Today is a guest follow up to a post entitled “What Makes The News”.

Matt Steen, who contributed over at ToddRhoades.com on the original subject of my post has been kind enough to stop by and respond to some of my concerns.  In the spirit of dialogue I invited Matt to post here and share more of his perspective on the local church.  I enjoy respectful discussion even (especially?) when people see things from different perspectives.  Matt and I have different perspectives on things but we share a common desire for the Christ to be lifted up.  

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The story of the church coming alongside the City of Portland is not a totally new one.

In fact, on a daily basis churches across the country are interacting and serving the communities in which they reside… and are doing it well. Tally is right, over the last 10-15 years the churches in this country HAVE done a great deal of shifting in the way that they approach ministry, service, and caring for their community. Churches like Captivate are constantly doing good works by feeding the poor, caring for the homeless, stabilizing neighborhoods, and loving the least of these.

While Tally is correct when he says that the reason that much of these works don’t make the news is because there is no conflict, my intention with my post was not to call the church to launching a better marketing campaign (though we can probably learn a thing or two from the Mormons). My hope was to remind the church that we have made a mess out of the name of Christ… and the time to clean up that mess is now.

Jess and Thom Rainer’s recent book The Millennials points out the heartbreaking truth that only 13% of the rising generation have any use for religion… any religion. The recent spoken word video that went viral, Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus, may have been flawed, but it touches at the heart of how many in this rising generation feel about the church.

Shortly after posting the original article, a former student of mine from Atlanta shared his feelings on why he stepped back from the church in order to save his faith:

Church became a place not to worship God, or to lead nonbelievers to him, but a place to celebrate sameness. A place to be around people that agree with you. That stagnation leads nowhere good. I see people unifying in church not for worship, but to speak out against those who are different: other religions, other cultures, the gays, and even democrats.

God says to love all, yet, this happens. I find it hard to justify speaking against these people instead of reaching out to them. Isn’t that the main point of a church? Saving? And preaching against democrats, of all things. I don’t exaggerate, either. There are people I once considered religious leaders of mine- people I personally looked up to that I’ve removed from social media sites because they constantly spew hatred and insults towards political parties, claiming the just position of God. I’d understand if it were about specific issues; abortion, the homeless, god in schools: these are all things any person certainly has a right to be angry and forward about.

I’ve seen individuals AND churches give rants on the evils of political parties because of differing views on taxes. How is this becoming of a circle of believers? How does this fit the title of Christian: “little Christ”?

Hate and isolation are not just present in churches; they run rampant… and it’s only a secret to the church.

I don’t go to church anymore because the most disgustingly angry and hateful people I meet are churchgoing Christians. I don’t go to church because I don’t need politics in my God. I don’t go to church because I don’t want to be told to hate a type of person.

I don’t go to church because I love God more than myself, and I can’t find a church that acts that way.

I wish this were the only person I have had this conversation with. I wish that this was just the story of one bad experience, with one church that is missing the mark.

But it isn’t.

The reason that journalists are allowed to get away with the laziness that Tally spoke of is because this is how the world views the church…

My motivation for writing the original post was not to beat up on the church, but to encourage the church to take responsibility for the reputation that we have developed… and embrace the effort it will take to change it.

How do we do this?

• Humbly Own Our Mistakes. The church has made some missteps through the years. While your particular flavor of Christianity may not have taken the lead on protesting soldier’s funerals, fighting to maintain the status quo in regards to civil rights, or the crusades, the truth is that much has happened in the name of Jesus that I don’t know that Jesus is all that excited about. We have been made out to be stubborn neanderthal hate mongers… nothing would work to undermine that assumption more than apologizing for our bad behavior, and the bad behavior of our brothers and sisters.

• Partner On The Common Ground. During my time at The Garden Community of Baltimore we embraced what we called “shoulder to shoulder” ministry. While we took part of our fair share of the more traditional “face to face” type ministries: meeting needs, spiritual conversations, and the like, the linchpin of our success was inviting those who were spiritually unresolved to serve the community alongside of us. Working with others afforded us the opportunity to develop some great relationships, meet the needs of the community, and be recognized as an asset to our community. This also allowed those that the “lazy journalists” would portray as our enemies to know who we really were, and what we were really about. These relationships allowed me to witness some amazing conversations on our behalf… and some unlikely defenders. Linking arms with others in the pursuit of common ground issues will go a long way towards ending the myth that we are all about hate and isolation… and give us some unlikely advocates.

• Disagree In Love. The 24 hour news cycle and the advent of talk radio and all news television networks has greatly reduced the amount of civility in our culture. Whereas labels like heretic, outside orthodoxy, and unAmerican were once reserved as a last resort method used sparingly after much prayer, discussion, and contemplation, it would seem that these days we skip to the end and start with the labels. The church needs to lead the way in this, and needs to realize that there is a difference between loving those with whom we disagree and admitting defeat. In fact, it may be beneficial for us to stop approaching disagreements as contests that need to be won.

Matt Steen loves seeing the church thrive.  Currently serving as a Church Concierge with Church Simple, Matt has served as an executive pastor, youth pastor, and planted a church in Baltimore.  Matt lives on Long Island with his wife Theresa where he secretly leads a resistance movement against the New York Yankees (this might be the Orioles year… or not).  You can follow Matt on twitter (@matt_steen) or at ChurchThought.

 

*UPDATE*: Please click here for an encouraging update on this story.

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“Watch your life and doctrine closely.” – 1 Timothy 4:16

This week a video has been circulating on the Facebook wall of many of my Christian friends and several of our own church members. Ironically, the video promotes the very arrogance of Facebook faith that it decries. Anyway, while I understand the point of the video, I believe it presents a perfect teaching opportunity with regard to how we as Christians should engage the world with discussion about the gospel.

Essentially the video is creating a contrast between “Religion” and “Christianity”. More centrally the poet in the video focuses in on the concept of ‘grace’; poorly I might add.

Check out the video here and read my concerns below. Click image to play.

To get the point, just read the bold. For a more thorough explanation, read in detail.

You should know that I appreciate the sentiment of the video. I don’t disagree with the goal which I assume to make Jesus known and loved. What I do have concerns about is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls “Cheap Grace” which essentially takes a flippant view of the cost of grace and thereby doesn’t attract to Jesus but rather draws the sinner to a stand-in who has far less focus on personal holiness.

We should not retreat from vocabulary that has been defiled, we should redeem the terms. I’m very concerned that this type of theology runs to the other end of the spectrum and actually does more harm than good. I’ll back up my concerns with corresponding scripture so you may investigate on your own.

 

There are two main reasons I am spending time to provide commentary.  

First, I have a responsibility to believers in our church to teach biblically-based doctrine and call out bad doctrine when I see it (Titus 1:9). Writing on my blog is one way I can do so without taking up a Sunday morning service for this topic.

Secondly, the unbelieving world is mocking this video for its blatant logical flaws. Please do not copy and paste this video link on your Facebook again without looking at the video’s comment section. Sometimes atheists are just angry and wrong. This time I think they have a point. The illogical nature of this poetry is striking and I honestly can’t blame an atheist for raising concerns. One of the most powerful comments I read was ” Rhyming words together does not make them more true.”

We cannot afford to replace True and Eternal with Trendy and Entertaining.

Greatest Concern:

Making Jesus and ‘Religion’ seem mutually exclusive creates a logical fallacy to the unbeliever.  It is vital for Christians to understand how language can create a roadblock to faith if indeed our goal is to reach anyone with the gospel we profess. The bible simply does not create this tension between Jesus and Religion.  In fact, James 1:27 tells us that there is a religion that God accepts:

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

A few specific quotes of concern:

0:18- “Jesus > Religion”

Faith in Jesus IS a religion. I understand what the poet means but an unbelieving world sees this as incoherent and unintellectual.  Simply put, this is playing word-games. This is called a false dichotomy. You lose the very people you’re trying to reach by making such a false statement. This kind of semantic statement only appeals to the ‘cool’ religious people who don’t want to be identified with ‘uncool’ religious people.  It’s like denying that your parents exist because they drop you off at school in an old station wagon.  You may not like the looks you get, but they are still in your family.  If you’re attempting to reach people far from God, this statement that Jesus > Religion is counter productive. If, however, you want to give the warm and fuzzes to religious people who understand the heart of Christianity, this kind of statement works. I care most about people far from God so I don’t want to run them off with a huge logical fallacy.  I submit that we’d all be better off if we agree to make sense.

 0:24- “What if I told you that Jesus came to abolish Religion?”

I would tell you to read your bible. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Matthew 5:17

0:40- “Why does it build huge churches but fails to feed the poor.”

I personally have never seen a large church that did not serve the needs of the poor. In fact I’ve usually seen the very opposite. Larger churches tend to have more resource to do more locally and around the world. Nearly all missionaries reach their communities through need-based social causes such as drilling for water, raising livestock or opening orphanages. When is the last time you’ve seen a church of 35 people do these things? I have been blessed to serve inside and work with dozens of mega-churches (2,000 or more members) and every one of those churches has a significant outreach to the orphan and the widow. I’m sure some mega churches exist without mercy ministries. I simply don’t know them.

Churches who hold to the Christian religion and honor God’s word faithfully are churches who obey Jesus’ teaching to the scribes and Pharisees.  It’s not an either/or but rather a both/and.  ”You give a tenth of your spices–mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law–justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.” (Jesus, Matthew 23:23)

Throwing stones at large churches is a cheap attack to win favor with those who have a personal problem with the church. This common attack line reminds me of Judas when the woman poured her perfume out to worship Jesus. He claimed it would be better used for the poor when in fact he was greedy and wanted to justify his own sinful heart. Most Christians who do not obey God through tithing attempt to justify with these kinds of attacks. Truth is, Jesus said to continue the former while adding the latter.  No Jesus vs. Religion here.  No abolishment.  Just religion that’s pure and undefiled.  Read John 12:1-11

 2:15- “Jesus hated Religion.”

No, please see James 1:27. Jesus ‘hated’ no one to my knowledge. Jesus was angry at the people misusing the temple to rip off worshippers who were making pilgrimages to the temple courts. He called for the church to be a house of prayer but he did not call for the downfall of organizing as a church. In fact, the Apostle Paul who wrote 2/3 of the New Testament responded to his life changing encounter with Jesus by starting many churches (organized centers of the Christian religion). Paul certainly didn’t think Jesus hated religion. God hates sin done in the name of religion, sure. But sin is sin. He hates sin, not religion.

 2:42- “Jesus and Religion are on opposite spectrums.”

 No, again please see James 1:27. This false premise also turns away anyone thinking logically about the cool video. I like cool videos but I prefer them to be true when it comes to doctrine.

2:46- “Religion is a man-made invention.”

God created man and man responded with worship. Sounds like God started religion.  Again, religion was hijacked by people for sinful and selfish purposes but even with this knowledge, you and I have a decision… retreat or redeem? I prefer that we follow Jesus’ model and redeem the broken things, not run from them.  Let’s not detach ourselves from 2,000 years of Christian history because sinful people hijacked a beautiful religion of faith in Christ.

2:57- “Religion says slave, Jesus says son.”

Correction: Paul calls us slaves to righteousness. Romans 6:15-23  This is the entire concept of Lordship. He becomes our Lord. Our life is not our own, we were bought with a price. We go from being slaves to our sin-nature to slaves to righteousness by surrendering our lives to the will and purpose of God. We don’t like to use this word but ‘doulos’ means bond-servant. In essence, ‘voluntary slave’. In scripture there are certainly other metaphors used such as ‘son’ and ‘brother’ and ‘friend’ but we cannot throw out descriptive terms of the believer such as ‘disciple’ and ‘follower’ and ‘bond-servant’. These words are not mutually exclusive.  The joy of the Christian life is that we are all of these in one.  In each word we find truth about ourselves and the nature of God.  To pit these terms against one another is akin to telling me I can be a son or a father but not both.  I am both.  In Christ I am both ‘doulos’ and ‘son’.

3:06- “Religion and Jesus are two different clans.”

Repeating a lie does not make it true. 

3:10- “Religion is man searching for God, Christianity is God searching for man.”

Again, this is not true. Paul says in his famous speech at Mars Hill in Acts 17:26-27 ”And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,”

3:47- “I hate it, no I literally hate it.”

 I’m sorry you may hate the Christian religion but I love it.  I love the church, I love the faith, I love Christ and I love God’s word. I also despise sin, I don’t simply ‘believe’ in it.

Please understand, I don’t doubt that this poet loves God’s word.  In watching other videos of his I find a ton upon which we agree.  It is obvious that he is talented and gifted in communication.  Sometimes we simply choose the wrong expression and others echo our words without thinking critically for themselves.

As I thought further on this video and why it stirred my heart I felt that the word ‘religion’ should have been replaced with the word ‘legalist’.  Legalism or moralism are not the same as the Christian religion.  With that adjustment I would likely have gladly clicked ‘share’ and moved on with life.  Unfortunately we aren’t instructed by Christ to mindlessly click ‘share’.  We are challenged to watch our lives and doctrine closely.

I challenge all believers to be cautious in passing around videos that are heavy in emotion but sketchy on doctrine.

Demonstrate love for God’s word by taking time to read and study it. It is the very breath of God.  Without a healthy understanding and love for the scriptures we will fall prey to the enemy’s plan to distort reality to something that seems warm and fuzzy but does not actually represent the greatness and goodness of God.

More important than studying the word we should love it enough to allow it to study US.

 I don’t retreat from the phrase ‘Christian Religion’; I work to redeem it.

Further reading: James 1:19-27, Acts 17:26-27, Titus 1:9, Matthew 5:17