over $4 million dollars. Going against the advice of his handlers, who thought he would be mobbed, he decided to go to a busy Washington DC metro station to play the six most world famous songs on the violin. Dressed in regular clothes, he gloriously played the songs as thousands of people walked right past him failing to even acknowledge his existence. Throughout the six song set, only one person dropped a coin in his case and only one person actually stopped to listen to him.

There are several parallels that can be drawn between the experience of this violin player and the Christian church. Our staff was asked to reflect on what we saw, and some folks were encouraged while other people were discouraged by the video. The encouraged people pointed out that in Christian ministry, we also have a powerful message to share with the world and we just need to keep on persevering even if the world does not appreciate us. The discouraged people shared how tough it is to be responsible for communicating the most powerful message of all time, and yet still billions of people don't get the message. Our efforts can sometimes seem futile when people don't pay attention to us.

I want to point out that there is nothing wrong with the reflections of my colleagues at the church. I originally thought the same things, but then I had another thought pop into my head that I can't seem to shake. In some ways, the modern church is like the violin player in the video. The violin player was used to playing in high places, in famous buildings all over the world. He had been comfortable sharing his gifts to entertain the rich and powerful people of society who could afford to make their way into such elite cultural events. In fact, his message over time had been kept so far away from average people or from poor and hurting people that when he finally went down to the masses they did not recognize him. This kind of thing happens all the time in modern churches. When the church becomes too much a church of the powerful and privileged in society, when the church keeps the most powerful message of all time to themselves, and when they fail to build relationships with the poor and underprivileged in society, then the masses of the world fail to recognize the message because the messengers were busy keeping everything to themselves. Then, one day the church tries to bring the message into the world through one time events or by temporarily jumping out of their comfort zones and the world rejects them because they have not known them.

As the body of Christ, we need to recognize this and repent. We have kept the message to ourselves, kept our gifts to ourselves, and then we wonder why countless people drive past our churches every day without recognizing what they are missing out on. Have we kept the church in high places, away from as much brokenness in society as possible? Have we built a bunch of country clubs for cultural elites? Have we catered to the powerful or affluent or elite people in society in order to be "successful?" How will the world recognize the transformational message of the gospel if we keep it to ourselves or if we fail to consistently go into dark places in the world?

Claver Lessons - Engaging Culture and Embracing Brokenness

Christianity is shrinking and losing influence in America and in Western culture in general. Eighty percent of the world's Christians are now non-Western, non-white, and the majority are poor (over fifty percent of the world lives on less than two dollars a day). This global shift in the make up of Christianity is disorienting, sometimes even shocking, for many American Christians who sometimes believe that the Christian world still orbits around us, and our churches, and our growth models, and our preaching, and our trendy books, and our seminaries, and our movements. On our way to religous "success" I believe that we may have blown right past the message of the gospel, so much so that we are rapidly declining. Why is Christianity declining in America and growing explosively elsewhere? And, what can we learn from Pedro Claver in this area?

American Christians are comfortable. Americans make up less than 5% of the world's population, but we use up over 25% of the world's resources. The Christian culture in America largely reflects the values of the nonChristian culture in this country (just check the divorce and charitable giving rates... Christians are the same or actually a little bit worse in both areas). American Christians love to do programs where we all hang out with one another once or twice a week in order to grow spiritually. We like to talk about going to heaven. We read fiction books about escaping this evil world. Our churches compete with one another over who has the best worship, the best teaching, and the best kids ministry. Christians church shop in order to find the best fit for themselves, and they can just leave if things get too uncomfortable. Big, beautiful church buildings are built in growing suburban areas while churches in down and out neighborhoods are abandoned. We just throw away entire churches, or neighborhoods, or people groups, because they weren't meeting our own all important needs. Many Christians in America are actively insulating themselves from as many nonChristians as possible and as much brokenness in society as possible. How so? We develop relationships with only Christians. We send our children to Christian school (or home school them). We build big homes in the suburbs, and if we're lucky enough we might even make our way up into a gated community one day where no messy people can ever disturb us. We go shopping at the Christian book store so that we can read Christian books and listen to Christian music and buy Christian breath mints to follow up our Christian coffee so that we have good Christian breath. Our faith becomes private... it's all about us and how we can improve ourselves. The goal of a good Christian in America seems to be who can make the most perfect Christian bubble.

The problem is... as comfort grows, Christianity declines. Christianity actually declines for all of the reasons listed above. We become marginalized in the world. We give up the most powerful, transformational, subversive, countercultural message of all time for the sake of building our own selves up in order to be more comfortable. The American Dream has no glass ceiling, and we'll do whatever it takes to get there. American Christianity falls nicely in line with those wordly goals, and we don't realize that we've lost the point.

Pedro Claver showed us how to live as a sold out follower of Jesus Christ. He understood the power of the gospel message when others around him did not, including the mainstream Christians who were busy doing church in the area. In the 1600s in Latin American, the powerful Christians of that society would have been busy forcing the Indian population to choose between becoming a Christian or being tortured, put into slavery, or killed. They would have been busy forcing slaves to build bigger church buildings for the glory of God. The mainstream church back then was all about better programs and bigger buildings. Enter our friend Pedro Claver, who arrives on the scene and starts doing some strange things. When slave ships arrive, he actually runs out to meet them so that he can start caring for them. He gives the dead a proper burial. He seeks out the sickest of the sick in order to treat them in the makeshift hospital he has set up. He brought fresh fruit, clean clothes, and water into the slave barracks where no other good Christians were willing to go. He hugged people with leprosy. He personally cleaned the sores of slaves who had smallpox. His heart broke. He entered the most excruciating pain that human beings could possibly endure when most Christians in his day were ignoring it or actually helping to perpetuate that suffering. He ran right into the brokenness and the ultimate expressions of evil being played out in the world right before everyone's eyes. He built authentic community with the slaves, and the gospel message of Christ grew among the slave population as a result. Almost all of the other Christians there thought he was crazy and stupid. They made fun of him and kept on doing what they were doing, which was building bigger buildings and better programs for themselves.

Claver is not alone in his willingness to live out the true gospel message. When the plague hit Europe in the middle ages, wiping out one third of the population, Christians would have been found actually going into cities to care for the sick and dying in order to care for them and share the message of Jesus. Many Christians actually got sick and died. What happened? Christianity took hold and grew like crazy in Europe as a result. Another example is the early Christian church, specifically the first three centuries following Jesus' life. Christians did what nobody else in mainstream Roman society was willing to do. They sought out the sick and the poor in order to care for them. When an outbreak of disease broke out, they would have some nursing moms sit at the city fountain, and then others would walk around the city to pick up abandoned babies. They would bring the babies to those nursing moms at the fountain in order to keep them alive. Then they would adopt the outcast babies into their own families. As a result of the Christian work among the poor and broken, Christianity grew exponentially all over the Roman Empire.

Fast forward to today. Where is Christianity growing exponentially? Among the poor, in places other than America, where Christians are willing to go where others won't go. Like Claver, they are willing to sacrifice comfort in order to reach others with the transformational love of Jesus Christ. They build authentic community with one another by caring for one another and meeting each other's needs, just like the early church in the book of Acts in the Bible. At this point, most of the Christians in the world would have no comprehension of the American Dream. Most Christians in the world do not understand the need to arrange for a more comfortable lifestyle, or insulate ourselves from nonChristians, or work towards retirement, or build bigger buildings, or have better programs. The church is growing fastest in the places where there are no actual church buildings, and there are no programs. There are just Christians willing to live with one another and sacrifice their own lives, if needed, for the sake of others... especially including nonChristians.

While many American Christians desperately search for authentic community and real religion, the Christians in the rest of the world are modeling for us what those things should look like. We should learn from them. We should learn from Pedro Claver. Are we, as American Christians, willing to humble ourselves for the sake of the gospel message of Jesus Christ? Are we willing to give up our comforts? Are we willing to serve others? In our own country? In our own cities? The hurting and lost are right there in from of us. Right under our noses. Right here, right now, in America, in our cities, in our neighborhoods. What will we do?

Christians with Arms Outstretched

Jesus arrived on the scene to three groups of Jews who should have recognized him as the Messiah, but didn't. The quietists had withdrawn from the evil world in order to escape from everything. The compromisers were folks who acquiesced to the people in power in order to build themselves up and maintain their positions (no matter how pathetic those positions may have been). The zealots were angry and militant, seeking to overthrow those in power at any given time. All three groups of people failed to realize that the kingdom of God was at hand. They completely missed the point of why God had them here on this earth!

In modern Christianity we still have these same three groups of people. The quietist Christians believe the world has become too evil and they have withdrawn to their Christian safe places, essentially leaving themselves absolutely no influence on culture. The compromiser Christians can be found all around us, especially in America, where one can hardly tell the difference between their lives and those who do not believe in Christ. The zealot Christians are all around us, too, angry at the world, and with hate in their eyes as their fingers grip their megaphones at their rallies and buying up more guns and alienating themselves from as many people as possible who happen to think differently than they do. These three groups of people are also missing the point of why God has them here on this earth!

"The way of Christian witness is neither the way of quietist withdrawal, nor the way of Herodian compromise, nor the way of angry militant zeal. It is the way of being in Christ, in the Spirit, at the place where the world is in pain, so that the healing love of God may be brought to bear at that point. This perspective is deeply rooted in New Testament theology, not least in Romans 8. There Paul speaks of the whole creation groaning together in travail. Where should the church be at such a time? Sitting smugly on the sidelines, knowing it's got the answers? No, says Paul: we ourselves groan too, because we too long for renewal, for final liberation. And where is God in all this? Sitting up in heaven wishing we could get our act together? No, says Paul (8:26-27): God is groaning too, present within the church at the place where the world is in pain. God the Spirit groans within us, calling in prayer to God the Father. The Christian vocation is to be in prayer, in the Spirit, at the place where the world is in pain, and as we embrace that vocation, we discover it to be the way of following Christ, shaped according to his messianic vocation of the cross, with arms outstretched, holding simultaneously to the pain of the world and to the love of God." - NT Wright

We need to engage, folks. But, not arrogantly out of our own human effort which we assume represents God's perspective on how the world ought to function. It starts with our intimate relationship with Christ, out of an attitude of humility and God's sovereignty, out of prayer. Let's be Christians with arms outstretched to the pain of the world and to the love of God.

Christians Engaging Culture

Jesus calls us as Christians to engage culture as a result of being in relationship with him. All too often, however, Christians withdraw from culture and leave it to people who do not follow Christ to shape the world. We create Christian bubbles for ourselves and our families. That is escapist theology, and it is unbiblical.

We do not need to run away from messy environments and brokenness. Instead, the Holy Spirit empowers us to bring light into darkness. Amazingly, God chooses to work through us. This is why Christians should always be leading the way in such areas as cross-cultural relationships, racial reconciliation, local outreach, global outreach, and much more.

Neutrality and indifference to culture are not an option. Fear keeps Christians marginalized in society, but the Holy Spirit empowers us to engage.

Reflections on the Fourth Century Church in North Africa

According to Ray Bakke, during the fourth century AD one-fourth of the world's Christians lived in Northern Africa. Today, Christianity can hardly be found in that region except for a small amount of Coptic Christians in Egypt. How did Christianity lose so much real estate? A surface look into the situation would find that Islam conquered the region and implemented their own religious beliefs. However, looking deeper into the situation one finds that the church actually set the stage for their own demise in several key areas.

1. The church in North Africa never figured out the race issue. They pushed Christianity onto people from a top-down perspective, the rich to the poor and the majority culture to the minority cultures. Do you see any comparisons to the church in America today? Many modern Christian churches are not taking the time to figure out the whole race issue. The homogenous church growth principles are in, and most churches are segregated as a result. As history has shown, this mindset actually weakens the church even though our individual church numbers may grow. As I've said many times before, Christians should be LEADING THE WAY on the issue of race in America, not perpetuating the problem. Are we willing to change? Nobody said it would be easy, but this is a crucial issue for the long term sustainability of the church.

2. The church in North Africa had language issues. They never bothered to interpret the Bible into the languages of many different people groups in the region, forcing them to assimilate to the dominant cultural languages and symbols. The only attempted translation was into Coptic, which happens to still be around today. Do you see any comparisons to the church in America today? The message from many churches is "We have a corner on the truth. Come to meet us on our turf (church building) on our time schedule (precisely 11am on Sunday morning) in our language and in our denomination and with our style of worship and with our stained glass pictures of what Jesus looks like and with our Bible translation." This type of thinking leads to exculsivity, or what I call the country club mentality. Do you want to belong to our club (our church)? Then you need to assimilate to us. On a broader level in America, this is true of the immigration debate. From a Christian perspective (not necessarily a government policy perspective), Christians should be embracing our neighbors from the south with open arms. What an amazing opportunity to share the gospel message! Many of the folks who cross into America are Christians... our brothers and sisters in Christ! If they are not Christians and we are given the opportunity to introduce the gospel to them here in America, think about how many people they could influence for Christ back in their home countries with their families and friends. What is the point of white Americans sending missionaries to Latin American countries when we could be more effective by reaching out to them when they come here? Instead, many Christians in America dehumanize "illegal aliens" and treat them in their minds as sponges who come here to mooch off of our systems. If white American Christians do not try to figure out the issues of language and culture in spreading the gospel, then our churches will continue their decline and we will have nobody else to blame but ourselves.

3. The lack of indigenous people in the North African church was a problem. The church was always ruled by outsiders, or the power base which was in a different region. The local Christians were never empowered in North Africa. Do you see any comparisons to the church in America today? Poverty is not the absence of money, it is the absence of power. As Christians in America, we need to stop making the people we are trying to reach dependent upon outside resources. Instead, we in the church should be seeking to empower others. We need to disciple people and elevate them into positions of influence. The problem is, influential American Christians often feel most comfortable when we are in positions of power. We are often raised on power, so it is disorienting for us to empower others and humble ourselves. However, the church becomes much weaker when we fail to empower others.

4. The North African church developed an escapist theology when Constantine endorsed Christianity as an imperial religion. They promoted sanctification over justification. Christians fled "messy" environments. Their own invididual souls became more important than their neighbor's souls. Do you see any comparisons to the church in America today? Many Christians have fled the culture in America at an alarming rate. We are, in fact, very close to creating the perfect Christian bubble for ourselves. We have Christian music, Christian schools (or home schools), Christian books, Christian businesses, Christian coffee houses, and even Christian breath mints to get rid of that pesky Christian coffee breath. We think we can escape the messyness of the world if we try hard enough. After all, it is our own souls and our family's souls that matter most, and not those unpleasant neighbors of ours. Right? Well, actually I believe that Christians are called to engage culture. With so many Christians running away from messyness in America, will any remain to share the gospel? Or will we head up to our ivory towers and shout the truth down to masses with our megaphones (or maybe our protest rally signs)?

5. The "truth" churches and "love" churches fought each other in North Africa, and they eventually split. This goes back to the persecution of Christians during that time, where some chose to be martyred and some rejected the faith only to want back in when the persecution had died down. The truth Christians were unaccepting of their weakness and brokenness, while the love Christians embraced brokenness and welcomed those people back into the faith community. Do you see any comparisons to the church in America today? We still have truth Christians battling love Christians, and truth churches battling love churches. We lob bombs (metaphorically speaking) back and forth at one another. As another example, conservative Christians in America go to battle with liberal Christians, and we somehow lose sight of our mission to reach the lost along the way. The church in America may not be sustainable over the long run if we don't change our ways.

I love the church. I love my church. I desperately want to see the body of Christ grow in America. But, that is not happening right now and it is not only because of influences beyond our own control. In many cases, we are doing it to ourselves. The history of the church in fourth century Northern Africa may repeat itself if we don't learn from them and then change our ways.

The Message for New Generations

I'm currently studying the first five books of the Bible. One theme I am learning about is that new generations of people have to hear God's story in different ways. The example is that Deuteronomy basically covers the content that was in Exodus, just in a different way to a new generation of people.

This topic can be a controversial subject. Many Christians believe that God doesn't speak to us anymore, and that we will learn all we need to know about God through timeless, unchanging Scriptures. Public readings of the King James version of the Bible are in order. Other Christians, of the more liberal lens, deconstruct and speak so many cultural and generational insights into Scriptures that one can hardly tell what is the gospel message and what is pop culture.

What do you think? Do different generations of people need to enter into God's story in different ways? If so, how is that done effectively in our modern culture?