Genghis Khan
The greatest pleasure is to vanquish
your enemies and chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth and
see those dear to them bathed in tears, to ride their horses and clasp
to your bosom their wives and daughters.
This man conquered much of the world of his time. His dna is scattered very wide. But I think, of course that this statement is not only wrong, it is horrible and inhuman.
I am asking myself this question, What is best in Life? and I find that what is truly best in life is actually pretty simple. The love of friends and family, security and met needs. The best in life includes the ability to practice creativity, to do good work, to practice real rest, and to feel needed.
What is disturbing to me is that much of the world does not have this. That much of the world actually has all it needs to have this, but creates desires and problems that keep it from experiencing this in order to sell things. That we manufacture insecurity, needs, and problems to keep us from good work, and creativity and proper rest. And in living in this way we continue a cycle, and a structure that insures the unhappiness of billions of people.
I pray that we may learn to live differently, and to truly enjoy life, while providing for others liberation from a system, that prevents them from living differently and enjoying this precious gift.
rev
Thursday, July 05, 2012
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
The problems with the church (an arrogant series of cynical genius) the upside down kingdom
The church as we have been taught is an organization. It is modeled after all of the organizations that we see in the world. Whether we are talking about the CEO on top of the international corporation, or the boards that run similar ones. Whether you are talking about Governments that run based on democratic rule, or despotic dictators, our church has been modeled after these worldly organizations.
This is not as it should be. The church of God should not be a pyramid of power, with Jesus at the top and the great "leadership" just under him. What we have there is the mimicry of a system of oppression. Oh sure, as long as the "leaders" are benevolent, this might work ok. In fact, it might even be more expedient, and less chaotic that the alternatives. But it is not God's revealed way.
Now as this is a blog, not a treatise on the issues of leadership and structure, we will be approaching this subject with a bit of simplicity. I have found that of all my "weird" ideas, this one seems to get the most resistance. I believe this is because the structure of our entire life is based around the idea of top down, oppressive leadership and ministry. We are so stuck into this system that anything else seems incredibly subversive and wrong. That our deep involvement with the culture and structures of our day not only hold our imaginations hostage, but they seductively inspire our treatment of the scriptures. We do not see the truth, even though God lays it out before us so powerfully.
In order to grasp what I am talking about there must be a breaking of supernatural power upon our minds. We must be able to see how the powers that be use our marriage to these structures of hierarchy to not only keep us bound up, but to keep us supporting those structures that are outside of the church. We become upholders of evil, as we practice systems and structures that are in themselves the tools for the oppression of the entire world.
Like I said, I am going to keep it simple, I could go through the entirety of scriptures, and tear our systems to shreds, but I will instead just share two scriptures here, and if you need more, we can speak of that in the comments.
The first scripture I would share with you comes from the 1 book of Samuel chapter 8 7 The Lord told him, "Listen to everything the people are saying to you. You are not the one they have turned their backs on. I am the one they do not want as their king. 8 They are doing just as they have always done. They have deserted me and served other gods. They have done that from the time I brought them up out of Egypt until this very day. Now they are deserting you too.
The Lord goes on to explain how a king will tax them, take their sons and daughters into service and slavery, rule over them with an iron fist and make his own house great. Yet the people wanted a king so they could be like other nations. Now please hear this, to God this was rejection of Him. The rest of the scriptures speak of the horrible atrocities that accompany kingship, even a "good" king like David winds up in the midst of civil war, murdering a man and taking his wife, and practically destroying the nation all the while building up a huge monument to himself. The fact that God loved David, does not take away from the fact that God did not desire a king, in fact it shows that even with a man as good hearted as David, power corrupts.
The next scripture is repeated in the gospels, but lets look at Mark 10
37 They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right hand in your glorious kingdom. Let the other one sit at your left hand."
38 "You don't know what you're asking for," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup of suffering I drink? Or can you go through the baptism of suffering I must go through?"
39 "We can," they answered.
Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink. And you will go through the baptism I go through. 40 But it is not for me to say who will sit at my right or left hand. These places belong to those they are prepared for."
41 The other ten disciples heard about it. They became angry at James and John.
42 Jesus called them together. He said, "You know about those who are rulers of the nations. They hold power over their people. Their high officials order them around. 43 Don't be like that. Instead, anyone who wants to be important among you must be your servant. 44 And anyone who wants to be first must be the slave of everyone. 45 Even the Son of Man did not come to be served. Instead, he came to serve others. He came to give his life as the price for setting many people free."
The disciples John and James want to be at the top of the pyramid. The other disciples get mad, probably because they didn't think of it sooner. They understand the way leadership and power work in the world, and they would like to be at the top end of the pyramid. But Jesus explains that in his kingdom, things are not as they are in the world. The leaders are those that give up everything and serve others, not those that have authority. We in the church are called to a different understanding of structure and leadership. We are not to be a hierarchy, but a place that truly practices "the first shall be last and the last first"
Another problem with the church is our refusal to abandon the ways of empire in our structure. To elevate people, usually professionals into places of authority. For the incredible majority of people to give away their own power, their own responsibility to someone else. And what is very disturbing to me in this culture of consumerism, people pay others to live out their discipleship. One of the problems with the church is we have a structure that allows a dereliction of discipleship by the majority, and an acceptance of power and authority that is unbiblical by the leadership.
How this is remedied is by the first relinquishing their thrones and serving the last. By smaller groups, allowing, in fact requiring, that all share their gifts, their talents, their thoughts and practices. That once again all of the church becomes the reflection of God, and the dazzling presence of Jesus is found not at a service where the hierarchy is in full effect, but in the everyday life, where every single joint supplies.
rev
This is not as it should be. The church of God should not be a pyramid of power, with Jesus at the top and the great "leadership" just under him. What we have there is the mimicry of a system of oppression. Oh sure, as long as the "leaders" are benevolent, this might work ok. In fact, it might even be more expedient, and less chaotic that the alternatives. But it is not God's revealed way.
Now as this is a blog, not a treatise on the issues of leadership and structure, we will be approaching this subject with a bit of simplicity. I have found that of all my "weird" ideas, this one seems to get the most resistance. I believe this is because the structure of our entire life is based around the idea of top down, oppressive leadership and ministry. We are so stuck into this system that anything else seems incredibly subversive and wrong. That our deep involvement with the culture and structures of our day not only hold our imaginations hostage, but they seductively inspire our treatment of the scriptures. We do not see the truth, even though God lays it out before us so powerfully.
In order to grasp what I am talking about there must be a breaking of supernatural power upon our minds. We must be able to see how the powers that be use our marriage to these structures of hierarchy to not only keep us bound up, but to keep us supporting those structures that are outside of the church. We become upholders of evil, as we practice systems and structures that are in themselves the tools for the oppression of the entire world.
Like I said, I am going to keep it simple, I could go through the entirety of scriptures, and tear our systems to shreds, but I will instead just share two scriptures here, and if you need more, we can speak of that in the comments.
The first scripture I would share with you comes from the 1 book of Samuel chapter 8 7 The Lord told him, "Listen to everything the people are saying to you. You are not the one they have turned their backs on. I am the one they do not want as their king. 8 They are doing just as they have always done. They have deserted me and served other gods. They have done that from the time I brought them up out of Egypt until this very day. Now they are deserting you too.
The Lord goes on to explain how a king will tax them, take their sons and daughters into service and slavery, rule over them with an iron fist and make his own house great. Yet the people wanted a king so they could be like other nations. Now please hear this, to God this was rejection of Him. The rest of the scriptures speak of the horrible atrocities that accompany kingship, even a "good" king like David winds up in the midst of civil war, murdering a man and taking his wife, and practically destroying the nation all the while building up a huge monument to himself. The fact that God loved David, does not take away from the fact that God did not desire a king, in fact it shows that even with a man as good hearted as David, power corrupts.
The next scripture is repeated in the gospels, but lets look at Mark 10
James and John Ask a Favor of Jesus
35 James and John came to Jesus. They were the sons of Zebedee. "Teacher," they said, "we would like to ask a favor of you." 36 "What do you want me to do for you?" he asked.37 They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right hand in your glorious kingdom. Let the other one sit at your left hand."
38 "You don't know what you're asking for," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup of suffering I drink? Or can you go through the baptism of suffering I must go through?"
39 "We can," they answered.
Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink. And you will go through the baptism I go through. 40 But it is not for me to say who will sit at my right or left hand. These places belong to those they are prepared for."
41 The other ten disciples heard about it. They became angry at James and John.
42 Jesus called them together. He said, "You know about those who are rulers of the nations. They hold power over their people. Their high officials order them around. 43 Don't be like that. Instead, anyone who wants to be important among you must be your servant. 44 And anyone who wants to be first must be the slave of everyone. 45 Even the Son of Man did not come to be served. Instead, he came to serve others. He came to give his life as the price for setting many people free."
The disciples John and James want to be at the top of the pyramid. The other disciples get mad, probably because they didn't think of it sooner. They understand the way leadership and power work in the world, and they would like to be at the top end of the pyramid. But Jesus explains that in his kingdom, things are not as they are in the world. The leaders are those that give up everything and serve others, not those that have authority. We in the church are called to a different understanding of structure and leadership. We are not to be a hierarchy, but a place that truly practices "the first shall be last and the last first"
Another problem with the church is our refusal to abandon the ways of empire in our structure. To elevate people, usually professionals into places of authority. For the incredible majority of people to give away their own power, their own responsibility to someone else. And what is very disturbing to me in this culture of consumerism, people pay others to live out their discipleship. One of the problems with the church is we have a structure that allows a dereliction of discipleship by the majority, and an acceptance of power and authority that is unbiblical by the leadership.
How this is remedied is by the first relinquishing their thrones and serving the last. By smaller groups, allowing, in fact requiring, that all share their gifts, their talents, their thoughts and practices. That once again all of the church becomes the reflection of God, and the dazzling presence of Jesus is found not at a service where the hierarchy is in full effect, but in the everyday life, where every single joint supplies.
rev
Monday, June 18, 2012
Thursday, June 07, 2012
Tomorrow live streaming video from my backyard
The stream will be on Justin.tv on channel rev3j please join us if possible, and share this with whomever you can.
Dave has been an incredible influence on my life and ministry. In fact he has profoundly shaped the way we understand and do "church" Here is a quote about him:
"There is one thing you need to know about Dave Andrews. He is dangerous. For example, after Indira Gandhi was shot, two or three thousand people were killed in twenty-four hours in the riots that followed. Mobs rampaged through streets looking for Sikhs to murder. Dave convinced Tony, a friend , that it was their job to go out and save these Sikhs. Finding a besieged house, they put themselves between an armed mob and a Sikh family and saved them from certain death. That's why Dave Andrews is dangerous. He is ordinary, yet believes ordinary people should take extraordinary risks to confront the cruelty in our world."
so be afraid, be very afraid :)
rev
Friday, May 25, 2012
An Alternative to singing songs for worship
In our group we have people from many points of view, some are not even theistic. This makes worship time a bit difficult, but we have tried to be creative. When seeking for a common ground we have found that appreciation, awareness and thankfulness are all ways that we can take part in an activity that is meaningful for everyone.
As is our tradition everyone takes turns with things. So each night we have a dinner, and a discussion around the scriptures. We all take turns with this. But then we have four traditions that we do monthly, one per week. Those are confession, prayer, worship and communion. Since we take turns these can turn out to be very different from one week to the next. This week one of our members, Ted, wanted us to focus our understanding of worship on being present in the now, of seeing the wonder of God's good creation. So we wrote haiku and shared. This exercise was a great way to allow everyone to participate, and is not exclusive.
Here are a few of the them:
Eclipse
Blinding afternoon
Dark moon slides quietly in
Corona extreme
Dean
bye bye, Hi, bye bye
Joy and innocence and fun
run for the kitchen
Untitled
Days swarm the sweet sage
life is trapped sun energy
they store and prosper
Papyrus
Papyrus for us
hidden treasure fierwork top
beneath your green skin
Church
With love all around
laughter sits at the center
acceptance abounds
Community
easy, hard, noisy
exhausting and wonderful
love becomes alive
rev
As is our tradition everyone takes turns with things. So each night we have a dinner, and a discussion around the scriptures. We all take turns with this. But then we have four traditions that we do monthly, one per week. Those are confession, prayer, worship and communion. Since we take turns these can turn out to be very different from one week to the next. This week one of our members, Ted, wanted us to focus our understanding of worship on being present in the now, of seeing the wonder of God's good creation. So we wrote haiku and shared. This exercise was a great way to allow everyone to participate, and is not exclusive.
Here are a few of the them:
Eclipse
Blinding afternoon
Dark moon slides quietly in
Corona extreme
Dean
bye bye, Hi, bye bye
Joy and innocence and fun
run for the kitchen
Untitled
Days swarm the sweet sage
life is trapped sun energy
they store and prosper
Papyrus
Papyrus for us
hidden treasure fierwork top
beneath your green skin
Church
With love all around
laughter sits at the center
acceptance abounds
Community
easy, hard, noisy
exhausting and wonderful
love becomes alive
rev
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
Problems With the Church 3 (an arrogant series of cynical genius)
The church has handled truth in a number of ways. In the older traditions the church hierarchy was called the holder of truth. In the extremes the church did not even let the scriptures be in a common language so that unskilled, uneducated people would not even have access to them, but the scriptures would only be explained to them by the church. The Waldensian's died because they began to teach outside of the authority of the church. In many newer church groups everyone can interpret scripture as an individual, which some point out as the reason for so many denominations, or the quote "you have made every man a pope". I think at the heart of much of the problems with the church stands an inadequate way in which we might process truth.
Truth, and specifically scriptural truth tends to be addressed in between these extremes. There are some notable distinctions in some groups however. In some Quaker groups they highly value the idea of a communal interpretation. In other words as the church silently waits for the leading of the Spirit, they are lead to an understanding of truth. In the liberation theology camp they talk about action reflection. In other words, as you are part of the struggle for liberation, and freedom from poverty and oppression in real life activities, you are then able to reflect upon the scriptures from a proper alignment.
Let me say that I believe there is much that we can learn from all of these traditions particularly the last two. But the problem I see with the church today, is they miss a very important principle. In fact, I would say that all of these traditional methods have merit, and should be combined to give us the best understanding of scripture, yet if we did this well we would still miss the most important aspect of our faith, and what it means to be the church.
What is this little secret? It is that Jesus, is actually the center of our knowledge, not the bible. Now I am well aware that without the bible we don't have a Jesus. But lets look at how we approach scripture. In most cases we do not approach it as a narrative, though that is what it is. And we take it in pieces, using all pieces equally, (unless they disagree with out lifestyle or dogma in which case they are just figurative, or not in proper context). But this is a problem, because the bible is not THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE. The bible is not the EXACT REPRESENTATION OF GOD'S BEING, nor is it THE LOGOS BECOME FLESH. Nor are we known as biblians. We are called Christians, which means we are to be followers of Christ.
This radically effects the way in which we view truth, or interpret scripture. If we are to be true to our name, and discipleship, then first and foremost we must acknowledge Christ. So in order to understand all of scripture, we must first understand Christ. What Christ did, what He said, and how He died and rose again, is the pinnacle of our understanding of God, and scripture. Far from meaning the other scriptures don't matter, or even that they matter less, it means that all scripture comes alive when viewed through the lens of Jesus.
The problem has been that we have not followed Jesus. In fact, most of the time we elevate Jesus so high into the clouds that we forget he actually asked real live men, to follow him in the real live earth, and entrusted the real live church into their hands. We do not read Paul in light of Jesus, but we read Jesus in light of Paul. We do not take the Jesus of the gospels as the one true God, but we say, "well he was just a nice guy back then but in Revelations he is gonna wreck shit" We say, "well look at Joshua, God is not just love He is just". But the thing is Jesus shows us what God's justice looks like "neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more". God is revealed truly, and perfectly in the actions, and teachings of Jesus, and the scriptures bow to Him, not the other way around. This is the actual meaning of Jesus statement in the sermon on the mount, "not one tiny little morsel of the law will be done away with until it is all PERFECTED" Jesus comes to make the understandings of God, and scripture perfect.
A problem with the church is we look every way we can besides the actual example of Jesus life, the powerful teachings he gave us, and the invitation to join in His death and resurrection. If Jesus is the Way, Truth and Life, then we should be about that. Isn't it funny that the only people Jesus really tore into were those that already figured it out, had all their doctrines and dogmas straight, and used them all as currency to buy and sell power and influence over others. What He spoke of was the kingdom, a way of acting, and living, a way of being the community of God, and in the midst of this community His very presence lives. Truth is not a book, nor a method, it is a person, the person of Christ.
All of our interpretive methods must be engaged, but more importantly, we must set our sight firmly on Christ the man, and His call to follow Him.
rev
Truth, and specifically scriptural truth tends to be addressed in between these extremes. There are some notable distinctions in some groups however. In some Quaker groups they highly value the idea of a communal interpretation. In other words as the church silently waits for the leading of the Spirit, they are lead to an understanding of truth. In the liberation theology camp they talk about action reflection. In other words, as you are part of the struggle for liberation, and freedom from poverty and oppression in real life activities, you are then able to reflect upon the scriptures from a proper alignment.
Let me say that I believe there is much that we can learn from all of these traditions particularly the last two. But the problem I see with the church today, is they miss a very important principle. In fact, I would say that all of these traditional methods have merit, and should be combined to give us the best understanding of scripture, yet if we did this well we would still miss the most important aspect of our faith, and what it means to be the church.
What is this little secret? It is that Jesus, is actually the center of our knowledge, not the bible. Now I am well aware that without the bible we don't have a Jesus. But lets look at how we approach scripture. In most cases we do not approach it as a narrative, though that is what it is. And we take it in pieces, using all pieces equally, (unless they disagree with out lifestyle or dogma in which case they are just figurative, or not in proper context). But this is a problem, because the bible is not THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE. The bible is not the EXACT REPRESENTATION OF GOD'S BEING, nor is it THE LOGOS BECOME FLESH. Nor are we known as biblians. We are called Christians, which means we are to be followers of Christ.
This radically effects the way in which we view truth, or interpret scripture. If we are to be true to our name, and discipleship, then first and foremost we must acknowledge Christ. So in order to understand all of scripture, we must first understand Christ. What Christ did, what He said, and how He died and rose again, is the pinnacle of our understanding of God, and scripture. Far from meaning the other scriptures don't matter, or even that they matter less, it means that all scripture comes alive when viewed through the lens of Jesus.
The problem has been that we have not followed Jesus. In fact, most of the time we elevate Jesus so high into the clouds that we forget he actually asked real live men, to follow him in the real live earth, and entrusted the real live church into their hands. We do not read Paul in light of Jesus, but we read Jesus in light of Paul. We do not take the Jesus of the gospels as the one true God, but we say, "well he was just a nice guy back then but in Revelations he is gonna wreck shit" We say, "well look at Joshua, God is not just love He is just". But the thing is Jesus shows us what God's justice looks like "neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more". God is revealed truly, and perfectly in the actions, and teachings of Jesus, and the scriptures bow to Him, not the other way around. This is the actual meaning of Jesus statement in the sermon on the mount, "not one tiny little morsel of the law will be done away with until it is all PERFECTED" Jesus comes to make the understandings of God, and scripture perfect.
A problem with the church is we look every way we can besides the actual example of Jesus life, the powerful teachings he gave us, and the invitation to join in His death and resurrection. If Jesus is the Way, Truth and Life, then we should be about that. Isn't it funny that the only people Jesus really tore into were those that already figured it out, had all their doctrines and dogmas straight, and used them all as currency to buy and sell power and influence over others. What He spoke of was the kingdom, a way of acting, and living, a way of being the community of God, and in the midst of this community His very presence lives. Truth is not a book, nor a method, it is a person, the person of Christ.
All of our interpretive methods must be engaged, but more importantly, we must set our sight firmly on Christ the man, and His call to follow Him.
rev
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Another problem with the church (an arrogant series of cynical genius)
In this series I am addressing a number of things that I believe are big problems in the church. Before I go much further I must just say that I do believe that many church people and leaders are in fact good-natured. The people in the church are trying to do the right thing, they are trying to do God's thing, and many of them are warm, wonderful and loving people. They are just caught up in a system that is very, very messed up.
What I would like to address in this post is an issue that is probably gonna piss off some of my friends. I would like to talk about the idea of clergy laity distinction, and particularly the idea of paid ministers.
In the church of today we have a structure that operates like either a business or a government. There are experts and professionals at the top, and there are the rabble on the bottom. Like I showed in my previous post we have adopted a system that allows and encourages this kind of structure, and the values that come along with it. We in most cases require our leaders to have degrees of some sort, to have aptitude in "running things" or incredible charisma. The greater your schooling and gifting, the higher you rise in the chain of command.
It is sad to me that in much of the "emerging" church, we have not really dealt with this issue at all. We might have different things that "qualify" the person at the top of the heap, but we still have heaps. We talk about how many people come to our church, how many books we have read, how many conferences we have been invited to speak at, or how many cool innovative worship ideas we have incorporated into our church. We have traded one hierarchy for another. We have made church "cooler" but not actually emerged into something that is different. For all the talk of a new reformation that addresses more than just doctrine, we have not really addressed much more than doctrine, and tried to make church culturally more fun for ourselves. This is simply not good enough.
At the heart of this hierarchy is this idea that certain people should be paid to be the ministers, while others are only volunteers. We like to talk about the priesthood of all believers, but like the saying goes, "money talks, bullshit walks" If we truly believe that we are all equally called to share our gifts within the body, that in Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female then why are some paid and some not? If we truly believe that every joint in the body is of equal importance, then why do some people get paid for it? Why are those people expected to have degrees and qualifications that allow them to hold these positions?
Now I know that once again I am the minority position here, but let me just list a number of reasons why our system is broken, and needs to be torn down and rebuilt not patched up:
In a consumerist culture, paying for experts, keeps us from learning and growing ourselves
In a consumerist culture we must resist the current of our culture and not cater to a consumer mindset that com-modifies religious experience
When your degree and income are based on "religious" studies what happens when you need to step down or leave the ministry?
How do you relate to your neighbors when they work "real jobs" and you get paid to read the bible and pray for people?
How do you relate to the people in your congregation when you get paid to do devotions and bible study, and have a good marriage, and kids under control ect.
How much of church budget that could go towards helping the poor and marginalized goes towards paying salaries?
Now are their scriptures that back certain people getting paid? yes, but I believe they are the exceptions, not the rule. Paul, a far more accomplished church man than many today, worked making tents so that he wouldn't be a financial burden. He said Peter did get supported by the church, but Peter was not the pastor of a church in a city, but rather the traveling apostle, providing leadership (I will talk about leadership without hierarchy later) over an entire movement. There is an excellent resource by Frank Viola called straight talk to pastors (free online) that goes into the scriptural support for what I am talking about.
When Christ was walking along and hears the disciples arguing about who will be the greatest in the kingdom, he stops them and explains, "if you want to really be great in my kingdom, you will be a slave to everyone:" We have twisted that to this abomination, "well to be a servant to everyone, I need to be more able to care for the needs of the sheep, and paying me a salary, and making me their leader, and giving me authority over them will help me serve them better". And I know why we do this, it is more expedient, it makes more sense the only problem is, it isn't the way of Christ.
Ultimately, the gathering of God's people for a new politic should not follow the paradigms of business, or government, or even religion. The gathering of God's church should be one of unparalleled equality,, anarchic in its nature, and radically communal in its economy. The church practiced much like this for three hundred years, until it became married to the government, and Rome needed priests and bishops of the stature and quality worthy of their great empire. And the leadership of the humble laborer, who though being God says later in his ministry, "I call you all now my friends" gets forgotten, as we grab a hold of an ideology that is far from that of Christ.
So we must do away with titles, and salaries, and hierarchy, we are a kingdom of priests.
rev
ps. reverend is an ironic nickname, not an official title, please feel free to call me john, or friend, or brother, or asshole, I answer to all of those
What I would like to address in this post is an issue that is probably gonna piss off some of my friends. I would like to talk about the idea of clergy laity distinction, and particularly the idea of paid ministers.
In the church of today we have a structure that operates like either a business or a government. There are experts and professionals at the top, and there are the rabble on the bottom. Like I showed in my previous post we have adopted a system that allows and encourages this kind of structure, and the values that come along with it. We in most cases require our leaders to have degrees of some sort, to have aptitude in "running things" or incredible charisma. The greater your schooling and gifting, the higher you rise in the chain of command.
It is sad to me that in much of the "emerging" church, we have not really dealt with this issue at all. We might have different things that "qualify" the person at the top of the heap, but we still have heaps. We talk about how many people come to our church, how many books we have read, how many conferences we have been invited to speak at, or how many cool innovative worship ideas we have incorporated into our church. We have traded one hierarchy for another. We have made church "cooler" but not actually emerged into something that is different. For all the talk of a new reformation that addresses more than just doctrine, we have not really addressed much more than doctrine, and tried to make church culturally more fun for ourselves. This is simply not good enough.
At the heart of this hierarchy is this idea that certain people should be paid to be the ministers, while others are only volunteers. We like to talk about the priesthood of all believers, but like the saying goes, "money talks, bullshit walks" If we truly believe that we are all equally called to share our gifts within the body, that in Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female then why are some paid and some not? If we truly believe that every joint in the body is of equal importance, then why do some people get paid for it? Why are those people expected to have degrees and qualifications that allow them to hold these positions?
Now I know that once again I am the minority position here, but let me just list a number of reasons why our system is broken, and needs to be torn down and rebuilt not patched up:
In a consumerist culture, paying for experts, keeps us from learning and growing ourselves
In a consumerist culture we must resist the current of our culture and not cater to a consumer mindset that com-modifies religious experience
When your degree and income are based on "religious" studies what happens when you need to step down or leave the ministry?
How do you relate to your neighbors when they work "real jobs" and you get paid to read the bible and pray for people?
How do you relate to the people in your congregation when you get paid to do devotions and bible study, and have a good marriage, and kids under control ect.
How much of church budget that could go towards helping the poor and marginalized goes towards paying salaries?
Now are their scriptures that back certain people getting paid? yes, but I believe they are the exceptions, not the rule. Paul, a far more accomplished church man than many today, worked making tents so that he wouldn't be a financial burden. He said Peter did get supported by the church, but Peter was not the pastor of a church in a city, but rather the traveling apostle, providing leadership (I will talk about leadership without hierarchy later) over an entire movement. There is an excellent resource by Frank Viola called straight talk to pastors (free online) that goes into the scriptural support for what I am talking about.
When Christ was walking along and hears the disciples arguing about who will be the greatest in the kingdom, he stops them and explains, "if you want to really be great in my kingdom, you will be a slave to everyone:" We have twisted that to this abomination, "well to be a servant to everyone, I need to be more able to care for the needs of the sheep, and paying me a salary, and making me their leader, and giving me authority over them will help me serve them better". And I know why we do this, it is more expedient, it makes more sense the only problem is, it isn't the way of Christ.
Ultimately, the gathering of God's people for a new politic should not follow the paradigms of business, or government, or even religion. The gathering of God's church should be one of unparalleled equality,, anarchic in its nature, and radically communal in its economy. The church practiced much like this for three hundred years, until it became married to the government, and Rome needed priests and bishops of the stature and quality worthy of their great empire. And the leadership of the humble laborer, who though being God says later in his ministry, "I call you all now my friends" gets forgotten, as we grab a hold of an ideology that is far from that of Christ.
So we must do away with titles, and salaries, and hierarchy, we are a kingdom of priests.
rev
ps. reverend is an ironic nickname, not an official title, please feel free to call me john, or friend, or brother, or asshole, I answer to all of those
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
The Problems With the Church (an arrogant series of cynical genius)
There are churches that are doing their best to do good work, to create disciples not converts, to take part in movements of social justice, and relational integrity. They try and promote many good things like mission, community, prayer, self discipline and morality. But I would suggest that the very structure of the church, is a horrible handicap. That those that succeed in small ways in these endeavors do so in spite of these horrible structures. And in fact that these structures are not only incapable of truly doing what God calls the church to do, but they are (the structures) an act of disobedience and idolatry.
Oh no, did he really just say that? Yes I did. Over the next few weeks I will explain the many ways that I think the structures and very nature of the church is corrupt and explain why I believe that we cannot seek to effect change from within, but can only truly grow into our calling by coming out from her (pardon the apocalyptic smart assery)
Let me start with a little picture. I am a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I often teach others this amazingly effective martial art. Let me explain how I do this. I spend very much time reading books about BJJ. I watch the Gracies in Action videos. I study how other people have applied this teaching in their lives. And then once a week, I gather all of the students. Now some of my students are also musicians so we have written some songs that sing our thankfulness for such a wonderful art. We sing about how much we love Rorion and Helio Gracie for bringing this art to America. And we even have some songs that teach us in rhyme important truths about grappling. I then collect the dues for the rent on the dojo, which is only used this one day, and for my salary. Then... I stand up and I begin to talk to them about the importance of BJJ, about how we are to follow the example of Royce, who came to this country and even though he was small and skinny, he conquered all of the foes that he encountered. I talk about times in my life that I have had to apply some of these techniques, and I encourage you to apply them as well. And then we all bow our heads, and I ask if there is anyone who has never accepted the truth of Brazlian Jiu Jitsu, and would like to begin training.
How many of you would go to that school? That is not the way I learned jiu jitsu, it is not the way I learned how to wrestle, how to paint, nor how to do drywall, carpentry or roofing. I learned how to do these things by having a small group of people, actually do these activities with me. Oh, there were experts of course. People that I may never measure up to, but they actually got on the mat and wrestled with me, swung a hammer with me. Sometimes they even slowed down so I could keep up.
Well, that might just be my smart assed brain trying to make everyone do it my way. Pastoring is different. But... it is the way Jesus did it. Jesus says, "come and see" Jesus says come and follow me. When Peter prays for a dead person, he does the exact same thing Jesus did when he was with him earlier. Jesus shows us that we are called to live our discipleship in a community. To learn a new way of living, believing and relating. And those most qualified to teach us these things are truly experts, but not because they learned to read Greek, (though that is a wonderful helpful thing), but because they have been following Jesus, forgiving and loving their brothers, and practicing the kingdom for longer than we have.
As long as worship is entertainment or classroom, discipleship will not be apprenticeship.
rev
Oh no, did he really just say that? Yes I did. Over the next few weeks I will explain the many ways that I think the structures and very nature of the church is corrupt and explain why I believe that we cannot seek to effect change from within, but can only truly grow into our calling by coming out from her (pardon the apocalyptic smart assery)
Let me start with a little picture. I am a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I often teach others this amazingly effective martial art. Let me explain how I do this. I spend very much time reading books about BJJ. I watch the Gracies in Action videos. I study how other people have applied this teaching in their lives. And then once a week, I gather all of the students. Now some of my students are also musicians so we have written some songs that sing our thankfulness for such a wonderful art. We sing about how much we love Rorion and Helio Gracie for bringing this art to America. And we even have some songs that teach us in rhyme important truths about grappling. I then collect the dues for the rent on the dojo, which is only used this one day, and for my salary. Then... I stand up and I begin to talk to them about the importance of BJJ, about how we are to follow the example of Royce, who came to this country and even though he was small and skinny, he conquered all of the foes that he encountered. I talk about times in my life that I have had to apply some of these techniques, and I encourage you to apply them as well. And then we all bow our heads, and I ask if there is anyone who has never accepted the truth of Brazlian Jiu Jitsu, and would like to begin training.
How many of you would go to that school? That is not the way I learned jiu jitsu, it is not the way I learned how to wrestle, how to paint, nor how to do drywall, carpentry or roofing. I learned how to do these things by having a small group of people, actually do these activities with me. Oh, there were experts of course. People that I may never measure up to, but they actually got on the mat and wrestled with me, swung a hammer with me. Sometimes they even slowed down so I could keep up.
Well, that might just be my smart assed brain trying to make everyone do it my way. Pastoring is different. But... it is the way Jesus did it. Jesus says, "come and see" Jesus says come and follow me. When Peter prays for a dead person, he does the exact same thing Jesus did when he was with him earlier. Jesus shows us that we are called to live our discipleship in a community. To learn a new way of living, believing and relating. And those most qualified to teach us these things are truly experts, but not because they learned to read Greek, (though that is a wonderful helpful thing), but because they have been following Jesus, forgiving and loving their brothers, and practicing the kingdom for longer than we have.
As long as worship is entertainment or classroom, discipleship will not be apprenticeship.
rev
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
The hypocritical hypocrite is hypocritical (Long Beach Grand Prix)
So... there are many reasons to point out my hypocrisy. I am no where near where I desire to be in my discipleship. But it was interesting my reactions to some stuff this last weekend during the Grand Prix of Long Beach:
I live in Long Beach, as many of you may know. And I hate that damn race, for many many reasons. Some of the less consequential ones are that it makes traffic bad, even further away where I live, as people need to come down through my neighborhood to get out of Long Beach.
The noise, all day long the screaming of engines. I am two miles away and it was this constant droning noise, I hated it.
But the more serious issues:
The incredible waste of fuel for what really is no more than entertainment
The incredible damage to our environment for again, what is actually no more than entertainment.
The celebration of sponsors and the plastering of logos everywhere as we worship at the altar of consumerism.
But the worst part is the displacing of homeless people. To their credit there are many organizations that try and help these friends of mine during this weekend. But the common practice is to give them tickets at every opportunity all year round. Guess what, they cannot pay the tickets, and often do not have the ability to even show up at the court. They turn into warrants. Then during the Grand Prix, or the Marathan, or July 4th they go round them up and put them in jail for the weekend so they don't put our city in a bad light.
This race does bring business to our city, and provide at least temporary jobs, but over all I hate it.
As I was sitting in my self righteousness, smoking a cigar and reading a book in the sun I realized...
If someone asked me if I wanted to drive one of those cars...
I would be in that driver seat faster than you can say, "what a f'n hypocrite"
rev
I live in Long Beach, as many of you may know. And I hate that damn race, for many many reasons. Some of the less consequential ones are that it makes traffic bad, even further away where I live, as people need to come down through my neighborhood to get out of Long Beach.
The noise, all day long the screaming of engines. I am two miles away and it was this constant droning noise, I hated it.
But the more serious issues:
The incredible waste of fuel for what really is no more than entertainment
The incredible damage to our environment for again, what is actually no more than entertainment.
The celebration of sponsors and the plastering of logos everywhere as we worship at the altar of consumerism.
But the worst part is the displacing of homeless people. To their credit there are many organizations that try and help these friends of mine during this weekend. But the common practice is to give them tickets at every opportunity all year round. Guess what, they cannot pay the tickets, and often do not have the ability to even show up at the court. They turn into warrants. Then during the Grand Prix, or the Marathan, or July 4th they go round them up and put them in jail for the weekend so they don't put our city in a bad light.
This race does bring business to our city, and provide at least temporary jobs, but over all I hate it.
As I was sitting in my self righteousness, smoking a cigar and reading a book in the sun I realized...
If someone asked me if I wanted to drive one of those cars...
I would be in that driver seat faster than you can say, "what a f'n hypocrite"
rev
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
