the drum|rob fairbanks

The Great Divide

By Laura

Race is not an issue that can be ignored, especially not by the Church- the people of God called to make disciples of every nation. In his article “The Color of Faith,” David Van Blema remarks on the gravity of the situation: “In an age of mixed-race malls, mixed-race pop-music charts and, yes, a mixed-race President, the church divide seems increasingly peculiar. It is troubling, even scandalous, that our most intimate public gatherings-and those most safely beyond the law's reach-remain color-coded,” (26). God sends the Church into the world to be His image-bearers, living out the unity, peace, and love that exemplifies life in Christ. In order for the church to begin living out its missional identity, it must realize the ways it has been affected by racial segregation and take a biblical approach to embracing reconciliation and oneness in the body of Christ. 

Throughout the New Testament, Jesus came proclaiming that the Kingdom of God is here. We are living in the tension between the redemptive act of Christ on the cross and the reconciliation of all things to God when Jesus comes again and the world is made new. As Christians, we are to live into the present truth of the Kingdom and join in the redemptive work of Christ here and now. In Revelations 7:9-10, we are given a picture of what the body of Christ will look like after the Second Coming when all is made right: “There...was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb,” (NIV). 

This is the true picture of the Kingdom of God as it was meant to be- diverse, colorful, and unified. This is the beautiful future that God calls us to live into now. David Campbell, a professor at Notre Dame, advocates, “If tens of millions of Americans start sharing faith across racial boundaries, it could be one of the final steps transcending race as our great divider,” (Van Blema, 27). The Church has a great role to play.

Tim Tebow: Separation of Church and Life

By Peter

Well I figure that I might as well go ahead and write about the most provocative figures in the country today even though I know more than enough has been said about him already and much more is sure to come.  I just can’t get over how polarizing he is and how obsessed the media has been in creating and fueling the never-ending debates we see or hear about everywhere we go.  Everyone seems to have been sucked into it.  Last week at church the topic was prayer and images we associate with it.  Of course the picture of you-know-who was in there.  More than 42 million people watched Sunday’s game and there were over 9,000 tweets per second about it during and after the game ended.  People are now growing weary of the ridiculous attention he has been getting and wish that there could just be a separation of church and game. 

While I agree that all the commotion is getting a bit overwhelming, I can’t help but be amazed at how this simple act of public prayer and attributing everything he does to God has stirred up this attention.  There are plenty of athletes out there who pray and speak about their faith publicly but for some reason this guy is different.  I’m sure there are plenty of other reasons, namely the actual job he does and the exciting finishes that somehow keep happening. 

A lot of people might criticize him for praying ‘on the street corner’ and being too public about his faith but when Jesus criticized the Pharisees for this it was for being hypocritical and for doing it just to gain attention.  I can’t say for sure that all the attention isn’t perpetuating him further but I do know that he had this faith and prayer habits before getting all the national attention and that his behavior off the field backs up what he is preaching.  (If you are curious you should read Rick Reilly’s recent article about what happens after every game).  I also know that in our culture we really like to separate our work from our play and especially from our religion or faith.  Everything has its place.  Well here we have on the nation’s stage a guy who refuses to categorize his life but lets his faith form his identity, no matter how much criticism he gets for it.

The Kingdom Ethic

By Brendan

“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, ‘Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. ‘Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters…and multiply there and do not decrease. ‘Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare (Shalom) you will have welfare (Shalom).’” – Jeremiah 29:4-7

This prophetic passage from Jeremiah is one of the more difficult passages of scripture for us to wrestle with. Ultimately God has brought the Israelites into slavery under the pagan Babylonian Kingdom, not exactly what the Israelites had in mind of a “promise land.” I can only imagine what this must have been like, here you are “God’s chosen nation” brought into slavery to this pagan Kingdom. Going from a prominent Kingdom and a particular way of life in Jerusalem to captivity within Babylon. Many people are uncomfortable with change and most hate it when even the smallest wrench gets thrown into their plans. Just imagine being uprooted and transferred to an entirely different city, into an entirely different culture, having to re-establish yourself and formulate a new way of life; not something people generally get excited about (especially later in life). But this is what the Israelites experience, and then on top of that it was God who led them into exile. God uproots them and calls them to live among a pagan people. Strange, or is it?

God calls them to establish themselves and carry on with life as they know how. He calls them to build homes, take wives and multiply, and seek the Shalom of the city. Now, if I were in the Israelites shoes I can imagine myself not super thrilled with this turn-of-events, but as an outsider looking back on this amazing story we can truly see the Kingdom at work. This is God’s calling for us to as well. We are sojourners in our own nation and culture, a people of God called to bring his Shalom to our cities even if we do not “feel a call” to any particular place, Jesus has called us in essence to build houses, take spouses and multiply, pray for those around us, and make disciples as we are living. As we are faithful to this call we will experience the Kingdom.  

 

 

You're Killing My Sheep

By Kirsten

I don’t really have a whole lot to say. This verse came to me as I was trying to think of something to post a blog about. It may seem lazy, but the Word of God speaks for itself. As this Missional Church class has been going on, a deep set conviction has been bothering me, namely, I have been called as a shepherd to God’s flock, yet what have I done to take care of the flock? This may be a passage we can all muse on a little while.

Ezekiel 34:1-10: “The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them. Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.”

 

Conflict Stifles Mission

By Kayla

Spending four years here at Whitworth, I have witnesses a lot of confrontation regarding spiritual matters. Whether it be a discussion of salvation, the creation story or homosexuality, it’s hard for me to ignore the aggressive attitudes that many students take on. I also happen to be a biology major, which has a tendency to prompt conflict in Christian conversation.

When I think about the arguments that some students choose to partake in, I am reminded  of Jesus’ call to us found in the book of Matthew. When asked what the greatest commandment of the law is, Jesus replies ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. ’All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

While I do think that discussion is an important part in our walk with Christ, it can also become a cancer to our relationships. When it crosses the line from constructive to hurtful, I think its best for us to remember what is most important. When it comes right down to it, I think we all could stand to focus a little less on the miniscule differences of opinion present among our brothers and sisters in Christ and a little more on the most basic of calls: to love God and to love our neighbors. After all, what value do the little things have if we can’t first and foremost show love to God and to one another?

Suspended Space - Peter Rollins video

This is a helfpful and thought provoking little video.  I love Rollins' line, referring to the church, "I am not going to let anyone colonize the space...including myself."  I wish this were true of all churches in the west.

Suspended Space from Peter Rollins on Vimeo.

 What do you think of the concept of "suspended space?"

 

Taking the Low Place - Pt 1

The great Francis Schaeffer (he rocked the chin beard before it got popular) wrote in his book entitled, No Little People (I am aware that this is a very long quote, but in lieu of the present “Superstardom” of modern Christianity, it seems warranted),

Jesus commands Christians to seek consciously the lowest room. All of us–pastors, teachers, professional religious workers and nonprofessional included–are tempted to say, I will take the larger place because it will give me more influence for Jesus Christ. Both individual Christians and Christian organizations fall prey to the temptation of rationalizing this way as we build bigger and bigger empires. But according to the Scripture this is backwards: we should consciously take the lowest place unless the Lord himself extrudes us into a greater one.

The word extrude is important here. To be extruded is to be forced out under pressure into a desired shape. Picture a huge press jamming soft metal at high pressure through a die, so that the metal comes out in a certain shape. This is the way of the Christian: he should choose the lesser place until God extrude him into a position of more responsibility and authority.

Let me suggest two reasons (I will list just the first one in this blog) why we ought not grasp the larger place. First, we should seek the lowest place because there it is easier to be quiet before the face of the Lord. I did not state easy; in no place, no matter how small or humble, is it easy to be quiet before God. But it is certainly easier in some places than in others. And the little places, where I can more easily be close to God, should be my preference. I'm not saying that it is impossible to be quiet before God in a greater place, but God must be allowed to choose when a Christian is ready to be extruded into such a place, for only He knows When a person will be able to have some quietness before him in the midst of increased pressure and responsibility.

Quietness and peace before God are more important than any influence a position may seem to give, for we must stay in step with God to have the power of the Holy Spirit (italics mine). If by taking a bigger place our quietness with God is lost, then to that extent our fellowship with him is broken and we are living in the flesh, and the final result will not be as great, no matter how important the larger place may look in the eyes of other men were in our own eyes. Always there will be a battle, always we will be less than perfect, and if a place is too big and too active for present spirit of condition, then it is too big.

The entrepreneurism that exists in the American permutation of the church is both a bane and a blessing.  Because of it mission is seen as hopeful and imaginatively creative.  Also, however, because of it, we have (and I may overstate this, but…) massive kingdom building, we have the creation of Christian superstars like the two pastors of “the Mars Hills”, we have an unhealthiness in the clamoring in the church to be placated and entertained, and we have the prevailing attitude that “bigger must be better!”

To literally take the lower place is so counter-intuitive to the Christian kingdom builder.  Influence is king and practically all is sacrificed for “the mission.” 

Obviously, I am annoyed at the moment.  I guess, mostly because of the “nor'easter” that has rushed through the American church because of a 30 second promo by Rob Bell.  I have not read the book yet. I might not now, but I think it and he played into the machine that I believe lies near the root of much of what is wrong or at least injured in American evangelicalism…

I would like to believe that Schaeffer’s words, even though nearly 30 years old now, might help guide the addicted Bride to recovery, to recover the low place.

I will give you Schaeffer’s second reason for taking the "low place" in the next post.