Mike

I didn't even know the man, but somehow I feel great loss and sadness.

From the Youth Specialties website:

Early this morning, Thursday, October 30, we lost a friend, a father, an inspiration. Co-founder and owner of Youth Specialties (YS), Mike Yaconelli, was in a fatal car accident in northern California late Wednesday evening.

The number of lives touched by Mike is beyond what we could even estimate. He is the father of modern youth ministry in many minds. Through his books, speaking engagements, and YS events, he has ministered to untold thousands all over the world.

Mike dedicated his life to what God had called him to do. He believed in youth ministry, and did all he could to equip youth workers to change the lives of students. He lived with a passion that was unmatched. He was the incarnation of his book titles, Dangerous Wonder and Messy Spirituality; he lived a life of wonder and amazement at God’s grace. He never claimed to be perfect; he just lived as he was—a man after God’s own heart.

In this time of grief and confusion, as we all deal with our loss, it is the hope of the YS family that you will reflect on how God used Mike to touch your life. Please keep Mike’s wife, Karla, his father, Ernie, his children and grandchildren, and the YS staff in your prayers, as we deal with this painful loss.
posted by Jimmy at 4:46 PM | |

 
Where I'm At
Over the past year, my wife and I have been struggling with what God is calling us to do. I've been working as a school teacher and a web programmer to make ends meet. But working two jobs hasn't allowed me time to 1) be with my family and 2) take the students I'm currently teaching to places where they can be involved with those in need on a regular basis--which is something I have felt God calling me to do. So, we're trying something new. As of now I am currently working on what is basically my last web project. When its done I'm going to put my time and energy into the two aforementioned items--heck, maybe I'll actually get a real liquidthinking site up too! (nah...probably not).

You might keep me and my family in your prayers as we try to let God work the miracle of making a teacher's salary pay the bills.
posted by Jimmy at 9:52 PM | |

 
BTW...
I have two other terrible ideas concerning Christian marketing and condoms. They are so hilarious that I strongly desire to post, but I know they will offend so many that it may not be worth it. If you would like to know what I'm thinking, either drop me a line or leave me a note in the comments.
posted by Jimmy at 9:38 PM | |

 

Youth Specialties Convention...
I'm thinking about going to the Youth Specialties convention in St. Louis, November 20–24. I really don't know why...I think it's that I just want to hang out with youth worker types. I love all the conversations. I told Mark we should offer our own free "seminars" basically as an excuse to get people together to talk. Maybe we should've had a liquidthinking booth that simply has a sign..."You don't need to buy anything to do ministry better." Honestly, I think youth ministry in its present form is over-hyped, over-sold, and over-rated...and some honest youth workers are admitting that. Working with churched students at school 5 days a week, 6 classes a day, I can say I'm no longer sure what the goals of youth ministry are but I'm pretty certain whatever they are its not working.

Judging from some of the emails I've gotten about my posts lately, there are a lot of youth workers who are longing for something, anything different than what they are experiencing in their churches right now. I told David at YS that they really need to add some seminars on "What now...I can't stand the way things are" & "Quitting Professional Youth Ministry". He didn't really acknowledge me. ;-) With Yaconelli writing some of the things he's written, you'd think they would have to offer something to help people who are taking his thoughts seriously.


posted by Jimmy at 9:23 PM | |

 
Thoughts On Leadership Revisited...
Got this in the comments from Matt....It's great!

Greg Ogden's new book, Transforming Discipleship: Making Disciples a Few at a Time quotes this "Memorandum" from "Jordan Management Consultants":


Memorandum


TO:
Jesus, Son of Joseph
Woodcrafter Carpenter Shop
Nazareth
FROM:
Jordan Management Consultants
Jerusalem

Dear Sir:

Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for management positions in your new organization. All of them have now taken our battery of tests; we have not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant.

It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capability.

Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership. The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale.

We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau. James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the manic depressive scale.

One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man. All of the other profiles are self-explanatory.

We wish you every success in your new venture.

Sincerely yours,
Jordan Management Consultants.



The quote can be found in Transforming Discipleship, p. 77.

posted by Jimmy at 11:05 PM | |

 
Strange but true...and sad
This is a real conversation I had with one of my students yesterday concerning Matt 25:31-46 (the passage where Jesus says "whatever you do for the least of these you do for Me"):

Student: Mr. Doyle I've read Matthew 25 and I just don't get what you're saying..

Me: What do you mean?

Student: Well, you seem to think that this is about taking care of the poor. I don't see where you get that.

Me: Okay...

Student: I mean, it could be me doing something nice for my Mom. You know, helping people in general. I don't get where you think He's talking about the literal poor. I don't see that.

Me: You don't see anything in there about helping the poor?

Student: No. I don't see that. I mean, if it were really that way why aren't all of our preachers talking about it...if helping the poor is really that important? I just don't see what you're saying.

Me: Okay. I read it one way, you read it the another. I have a hard time seeing how you can pass over the literal meaning for the metaphorical. But that's okay...we can disagree. I mean...you really don't see anything in there about helping the poor?

Student: No.
posted by Jimmy at 3:25 PM | |

 
Writing A Book
A while ago I mentioned that I was thinking about writing a book. I'm still putting together my stuff on that, so we'll see. But lately I've been more motivated than ever to write one. The students on the Metro cross country team are going through The Purpose Driven Life® and I checked out it's website on Zondervan. The motivation comes from the idea of creating whole product line around whatever book I write, much like the Purpose Driven® product line (see the bottom of this page).

That is just great! If I ever do write Church™ it would be great to have Church™ bookmarks, journals, Bible's, ink pens, bracelets, belts, hats, candy bars, garage door openers, backpacks, teen Bibles, children's Bibles, men's devotional Bibles, women's devotional Bibles, ex-con recovering addict 12 step Church™ devotional Bibles, the video seminars, the video seminar with study Guides, the music inspired by Church™, the Church™ student ministries course, and then, of course, possibly a movie deal. I can't wait! Of course I would follow up the book itself with another: How to Really Live: 30 Days Living in light of Church™. Then I would start the whole process again.

But I also have thought about areas that we've kind of left out with these Christian producet campaigns. I don't think we've really tapped into where people live. Here's an example my friend Andy and I came up with yesterday...let us know what you think:



In Conjunction With



The True Love Waits® Condom:

For When It's Not True Love

But I'm not sure this would sell...

[To see where this conversation went next, follow this link, go to the post called "BTW" and read the comments.]
posted by Jimmy at 11:19 AM | |

 
Another old post:

What I Look For In A Church

I've been thinking about this question a lot. I wanted to be able to give some answers that were truly thoughtful and sincere. Here's what I've come to:

I'd like pews that are more like the theater seats...you know, where you can raise or lower the armrests and even recline a little. I'd really like that.

I want to feel appreciated. Maybe a statue in my honor...or just a simple plaque on the wall. I think a personalized parking place may be a little much, but it would help me to feel appreciated.

Again, I'd still like to see more sexy people in churches. Like, is there a supermodel church or something? That would really be my kind of thing. Actually, it could just be sexy women. I don't really want my wife (who is a sexy woman) looking at sexy men...especially during church.

Fewer anouncements. I mean, did Jesus make anouncements? I don't think that's WWJD material. Heck, let's just go with no anouncements. That's probably a more Scriptural approach.

Some type of free work-out facility. Gyms these days cost too much money. That's my excuse. I'm certain that if I had a church that had a free work-out facility I would actually do it and be a healthier person. That would also help me to fit in with the other sexy church goers.

I want a pastor who understands me. That would probably lead to him appreciating me more (see above desire). And that way when he's preaching he could look at me and we could exchange those knowing glances...maybe even wink at each other. YOu know, like we've got some kind of inside joke.

Some type of chocolate covered almond candy...I really like chocolate and almonds.

Also... fewer people that I don't like. People I don't like bug me.

And here are a few good ones added by Mark:

Donuts - The good kind. With the frosting put on just right. To much glaze makes me sick and distracts me from worshipping properly. Bagels might be a better alternative to the sexy church... but if there is a free work out room I can always spend a few more minutes on the stairmaster.

Excitement - I think there should be hand clapping, people who don't like hand clapping need to lighten up. Hand clapping may be the sole reason God gave us hands. That and the Michealangelo painting on the ceiling of that one place over in that foreign place. Yes enthusiasm is important. as long as noone gets to happy. I dont want any blues brothers churches services.

The church needs to be run the way I would run it.

the childrens ministry needs to be run effeciently and it must keep the kids as long as it is convienent for me.

Colorful- a church should have nice colors. Like the colors in my house. It should be decorated well.

People should smile a lot. Even if their lives are in chaos, greeting me at the door with a smile is a more important witness of God than letting anyone in on their problems. I've been to to many churches where people are just not happy enough. (see excitement)

Everything should be comfortable, convienent, and unique.

Good Priorities - the church should know how to put first things first like stephen covey says.

Spiritual Nugget - I want to leave each service I attend with a spiritual nugget. If I don't get my nugget then I've wasted my time that morning. If this happens often enough... I'll ask for the pastors job so I can get my nuggets.

Me- Sensitive - A church should be seeker sensitive but more importantly it should be me sensitive.

posted by Jimmy at 10:48 AM | |

 
I'm feeling nostalgic. I've been reading old posts of mine on theooze. It's really pretty funny. Do you ever get the feeling that you used to be smarter, or at least knew how to put your feelings into words better? Anyway...here's an old post of mine. I've changed a few things, but its basically the same:

The Church™ Is Dead
Like the great Cathedrals of Europe, we've become a nice place to visit but nothing alive is happening here…it’s simply a picture of the past. Our Christian music, candy bars, books…the whole thing is one big festering carcass plugged into the consumer life support system and no one is willing to pull the plug. Each year Christians (especially in America) chunk billions into the Christian Culture machine, buying various Christian Brands, and what do we have to show for it? Have we made an impact for Christ?

Every week millions sit in meetings called worship services next to people they do not know, hearing messages from those that do not know them...calling it fellowship. The tithe has become a modern indulgence, paying for someone else to do the works of Christ in the world. Worship itself has become nothing more than a smorgasbord, a spiritual buffet, based more upon the current musical style and emotion than the real awe of God. In our American Band Stand mentality we rate our worship as if it were something that could or should be measured ("its got a good beat, but I can't dance to it"). We even talk about our musicians, teachers, and pastors as if they were the latest American Idol to be worshipped.

Discipleship has little or nothing to do with life…because we view most of our lives as being in the way of discipleship. I mean, what does my job and the people there have to do with Jesus? I'd have more time to be with Jesus if I didn't have all these other things going on. We view discipleship as pockets of time where we can be discipled by escaping the world into classrooms in facilities that cost too much. Nevermind that Jesus discipled his followers in the midst of life...the world was his classroom. The words of Jesus have no meaning for us in reality. He has saved us for Heaven only, and His words need to be spiritualized or made into self-improvement mantra to be grasped. He surely didn’t mean those things he said! He surely didn’t mean for us to give up our possessions…not really. He surely didn’t mean for us to invite homeless people into our homes…surely not! He could not have told us to give more to those who steal from us….How could he? How could anyone accept that?

We talk about evangelism: How to do it. Why to do it. What words to say. The words not to say. We practice it with diagrams and charts. We have the steps all laid out. But do our lives overflow with the grace and love of Christ? And once we do win them, are we like the Pharisees who make them twice as much children of hell as ourselves? We take them so quickly from awareness and honesty to the façades of self-righteousness and civility. “Happy slaves, [we who] owe…that delicate and refined taste on which [we] pride ourselves; that sweetness of character and that urbanity in mores which make relationships among [us] so cordial and easy; in a word, the appearances of all the virtues with having any.” –Rousseau

We’ve created this nice little world for ourselves. Safe in a foreign land, but yet much more like the natives than we admit. Our differences are shallow. They are in taste and style, but not in meaning or life. The Church™ is dead and someone should pull the plug. Maybe then, when we quit trying to resucitate this dead rotting corpse, maybe then we can experience the resurrection of Christ's body.
posted by Jimmy at 8:24 PM | |

 
Why is it that every time I start talking about living in the kingdom of God with my students, I have to fight the urge to just break down and cry?
posted by Stephen at 10:44 PM | |

 
Three pretty crazy things happened to me today... the kind of crazy where they are, seemingly, pretty mundane things but they so fit together that they start messin' with you.

This morning, very few people were at Bread of Life Fellowship. Most of them were on a retreat or camping or something. Tom Mohn, the former pastor, sat at the front and people just talked. They talked about what was going on in their lives and how Christ was messing them up and growing them and loving them. It was cool. At the end, Tom mentioned that they were showing a documentary on Dietrich Bonhoeffer at a local theater. I went up to ask him about it. We talked for a while, and he said he had a book for me.

The book was The Christ of the Mount by E. Stanley Jones. He told me that the introduction would knock me backwards. He was right. Here's part of it.

"India (where Jones lived) is forcing us to face anew the Sermon on the Mount. She insists that this is Christianity. No matter how much we may point to our creeds she insists on pointint us to the pattern shown her in the Mount. The fact is that the Sermon on the Mount is not in our creeds. As the Apostles' creed now stands you can accept every word of it and leave the essential self untouched. Suppose we had written it in our creeds and and had repeated each time with conviction: 'I believe in the Sermon on the Mount and in its way of life, and I intend, God helping me, to embody it'! What would have happened? I feel sure that if this had been our main emphasis, the history of Christendom would have been different.

Are the principles laid down in the Sermon on the Mount foreign laws? Are the something for which we are not made? It would seem so - at first sight. Chesterton says that on the first reading you feel that it turns everything upside down, but the second time you read it you discover that it turns everything right side up.

The Sermon on the Mount was and is seditious (to our way of life). It finally put Jesus on the cross, and it will do the same for his followers who follow it in modern life. But it would not end there. There would be a resurrection so great, so transforming in human living that we would know by actual experimentation that it is the only way for us to live."

This is what I needed to hear, mainly because I've been really questioning about where to go from here. I don't know that it necessarily makes my path more clear, but every once in a while, when things seem to get muddled and complicated, it's good to return to things that you know to be true. The Sermon on the Mount is Kingdom living. That helps.

So I went to the Bonhoeffer documentary. The Sermon on the Mount kept coming up again and again. Bonhoeffer wrote in The Cost of Discipleship about what he called "single-minded obedience". He lamented that modern society was so willing to spiritualize away what was probably Christ's most explicit description on what life in the Kingdom was like. "It's really just supposed to show us our sin," people say. "We're not really supposed to LIVE like that."

Oh, I pray for the day that I GET to live like that. Let the floodwaters carry all the competition, self-centeredness, and violence away.

Wayne Jacobson once said that sin is the natural result of my not allowing Christ to love me in a certain area of my life. This makes perfect sense to me now. If the desire to live out the Sermon on the Mount is not born out of duty (which is what the Pharisees experienced) but born out of love, then I will desire to live the Sermon on the Mount, not because I am obligated, but because I am priviledged.

"We mistake it entirely if we look on it as a chart of the Christian's duty, rather it is the charter of the Christian's liberty - his liberty to go beyond, to do the thing that love impels and not merely the thing that duty compels."

If I fail to live up to the Sermon on the Mount, it's merely because I have failed to recognize how much Christ loves me. Recognition of His love will immediately spur me into the natural response, which is Kingdom living.

This was brought home for me by a phone call from a friend. He was having a conversation with a friend of his, and the subject of "absolute truth" came up. My friend said he was really struggling with the concept. He just didn't know what to think. His friend thought it very plain... if you're not consciously serving Christ, you are serving Satan. My friend didn't see it all that easily.

We have reduced Christianity to the acceptance of propositional truths. We have elevated the creed, when the reality of the transformative life that Christ calls us to is in the Sermon on the Mount. We make a big deal about what people believe, but never touch the way we live. We judge people based on what they think about what for most of us are mere abstractions like "absolute truth" and "evolution". All the while, non-Christians around the world are waiting for us to start living the Mount.
posted by Stephen at 11:33 PM | |

 
Thoughts On Leadership...

I have some students who are reading 21 Irrifutable Laws on Leadership for a class. It made me think of some past posts I had made on theOoze (Hey, if spencer can capitalize on those old posts for a book...).

Let's see....leadership.....hmmmmm......Here are some steps to effective leadership:
· Be a chicken and thresh wheat in a winepress and wait for a celestial being to tell you what to do
· Build a giant boat...make sure to get silly drunk afterwards
· Spend 40 years watching your father-in-law's sheep...you probably won't really be ready for leadership until you're at least 80. Some kind of mystical experience with a glowing plant might help, too.
· Kill a giant (would a basketball player do?)
· Be as obnoxius as possible...you know, go around naked for three years, sleep by a fire of dung, wear some type of bondage device and declare it has spiritual significance.
· Run from positions of leadership--like being made King--as much as possible
· Be executed by the government

Those are just a few Biblical examples of leadership I have found.

Now, on a more serious note...

It seems to me that the current focus by the church™ on the whole leadership thing is fairly new --perhaps conceived in the Industrial Age and being birthed more fully now. I think it comes out of that American success ethic version of Christianity. Historically, we would do well to simply focus on things like integrity, sacrifice, and the mysterious voice of God. While the current leadership-talk mentions these things, it tends to lead more strongly towards issues of style, hype, and the ability to manipulate and politic.

Just like success, God doesn't seem to place much emphasis on leadership...faithfulness seems to be the key. The world pursues the realm of leadership with a passion. It's a be the best world, be the one on the top. I think maybe followers of Jesus would place more emphasis on being a servant...not a leader. The pagans rule over each other, but the greatest in God's rule is the slave. What we need are more books like 21 Irrefutable Ways to Be A Doormat. Of course that doesn't sound quite as appealing...


posted by Jimmy at 8:27 PM | |

 
Mark's "Blogging Fast" Is Over

Mark has a great post over at waterbrain.blogspot from his Don't Go To Church, Be The Church series he's doing a Bella Vista right now.
posted by Jimmy at 10:59 AM | |

 
I'm starting to think that my relational skills are seriously under-developed or mal-formed... like I've been tainted so badly by society and past "church" experiences that I have no idea how to do the very thing that I want the most: to find true intimacy, trust, encouragement, etc. in my relationships.
posted by Stephen at 1:51 PM | |

 
Frustration...

I'm trying to figure out what to do with this yearning that I have for the Kingdom of God. I tried to express my feelings in a group last night and it just resulted in misunderstanding, and I found myself talking too much again. To make matters worse, people began to ask me for permission to speak--a clear sign that I had crossed over into a role that I do not wish to play. I began to slip into that feeling that perhaps I'm doomed to long for this reality I will never see, like Moses unable to enter the Promised Land after he struck the rock.

On one level I'm frustrated because of who I am. I'm a leader...an influencer...a puppet master (as Stephen likes to say)...an instigator. I'm also a teacher and a salesman...I like to share with others and see their eyes come alive with possibilities they hadn't previously considered. I'm a prophet....I get energy either railing against injustice or simply complaining about things I don't like. I'm all of those things. For better or for worse, those descriptions all touch a part of who I am. When I was in church™ I could use/misuse all of those talents. Now that I've been out of church™ for 3 years, I've found that there are parts of me that are unfulfilled. I've ran from using those gifts because I have a fear that my previous training in church™ has somehow tainted me. That for me to embrace those parts of myself again would only result in creating the very thing I no longer wish to be or be a part. So now I feel an emptiness....as if a part of me is missing and I don't know how to get it back.

On another level I believe in the possibility of a community of believers somehow operating as a pocket of the Kingdom of God. More than that, I need that kind of community. I need it for myself, I need it for my family, and I need it for those with whom I share the possibility that such a reality exists. I need a community that has committed together to pursue the Kingdom. A community that has a set of common values that are based in the reality of God's Kingdom. Everyday I teach students that the Good News is that the Kingdom of God arrived in Jesus Christ. The Good News isn't about Heaven or Hell, its about living under the rule of God where people find meaning, value, and healing. Where its okay not to be a slave to the world's system and rules. I teach this to students and see their eyes come alive with the hope that it's true, but then I have nothing to offer them. I have no larger community, movement, group, fellowship, opportunity, experience, etc., which I can share with them as evidence that what I'm telling them is true. So I fear I leave them hanging with an emptiness and a longing which will only result in cynicism, apathy, and--for those who take it really seriously--despair.

I need a community pursuing the Kingdom of God so that my daughters can find reinforcement for the values I hope Amy and I teach them. That they don't have to sell out to the world's ideas of success and meaning. That the values of this world are foreign to us because we are foreigners here. That the idea of being a servant and giving your life away to make the lives of others better is true and right. That they are of extreme value not because of what they can do for God or anyone else, or because of the way they look, or how popular they are--it is simply based upon the fact that they are wonderful to God. I need a community that embraces our alien status so strongly that it helps to make those things a reality for my girls in the midst of this fucked up world.

I need these things and I don't know how to get there. It seems so tangible, but when I try to talk about it the conversation so often goes to various ends on the spectrum of possibility. The extremes being "maybe we should start a church" and "let's not try being a thing"--neither of which sound very comforting to me at this point. "Starting a church" isn't even something I understand anymore, and although I've said the very words before, "not being a thing" is a little naive...every intentional gathering of people is something. Intentional gatherings usually have a common idea or purpose as well as a common language. They are a "thing". (Of course true commonality of idea/purpose/language may just be perceived. Individuals at a gathering may have false assumptions about commonality. I may come to a gathering with a completely different assumption as to why it exists than others at the same gathering. In my experience these false assumptions usually result in break-down of the community, synthesis, or ex-communication of individuals or groups.)

I need fellow-travelers. A group of people who are willing to travel together on a pilgrimage to this place we feel more than know. Who are willing to say "Here are the values we hold true for the sake of our friendship and our journey, here is our common language."

I think all I'm looking for is a community which needs these things with me.

Note: The image of the man in chains is from thalamus.co.uk--Go there to see some great b&w photos.



posted by Jimmy at 12:43 PM | |

 
Comments are back...
Well, after sqawkbox left us hanging we've had to change our comment source. We're using HaloScan now. So we'll see how that works. The unfortunate thing is that we've lost our previous comments! ARGH!!!!
posted by Jimmy at 11:07 AM | |

 
Healing...

I'm tired. I'm tired of being so angry at church™. It takes up too much of my time. It's not worth it, and I'm ready to just move on. I want to be in that place where I can simply be confused by church™ like an alien confused by local customs.

A couple of weeks ago, I talked with the pastor at the last church where I worked. I felt that this might give me some (ahem) closure. I really didn't expect him to respond to me, I just felt that for integrity's sake I need to tell him about all the anger I have towards his church. So I did. And he listened. And we talked. It was good. We don't see anything eye-to-eye, and that's okay. He at least has heard me voice my feelings, and I understand that we have different pictures of what church should be.

He brought up a good point in our discussion. He said, "You know, you were only here for a year and a half...but you've been angry for over 3 years. Something about that doesn't balance out right. Maybe you're carrying the burden of some of these other guys who have been here." (The church has gone through youth pastors at about 1 per year for the last few years).

I think he's right. I think I do hurt for gifted, passionate, and called individuals who were hurt by a system that didn't allow them to express any of those things. Friends of mine who may never fully recover from their experiences in such a system. I have also seen others abused and manipulated as they tried to follow Christ in the only way they've been instructed...by committing to the local church™. But I think I also have been angry because my time at that church was the finalization of my divorce from church™...a mistress I had spent a large portion of my life serving.

Since I have left professional ministry I have become an orphan. I long for the connection of a larger community of believers. I have some gifts that only make sense to me in that context, but I have not found a way back or forward in the expression of those gifts.

Divorced and orphaned I have been angry at my loss. I have been grieving. I have not yet recovered and I don't know when I will.
posted by Jimmy at 4:40 PM | |

 
There's a local church here in town called "Guts". Cheesy name. Cheesy speakers. They're all "in your face" and "relevant" and everything... so much so that it's really stinking annoying sometimes.

They have this thing they do every October called "Nightmare". It's a derivation on the "Hell House" of the '90s, where they show you real-life scary situations designed to scare you about dying or getting in trouble so bad that you decide, at the end of the show, to become a Christian. They even have counselors stationed outside to catch people and sell Jesus to them.

I don't like the concept. I think it betrays a wrong-headed sense of what it means to be saved, thinking that you can manipulate someone into being so afraid of gangs or AIDS or abortion or drunk driving that they decide they want to become a Christian.

But the thing that annoys me the most is that they keep their friggin' advertisement for it up all year. It's this grotesque pair of eyes painted in black and green, very large, very up close, very distressing. A twelve-month advertisement for an event that lasts one month. They also have a big face of what looks like Marilyn Manson on another side of the building. I can't wait to have this conversation with my daughter as we drive by the building when she's older.

"Daddy, what's that building with the scary picture on it?"
"That's a church, sweetheart. At least, it's someone's idea of one."

Please, Guts church, take your advertisement down for at least 10 of the years months.

My wife and I passed by a guy protesting the "Nightmare". His sign said this:
Fear
Horror
Nightmares

Not Christian

You know, maybe Liquidthinking should start our own campaign. We could call it the "No more 'Nightmares'" campaign. Or the "Sweet dreams to Nightmares" campaign. Wouldn't that be clever of us?
posted by Stephen at 11:23 PM | |

 
Well, here's the update.

The healer didn't get a chance to heal. He was asked not to come back.

Originally, my thought was sort of a "serves him right" type of thing. But the more I thought about it, the more I lamented the loss of a true teaching opportunity.

One of my biggest complaints about life in the body of Christ is that we actually avoid the "life" part. Life is filled with disappointments and people being misled and people making mistakes and people telling great big whoppers. Yet we try to make the body of Christ appear devoid of any of it. This, even when it's plain and clear to everyone, including those on the outside, that we, in fact, ARE full of it... and it makes us look stupid, naive, and hypocritical.

I spoke to another teacher, who was every bit as critical of our speaker as I was. Yet, he was "grieved" by the fact that this guy wasn't being allowed to come back. I really like what he had to say. "If this guy had come back and done his thing, and everything he said was going to happen actually happened, we could have rejoiced about a wonderful act of God. If he fell on his ass, it would have been a great lesson for the kids in how to hold someone accountable."

If there's one thing we don't know how to do in the body, it's how to have a good fight. It's a fact... you fight with people you know. If you get to know someone well enough, you're going to eventually have a knock-down yelling match with them. If you don't, someone's not pulling their weight. But that's the beauty of family. We learn to work through this crap, because our love and commitment to each other is bigger than the conflict.

Yet, in a church where we hardly know each other and, worse, don't really want to know or be known, conflicts are buried, tossed out, shouted down, or otherwise avoided. "I don't want to be bothered with your point of view, mainly because I don't want the messy hassle of either holding you accountable for your error or admitting mine. See you next week!"

All of this was confirmed to me by the memo circulated by the administration. Our school is a place where we "avoid controversial theological issues" that might "divide or otherwise polarize our body." It's better that we have our heads in the sand than that we learn how to live with each other.

And all of these issues are related.

My students who were so afraid to disagree with the speaker are products of a system that operates and thrives on a lack of intimacy. They're scared to think the wrong things because they are not as valueable as their opinions are, and their worth is based on whether they think the right things or not.

There is no accountability for what Christian leaders say because there is no intimacy. If I don't like what the speaker says, I can go somewhere else, fire them, or ask them not to return. What I certainly do not have to do is face that person like I would my biological brother or sister and resolve the issue. Their value to me is based on what they can provide for me in the way of information, inspiration, etc., and if they aren't pulling their weight, hey, it's not like we're FAMILY or anything.

So it's a sad situation all around, and it continues to reinforce in my mind the idea that it might just be impossible for true body life to take place in an institutional setting.
posted by Stephen at 12:09 AM | |

 
Where do we find them?!?!?!? And how do we explain it to the children!?!?!?!?

For those who don't know, Jimmy and I teach at a Christian school (whatever THAT means). We have weekly chapels. But once a year, those weekly chapels become daily. We call this "Spiritual Emphasis Week".

Today, we had a man tell our students that signs and wonders should follow all children of God around wherever they go. I agree with this, but I think my concept of what a "sign and wonder" is differs dramatically from our speakers'.

He told the students to bring a personal affect of a sick, ailing, or otherwise needy family member or friend to chapel on Friday. He will pray over them. The "substance" that is inside of him will be transferred to the item, and when the friend or family member touches it, "things will happen."

Rub the bottle and a genie appears. Say the secret word and the duck comes down.

People, I am certainly of the opinion that we live in an age where the church does not expect to see miracles, and I think that's a shame, because the response has been that we have stopped asking God to demonstrate his power miraculously.

However, I have a problem with a theology that says that God performs on command.

God does what HE wants. And a theology that does not accept sickness, death, poverty, and other misfortunes as just as much a part of God's plan is misguided. God isn't going to heal everyone who is prayed over, because death is a part of life, and a part of God's plan.

I know from personal experience. I've had people who I prayed fervently over never get better. I suppose that our speaker today would say that I don't have God in me. Or I didn't believe enough. Or I didn't do it right.

Why is it that every dead person I have prayed over has stayed dead? Does God not hear me?

But, you know, if that's where this guy is at, then so be it. More power to him if God heals every person he touches. God be glorified. My problem, though, is that we have created such an atmosphere in the church that the students I teach are actually afraid to disagree with this guy. "He's a pastor! What he says is supposed to be true! But what if I know better? Is there something wrong with me?"

I felt awful that I had students... wonderful kids with great hearts... doubting their relationship with God because this guy presented his walk as if it should be everyone's. Where did this fear come from? God, we've put it in our kids. They're afraid of learning for themselves. They're afraid to question. They're afraid to directly experience the Word because, if it doesn't look just like me, then they're doing it wrong!

So this guy will come on Friday. He passed up numerous opportunities to heal today. He even shook hands with a kid with a broken collar-bone. What gives? He said he wants them to stew over it. You know what I think? I think this guy knows that after Friday, he won't have to come back and face the music when little Jill's Aunt Sally's cancer doesn't go away after she touched his magic handkerchief!

Maybe I'm a cynic for thinking that. But he's offering guarantees. HE PROMISED THESE KIDS! He presumes to know the mind of God, and that God's mind is that all the things these kids want will come true because he prayed over some stuff! To me, if he had the ability to heal then and there, and he didn't do it, that stinks. Especially given that his excuse is that he was taking a two-day pause for dramatic effect!

But maybe it's just me.
posted by Stephen at 10:43 PM | |