the drum|rob fairbanks

Slandering the world & the Christian name

    When introducing yourself as a Christian you may sometimes be greeted in a strange manner. Some people assume that being Christian also means you are an extremist. This is because some of the only interactions they may have had with a “Christian” is someone yelling about God's wrath, or picketing on a street corner. They think we all abide to some strict controlling cultist style life. However we know this to be false. We must do our best to correct this misled view of our collective group of believers. Religious extremists, cultists, and hate mongering groups are destroying the good name of Christ, by standing behind it while they speak nothing of the love and grace of God.

    One such group would be the Westboro Baptist Church, who interestingly enough has no association with the Baptist Church, nor should it even be considered a church. This particular gathering of beings is completely misled by their leader, and believe themselves to be spreading the word of God. This word however, is that God hates pretty much everyone, that he is destroying and will continue to destroy the world and everyone who does not agree with him. The list of people the WBC claims God hates consists of: Homosexuals, Transsexuals, Military, Muslims, Obama, Police, Government, Immigrants, and many more.

    While we would all very much enjoy to shut this group up permanently, our response to them must not be one of equal disprovable as they preach. That would be fueling their fire, as much as it pains me to say, we must react to them in a loving nature, kill them with kindness, in order to prove them wrong. 

Joshua

Where does your allegiance lie?

    Why do we have different church denominations? I mean, I understand how they came into existence and the reasons behind it, but why?

    I think that having different church styles is extremely important because it can be hard to meet the vast variety of needs amongst us as individuals. We are strengthened when we come together with our differences. However, saying that, I think the church has been splintered rather than strengthened by its denominations. Instead of drawing closer together under one banner, Christ Jesus, we've separated off into factions, each claiming its own ways and rights. If we follow Christ, and are His, why do we claim alegiance to any other spiritual background? Why do we place our identity in anything other than Him?

    We are ultimately not Lutherans, nor Baptists, nor Presbyterians, nor any other denomination and we are not Non-denominational (which has become a denomination of sorts in its own right).

    What kind of a witness are we? One to a fractured church? If you have placed your faith and trust in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ then you have been adopted into the family of God. You are His. And as His body, you are called to be unified. As a follower of Christ Jesus, a son of the King, and a brother in the family of God, I'm done being defined by what denomination I do or don't belong to. I am His, and that's where I choose to stand. It's enough.

Zach

Coffee Shop Christianity

    “The coffee was bad, the chairs uncomfortable, and the music wasn’t really my taste. Plus it didn’t really have a cool vibe. I don’t think I’ll go back.” Initially, one would have thought that my friend was talking about the new coffee shop that had just opened down the street. Unfortunately she wasn’t though, this was her response to me when I asked if she liked the new church she had attended the previous Sunday. “I mean the message was good, it just wasn’t my thing.”

    I think few of us would like to actually admit it, but it often feels that looking for a church frighteningly correlates with the way we would look for a new favorite coffee shop. I think this is especially true for the arising younger generation of today. The marks of a “true church” seem to resemble a coffee bar, worship pastor in skinny jeans and toms shoes, abstract art on the wall, cool typography in the bulletin, and a well-dressed congregation. Where is the power of the gospel in that? The importance of doctrine, community, ministries, and service can come second to that of the “vibe” of the church. This focus on being relevant, cool, and hip is not inherently bad or evil, I think, but unfortunately it can dangerously skew the priorities of a church, it’s members, and those seeking to find a place in it. It can turn the church into a chill environment where Christians go to hang out, meet cool people, and sit for a few hours. This selfish, consumerist institution has little resemblance to the Church Christ spoke of. The church he recounted was one of hope, kingdom priorities, selfless love, power, and incarnational living. “Church is God’s people intentionally committing to die together so that other’s can find the kingdom” (Halter, Smay). The church is not a Coffee Shop. 

Melissa

"We Need to Kill the Church"

    
“We need to kill the Church.”  As a lingering skeleton of good intentions, the Church has become ineffective at relaying the only knowledge that truly matters in this world—telling all who Jesus truly is.  When I say, “We need to kill the church,” I am speaking about the institutionalized Church of our current day which caters to societal trends, fashions, and the myriad of other “things” that draw people in to church each week.  However, something is lost when we glitz and glam up our churches to fit the marketplace.  That same “something” is also lost when we stand, stiffly and uncomfortably, waiting for praise and worship to end, so we can finally sit down and mindlessly listen (or daydream) while the pastor, priest, or whoever stands on stage for forty minutes talking about how Jesus died for our sins.  The same “something” is even lost in services where enthusiastic worshippers get that “tingly feeling” during a “really good song” or those chills when the pastor brings a sermon home.  These “somethings” are self-edifying, but sadly, they stay within the walls of the church building never to see the light of day.   What is lost?  Jesus.  This man who was born as the lowest of low, who knew ultimate joy, and suffered an unimaginably brutal death is lost.  There is no raw, real Jesus in our institutionalized church today; we have fashioned Him to be either a condoning sweetheart (so we can feel good about ourselves and our actions) or a hardnosed, fire and brimstone bringer of wrath and judgment (so we can look down our noses at homosexuals, druggies, and all the “true” sinners of the world).  So, let us, as the Body and Bride of Christ, choose to shut this “Church” down.  This “Church” that is more a business seeking consumers than a delightful extension of our missional God. 

    This is not to say there are no churches doing it right; that would be absurd!  Of course there are churches, many, who seek after Jesus with everything in their being.  Unfortunately, our society (even Christians) send these churches into exile and deem them crazy radicals. Salvation and eternal life are radical concepts; shouldn’t we believe so passionately to the point of fearlessly seeking God’s holistic view, and not just pieces of it?  We understand the world does not know us because our identity is in Heaven, so let’s not become offended when people disagree with us for making waves.  As long as our actions are biblical and in accordance with God’s character and will, we are surely a force to be reckoned with!  Through community, sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, and the ability to imagine in radical ways, we can collectively step into our role as the true Body of Christ, how the Church was intended to be. Arise, Church, as the hands and the feet and the ears and the eyes of Christ to kill this institutional “Church” and bring Jesus to the center where He belongs.  In this way, we, as the body of Christ, and the whole world will be forever changed.

Jamie

Joyfully Removed

    The Western church is no longer center stage in modern culture, and as we are shunted aside it seems reasonable to think that becoming more like the world will entice more people into our buildings. Then I come upon Jesus’ words, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Hold up, what?! Blessed are who? It might be a small stretch to equate marginalization and persecution, but I am beginning to think that being pushed out of mainstream culture could be the best thing that has happened to the body of Christ today.

    In his book The Forgotten Ways, Alan Hirsch points to the church in two different times and geographic areas, the early Christian body and the underground church in China. Both of these groups of believers became vibrant and large communities during harsh and unrelenting periods of persecution. Hirsch sees that “Persecution drove both the early Christian movement and the Chinese church to discover their truest nature as an apostolic people” and it “acted as a means to keep these movements true to their faith and reliant on God.”

    But how did these communities turn persecution to power to promote the Kingdom of God? James calls out from the Word, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.” Think about that for a minute. This isn’t telling us to tolerate trouble or to “grin and bear it”, but instead be joyful in it—have a deep, indescribable emotion welling up in us whenever we face trials because of faith in the Lord Jesus. What if, instead of pushing back as we are pushed aside or fearing persecution for our faith, the Western church opened ourselves to the possibility of being collectively JOYFUL? How much more would we be able to point the way to the Kingdom of God if our joy in all situations shone through? Something attracted millions of converts in the early and Chinese churches. Maybe this joy in persecution promised to us by our living Savior can be the way we truly live into our calling as a missional and sent church. Maybe this strange joy from hardship can revitalize us and help us be the instrument and foretaste of the Kingdom we were meant to be for the world.

Kate

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.

Belong > Believe > Behave

By Peter

Until taking this class I had never really given much thought to how most churches I have been in take the attractional method for growing the church.  In class today we talked about how an attractional method attempts to bring people into the church, have them believe what they hear, start behaving appropriately, and then this will enable them to belong (Believe > Behave > Belong).  On the other hand, with an incarnational method a person is first invited to belong, once they have spent time belonging in the community they might come to believe, and finally this belief will lead to a change in behavior (Belong > Believe > Behave).  

I have not tried to “convert” many people in my life but the few times that I have it was
definitely done according to this first strategy.  I always just tried to argue with them and logically get them to believe the gospel.  When this didn’t work and we just ended up in a big argument, I was left feeling frustrated and disappointed with my “evangelizing” skills. 

Doing ministry incarnationally puts relationships first and lets God do the work of converting someone to believe the gospel.  I find it to be a great relief knowing that someone else’s salvation is not up to me at all but is totally the work of the Holy Spirit.  We just need to seek out where God is working and join him there.  God is not found only in our churches and we are not responsible for bringing people to him by trying to attract them to our church.  We need to meet people where they are, make them feel like they belong in the community by demonstrating God’s love for them and leave the rest up to God. 

Do Unanswered Questions Hinder the Mission of the Church Today?

      By Kayla

    A few years ago, I had a close friend of mine question my faith in Christ. She was not raised in a Christian home and to her, Christianity was too much of a question mark to give it a chance. She posed the question to me, “How can you have so much faith in something you don’t know for sure is true?” It got me thinking about why things couldn’t’ just be more concrete. It seemed to me that unanswered questions that commonly arise from biblical analysis are nothing but a barrier to those who may otherwise have believed. In our society, we are so centered on answers. We want to know something is for sure before we invest our time, brainpower, or faith in it.

            Some may see this as being a potential problem for the church. I think that many people have the same dilemma as my friend, there are just too many unanswered questions. So many of us wrestle with things like why did my loved one have to die? Why would an all-loving God subject innocent people to pain and suffering? What is Gods will for me? Does everyone go to heaven? These hard to answer questions are ones that pastors are commonly asked. This issue could easily be problematic for the church and has potential to interfere with ministry. However, I think that it can also be a blessing in disguise. Recently, I read a book called Jesus Mean and Wild by Mark Galli.  The author posed the idea that unanswered questions are a crucial piece in our pursuit of God. They bring us into conversation with our brothers and sisters in Christ and the search for answers keeps us actively invested in the gospel. If the church can embrace these hard to answer questions and treat them as starting points for education and discussion, I have hope that it may make a difference for those who are on the cusp of accepting Jesus.

Picture of Christians and Muslims

Depicted in this photo, an image from an anonymous source on the ground in Egypt, is a team of Egyptian Christians forming a massive human shield to protect their Muslim countrymen as they prayed during the violent protests yesterday. Beauty amid the chaos.

via www.good.is

I think this is a wonderful (and hopeful) picture in the middle of profound chaos.

The Problem with Religion - Keller

I think this is absolutely brilliant by Keller (HT - Brian Newman).  

He talks about the slippery slope of religion – here are his steps:

• Superiority – A person gains religion – they possess truth and begin living a good life.
• As a result, there is a separation from people who are different – you don’t hang out with certain types because they are impure.
• Next, you caricaturize others – others become one-dimensional people.  He likens this to seeing people like cartoon characters – not real.
• Which then can lead to both passive and active oppression – if someone else is one-dimensional, they become less than human and oppressing them becomes a plausible option.

This is precisely why the model of Christ's incarnation makes so much sense.  If you are separated or distanced from others it is hard to imagine, empathize or understand another’s pain or struggle, but in an incarnational approach to life one must live in relational proximity to others.  If someone is known personally, a friend, it is impossible to caricaturize them.  They become real, they cry, they hurt, they laugh…they are fully human.  So much of what has happened through the church to the world has happened from long range. From my perspective, this is precisely why the politically co-opted church is so dangerous (both with the right or the left). Many Christians have front-loaded safety and security as a cardinal virtue in place of accessibility and tangible love.

John 1:14 - The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. (The Message)

What other ways can this slippery slope be avoided?